November 16 = 4 Months Old Day

Miss Malia is 4 months old today! She always has lots to talk about and has reminded us that a baby's laugh is one of the sweetest sounds imaginable. She gets very, very grumpy when she's sleepy (like her mommy) and she has started holding toys and grabbing her feet. She is such a sweetheart and brings joy to my heart every day.

November 15 = Break out the Winter Clothes Day

Goodness gracious it's gotten cold!  We bought season tickets to US Navy football games.  Not our wisest decision.  We went to one quarter of the first game and haven't been back.  Now, the only other game we are able to go to happens to fall on the coldest day I can ever remember.  That may be a bit of an exaggeration but it is really, really cold.  One of Zachary's classmates has a three year old and they held on to all her baby clothes and are now donating them.  They sent them our way to go through before they took them to a women's shelter and we found lots of awesome winter clothes for Malia so we took advantage of that and bundled both the babies up and headed to the game.  We lasted for a quarter.

November 9 = Run (another) Marathon Day

Race Day!  We all woke up early and Malia and I drove Zachary to the start line.  It was about a thirty minute drive but only required two or three turns so I knew I'd make it back to the hotel fine.  Until five minutes into my trip back I discovered they had already closed the main road for the race.  But, as Siri continued to tell me to get back on the main road, I used my own sense of direction and made it back just fine.  I then took a nap and woke up in time to pack up most of the stuff in the room and strap Malia on to walk to the finish line.  We hadn't been there long when Zachary crossed after running for 3 hours, 2 minutes and 26 seconds!  

We met up with him in front of a store we had chosen the day before and walked back to the room.  Malia was more tired than Zachary was!

November 8 = Relax Day

We learned from the Marine Corps Marathon experience and planned accordingly- instead of traveling to the site of the marathon the day before, we decided to plan to have all day Saturday to take it easy.  We woke up at a very decent hour, picked up Zachary's race day packet and had a delicious lunch at Big Al's.  Then, after going back to the hotel to pump, of course, we went to Roanoke Island Festival Park and had the museum there all to ourselves.  We stopped by the gift shop and got Liam a wooden recorder like instrument and a magnet.  We also stopped at another store and got him a classic OBX shirt.  We then rode around and saw the baseball fields Zachary used to play on- something he has to do every time he visits- and even got to walk a little on the beach.

We ate dinner at Sugar Creek and then went back to the hotel.  Zachary watched football and I read.  The goal was to have an easy going day and we achieved it!

November 7 = Olive Garden Day

So after that precious moment between my children, we headed down to North Carolina.  On the way down, we thought it would be neat to see if Zachary's parents could meet us too as where we were meeting my mom and brother was not too far from their house.  We met at the Olive Garden and Liam and Malia definitely enjoyed their time spent with family.  There is no photographic evidence of him enjoying his time with Grammy and uncle Matt- but they did!

November 7 = Best Big Brother Day

Liam has been a funny little bear this morning.  He woke up at his normal time as I was in the middle of getting packed for going out of town this weekend.  We are going to meet Grammy and Uncle Matt (J) in Rocky Mount to give Liam to them for the weekend and then leaving from there to go to the Outer Banks where Zachary will run his second marathon in 3 weekends.  So I went in to change him and get him ready for the day but he was contently sitting in his crib.  I asked him if he wanted a new diaper and he simply shook his head, "no."  So I brought the clean, dry laundry in his room and folded as he played with his stuffed animals.  After I finished Malia's clothes, I checked with him again.  Still not ready.  I checked after I folded and put away his clothes.  Still not ready.  I put a few things in the car and when I came back in he was fussing a bit- I guess he was ready.  As I was changing him, Malia woke up and started fussing a bit in our bedroom.  As always, I commented "Uh-oh, sister's mad."  I went on to say "We love sister don't we?"  I regretted asking this as soon as the words left my lips because his favorite thing to do is say no to everything but he surprised me when he didn't say no!  He must really love her!  So I said, "You're going to be such a good big brother to Miss Malia."  Still no shaking of the head from Liam.  Then I said, "You'll protect her..." No shaking of the head.  "And when she gets her first boyfriend..." I couldn't finish the sentence before he started shaking his head quite adamantly.  He's going to be the best big brother!

