Reading

Well, it happend again: I didn't make my goal of 25 books. Not even close (17 to be exact)...

BUT, I had a baby and I finished this 850-page monster:

...so I'm gonna go ahead and call it a win!

Here were this year's best:

Paul finished 11 books, but they were all super long, so I'm pretty sure he beat me this year  :)
He also started a book club with the Young Men in the ward. How adorable is that!? Love him.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

JOYful

We had a Christmas celebration for the last Joy School of 2012!
Complete with crafts, yummy food, and a live nativity (well, as much as we could with only 3 kids):

Joseph, Mary, and a beautiful Angel
We should have used Liam as the baby Jesus!

And we even got a visit from a special guest:

I was surprised she sat on his lap! But not surprised that she wouldn't speak to him.

One of the kid's older brother, home from BYU getting ready for his mission, was a good sport and dressed up for the kids. He talked to them for a bit and give them each a little present (that the parents provided). It was pretty magical for them!
They're such a good group of kids!

3 months

 

Already 3 months old, Liam is growing so big and so strong! He is just the happiest, cutest little guy! And very social; he likes to be able to see what is going on around him, and will always cheer up if you start talking to him.

-This month has been all about his hands and feet. He loves to kick around and watch his feet when I put colorful socks on him. He has begun grabbing at toys, playing with his fingers, and he tries all day long to get that thumb in his mouth.

-Liam is SO smiley! He smiles at everyone who smiles or talks to him, even if he is getting upset. And for some reason, he thinks getting his clothes changed is hilarious!

-He has an adorable little laugh, but most of the time reserves it just for his favorite person in the world: his Daddy!

-His favorite thing to do lately is gurgle in the back of his throat. We'll have gurgle conversations all the time. Jenna loved to do this all the time as well :)

-He does NOT like being in the car. But, luckily, his binky will calm him down for a while.
The problem: he spits out his binky, and then wiggles around so it falls under his arm or leg or even underneath him, so we can't find / reach it.
The solution: I bring along several binkies with me so that when he loses one, I pass the next one back to Jenna to pop in his mouth. When we get home, Liam's got a nice pile of binkies around him, and the drive wasn't too bad!

-I haven't been peed on in over a month! What a good boy!
        *just after I typed this, he peed on Paul! Hahaha! Days without incident: back to 0

-Sometimes Jenna scares him by being too loud, but most of the time he is so happy to see her! Just today, she was playing with Liam and saying "You're the best brother! You're the best brother!". I asked "Why is he the best?" and she said "Cause he has the best sister!".

M is for Moose

For Joy School this week, we learned all about the letter "M"! We had so much fun making moose antlers. The girls wouldn't model for me, but aren't these boys so cute:

p.s. that boy really is a genius!

We also learned about how the mail works, so we sent love notes to our Mommies (Jenna wrote to her Daddy). I hope it all makes sense when they see it arrive at their houses in a few days!

I'm really enjoying teaching these kids this year! I don't know how much they're actually learning, but we sure are having fun!

drama

It's been a rough couple of days:
Jenna has been hopping around on one leg, or else has asked us to carry her everywhere. According to her, she is in constant pain. She cried everytime we had to change her pants, and when we made her take a bath the neighbors must have thought we were torturing her. And this will probably last at least a couple more days.

Now, I know what you're thinking: Poor Jenna! Did she sprain her ankle? Break her leg?

Nope. She skinned her knee... a little. Two days ago.

How did I create such a wimp?! Such a drama queen?!
...Don't answer that.

Gym Kids

We went on a trip to the gym for preschool, so I was finally allowed inside!
Jenna was so excited to show me what she can do, and we got to have fun with our friends!
And then we attempted a group picture:



The four on the left is our class

Finally, Jenna's back in gymnastics!

And loving it!


getting ready to do a cartwheel

I love watching her enjoy her class, and I'm so glad I have a little buddy this time to keep me company while we wait :)


King size

The other night, we put a couple loads of laundry in at our apartment's laundromat, including Liam's bedding. When Paul went to pick it up (a bit late) the door was locked, which never happens! A bit of a bummer, but we figured Liam could just sleep with us.
Then, at 11:30pm, Jenna woke up and threw up all over her bed. Gross... I mean, Aw, my poor little baby :(
It was a rough night, but by morning all four of us were a-snooze in our king bed. It was the first time that I have appreciated that giant monstrosity. Seriously, I have loathed that thing since the first time we had to move it into a tiny apartment. I always encourage Jenna and her friends to jump on it and secretly hope it breaks... I know, I know - first world problem.
But it was nice waking up all together with my family.
Oh boy, do I love cuddling with my man. My little man, that is :)

Fatso

We sort of have this tradition of naming the Christmas tree we pick out every year.
This year, his name is Fatso!

