September 7 = Liam's Birthday Party

For Liam's birthday we had lunch at Chili's with Grandma and Dops!

Grandma made Liam a cake- we had a PJ Masks theme- Alexandra had brought this shirt last weekend so it was the perfect one for him to wear on his special day!

Since Zachary was out of town I wanted to make his day extra special so I posted on Facebook asking for people to send me short videos of them saying happy birthday to Liam.  People did not disappoint!  I'm not going to post the video because some people reallyyyyyyyyy went out of their comfort zone taking videos of themselves but here is the slideshow of pictures from his last year:

January 16 = Birthday Present Day

Look at these babiesssss:

Also, my birthday present came early!  Zachary got me handwritten lyrics from my favorite singer of all time, Joshua Radin- new prized possession.

Bath time!

Sweet snuggles after bath- clean smelling babies are the best babies!

January 4 = Birthday Surprise Dinner

Zachary arranged a surprise birthday dinner for me since we'll be back in Rhode Island, isolated from the world, for my birthday.  This is the only picture I have from it... ha.  You'll just have to trust that it was fun!

September 5 = Liam's Birthday

So I feel really guilty.  It's Liam's birthday and I have virtually no pictures.  We celebrated more last weekend than on his actual birthday but today started with Chickfila, duh.

And then we did all the normal things we do except Zachary was with us.  We went to the gym.  Played with some toys.  Went for a walk.  Took a nap.  But one exception was watching a movie and eating popcorn.  Both the kids were into it:

August 21 = Evie's Birthday Party Day!

I took Liam to the gym this morning while Zachary stayed home with Malia.  After the gym, we ran by Toys-r-us to find a present for our friend Evie's 2nd birthday!  There was lots and lots of Paw Patrol stuff everywhere so Liam was in heaven.

He's also really into these cars in the back of the store...

Zachary wasn't feeling well still so I left Liam with him and took Malia to the party.  She had so much fun!

We've gotta get this girl some dress up clothes.

We had the special honor of finding out that our friends Will and Amy (Evie's parents) are having a boy in February.  We got to prepare the gender reveal!  Amy provided us with black balloons and both pink and blue confetti and we got to work!  I wish Zachary had been there to see the big reveal but it went well and the parents were super excited!

 Here's all the kids that were at the party: Malia, Weston, Rory, Evie and Annie!

Random picture of Liam being angry and Malia not knowing what's going on:

July 22 = Mommy/Son Day

Here's Liam waking Malia up.

We took Malia to the CDC today so that I could take Liam by himself to his OT appointment.  I got to read the whole time- it was amazing.  And after his appointment, we still had a bit of time before we needed to go pick up Malia so I took Liam to lunch at The Main Ingredient.  We had such a good time together.  He was being so funny and sweet!

My favorite part was when he was playing hide and seek behind the sugar packets.  Such a silly, sweet boy.

Later that afternoon, after we picked Malia up, we headed to Amy's house for a playdate.  Amy and Evie missed Malia's birthday party but got her a present anyway- a tea set!  Here's Malia in Amy's husband, Will's, shoes...

 And here she is at home, playing with her tea set!

Also, I got this picture and it's now my background on my phone- she's too cute.

Also this:

July 14 = Amy's Birthday

First, I got this for Liam at Target today.  Zachary had some NBA sheets growing up and I've heard him talk about them several times- I know he wishes he still had them!  So I did the next best thing and got Liam some NFL sheets.

Also today was my friend Amy's birthday!  We took the kids to Amy's house where the babysitter was and she watched Liam, Malia and Evie for us so we could go have a nice dinner at Blackwell Hitch.  I got a juicy bacon cheeseburger and yummy rosemary fries.  Oh and some sangria.  Yum.

No pictures of the kids today- weird!!

February 21 = Pops Birthday

Today was Pops' birthday!  The kids weren't awake when he had to leave for church but they'd make up for it later.  My brother had texted last night and asked if there was room for two more people in church- there was quite a group of family and friends coming over for birthday festivities.  I knew Matt has been missing the kids- his schedule hasn't been working out to where he can come up so he hasn't seen them since Christmas- so I asked if he'd want to hang out with the kids during church.  The kids have been loving playing outside because it's finally above freezing!  So I thought it would be a good way for he and Grace to get to see the kids.  They brought 34 books for Liam and Malia from the used book store in Mebane.  Here's Grace and Liam at an impromptu story time!

