Liam Claus

Bath time means bubbles and lame parents who always pull the same tired jokes on their kids...

OH MAN I LOVE IT!

Liam's Mission Fund

HELLO! Liam got so many wonderful toys and clothes from his family members and friends. He even got a little bit of cash! Today, he and I went to Wells Fargo to open his first savings account. He has $60 dollars! We won't have him pay tithing until he turns 8, but he will know by then what tithing is. This money is going toward his mission fund, anyway, so in the end, the Church gets it all, and Liam will get blessings.

Liam, and of course his parents, are grateful for everything you all have done for us for our entire lifetimes. We love you all. We are grateful for every last little thing you have done for us, and we realize that we probably don't even know the half of it. The more time we spend as parents, the more we appreciate what our parents have done.

We truly don't want to be presumptuous or act like we are entitled. We do not want to appear to be looking for handouts or the like, but we thought it might be convenient for some to create a Paypal account for Liam's mission fund as well. We realize that nothing can really replace the thrill of getting a birthday card in the mail, with the added bonus of a note signed by the U.S. Treasurer. But to help Liam save for his mission, college, and everything else, we thought that it couldn't hurt to open some more avenues or ways for him to save.

You will find his "donate" link near the top of our blog, and here it is in large-scale as well:

Again, we are grateful for all the jammies, toys, shoes, outfits, cards, messages, emails, visits and love that you have all shown our big one year-old. It will carry him far and serve him well.

Have you ever held a baby and kissed his little hands and wondered: how many priesthood blessings will these little hands give? How many people will they reach out to in Christlike service, offering comfort, friendship and love? Have you ever wondered that?

Or his feet: how many miles will these feet walk in rushing to the aid of a friend in need?

You know, it makes me think of a poem written by a master mason, Five Points of Fellowship, by Robert Morris. This poem outlines the good that our bodies can do, and paints the picture of an embrace that can only be described as sacred. This mason discusses the following things we can do with the bodies we have been given. The full poem won't be given here, but the basis is as follows:

• Feet: hasten to the needs of our plaintive brethren.


• Knees: pray to Almighty God for our brethren


• Breasts: keep in our breasts a strong faith that can never be touched, where our heart holds a love for God and our brethren.


• Hands: stretch out our arms and hold up the backs of our feeble and weakened brethren.


• Cheek: whisper in the ears of our brethren words of strength and encouragement when the tempter comes.

I suggest reading the entire poem. Younger members of the church who have not studied will not appreciate the full significance of this poem.

(There is also the poem The Five Points Symbolism by N. A. McAulay.)

Anyway, this entry was initially intended to thank you all for the great gifts and the love that Liam received. Thanks to you all--we love you!!

Steak, Seafood, Salad

Today was to be the first day on the job at Sizzler for one of Chelsie's former Young Women. This young lady was baptized just over a year ago, and we are pretty close with her and her whole family, so we thought we would take a date night out to the Sizzler and cheer Stephany on in her new job.

Today also happens to be the birthday of one of our good friends, Janae, so we decided to take her and her husband out.

We had a great time, but I'm sure the wait staff was not exactly pleased when we left. These images were taken with a pretty poor camera phone, so you can hardly get the idea of spilled:

• Saltine crackers


• Chowder crackers


• Ice cubes (from spilled water)


• Torn up napkin


• Baked potato

Right after I snapped off those images of the ground (which was much worse by the end of our meal), I pointed the camera at the boy and you can see "smug" written all over his mischievous face. Yes, he's proud of his mess:

Finally, here is a video of him being--well, being just plain weird. Not sure what happened to the sound, though.

Sept. 11

I was just working away on the computer the other day... I think I was trying to find some great coupons to print... and I noticed that Liam was being awfully quiet. I looked over in the living room, where he was playing, and found him like this:

... sitting in his bouncy chair with his teddy bear and reading a fruit snack package. I had to get a closer look and got this cute grin:


He had his new teddy bear, which he loves, his truck and some reading material and he was good for a while. Since then he's loved climbing into his chair. He plops down, puts his arms back, bounces it a few times, and just chills. He is so funny and smart.

Sept. 9

I swear, I do dress my child... sometimes.


Today is Grandma Choules' birthday. Liam was practicing the birthday song.

... happy birthday to yoooooouuuuuuu!

Happy Birthday, Little One

It's official. My baby's not a baby anymore. We just celebrated his first birthday this weekend. I can't believe he's ONE! We had all the grandparents at various times throughout the week. It was very nice to see so many loved ones who traveled so far to spend time with our little one. He's a pretty special kid! Here are some highlights of the week:

Grandma Sachiko came late Monday night and played with Liam all day Tuesday. We then went to dinner that night and she had to leave early Wednesday morning. Somehow I missed taking pictures during those few days.

Next, Grandpa Fred and Sam arrived late on Thursday. We played for a bit and then went to bed. Friday we drove up to Timberline Lodge on Mount Hood for a day trip. We geocached a bit, hiked a bit, and had a good time. I failed to get pictures of the whole group. (In my defense, I have been sick-sick since Wednesday. I could barely walk around the trails.) Here are a couple of the birthday boy, though.





They took off on Saturday morning to zoom down to California to visit the Wecker clan.

My parents then finished their drive from Idaho via Pendleton that morning, arriving around noon. The girls (and Liam) went shopping while the boys put up my new computer hutch, which I love! That night was the birthday party.

We had...

...party hats- complete with dinosaur scales on the backs



...A cute birthday boy


...A dinosaur pinata that even the little tykes could enjoy

By the way- Liam was scared of the pinata. He wasn't scared of the actual structure, but was so upset when candy came flying out of his guts. He had a look of terror on his face and screamed and screamed. He didn't stop until all the candy was put away and the candy opening was fixed. He didn't like that his dinosaur was wounded! :)

...Other decorations, which I didn't get pictures of... flying pterodactyls, birthday banner, dinosaur gummies, cupcakes, and treat bags.

...Wrapping paper
...Birthday Cards
...Presents


...And, of course, CAKE...


... all over the place!


Then there was a bath.

We finished up the weekend with family at the beach on Sunday. It was a wonderful, sunny day. Liam even got a little tan.




What a wonderful week it's been! Liam is such a good boy and we love him so much. We are happy that he's in our family. Happy Birthday, little man!