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Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Snow exhausted

I don't know how much snow everyone else got last night, but we woke up this morning with a RIDICULOUS amount of snow outside! The weather person said "you should expect about 2-3 inches in Sheboygan." It ended up being more like FIVE times that amount. 

The weather person needs to look for a new job.

And the best part (sarcasm) is that our snow blower isn't big enough to blow such a crazy amount of snow. So we had to shovel our driveway, turnaround and sidewalks the old fashioned way. Luckily Matt's mom stayed at our house last night, so she watched Liam inside and I could help Matt shovel. And our AWESOME neighbors came over to help as well! 

The edge of our driveway

Standing on our sidewalk, looking south

Looking down our driveway towards the street

Matt laying beneath a 'snow wave' in our neighbor's driveway

Utterly exhausted


How many inches of snow did everyone else have?
Be safe out there :)




Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Birthday boy


We celebrated Liam's 1st birthday this past Saturday. Around 35 family members and friends stopped by our home to share in Liam's big day. Everyone talked, enjoyed drinks and ate a big Italian dinner. Then Liam was spoiled by, what seemed like, a never-ending pile of gifts (lucky little boy)! We sang to him and he enjoyed a gooey cupcake. 

I will let these photos tell the story:

The birthday boy!

I feel so lucky to be his mom.

I love these two guys SO much.

The party was owl themed. I used a lot owl stuff that Liam already had
 for decorations (stuffed owl banner, felt owl picture, owl light, etc)

Our living room, decorated and ready for a party.

I made an owl cake for Liam, made with cupcakes.

Pretzel rod twigs, chocolate wafer cookie feathers and brows, gummy ring eyes.

Liam's party hat.
Family time.

Starting to open gifts.

One lucky boy.

One "1" candle for Liam (and a small white one in memory of my dad's birthday 4 days before)

Being sung to.

A little taste.

Another taste.

Mmmmmn.

The next morning, playing with his cousins Bella & Rylan.
I love when kids are in their jammies!


DAILY SMILES
Things that made me smile last week:

 2.18.13
All three of us uncontrollably giggling at the same time

2.19.13
I relaxed while I got my hair cut and colored

2.20.13
 I got some much needed organization done around the house

2.21.13
We celebrated Liam's first birthday -- lots of things to smile about today!

2.22.13
Liam and I played in the snow

2.23.13
Spent time with some family that I haven't seen in a while

2.24.13
Had fun playing with all of Liam's new toys



 Have a nice week everyone! Stay safe in the snow, if you have snow :)

Thursday, February 21, 2013

Liam's big day


Liam turned 1 year old today!!

I cannot believe it!

I always heard other parents say "once you have children, time just flies by." Wow were they correct! I remember so many details from the last 12 months, yet it seems like such a blur. It really feels like just yesterday we brought him home from the hospital. We were scared, tired and didn't know what to expect.

Fast forward an entire year.

I've been spending every single day (and night, at first) with this little boy. I've been nursing him, playing with him, reading to him, taking him for walks and rocking him to sleep for 365 days!

I can't express how amazing this past year has been. But I will admit, it was a roller coaster at first. It was really hard to adjust to everything. Matt and I were used to "just the two of us" and that changed in an instant, the night Liam was born. I also dealt with some postpartum depression around Liam's 6th month (which I'm not ashamed to admit). But with the wonderful support of my husband and family, we made it through!

Our days are now filled with a new kind of fun and excitement! Liam's first smile, first giggle, first bath, first roll over, first fart, first bruise (okay...the fart and bruise were not exciting). I can't even begin to explain how SO IN LOVE I am with this little human being Matt and I created. It's been so much fun watching him grow into his own little personality. He means the absolute world to me. He is the definition of cool.

I would not trade our little family for anything. Life has changed, but it has changed for the better :)

Liam spent his birthday with me, as usual. This is what we did:


Liam snuggled with me in bed for a while.

We played for a while.

He ate breakfast and demolished a birthday muffin.

I took his 12-month photo, but he was too busy watching Sesame Street to smile.

We got bundled up and headed to story time at the library.

Here are the board books we picked out. I wonder how germy they are.

We went and bought groceries for Liam's party this weekend.

We played some more. We made a little fort under a table.

Big boy lunch. Applesauce, cheese, beans and cheerios.

We lit a candle on a cupcake and sang to him.

