Mike & Chelsie Brady Family

February 9

2012-02-09T18:42:00.001-08:00

How's about some recent pictures?

We went for a walk. It was cold. The babies got belly aches.

Liam took this cute picture of Jude-a-roo.

Lukey-doo

Jude smiles quite a bit. The other day I was feeling a little frustrated. I think he may have sensed that. As I picked him up he put his cute little hand on my cheek and I looked at him. He had the sweetest little smile on his face. He continued to hold my cheek and smile at me, as if he was saying, "It's okay, Mommy." Made me smile, too, wouldn't you know it!

This cute little boy is much of the reason for my frustration. He's kind of a stinker. But a really cute, silly one.

family photos

2012-01-30T13:57:00.000-08:00

playing catch up

2012-01-30T11:16:00.000-08:00

November 7 was the last post, eh? Wow! I'm so behind. We've kind of had a lot that happened in the last 3 months. Zoiks!

I'd like to interrupt this post to say THANK YOU to so many people who've helped us the last few months. I was put on bed rest in the middle of November. Since I have a rowdy 2-year-old, bed rest was not really an option, except that I have awesome family and friends. Our ward jumped right in and provided meals for about 4 weeks! Liam played with some friends and was taken care of so that I could stay down as much as possible. My Grandma came and stayed with us- did the cleaning and running after Liam- and provided much needed company for me. During that time I crocheted a LOT and had to let people do everything for me. That was hard, but I am so grateful for great people. I am thankful for those who babysat, brought meals, cleaned, called, and also for those who were willing to help. My Mom, Dad, and sister, Kambree, came after Grandma left and were here until after the babies were born. Then, my mom stayed for another week or so and helped with the new little guys. My mother-in-law came after that. And, finally, my older sister, Whitney, came to help. I just took her to the airport this morning and now I'll have to take care of this family of mine by myself. I am so blessed to have had so many weeks with help. So, for all of you I say:

THANK YOU!

Okay. Now I'll try to update.
November:

As I said, I was on bed rest for much of this month. I was getting big and uncomfortable. I had terrible heartburn. I had a difficult time hefting my growing baby bump up and down the stairs. Getting dressed was quite the chore. I couldn't run around and play with Liam much anymore. I went to my doctor's appointment and found that I was dilating. At the ultrasound, also, we found that the babies were measuring quite small- nothing to be too concerned with at that point, but we needed to make sure they stayed in there as long as possible. Those are the reasons for the bed rest prescription.

So, I did a lot of crocheting. I decided that I'd crochet all of our siblings and nieces and nephews slippers and beanies (slippers for the girls and beanies for the boys) for Christmas. I think I ended up crocheting like 25 pairs of slippers and 8 or 10 beanies. I also crocheted some toys for Liam and friends, some things for my own family- beanies for all my boys and slippers for me, some ornaments that I intended on taking to my visiting teaching sisters, and other random things.

I don't really remember much more about November. I know we had some yummy meals provided by people in the ward. I know my grandma helped me can some apple pie filling, some apple butter, and dry some apples and fruit leather. I know that Liam probably did some cute things, but I was really bad about taking pictures and writing anything down during this time.

December:

I did a really bad job documenting this month, too. There was some ward Christmas partying, some hanging out with family, some cute things done and said by Liam... but no pictures to prove it.

I continued getting bigger and bigger and more uncomfortable. We kept the little peanuts in there longer than anyone expected.

The twins were born just a week after this picture was taken, on December 30, 2011. And now I will bombard you with photos... :)

At the hospital:

January- Welcome home, baby boys!

Since coming home we've been adjusting to life with two babies and a 2-year old. Today is the first day I will have had to do it on my own, so we will continue adjusting and getting a routine. All the kids are sleeping, I just got some lunch, and now I have a few minutes before the babes need to eat again. My days will be spent nursing, cooking, nursing, cleaning, nursing, nursing, playing with Liam, nursing, and maybe some napping. It will be fun and rewarding, but difficult and scary. Lots of people have done it, though, and I can too.

Some pictures from the past couple of weeks that Whitney's been here. She is a photographer and took some family pictures, too. See those in the next post.

We now know that if I HAD to go out by myself with all the kiddos,
two baby bjorns is doable. :)

I haven't talked about Christmas at all... maybe I'll go into detail some other time, but for now just know that it was good. Liam got spoiled. We all got spoiled, really. We love our family. We are all doing well and we can't wait to see you all again soon. I will try to keep this here blog updated with current pictures of the wee things so you can all watch them grow up.

How-mean pictures

2011-11-07T17:07:00.000-08:00

We took Liam trick-or-treating downtown Gresham, where many of the businesses were passing out candy. There were a lot of people and most were dressed up, even the adults, so it was fun to see. We went as the Up characters, Carl, Russell, and the House. The people who had seen the show were impressed. Those who hadn't just thought Mike was an old man, Liam was a scout, and I was a dollhouse. Ah well. It was still fun.

We met Liam's friend, Kyleigh (and her parents and little brother) for the festivities. Then we went to a few friends' houses near home to finish out the night.

On Saturday, though, we had a scary How-mean party with pumpkin carving, scary movies (Nightmare Before Christmas and Monsters Inc.), hot chocolate, and snuggling. Liam talked about the "party" for days afterward. :) I love that he is so easy to please.

Here is Mike's awesome pumpkin.

Happy Halloween

2011-10-31T13:49:00.002-07:00

I will take pictures of our costumes tonight when we go trick-or-treating. For now, enjoy this funny... I mean, scary... video!

If your computer is anything like mine and you can't watch here on blogger, here's the link for facebook.

Pumpkin patch

2011-10-25T15:52:00.001-07:00

We went to the pumpkin patch last night for Family Home Evening.

"Daddy... How-mean right dehr!" (Halloween right there)

As you can tell, I'm really excited to have my picture taken.

Liam's favorite part was the tractor. He drove it for a good long time before going to look for pumpkins and couldn't wait to drive again after we were done.

He insisted on pulling the wagon through the pumpkin patch. He didn't want to ride in it and he certainly didn't want any help pulling it.

At some point during the trek through the pumpkins he got frustrated. Maybe it was because of the cold. Maybe it was because we made him give the wagon to our friends for carting back their pumpkins. Maybe it was because we are just plain mean. Whatever it was, he stopped in the middle of the field and yelled at the top of his lungs. And then, he was done.

When Kaitlyn (Liam's friend) and her family were satisfied with the pumpkins they chose we went back to the tractor and (surprise, surprise) took more pictures!

"Cheese"

Liam's Babies!

2011-10-21T12:46:00.000-07:00

Chelsie mentioned in her last post that Liam likes to mock Mommy by pretending he has babies in his belly, too:

I caught him on video making fun of Mommy. It's pretty funny, especially when he strikes the Ladies' Man pose at the 55-second mark:

Cell phone pictures

2011-10-11T15:31:00.000-07:00

I have been feeling a bit nostalgic these days- remembering how Liam was as a baby, thinking about all of the cute things he's doing these days, and daydreaming about what it will be like to have two more to care for. They will each have their own personalities and do cute things. They will each be silly and lovable, I'm sure of it. I noticed that I have a bunch of pictures on my cell phone that I haven't discussed yet on this blog. I don't want to forget the funny things Liam has been doing and so I will post some of them here.

A couple of weeks ago Liam was being particularly difficult. He would not listen, he kept hitting and yelling, he spent a lot of his days in time-out. He had a hard time taking naps for several days, and I was getting frustrated. One day he was being pretty good and wanted to go to the fire truck park (a park right by the fire house that has all sorts of fire truck toys to play on). It was too late to go that day, but I promised that we would go the next day if he was a good boy all night and all morning. Of course he was excited all night and all the next morning and kept mentioning that we were going to the fire truck park. I didn't check the weather, though, before making this promise. It was a rainy day, but we found an hour or so pocket that only had a small chance of rain. We packed up peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, chips, water, cookies, and popsicles (no, it was not warm enough for popsicles, but Liam thinks popsicles and fire truck park just go together) and headed to the park. It was wet, cold and slippery, but we had a great time.

Speaking of time- outs... this picture was taken mid time-out one day. He, at some point, took off his diaper and was sneaking out to the living room (time out is on the stairs). When I noticed that he was out of time-out he plopped on the ground and buried his face.

Guess who's poo pooed in the potty exclusively for the past 5 days!

I'm pretty sure he's doing so well because he loves getting a candy bar, which he pronounces "cand-a-bar." He gets super excited and proclaims, "Poo poo toilet! Cand-a-bar! Yay!" (Also, when you ask him to smile he closes his eyes...)

