8 months old already!

I honestly cannot believe that my sweet little baby boy is 8 months old. That means that in 4 months, he will be celebrating his first birthday. That is so crazy to me! But, we sure are enjoying every second with him and he continues to make us laugh on a daily basis.

It has been such fun seeing his personality really come out. He really has a sense of humor and seems to be goofy like his parents. We had a wonderful first Christmas with our families and I will post about that next time.

This month has been full of fun and lots of new things for Liam. One of our biggest changes is we are MOBILE! He has been pulling up, getting on all fours, and rocking back and forth all month. But, starting the day before he turned 8 months old (yesterday), he figured out how to move those legs and he can crawl. So, he is moving around his playroom now :) He is also pulling to to a stand on anything he can get a good grip on! It seems like he has just taken this huge step in just a couple weeks.






This month at our church we participated in the baby dedication service. It was such a special time to gather with friends and family, all praying over our sweet baby. Liam was joined by a few of his little baby friends (Lilly, Kace, and Alyce). It was a special time for our family. He did great at the dedication and just sucked on my necklace the entire time. :)





We went to Bass Pro Shop to sit in Santa's lap. They had an awesome system there so you did not have to wait in line for very long. Not to mention Liam LOVED Bass pro which made his daddy extremely happy. Just a few days before santa Brad took him there for a daddy/son outing while I stayed home and got some things done. That is how we figured out how much he loved going. There are fish, ducks, waterfalls, and lots of fun things for a baby to check out. Our Santa was a really legit looking santa. But, when he smiled...he looked kinda creepy. Oh well! Liam loved him and did great :)



I still cannot believe he is 8 months old! We set up an email address for him when he was born so that we could email him pictures, videos, and just different stuff throughout his first couple years. We copied that commercial that we saw. It is turning out to be pretty cool. I email pictures I take during the day and videos. Brad emails him a message every Monday. Then we had my family send him emails as well just telling him what he means to them. I think he will think it is really cool one day!

This month has been quite a growth month as far as what he can do. Since he is now so mobile and pulling up on everything. But, the one thing that has not been fun is teething! Poor guy was running 102 fever on Christmas morning from his teeth! He has ups and downs, but I feel like he takes it in stride! This is a picture of him at Brad's parents house yesterday morning after battling with teeth all night! He cuddled up with his buggy for a nap :)



It has been an amazing month with our sweet boy! Cannot wait to see what the next one brings :)

Thanksgiving 2011!

As usual, we had a wonderful day on Thanksgiving. It was a day full of family, friends, food, football, and fun! Liam had a fun day and he was a perfect little Angel! He was even sweet enough to take a nap during the big meal so Brad and I could sit and enjoy eating! We had my parents, Allie, Grammy, Patti, Randy, Bryan and Katie, Liam, and the masses of dogs this year. The Arnts came over after the meal to have some pie and watch some football!

On the menu this year we had a beautiful turkey, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, rolls, yummy stuffing, gravy, and fruit salad! Then we had a pumpkin pie, apple pie, lemon pie, and coconut cream pie to enjoy. Needless to say, we were all stuffed. But, come about 6:00 that night, we got it all out again for round two! I made sure Liam ate some sweet potatoes and pumpkin of his own (I made it separately of course) so that he could enjoy some yummy Thanksgiving foods as well!

We have so very much to be thankful for this year. We are blessed beyond anything I ever could have imagined and to that we praise our Lord Jesus Christ! One of our very most obvious blessings this year is our sweet angel boy, Liam. Life has changed so much and looking back seemed so meaningless without this little guy. I cannot imagine not having him in our lives! What a little blessing.

Another thing we are extremely thankful for this year is our wonderful church home, The Door Church. It has been such an amazing experience and we are so happy that we have found this incredible group of people to love and live life with. The love of God is ever-present at The Door and I look forward to the future with all of our amazing friends, new and old.

Here are some photos from Thankgiving this year!

Six and nearly 7 months old!!

On October 28th, Liam turned 6 months old! Now he is one week from being 7 months old...I cannot believe he is over 1/2 a year old already! So much has been going on and life has been so busy with this busy little guy that I have forgotten/not had the time to blog. But, I truly plan on getting better! There are just so many things to document.

