Holiday Update

We have had a fun and very busy holiday season. We had the pleasure of heading up to visit my parents in central California (by Santa Cruz/Monterey) a couple weekends ago. It was a blast seeing everyone. We have visited up north 3 times since Thanksgiving! It seems as if every other week we were making that long six hour drive. It was fun to see Liam interact so much with all of his NorCal Aunties, Uncles and Grandparents. Our last trip was extended one day, which meant I had to call off of work, due to snow and gusty winds over the Grapevine. Oh darn....just had to stay and celebrate! What a sight we were coming home with a van packed full of luggage, gifts, and a 90lb lab in a giant kennel. It was like the circus was coming to town. We had Christmas morning at our home with all of Frank's gang. Liam must have been the luckiest kid in town... our living room looks like a toy store. I think it's time to go through his toys and thin out some of his more "baby" toys. You seriously run the risk of breaking an ankle when you chance walking across the family room. We spent Christmas afternoon lounging, watching movies (and snoozing a little) before I headed in to work. Oh, reality! Hard to believe that 2010 is just around the corner.

I have a ton of cute pictures that I would love to put up but sadly Frank's computer, which is just out of it's one year warranty, decided that it should dump it's brain while we were up at my mom's house. I'll admit that my first thought was "Noooooo....all our pictures!" not one thought about all the business info that was on that thing. So to all of you out there, just a friendly reminder to make back up disks of all your pictures. Luckily our photos were all stored on an external hard drive so they are safe. You can bet your bippy that I will be making those backup disks as soon as Frank's computer comes back from the doctor. My little junky computer doesn't have enough smarts to organize pics and get them uploaded to the blog. So I will have to include a makeup post with all our holiday festivities soon.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. Hope your hearts were touched by the true beauty of the season, the joy of Christ's birth. That first step in the salvation of all man. Where would we all be without the blessings of our kind, loving Heavenly Father? Or without that ultimate sacrifice our Savior? I am so grateful for the blessings in my life, my sweet husband and precious boy. When life gets hard, as it often does, I'm thankful for a Heavenly Father that blessed me with a loving family to turn to. This season is always a great reminder of all the "gifts" we truly have. May your New Year's be lovely. May your families be healthy and joyful. And may you look forward with hope and excitment for another year.

Getting ready…

Today  Grandpa Ray and Grandma Ruth came over to help us set up and decorate our tree.  We had to make some yummy caramel corn as well!

  

Liam loved decorating the tree…and then un-decorating the tree.

 

This Christmas is going to be so fun.  Liam is so excited by the littlest things.  It’s amazing to watch him as he discovers so many of life’s little wonders.  We’ve had rain recently and he loves to hold his hands out so they get wet, he just cracks up when he get sprinkled on.  He’s is going to be a terror with the tree!

I Like Big Trucks, I Can Not Lie!

While we were spending time with Grandma and Grandpa up north, Grandpa took a few minutes out of his work day and brought his cement mixer by so Liam could see it.

  

Liam’s Birthday

We had a great time on Liam’s birthday.  We went to Disneyland and had a big breakfast at Storyteller’s Cafe.  They have a delicious breakfast buffet there and Chip and Dale and all sorts of Disney woodland creatures mingle with the guests.  Liam was not a big fan of these costumed characters, though.

Liam’s favorite part was hanging out in Downtown Disney after breakfast.  He’d just started using his feet as his main mode of transportation, insisting on making mommy and daddy run after him even faster.

  Liam REALLY liked the fountain.  He tried several times to climb inside.

The following Saturday, lots of family came over to help us celebrate Liam’s first year!

We’re happy that so many were able to come, many from far away.

We barbecued hamburgers and hot dogs.

Liam opened lots of very fun gifts from many generous people!

He even got his very own little birthday cake!

And he managed to get some of it into his mouth, believe it or not…

Footnote:  redeye fixes were not done to any photos in this post.  This is not an omission.  It is proof of redeye.

One year.....

My how time flies! I know I have said it as each month passes by, but the time just seems to go zipping by at such a pace that I often am left reeling. How did one whole year pass already? How can my sweet little baby be entering toddler-hood? Liam has been the joy of our lives. He has brought such happiness and fun into our home. We feel so blessed to have been given this perfect little one to love and raise. I am so impressed with my sweet husband. He has grown into such a good father. I'm continually amazed at his patience. Liam is so much fun right now. He is sporting 8 little teeth and eats everything. He has just about given up on crawling all together and prefers to do his crazy zombie walk. His poor little shins are so bruised! He loves to blow kisses, point out his nose, tongue and everyone else's eyes (don't want to risk poking your own eye!) and put his hands on his head when you say "oh, no!" He loves music and dances to anything. It cracks me up to catch him dancing to some random commercial on TV. He is now 31 inches tall and weighs in at 20lbs, still tall and slim. What an amazing blessing he has been!

This is one of my favorite pics that I've taken of Liam. I love that he looks like a little doll propped on a bench. He was such a good boy!

If you look close you can see that he has 4 little teeth on the bottom!

What a ham! I've got him trained to look at me when I say "look at Mommy"

...well...as trained as a one year old can be!

Can't keep the boy out of the dirt.

Happy 1st Birthday Sweet Liam

Halloween

This year was Liam's first Halloween. We ended up going with a cowboy costume since it will do double duty for his rootin' tootin' cowboy birthday party. (You know, might as well get good use out of it!) And is was just so cute!!! Liam loved handing out candy at the ward trunk-or-treat the night before Halloween. On Halloween, Grandma Ruth and Grandpa Ray came over for dinner and then we went trick or treating to a few neighbor's homes. Liam had fun walking and knocking on doors (with is little knuckles!) So here are way too many pictures.

Love this one of Frank, Liam and Grandpa!

Pumpkin Hunting

I love this time of year. The weather begins to cool, the trees start to drop their leaves and the holidays are right around the corner. This year we get the extra fun of celebrating Liam's first Halloween. We spent a wonderful Saturday with Grandma Ruth and Grandpa Ray and went to hunt up Liam's very first pumpkin. Liam fell asleep in the car and was a little confused by the whole pumpkin patch idea. But after a lot of silly noises, clapping, cheering and tickling he finally warmed up and gave us a few smiles.

This is the "why did Grandpa make me sit on this thing?" look

Finally warming up.

Just so handsome!!!

A little help from Grandpa.

My crazy gang

We got home, grabbed Finner and ran to the park for a quick walk and were treated to an amazing sunset and crows flying home to roost. Very Halloween-y.