Liam's puzzle domination!!!

Look what my baby can do! I'm really proud of him for knowing all of those shapes!

http://youtu.be/PHyVuJ35C84

Playroom remodel...part two

This morning Dad came over to hang the wall cabinets in our playroom! I've recently painted it a beautiful light blue, rearranged the furniture and organized the toys. We bought the kids a futon and we hung the tv on the wall and hooked up the Wii and the Xbox. Now it's really a kid paradise back there!

Liam helping with the clamps!

 Bailey helping Grandpa!

 Emily helping with the wall screws!

The finished wall!

I'll have to get some pictures of the whole room to post soon.

Silly Kids

This Valentine's Day, I made Italian Chocolate cake for dessert. It was a new recipe and I wasn't sure how it was going to taste, so I told everyone that if it wasn't good, I had a backup dessert. After I served the cake, everyone was saying that they liked it. Emily's reaction, though, was the best. She said, "It's good... enough." :)

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About a week ago, Bailey had a rough week at school. I told her that her consequence would be missing going to see the Lego movie with Daddy and Emily. But Daddy offered her a deal: if she went to bed early every night the following week, she could go to the movie. Well, she liked that deal--until it was time to go to bed early, that is! Last night, when we put her to bed, she was NOT happy. She was in her room crying, "Why did I even MAKE that deal???" LOL!

Glasses

Last week I took Liam to the eye doctor. We had noticed that he looked a little cross-eyed whenever he was tired, and when I took him to the pediatrician for his 3-year check up, she said he may need glasses. I was amazed at what the eye doctor was able to diagnose on an uncooperative toddler--but he said that Liam is farsighted and has slight amblyopia. So, Liam had to get glasses, which he has to wear all of the time, and he has to wear an eye patch for 3 hours a day. I was pretty upset at the diagnosis and the treatment, but we are going to do everything we can to get Liam's eyesight as strong as possible. The good news is that he should be able to restore his vision in his left eye (whereas if we'd left it untreated, eventually he would lose his vision in that eye). He may or may not need glasses in the future. We go back in April for a recheck.

I still think he's the cutest boy ever.

Belly Laughs

A few nights ago, Bailey was wearing some pajamas that are getting a little small for her. The shirt would ride up every time she'd raise her hands. Will called her over:


"Bailey, come here." She did. "Lift your arms." She did and as soon as her shirt was lifted, Daddy tickled her tummy. She burst out laughing and said, "Daddy, you TRICKED me!" Then she turned to Emily and said, "If he tells you to raise your arms, don't do it." LOL!!

To Infinity and Beyond

I have been trying to get Liam to poop on the potty for close to a year now. About a week ago, he saw a Sherriff Woody doll in Walmart that he really wanted to have. So I made him a deal that if he pooped on the potty, I would get him the doll.

Every day since we made that deal, he's pooped in a diaper, sometimes more than once per day. And every time he says, "You buy Woody [for] me, [if] I poop in potty." So he totally GOT it but he still wasn't going to use the potty.

WELL, yesterday I noticed him running off into Emily's room, holding his bottom. I said, "Liam, do you need to poop?" He yells, "NO!" I said, "Yes, you do! Let's poop on the potty!"

He came out and tried but didn't go. We repeated that same scenario about an hour after that. He tried hard, but wasn't able to go. So I said, "You tell me when you are ready to use the potty, okay?"

Shortly after that, he came to me and said, "I ready poop on potty now." So I said, "okay! Let's do it!" I sat with him for a while and then I said, "I'm going to get the laundry out of the dryer. So you let me know when you are done."

A few minutes later I find him playing on the floor. I said, "Did you go?" And he said, "I poop in there!" And sure enough, he POOPED IN THE POTTY!!!!!!

Well, we got cleaned and dressed and went right out to get Sherriff Woody. Hopefully we will be out of diapers soon! :)

Oh, and the funniest part of all--after I gave him the doll, he said, "To infinity and beyond, Mom." LOL!!

Pull ups and lost teeth!

Today I tried using pull-ups with Liam. He's still wearing diapers (boo) even though he'll keep the diaper dry all day long and I just keep putting it back on. But he isn't interested in underpants or pooping on the potty yet. Anyway, he had his 3-year check up this week and the doctor suggested that pull ups might help with the potty training process. The package has three designs--a Monsters Univeristy one, Cars, and Buzz Lightyear. Liam had to inspect all of them. He said, "Not Mike Uh-zow-key." So Monsters was out. Then he examines the Buzz one. "It has to have Woody on it." So, no Buzz. That left Cars. Lightning McQueen on the front and Mater on the back. Perfect, right? Wrong. "I no want Mater on my hiney. Put it on backwards! Want Mater in front!!!" Well, you can't put it on backwards or it won't work! So, sheesh! Talk about complicating things!!