Liam had so much fun on his first Halloween. Of course, he was a giraffe for his first halloween. He wore the costume proudly :) Our church had a block party for a few neighborhoods in Coppell. We had bounce houses, hot dogs, and candy for the trick or treaters. It was so nice to spend some time in our city, loving on the people who live here. Our Church (The Door) has been such an incredible blessing in our lives. I am so excited that Liam will be raised in this church with all the amazing people we have met there.





Liam has learned to sit up in the last month and is starting to rear back looking like he is ready to crawl! He is growing up way too fast! He can stand for pretty long periods of time (with assistance of course). He is not a huge eater, but we manage to get some solids down him each day. He eats a lot of avacado and squash :) He also loves pears, plums, prunes, and peas! We are enjoying every second with him and still cannot believe we have been blessed with such an amazing and perfect gift. It is a huge job to raise a Godly child in this world today, but we are thankful that the Lord has entrusted us with this sweet boy.






Liam is in LOVE with the dogs and cat. If nothing else makes him smile, all they have to do is walk into the room and he will giggle. That is definitely something he got from his momma (although Dad loves dogs also). He also obsessed with jumping and the best invention in the world is our jumparoo! He is always bouncing whether he is in our laps, in his excersaucer, or in his jumparoo!

In early October we headed out to the pumpkin patch to try and catch some cute pictures. Well, he LOVED the grass, hay, and pumpkins so much, we could not get him to look at the camera! But, we like the pics anyways :)







We did a quick photo shoot with Eric while he was in town and got some amazing pictures! Unfortunately, I cannot share them all because we will be using them on our Christmas card this year! But, here is a little preview of a few of them!







I will try to post more often and set aside a time each day. I know that one day Liam will really enjoy looking at this :)

Forget to blog!

I just cannot seem to find the time in my day to get blog posts written. So, my new goal is to write a post at least once a week. I am sure you will soon see that I will not meet this goal. But, I will surely try :)

Liam turned SIX MONTHS old yesterday! I cannot believe the time has flown by. It has been the most amazing, exciting, precious, and treasured 6 months of my life. I look at my sweet boy every day and thank God for him. Every day is a gift and I cherish it.

Liam is a wonderful baby. He sleeps through the night every single night! He goes to bed around 7:00 and doesn't wake up until 6:30 or 7:00 the next morning. It is nice to have that good sleep each night. I cannot say he is a great napper, but I will take night sleeping over napping any day. After all, if he is awake during the day it is more time I get to spend with him :)

He started sitting up at about 5 1/2 months and now does not really like to lay back. He eats in his high chair (sitting up), tries to sit in his bouncy seat, and wants to sit up when he is eating his bottle. He is such a big boy.

He is also eating solids now. He eats avacado and pear in the morning and peas in the afternoon. Given is bathroom issues, I am slower to introduce the solids that have less fiber. But, it will come :)

We go to our 6 month appointment on Wednesday so I will post about his stats!

Here are a few pictures since the last post!

Swaddle me!

One of the best inventions we have discovered since the birth of our sweet Liam is the swaddle me. We have swaddled Liam tight every night before bed since he was a newborn :-) He has loved the swaddle and slept so well with it!

He has been such a wonderful sleeper! He has slept through the night since he was just under two months old! He has taken 2-3 two hour naps in the daytime as well. But, all those naps were swaddled tight to keep his hands away from his face. We
nicknamed him "Burrito" because that is what we think he looks like in his swaddle.

But, as they always say...all good things must come to an end. As of the last week, the swaddle has gone from a calming experience, to one that seems to anger him. He wanted those arms free and would fight until he got them out. Needless to say, this was not a day we had looked forward to reaching.

So, as of Tuesday night, Liam has kissed his swaddles goodbye. The first night (Tuesday) he actually did great! He went to bed around 9:00 that night and woke up about every 3-4 hours. But, all we did was replace the paci in his mouth and he would drift off again.

