Liam's 4th Birthday Questionnaire

After a six month hiatus I am getting back into my blog again which means I have a lot of catching up to do. Having two little boys, a four year old and a one year old, I couldn't find a good time to blog especially since my oldest doesn't take naps anymore. But I'm just going to make time because its really important to me to keep up on this blog so the boys can look back at these posts and see all the wonderful memories. So to start off here is Liam's 4th birthday questionnaire, a tradition I've started with the boys asking them the same list of questions each year on their birthday. I haven't started this with Mason yet but this is Liam's second time, so its fun seeing how his answers changed from last year to this year. The only answers that stayed the same are his best friend Anze and his favorite animal a horsey.

1. How old are you? 4 years old

2. What makes you happy? Ridge (cousin)

3. What is your favorite animal? Horsey

4. What is your favorite thing to eat? Chicken Nuggets

5. What is your favorite thing to do? Play

6. What is your favorite TV show? Captain America

7. What are you really good at? Riding my bike

8. What is your favorite movie? Happy Feet

9. What is your favorite color? Blue and green

10. What is your favorite song? Captain America Song

11. Who is your best friend? Anze

12. What do you and your mom do together? Work together

13. What do you and your dad do together? Play football

14. What is your favorite sport? Baseball

15. Where is your favorite place to go? The park

16. What is your favorite book? Superheros

17. What do you want to be when you grow up? Power Ranger

I love my chicken nugget eating, bike riding, superhero loving, who wants to be a power ranger little boy!! 

Blodgett Canyon Hike

Last Thursday we did a family hike up Blodgett Canyon. This is a pretty special place for us! Not only because it is close to home but it is a hike we do at least once a year and have gone during pretty big milestones. We have a special rock we take a family photo on each time we go so we have a photo when I was pregnant with Liam, when Liam was a toddler, and now with both Liam and Mason.

Summer 2011 - 6 months pregnant

Spring 2013 - Liam 1 1/2 yrs old

Now - Liam 3 1/2 yrs old, Mason 1 yrs old

A few more photos from our hike Thursday.

Mason's Mickey Mouse 1st Birthday

A few weeks ago we celebrated Mason's first birthday! A Mickey Mouse themed birthday party was only fitting because whenever Liam watches Mickey Mouse Mason's face lights up. I had a lot of fun planning his birthday and thanks to Pinterest I found a lot of great ideas. I had the most fun making his cakes but the napkin rings and Mickey Mouse centerpiece turned out great thanks to a some help from my mom. (Because there was no way I would've been able to cut out all those hands in time for the party)

Just a few stats about the birthday boy.

- He weighs just a little over 20 lbs and is a healthy little boy though he just had a pretty nasty ear infection that spread to his eye causing his eye to swell up. He had to be on oral antibiotics and eye drops for 10 days and the eye drops we had to try two different kinds before they worked. This is his second ear infection but the first time it spread to his eye.

- He is now on whole milk and basically eats anything we eat. He's a pretty good eater! His favorite foods include baked beans, graham crackers, and sliced lunch meat either ham or turkey.

- He's a great sleeper and sleeps through the night most nights. The only time he wakes up is if he's cold after uncovering himself or sick.

- He's not walking on his own yet but he's definitely on the move and can crawl pretty fast. He can also pull himself up on furniture and walk around some that way. He also uses the walker to walk but gets frustrated when the walker gets stuck or when he's reached a dead end. He'll throw himself on the ground and throw a fit but only for a couple seconds. It is seriously the funniest, cutest thing I've ever seen and I always have to bite my tongue and try not to laugh.

Mousekatools!

My little helper!

I had a lot of fun making these cakes. I made round white cakes but actually tried a few recipes before going with the one I used. I tried a vanilla dream cake but wasn't a big fan so then I tried a recipe called the perfect white cake and loved it. These cakes were really fun to decorate and didn't take to long to do. I'm getting better at working with fondant and am learning new tricks each time I decorate a cake. This time I bought pre-dyed black and red fondant which was a big help and was one less step for me to do. Once I'm done with a cake I love seeing my kids reactions. Mason didn't really know what was going on but Liam sure was impressed. He's already planning his birthday and what kind of cake he wants which I think right now is a Captain America cake.

Even after a bath the red frosting did not come out and left his hands and hair pink. It took a few baths before there was finally no pink. Oops! I guess that's what happens when a full bottle of red food coloring is used in the frosting.

Happy first birthday Mason! We love you to the moon and back and are thankful every day you are in our lives. You bring us so much joy!

Easter 2015

Easter is one of my favorite holidays from the coloring of the eggs to a big Easter egg hunt to just spending time with family. As a kid it was something I always looked forward to and I still look forward to it. And now that I have kids of my own and can share these traditions with them it makes it even more fun.

This year we did something new, we went to Grandma Terry's work Easter egg hunt. There was a lot of people there and it was a little chaotic but the kids had fun. Though I was completely wrong about Liam thinking he'd be fine on his own. I had Mason and was going to help him find eggs and kept telling Liam, "just run out there when they say go and grab as many as you can". That backfired big time, when they said go and everyone swarmed in Liam freaked out and froze. Luckily Grandpa Dave wasn't to far away and jumped in to help him out. But both Liam and Mason had a lot of fun and got some goodies!

Checking out the fire truck before the egg hunt

Before the chaos!

This is what organized chaos looks like!

Checking out their goodies!