We wanted to get a picture of Matt and Grace with Liam and Malia but that didn't work out- we had to settle for one child at a time:

I'm so upset that I don't have any pictures from any other part of the day because it was such a good day!  We went back to Grandma and Pops' house after church and Zachary's Nana, Aunt Mary and Uncle Tim were there as well as two members of Pops' last church (who I adore), Will and Ron, were there with Will's mom.  The kids napped for most of lunch so we got to enjoy a delicious meal and Liam woke up in time for cake!  There were lots of great conversations and lots of jokes and laughs and love- it was just a great afternoon.  And then Grandma got to spend some more quality time with the kids outside while we got ready to go.  Describing the ride home would taint this otherwise super positive blog post so I'll leave that out- I'll just say Malia hates riding in the car and that we were thrilled to get home.

January 22 = My Birthday!

My family was going to come up this weekend for my birthday but because we are supposed to get 36 inches of snow, we've decided to postpone the celebration.  But I still had a lovely day.  First of all, Zachary had to go in for a little bit this morning but went in super early so he'd be home before the kids got up.  They did wake up before he got home but were content enough in their rooms that I was able to get some stuff done and wait for him to get home before getting them out of their rooms.  And he brought doughnuts!  I got a pink sprinkled one and the kids got blueberry doughnut circles.  So so good! Next, we signed Zachary up for the same membership at the gym that I have- he has had a lower tier membership because his gym time doesn't revolve around classes like mine does but I thought it would be neat for us to do yoga together so we did this morning!  It was a tough class taught by my favorite teacher, Donna, and she said he was a rock star when we left.  Not surprising.  Then we came home a few minutes later, Liam's physical therapist was there to do a session.  At the end of their session, everyone else on his team came over for his 6 month IFSP review.  It was very encouraging- they all said he's making a lot of progress, cognitively, socially, etc.  While we were having the PT session, Zachary left to get me Chickfila for lunch.  He also came home with this:

This is random but I saw this on FaceBook today and it made me laugh and you know how I love sharing things that make me laugh:

Malia and Liam both sampled my Edible Arrangement- I'm not a huge honeydew melon so we started them with that- they were both fans!  I think they liked eating off a stick more than the actual fruit but hey, whatever works.

We made Tex-Mex rice and nachos for dinner- so good.  And we really had a relaxing evening.  It had been snowing since the afternoon and Zachary decided to wait until lots had fallen to take the trash out.  And he decided to take his clothes off.  Don't ask me- I have no clue.

December 19 = Matt's 21st Birthday!

The first part of Matt's birthday celebration was going to La Cocina- yet another place I must go when I come to NC.  Here's Liam walking in with Mimi.  It used to be Grammy but he calls her Mimi so that's what we're going with.

My mom made the same cake for Matt as I did for Zachary a few weeks ago- delicious!

Matt let Liam try on the hat- he was a fan.

Malia got to spend some time with her great aunts, Deanie & Lynn.

After lunch, we went home, got the kids down for naps and relaxed for a little bit before heading to Raleigh for Matt's birthday dinner!  Grace had left after lunch to make him another cake so we met her and her parents and her brother at this cute little restaurant.  She brought sparkling cider and root beer since Matt is not interested in drinking alcohol- what a smart one he is.  

Malia liked the cake!

November 24 = Zachary's Birthday!

Today Zachary turns 28!  I've known him since we were 12- crazy!  So we met him for lunch today and brought chickfila- no birthday is complete in this house without chickfila.  And right after that I headed to target to get some supplies to make him a legitimate cake.  I've never made a cake that involves more than a box, some eggs and some vegetable oil so this was an experiment that I was hoping would go well. 

Here's how the cake turned out; there are 28 strawberries instead of candles :)

Here's the whole dinner spread... we tried this chicken mozzarella pasta a few weeks back and Zachary loved it so he requested it for his birthday.

However- the dinner and the cake, as delicious as they were, were not the highlights of Zachary's day.  I finally gave in and let the man get a dog.  Instead of sitting down and savoring dinner, we ate a few bites between him texting people and me chasing the kids but one of Zachary's dreams came true so it was worth it.  

Meet Daisy!

We had asked the property company to call the owner of our townhouse and ask if we could get a dog and he said no.  So Zachary responded and asked if the property company guy could call the owner again and see if there were any stipulations we could follow.  A couple hours later we got a call from the property manager guy and he said that if we got a dog, the owner would never find out about it as long as we take her away from the house during the two inspections they do a year.  I had told Zachary he could get a dog as long as we had clear permission from Annapolis Property.  I should have said from the owner but he got me so... we got the dog.  Originally I wanted to wait until we moved next because we're planning on buying a house- we wouldn't have to worry so much about breeds and sizes and deposits, etc.  But Zachary had a good point- when we move, he could immediately have to meet a ship on deployment or leave for a deployment soon after we get there so he wouldn't have the opportunity to bond with the dog.  So now they get to bond.  She is such a sweetheart- stay tuned to see how this situation progresses- I have a feeling it's going to be a mix of stressful and rewarding!