December 12 = It's a .... Day

First, Malia was tired during our shopping trip this morning:

Also, Christmas cards have started coming in!!

And the most exciting part of our day is that we went to an ultrasound place and found out we're having a little girl!!  My favorite names are: Addison, Avery, Caitlin and McKenzie... in alphabetical order :)  We ran by Dunkin Donuts and got a pink donut with sprinkles to celebrate!

March 29 = CDC Day

My college roommate came to visit us last night!  She's here until Thursday and I couldn't be happier about it.  Today we went to the gym and then took the kids to the CDC so we could eat lunch and do some shopping sans kids.  We ate at the Breakfast Shoppe- so so good.  And then we went to Target and Home Depot and DSW and Old Navy.  It was so nice to be able to walk around leisurely!  Oh also.  At Home Depot... we went there to get some stuff for our backyard and as we pulled in we saw these two men running through the parking lot with chainsaws.  They jumped in a car and it sped off- like with a getaway driver.  We witnessed the theft of chainsaws from a Home Depot- it was insane.  And thankfully that was the most exciting part of the day.  Alexandra got this picture of the babies holding hands on the way out of the CDC- how sweet!

October 3 = Tattoo Day

So Liam has been in a terrible mood for... a while now.  My wonderful mother-in-law sensed that I needed a break like nobody's business so she offered to come up and watch the kids so that Zachary and I could get away.  We were planning on going to the Navy football game but it was raining so we had breakfast at my favorite, favorite place, The Breakfast Shoppe, where I had a delicious ham, sausage, bacon and cheddar omelet.  And then Zachary had to do some stuff at work but I got to take a nap.  And then we did some shopping and went to dinner and then... Zachary got a tattoo!  This was the before picture... probably would have been better with short sleeves but it was cold!

And the after!

These are the Gaelic astrological signs for me, Liam and Malia- Zachary read that it is common for family members' signs to be joined by the one long center line consistent in each one so that's what he did!  He says it's like carrying his family with him which will be even more significant when we go back on sea duty and he has to leave us from time to time.

September 26 = Shaving Cream Day

Oh man it's been a long time since I've blogged- oops!  I've successfully transitioned Liam out of Cypress Creek so we've got some more time on our hands.  Which means I've got a lot more entertaining to do.  I looked on pinterest and sensory bins kept popping up.  So I did a little shopping and got some popular sensory bin items.  I'm planning on organizing them later but I thought we'd start with letting the kids play with shaving cream.  I can vividly remember being in third grade and my teacher, Ms. Quinn, letting us clean our desks with shaving cream and I loved it!  I was thinking my kids might like it.  Liam hated it.  Malia loved it.

September 19 = New Sippy Cups Day

After being gone last weekend for the marathon, Zachary had duty today so we are definitely looking forward to tomorrow, getting him back, and also next weekend to have a whole weekend together.  We started our day off with breakfast and, of course, some Mickey Mouse.  I'm not proud of it but I'm all about survival right now and that involves Mickey Mouse.  There are worse things.

Then we headed to Target and Carter's and Michaels.  I am on a mission to get this girl off bottles.  I'm tired of the parts.  I've been using bottles for over three years now and it's gotta stop.  Hopefully one or more of these will do the trick. 

It's not looking promising...

July 16 = Malia's First Birthday!

My beautiful girl is one today!  I got Liam up first so he could help me wish Malia a happy birthday but instead, he marched in and started yelling something.  But I sang to her and we came down and had yummy funfetti birthday pancakes!

While she was still eating, I had to get some pictures of the birthday girl in front of her birthday banner!

At one point, she grabbed Zachary's hand and they started playing a game that only she knew the rules to.

Then we headed out to Liam's therapy appointments- it was so fun to have Zachary with us- Malia got to play with all sorts of toys and had so much fun!

Then we headed to Chick-fil-a of course.

When we got home it was nap time and Zachary had to head to work but my dad got to our house right after he left!  We did some (more) last minute shopping for the party and picked up some donuts on the way home- Grammy and Gramps got classic cake donuts, I got a strawberry frosted glazed donut with sprinkles and we got munchkins for the kids!  We all sang happy birthday with Matt and Grace on FaceTime...

.... and then it was time for baths and bed.  This was a very exciting day but I think it'll hit me more that she's one when everyone celebrates together at her birthday party Saturday!