On another note, Bailey lost her first TWO teeth today! It was kind of funny because I didn't even know she had a loose tooth, let alone expect her to lose two in one day! This morning, at about 6:15, Bailey came into my room as I was getting dressed. She said, "Guess what, Mommy! Exciting news! I have a lose tooth!" So I said, "Wow! That's so exciting! Your first wiggly tooth!"



Well, not even 30 minutes later, she was eating breakfast and she said, "My tooth came out!" That was it. No drama, no yelling or crying, just a calm statement. We took this picture:

Then, when she got off the bus this afternoon, she was carrying a little baggie. She said, "Guess what? My other tooth came out at school!" So she lost both bottom teeth in one day! I think the tooth fairy might bring her a bonus tonight!!

Lake Eola

Today we took the kids to Lake Eola park for a picnic lunch. We spent a little time on the playground (which I thought was disappointing, actually), walked around the lake, and rented a swan boat. The boats are paddleboats and there is a bench seat in the back for the kids. It was a super windy day so it was really tough to pedal the boat. Emily kept complaining about how slow we were going. Liam was having trouble sitting down and of course there was no seat belt in the boat, so that was a little tricky. Still, we had fun and this was definitely a new experience for us! Here are some pictures from our day:

Happy New Year!

I can hardly believe it is 2014! We have been very busy through the holiday season. We were lucky to have a nice long break from school (and work) and spent lots of time together. School starts up again on Tuesday! B is super excited to go back. E wants to stay home more. LOL.

Here is a picture of the kids toasting the new year (with Sprite):

Looking forward to a great 2014!

Liam is 3!

I can't even believe it has been three years since our family was blessed with Liam. He is such a joy and a delight. Mommy woke up not feeling well today and actually had a fever! Still, we tried to do a few things to make Liam's day special. We took him to Chick-Fil-A for lunch and let him play on the playground for a while. We got a small cake from Publix and sang "Happy Birthday." Liam had a cupcake. We have a party planned for this weekend so we'll give him his present then.

Merry Christmas!

We had yet another wonderful Christmas this year. It is all so magical when you have little kids in the house. We are also fortunate enough to have lots of family close by so we do a nice celebration with everyone.


On Christmas eve, we had a great time with the McDowell side. We had yummy dinner and dessert and opened gifts together.

Then, the kids helped make cookies for Santa:

While we were waiting for the cookies to bake, we checked the naughty/nice list and the Santa tracker. The kids were all on the nice list!

Finally, the girls poured a glass of milk for Santa and then it was off to bed!

Of course, Santa came and he delivered a LOT of presents:

In the morning, we were so impressed with the kids--even though Emily was up early (as usual--4:45 is not unheard of with her on Christmas or Easter), she lay quietly on the couch and waited for Mommy and Daddy to get up. Bailey slept until 7:15 and Liam slept until 7:30! We had a blast opening tons of gifts and seeing everyone's reactions.

Will had a crazy idea to go down to Disney for a while, so we hopped in the car and headed for EPCOT. When we got there, Magic Kingdom was closed because it was at capacity, and the EPCOT parking lot was the fullest I have ever seen it. We brought along the Hidden Mickeys book that Aunt Theresa and Uncle Matthew gave us, and we did a little hunting--but it was so crowded that we really couldn't get into it. We left after a short time, but I got a cute picture of the kids while we were there.

Later that evening, we headed over to Mimi and Grandpa's house to have Christmas with the Bloms. It was really fun. I can't believe how many gifts the kids got this year!!

Holiday Fun!!

We wanted to do some special things with the kids since Will had a nice, long holiday from work, so I'm going to group them together in this post and share some pictures.

n December 21, we took the kids to the park to play and then walked around downtown Sanford. It was all decorated for Christmas and we took some cute pictures in front of the tree.

On Dec. 22, we made indoor s'mores and watched the Chipmunk Christmas special on tv.

On the 23rd, we had Christmas with our friends the Kuhns and we did a Christmas tree craft together.

The girls had a blast covering the ice cream cones with frosting and adding candy decorations. Liam ate his whole cone before he even got any frosting or toppings! LOL. I think he still had fun, though.