8 months

Our little Liam Pants is such a sweet, happy boy! People are always commenting to me how smiley and friendly he is. And that he has red hair; I'm not convinced that he actually does - it just sometimes looks red in the sun because he is transitioning to blonde. But we all agree he is adorable and a total flirt :)

He is an army crawler, and he is fast! I used to tell him "come on" when I went to the next room and was able to get something done before he got there. But now I turn around and he's right behind me!

Last month I was feeding him lunch and dropped a piece of sandwich on his tray. He just picked it right up and put it in his mouth, no problem! I was like "Hey, when did you learn to do that!?" I think I need to stop babying him and realize he's growing fast :(
Liam loves food! The only things we haven't given him so far are honey and milk, and there's nothing he doesn't like. He still has just two teeth, but is great at chewing things up.

He loves books and drums. And, of course, drumming on his books! He laughs every time I let him hold my phone, and he'll happily play forever with remote controls, calculators, and old phones.

Most of the time, he is so easy to get to sleep now! We just give him his binky, lay him down, and he goes right to sleep. Of course he will occasionally fight it, but I'm so grateful for good sleepers!

We've always spelled Jenna's name to the tune of the Jello Jingle (Ya know, J-E-L-L-O It's alive!) so I told Paul to think of a 4-letter jingle so we could sing Liam's as well. The only one he could think of was YMCA, so I've been singing LIAM to that tune a lot lately!

An excellent shopping buddy!

He loves to be upside-down!

LOVE watching these two play together!

Jenna's friend had a mermaid / pirate themed party. Can you see his earring?!

 

12 - 10

That was the final score of our annual Rays - Orioles game last Friday! It was a very exciting game with lots of scores, home runs, and even a drunk fan running out and getting tackled on the field!

Go Rays!

flowers

Jenna and I had so much fun beautify-ing our yard!

She did these ones all by herself!

Since I don't know anything about gardening, we let Jenna pick out a some annuals, and we're gonna learn as we go!

They don't look as good as my neighbor's (professionally done), but they make me happy every time I go outside :)

Liebster

Lisa, from Lisa the Lazy Blogger, tagged me in a fun blogger chain-mail called the Liebster Award.
Here's how it works:
-Post 11 random facts about yourself and answer 11 questions from the tagger.

Random facts about me:
1. I've been pulled over in my car twice, ran into 3 cars and 2 poles, and I speed like my life depended on it! But, I swear I'm a really good driver!
2. One day, I hope to own and learn how to play the harp!
3. I don't really enjoy working out. So, my favorite way to exercise is to put on the Britney Spears station on Pandora and dance inappropriately. No one is ever allowed to see :)
4. I am a master procrastinator. I thrive on it!
5. I could eat chocolate nonstop for days, but other sweets fill me up pretty quickly.
6. My dream job is being a movie actress. It has got to be the funnest job on the planet! You get to work with new and exciting people all the time, and they pay you to learn awesome skills! You basically get to play, for a living.
7. I love to bake, but I loathe cooking. Every night I think Man, I just fed these people yesterday! I gotta do it AGAIN?!
8. One day, probably when my kids are grown, I want to take up painting. I'm sure I won't be any good, but I think I will enjoy it.
9. I have zero allergies, perfect vision, and hardly ever get sick. I can raise and lower my cholesterol at will.
10. The thing that makes me the happiest is hearing my children make each other laugh!
11. I cannot do anything on my own. I even made Paul help me make this list :)

Questions from Lisa to answer:  
1. Superpower you wish you had? Flying!!! No question.
 2. Favorite musical artist you're embarrassed to admit you love? Britney Spears
 3. If you had to re-live one year of your life, what would it be? 2006 - The year Paul and I started dating, got engaged, and married! That was a pretty awesome year!  
4. Favorite flower? I don't know a thing about flowers! They're all beautiful :)  
5. What are you reading right now? Phantom, by Susan Kay  
6. Favorite ride at Disneyland/world? Expedition Everest at Animal Kingdom!
7. Pet peeve? Sadly, I have a lot. But the worst are people shuffling their feet when they walk, and the there/their/they're thing.
8. Dream church calling? Primary Pianist. I love being in Primary, and that way I could watch all the kids and not have to teach!
9. Favorite click flick? Currently, Jane Eyre.  
10. Skydiving--yes or no? YES! YES! YES! I've just got to find someone to do it with me, because Paul is a definite NO!
11. Money is no object, where would you most like to spend a week? I'd live amongst the chimpanzees, like Jane Goodall :)

One year older...