June 14 = Church Day

One of the best parts of visiting Zachary's family is going to church together on Sundays.  One day, it will be awesome to have Liam and Malia sit with us during church but for now it is better for everyone involved if they hang out in the nursery.  When we came to pick Malia up at the end she was doing this:

Later, we went shopping- we tried to find some shoes for Liam that will fit around his little braces but we didn't have a lot of luck.  Grandma found the cutest overalls and a shirt to match for Ms. Malia and we went to toys-r-us to find this broom set for Liam.  He is so cute- always wanting to help whether it be sweeping or putting the dishes in the dishwasher.  So this is a nice clean broom he can use to help!  We gave him the choice between orange and green and he chose green- that's my boy!

I think Liam's second favorite part of coming to Smithfield (the first being spending time with his grandparents of course) is getting to play in the fenced in back yard.  Mo and I were chatting while Liam roamed around:

Then he decided he should join the conversation and had a seat:

Later, Zachary found some bubble and Malia was fascinated!

March 4 = Balloon Day

We did some shopping this morning!  I had a return to make and since I dragged the stroller out, we went into a bunch of different stores just to walk around.  We ended up at Hallmark to get birthday cards for Gramps and while we were checking out, the lady asked Liam if he would like a balloon.  Having people ask your kids if they want something is a tricky business.  We have had so many people ask Liam if he'd like a sticker.  Liam cares nothing about stickers.  So they give him a sticker with the full expectation that he'll be so excited.  He could not care less.  Then that leads me to have to say- oh he'll love it- he's just sleepy or make up something so that they think their gesture is meaningful.  I didn't know what to expect when this lady handed him a balloon but he did get really excited and kept saying "arj arj arj" which is his way of saying orange.  I had this vision of him letting go of the balloon and it slowly floating out of reach and him screaming so I quickly tied it to his stroller for the short walk out to the car.  He played with it the whole way home- it was definitely a hit so thank you Hallmark Lady!

February 7 = Grocery Cart

I remember the first day Liam sat in the grocery cart by himself.  Zachary was gone quite often and so I'd go grocery shopping by myself all the time.  Before he could sit in the grocery cart by himself, I had to put the car seat in the big part of the cart meaning I could only get groceries that would fit in the seat part.  That wasn't a lot.  So when he sat in the seat leaving the big part free for more groceries, it was a good day.  And now Malia has reached that point too!

On a completely unrelated note, Liam thought it would be fun to play with the salt shaker today after dinner.  I had already cleaned up the floor which held most of the salt but snapped this picture real quick to remember how proud of himself he was that he had found something to play with by himself- you can see where he was running his fingers through the salt on the table.  
 

December 15 = MRI Day

When Malia was in the hospital for her seizures, before they discharged us, we had to get a routine x-ray.  When they got the results, there was an abnormality- one doctor said there was a space between two of her ribs on one side.  Another said there was a mass and scared us pretty badly and then a third said that there was extra space between the two sets of ribs.  So we had no clue what was going on but we were glad to be getting an MRI to check out what was going on and get some answers.  I wrote about Liam's MRI experience a bit ago and this one was similar- no milk after 4 a.m. and Zachary and Malia had to be in Bethesda (45 minutes away with no traffic) at 7 a.m.  The anesthesiologist got stuck in traffic and was very, very late.  Zachary spared me from most of the details but they ended up having to put the IV in her head but he said she did pretty well with it.  They told him the same thing they told him with Liam- that when she came back from the scan, they would give her two hours to wake up and if she wasn't awake by then, which she probably wouldn't be, they would have to wake her up to make sure everything was fine.  Like her big brother, Zachary heard her chattering on the way back to the room instead of being knocked out like the doctors expected.  The initial results showed nothing to worry about- who knows how three different doctors had three different opinions and apparently none of them were right.  But we are just thankful everything is fine and that our baby girl is healthy!  While Zachary and Malia were in Bethesda, Liam and I had a normal Monday.  I took him to preschool and got some child free shopping done- much, much easier that way.  Then I picked him up and we had a long overdue Chick-fil-a date, just the two of us!  We came home and he got a nap and Zachary and Malia came home soon after that!

Waiting for the anesthesiologist to get there.

Nothing like a mommy/son Chick-fil-a date

She makes everything look cute!

Resting after a long, tough day with her praying teddy bear they gave her at the hospital