fun at thanksgiving

my new adventure

Making baby food. Yep, today I MADE a whole batch of baby food for Liam. I never really had the desire to try to do this, but after realizing what large quantities are made with just 3 bananas, and 1 squash, I decided I should try it because it will save a lot of money. So I bought some fresh fruits and vegetables at the store yesterday, and spend about 4 hours in the kitchen this afternoon, making 4 ice cube trays full of baby food. (Next time it will not take near as long, since I will know what I am doing.) It is actually pretty handy. You freeze the food in ice cube trays and then you can pop out the food blocks and put them in freezer bags, and then freeze some more. As you will see from the video below, Liam was a little less than thrilled with the first couple of foods he tried. It must taste a lot different than the ones you buy in the store. I think it will take him a while to get used to it. Overall, the afternoon was a success, despite me spilling two pureed avocados all over the kitchen floor. Oh, and come to find out, my blender has a "baby food" setting on it...this makes things much easier :). So far I have made butternut squash, acorn squash, green beans, avocados, bananas, and apple sauce. This great website give tells you step by step how to start making baby food. We will see if I keep this up, but it was actually kind of fun to do this today.

So this video is of Liam playing with a sippy cup for the first time. I was actually very impressed that he knew exactly what to do with it. This evening he actually drank about 2 ounces of diluted apple juice out of a sippy cup. Yep...he is growing up way too fast. After the sippy cup video is the disgusted look on his face as he tried the avocado for the first time.

liam and lili

Liam and Lili are so interested in each other. Lil is such a sweet little baby. She gave Liam lots of kisses today. And when she couldn't reach is face she kissed his hand :) Lili is 11 months and Liam is basically 6 months. (Yes I understand, they look like they are about the same size :)

the latest

more farm pics

just wanted to share a few more pictures of us out at the farm...see post below.

the farm

Erin came home Saturday night and stayed home until Sunday evening. Mainly to go out to the farm one last time before grandma and grandpa move. This was going to be her last chance to get out there with basketball starting. Yesterday afternoon was so much fun. We were all out there, and Erin, Annette, and I walked all around their property taking pictures and just enjoying it. We found some really awesome antiques in grandpa's shed. Took a few of them for ourselves :). With their permission of course. I just realized yesterday how much I am going to miss that place! Walking around brought back memories of so many things. Fishing in the pond when we were little...playing on the hay bales...playing in the grain bins (and getting in trouble)...helping feed and water the cattle...riding the old horse grandpa used to have. Anyways! I wanted to share some pictures that I took around the place. We are so excited for grandma and grandpa moving on to this new stage in their life, and getting a new, huge, beautiful home! And the great thing is they still own the farm, so I'm sure we can go out there anytime we want :). Although the threat of getting snowed in during Christmas won't be the same :)





Old antique back door to grandpa's shed

















Grandpa has collected all of these
old Butler county tags













Old baby carriage mom and Marcia used
to play with
















The old barn that fell over


















Old oil cans

sweet pea

first game of the season

Last night started weekly road trips and the last year of basketball games at sterling, for Erin. It is a bit bittersweet to think this is the last year we will drive up there. We enjoy watching them play so much. They looked great last night...pretty much like another conference winning, national tournament attending team :). It all went off quite well despite a blow to the nose which GUSHED for about 3o minutes. It continued to bleed after that but just not gushing. Oh and yes, that would be injury #1 for Erin this year and we know it will be the last! She always has to be the center of attention :) ha ha. She has a nice swollen and bruised nose to show for it. They do not think it is broken.

Liam's first basketball game went very well. He was very entertained watching the girls run up and down the court. All the attention he got from all the girls afterward probably didn't hurt any either :). After he got used to the buzzer, he wasn't quite as jumpy. He really enjoyed the game, but Jeremy and I didn't enjoy the night that was to follow. He slept horrible, waking up twice and not falling asleep well. So he might not be going to all the games we go to, but I'm sure we won't have a problem finding a babysitter :). Oh...and we would not have gotten as late as we did, but Liam had a HUGE blowout that required a new diaper (which we didn't pack...stupid, I know), which was hard to find in Sterling, since everything closes by 8. I got to practice how to put on a cloth diaper. Thank goodness that was only on for about 30 minutes before dad and Jeremy came back with diapers from a gas station, because I'm pretty sure that cloth contraption would not have held anything.

a little like daddy?

Anything electronic...the computer, the tv, video games, phones, cameras...he is interested. Dang it.

mommy & me

tired of these yet? :)

Liam and I were playing in the backyard the other day, and these are some photos that I took of him...pretty sure some of these are going up in frames :)

new pics!