Some of Liam's favorite things to do:

1. Help Mommy or Daddy.

He loves to "help" do the dishes, make dinner or dessert, fold laundry, and even clean up his toys. He sings the clean up song all the while! "Clean up, clean up, eh bud SHARE!"

2. Hode on tight

Many mornings Liam stands at the top of the stairs and yells, "Mommy! Hode on tight!" Downstairs, Mommy!" I then have to go upstairs and let him ride down on my back. He does this with his babies, too.

3. Speaking of babies- he loves to play with his stuffed animals as babies.

He puts shoes on them (notice the rain boots in the hode on tight picture).

... and his Lightning-da-queen pack pack

He has asked for baby bottles and blankies for his babies. One day, out of nowhere he came to me with his little stuffed monkey and said, to his monkey, "What? Milk? Okay!" To me, "Mommy, baby milk!" I got a baby bottle and put a little bit of water in that he pretended was milk. (Really he drank it all) He then said to the monkey again, "What? Blankie? Okay!" I had to get the baby a blankie and wrap him up tightly. Liam then rocked the baby, fed him some "milk" and finally put him to bed on the couch. He usually ends up snuggling with a baby during nap time.

4. Tease Mommy about her growing baby belly.

This was his idea. He put the ball under his shirt and then gave one to Daddy to do the same. He thought he was so funny!

And most recently he sticks his belly out and wobbles around the house, apparently like me.

When we would ask what his baby's name is he used to say Liam. Now he says Jude, which is one of the names we are thinking of for twins.

He also loves to tell the babies stories and blow rappities (raspberries) on Mommy's belly. He will be a good big brother (hopefully).

5. Watch the garbage trucks.

I think I've mentioned this before, but he will drop everything and go to the nearest window if he hears a garbage truck.

6. Play, play, play!

I don't have pictures of most of his crazy games that he has made up. They include toes up, Daddy fall off, mail time, putting spongebob in time-out (usually because he hit Mommy),
... playing with this ugly troll toy that he calls Stephanie, train fall off, cars round-a-round, reading books, and watching movies. Some favorite movies are: "Lighting da queen," "Crebidles," "Wee-oh," "Laddin," "Thomas," and "Mormon Stories."

And speaking of church, he loves Monson and his friends, Urkdurf and I-Wing. He loved Jen Confence, but has missed playing in nuh-sey.

I love that crooked smile and skinny little frame. He is such a silly cutie bug and I'm happy that I get to spend all day with him!

Technical difficulties

2011-09-22T08:17:00.000-07:00

Does anyone else have a problem watching the videos on this here blog? I haven't posted one for a while because I can't watch them. I wonder if I'm the only... I posted the video to facebook, too, and was able to watch it.

Here's the link.

Woah da boat

2011-09-22T08:03:00.000-07:00

Liam loves to sing. He is getting pretty good at it, too. This is one of his recent favorite songs to belt out. I was trying to get him to sing it, but all he wanted to do is look at the camera, thus the abrupt ending.

Happy Birthday, Little One!

2011-09-05T08:37:00.000-07:00

LIAM JOSEPH BRADY

You make me smile.

You make me laugh.

You make me crazy.

You make me proud.

You make me wonder.
You are smart.
You are funny.

You are sweet.

You look like your daddy.
You are so cute.
You are all boy... mostly

You are loved!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LITTLE ONE!

Jesus, in-ehr!

2011-07-30T22:03:00.000-07:00

Liam pretty much builds one thing with his blocks... a temple. And recently he started saying, "Jesus, in-ehr" meaning "Jesus, in there." I do not know where he picked this up, or if he just knows, but it makes me so proud! He is a very spiritual little boy- loves to say pehrs and read skipters. He LOVES nursery and will often bring me churchy pictures that he's colored. We proudly display them on the fridge and he will tell me about them each time he sees them again.

Feeling like a whale already...

2011-07-25T22:52:00.000-07:00

I've had a few people ask me to post some belly pictures, so here's the first. I'm pretty sure I didn't look this pregnant until I was about 20 weeks along with Liam, maybe even further. We'll find out the flavors in about 5 weeks. Can't wait!

Oregon Coast 2011

2011-07-09T20:29:00.000-07:00

We went to the Coast for, what has become, our annual weekend getaway. We went to the cheese factory and had our fair share of cheese samples.

We took some cute pictures in the cheese van and had some ice cream.

Liam learned the art of "dipping" and he can't get enough of it. (Break off small pieces of waffle bowl and dip it into your ice cream- That's it!) He has asked for Dip-een just about every day since we got back. I didn't actually get pictures of the ice cream consumption because I was too busy feeding my face, but we all enjoyed it very much. Liam kept running under this table and "hiding." He'd hide his face and say, "Nee-mum... are you?" That means, "Liam, where are you?"

Next, we set up camp and had a run-in with the something that caused Liam's face and hands to break out in red hives and his lips to swell. He was drooly and needed some benadryl. We had to go back to Tillamook to get some medicine.

He was pretty much back to his silly self again within 20 minutes or so of getting medicine.

We drove back near where we were camping, Cape Meares lighthouse. We realized too late that the lid wasn't on the medicine tightly and it dripped all over the stuff in the diaper bag. That meant that it was all over the camera. We cleaned it off as much as possible, but it kind of had a hard time focusing afterward. So, these next pictures are a little blurry.

The next day we got up and met family at the cheese factory again, had some more cheese samples (and ice cream samples) and then carried on to the beach. Liam didn't have a nap all day, so he spent much of his time on the beach like this.

When he was playing, though, he was either covering his daddy with sand...

or belly flopping into the sand to take a big mouthful. He seriously did this 5 or 6 times, taking a big bite every time. I changed sandy diapers for 3 days!

We had a fun time and look forward to the next beach adventure!

Twins

2011-06-29T12:05:00.001-07:00

Due 17 January.

From the Mouth of Babes

2011-06-27T12:10:00.001-07:00

Liam loves church. He loves nursery. He loves pointing to "Papa" Howard sleeping on the stand. He loves Jesus. He loves the temple. Pretty good for a 21 month-old.

Every night when we put him to bed, before we even ask he says "payrsss!" so we all pray together. Then we ask him if he wants to sing a song, and he says "song!" We ask him which song, and he says "Jesus!" Our "Jesus" song catalog consists of "I'm Trying to be Like Jesus," "Jesus Once Was a Little Child," and "Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam."

I tried to mix it up the other night and began singing "I am like a star shining brightly..." when I was rudely interrupted with "JESUS!"

Together as a family, we read one column from his own copy Book of Mormon every day. He has one of the older light blue editions with the image of Angel Moroni on the cover. Every morning he gets his Book of Mormon from the shelf, says "Mo-no-ni" and gives it hugs. Lately he has started repeating some of the words that we say as we read. He usually picks out the words he knows like "water" or "tent," but he also says words that he doesn't know, usually if they're right before a comma and we pause in our recitation. Our favorite so far is "abomination."

Last week I took him to an art exhibit. We were looking at a painting called "Glimpsing Ponte Vecchio" by Cheryl Butterfield, and he said "Temple! Temple!"

Today we were particularly surprised and pleased and proud of him. Chelsie took him upstairs to get dressed before going on some errands. I was in the kitchen heating up some lunch when I heard "Mike, come quick!" - which means something cute is afoot!

I dashed upstairs to have Chelsie tell me that as they walked into his nursery, he took her over to a Lego sculpture he had designed, then explained to her what it was: "Temple! Temple!" I looked at the sculpture and was so proud of him, especially after Chelsie told me that he had made it all by himself.

I have always had strong feelings, even since before he was born, that he would be a mighty tool in his Lord's hands. When you are responsible to teach a child the ways of the Lord, your whole approach to everything changes, especially to your own scripture study. I study to teach and I study to become an example to my children. Being a parent has helped me immensely because of this incidental growth I am trying to do for the sake of my family.

And then my son comes along and teaches me a lesson about the temple, and Jesus, and singing hymns and saying prayers, and repeating scriptures. I couldn't be a prouder daddy, and I know Chelsie feels the same. He's such a good boy.

Here are pictures of the temple he made:

His inspiration looks like it was Ponte Vecchio a little, doesn't it? :)

I don't feel well...

2011-06-24T09:17:00.000-07:00

I always feel like this the day that I have a doctor's appointment. I hate going to the doctor. On the bright side, though, we will find out a due date for our little peanut. My prediction is January 8 ish. We'll stick with the 8th of the month as a good workable due date. Liam was due on September 8, but was born on September 5. Maybe this one could be a December baby to help boost our tax refund! :) Just kidding... sort of.

Guess I better go... Bah!!

Liam's Big Announcement

2011-06-08T11:47:00.000-07:00

Mommy helped Liam make a self-descriptive sign. He did the coloring himself. When Mommy would say things like "color the 'B'" and touch the corner of the letter, he would scribble right where she touched. You can see this in a few places on his great work of art.

Liam is very excited to become a big brother. Okay, not really. He has no idea what it means. But he kisses the baby all of the time, and helps us remember where it is by pointing to Mommy's belly and saying "baby!" He forgets sometimes though, like when we're all playing and he decides to jump on Mommy.

Here is a picture of the two of us that I really like. I'm not sure what the metal object is that he's holding, though. Stapler?

Summer... for real?!

2011-06-04T15:39:00.000-07:00

Liam is napping this beautiful day away. I think I will go wake him as soon as I click "publish post" so we can go run around in the wonderful sunlight. I found these pictures that I haven't blogged about yet, so here you go. The first batch is of my awesome garden!

On May 20 my garden containers looked like this:

peas

red potatoes, spinach, yellow onions

broccoli, green onions

2 types of tomatoes, bell peppers, and carrots

And today they look like this:

peas

birds- eye view- they're getting kinda crazy! It's a bush variety that supposedly doesn't need trellising. Anybody use this kind and is that true?

yellow onions, spinach, red potatoes

red potatoes, spinach, yellow onions, broccoli, green onions

broccoli, green onions, tomatoes, peppers, carrots

And, here is my indoor garden:

salad greens and cherry tomatoes

And, here is my favorite little sprout on May 20:

Mother's Day

2011-05-08T09:23:00.000-07:00

Chelsie seems to always go out of town on Mother's Day. That's good for her mom, because "out of town" usually means Pocatello, unless I'm with her, then it also means Salt Lake City.

Again, I found myself alone for a couple of days with nothing to do. Chelsie wanted a new dining room floor, so I got some help and we did this:

Happy Mother's Day, Chelsie. I love you.

My cute boy

2011-05-02T09:54:00.001-07:00

I just found these pictures from a couple of weeks ago that I haven't blogged about yet. This first set was taken right after Liam's nap. The sun was shining and it was a wonderful day to eat orange slices out on the deck. He still has tired eyes, but I think these are just about as cute as ever!

Most every time I take a picture of him lately, Liam runs over (usually before the picture is complete) and wants to see it on the screen. Then he tries to steal the camera to take pictures by himself. Well, this was one of those times and I decided to let him help me take a picture. Then, magic happened! I said, "can I have a kiss?" and snapped the picture right as he leaned in. Aww! I love my little crazy kid!

A cute family in our ward put together an Easter party for the kids. We colored eggs, the kids made Easter nests, they had a pinata and some other games, and we all brought food to share. It was a lovely time and I thought, for sure, Liam would love to participate in all of the festivities. Not so... well, not as much as he liked driving around in this car. I am pretty sure we're going to need to get him one of these because he spent probably an hour and a half playing. Perhaps next year he'll be a little more social.

The photo finish of the egg race...

On Saturday, the day before Easter, we went with some friends to an Easter egg hunt at a local park. The Easter Bunny came in on a helicopter, which was probably Liam's favorite part. He loves anything that flies in the air.

He was not as excited to actually meet the Easter Bunny. And, he didn't get even one egg during his hunt. The parents weren't supposed to go inside the area, but two seconds in they all were there trying to scoop up the eggs for their child. Liam was annoyed, I think, because he stood there just staring at all of the people and threw his basket down in disgust. We had a hunt later with just a few kids and he loved finding eggs- and, especially, eating the candy inside.

Easter Sunday was fun and busy, as Sundays usually are. Mike had to go to early meetings and left even before Liam woke up. The Easter Bunny had, at some point, delievered some baskets filled with candy, toys, and other goodies.

Liam wore his cute new Easter outfit for church, we combed his hair like a big boy, and we went off to sing praises and to worship our Savior at church. I love Easter. I love the gospel. I love my family. I love my life!

His Hands

2011-04-24T16:42:00.000-07:00

Shortly after I first arrived in the mission field in January 1999, the mission office, using technology much more rudimentary than that to which we are acclimated today, put together a 6-minute video presentation. Set to a recording of Kenneth Cope's "His Hands," the touching slide show was a collection of paintings of the Savior, each image providing an appropriate visual for the song lyrics.

As a missionary full of enthusiasm and spirit, I fell in love with the video immediately, along with the rest of my fellow 140 elders and sisters serving in Tokyo. We used the video to help investigators feel the spirit. We used it to help ward members feel the spirit. We watched it on preparation day to help ourselves feel the spirit! The music and lyrics combined with the images of our beloved Christ all worked together in a marvelous way that uplifted anybody who had eyes to see and ears to hear.

I remember still the day when Elder Tamanaha and I were riding our bikes out to do some tracting. I was singing "His Hands" in my head. We stopped at a red light, and Tama-chan turned to me and commented on what a great song it was. Yes, I had been singing out loud. Luckily we were biking through fields for most of the way.

Ah, to be a tenderfoot, idealistic green bean missionary, invincible, hopeful, unaware of so much in the world, able to cope with anything because of an "I can do anything if I have the Spirit!" attitude. That's how I was! And I accomplished a lot. I learned Japanese quite easily, I was always very optimistic, which helped aid my capabilities and God-given talents. I was going to serve the best mission ever, come home, marry within a year or two, teach at the MTC while studying education at Brigham Young University, have lots of kids, and eventually get hired by the Church Education System to be a full time seminary teacher.

Ah, His Hands. "Though I'm not yet as I would be // He has shown me how I could be // I will make my hands like those from Galilee." That was my theme song.

Reality hit.

I served an adequate mission. I worked extremely hard, but spent my energy mostly spinning my wheels. I was quite the "Law of Moses" kind of missionary, in that the rulebook dictated my actions and reactions, instead of allowing the spirit to rule my heart. I came home to freshly-divorced parents. My siblings and I all experienced trauma and hurt. One almost-bright spot was that I was nearly offered a job by the MTC. Yet as I was not accepted by BYU, the job went to somebody else. My dream of working for CES was dwindling. I pressed forward in my university studies at the University of Utah, but continued to run into money problems. It took me years of stop-and-go, part-time/full-time student work before I was able to work my way through college and get my degree in international studies.

I married at age 28, five years after my self-imposed deadline, to the second girl to whom I had gotten engaged. I had secured a job with a software company, where my talents and ideas were valued, and I was doing okay at supporting myself and my wife. Our son, Liam, joined us in 2009.

Wow. 2009. And now 2011. It has been twelve years since I sat in the chapel adjacent to the Tokyo South Mission home in Kichijoji, Tokyo, in the dark, surrounded by missionaries and looking up at a video screen playing a sweet slide show, uplifting all of our spirits, making us feel invincible.

I have spent a lot of time in the dark in these intervening 12 years. Hurt, mostly. Hard on myself. Perfectionists do not do well in the gospel until they are able to reconcile the fact that it is not behavior that warrants God's love, but rather relationship. And since all of our relationship is "child of God," we all warrant His love. But I dare you to try to behave your way into Heaven, and then mess up along the way. You will beat yourself so much that you become jaded, bitter, and eventually masochistic. You feel unworthy all of the time. Everything you do--or fail to do--becomes yet another club with which to beat yourself over the head. All of this because--well, because why?

Because: I did not have a sufficient understanding of, or faith in the Atonement of Jesus Christ.

I recalled recently a story that a wonderful Institute teacher told once to our class. Brother S. Michael Wilcox, I hope I do this story some justice in this retelling. I think I recall that this was a daydream or a pondering that Brother Wilcox had. In any case, as you read it, you will see that it was a personal revelation to help Brother Wilcox, and through the retelling of it, he has helped many others. The story is about himself, and it goes something like this:

"A great man died and went to Heaven. He was always a great man, but in his own eyes, he was not a great man. He did his best, but was like the rest of us, and made mistakes along the way. He was hard on himself, which indeed proved to be his most enduring sin.

"As he approached heaven, he saw a desk and a chair, and it looked something like the set of the Tonight Show. The Savior sat behind the desk, and asked the man if he would please be seated as they perform an interview. The Savior asked the man questions like 'how was your relationship with your wife?' and 'how was your relationship with your children,' and so forth. For each question asked, the man, who was in reality a great man, could have answered confidently and at length of the great relationship he and his wife enjoyed. The same for his children, and the same for his neighbors and fellow man. Instead, this great man would state things like, 'Well, my wife and I loved each other very much. We had a loving relationship.' He then proceeded to make an accounting of all the times when he and his bride had argued, or a time when he put her down, or hurt her feelings. For each question asked of him, the great man would say something slightly positive, followed by a laundry list of the rotten things he had done.

"The Savior looked at him, puzzled and said 'Mike, I don't remember those things. I do not have any memory of you doing any of that!' 'But I did them, Savior, I did them all!' 'Mike,' Christ lovingly replied, 'I am the Lord, and even I do not remember you doing those things.' Before the man could protest again, the Lord said, 'Mike, let's take a look on the monitor to see exactly what happened.'

"Now remember, they are on the set of the Tonight Show, so a television monitor rose up out of the ground. The man was going to show the Savior that all of those arguments with his wife did actually happen, and that he did actually yell at his children. Not even the Lord would be able to refute the video evidence, and yes, then the Lord would remember all of those rotten things he did.

"The screen powered up and the monitor turned on. There, for them both to see, was a single image. What the man saw, however, was not a moving image of him losing his temper or failing in one of the million ways he claimed to have failed. What the man saw as he sat there with his Savior was a moving image of Jesus Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane suffering for his sins.

"Weeping now, the man turned to his Lord in awesome wonder and gratitude. 'Mike, I do not remember you doing any of what you described to me. No, Mike--I did them. You repented, and they became mine. I did them. Now repent of this last sin: stop being so hard on yourself. Forgive yourself.'"

So what about "His Hands"? Today is Easter Sunday. President Gordon B. Hinckley has said many times that the three most hope-filled words in the English language when spoken together are "He is risen." I just watched another video on YouTube set to the music of "His Hands." The slide show is now video clips taken from church movies. It's much slicker than its 1999 predecessor. The spirit is the same, and even stronger. I have grown much since then. I have many ways in which to mature. I listened to the words and music. I observed the moving images and hearkened back to the 19 year-old me. I felt that I would like to give some loving advice to Elder Brady about the future. "Hope is real!"

Twelve years later, I have been through a lot. But I have been so very blessed. My bride and baby are more than I had ever hoped for. They love me, and I love them. I am in an environment where love is freely expressed--it is my duty to receive it as it is given.

My Savior Jesus Christ rose from the grave. He is risen! He was resurrected, and so has my hope. Hope is real! Christ was not resurrected to the same body that his spirit previously occupied, but into a new and perfect body. He was not sent back to square one, physically. No, my hope hasn't been reset. It's not "back to the drawing board," but rather my hope is founded on the maturity, knowledge and testimony that I have acquired along the way. What has reset, though, is my attitude toward myself--yes, my very ability to love myself.

Everybody: Happiest of Easters to you all. Hope is real!

Especial thanks to my wife Chelsie, our son Liam, my parents, Chelsie's parents, all of our siblings and family members, Bishop Howard and his family, and Bishop Nielson and his family. We love you all!

Sunny days

2011-04-13T08:29:00.000-07:00

Sunny day #1- We went to the zoo with some friends.

Liam liked to crawl around like the animals.

And then, Liam was so sleepy for the car ride home.

Sunny day #2- We ate lunch on the deck. I noticed after uploading these pictures that Liam's lunch is color coordinated... cheese sandwich in an orange and green bowl, orange fork, green sippy with orange juice. That's cute.

Sunny day #3- (actually I think this is the same day as #2 just later) We went to the park. Liam was so sleepy because he hadn't napped yet. (It was about 2:00 in the afternoon. We had just finished playing outside on the deck, actually. Mike came out of the office and said he was done with work and wanted to know if we wanted to go play at the park. We decided that we better go before putting Liam down for a nap because A. Mike had to work that night and B. the sunshine is a fleeting thing around here. It may have disappeared before too long.) So, we tortured Liam by making him go to the park in the sunshine and play on toys and swings and slides. :)

Would you like to see my pea plants?

How about Liam's Easter basket? (I need to get some buttons for the bunny's eyes and I also have a few surprises that I'll show you later. I made these little fabric baskets, though, that I thought would work for Easter baskets. They're little and cute and I plan to reuse them to organize toys or something in Liam's room.)

The end.

Kinlee came to visit!

2011-03-30T09:18:00.000-07:00

I got pictures 2 times during their visit (boo!), but they are pretty cute. Liam and Kinlee had a fun time together. They got along pretty well and giggled and played. We always have super busy Sundays and this one was no exception. I had to cook a roast and make several dozen rolls for dinner before Sunday morning because Mike and I also had meetings that morning. Right after church I had choir practice, then we went directly to the Howards for dinner/ Gage's farewell party. (He just left to the MTC this morning. Hopefully his visa will come soon and he will be off to Brazil.) Anyway, Kambree helped me make rolls on Saturday night so we would be ready for Sunday. The kids decided to help, too.

Liam started eating the flour that I'd lay out to knead the dough in.

Kinlee wasn't too sure about it...

She eventually went for it and this was her reaction. I think she still wasn't sure whether she liked it or not.

Liam had no problem eating straight ol' flour, though. Weird!

The next batch of pictures is from the morning that the Meudts left. I realized I didn't have very many pictures of their trip about 15 minutes before they pulled out of the driveway, so I quickly busted out the camera.

Just the kiddos eating breakfast that morning... I totally dig Kinlee's bed head!

Liam is getting better at feeding himself with utensils.

Mostly, though, he just shoves everything into his mouth at the same time.

Kinlee is such a cutie...

Liam is sad that they had to leave... He woke up the next couple of mornings wondering where Kinlee was. "Kin-ee, Kin-ee," he would yell as he walked around the house.

Thanks for visiting, you guys. Come back any time!

I Am a Child THANK YOU!

2011-03-24T08:54:00.000-07:00

Last night was Wednesday night. What this means is Chelsie goes to Young Women, and Mike usually goes to the clerks' office to do clerking. Depending on what the Young Women are doing, Liam sometimes goes with Daddy, but is usually with Mommy. Daddy sometimes goes with Mommy, too.

Anyway, at around 8:40 Chelsie came to the clerks' office. I told her I was nearly done and would be out shortly. Ten minutes later, I found them in the Young Women room. As I walked in, Michelle, one of the Beehives, told me "Liam has been singing 'I Am a Child of God!'"

For the next several minutes until we dropped Michelle off at her home, Liam and Michelle had the following exchange over and over:

Michelle: Liam! say "I am"
Liam: Am!
Michelle: "a child"
Liam: Chi!
Michelle: "of God"
Liam: (pause, followed by a high-pitched) ... THANK YOU!! (which actually sounds like 'tankoo!')
Michelle: He was saying it before!
Michelle: Liam! say "I am"
Liam: Am!
Michelle: "a child"
Liam: Chi!
Michelle: "of God"
Liam: (pause) ... THANK YOU!!

And repeat ad infinitum.

Our sweet little child of tankoo!

We Lost Liam...

2011-03-19T14:04:00.000-07:00

...and we didn't know where to find him! One minute we were in his nursery cleaning and playing, and the next minute, he had vanished. The nursery door was closed, so we knew he could not have gotten far. We searched aaaall over. We called out.

"Liiii-am? Liiii-am! Where are you, Liam?"

Then, mommy's shoe organizer made a noise. The noise sounded strangely like a little, tiny laugh.

Were the shoes laughing at us? But we didn't have time to deal with a shoe organizer. We had to find our son! The search continued.

"Liiii-am? Liiii-am! Where are you, Liam?"

Then again, another noise! The shoe organizer MOVED! But how could it have moved? The only way I know for something to move is if it has feet. Shoe organizers do NOT have feet. But. Wait. What? WHY is Mommy's shoe organizer growing... FEET!?

We decided that this was far too strange an occurrence to ignore, and just HAD to take a closer look. We creeeeept up sooo sloooowlyy... When all of a sudden, the shoe organizer started to shake! It was coming right for us! AUGH, LOOK OUT!

Boy, were we surprised to find out what was making the noises! Those feet? They belonged to Liam! He was just hiding, after all! He had a great time tricking Mommy and Daddy!

After we discovered his hiding place, he had more fun playing behind there. He would enter from the right, wait for a few seconds and burst out the left side! Then, he'd do it all over again.

*Sigh* I love parenthood!

Recent happenings

2011-03-18T19:19:00.000-07:00

Last week (or something like that) Liam and I played outside in the mud. I actually put together one of my garden containers so that I could plant my onions, spinach, and potatoes. Liam ran around in the grass and played in the mud. He had a super fun time- you could see it on his face!