We went to the tree lot Friday afternoon and weren't too impressed with the selection. Eventually, Jenna just wanted to get home to decorate and Liam was getting cold and hungry, so we just picked the tree that looked the fullest.
When we got home and Paul brought it through the front door, my jaw dropped to the floor! Holy cow, it's humongous! I seriously felt like it took up half our living room! I was worried that it just looked ridiculous in our little apartment, but now that it's decorated we love it. I kind of love that it feels (and smells) like we're wandering into a forest when we walk in the front door!

 

I love all our fun ornaments, and the fact that they all mean something to us or remind us of who gave them to us! My favorite this year is Liam's:

He likes it, too  :)

Jenna got to put the star on top :)

 

My awesome Mother-in-law already made Liam's stocking, even though she had four grandsons born in the last two months! That's a busy Grandma! She's quite amazing!

 

  



It's the most wonderful time of the year! I love it!



I love me some leftovers...

Paul's work gave us a whopping 22 lbs. turkey for Thanksgiving! We gave it to our friends Elena and Josh to cook because they were hosting, and because I'm terrified of being in charge of the most important part of the meal! 
Paul helped me whip up some deviled eggs, rolls, and yummy sourdough and apple stuffing, and we had a delicious and fun Thanksgiving with friends. And since we had such a huge turkey and only 6 adults, we had a ton of leftovers! We've been eating turkey for almost every lunch and dinner since, and we finally finished it tonight when I made creamy turkey soup. We grabbed some bread bowls from Panera (because, honestly, any other bread bowl just isn't worth it) and said good-bye to our yummy turkey.



2 months!

Our little Liam is growing up too fast! I was so sad as I put away his little newborn clothes :(
I have to take back some of what I said about Jenna and Liam being so different. Why, oh why, oh why do my children hate being in their car seats?! I hear about these people who put their kids IN the car to get them to go to sleep - I just don't get that...

Liam is so happy all the time! We all look forward to diaper changes, because that's when he "talks" the most and gives the most smiles. His favorite sound to make is "Goo!". So cute!
He also loves when we "eat" his cheeks!

Liam has finally noticed the fish swirling around above him in his swing, and will talk to them as they swim.

He is a pretty good sleeper, going for 4-5 hour stretches at night. He dosen't want to be swaddled, and sleeps so much better on his stomach (don't worry, we're super careful). Last night he slept for almost 8 hours! Wow - I hope that's a preview of what's to come...

He still doesn't have a very loud cry, and when he gets really upset it sounds like he is saying "why? why? why?"! Just breaks your heart!

The question we get asked the most is "How is Jenna doing with him?"
The answer: wonderfully! She loves to hold him, give him kisses, read to him, shake his arms and legs, and show him off to her friends.
She always offers to "peek an eye on him". Jenna says "peek" instead of "keep"  :)
Whenever we give Liam one of "Jenna's" toys, it takes her about 3 seconds to notice, proclaim it her favorite, and want it back. However, if she ever notices he is upset, she always happily offers him her prized possessions. I guess it just has to be her choice.
We always say she is going to continue to adore him... until he learns to crawl and can get into her stuff... then her claws are going to come out! I guess we'll just have to wait and see!

Jenna gave him her penguin to calm him down.

6 weeks

Liam's 6 week stats:

 

12 lbs. 12 oz. 

23 1/4 in.

 

The 95th percentile!?! Yowzas! My friend, Elena, came over after not seeing him for 2 weeks and said "Woah, he's doubled in size!" So true...

The craziness of having a newborn has calmed down, and we're starting to feel back to normal around here again. He's a really good baby, and Jenna absolutely loves him. The only difficulties now are the fact that he doesn't have a schedule yet, and he wants to be held most of the day.

 

Liam is constantly making sounds! He hums while he sleeps, sighs while he eats, and the rest of the day he coos, grunts, or has the hiccups. He makes the most pathetic little wimper when he's hungry, and cute little cry if gets really mad (wants to be picked up). I can barely even hear it when I'm just in the next room!

He smiles at us all the time, but it is almost impossible to catch on camera. And the other day I heard him laugh in his sleep - it was the cutest thing ever!
Can't wait to see more from this little guy!