Next up was coloring Easter eggs and getting ready for the Easter Bunny's arrival. Our neighbors, Dave and Stephanie, came over to watch some March Madness games. They had no idea they'd be helping us color eggs too! I think Liam colored one or two and then we colored the rest.

Silly boy!

On Easter, we went down to the ranch and had a great time with Grandma Terry and Grandpa Dave, Uncle Keith, Aunt Cari, and cousins Ridge and Sage. Jenneca, Jesse, and Justin also joined in on the fun. The kids were getting antsy by the time everyone arrived so we put a movie in to keep the kiddos distracted long enough to let the Easter Bunny do his magic outside aka let a few of the adults sneak outside so we could hide the baskets and eggs. This is the part I absolutely love because when we were kids this is what our parents did to us and they were the ones who'd sneak outside. Now they stay in with their grand kids while we go outside. Once everything was hidden we snuck back inside and told the kids we better check outside and see if the Easter Bunny had arrived. Then it's chaos as everyone grabs a basket and races outside to find all the goodies. 

Cousins!

Mason getting some time in with Uncle Keith

Not sure about this whole hunting for eggs thing

Cuddle time with Grandma

Checking out their loot!

The Easter Bunny got Liam swords and lets just say he didn't put them down the rest of the day

Where's the Elk? - Take 2

We start them young in this family! Mason's turn learning "where's the elk"? We did the same thing with Liam when he was this little - Where's the Elk?

Month 10 & 11

Mason,
These last couple months have been pretty tough on you. You had an ear infection that just wouldn't go away lasting almost a month and a half. We were in and out of the doctor's office checking to see if your ears were getting any better and if they weren't we'd get new antibiotics to give you. You went through 4 different antibiotics before your ear infection finally went away. Some antibiotics were harder on you than others, they didn't agree with your stomach or they gave you diarrhea. This wasn't very much fun as your bum was red most of the time so needless to say we went through A LOT of butt cream. We were almost considering giving you tubes but luckily the fourth antibiotic worked!

On top of your ear infection you caught a stomach bug which caused you to throw-up in your crib twice the first night and once the second night. Both nights weren't any fun but the first night especially wasn't any fun. You woke up crying and I came in to check on you like we always do since you normally wake up once a night needing to be covered or wanting to be fed. So I didn't think anything of it until I leaned down and picked you up and felt a wet mess. I hurried and grabbed you and ran back to our room to get daddy, basically telling him I needed help. I got you in the tub while daddy changed the sheets. Then it was back to bed for everyone and not more than a half an hour later you threw up again and we went through all the motions again. We felt so bad for you and didn't know if it was a stomach bug or maybe your antibiotics for your ears weren't agreeing with you. But then you threw up again the next night and we definitely thought it was your antibiotics. So we called the doctor to see what he thought but said you would've thrown up closer to when we gave you the antibiotics and not in the middle of the night. Well then the next day daddy got hit with the stomach bug and then I got it. So it was confirmed it wasn't the antibiotics causing you to throw up but instead a stomach bug that had been going around.

But even after all of this you still had a lot of fun moments like hitting a big milestone...you are crawling! We missed the very first time as it happened while you were staying with Grandpa Dave and Grandma Terry while we were at a weekend getaway at Chico Hot Springs. I'm a little sad I missed it but glad you were with them when it happened because I know they enjoyed being there for it. They were super excited to call us with the news! But as soon as we got you guys back home I still got a video of you crawling for the first time with us. To see it click on this link - First Time Crawling.

You have six teeth now, four on the top and two on the bottom. So needless to say you aren't eating a whole lot of baby food anymore except the squeeze packets and those are more of a convenience that we stick in the diaper bag to have when we're on the go. You pretty much eat whatever we're eating though sometimes we have to give you something different if we know you're not going to eat it or if it's to spicy like tacos. You and your brother both aren't fans of tacos so we usually make you chicken and rice or something along those lines. You also eat regular meals at daycare and most of the time they say you eat really well though a couple times they had to give you baby food when you wouldn't eat their food. Some of your favorite foods right now are pancakes (just like your brother), graham crackers, pears, beans, and red pepper and zucchini goulash. You're still on formula but we only give it to you in a bottle when you first wake up in the morning and then when we put you down for naps and when you go to bed. Otherwise we give you formula or water in a sippy cup which you do really well with.

Your sleeping habits haven't changed much. You're still getting up once a night most nights needing to either be fed or covered with a blanket. You move around a lot so most of the time you uncover yourself and with how cold the nights have been my guess is that's why you've been waking up. So we'll see what happens with the warmer nights and if you'll sleep better. Daddy and I alternate nights who gets up with you so when it's his night or mine we never know if we get to sleep in or not or if we'll be getting some extra cuddles in with you.

Happy ten and eleven month birthday sweet little boy! You bring so much joy and happiness to our lives I really don't know what we'd do without you. We love you so much!

Love,
Momma

One more pic I couldn't resist posting. Your favorite thing to do right now is clap especially when we say "Yaaayy" and clap with you. You get really excited and smile and clap faster. It's so cute!

The Easter Bunny

On a whim we went and saw the Easter Bunny yesterday. Actually Liam saw him and wanted to say hi which was great but getting him to sit with the Easter Bunny that was a different story. Liam sat next to him but about a foot away, the photographer had to move him closer just to get him in the shot. Mason on the other hand did not like the Easter Bunny one bit! He started crying the minute he was put on the Easter Bunny's lap and didn't stop crying until it was over. Oh the things we put our kids through to make memories!