And, I just threw this one in because it's cute. Fishy kisses!

Sgt Serge and other fun

2011-03-09T14:03:00.001-08:00

March 8-

Liam got this cute zhu zhu pet named Sgt. Serge from his cousins for Christmas. He loves this thing! He laughs and laughs when he pushes the buttons and hears its little mousy chirps. He loves making him go. He thinks it's really funny to watch him go on the carpet because he kind of jumps along. Anyway, we decided to take the fun a step further by building Sgt. Serge a little cage, where he could freely go. Liam had fun with this for a while, but then decided it was more fun to wreck the barrier and throw cans on the floor.

Bonus! Video...

March 9-

I was asked to sing for the Relief Society birthday dinner next week and I've been struggling coming up with a song that fits the theme of the activity- 4 Seasons of Sisterhood.

(Any ideas, shout them out). Today I rewrote the lyrics to a song, thinking that it might work if I can't find something else. I took Liam downstairs to play while I practiced my song a few times.

He climbed up onto my crafting table, found some markers, and drew all over himself. It wouldn't be such a big deal except that it's permanent marker.

I'm actually kind of glad that the pants he was wearing today are way too big. He took them off right before we went downstairs. He would have ruined his pants for sure!

Bonus! Another video...

A couple of things I should probably explain: When he tells me what happened to his leg you may notice what he's doing with his hands. He loves to play patty-cake and, I guess, he has associated "markers" with "mark it with a B."

It's a little bit hard to tell in this video, but he loves to go "driving." One Sunday morning he surprised me by saying, "Driving," pointing at the steering wheel, and made the driving motion with his hands. (we have never before done "driving" with him, he just picked it up) Since then he loves showing us how he goes driving. He also likes to get inside his baby tub and pretend that it's a race car.

And, last thing- at the very end he says "gock," which I think is actually "look" meaning that he wants to see the picture I just took with the camera. This kid surprises us every day with new things he's picked up: new words or new experiences. He's just so smart!

We almost died!

2011-03-03T15:28:00.000-08:00

So, here's the deal. We've all been pretty sick... see

SICK! So, there hasn't been much picture taking happening around these parts. We've still had stuff going on and Liam says and does cute, silly things, but I have no photographic evidence. I can't imagine that you'd want to actually READ the ol' blog, so I waited to update until I had some cute pictures again, as to not bore you with too much text.

Here are some pics of the little cutie bug, who, incidentally is now old enough to hang out in nursery! Woot!
Not that I don't absolutely love the little man running around, banging on the girls' chairs in Young Women, and climbing up onto the table so he can draw pictures on the chalkboard. Not that I won't miss his stinking up the little room with that afternoon drawer filling.

And, not that I won't miss snuggling during the lesson, trying to get him to sleep, while he just screeches because he wants to get down and play! Of course I'll miss all of that on my Sundays! :) All kidding aside, I am a little nervous about him learning certain words like, "mine," and hitting and fighting with other kids.

I am hoping he isn't a problem- I hope he is sweet and well-mannered and happy and positive. I hope he participates and sings during singing time and doesn't throw fits. I hope he is a good boy and that he has fun in nursery. I really will miss the little stinker, though.

Liam's robot room

2011-02-11T09:37:00.000-08:00

I'm not completely finished with Liam's room, but since I'm going through some pictures right now I thought I'd show you around.

Here's the big boy bed.
Some friendly robots to protect him.

Some art, cogs, and accessories.

I want to reupholster the rocking chair and ottoman something fun and modern. Maybe some stripes. And some cute, robot-y mobile for the corner.

Also, I forgot a couple of words that Liam seriously uses all the time, and I can't believe I forgot them: cookie, candy, and stuck.

Words

2011-02-11T08:00:00.000-08:00

I wanted to quickly write down some of Liam's new words before I forget. It seems like his vocabulary is increasing daily, even hourly. He will try to say just about everything but these are the words that he's been using correctly lately.

Couch, church, touch, watch, eyes, hair, hat, ball, stuck, one (want one), dance, tickle, shoes, socks, bird, bed, night night, rock, clock, book, boo, Kyleigh (says Ky-ee), go, bath, snack, amen

I'm sure I've forgotten some. And, of course, he still says all his other words like Ma-ma and Daddy that he's been saying forever. The list, though, keeps getting longer and he continues to perfect the words he says. He's a smart cookie!

Baby Lap Dance

2011-02-03T22:11:00.000-08:00

Shamrell house.

Liam had finished his nightly warm milk.

He usually gets revved up before crashing.

Tony puts on the Beach Boys.

Hilarity ensued, presented in three 1-minute videos:

For those of you who got this in email and can't see the videos, click this link:

BLOG

Daddy's shoes

2011-01-26T09:41:00.000-08:00

The other day Liam thought he was so clever because he could walk around in Daddy's shoes.

Cute as a button! We had his 15 month check-up about a month and a half late because we missed it with all of our December travels. The doctor said he is performing a few months ahead- that he is smart and doing very well. He is tall- in the 90%, but skinny- in the 10%. The doctor said that it's nothing to be concerned about because he is super active. He just runs around all day long, so he's exercising it all away. Not to mention that his Daddy is super skinny. His head size is also in the 90%. He needs a big head for all those brains! He really is very smart- he says all sorts of words (some of his newest are- gook: book, gock: rock, bay: baby, wv-wv: waffle, der-a-go: there ya go, tayk-ew: thank you, fww: food, ha-tt: hat, shew: shoe, Shh: Jesus). He loves to speak in an old man voice. He makes all sorts of animal noises. He sleeps in a big boy bed! He gives kisses all the time. He sings and dances. He colors on a paper. He undresses himself (ugh! He prefers to be naked). He climbs on EVERYTHING. He loves to "help" me with whatever project I'm doing. He is such a fun, happy little boy. We love him like crazy!

Glasses!

2011-01-18T23:40:00.001-08:00

I got my new glasses in the mail today!!! I know, right!? I haven't been able to see while wearing glasses for many years. And now- I can! I took out my contacts and slapped these babies onto my face just as soon as I got the package open. I love them and I love them! We played with our fake glasses and Liam today. He had a good time and made us laugh all afternoon!

A couple of cuties

2011-01-17T21:09:00.001-08:00

One of the first things we did when getting back home from our holiday vacation was hang out with the Geurts. Here are a couple of pictures from that time together. I have no idea what Liam is doing in the picture- perhaps he's showing us his teeth...?

He is obsessed with smothering littler people than him (especially girls) in kisses and hugs. Sometimes, actually, we find him just smothering them by pinning them on the ground. Yes, more than once...

I forgot this one...

2011-01-13T09:33:00.000-08:00

Grandpa Larry was Liam's best friend by the end of the trip. When he had his buh-koo he had to be sitting in Grandpa's lap

ALSO.. LIAM GOT A HAIRCUT! He looks pretty cute all shaved.

And now we go to Utah...

2011-01-13T08:52:00.000-08:00

Christmas night we drove to Utah. We went to a missionary homecoming- Mike's cousin- Sunday morning and had Christmas dinner with the fam that night. It was delicious, as usual. Then the kids played, we opened gifts, and played with our new toys afterward. The kids were so darn cute that I just kept taking pictures of them playing. So, you get several. :)

Liam was eying all the presents as they passed by to their rightful owners. He liked tearing the paper and playing with the packaging more than anything.

I'm not sure who looks funnier, the creepy lady or the drunk baby.

Monday night we went to a wedding reception. It was fun and Liam loved dancing, but I can't prove it. You'll just have to believe me.

But the next night, Tuesday, I got lots of pictures! We went to Temple Square and oohed and ahhed at the lights. Liam had fun for most of it. Then he got cold and grouchy on the walk back to the car. It was fun.

Liam says "Jesus" but it sounds like "Shh!" We loved seeing "Shh" at Temple Square. That is one place we want to go every time we are in Salt Lake. There is just something about it!

30 days ago...

2011-01-12T21:37:00.000-08:00

... Which brings us to Pocatello. Liam was loving all of the Christmas decorations at my parents' house. He loved the ornaments so much that he broke a couple- really fancy nice ones, too. Sorry, Mom.

One of my projects I talked about in the last post was to make some cake balls for my brother, Todd, on a mission. We did a twelve days of Christmas thing for him and I had days 10, 11, and 12. He got 10 cake balls, 11 candy bars, and 12 greeting cards. Of course, I had to make a box for the cake balls!

Christmas Eve celebrations were held at Grandma's, which is tradition.