He tested out the cupcake.

And enjoyed it thoroughly!

Mmnnnn.


BATH TIME!!

I'll post photos from his party (on Saturday) later this weekend. Have a nice Friday everyone :)

Monday, February 18, 2013

From the kitchen of

I wanted to share a little something that I created last year around this time.

As I mentioned before, last year at this time we were anxiously awaiting the arrival of Liam. I was on leave from work and in full nesting mode. I was doing crazy things around the house, like cleaning the refrigerator, organizing closets and vacuuming the basement. Pregnancy makes people do some crazy sh**!

Matt and I cook a lot, and I had come across a huge stack of recipes that had been ripped out of magazines, printed off of the web and copied onto little pieces of paper from cookbooks. I decided to cut the recipes out nicely, glue them onto recipe cards and make a filing system for them. Holy smokes was I motivated!

A while back I had bought an old wooden box for $10 at a local antique barn. And I had a stack of recipe cards sitting around that I had bought years prior. The recipe cards just so happened to fit perfectly inside the wooden box! So I went to Office Max and bought some sticky tags to write "Cookies" and "Soups" on.




If the recipe had a photo with it, I made sure to include it on the card
If there wasn't enough room for the photo on the front....
.....I glued it onto the back
There's plenty of room to add more recipes over the years



DAILY SMILES
Things that made me smile this week:

2.11.13
I enjoyed a hot bath and a People magazine

2.12.13
We went for a quick, cold, icy walk around our neighborhood

2.13.13
Liam had a play date with three of his friends

2.14.13
I ran into an old college friend/roommate at the library

2.15.13
I watched Liam giggle while swimming with Matt

2.16.13
We all had fun at a birthday party

2.17.13
I went shopping with my mom

And last but not least, a cute photo from last week:

Liam having a fun play date with his friends!

Thursday, February 14, 2013

Fluffy kids

 Marlee pop art

This entry is a shout out (or a "meow out") to our cats, Jack and Marlee. They are brother & sister and they're five years old today! 

There's not a day that goes by I'm not thankful we adopted them. 

Jack puts his butt on my pillow, Marlee drinks out of my water glass and their duo litter box stinks up our basement. But I still love them. They've brought endless smiles to our faces over the years.

Marlee is the quiet, reserved one. Sleep is her favorite thing in the world. If cat food didn't exist I'm pretty sure she'd never leave her kitty pillow. She'll get up from sleeping, eat, poop and go back to sleep. On occasion she'll get feisty and want to play. But it's usually short lived. She's also the brave one. She's unafraid of Liam's erratic hands. She snuck outside once for half a day and just sat by our back window and meowed.

So serious

I love her eyes


Jack is the crazy one. He's so, so playful. Rambunctious. Energetic. He'd rather chase a toy around than sleep. He loves being naughty and beats up on Marlee. He's a neat-freak. He loves licking popsicles (weird, I know). He's also a scaredy-cat. He startles easily and is "kind of a pussy (cat)" Matt says. But he's also the sweetest and most loving cat around. He loves snuggling with Marlee and with me. He sleeps wrapped in my arms most of the night (sorry Matt). He's a lover, as you can tell by this photo:


Snuggling

 We love you Jack and Marlee. Happy birthday to our fluffy kids!

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Heart art


Last year around this time we thought that maybe Liam was going to be born on or around Valentine's Day. We were busy packing our hospital bags, finishing up the nursery and nervous about the arrival of a new baby. Making Valentine's Day cards was the absolute last thing on our minds.

Fast forward a year, and Liam's here! 

I thought it'd be cute for our little guy to make the Valentine's this year (with a little bit of help from mom and dad). So I typed "handprint valentines" into Google Images and found this great idea:

We used pink and white acrylic paint & red card stock paper.
I poured the paint into little paper plates, ready for dipping Liam's hands.
This was a two-parent project! Matt held Liam while I helped him press his hand down.
We dipped one of his hands in pink paint and stamped the paper.
Then dipped his other hand in white, forming a heart shape.
We cut them into hearts.
And wrote little messages of love.
I know that Valentine's day is a Hallmark Holiday and Matt & I don't even celebrate it ourselves. But I thought it'd be fun for Liam to send some love to his grandparents and cousins.

Did anyone else make home made Valentine's this year? How'd you make them?