Memorial Day, "I want some!", and Sleep

Every year my family goes to my dad's grave site in Springville, Utah. I never really thought much of this tradition, but this year I gave it more thought. When we were driving down, I asked my mom if its a source of comfort for her. She said no. She said she still connects with my dad through so many other ways, that for her its getting us together for a drive so she can connect with us. We take a blanket and tell funny family memories, she tells us funny or poignant stories about our dad, and then we go out to lunch or to the Conoco on the corner where they sell delicious scones and other deep fried wonders.

Here's my little bro Richard being so hip with his new glasses. He's always soo into the current styles.

This is so funny. Every morning, no matter how much Liam has already eaten, he comes to the table if he hears me crunching on cereal. His little M&M eyes peering up at me "Um, mom, I want some." "Um, mom, can I have some?" For every bite I take, he has to have a taste. Its actually kind of funny because all I can usually see from my angle are his eyes. "Um, more please!"


The following is a series of my favorite sleep pictures. I think we have more picture of Liam asleep because he is SO funny with his sleep positions.

Just relaxing.
I'm sure this a yoga position.
Sunday afternoon naps with Dad are the best!
Order! Order! I demand another spoonful!
His mouth was wide open right before I took this picture.

Mahalo Maui!

First, Ben finally graduated with his MBA! We are just so excited to have a normal family life, and we have been enjoying every minute of it this week. For Ben's graduation, his parents took us to Hawaii and totally spoiled us! We had such a blast! Here are some photos:

Here we are at a Luau. Yes, I bought the way touristy hawaiian dress and wore it to the luau. Me and hundreds of other women that went. Its just part of the experience right!

Here's the Liam miaster being crazy in the pool. He loved splashing and laughing and getting water all over his face. He hated the ocean and the sand. I think the ocean was so big it overwhelmed him. And the sand, well, he kept rubbing it in his eyes. Not so fun for little babies.

Ben is so funny. He would not go tanning before we went because he had too much going on with finals. So he had to lather up with sunscreen to protect his white body. One day when we went out snorkling he decided to leave off the sunscreen for a little while, and he turned from man to lobster in 20 minutes! I was crying laughing! We got out of the water and he was bright red. But the front of his body is whiter now than when we left!

Just hanging out getting some lunch. The condo we stayed in was a dream come true for Liam because the living room had tile. He loves tile -- everything bounces!

Back home just being silly!

Top 10 Favorite things about our Hawaii vacation:

10. Not ever getting ready. Living in a bun, a swim suit, and stretchy gauchos.
9. Reading and finishing such a great book - The Secret Life of Bees.
8. Shopping.
7. Coral jewelry.
6. Volleyball on the beach.
5. Horseback riding.
4. Snorkling, swimming, and boogie boards.
3. Hello! Sun, sand and salt water! There's no better combo for a sweet vacation.
2. Sleeping in while my in-laws got up with Liam (I said we were spoiled!)
1. Spending the whole week with Ben and Liam!

Roots

Well, what can I say, we LOVE our new house! Its where we hope to stay for a long time. There is something about creating stability and something lasting that is so appealing, even more so for me than "newness" or adventure. I like roots. I like knowing people I don't remember not knowing. I like seeing other people's babies born and grow up. I like planting things in my yard and watching them grow too. I like being part of a ward family, and staying a part of that family. So the antithesis of all this is moving. Which is why we tried to find a house we could be happy in for a long time. Moving is hard for me. I lived in the same house my whole life. My brother has been giving my mom some pressure to move. But I want my kids to eat the food that she cooks in THAT kitchen and run around in THAT backyard like I did. Is that weird? Why is that so important to me? I have never been afraid of change or adventure or trying new things. But I like the same house, and I hope my kids will appreciate the stability like I have. On the other hand, I guess you never know what life will throw at you and cause total upheavel. All you can do is plan and hope for the best right!

Anyway, I am feeling very settled and at home, on so many different levels. And that's a great feeling. So, let the roots begin!

The House Sold! Confessions, and Liam-isms!

Maybe if I wrote in some entries a little more often I wouldn't have to write so much! YES!! We sold our house! It was crazy, we had three offers come in on Monday, so we got exactly what we wanted! Yeah! I'm so glad that's done. And the cutest couple ever bought it, which makes it even sweeter. We want good people for our ward. The stressful news is we are moving in 2 weeks! Yikes! So we'll see how packing up everything and doing everything by myself will go. Ben is back in class 3 nights a week with intense homework the 4 mights he's home, so I'm back to single motherhood. But I'm just so happy everything worked out, nothing could take me off cloud nine this week.