Look-a-likes


















Looking at great grandpa's cows














Big blue eyes! From aunt Erin :)















Reading his first book :)














After a bath


















I love aunt Erin


















Playing with cousin Chloe :)

comfort food

4 zebra cakes (2 packages), and 2 glasses of wine later I can now write about my evening this evening and not get re-frustrated. In all actuality it was not that bad since I endured it with my wonderful, beautiful cousins who I love so much. Thank you, Melanie and Michele for having patience with me, when I was so frustrated. I know you two can understand since you are also moms. Well...I went over to Mel's house this afternoon and her and the kids rode with me out to the east side of town to meet Michele and the girls for dinner at Pizza Hut and then go to my mom's book fair and get some new books for the kids. The evening was going so well, while Chloe and Mason entertained Liam in the backseat while singing the supercalifragalisticexpialadocious song to him the whole way there. He loved it. But the last five minutes of the drive to Pizza Hut the screaming started. The screaming ended, oh, about 45 minutes later when we left Pizza Hut. I'm sure the people eating around us really enjoyed it. Not knowing what was wrong with him, I fed him, even though he had just eaten just to make him be quiet. We quickly packed up our things, after paying the most terrible server ever, (NO tip was given. By me at least. Maybe kind of harsh, but in the end I was glad I didn't.) we went to leave to go to mom's book fair, BUT not before realizing I couldn't find my keys. We searched for about 15 minutes for my keys, and started coming up with other options to fit all 8 of us into Michele's Passat. But after Mel went into Pizza Hut for the THIRD time the look again, she asked if anyone had turned in keys. The most terrible pizza employees ever, said they did have some turned in. They just failed to mention that they had what we were obviously looking for, after being in there three different times moving chairs and tables around (This is why I was glad I didn't end up giving him a tip). Well we all finally left and went to Jackson...Liam decided this was a fine time to start screaming again. I asked Mason on the way over if he was glad that he doesn't have a little brother or sister. He replied "sort of". He is so adorable. You could tell he didn't want to hurt my feelings. So sweet. Well we got to the book fair and got new books for the kids. Liam got the rest of his bottle at this time, and was better after that. We then had a peaceful, quiet ride home back to the west side of town, but not before a couple potty incidents from Sophie. I know that I didn't help much, because I couldn't help but laugh after everything that had happened. Finally Liam was worn out and just went to sleep. Mel and I had a good laugh about how ridiculous this whole evening was on the way home. Mel said that this night was not supposed to happen, except for the moral support we were able to offer eachother :). So now that I write all this out I realize it doesn't sound like that horrible of a night, so I guess you just had to be there. Mel and Michele can vouch for me :). I am just glad that it all happened with all my wonderful cousins. Liam is so lucky to have those kids to grow up with. Well this day was not a very proud day for me as a mother. I felt like I was frustrated with Liam the whole entire day. I guess that those days will come, and its just how we deal with them that matters...which I admit today, was not very well. Now Liam is in bed, and I get to spend the rest of the evening with my husband and my comfort food :).

laughing at grandma

solids

Well we tried to give Liam some rice cereal a couple of weeks ago, and it didn't go so well. He kept pushing it out with his tongue and didn't quite have the hang of it. So now, two weeks later hes got it. This video was taken a few days ago, and he just gets better with eating it every day. This Friday he will have been eating rice cereal, twice a day for about a week, so we will try to start vegetables. Will it be carrots, squash or sweet potatoes? Hmmm...none sound that appealing to me :). The only problem we have with starting to feed him solids, is that neither of us are fast enough feeders for him. I'm sure there will be more videos and pictures to come as the messy face gets a bit more colorful.

**ps--anyone who has any suggestions on foods to start first, how to start them etc...feel free to share. i feel like i really do not know what i am doing when it comes to feeding him baby food. like when typically during the day do you usually feed the baby food to them? do you do fruits and vegetables at different times of the day? like one for breakfast and one for dinner? do you feed the fruit and/or vegetable with the rice cereal all in one meal? or i am possibly over-analyzing this WAY too much...which i have a feeling i am doing. those are just a FEW of my questions...haha. oh well, i guess this is what a first time mom is supposed to do.**

cousins

We went to Amber's soccer game on Saturday out at Maize. It was great be outside on a nice morning...Liam loved it. It is so much fun to watch Cayden and Liam interact. They are 4 months apart, yet Cayden seems so much older than that to me just because of everything he can do that Liam can't. It doesn't seem possible that Liam is going to be crawling around in 4 months!

recentely...

Liam playing daddy's guitar.














Attempting to eat rice cereal...
not going so well :)












Holding his own bottle!

sleepy baby

I realize we have been very blessed, in that Liam usually sleeps until somewhere between 8-9 in the morning. There have been the rare mornings that he has slept until 10 or 10:15. This morning 10am came and he was not awake, so I went into his room to check on him...still asleep. 10:15...still asleep. 10:30...still asleep. You get the idea. I finally WOKE HIM UP at 11am! He went to bed around 9:30 the night before! If I had not woke him I don't know how long he would have slept. I am not sure why is sleeping so darn long lately, but I am loving it, knowing that it can't last forever. Here is a pic of our baby still asleep at about 10:45 this morning...the flash didn't even wake him up.