Happy New Year

I decided that Liam could pull off the faux-hawk since it's New Year's Eve and people can get away with a lot of questionable fashion choices on this night. . .

We went to dinner at Hemingways wth the Scallon clan and had a delicious meal.

Aunt Jessie and Emma . . .

Liam waiting for his food . . .

They had music playing on the dance floor so the kids thought they would start the dance party early . . .

. . . Bustin' a move
and dancing with his cousins . . .

Merry Christmas

Liam had a great Christmas! He woke up and found that Santa had left him a basketball hoop. He would have been happy with just that, since he wouldn't give up the ball and open anything else. He just kept practicing shooting and saying "nice shot". . .

. . .when we finally got him to open some gifts, he came across the sit and spin, and Mommy thought she'd see if she could push the weight limit on it. The whole time I was on it, Liam was saying to me "Share, Share!" . . .
. . . after opening lots of presents at our house, we headed over to The Murray's for more Christmas and a yummy brunch. We came home with , among many other things, a drum set for Liam. Apparently Santa has a sense of humor . . . Liam does love them, and he's actually not bad, and I set them up in the basement so they have no chance of coming upstairs . . .
. . .inspecting his stocking . . .

After a nap and some more playing at home, we went to the Scallon's for even more Christmas including presents with cousins, dinner, and dessert. (more pictures to come - I took them on a different camera)

video of the morning. . .

It was a perfect day from morning to night and Liam is tucked in his crib and will hopefully sleep through the night. Merry Christmas everyone!

Christmas Eve

We had a wonderful Christmas Eve. We all went to church in Island Heights and when Nana had all of the children come to the altar to sing "Away in the Manger", Liam went up and halfway through the song decided to jump off the altar, then he stepped back up and jumped again, and then a third time and then ran down the main aisle of the church. Too bad I couldn't ge the video camera out in time, we'd be rich! It is definitely something we will always remember.

Then everyone came back to our house for dinner and drinks.

Here is Maggie enjoying the spread . . .

. . . and Liam and Grandpa
Rachel and Aunt Carly
. . . Mommy and her little elf

Sleep well . . .

Delivering Cookies

Aunt Jaclyn and I spent an entire day baking, since we had off of school due to the snow, and Liam was our taste tester . . . (this was before his haircut, obviously)

After baking, we had to deliver our cookies to the neighbors, Liam was my helper. I put him and the cookies on the sled and we visited 3 houses with the goods . . .

First Haircut

Liam was in desperate need of a haircut and since I've unsuccessfully tried to trim the hair over his ears in the past I thought I should turn to the professionals. . .

He did not want that cape on, but he did sit for the beginning of it and the whole time he said "All done, all done" . . .

At the end he was all smiles and looked a whole lot older. . .

Boys in the Snow

A shot of our house in the snow . . .

Daddy and Liam looking at the bulldozers trying to plow the street . . .

Snowed In . . .

I apologize for the lack of updates. Hopefully these pictures of Liam being homebound for a few days make up for it. Saturday night we headed over to our neighbors for a little Christmas party. The boots I had for Liam are too small, so he thought he'd try on Mommy's . . .

When we woke up Sunday morning there was even more snow on the ground. We couldn't even open the door without snow falling inside. So what do you do when you can't get out of the house . . .

- Make French Toast and get as much syrup as possible in your hair . . .

- Make a fort- See if you are taller than the snow (it's close, I think we'd only see the top of his head if we let him try to play in it)

NO SCHOOL TOMORROW!!!

Please Touch Museum

I had off of school today so Liam skipped his school and we headed out to Philly with Nana to go to the Please Touch Museum.

We all had a great time. The longest Liam sat for was when we were on the carousel . . .

He dressed up as a pediatrician. . . .

. . .but he didn't fully comprehend that this is a nest with eggs, he picked up a stick and started beating the eggs. . .

. . . He played with boats and ducks in the water while wearing his adorable smock . . .