November 6 = At Home Haircut Day

Liam does not like getting his hair cut.  We have taken him to Sports Clips and we bring him home and will FaceTime with one or both sets of grandparents and they will ask how he did and Zachary always says- he did pretty well!  And I look at him like he's lost his mind.  So I had been mentioning for a while that Liam needed a haircut but neither of us actually wanted to do it.  We ended up rationalizing that maybe he'd do better at home so, having already planned on going to the exchange for other stuff we needed, Zachary got some clippers and we cut Liam's hair at home.  Well Zachary cut it and I did my best to distract him and capture the momentous occasion in pictures.

November 2 = Go Back to Hebron Day

We weren't able to make it to church on time but Aunt Lynn and the youth group were throwing a spaghetti lunch to raise money for the youth group so we were happy to be able to make it for that.  Hebron will always have a special place in my heart- my dad pretty much grew up there and that's where Zachary and I really started our relationship- we got to see each other at school and even shared a few classes but between chatting before the service started, being in Sunday school together, eventually teaching Sunday school together and spending time together at youth group, Hebron was at the center of our getting to know each other better.  Here's a picture of the two of us ... over eleven years ago.

I remember taking this picture for the sole purpose of putting in a frame I had gotten Zachary for either his birthday or Christmas... it was eleven years ago so I don't remember!  But Zachary did remember receiving it and wanted to do an updated shot now that we've become a family!

 

  

October 31 = Halloween!

Today is Halloween! We spent most of the day traveling to Graham to see my family- traffic was terrible so our planned five hour trip took over seven hours.  Instead of going home first, we went straight to La Cocina and then we trick or treated at the Malinskis' house.  We may not have had the full Halloween experience but these pictures and Liam being able to spend time with the Malinskis and them getting to meet Malia made it all worth it!

October 29 = Preschool Halloween Party Day

Liam's school had a Halloween party today- they all wore orange and black and had yummy snacks.  

October 28 = Relax Day

Liam is a trip.  He's such a little man.  Today after dinner, he decided to just lean back and take it all in. 

October 26 = Run a Marathon Day

I don't remember Zachary leaving the hotel room because I had finally fallen asleep and was out when his alarm went off and as he got ready.  I woke up with my alarm at 7:00, pumped and Mo and I got the kids ready and we headed off to see as much of the race as possible.  We contemplated using the metro to ride around to minimize the walking but considering how crowded we thought the metro might be and considering the fact that we are two able bodied people, we decided to walk everywhere.  We took a very nice, leisurely walk to where we could watch the runners go by the 11 mile mark.  We were getting text messages keeping us updated on where Zachary was in the race and we were able to see him run by.

From there, we walked to the finish line.  That doesn't sound like a lot of walking but boy, oh boy, when you're pushing a stroller as Mo was or "wearing" a baby, it's a bit of a trek- we definitely got our exercise in.  Liam and Malia were the perfect little babies- Liam needed to get out of the stroller once to move his legs but he did really well and Malia was just as content as could be in the baby carrier.  Because of the lack of sleep, Zachary did not do as well as he wanted to- it's amazing to me that he traveled 26.2 miles using only his body but at a certain point his body, as he put it, just gave up on him.  He still finished it and did a remarkable job but he had trained really hard and had an expectation that he didn't meet.  It was a quiet ride home.  Spoiler alert: he would run another marathon in two weeks and he killed it!

October 25 = Travel to DC Day

Zachary's running a marathon tomorrow- he's amazing.  Grandma came up for the weekend to help me with the babies while Zachary was running so we went to DC the day before so that Zachary could leave from the hotel for the start line instead of having to wake up at the crack of dawn.

We took our time getting to DC- we stopped at Omega Sports to look for some costume materials for Halloween- we're going to be a football family- Zachary is going to be a coach, I'm a fan, Liam is the football player and Malia is the football.  We were hoping to find some someone other than Redskins gear but failed.  Looks like it'll be "Go Redskins!"

Then we grabbed some lunch and Zachary was so sweet and asked to take a picture with me!  There aren't many of these.
 

 Then we had to pick up Zachary's race day packet that had the course map and his bib.  There was a crazy long line but, being the Marine Corps Marathon, they had a separate line for military members.  Whew!  Who knows how much time we saved.  Inside, they had lots of vendors and this cool map of the marathon course.

