April 15 = T-shirt Making Day

Zachary took today off meaning I got to sleep in and was woken up by a little Malia.  She came in and attacked with her two pacis in her mouth.

My favorite facebook post of the day:

We went to the gym this morning.  They do not do this for me.  When I am by myself with them, Liam runs to the door, Malia sits on the floor and refuses to go.  I have to run after Liam to ensure he doesn't get to the door and then drag him back to find Malia.  It's a daily disaster but the two hours of childcare I get make it all worth it!  Anyway- when Zachary comes along, they behave so well and I get to take pictures like these:

Later, I got to work on t-shirts for the marathon.  The front has an abbreviated version of the beginning of Hebrews chapter 12.  Joey was supervising:

I came upstairs from painting- Zachary kept the kids upstairs so I could make the tshirts without guarding them from little feet and hands- and saw this precious sight.  

And Liam was in his own world:

And here's my other favorite facebook post from the day.

May 10 = Mother's Day!

So I left a cliff hanger on yesterday's post- I know you were sitting on the edge of your seat wondering what Zachary was doing.  Well he made us a wonderful Mother's Day dinner- barbecue chicken with veggies and even made some sangria.  There were flowers and a new pretty pitcher for our homemade sangria and he set everything and everyone up outside on our new patio- it was such a nice dinner that we shared together.

And after dinner, we put both kids in their own umbrella stroller and went for a little stroll.  The kids were so cute wanting to talk to each other and interact- it melted my heart!

And on our way back, we checked the mail and my Mother's Day present had arrived!  A necklace with two charms- an L and an M for my two babies

So it was a wonderful day and I still had actual Mother's Day to look forward to!  Zachary prepared breakfast for all of us- taters 'n' eggs, chocolate chip pancakes and bacon- and I got to read my cards Zachary and Liam picked out for me- Malia trusted them to make good choices.

Then we got everyone dressed and ready and headed to Home Depot to get stuff to make a vegetable garden- I had done some research but we kinda just winged it once we got there- I knew I wanted squash, green beans and cucumbers but there was a packet of four seeds with the three I wanted and some lettuce so we went with that and got two garden beds and soil.  The babies were so good and continued loving this umbrella strollers side by side situation.

Then we headed to Chili's for lunch.  I had been craving some chips & salsa.  Malia was ready to sleep.

 I got a picture with my favorite toddler:

The service was horrendous.  I won't bore you with details but just know it was bad.  But the chips & salsa were good and spending time with my little family was perfect so we didn't really care.  The table behind us was complaining to the manager and Zachary had a lot of fun acting really obnoxious and saying "Yeah!  Us too!"  He just likes causing a scene- he wasn't mad but he had fun acting like he was.

Then we went home and had a pretty low key evening- I put Liam to bed while Zachary was working on something and he sat in my lap while I read him books.  I had him lay in bed and told him goodnight and we said our prayers and then I left... I didn't really want to but it was time for him to go to sleep.  Now he usually takes his time going to sleep- he chats with Gigi, climbs on the window sill, pretends his beds are part of an obstacle course... but tonight it didn't seem like he was going to go to sleep on his own so I happily went back up there with a drink and he sat in my lap again and let me hold him and I just rocked him back and forth while we were sitting on the floor.  This is a very rare opportunity for me so I took it and when he couldn't keep his eyes open anymore I laid him back in bed.  Him saying "mama" the day before was probably my favorite part of this Mother's day weekend but this was a close second. 

May 9 = Yard Work Day

Oh my goodness!  For the first time in a long time, I am writing a blog post about the day that is actually occurring.  This morning I woke up at 7 which is early for me and Zachary was playing a game on his phone.  For some reason, every April, this boy starts not being able to sleep.  So I got up and came downstairs and while I was messing on the computer he prepared this for me:
 

And then we slowly got the kids dressed and ready and fed and we headed to Home Depot.  The back yard that we inherited was bad.  Really bad.  We're not trying to have the best backyard in the world but we would like to be able to have the kids play outside every once in a while so in order to do that, we've got to get to work.  Liam was really excited about the trip:

Good thing the backseats of our minivan fold down:

This is the starting picture of our backyard.  Now this is after we put hours into cleaning it up.  I wish I had a picture of what it looked like before we got to it- when we moved in.  You'd be impressed with this picture.

While Zachary worked on his project- making a new patio- I got Liam's sandbox that Grammy & Gramps sent to us all ready for him.

 He was a little unsure at first:

 But he warmed up pretty quickly.

While we were lounging in the sandbox, Daddy was hard at work.  Also, Malia was taking a nap- didn't want you to think we forgot about her.

But in addition to today being yard work day, it was also one of my favorite days ever.  I went to get Liam and some toys for the sandbox and I let him go down the stairs by himself- he's quite good at it.  Side note: He's started saying "good job" and recognizing himself- it's the cutest.  I was putting the toys in the box and he was continuing his way down the stairs and Zachary asked him if he was gonna play in the sandbox with mama.  And he said it. "Mama,"  "Mama," "Maaaaaaaama" and tears instantly filled my eyes.  I've been waiting over two years to hear that sound.  I thought soon after he
 said "dada," "mama" would follow but it didn't.  In his yearly photo books I do, I write a message at the end.  When I wrote the note in the back of his book celebrating his first birthday I wrote that I was looking forward to hearing him say "mama."  In the book celebrating his second birthday I reiterated my excitement and now that day has come.  It may sound silly to get so excited but there's just something about hearing him call my name that melts my heart.  A couple hours later he saw a magnet on the refrigerator- it's a picture of the three of us- Malia wasn't around yet- and he pointed to me in the picture and said "mama," proving it wasn't a fluke.  

Well Zachary left while I was blogging- took both kids- and got something else for me- I don't know what it is yet but he's cooking dinner now and I have a feeling it has something to do with our new and improved backyard... we shall see!

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.