I had such a fun birthday this year!
It began with Paul going in to work late (he never does!) so I could sleep in and still enjoy a delicious chocolate-chip pancake breakfast. My day with the kids was normal, except Jenna randomly sang "Happy Birthday" to me all day long  :)
Paul got off work early, and found a little cafe that makes great cheesecake! After he surprised us, we all went out to Red Lobster for dinner, and totally tricked Jenna into eating shrimp! After she finished we told her it was actually shrimp, and she said "Ooo, I like shrimp!" Yes!
Then we hurried home to eat the delicious cheesecake! When it came time to decorate, Jenna went a little crazy with the green sprinkles because she knows it's my favorite color. Funny girl!

The next day Elena treated us to lunch. We couldn't do it on my actual birthday, because I was on the phone with the insurance company all afternoon; Someone rear-ended my car on the highway and pushed me into the car in front of me. Happy Birthday to me - an insurance nightmare! But, seriously, no one got hurt (my kids were with me) and the car got fixed quickly with no charge to us, so I'm grateful!

On Friday night, the girls took me out to P.F.Chang's! Of course we got the Great Wall of Chocolate, and then decided that wasn't enough dessert, so we ran next door to Champps and also got their giant ice cream cake!

Then we went to a nightclub for dancing! I haven't gone out dancing since college - it was an absolute blast! This place was pretty cool, because it had two main rooms - one played popular dance music, and the other had line dancing! It was awesome.

Unfortunately, Elena forgot her ID and couldn't join us. We seriously contemplated sneaking her in, but eventually thought better of it  :)
It just means we'll have to go back again soon  :)

stop, drop, and roll

Every month a mom in our Joy School group plans a field trip, and April was my month. So, I arranged for us to visit our local Fire Station!

We showed up with our not-so-small group (moms and younger siblings come as well), and despite my many many many conversations with some lady who assured me they were expecting us, they had no idea we were coming! I should have expected it since I had to give her my phone number 4 times, 2 of which were exactly 30 seconds apart! But, hey, they're firefighters (ready at all times) and gave us a great tour  :)

The kids all loved seeing the lights and being able to walk through the truck! Fireman Bill was an awesome teacher!
One of the funniest moments was when Fireman Bill first brought us into the garage. He had told the kids to stay on the blue tile, not the red. One little girl wandered onto the red area, and right in the middle of Fireman Bill's little speech, Jenna walks right up to him and pokes him to get his attention, then just points to the girl with an "Oh no!" look on her face. Little tattle-tale!

Afterwards we went to play at a nearby park, and devoured some yummy cake balls.

Here we go again... :)

For the very first time, Jenna had consecutive birthdays while we lived in the same place. But she won't get a third, because we've moved again! This is our 6th home in 6 years! I'm pretty much a professional mover at this point.
We hadn't planned on living here this long, so we didn't worry about schools when we found our previous apartment. But it turns out the Lord's plan for us is different than ours :)
It also turns out that the school district we lived in is terrible! Luckily, our city is at the intersection of four counties! We only had to move a couple miles to be in any of three other (better) districts. We picked the one we wanted and started looking.

We were looking for a townhouse, about the same rent as we pay now, walking distance to Jenna's school, decent neighborhood with walking trails, washer and dryer, and close to our friends. We thought this was a pretty tall order, but we got everything we asked for! We just forgot to ask for the place to be not owned by a crazy person... Oh well, can't win 'em all!

We even get a little flower bed to play with :)

 Paul's favorite part of our new place is the playroom in the basement: the toys can be somewhat contained! My favorite area is our spacious laundry room with lots of storage! And Jenna couldn't be more excited about her princess retreat!

I fought the princess theme, but I was outnumbered...

While we're excited about our new home, there are a few things we will miss: our wonderful ward, a library where they know us by name, and a playground practically right outside our door.
Still, I feel like this was a good move for our family and it's going to be a great year!