We all sit around, eat food, laugh and try to keep the babies away from the breakables. Sorry about all the pictures at this part. I actually narrowed it down to these cutest ones. This little boy is just too adorable.

Christmas morning!! Liam wore his cute red jammies to bed so that he'd be cute and festive on Christmas morning.

And, seriously... what's Christmas morning without an awesome snot bubble? Let's take a closer look...
Our Christmas was complete with red jammies, snot bubbles, presents, yummy breakfast, games, toys, missionary phone conversations, smiles, hugs, and family. Come back tomorrow, when we go to Utah for more holiday fun!

32 days ago...

2011-01-12T16:01:00.000-08:00

December 10... Oh, December 10! That is where it all went awry. I got a call that afternoon from my mom informing me that my grandfather was just put in the hospital and it wasn't looking good. He was without oxygen for way too long and was in a coma. Even if he did come out of the coma he would be in a vegetative state. He passed away the following day. We were planning to go home for the holiday on the 22nd- driving to Boise that night and arriving in Pocatello the next morning. Instead, though, we started out our drive on Sunday, December 12 so that we weren't driving during a work day. We packed everything up including all of my unfinished Christmas projects and drove the 12 hours. This day, though, we weren't going for holiday parties and jolly fun, but to be with family during a difficult time. The funeral was on Thursday. Whitney wrote a wonderful life sketch and we enjoyed celebrating my Grandpa's life. He was a good man and we will miss him. We know that he isn't suffering anymore and got to have holiday parties and jolly fun with his family in heaven.

Anyway, before all of that- back to December 10, we saw Santa again at Liam's pediatrician office. I think this was the real Santa, though. None of that fake beard and pillow-stuffed coat for this guy. Straight from the North Pole, I tell you!

Liam also became fascinated with shoes this day. He wore my boots all day long and tried walking in them. That. Was. Funny.

39 days ago...

2011-01-12T10:30:00.000-08:00

We're onto Dec. 6. Here's another nakey pic, because there's nothing cuter!

Liam was really into wearing coats for a while. He wanted to wear his coat all the time, including when he was jammied up for the night. And, he went through a phase of drinking his milk without holding on. He'd bite the spout between his teeth and tip his head as far back as necessary. He would try to walk and play while drinking.

And, moving right along to Dec. 8.

We had pizza. Liam had crust. I swear I broke it into little pieces for him. He took all the little pieces and squished them all in his mouth. He wouldn't let me take any out and eventually somehow he got them all down.

21 days ago...

2011-01-12T10:18:00.000-08:00

was the last time I posted anything on the ol' blog. My mom let me know. That was her way of saying, "Post something already!" I'm a little overwhelmed, though, because I have so much to post. Guess I'll get started with December 1. Wow! That is a long time ago. So really the title should be 43 days ago... Sorry, Mom!

Liam was "helping" decorate for Christmas. He decided to decorate his head. This is a good picture of his chicklet teeth.

On Dec. 3 we had our ward Christmas party. I just happened to snap this picture at the right time and Liam looks like he's rapping.

And Liam saw Santa. He wasn't too thrilled at first, but warmed up to the jolly man long enough to get a cute picture.

Stay tuned, there's lots more to come.

21 December, part 2

2010-12-21T11:44:00.001-08:00

Here are a couple more pictures. Chelsie was playing with Liam on the couch when I came into the room. Liam decided to leave the couch to greet Daddy, but was overcome by a sudden fatigue. I laid him down on the arm of the couch--where he just lay without moving for a couple minutes.

So why not take a picture or two?

Notice that Winnie the Pooh is staring intently at the boy's foot.

21 December

2010-12-21T11:33:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since anybody has posted here, so here are several images taken with my phone:
3D glasses:

Sleeping in the car:

Awake in the car:

We rearranged our front room not only for Christmas, but also to avoid this:

The "Nacho Libre Strut":

And a video:

Jocelyn's wedding reception

2010-11-29T17:01:00.000-08:00

Jocelyn got married last month in Rexburg and just had her reception here in Gresham this weekend- just two days after Thanksgiving.

Mike put together the video. He also took care of the baby tending while I took pictures:

Here's the whole fam:

The happy couple:

And some details:

Jocelyn didn't want a cake. She said that she and Adam would feed cake balls to each other, which is all the cake that they were planning to have. Karen and I found some pictures of wedding cakes made out of cake balls and thought we'd give it a go. Karen made all the cake balls- something like 450 in total! Yuki and I put the cake together on Friday morning. I painted the scrolled vines on top and Yuki made some fondant flowers. I found a picture of cake balls dressed like a bride and groom and Karen made a couple to go on top. I think it all turned out so awesome!

Thanksgiving

2010-11-29T16:50:00.000-08:00

I totally failed at documenting our Thanksgiving weekend with family. I got the following measly shots...

Here's Mike carving the turkey. We smoked our turkey- boy, was it delicious! Thanks Bishop!

Yuki and I did all the cooking- we had turkey, mashed taters, gravy, stuffing, rolls, green bean casserole, cranberry sauce, veggies and hummus, and pies. Thank you, Yuki, for making such delicious food!

We had a great Thanksgiving with Mike's sister, Yuki, and her family: Joseph, Akiko, Moses, baby Asher, Sam, and Hannah.

This is Moses and you can see Akiko in the background. I'm bummed that I didn't get more pictures of all the kids. This was the first time we had met Asher and the first time any of them had met Liam. Even though I have no evidence, we had a lot of fun. We ate food, played games, sat around and talked, played with kids, made a wedding cake... wha? That's the next post. Anyway, thanks for spending Thanksgiving with us, Weckers. We loved having you! Please come again soon!

Family pictures

2010-11-29T16:23:00.000-08:00

We took some pictures to use for Christmas cards. These are the best ones. It's a little bit difficult to take decent pictures when running back and forth from the camera on the tripod to the rambunctious little boy who just wanted to run and play with leaves.

Mike took some pictures of Liam and me. I think these turned out pretty cute.

The ones that I took of Mike and Liam all came out blurry and dark. I don't know what happened.

Nov. 15

2010-11-16T20:51:00.000-08:00

Some cute recent pictures of our little stinker. He's getting quite clever and so smart. He dances, sings, talks, and knows how to make us giggle. His favorite words are wow, mama, dad, ka-ka (cracker- which just means anything he can eat), ooh-ahh-ahh (monkey sound), mo (amen), nigh-nigh (night night), bahhw (ball), pa pa, hi, bah- bah (whenever he wants something he says bah-bah. I have no idea where he got that.), puh (please- he has only said this once or twice), go, car, bye-bye (or just "bye" in a really sweet-baby voice). He watches Mike leave to work out the front window. He waves and says, "Bye, dad!" over and over. It is so cute! He also mimics a lot of what we do. He snores when we fake snore. He knows where his nose is, where his shoes go, and how to get dressed. I can't wait to show this squirt off when we come home for Christmas. So excited!

Pumpkin patch- October 30

2010-10-31T22:09:00.000-07:00

We went to a beautiful pumpkin patch on Saturday.

Liam played on this cool vintage tractor.

We took a bunch of pictures with Sachi-bear...

...played with some horses

... and went on a carriage ride.

Then, when we got home, we drank caramel apple cider and ate candy corn.

October 29

2010-10-29T22:51:00.001-07:00

We had a great time at the ward Halloween party tonight. Liam's costume was a hit. Mike's makeup was awesome. We had way too many sweets. It was a good night.

This is Moe- one of my young women. She is such a nice girl.

This is a giant sandbox filled with rice for the wee ones. Liam LOVED it! Also, this is Kyleigh- Liam's girlfriend.

There were two Cleopatras

I think Mike was the only zombie.

Brother G was freaked out a little. He didn't quite know what to think.

Liam liked eating cookies. People were all too eager to share with him, too.

Nachoooooo!

Liam doesn't look thrilled that his dad is trying to eat his brains.

Happy Halloween, everybody!

October 20

2010-10-20T11:50:00.001-07:00

Too cute to not post...

October 15 & 17

2010-10-17T23:12:00.000-07:00

October 15:

We built a fort and had so much fun! Liam loved playing in it and finding new secret passages in and out. We kept it up for a couple of days because Liam seemed very bothered when I tried to take it down.

The tour-

Welcome to my fort. I love it!

Come around to the main entrance.

Here is where the babies sleep... let's take a closer look

There's Scout, Toggl, Sachi-bear, and baby Pooh all tucked in for their nap

And that completes the tour. Thank you for coming- now get out!