A quick "Confessions of a Housewife"
First, only I would do this. So our realtor is so good at selling houses, but its because he has over 60 realtors that work for him in his office, so he nextworks well with all of them. He loaded about 50 in a greyhound bus and brought them over to highlight our house last week. Yeah, that's right. 50 strangers parading in and out of the house. They just parked the greyhound out front like nothing. All morning I was freaking out. I woke up at 6 am to start the frenzie of cleaning before they got here at 10 am. I was polishing the last of the glass when I heard a knock. So everyone came and left, and I breathed a huge sigh of relief until I walked over to the sink to find that I had left all my breast pump items in the sink!!! ugh! I was mortified! All these grown men either knew exactly what they were and were probably disgusted, or they had no idea. Ben keeps trying to convince me of the latter. Everything was spotless, and I kept thinking "I got to put those away somewhere . . . oh, I'll wash them really quick . . . oh shoot that still needs to be cleaned . . . I HAD better put those away before they get here . . . ok those are next on the list . . . " hmmmm. What do you do??

The day before was a huge storm. I thought I could move our 2,000 lb. garbage can by myself over by the fence. It was so snowy and slippery, the can hit some ice and pinned me down to the ground. I was in my jammies, no bra, and my slippers. The lid flipped up and hit me in the face and heavy garbage spilled out making the lid VERY heavy. I thought "What the heck! a) please someone, anyone find me and help me! b) oh I hope no one I know finds me; c) Liam is probably inside screaming by now. So you know when they talk about that crazy adrenaline that moms get when their baby is stuck under a car and they lift the car over their heads (does that really happen??) I thought of my little baby inside by himself and some insane strength came to me and pushed the can off! I was victorious over that stinky monster!! But I was soaked and majorly bruised.

The day before THAT we went up to see the new house. I was walking to look into the main front window when I disappeared! I fell right into a window well that covered over with large bushes. The well was so deep I was up to my chin. I can't believe I didn't break anything. Ben said it looked like when people get sucked into the ground in scary movies. And you know when you get hurt so bad you either burst out crying out or laughing?? I just burst out laughing because I was so embarrassed and shaken up. Oh man, its a jungle out there!

Here are some new pics of Liam. I realized that I only seem to take pictures of Liam when he is in his pajamas, so if you see a lot of him in the same blue outfits, that's why!

He just discovered the mirror on his play disc. He spends at least half an hour every day checking himself out!

Look how funny his feet are! He just started this new thing last week where he only sits with his legs crossed! It funny because he doesn't have very good balance when he sits like that, but he still crosses them all the time.

Feet crossed. I wonder if he sees me sitting indian style all the time and decided to give it a try!

He pulls all his toys out of his basket one by one.

Yeah! A fun discovery from the toy basket!

Selling a House = Craziness!

So I still can't believe we are selling our house. I am going crazy, I mean our house has only been on the market for 2 weeks and we've had a steady stream of people come and look, but I absolutely HATE the unknown and waiting. So this is the scoop: we found a house on forclosure that we fell in love with. We offered more than the bank was asking, but another guy got the house because he could move in right away. I was totally crushed because I got waaaay too emotionally invested (well, I could picture raising my kids there and Ben and I growing old there!) So we talked to our realtor and he said we should put our house on the market and see what comes along. His assistant sent us a listing for a house that was drastically reduced, so I drove the neighborhood and it was like magic. I went in the early afternoon when the whole neighborhood was crawling with cute little kids throwing snowballs at each other and just having a fun time. Its weird, I had spent the two hours prior driving neighborhoods looking at houses and nothing stuck out. But this house was just really different. Ben and I went back to drive the neighborhood that same night, walked through the house the next morning and offered that same day. Now some may say that's impulsive. But after HOURS of looking at houses online every single night for the past 4 months, and endlessly driving neighborhoods, we knew exactly what we wanted.
When Ben and I bought the house we live in now, I just felt that Heavenly Father really guided us here. And I feel that same way now, but its so hard to say that when we don't have the house yet and our contract is iffy. With the house we are trying to buy, the people moved out a few months ago because they had to relocate, so they are paying a double mortgage and are dying to sell their house. They accepted our offer, but if anyone else offers that can move in right away, they can take their offer with only a few days notice to us. Hence, massive anxiety for me! So anyone within the sound of my voice, call in your emergency prayers for us! Ha, love you all!

