Summer Part 2

The rest of our summer...

Had fun playing in the pool in the backyard.

Kallen took swimming lessons and learned so much.

Had some fun with fireworks on the 4th.

We enjoyed dressing up in some interesting outfits.

Some of us even learned to play games with our tongue and had lots of fun doing it.

Quick Summer Overview

Okay, instead of trying to make posts on everything we did this summer, I decided to make one big post with pictures of everything. Here's our summer in a nutshell...part 1.

Had some fun at the fair...a lot of fun.

Watched a Memorial Day parade.

Kallen learned the joys of cleaning...and also enjoyed wearing stylish clothing while doing so.

Liam enjoyed his first bath...well sort of. However, now he absolutely loves them.

Kallen graduated preschool...that is, his first preschool. He still has one more year of it before Kindergarten.

The boys loved picking flowers all over our yard and neighborhood. Some turned out to be weeds instead of actual flowers, but they didn't care.

Enjoyed playing some baseball with Dad

Oops, missed that one...

Side note: While playing baseball, Tyson accidently hit Kallen in the nose with the ball, which you can imagine, didn't turn out so well. At first we were afraid that Kallen wouldn't want to play anymore, but he surprised us. After crying for a few seconds, Kallen happily said he'd go out and play again...but only after declaring with a very stern voice that he'd play, "only if Daddy doesn't hit me in the head again."

Well, thats part of our summer. More to come soon. I still need to download more pictures.

We've got a 2-month-old

Today, Liam is two months old. How fast those two months have gone by. In that time, he has gotten so big and grown so much. I love how he is more responsive to us and how his little blue eyes love to follow us around the room . Liam especially loves watching his other brothers play and he seems to be happier whenever they are in the area. I bet he can't wait to join in their mischief. He's a little copy-cat and loves sticking his tongue out when we do, coos whenever we do, and he continues to give us all his award winning smiles.

The little guy had his doctors appointment on Tuesday and here are his updates: 13 pounds 4 oz-90th percentile, 23 1/2 inches tall-70th percentile, Head circumference 16 in-70th percentile. He is doing good in every way, but his zantac dosage did go up because he cries more than most babies. Hopefully it will help so the little guy is more comfortable and happier.

Because we like him so much better like this...

than like this...

Where's Liam?

In all this mess can you find the baby? I don't know why I feel the need to post this, but for some reason I thought it was funny.

Earlier today, I walked into our room to check on Liam, and for a split second I couldn't find him. Where did he go?

Oh there he is...right in the middle of the bed. He is so small he got lost in all the mess. What a cute little sleeper. I love how newborns sleep with their arms over their head...it's so cute.
Oh, and here is Weston. He wanted his picture taken too and put on the blog. The kid needs a haircut, but I think its cute long.

Watch Out! A 4-year-old with a Drivers License

Kallen's favorite thing to do now is drive cars. Anytime we go anywhere, once we stop the car and start unloading, he'll jump into the front seat and go to town. Weston as well has started enjoying the fun. His favorite button is the hazard lights, Kallen's favorite thing is the horn. Inevitably, their love for buttons means that most days I turn on the car and the air is on full blast, the left or right turn signal is blinking in the corner of my dash, and usually the windshield wipers are swishing back and forth. All compliments of their excellent driving skills.

Cute story, the first time Weston ever tried driving the car, we were parked outside of Krispy Kreme Doughnuts waiting for Kallen and my Mom to come back. Weston loved every minute of it, but the cutest thing he did was accidently turn on the radio. When the music suddenly turned on, it at first scared him and he jumped. But once he got over the initial shock of what he had done, Weston smiled and said, "music...lets dance". Then he proceeded to wiggle his whole body to the beat. It made it even more cute that the radio was on some kind of Spanish station, so it was a fun upbeat Mexican song. It made me laugh.

*Update: Word of caution: If you let your kids play in the car, make sure they close the doors completely afterwards, or you might find yourself with a drained battery.

Some Updates with Liam

It's been awhile since I posted anything about Liam, so I thought I'd put up some pictures so the little guy isn't forgotten.

Liam is a sweetheart, but a cranky sweetheart. He started out life pretty mild-mannered and Tyson and I both thought we had scored with the easy going kid. However, that soon changed. Now, we both agree that he is probably our hardest baby. Kallen seemed harder because it was a more stressful transition for the both of us, but Liam is definitely the harder baby...we are just more use to being parents now, so it doesn't feel so bad. The problem with Liam is this, if he isn't asleep or eating, he is usually crying, so we end up holding him most of the day, but that gets old really fast. He has been the slowest eater out of the three boys and the hardest to get to bed at night. Plus, he has no schedule at all during the day. He'll sleep for 5 min here and there and then wake himself up crying. If he didn't give us his super cute smiles every now and then, this kid might have been returned by now. :)

Even though Liam is a little more difficult, we really do love him. He is a good addition to our family and it has been such a blessing to have him in our lives. Kallen and Weston love him and call him "Baby Liam". It really is cute to see how they are with him.

The first week we had Liam, he slept...a lot. It was probably because he had horrible jaundice. His doctor was pretty worried about it, so we had to stay an extra day at the hospital and get bloodwork done all the time. The doctor saw him everyday to see if his jaundice count was going down, but each day it just kept rising.

Eventually, we had to use a home light therapy on him for about a week, which didn't seem to help much either. In the end, the doctor thought it might be my milk that was making him unable to get rid of his jaundice (bilirubin), so I stopped nursing. I guess sometimes nursing mother's don't have an enzyme or something that breaks the bilirubin down. Sure enough, that was it, and his bilirubin finally started to decline. Who knew?...Mom had bad milk.

Liam started smiling pretty much at one month, which was so much sooner than either Kallen or Weston. My heart just melts whenever he looks up at me with that big grin. Also, it is hard to get annoyed with him as he smiles at you...even during the middle of the night when your dead tired and he won't go back to sleep. I really think it is his secret weapon so Tyson and I don't get too frustrated. His smile honestly makes everything perfect and right in the world. This was one of the first pictures we got of him smiling, so it isn't that great...his smile is so much better, but its all I've got right now.

Some of my favorite things about Liam are: He has started to have one long stretch of sleeptime during the night for about 5 -6 hours. That is a ton for a kid of mine and he started doing this so much sooner than the other boys did. I also love that he has red/blond hair. You can't tell in pictures right now, but the little hair he does have is red. Its kind of fun to finally have a child that looks a little different from the others. I'm guessing if he does keep his red hair, it will be strawberry blond and probably will eventually turn completely blond in a few years. I'm not sure Tyson likes the red hair, but I sure do. Liam also has the skin type of a redhead. Now that his jaundice is gone, he always shocks me how white he is. He has the palest chubby legs I have ever seen! Also, I love that Liam doesn't spit up! Our other kids, especially Weston spit up ALL...THE...TIME! I was always covered in throw-up and everyone in the family went through at least 4 different outfits per day. So it is nice to have a child who doesn't do this. I didn't think it was possible to have a non-spitter, but Liam proved it was. Liam is also so strong. He loves being held in the sit-up position and does so well with keeping his head up. What a trooper. And finally, like I mentioned before, He has the best smile!

I'm so excited to see what Liam's personality will be like in a few more months. Little newborns are so soft and cuddly, but I love seeing them when they start interacting with you more as they get older. It makes life as a parent lots of fun.