Then the real fun began.  We were staying at the Westin on M street.  So I typed, "Westin Hotel, Washington, DC" and the directions popped up, just like that!  We parked...the valet people took down the information for our car... unloaded the car... we got the kids out and walked inside.  There are two Westin hotels on M street and we were at the wrong one.  So we reloaded everything and everyone and went down the street.  Once there, Miss Malia hopped right in bed.

Later that night, we walked to Smashburger- one of our favorite restaurants in Jacksonville, that we recently discovered is also in DC.  It was so delicious. 

We had come to DC so Zachary would get more rest than he would have had he had to leave early in the morning on Sunday.  Hindsight is indeed 20/20.  Liam did not want to go to bed.  He was in a new place and did not have time for sleeping.  Then Malia, my wonderful sleeper, decided she was going to have rare night of staying up late and waking up a few times during the night.  What a disaster.  We finally got to sleep around 3:30am and Zachary had to wake up at 5:30.  Running a marathon on two hours of sleep is definitely not ideal.  More on that later...

October 24 = Sit in New Places Day

I've discussed before how torn I am with what to do with Liam while I'm pumping.  Well today, he was entertaining himself really well in the living room so I figured by the time he figured out I wasn't in the room, I'd be almost done anyway so I let him just hang out.  When I got done pumping, I came out to find this:

I guess he thought the pumpkin needed a good cleaning.  Then, later, we got this in the mail.  It has a higher back than the bumbo so Malia doesn't have to work so hard to stay up, therefore she can stay in it longer because she doesn't get tired and frustrated.  She loves sitting up and looking around so I had this on the Christmas list but as things go in this house, Christmas gifts never make it to Christmas.

October 21 = Tutu Day

...because why not?

October 18 = Pumpkin Patch Take Two Day

Zachary had a cool trip he took with his LEAD Program classmates, exploring areas where battles in the civil war were fought- they stayed overnight outside- sounds fun but not something I'd actually want to do.  So my mom and brother came up to help me with the babies and I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to take a trip to the pumpkin patch since the last time we went there (see 10/1), didn't turn out quite how we had planned.

Warning: Lots of pictures to follow!

Here's Malia, all ready to go!

So this looks like a preset Windows desktop background but it's the view we had at the pumpkin patch.

The first item on the agenda was the pony ride!  We waited for the smallest pony and one of the staff members put him up on the saddle.  He wasn't sure about this but he was a good sport.

 Then we got to feed some goats!  There was an aggressive one that I fed so that he was distracted which let Matthew help Liam feed one of the nicer goats.

If you didn't know any better, you'd think Liam was a good 'ole farm boy!

Then we went to a mini petting zoo they had set up.  The bunny and the horse were the only ones Liam was really interested in- he wasn't feeling the chickens or sheep.

 

The next stop was the cow train.  I had no clue what that meant before we got there but it ended up being really cute and they had a couple of "cows" that were big enough for the parent to join in for the smaller kids.

 The patience level was waning- Liam's, not mine!  So the last thing we did was a hay ride to the actual pumpkin patch and we picked out a pumpkin just Liam's size.  The whole ride to the pumpkin patch, Liam pulled hay out of the bale he was sitting on.  When we got off and started walking around looking for the perfect pumpkin, he sat in the grass and started pulling grass out of the ground and throwing it to the side. 

Malia was a big fan of the pumpkins!  How cute is she?!

October 16 = 3 Months Old Day

It's the 16th again! Malia is now 3 months old. She is very generous with her beautiful smile, loves bath time and has proven to be a very tough girl. She loves putting weight in her slightly chunky thighs and wants so badly to sit up- she is always doing baby crunches! Her sweet and sassy personality has got us wrapped!

October 12 = Teddy Bear Day

Liam may only have eyes for Gigi but Malia seems to be enjoying the company of this little guy.

October 11 = Bumbo Seat Day

We tried out the Bumbo seat today!  She liked it a lot.... until she got tired.

October 9 = Craft Day

I love pinterest.  I love looking at pretty things, reading good quotes and being bombarded with more good ideas than I would ever be able to implement.  A few of these good ideas were Halloween crafts using the babies' footprints.  I thought Malia would be easy going about it and Liam would give me a hard time- I was wrong.

Malia was not so thrilled but I decided to make painting Liam's foot a tickling game and he went right along with it. 

Here are the final products: