Liam's first day at his new preschool, the potty, and projects

Today was Liam's first day at his new preschool.  Today was "get acquainted hour".  Last week we had a meet the teacher meeting and Liam got to meet his teacher, Mrs. Fenwick and her assistant Ms. Joetta.  They are both really nice and have to be saints and full of patience to do what they do.  Liam went right in and started playing and when I came back to get him they said he did great!  The only time he got a little sad was when some of the other kids started crying really hard it just scared him. All and all it was a great little hour!


Liam is in the 2 year old class.  Even though he doesn't turn 2 until 10/31/11, they said he was close enough and would be fine.    Some of the kids in his class are potty trained and some aren't. As a mom, I was relieved to know they weren't going to be potty nazi's and they would help him get there at his own pace.  He has been going on the potty periodically since about 18 months old.  I might be holding him back, but I don't want to force him to potty train.  He will go if I sit him on the potty, but some days he isn't really that interested and would rather scamp around an play.  He usual goes 3-4 times a day and more if I keep on him.


Since he was a tiny baby, Liam has always been what I call a self starter/doer.  He kinda does things when he is ready.  It's been that way with sitting up, walking, crawling, talking, etc.  He just decides one day it's time to make the next milestone and does it.  There's never been a gradual build up.  I know that may sound crazy, but it's just Liam.  I just think he isn't going to do things until he is ready.   Hopefully with him going to school and us working on potty training he will be completely potty trained in no time.   


Next Monday, will be his first full day.  We will see how it goes. Here are some photos I took today after we got home from school.  Hope you enjoy!!

I love this picture! He was being a good sport and sitting still.....notice the creeper in the window...Steve, our dog was checking out what was going on...

For all of you who know me well, you know I love to "craft" as I call it.  My definition encompasses a variety of "crafts".  Sewing, constructing, painting, etc.  I have been working on some things for Liam's room....

Mission: Find an adorable yet affordable rug for Liam....I like it, but not sure if it's too much blue? 

I bought these shutters for $5, bought a paint  sample for  $2.50 , and then some hooks for less than $10 and waaalaaa a little place Liam can hang his things.

The next little thing I did was bough the "L" from hobby lobby, used the same paint sample and  for less than $10 it was done.

My next project is curtains...I was thinking a white and tan horizontal stripe??

This is Liam's memento board.  Each piece is a special memory or gift.  For example the St. Christopher metal is Liam's Great Great Grandpa Gus's, the rosary was a gift from my friend Leah, she brought it back from her honeymoon in Paris. 

The little "L" corner

I think it has enough blue and now needs some other colors.  I am hoping the white and tan curtains will help break up the blue.  Any suggestions or ideas are welcome!! Hope you enjoyed reading!!

Best bike ever!!

I have been wanting a particular bike for a long time.  I really love the old style beach cruiser bikes with the basket on the front.  I didn't want to buy anything before we moved home because I didn't have the room, but now that we are back I had planned on buying one.  I was at Walmart the other day with my mom and Liam and I showed her the bike and we looked at little power wheels cars for Liam and just looked around.  I called my mom and asked her if I could borrow her or my dad's vehicles to get the bike, she said she had planned on getting it for me for my birthday so could she just go and get it and it would be an early birthday present.  She was wanting to surprise me but I obviously didn't know about it and so I kinda ruined the surprise but it all worked out in the end!! She brought it over and of course she couldn't resist getting Liam something too.. so she got him a tricycle.  I was so excited when she pulled up, I seriously felt like I was about 5-6 years old on Christmas morning!! We put together the child carrier and put it on the back, put the basket on. After sweating to death in the garage and getting that all together, we put Liam's helmet on and went for a ride!!!

Liam and I absolutely love it!!! We went for a ride this morning and it was so nice.  We rode down to one of my favorite new stores and looked in the windows because it wasn't open yet.  The fun thing is, so many other people in the neighborhood have them.  Sometimes there are so many people on them riding by, it looks like we went back in time to the 1950s.  I LOVE it!!!! I am pretty sure Jake is getting the fever because this morning I sat down at the computer and this was pulled up on the screen......
Jake's bike

I think he might just need one for his birthday!!!  Here are some pictures.....

I forgot to post a picture of the front of our house on yesterdays post

The corner we live on

Liam's new ride from Nonnie!!

There she is, in all her glory!!

Liam's helmet!! So cute!!

LOVE IT!!! Slightly obsessed, can you tell?

Happy reading!!! 

Keen eyeballs, Carl and Dominic and the caterpillars

This week, September 1st,  is when Jake officially purchased the optometry practice and everything became his.  I am so excited for him and don't doubt that he will put every ounce of effort he has into making this practice a great one.  I knew that he was nervous about it being his first day. I also knew he wouldn't want me to show up with balloons and a clown but, I really wanted to do something and I wanted to take pictures of him that day too.  I decided cookies would be a good start!! It's mostly women that work there and what woman doesn't love chocolate or peanut butter and cookies so I figured they would enjoy them.  Everyone that works there has been really nice.  I took a few photos of Jake and of course Liam too.  Here are some of them...

Amber, Beth, and Jake

Some little wild boy who was ready for a nap

He lost his contact and couldn't find it... : )

The inside of the optical

Liam giving Jake an exam

Which one is better? One or two?

I think one was better

Yay!!! After 8 years of undergrad and optometry school !!! Finally his name is on the wall!!

Carl and Dominic are the newest additions to our family. My mom, Nonnie, bought him to goldfish of his very own.  He really likes them and loves to show everyone when they come over to the house! He likes to tell you what a fish says, he opens and closes his mouth like a little guppy!  After much deliberation, I thought I would let him keep them in his room.  So far he has done really well and leaves them alone.  He likes to tell them goodnight when he goes to bed and he points on the tank where they are but so far, knock on wood he hasn't tried to mess with the lid or light or anything else.  Here's some photos of the dynamic duo!!!

Carl is on top and Dominic is on bottom

Dominic and the cute little sign

Carl and Dominic usually have some little figurines that hang out by them.  There is a story behind them I will tell.  I have always loved meerkats! I just think they are super cute and love that they live in little colonies!! One day, right after we moved back, Liam and I were in Rural King get some yard stuff and we went by these little animal figurines.  They had every animal you could imagine! Cows, zebras, elephants, hippos, etc. Well, Liam got to pick one and he chose the meerkat! You could imagine I was very excited he did!!!  A few weeks later we went to see Jake in the mall. We took Liam to the candy store and they sold those animals too.  Jake saw this little meerkat family and showed it to me and we had to get it for Liam.  So now that you know the story behind why we have random meerkats by Carl and Dominics tank it might be a little less puzzling.  Here is "meery" and his family!!

The first few days Liam had "meery" he carried him everywhere and I am really shocked that he hasn't lost one or both of them.  We always randomly ask him where meery or his family are and he sometimes knows right where they are or puts his up and looks puzzled and says "dun no".


Another new addition to our family was the caterpillars.  One of the first days we were in our new house, we were clearing away vines and weeds from the fence.  Jake walked up with this weird looking black and yellow caterpillar.  I thought what the heck, let's make a cage for it and see what happens.  I told my sister n law this and she was excited to inform me that it would turn into a monarch butterfly.  She did this last year and was doing it again this year with a caterpillar. She told me what kind cage I needed and what they ate.  More than I ever thought I needed to know about caterpillars.  Well to my shock and amazement.  She told me that if he started to form a "J" and hang upside down from the top of his cage he was going to make his chrysalis.  So he hung upside down in a "j" for about a day and then the next morning we came down and sat down to eat breakfast to look up and see this......

His Chrysalis!!

Jenny gave us a new leaf with a caterpillar egg on it to see the whole process from beginning to end

I think it's really kinda neat and something I will try and do every year.  It's kind like the story by Eric Carle, "The Very Hungry Caterpillar".

Hope you enjoyed my update!!!  It feels pretty good to have done 2 posts in 2 days instead of every 2 months!!! 

Our new home and what's new with our family!

Hi all!!!! I am hoping that since we are now going to be in our home for a very long time, I will be able to do a better job of blogging.  Any who,  wow I can't begin to tell you how relieved I am in be in our home!! There is nothing like being able to come home to your own house and know where most everything is.  Since we moved home, we had been living out of boxes until now.  I can't tell you how extremely frustrating it is to not know where anything was or to know where things were but knew it would be silly to unpack them until we got to our new house.  


I love our little house!!! Yay!! It's in an amazing area, wonderful neighbors so far, everyone is active, lots of dogs, Liam has made a new friend 2 houses down and not to mention I can make a nest for my family!! Jake now has an office and a 2 car garage where all "his stuff" has a home and he has a work space.  Liam has his own room, with a new big boy bed, a fenced in yard, and his very own bathroom!! He loves our new house too!!  I have an unfinished basement where I can do laundry, store decorations, baby stuff, do crafts and store stuff until we have things all the way rearranged.  


There are so many things I love about this house.  It has so much charm and character, ahhh I just love it!!! There are a few things we know we will be updating and redoing once we get settled in and set aside some money for.  The house has plaster walls almost all the way throughout the home.  My number one priority is to repair the cracks in the kitchen and Liam's bathroom and repaint both.  Hopefully this will be done within the next few months.  Currently the kitchen is the horrible shade of burgandy and it makes it look so drab and dark.  I plan on painting it a mint green or a light blue.  Liam's bathroom is a weird color green and I am not sure what I would even begin to call it.  It's just got to go.  I plan to paint his bathroom a light gray or a light warm brown.   


Some other things on our to do list are to paint the outside of the house and all the trim, gutters, windows etc.  It is a light gray, which I don't hate but it could just be so much warmer, cozier, and cuter.  We are thinking white with tan accents, porch floor and flower boxes, repaint the front and back doors black or maybe even by a new front door.  We are also going to redo the back patio and front landscaping.   The sidewalks are going to be torn up and new ones will be laid.  They are extremely skinny and they have cracks in them from just being old and the ground settling.  Jake is really anxious to get the back patio redone and build an outdoor grill and kitchen.  I think for now those are our big ones on the to do list.  We will hopefully put up a privacy fence in the next year or so too.


Here are some pictures of the house.....

I love this sign!! It's in our bathroom.   I bought it at the Red Poppy, one of my new favorite stores!!

Our master bathroom

Our shower....it was updated by the previous owner with new  vantity, sinks, shower, faucets, flooring

My fall decorations on our mantle!! Yay! So excited to have a mantle to put decorations on!!

Please excuse the cords, we have to get an extension to the cable and Jake has to rewire the outlets with 3 prong 

Yay for the new TV!! Liam loves to watch the video of his first year of life pretty much all the time!!!

Backyard and garage!

Jake inner sanctum!

back of the house...Jake just got rid of that random pile of gravel ....the previous owner used it as a fire pit

Tidying up the over grown stuff

little helper in Jake's bandana

This was the 2nd clean up and cut down of all the weeds, plants and trees that were growing in the fence

My desk and where our dining room will be when we get a new table

Liam enjoying his big boy bed

A cabinet the previous owner left, so I figured  why not use it

At some point I would like to replace the vanity and mirror and lights

Love this towel!! It says "close the lid boys"  Cute find from another new favorite store...this one is less then a mile away from our house too!! The Barefoot Cottage

I love this shower curtain!! It's so stinkin cute!! Found it at target and  had to get it!

A steal of a find!! Originally for sale at Kirklands for $599.99, they were closing the store and going out of business so  they marked it down to $140!! It's brand new and Jake even loves it!!

This was what I had up prior to the TV....The window will be hanging on the wall and I plan to put my favorite things Liam has made at PDO and my favorite pictures!

Looking from the dining room into the living room

Love the cabinets, hate the color of the walls!!

this is the back door that walks out to the backyard

Our breakfast nook! I love being able to sit down every night and eat dinner together!

Front door

Liam's room and play area

Liam's room

Happy reading and Happy Labor Day Weekend!!