Anyone out there?

So at first Liam was such an easy baby, and still is for the most part. Yet the last few days he's turned our world upside down...between eating more, screaming more, not happy unless he's held (which I can't always do) it's been a real nail biter these last few days. My prayers often start with "Dear Heavenly Father, I'm sorry I'm praying (while on the toilet/while doing dishes/while doing laundry) ag...ain, but it's my only time to think! And here's what I've been thinking...I don't think I'm as good at this as other moms I know..." We're all trying our best to adapt, using humor all along the way. My favorite quote from today? At one point this evening, after the baby was changed, fed, rocked, kissed, etc. Sean turns to me and says "Just growl at him-establish your dominance." I laughed so hard I couldn't breathe. That's why I married him :) I suppose I'm sharing this all because I'm clinging to the belief that I'm not the only one whose swallowed up and lost in the middle of this new baby/sassy independent toddler/barely keeping up with housework (let alone my sanity) stage of life. So I just want to take a quick moment to say "Hello world. Is there anyone else out there?"

March Photos

I'm a big believer that a photo is worth a thousand words, and here are some photos from our month that capture the joy that we've been sharing in our home; with these two little kiddos bringing so many smiles to our faces. Enjoy!



I walked into the livingroom, and Tara said "Shhh...I'm reading to Liam." How cute is that?!?


Our little man...I love the way he looks at me :)





Tara and Liam just cuddling on the couch before bed.





He adORES his sister. Whenever she kisses him, it elicits a sweet little smile, and when he hears her voice; he turns his head towards her. It's amazing to see how deep the connection is already between the two of them...


Totally posed-but super cute. I just couldn't resist...


Tiny little hands...


Ten cute little toes...



AAAhhhh...yep. We make cute babies :)

Valentine's Day fun with Mr. Martindale...

So a friend of ours who's an amazing photographer (Kristen Moss Photography) had a great deal going on fun couples photos for Valentine's Day. She was great! She took care of the chocolate covered strawberries (and other yummy romantic desserts), the long stem glasses, the location, and some amazingly romantic photos :) We had a blast-and between her efforts, and some smooth moves on Sean's part; it was the best Valentine's Day we've had since we got married! Here are some of the photos:

Baby photos-as promised!

How smart IS this girl?

So a couple of hours ago, Tara was tossing around her little nerf football; and said to me "I want to play with this at the playground." I told her that it was cold, and that Liam was still too little to take outside quite yet. She looked at me and said "I know, he's tiny. You stay here with little Liam, and daddy and me will go to the playground." (So funny!) I called Sean at work to inform him that little miss had plans for him once he got home...

Baby Liam's Hungry!

Oh my gosh! Liam's been sleeping, and Tara and I just heard him wake up and start crying. Tara immediately jumps up and says "I go check him mommy, I make sure he's okay: I go get the baby." When she got in there, I heard her say "It's okay baby Liam, I'm here, it's okay now." Then I heard her say "I go tell mommy what you need." She came out, and said "Mommy! Baby Liam's hungry!" She went back in and said "Liam, I told mommy you were hungry." Haha This is all in less than a minute and I half, while I was finishing up a task; and headed in there! She's so stinkin cute :)

Grateful...

I know it's been quite a while since I posted last, and I have some catching up to do; but I wanted to write this morning because my heart is so full. I'm incredibly grateful for two healthy, happy, active children. Liam is already showing off a bit of his personality, before he's even here. It seems like he's constantly moving, and he responds so well to stimuli. I love feeling his movements, it's one of the more precious experiences of pregnancy.

Since we're leaving town for christmas, Sean and I decided to do an early celebration for our family; and open our stockings and presents to each other early. Some number of months ago, Tara and I were reading one of her books. I was helping her correctly pronounce the words soccer ball. When she finally mastered it, a lightbulb went on; and she was SO proud of herself for saying it correctly. She started saying "Mommy! Watch this!" I'd look over at her, and she'd carefully say "So-ccer ball. Yay Tara!!!" She'd get a huge grin on her face :) This then developed into a quick understanding of the concept of what a soccer ball is, and what you do with one. She started taking those regular rubber balls that she has, and pretending they were soccer balls; kicking them around. So it was apparent to us, that we had to get her a soccer ball. She opened it last night, and immediately started kicking it around; and she was so controlled with her kicks>there was no doubt in our minds that we had to get this girl into soccer practice when she's older! She looked like she'd been playing for a long time! I'm just so grateful for how active Tara is, with her imagination and with her body.