After 4 hours of fun we met up with Uncle Adam and his girlfriend Erin and went to dinner . . .

It was a very fun and tiring day and definitely worth the trip. I bought a year pass for 4 people, so we plan on going as much as possible!

For all the photos click here: http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8AauHLly5ctmSC&emid=sharshar&linkid=link5&cid=EMsharshar

Merry Christmas!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Cousin Time

Liam was happy to get to spend some time with his cousins Rachel and Maggie this weekend. We went to Grandpa & Grandma Scallon's Sunday morning for breakfast . . .

Rachel and their dog Joey. Liam loved chasing Joey around.

Me and my goddaughter Maggie . . .she's 2 months younger than Liam, and I can't believe how different boys and girls are even at such a young age. She was so calm and pleasant while Liam ran around with Rachel screaming and jumping.

Here are Liam and Rachel dancing in the kitchen. . .
We can't wait until they come back for Christmas . . .

For Photos From Thanksgiving Weekend click here:http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8AauHLly5ctmR9

Decorating for Christmas

This is the only weekend that I don't have swim meets, so I take advantage by decorating for Christmas, putting up the tree, and wrapping the presents (yes - I am almost done shopping - be jealous!) Liam was more than happy to pose in front of the fireplace . . .

Here are my boys watching the Notre Dame game tonight . . .

Family Photo

Tonight we all had on vests, so I thought it was a good time for a photo-op.

Grandma Scallon was happy to snap the photo for us!

Thanksgiving

Casey and I are very thankful that we have our families around us on a daily basis. This Thanksgiving was another reminder of how lucky we are. My parents and sister and brother came to Casey's parents house for Thanksgiving dinner. How lucky are we?!?! No driving around, no worrying about being late for the next house. It was wonderful!

Here is Liam enjoying his meal (last year he ate baby food turkey and sweet potatoes) . . .

Grandpop carving the turkey . . .Everyone playing Taboo after dessert . . .
Jaclyn, Adam, and me . . .

Uncle Adam and Liam with their matching shoes . . .

Hope everyone had as great a Thanksgiving as we did!

Finger Painting

I had time on Thursday after I picked Liam up from school, so I thought we'd try finger painting.

The idea was to make a sign for the swim team to hang in the office. . .
he dumped the bowls of paint onto the paper and the paper basically melted and fell apart. . . we had fun getting messy anyway!

Baking with Mommy

The other day was one of the swim coaches birthdays, so we decided to make cupcakes for everyone to celebrate!

Liam was quite the helper and enjoyed licking the spoon at the end . . .
(Keri - let me know if you want an apprentice)
www.visionsofsugarcrumbs.com

Date Night

Saturday night Casey and I got to go out for dinner to relax before high school swim season starts and our lives become even crazier. My swim team captains jumped at the chance to watch Liam for us, and they did a great job! Liam was very entertained. They even took photos for me. Here he is playing hide and seek . . .

They gave him a bath which is quite a task these days with his frequent cannonballs, and he looked like he enjoyed having 2 cute girls wrapped around his finger. . .
. . . Liam and Krista (their faces are priceless). . .
. . . reading with Ashley (and Murray of course) . . .

He went to bed on time and Casey and I came home to a superclean kitchen.

Can't wait for the next date night!

Potty News

It might be a little early, but we've started potty training. We aren't really aggressive with it, but since Liam has been telling us when he has to go, we thought maybe we'd give it a try. We bought a baseball potty, and mostly Liam just used it as another place to read.

. . . but today he said "potty' when he woke up and 'pee pee' so I put him on the baseball potty and he peed! Emptied his whole bladder. Then I was off to school and while I was there my mom texted me because Liam went #2 in the potty. She took a photo for me since I wasn't there for it (I will spare you that one).

So we really only put him on the potty when he asks, hopefully it will just come naturally over time. (yeah right) But regardless, we are very proud of our big guy!