October 17: Today

I was making rolls and Liam was playing around in the cupboards and by the window and with his toys- nothing abnormal. I looked over at the pantry and found little Curious George making a mess with the cornmeal. It actually looked pretty fun. I would like to play in a big canister filled with cornmeal! I had to snap some pictures before cleaning up the mess.

How could I stay mad when he pulls this face?

Our Little Tobias

2010-10-15T14:02:00.000-07:00

Those of you familiar with the television series "Arrested Development" will probably be the only ones to appreciate this post.

In this TV show is a neurotic character named Tobias Funke (FYOON-keh), who is a self-titled "nevernude." He has a complex where he is absolutely terrified of even bathing, unless he is wearing his cutoff denim shorts.

Here is Tobias in the doctor's office:

Here is Tobias being mocked by his on-screen wife about his complex:

Recently, Chelsie bought some Huggies for our little man. They didn't have the regular white diapers, but instead all she had to choose from were the diapers that are made to resemble little jeans shorts:

And here is our own little nevernude:

No, this won't be his Halloween costume. If it were, I'd probably vote for the nevernude Blue Man (Tobias auditions to join the Blue Man Group):

Instead, Liam will be dressing like this for Halloween:

HAPPY HALLOWEEN! (almost)

Sept. 20, 22, 25, 28 & Oct. 1

2010-10-01T21:50:00.000-07:00

Sept. 20

Liam likes to have things around his neck. Tonight his neck accessory happened to be the Wii nunchucks. We love playing with our silly baby! He seems to be frightened by the crazed expression I have on my face! :)

Sept. 22

Liam loves to watch the garbage truck on Tuesday mornings. He actually loves looking out the window no matter what's happening. Tonight, in fact, (Oct. 1) he spent a lot of time watching some neighbor kids ride their bikes. He also tries to escape any time the front door is opened. He'd play outside for hours if I let him.

Sept. 25

We went to the Oregon History Museum on Saturday, the 25th for FREEEE! It was National Smithsonian something or other so many of the museums were offering free admission on that day only. We rode the train downtown with Janae, Dallin, Saren, and Mitsy (Dallin and Saren's grandma). The kids were quite well behaved and worn out by the time we rode the train back home. It was a fun-filled day, but this is the only cute picture I got.

Also, notice the massive bruise on Liam's forehead in this picture that you don't see in the ones previous. We knew it would happen eventually: Liam took a dive off of his high chair right onto the vacuum. Later that day he also shut his head in the refrigerator and fell right into the corner of the wall causing bruises across his entire forehead.

Sept. 28

Monday, FHE, the day after my birthday... We had a packed weekend to celebrate my birthday and the fun just kept happening during the week. We played all day then went to Toy Story 3 at the cheap theater for FHE Monday night. Liam did okay for the first 30 minutes or so then got really sleepy. He slept for the rest of the show. He was dressed when we went out, don't worry! This was earlier in the day, playing catchphrase, of course!

Oct. 1

And now, today... I got a crochet pattern for a really cute beanie for kids and have been all about the crochet lately. The hat is not quite done, but I have to find some buttons to finish it off. Liam has really enjoyed the extra toys to play with (aka: my crochet hooks and yarn). He was super playful tonight, so I snapped a few photos. I can't get enough of his silly, cute, crazy little faces. I love this kid so much!

Liam Claus

2010-09-21T20:38:00.001-07:00

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

2010-09-18T12:48:00.000-07:00

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

2010-09-14T22:55:00.001-07:00

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

2010-09-14T22:27:00.000-07:00

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

2010-09-09T14:26:00.000-07:00

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

2010-09-07T22:20:00.000-07:00

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!

I'm too sexy...

2010-08-24T21:49:00.001-07:00

Liam had just gotten out of the bath. He doesn't like to have clothes on, let alone a diaper. I let him run around for a minute while I got his jammies ready. I came to get him and this is what I found...

Mister Trumpet- Messy- Eater Man

2010-08-19T11:41:00.001-07:00

Liam's favorite toy right now is the mouthpiece off of Mike's trumpet. Daddy will blow into it to make the trumpet sound and Liam will then try. He sticks the whole thing in his mouth and blows. Soon, drool starts dripping out of it as he runs around "playing the trumpet."

The other day, when Liam was eating some oatmeal, he bit down on the spoon and blew out- getting oatmeal all over the place. It caught me by surprise and I laughed hysterically for a couple of minutes. Liam thought it was pretty funny that he made me laugh so hard, so he kept doing it. It turned into a HUGE mess, but we had so much fun! When I was getting pictures of the aftermath, actually any time I get the camera out these days, he kept pulling his scrunchy face. This would, of course, make me laugh harder and he'd keep doing it. This kid is so crazy!

We went to the Coast...

2010-08-10T09:40:00.000-07:00

... and it was lovely! We had a really great time this weekend camping and playing on the beach. We decided Friday afternoon to just pack up and head out. We arrived at a campground called Cape Lookout at about 9:00 pm only to find out it was full. We drove about 20 minutes to a different site that had vacancies. Mike surprised Liam and me by renting a cabin instead of just a tent site. This turned out to be very fortunate because Liam didn't sleep very well- he would have kept up all the campers around us if we were in a tent. We ate tin foil dinners, which we cooked over our new $12 coal grill!

In the morning we went on a nature hike that was so beautiful. The campground is right near a creek with waterfalls and everything. There were ferns and trees of every kind. It was a really beautiful place.

We had lunch at a seafood place in Tillamook (which was delicious) and celebrated our anniversary (which is actually today- Aug. 10). We then went to Oceanside beach, where we rode our bikes, chased the seagulls, walked through a cave, took lots of pictures, and just had a great time. Liam got splattered with mud during the ride, which he didn't mind at all. He enjoyed eating the sand, in fact. He kept chewing on rocks, too. Disgusting! We met up with the Howard clan that evening for dinner at their rented house on the beach. They are family reunion-ing this week. Anyhow, here are the pictures from our wonderful weekend:

The way there... Mike wanted to make sure to get the watch in the shot.

We set up the pack-n-play in the cabin, hoping that Liam would sleep there for the night. He liked to play in it, but sleep? No.

Chef Mike preparing the coals.

We had a private bridge to our cabin.

They call it the Victorian large cabin. There are 3 beds, a microwave, and a television (with VCR).

We're going for a walk...

This stump was so cool. Look at all those colors.

Some of the fabulous scenery.

Good thing we had the rugged jogging stroller. Mike is easing it down a cliff.

This is the only picture we got at lunch. Liam liked to wear daddy's hat... for about 5 seconds.

Now for beach pictures.

This cave was basically a slit in the wall with a larger opening near the bottom. It looked like someone had been inside, though, because there were beer cans visible. Real classy.

The fog was very cool.

On the other side of the beach, near the cliffs, is another cave that you can walk through. It provides access to another part of the beach, where the waves were quite intense. These windows were along the entrance to the cave- cut into the cement sides. Cute photo opp if you ask me!

This is how we spent most of our time on the beach...

...which is how this happened.

Liam didn't mind, though. He liked to lick it off his hands.

He also liked eating all the sand on the beach and chewing on the rocks.

When he wasn't grinding bits of sand and rocks through his teeth, he was chasing sea gulls, of course.
That was our trip to the coast. We loved it. Until next time!

This post has seriously taken me all day because the photos take forever to upload. So, I uploaded these and more to a facebook album. Check them out here.

I have a video coming also- Liam says "Quack!"-- sort of.

VOTE NOW!

2010-08-09T13:33:00.000-07:00

I don't know when voting began because I never received an email, but when I went to the Gerber site I could now vote for my munchkin. So, go here and vote if you want.

The Gerber Site

You can do a search for specific pictures by first name or entry number. His first name is, of course, Liam and his entry number is 49265

(You can vote once each day from the same computer, so vote every day if possible!)

Chelsie, please don't be upset...

2010-08-03T12:33:00.001-07:00

More family photos

2010-08-03T11:36:00.000-07:00

July 30

2010-08-02T12:50:00.000-07:00

Playing with Daddy...

Idaho trip 2010

2010-07-31T11:34:00.000-07:00

We went to Idaho for a fun little summer vacation the past week and had a really good time. Mike surprised me by coming unexpectedly and actually ended up on the same flight. It was so nice to have him help me through the airport with all of our stuff. Liam was a good boy on the flight. He especially liked looking out the window, pointing, and saying, "Ooo!" We spent time with my sisters and their families, swimming, picnicking in the mountains, parading, eating, and just hanging out. We packed quite a bit into the weekend while Mike was in town. By Sunday we were all exhausted. Mike flew home on Sunday night, but not before getting delayed in Salt Lake for a couple of hours. Liam and I stayed in Pocatello until Thursday evening.