I'm grateful for my family, I'm so blessed to have such amazing kids; and the sweetest man on the face of the planet as my husband. He always impressed me with his love for our Savior, and for our Father in Heaven. He's always been such a great example of how we should be living our lives; and his desires are so pure. I love him with all my heart, and words can not express how much he touches my heart on a daily basis. I'm thankful for the sweet little family we've created together, and can't wait to meet this little boy...I hope everyone has a great holiday season, and can remember and be touched by our Savior's birth; and what it means for us. I pray everyone can spend lots of time with family, and we'll see you all when we get back!

Let's Talk Turkey...

We had such a fantastic Thanksgiving this year! It was special, because it was our very first time making our own thanksgiving dinner; and it turned out great! We were going to have our good friend Rachel and her kiddos over to join us, but unfortunately they all ended up being too sick to come. So it was the three of us, and we had a blast! Sean and Tara watched part of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, and Tara loved it :) She got really excited about the floats, and the songs, and the dancing. Then later in the day, the house filled with the smell of turkey...Mmm. About a week ago, Sean was expressing to me how excited he was to finally be able to cook us a thanksgiving dinner; and he did an amazing job! It was such a sensory experience...when Sean pulled the turkey out of the oven, and popped the rolls in; the house filled with the incredible aroma of home made dinner rolls. Then when they were done, and and put the yams in to cook; the house smelled like sugar cookies for some reason! I think it was the marshmallows...hehe. But we ended up making the turkey, and ALL the fixings! I made a couple of favorite dishes, Sean did the bulk of the cooking though-and all credit must go to him :) He did the turkey, potatoes, stuffing, yams, gravy, potatoes, rolls, etc. I informed him that he's in charge of doing the turkey every year, and that his candied yams were the best I'd ever had (he threw in a secret ingredient that I never would have though of-it makes all the difference!) But we thoroughly enjoyed the day as a family, and had so much fun with each other. Seeing Tara enjoy it all was so rewarding. We ended up eating a bit later than we had planned, so by the time we were ready to eat, Tara was famished! We set the basket of rolls on the table, and went into the kitchen to get the rest of the food, and by the time we walked back in; Tara was already halfway through devouring a homemade roll :) And she apparently LOVES cranberry sauce! We served her some, and before we could pray, she had reached over and served herself another big spoonful! Then during the prayer, I saw her sneak yet another heaping spoonful of it, and I heard her say "Mmm!" lol What a funny girl...So all in all, it was a wonderful thanksgiving; and we're already looking forward to next year-and anticipating how things will go with Tara being three and a half, and our new baby being a whopping 8 months old at that point! But I believe we'll be making the parade a family tradition :)

"I did share!"

So for the last couple months, Tara's been so proud of herself whenever she shares something. If she hands you one of her toys, or colored pencils, or a book...she'll cock her head to the left or right, get a big grin on her face, and say "I did share!" And she says it in the sweetest little voice...it's the most precious thing ever :)

She's also very aware of when other people share, and loves to point it out. So these last few weeks if I do anything from hand her an apple slice, to giving her the book she asked for; she'll cock her head and say "You shared!" Oh my gosh how sweet is she???

Sean and I can't help but have our hearts just melt when we hear that!

YAAAAAY TARA!!!!!

So for months and months now, we've been working on Tara learning her alphabet, numbers, shapes, etc. She's got it down pretty well for the most part. A lot of her favorite activities include counting EVERYthing in sight, telling us what color everything is, and what shape they are. It's so fun :) For her 2nd birthday, we even bought her the Vtech Alphabet Apple, and it's one of her favorite toys. It's helped her learn the alphabet at an even faster rate. I just thought we had a ways to go until the point when she could stand there and recite the entire alphabet.

Yesterday-she (once again) took me by surprise. Sean was due home from work any moment, and Tara was playing with her toys in the livingroom. All of a sudden, I look up at her because I hear her saying "L, M, N, O, P..." I think I may have stopped breathing for a moment or two while she said that! She continued "Q, R, S, T..." At this point I screamed in delight-so excited that I was hearing this :) She had this humongous grin on her face as she went on "U, W, X, Y, and Z! I did it!!! Where's my apple?!?" I started clapping, and telling her how proud I was of her. It was so cute! I thought is was hilarious how when she was done she immediately wanted her Alphabet Apple...hehe. I was SO proud of her! I also thought it was adorable how she skipped "V", and the first part of the alphabet-but we'll get there.

My baby's learning so much!

"Dress?"