Last night, he slept the whole night (9:00-7:20) swaddle free and without mommy having to get up with him! So far, this transition has been so much easier than we thought. Let's hope he keeps up the good work!!

My favorite part of kissing the swaddle goodbye is he gets to enjoy these cute jammies at night!!!

Liam's Guardian!

When I got pregnant, every told me that my dogs would become dogs and that they would not know what hit them. Well, that always bothered me but I kept my mouth shut thinking "I will show them when he is born that we love our dogs the same."

Well, now that Liam is born, I realize that I was wrong all along. We would not love our dogs the same once Liam was born...but actually love them even more! Watching them welcome Liam into their home with nothing but love and licks has been such a sweet experience!

We have three dogs and a cat.






Angel: Angel is an 8 year old Golden retriever/lab mix that I fostered and adopted my junior year in College. She is an amazing dog that would do anything for some loving. She is so great with Liam and gives him kisses daily.

Charlie: Charlie is our 4 year old papillon. He is Mr. Personality and is a funny guy. He LOVES Liam. Charlie is confident, smart, and very social. He loves to lay with Liam, kiss Liam, and just hangs around him all the time. He guards Liam from the cat for some reason and doesn't like to let her near him. Although, Jovi the cat is great with him also :)




Oliver: Oliver was my foster a few years ago that we fell in love with. We decided to keep him. He was not well socialized. While extremely sweet in every way, he is shy and does not do well with any correction as he is afraid you will hit him (which has never happened with us). Ollie is always sweet to kids but has also been the one who runs off as they run towards him. So, given all of this history, we believed that Ollie would have some trouble with the new baby. Boy were we wrong! Oliver has taken to the baby almost more than Charlie. We have renamed him "The guardian."

If Liam is on the floor, platmat, or anywhere in his reach, he is laying beside him. He gives him kisses when he is crying then stares at me until I pick him up. He lays about a foot away as if he is watching for someone to try to harm him. It is the sweetest thing in the world!






Needless to say, our dogs still sleep in our bed, get chewies, stay inside all day long, and are spoiled just as they always have been. :-)

You are 3 months old!!

I am really bad about keeping this updated on time! I want to be able to go back and read this to remember things I might forget, so I need to get better about posting about what little L is doing! We are loving being parents to this sweet little boy!

3 months:
Well, you are 3 months old as of July 28th! I cannot believe how fast this is flying by! I used to think it was so cheesy when people would tell me to enjoy every second because it would fly by. But, now I understand why they say that and I wish I could freeze each day with you and cherish it a little longer. But, don't let that make anyone think I am not enjoying each stage equally!

3 months:
13.8 lbs (on our home scale that is)!!

Things you are doing at 3 months:
-you are always happy! You are such a sweet boy and you never cry unless you are STARVING or hurt.

-you started rolling over! You only roll from your tummy to your back, but boy are you close to being able to do both! Here is a picture of you half way from your back to your tummy!




-you eat about 25-30 oz of breastmilk each day! You love to eat!

-you always wake up happy! When you wake up you just lay there with your eyes open until we notice you have woken up. If we leave you too long you get fussy, but once we remove your swaddle you just lay and watch your soother until we get you up to eat!

-you had your first out loud laugh with your nana! She is always best about getting a good laugh out of you :)

-you are smiling and talking up a storm!

- You take about 3-4 naps a day still (around 1-3 hrs a piece)

-you sleep from about 8:30-6:30 every night (this makes Mom and Dad VERY happy)

-You are very grumpy from about 6:30-7:30 each night!

-you will only sleep swaddled! Your hands are ALWAYS in your mouth or grabbing your face. If we put you to bed without a swaddle, your hands will wake you up within ten minutes :-( I dread the day you can no longer be swaddled...

Well, those are some of the things you are doing right now! We are looking forward to what is coming the the future!! :) Here are some pictures at 3 months!

The Larsons and Stavinoha visit! (late)

Well, we did not have a camera yet when all of Brad's family came in town. Liam was about 4 weeks old and I just recently got copies of the pictures Casey took when she was here :) IT was a great visit and we cannot wait to see them again this coming weekend!