A First Balloon, a First Swim Class, a 27th Birthday, and an Engagement

Wow! Who could have known that a balloon would bring such joy to a 7 month old! So we went to the dollar store yesterday to buy a little gift for one of my sunbeams. When Liam saw the balloon in the store he burst out laughing. He didn't stop laughing the whole way home. Liam has been playing with this balloon for HOURS since I brought it home. He refuses to play with anything else. When he woke up this morning he woke up looking for it! He will not let it go. He wraps the ribbon in his small fingers, pulls it through his two bottom teeth, bounces it all over the place, stares at it, accidentally lets it go, then cries for me to get it for him. He has figured out how to run the ribbon in his hands so he gets to the balloon and then back down to the very end of the ribbon so the balloon is touching the ceiling. I finally had to lay him on the couch today where he could reach the bottom of the ribbon if he happen to let go. He has been mesmerized. I couldn't help but think of that old movie "The Red Balloon." Such simple things can bring such happiness to a child. It has been fun to rediscover whatever it is that is that makes a balloon so magical.


Here is Liam in his swim trunks! We had our first Parent-Tot swim class on Friday. It was so fun! Liam really loved being in the water and surprisingly took very well to the swim techniques we learned. All the other babies were screaming their heads off but Liam seemed to be really enjoying himself. We had another class today and he was laughing through most of it. We learned to scoop water with our hands, kicking, floating on backs, finding the wall, and of course the famous dunk. I love how this swim program calls the babies "Diaper Dolphins." Its actually pretty crazy to see how good some of these little kids can swim! Anyway, I am really looking forward to these sessions of swimming with Liam, so far it has been a blast.

Ben had his 27th birthday yesterday. We had a lot of fun. I went into his work because the ladies there planned a little surprise party and ordered a delicious Hawaiian guava cake (best cake I've ever had!) and I took in a fudge cake and a fruit tart. It was really fun. Then we had dinner with our families at the Asian Star, Ben's favorite restaurant. I got Ben a really good surprise for his birthday -- and iPhone. Actually everybody pitched in for it. He really loves it! He doesn't know it, but I'm beginning what I call the "Mac-tifying Project." We have an ongoing war in our house over Mac vs. PC. I am one step closer with the iPhone!!

My last peice of news -- yes my little bro finally got engaged! We are so excited for him and Lara. He proposed on their one year anniversary. Richard did such a good job. He took her up to the Homestead for a carriage ride, dinner at the nice restaurant, and then a dip in the crater. Its been fun to see him so excited and giddy, and I really loved helping pick out the ring! And she loves it! Congrats again you two!!

Simply said . . . What a wonderful Christmas and New Years!

I have to admit, I am so mad at myself. We got some video of Liam opening his presents but we forgot to get photos! These are some pictures I took of him on the morning of Christmas Eve. Ben calls them the "shepherd boy" photos. He was just so cute rolling around with his blanket.

Christmas this year was so great. We had so much fun. Liam made the holidays so much more meaningful. I spent more time reflecting on what's really important and what I want my children to know about Christmas. This year just felt really special to me. I'm sure it helped that I did all my christmas shopping online, so I wasn't ever in a bad mood from hectic holiday shopping!

For Christmas Eve we went to my mom's and had a huge seafood Paella with shrimp, salmon and crab legs. It was such a feast and sooo good. We stayed and hung out and watched movies. Then everyone (Ben's parents and my mom and brother) came over to our house Christmas morning to open presents and have Christmas brunch. I recently inherited Ben's grandma's fine china, so it was fun to have our brunch on nice china. We hung out all day eating treats, singing karaoke, doing puzzles, and watching movies. It was so fun to watch Liam open his presents. He had more fun with the paper than any of his toys. He got some fun toys. He has loved the musical toys he got. He got a guitar and maracas that sing in spanish and english. He is so curious and interactive now, he really enjoys playing and looking at books and watching people's faces and the sounds we make. He is such a little cutie! I just love how fun he is!

This New Year was really different. Every year my family goes down to Mexico and we celebrate New Year's with a big party eating lots of meat, downing 12 grapes right before midnight and then shooting rifles. Ben and I decided not to go this year and had a very quiet New Year celebration. We had some of our friends over for dinner and then just hung out and had some great laughs. After they left, we were both struggling to stay awake to see the ball drop in New York. It seemed so anticlimatic. Right after that we went and got in bed! The quietest New Year's ever!! I still wouldn't want to be anywhere else than right here on the couch next to my honey!