So last night Tara sure shocked us again into realizing that she is growing up, whether we're ready or not. I had been in the kitchen making blackberry syrup out of some of the fresh blackberries we had picked as a family. Tara and Sean were in the livingroom playing. I was focusing on what I was doing, but also recognized that for the past couple of minutes I'd heard her saying "Dress?" "Dress?" Then Sean says to me "Honey-she keeps asking for a dress! What should I do?" I said "Get her a dress, I suppose.." It was just minutes away from her bedtime, but I didn't see why I couldn't let her play dress up real quick while I finished the syrup. So I go into her closet, and retrieved one of her dresses. I walked into the livingroom and handed Tara the dress, and she said "Thank you!" Our bedroom isn't far from the livingroom, and she promptly walked over to our bedroom, opened the door, and walked in. She then turned around and said "I get dressed" and then shut the door! We started laughing at how cute she was. She opened the door a couple moments later, and said "Mommy help!" She was struggling with removing her shirt, and was a bit distraught. I motioned for her to come into the kitchen so I could help her-and she looked at me like I was crazy. She emphatically said "No...Daddy will see!" She was shy, and wanted her privacy! She'd never cared before! It was so darling, and it was so hard for Sean and I to stifle the laughter...I walked into our bedroom, and she ended up needing help turning on the light in the bedroom since she can't reach, and she also needed help removing her shirt. So after I turned on the light, and got her shirt off, I asked her if she wanted help getting the dress on; and she said "No. I got it." So I left. She came out a couple minutes later, and she had put the dress on...just not all the way. The sleeves to the dress were rolled under into the top of the dress, and because of that the dress wasn't hanging correctly on her body. Due to this all, she walked out looking like she was wearing a strapless dress, that only hit mid-thigh. But boy-she was SO incredibly proud of herself for doing it all by herself! We told her "Good job Tara!" She was so cute!!!


*sigh*


When did she grow up?

First baseball game as a family!

So last night we saw our first Ems game together-and we had a blast. Sean had been dying to take her to a baseball game for some time, and he was SO happy to finally be able to do it. He had called me earlier that week from work to tell me that his boss had given him two tickets to the ems game that following saturday, and kids under 3 (I think) are free. So we went, and had a great time. We had awesome seats, the ems won, and Tara lasted through 5 innings before getting wiggly. A woman at the entrance had given her a balloon that she had attached to the gate, and Tara didn't let go of it the whole time! Tara really got into it, clapping and yelling when everyone else did; screaming "Yay!" every so often...it was so cute! And it was SO nice to see how happy Sean was, finally having brought his little girl to a baseball game; a small dream come true. Minor league or not, it was a ton of fun for our family. And a plus for prego here? There was a heavenly cool breeze blowing the whole time, so despite hormone-induced body heat; I was feelin great! Here are some of the pictures we took...






There she is with her balloon, holding on for dear life :)



We've got one happy daddy...



Haha She got a little sleepy towards the end of the 5th inning.



There she is munching on snacks and watching the game-just like everyone else! lol



The mascot was hilarious! Most of the stunts he pulled had me laughing so hard I almost cried!



Aww....daddy-daughter bonding moment :)







She crashed on the way home-clutching her balloon...

Lane County Fair!

So since we got married, Sean and I haven't been able to go to the fair each year. This year we finally made it, and it was Tara's first fair experience. She loved it! We went with Rachel, Olivia, and Mason-and we all had a blast. We looked at some of the exhibits, we looked at the animals, the kids all went on a few rides; and we ate yummy fair food. I was a little bummed, because I've always gone for the rides & the food. I've never been one for the exhibits, seen the animals already, let's hit the rides! I couldn't go on even one, because "No expectant mothers allowed." Bummer? Kind of-but I'm getting a really cute baby out of the deal :) So next year...Plus this year was so special because when the whole experience is centered around your child, and making sure they have a special experience-it's a whole other world at the fair. When you look at every sight, sound, and smell through a toddlers eyes-it's like seeing everything for the first time. So taking her was such a special experience, and I got a bit teary with her first fair ride ever. And the second, and the third...it was all so new! And fun. Okay, enough blabbering-bring on the photos, right? Okay:






I absolutely LOVE the look on her face!!!




They had these areas set aside for the little kids to play in, and one of Tara's favorites was where the whole area was set on a floor completely made up of corn kernels. Tara loved scooping them into the bucket, and pouring them back out. She did this over and over for minutes on end, huge smile each time :)







She got to see a real live rooster crow! So far they've only been in books. How exciting!















































First they went on the boat ride. They had a great time, and the joy on Tara's face was unmistakable! She couldn't contain her excitement!!!



"Mom, Dad! This is so fun!!!"



For heaven's sake-would you look at that expression? Priceless!




Next they went on a car ride-and they were in control of it this time ;)



Tara and Mason







Look at that grin on her face!



Next they went on the New York Fire Brigade. How fun! She loved it-and she never got scared!








Look at that! I was nervous for her-unnecessarily it turns out :)







Daddy greeting her at the end of the ride :)



She got to eat cotton candy for the first time!



Later that night, once we got home-she crashed hard once she actually crawled in bed! She was hyped up for a while afterwards though, and was telling us all about what she saw and did, even once we got home :) It was so cute...




So it was a great experience-can't wait till next year!