Minnesota Thanksgiving Trip

The past couple of weeks have been crazy. And not just kind of crazy, really crazy. It seems like we've been busy every single minute! And it doesn't look like it's going to slow down anytime soon. Although we were in Irving for Thanksgiving, we decided to take a quick spin to Minnesota to visit my family before Thanksgiving. We flew out on Friday night and came back on Tuesday night. We saw lots of family, ate lots of food, and had lots of fun. And, by the way, I can't believe I didn't take any pictures on Thanksgiving...guess I was too busy stuffing my face. We had a really nice week off of school and are looking forward to Christmas break when we get two more weeks off!

Here's Liam with Great-Grandma and Great-Uncle David.

Playing football with the guys.

Liam likes to wear his winter hat!

Liam's a big fan of Aunt Debby.

Great-Aunt Peggy came to visit.

And Great-Uncle Mark brought popcorn ball!

Liam was addicted to them.

And so was Uncle Patrick.

19 Facts for 19 Months

In honor of our little guy turning 19 months old today, here are nineteen little facts about our Liam:

1. Liam loves to call out letters that contestants have just asked for when were watching Wheel of Fortune.
2. Lately, Liam has turned into quite an acrobat and has nearly perfected the summer sault.
3. Every day when we get home, he runs to the sink to get his hands washed with yummy smelling soap and then makes a big production of sniffing his hands and offering them to anyone else around to take a whiff.
4. Liam’s favorite fast food restaurant is Sonic. He especially likes the grilled cheese, tator tots, and ice cream.
5. When we’re driving in the car, Liam jams out to Daddy’s music by rocking his head back and forth and kicking his legs to the beat.
6. On an additional musical note, Liam loves U2. This is a puzzling fact for Jon and me since we never intentionally listen to U2.
7. In his 19 months, Liam has already accumulated around 14,000 miles of airplane travel. And he’ll be adding on 1900 miles more next week.
8. Cutting Liam’s nails is like torture for both Mama and Liam. He is not a happy camper when he’s about to be declawed.
9. Liam has a little lamb he calls “Sheepy” and a big dog that he called “Doggy” that he sleeps with every night.
10. When we say prayers at night, Liam’s favorite part is “Amen!” He folds his little hands, Jon and I say prayers with him, and his “Amen,” with a nod of the head for emphasis, is always the most robust.
11. I know I can always get a smile and almost always a giggle when I take off Liam’s shoes and socks, smell his feet, and say, “Phewwwy!” He loves it. And his feet really don’t even stink.
12. Liam loves parks. He calls swings and slides “wees.”
13. Liam hates wearing baseball hats, but he loves baseball.
14. The boy is obsessed with vacuums. Weird, but true.
15. Liam pulls out wet-wipes from his diaper box and helps us “clean” tables, chairs, vents, etc.
16. Every morning, Liam eats a bowl of oatmeal.
17. When Liam is riding in the stroller, he likes to hold Mama’s hand.
18. Liam’s bedtime is 7:00.
19. Liam gives high-fives and hugs every morning when he arrives at daycare.

Nothing Followed by Steak

We had a day filled-to-the-brim of doing absolutely nothing. And it felt great. And Jon and I both agreed that we should do it much more often. Actually plan days of doing nothing. I think we will. Besides going grocery shopping and a quick trip to Target, we had a day at home where we moved from room to room and did NOTHING. What a lovely way to spend a day, don't you agree?

Tonight, instead of going out to eat, Jon and I had a late (meaning after 7:00) dinner after Liam went to bed. Jon.Made.The.Best.Steaks.Ever. Boy, that man can cook a steak! We crumbled blue cheese on top of each and served them with a side of roasted garlic and cheddar mashed potatoes, steamed green beans, and crusty french sour dough bread. By the way, we also agreed that blue cheese will be an addition staple in our kitchen. And dessert was also delicious...chocolate cake with cookies and cream frosting. It's good Liam was fast asleep and had no idea what he was missing. He probably would have felt jipped by having to settle for a grilled cheese sandwich, yogurt, and green beans for his dinner.

Thankful

When times are good and we are coasting along smoothly through life, it’s easy to just go with the flow and not see the hurt and hardships that others around us may be experiencing. I’m reading a book for my book club called A Thousand Splendid Suns, and I’m totally sucked in. In fact, last night Jon was watching sports (maybe basketball, but could have been baseball) on one end of the couch and I was reading on the other. Every so often he would say something to me, and I would look up at him from the pages of the book and just nod or say “Wow” or “Really?” Sorry, Jon. You know I love you. Anyway, back to the book. It’s the story of the trials two Afghan women endure in their war-torn city of Kabul, and last night the Taliban came into power and made life absolutely miserable for women. They literally seemed to have no hope. It got me thinking about how good we really have it in America, even with health care issues and a bad economy right now. More specifically, God is so good to me, but so many times, I still through little pity parties for myself. Now, in all honesty, that’s probably not going to change anytime soon, but when I went to bed last night I couldn’t help but feel so thankful for the blessings that surround me everyday—a steadfast and healthy family, a secure roof over our heads, plenty of food and water, good jobs, and the promise and presence of Jesus through whatever life has in store for us.

Candy Dream Land

When I picked Liam up from daycare yesterday afternoon, Brenda told me that while he was napping, he had the biggest grin on his face…eyes closed and just smiling away. She said she wondered what he was dreaming about. I thought for a minute and told her that he was probably dreaming about candy. For the past week, he’s really been into the sweet stuff, especially M&M's. Whenever we get home, he points to the kitchen counter where we keep the candy and hollers, “Canny, Canny!” It could be because Grandpa was slipping him lollipops and chocolate all weekend. I'm sure it's not because Jon and I have indulged his sweet tooth for the sake of not wanted to deprive our little guy of the candy fun of Halloween.  I hate to break it to Liam, but once the Halloween candy runs out, it won’t be as easy for him to get his sugar fix.

Here's a sleeping Liam from this summer.  He probably wasn't dreaming about candy in this shot.

Houston Halloween

We had a really memorable Halloween this year. My parents and little brother, Patrick, came to visit Debby and Jeff in Houston, so we took off on Friday afternoon and headed down to H-Town to join the party. Debby and Jeff live in a neighborhood that is perfect for trick-or-treating, and the kids are bussed in to take advantage of this. We took Liam out for his very first trick-or-treating up and down their street and visited about ten houses. He loved all the candy, and I think next year, we'll be hitting the pavement pretty hard. Since he's still little, we came home early to help pass out candy. And, let me tell you, the kiddos (both big and small) came. We had almost 200 trick-or-treaters, and in addition to the four initial big bowls of candy, Jeff and my dad had to make an extra candy trip to the store. The last time the door bell rang was at 9:15. We also carved pumpkins and roasted the seeds. And somewhere in between the boys made a run to Sonic for drinks and 50 cent corn dogs. It was a fun night spent enjoying each other and the little ghost and goblins that knocked on the door.