*pictures courtesy of my talented father-in-law!



Happy Halloween!

We got to celebrate Halloween all throughout the month:
We had a very early Ward party, Jenna had a preschool party, and on Halloween we went to Chipotle for $2 burritos and then Trick or Treating with some friends.
Liam wore his doctor outfit again, and I went as his nurse (Paul put on a band-aid and said he was our patient...)

Jenna couldn't decide on just one costume, so she wore three! And all three were outfits we just happened to have already (my favorite kind).
She was a butterfly at the ward party, Rapunzel at her preschool party, and a witch Halloween night.

The only picture I got. Oops.

Frankenstorm!

Hurricane Sandy and two other storms to the west converged right on top of us to create the "perfect storm" Monday night.




Waiting for Frankenstorm to arrive

People to the North and East of us experienced some serious flooding and property damage, and there was almost 2 feet of snow to the West. Luckily, all we saw was 40mph winds and 6in of rain. And our power was out for 48 hours.
The best part was right when it happened, Jenna looked all around and said "Did everything run out of batteries?"
We were pretty well prepared with flashlights and blankets, and only lost a couple of things in our fridge. Paul even took two days off work and we actually had fun finding things to do all day, such as finally carving our pumpkin, a new 3D puzzle, and teaching Jenna to sound out simple words (playing teacher).

It turned out to be a bit of an adventure! Showering with flashlights was kind of fun... The worst part was not being able to cook anything. And the fact that it was slowly getting colder. Liam and I spent most of today cuddled up underneath a big blanket!
Still, it wasn't as bad as this past July when that freak storm hit and we were out of power for 5 days in over 100 degree weather. Oh, and I was 7 months pregnant! It got so bad that we used Paul's Dad's timeshare at the Hilton for 2 nights (Aah, how wonderful a relief that was!).

Our power is back now, but there are still thousands of people without power, or even their homes. Please join us in praying for these families!

Liam's blessing day

Paul, my dad, and a couple of our ward friends joined together to bless our little Liam on October 21. It was a very personal blessing that I hope will remain dear to him as he gets older. I'm so glad our family could share his special day with us.

The proud daddy with his little boy!

Chillin with Grandpa Green

 

We were lucky to be visited by Paul's mom and dad, my mom and dad, Ryan, Daniel, Becca, and Momo (my grandma)!

Taking pictures was kind of a flop, because people had to leave literally right after the blessing. So these are the best we got. Don't know why we didn't try to get better ones later...

The Schertz side

The Green side

Cuddling with Great Grandma Howard

 

 Liam has officially been welcomed to the family! We are loving this kid!

D is for doctor

Jenna has started Joy School again! I really can't believe she'll be going to kindergarten next year. I'm so not ready for that!
We decided this year to have smaller groups and meet twice a week so we can get more actual learning done. I volunteered to teach every Tuesday, because I'm the only one without a car. This way I only have to get the car from Paul once a week (and everyone else likes it because they don't have to teach as often).
I took off a couple weeks to have my baby, and the other moms were so great about teaching for me and picking up Jenna! But now it's back to work!


4 kids is the perfect class size!

The letter of the day this Tuesday was D, so I took an outfit off of Jenna's bear and we all got a check-up from Doctor Liam!

Hehehe! I had way too much fun with this!

Big girl

There are currently 14 kids in Jenna's Sunbeam class, so we go to a lot of birthday parties! Between all of these birthdays and Christmas, we've wrapped a decent amount of presents around here. We got an invitation to one of her friend's party this week, so Jenna picked out a present and "wrote" her a birthday card. The next day, Jenna was drawing while Liam and I took a nap on the couch. When I woke up, I noticed her blanket covering something lumpy in the corner.
Before I could investigate, Jenna asked me "Mom, am I a big girl?"
I replied that indeed, she was a big girl.
Then she asked "Can big girls wrap presents by themselves?"
I could see where this was going... "They sure can", I said.
Jenna cautiously went to the corner and revealed this well-wrapped pink present:

She had gotten everything out, cut, wrapped, and taped it all by herself! I didn't have to fix a thing. It makes me a little sad when she doesn't need me anymore, but I'm also very proud of how self sufficient and kind she is!

Just can't get enough!



He really isn't that yellow - this was taken from my phone.



We realized they were both wearing giraffe PJ's :)
...and Liam is showing his "blue steel" look.

 

Getting some sun...

love!