March 11 = First Spring Break Day

Zachary is going with the Midshipmen Action Group down to North Carolina to help a town rebuild after a hurricane that happened a while ago.  He's taking Liam with him and Liam's going to spend the week with Grandma and Pops.  So Malia and I are on our own this week!

She's discovered a new show and it's all she wants to watch- it's called Super Wings.

Liam has a habit of hiding crayons when they're available and then using them later to color on the walls in the playroom.  Therefore, they're not available very often but since Malia doesn't have that same tendency, I've brought some out for her- she's having a blast!

I got bored after a while so we went and ran some errands- I had two returns to make and man everything is so much easier with one child...

September 6 = Birthday Party Day

We had lots of fun yesterday at the farm and Liam loved his pizza dinner last night but today we had his birthday party with lots of family and friends.  We had a Mickey Mouse theme since Liam is obsessed.  Here's the yummy food:

 

Thankfully lots of family members were willing to help- Mo helped me so much with all of the food and dirty dishes used to prepare the food.  Grace lent her artistic talents for this sign:

Mo found this flag at Walgreens so Mickey Mouse was there to greet all of our guests as they arrived!

Grace and Matt put this background up for us too to take pictures of all of our guests! 

Here's Amy and Evie- we went to Evie's first birthday party recently- isn't she too cute?

And here's Jessica and Weston- he's giving us his serious face- and then a shot of the whole family:

Rachel helped Malia practice her walking- she had a very sassy Minnie Mouse shirt on to support our Mickey theme.

Here's Matt & Grace and Matt & Rachel:

And then, before Matthew and Rachel left, we got some family pictures:

Here are more friends!  Giselle & Brandon:

 

And then our former neighbors, the Kuppers and the Curtases: 

Liam loved this game from the Kuppers- he punched out each of the little bugs and handed them to Grandma- he was very diligent!

I started cleaning up once all of our friends headed out- I took our photo backdrop down and then remembered I hadn't gotten pictures of Grandma & Pops or pictures of us so... (the picture of Grammy and Gramps must be on someone else's phone)

 

 

 Liam was spoiled with lots of birthday gifts:

It was a day of fun and love for a fun-loving little boy!

December 26 = Christmas II

My parents left in the morning and Zachary's parents got there soon after!  After they brought in as many presents as they could carry, we had leftovers for lunch and then got down to business!  Liam didn't get quite as much of his nap as he should have but he did a good job opening presents and even helped with a few of Malia's.  Liam got a cool easel with a whiteboard on one side and a chalkboard on the other side- it also came with letter and number magnets- it was an instant hit!  He also got some red chucks and a really cool alphabet bag- it unzips to all of these pockets, labeled a-z, with a tiny object that starts with that letter.  Right now he loves playing with the little pieces but it will be great when he learns his letters too.  Malia got lots of cute clothes and cool toys- including a little play floor piano that she can kick to make lots of music.  My favorite gifts were a new pair of Toms shoes and a Jeopardy daily calendar and Zachary got some warm winter clothes and a lot of books.  We also got a book with pictures from throughout the year- some pictures in the book I had never seen!  We hesitated to stay in Annapolis for Christmas because we were worried we wouldn't be able to spend enough time with family but we were so blessed to be able to see both of our immediate families and spend great quality time with them!

September 22 = Preschool Family Night

Liam has been doing such a great job in preschool!  He's doing so much better with following directions, holding hands, and staying with one task for longer than 5 seconds.  Tonight was family night where we got to see their classroom a little more closely and Liam showed us all his favorite toys.  It was at 5:00pm so Zachary and I were expecting snacks but that didn't happen...

 

One of Liam's favorite things to do is empty containers- either by throwing everything in said container on the floor or by transferring everything in said container to another container- which often leads to emptying that container as well.

September 11 = Color on the Wall Day

I have to pump every 3 hours.  On Thursdays, Zachary is gone from around 10am to 10pm so there are several times I have to pump while he's gone.  I have tried putting Malia on the bed next to me and letting Liam play around in the room with me but trying to keep him off of Malia while hooked up to a machine that doesn't produce the most comfortable sensations is quite a difficult task so I quickly decided he should be safely shut in his room with lots of toys to play with during these times.  Well... this time, the latch didn't come out of the door and so it didn't latch shut and he pushed it open, found a crayon and the pictures above are the result.