The Last 6 Months......

Time warping is my excuse for blog negligence. Yes I believe that I must have entered a worm hole, time warp or something to that likeness because Liam was born and then all of a sudden he is now 7 months old, Alex has started preschool, my sister is married, and my brother is coming home from his mission. So forgive me if this post is unusually long but a lot has happened in the last 6 months that I'd like to share.

April

Liam is 2 months old and a mild wonderful baby.

Liam's blessing day.

May

Alex got to drive great grandpa's WW2 Jeep

Liam and I spent a weekend playing at aunt Stephanie's house.

Alex and Liam crack each other up better than anyone else.

Alex is 3 1/2 , a viking warrior, and a karate master with a sense of justice and love well beyond his years.

We went to many weddings this summer. This one was Dustin's friend Tannar. I think boy's in Sunday suites are at their peak handsomeness :)

I'm not sure the ladies will be able to resist with a suave look like that. What a stink'n cute baby! Thank you Steph for adorable 3 month old pictures!

Alex is perfecting his grumpy face....did I mention he is 3 1/2 years old.

Alex, Liam, and I went to the zoo with some of our neighborhood friends.

JUNE

We taught Alex how to play baseball this summer.

HOME RUN!!!!

We took the boys on the first hike of the summer with our neighborhood friends to Donut Falls in June, yes there was still considerable snow pack but that only meant that we got to have snow ball fights along the way!

This was Liam's very first hike ever and he totally rocked it!

Alex, Caleb, Audrey, Mckenzie, & Millie

JULY

4th of July Ward breakfast. Believe it or not this was totally candid, could you ask for a more all American boy lol!

Liam's first 4th of July

Liam learned how to eat in July as well. And this boy LOVES to EAT! He is completely opposite of his brother in this regard. In fact he becomes very jealous when anyone around him eats and doesn't feed him even if he just got done eating.

We spent a weekend at my sister house in Morgan for the Tour de Mt. Green. Alex got to help uncle Slade drive his tractor which was probably the best day of his summer!

Proof that Slade does hold babies and even kinda likes it ;)

Dusty, Steph, and me after the race.

My papa and me before floating the Weber river.

These boys are professional snugglers

This is at Alex's cousin Kai's 2nd birthday but it also doubles as Liam's first time swimming.

We went camping up Big Cottonwood Canyon for the Larsen family reunion this year. This is Dustin and Zack lighting the fire with a toy magnifying glass.

Next to driving tractors camping would be his #1 favorite activity!

Liam is an anywhere baby. Perfectly happy anywhere I take him even if it is the base of a steep rock climbing ledge.

Me rock climbing. I learned that it is possible to finish climbing a wall much faster than you ever thought no matter how scared you are, when you can hear your baby crying at the bottom of the wall with no one to comfort him.

Dusty and Alex snugg'n in the tent

Yes this is Liam's first time camping as well, which was way sooner than Alex's 1ts time which wasn't till he was 2 1/2

Alex and his cousin Davy hiking to Mary's Lake

The rest of the family hiking to Lake Mary

July ended with my sister Stephanie's wedding to Slade Knightly the awesomest BIL!

Alex was the ring bearer and his friend Anya was the flower girl, absolutely adorable!

AUGUST

Alex got his very first 2 wheeler bike, thanks to his friend Caleb!

He took off like he had been riding bikes his whole life. The bike is now referred to as his motorcycle.

Story time is a daily highlight for both of them.

Summer rain storms. It really is the little things that make life great!

As you can see in the picture Alex is wearing underwear because yes he is finally potty trained!

Liam has decided that baby food is for babies and he is not a baby! What ever mom can eat so can he and so he will!

The 3rd summer wedding was Dustin's cousin Shartel up at the Bountiful Temple.

Keep reading your almost done! Blogger has a cap on how long a posting can be so I had to make this summer into 2 posts. The last few pictures are in the September postings under "The last 6 months continued" Sorry for the confusion :)

Anatomy 101 with 3yr olds:

This is a conversation Alex and I had in the car one day that cracked me up so I had to share it.

Me: Alex where is your brain?.......................... Is it in your head?
Alex: *laughing**in a "I know everything" tone of voice* Noooooo it's in my arm, see *points to elbow*.
Me: Oh really, what does your brain do?
Alex: Help think........................like Pooh Bear thinks *taps head repeatedly chanting think think think*
Me: That's right and Pooh Bear taps his head to help him think because his brain is inside his head not his arm right?
Alex: ya.........................is my brain thinking in my head too mom?
Me: yes Alex and it's a very smart brain

I love kids, especially my boys. But that could be because I'm biased lol.

Pics and Clips of us now...

I have come to realize that I have a terminal case of mommy brain and will likely never recover. So to compensate I must take as many pictures as possible and write everything down so I can have some memories further back than what I did yesterday. I learned with Alex that the infancy stage goes by way too fast so we took the boys out and got some pictures before it passed us by this time.

PICS.....

Just me and my babe :)

Fingers, Feet, and Faces.....all so tiny and cute!

I have never seen more love between siblings than I have with Alex and Liam. When I brought Liam home to Alex it didn't feel at all like an introduction but rather a long awaited reunion of best friends. I am so blessed to be their mother.

CLIPS.....

About Alex,

One day, after observing me for a while Alex sat down next to me as I was nursing Liam and asked " momma what are you doing?" I told him I was feeding Liam milk from my body. He then said "I want to taste your milk too." Feeling under prepared, my impromptu response was "well only babies with no teeth can drink my milk, you are such a big boy with sharp teeth you can eat yummy food." Thankfully that answer seemed to satisfy his 3 year old curiosity. However a few days later I was nursing again and Alex sat down next to me with his baby doll and said my baby is hungry, lifted his shirt and started nursing his doll. I tried so hard to stifle my laughter but admittedly it was really hard. I didn't even try to explain that one to him.

About Liam,

We call Liam the elephant bird for the two things he excels at, elephant noise imitations and the never ending open bird mouth signal for "I'm hungry". Truly you will never hear a better elephant call than Liam. There really isn't much else to report about him other than he is is just happy, healthy and perfect. And we are so grateful to be able to report that :)

About Dusty,

He is happily working for the Jordan school district for the time being as an IT geek. He is in charge of all of Copper Hills High Schools computers and anyone else that the district decides needs his help. It's his dream job because he gets to play around with high school kids and computers all day and they have hired him on as a defense football coach for the sophomores. He has already decided that Alex will be a quarterback and Liam will be a running-back. But we will see.

About Me,

Not much to report on me. I stay home and play endless hours of cars, pirates, and rocket ships, change diapers, and snuggle two little boys to sleep. I am supremely spoiled to be surrounded by such wonderful family and friends. I have many adoring family members and friends who willingly take my children for a night so I can sleep or play with them without being asked, or babysit on last minute notice. I'm super grateful to be able to be an at home mom for my boys. I have learned as much from them as they probably have from me. One thing I noticed lately is how much children soak in absolutely everything you say and do. For example I have to feed Liam about every 2 hours which has cut into Alex and I's play time during the day. So when he is nagging me incessantly to play I remind him to be patient. So the other day I was running errands with the boys and Liam was starting to wake up as I was trying to get the boys in the car to go home. Alex was dawdling as usual and I kept telling him to hurry up and get in now and all that sort of thing. Well he turns to me as I am buckling him in and says "remember momma be patient okay." It totally melted my heart and I chilled out and said your right sometimes momma forgets to be patient thanks for reminding me. But on the flip side I have been told a number of time to do something "RIGHT NOW" by him which is something I am also guilty of saying to him. I have found that children are often an excellent reflection of ourselves.