One of my favorite things to do at my parents' house is card making. My mom has all sorts of awesome equipment, supplies, and paper to make some really intense paper crafts. We spent several hours chatting and crafting. I always leave Idaho more motivated to create things.

Most of the rest of the time in Idaho was spent eating yummy food, visiting with family, and letting the kids play together. We got some cute pictures of all of the cousins together. That is the best part about those mini vacations- family time; I love seeing the kids. Those girls are so cute and sweet. We loved being there with everyone.

We also loved coming home because Liam wasn't sleeping well. I think he is like his mom in that he doesn't like to sleep when things are going on. He doesn't want to miss anything. So, he wasn't getting his naps and was staying up way too late. We've only been home for a day and a half, but already he's pretty much back to normal sleeping patterns.

Now our week in photos:

We had lunch in SLC with Grandma and Kristen before driving with Shaylee to Pocatello.

We swam and played with cousins.

The little ones ate graham crackers and nilla wafers. Liam ate his own share plus stole the other kids', especially from Kinlee...

...which is why she is upset in this one.

The big kids played water balloon volleyball for a bit. We made up silly rules and just had a lot of fun. Peyton was our official water balloon girl. She made sure that the winning side had a fresh balloon to start the new round.

July 24th was a Pioneer Day Parade. It was a typical Pocatello parade with some good floats, some not so good floats, and lots of candy! Here is the whole gang at the parade.

We had fun making faces...

...playing with cousins...

... and taking pictures.

I posted a lot more photos on my facebook page. It is easier to post a lot of photos there than here on the blog. So to see those, go here.

Here are some family pictures that Whitney took: (more to come)

Bonus video:

Liam and Papa playing at the stairs. Sorry about the abrupt ending, but I was worried he would fall into the bricks.

July 20- another day at the park

2010-07-20T13:08:00.001-07:00

For FHE last night we went to the park. Liam was really sleepy, so it took him a while to really get into it. After warming up, though, he liked the swing, crawling around like a bear, standing in the grass, and playing with his ball... oh yeah, and eating the dirt, rocks, and grass.

Bonus! Video of Liam playing and standing. He has taken a couple of steps, but only when we make him. I think he can get anywhere he needs to go by crawling at lightning speed, so there's no need to walk. We're working on it, though.

July 19

2010-07-20T12:58:00.000-07:00

Liam hasn't been sleeping well again/ still. He wakes up about every hour and a half on average. We've tried letting him cry it out, we've given him ibuprofen before bed, we feed him lots of food at night so he shouldn't be hungry. Anyway, this boy needs to start sleeping at night because otherwise he'll have a couple of perpetually cranky parents.

Noonles

2010-07-20T12:49:00.000-07:00

That is how my niece, I think it was, used to say "noodles." So, now Mike and I call them noonles. Liam loved eating them, almost as much as getting them all over the place.

Voting will begin later...

2010-07-13T08:10:00.000-07:00

So, I just found out that you cannot vote until after the photo has been up for 1 month. I will post a reminder when voting begins. Sorry about the confusion. You can be rallying votes, though!

Thanks!

Vote for our Gerber Baby

2010-07-13T07:32:00.000-07:00

I entered the photo from the last entry into a Gerber contest. There are something like 50,000 entries so far, so it will probably be a far-fetched idea, but go on over and give him a vote. It would be so cool if he won!

http://www.gerber.com/Photo/?entryid=49265&source=10086654&utm_source=Gerber&utm_medium=email&utm_content=PhotoAcceptedReminder&utm_campaign=GerberGeneration#/gallery/

You can do a search for specific pictures by first name or entry number. His first name is, of course, Liam and his entry number is 49265

Get on over there and give him a little votey vote. (I think you can vote 1 time each day from each email address.)

Photoshop fun

2010-07-11T17:03:00.000-07:00

I've been playing around with Photoshop for a bit this Sunday afternoon. You will probably recognize most of these photos. I've had a lot of fun tweaking the colors and doing some other neat things. There is SO MUCH that can be done in Photoshop. Each picture can take on a completely different mood depending on the effect that you change. It is very addicting and I had to stop before I spend all night doing it.

Original photo

Intense colors, especially the eyes and lips, fixed the scratches

Desaturated, added a burned edge

Original photo

Cropped, color adjustments, intensify eyes

More cropping to enhance composition, slight desaturation for effect

More desaturation...
now that I see it on the screen I think maybe I like the previous saturation better

Took the exposure back a bit per Mike's suggestion. I tend to go a little overboard sometimes. Added burned edge. Me likey!

July 7

2010-07-08T10:32:00.000-07:00

I had to go up to Girl's Camp for a couple of days this week to teach a watercolor class for certification. Of course, Liam came with me to flirt with girls and to get swooned over. This is Emily- one of my Young Women. She didn't go to camp this year, but she came up with me to help with Liam. She's cute and Liam loves her. I think she loves him, too, so it works out.

Check out his cute budding teeth!

This is Liam's "face." Ha ha!

Come Out With Your Hands Up!

2010-07-06T22:23:00.000-07:00

"I surrender! I surrender! Yes, I took the Doritos! Forgive me!"

July 5

2010-07-06T10:22:00.000-07:00

We went to the park with some friends to celebrate Independence Day. We had yucky food (picnic-type food... so disgustingly delicious), played some games, roller-blade danced (okay, let's be honest- only I roller-blade danced. The rest of the girls were jealous of my skillz, though), got eaten alive by the mosquitoes, and had a really fun time. We then came back to our house, made some raspberry ice cream, and watched a cheesy movie. It was a very successful 5th of July, indeed!

Liam was the bully, knocking over all the other kids to steal their doritos. He was caught orange-handed.

Sometime during our roller-blading, biking, walking adventure Liam fell asleep. This is him waking up, still in the stroller, realizing I put his hat on him to keep the sun from scorching his baby skin. He promptly took it off because he's a stinker.

And this adorable video is from on the way home after our fun day. Mike ran in to Freddy's to get some berries and other ice cream necessities while Liam and I played in the car. I was simply tapping the bottom of his foot and he thought it was so funny! The video is 2:28 just of Liam giggling. This is only the last 2:28 of about 5 minutes, too. I don't know why it was so amusing, but I LOVE his laugh. I can't get enough!

June 30- A Day at the Park

2010-06-30T18:01:00.000-07:00

I only had my phone, so these aren't the greatest pictures. Liam is pretty cute though. He was charming all the adult visitors at the park. One woman saw him playing on the swings and "had to come see this precious baby." Her name was Fran. Her dogs were Harry and Borg. She was nice.

June 29

2010-06-29T14:09:00.000-07:00

And now for today. I wonder if some of you might be annoyed with all the pictures I post of the little man. So, today I tried something a little different- organizing all the pictures for the day in little packages. Which do you prefer?

These are just of the wee man playing, as usual.

Giggles

2010-06-29T14:05:00.000-07:00

Just some pictures of the cutie patootie at his finest.

Kitchen help

2010-06-29T13:58:00.000-07:00

Liam's idea of a good time is to pull out all of the kitchen supplies we might possibly need to make dinner. He also likes to watch food as it's baking, put his painful teething gums on the warm glass of the oven, and slide down.

Hair

2010-06-29T13:53:00.000-07:00

Liam's hair is getting long, but only in the back. I used Mike's hair gel to spike his baby mullet.

And a Couple More!

2010-06-27T20:36:00.000-07:00

Mowgliam

2010-06-26T21:36:00.000-07:00

I think this one's better.

June 26: The Jungle Book

2010-06-26T15:50:00.001-07:00

We have all read Rudyard Kipling's classic "The Jungle Book," have we not?

Well, then, we've all seen the Disney movie, right?

Okay, that's what I thought. Since we've seen the movie, we probably all remember the scene where Mowgli is marching around with the elephants, like this:

Today, the family took a trip downtown to Washington Park to see the Rose Gardens. They were cool. They were rosie. They were everything you have ever imagined. We didn't get many pictures of the trip because the camera was out of batteries, but we did get a couple shots with the camera on the phone of Liam being weird:

After a while of strolling around all of the different types of roses, we took a rest in the shady grass. We let Liam out of the stroller so he could crawl around in the grass, and... well... he must be afraid of letting the grass touch his knees, because he did his best Mowgli impersonation! It was so funny:

Here are some images we found online, then doctored them up to represent our little guy:

Now, Mowgliam marches with the elephants, too!

Our funny baby!