A Birthday Celebration

For months, Liam's birthday party requests were for his party to be at our house and for everyone to sing Happy Birthday to him one at a time. Luckily, both requests were forgotten as soon as I suggested one of Liam's favorite places, Andy Alligator's, for his party location. As soon as he agreed, I booked it for the day before his actual birthday.

I feel like the past few Christmas seasons have been way too stressful with planning a birthday party and all things Christmas. So, I decided not to go all out this year for Liam's party. And, you know what?!?! He didn't notice one bit, and I was able to really enjoy myself! 

The cupcakes were delicious this year! I used this recipe for the cupcakes and this recipe for the icing. Easy, easy, easy, and so YUM!

I ordered the invitations and cupcake toppers from CKFireboots on Etsy. The shop owner was super easy to work with and extremely quick!

Sweet boy was scared to get too close to the candles to blow them out. So, he blew from afar. (I guess he really gets the whole "don't play with fire" thing!)

He got so many great gifts from our friends and family. 

While opening his gifts, Andy Alligator came into our party room. This was a big deal for Liam. He loves Andy!!!

My mom and I spent an evening the week before his party making Ninja Turtle masks for all of the kids. They all looked so cute in their masks!

It's crazy hard to find Ninja Turtle decorations. I found some vintage paper plates on-line. $38 for 8 plates. Seriously?!?! So, David and I decided we would wear Ninja shirts to "add to the decor".

This is Myles and Kaitlyn. I worked with their mommies for years. 

This is Owen, one of Liam's most favorite friends. He loves playing with Owen. His mommy and I have been friends since middle school and it is so fun to watch these two boys play together!

These are Liam's cousins, Haley and Logan. Liam looks up to them so much!

The party included 3 hours of unlimited rides on the Frog Hopper. Liam rode it with his friends at least 20 times! He would have ridden it more if we would have let him.

Liam wrapped up his party with a root beer and rest. He played so hard that he was a sweaty mess! I guess that means his party was a success and he had a blast!

Christmas Fun

Every Saturday we go on a donut date to a little donut shop near our house. We've gotten to know the man who is always working pretty well. A couple of weekends ago he told us about a Christmas display he and his family put together, so we decided to go check it out. While we were there, we ALL got to sit on Santa's lap....even Nana and Papa! :)

Until this year, Liam has either been terrified of Santa or just neutral. This year, he loves him. He has sat on his lap and told him about everything he wants at least 3 times. He even spent about 5 minutes telling Santa all about his peanut allergy one day. :)

I couldn't believe that Papa sat on Santa's lap. I guess he'll do anything for his "Little Buddy!"

Behind as Usual...

My initial intention of this post was to write and post pictures from our fun weekend filled with Christmas activities. So, I logged on, uploaded the pictures from my camera to discover that I never uploaded our Halloween pictures. And, it's December. So...without further ado, here are some Halloween pictures  of our very own Heatwave. 

 Halloween was so. much. fun. this year! Liam was completely into trick or treating. And, he loves anything and everything scary. (He definitely doesn't get that from me! The Harry Potter movies are too scary for me. Lame, I know!!!)

 Our neighborhood is the place to be on Halloween night. The streets are filled with fog from people's fog machines. The fog sets the mood for some fun trick or treating experiences!

After we trick or treated in our neighborhood for a couple of hours, we fought the masses to get out of our neighborhood to go over to my parents. We did some trick or treating in their neighborhood and called it quits for the night. Liam ended up with a ton of candy! 

Hello, Fall!!!

We are so happy to welcome fall this year! After a long, hot summer, we are loving the cooler temps. And, along with cooler temps come boots, sweaters, and jackets....all high on my list of favorite things! 

My lucky husband recently went on a trip to Madrid, Milan, Paris, and Frankfurt for work. Although I was crazy jealous that he was getting to go to all of these amazing places, I loved my time alone with Liam. He always becomes more of a mama's boy when daddy is away!

 Before David left for his almost two week trip, he took a couple of days off to spend with us during our Fall Break. We took full advantage of these days and had so much fun! We spent most of Thursday at Orr Family Farm. I just love this place. There's always so much to do!

Could these two be any more handsome?!?!

 The train ride was a little bit chilly, so we had no other choice but to cuddle up! Of course, I didn't mind the cuddles!!!

These goats were hilarious! If they thought you had food, they were all up in your business!

Liam loved climbing the hay!

 And loved coming down the slides even more! I was so surprised that he was willing to go down these huge slides by himself. He is just growing up way too fast. He will be four in less than two months. FOUR! Where in the world have the last few years gone?

We are having our family pictures taken this afternoon. Here's to hoping for awesome smiles and slimming angles! ;)

Last day of swim lessons

Yesterday was Liam's last day of swim lessons for the summer. David took off work, and Nana and Papa came to watch him show off everything he learned! And, Liam really hammed it up for us!

The big deal about the last day of lessons is that all of the kids get to go down the big slide with one of their instructors. Liam somehow managed three trips down the slide. 

 The little girl in the next four pics is Lillian, from Liam's class at Sparkle Kids. This is the same little girl Liam chased down and kissed after the Father's Day Fishing Trip. :) These pictures really show the difference in Lillian and Liam's personalities....Lillian is having a blast as usual, and Liam is serious, as usual!

 He looked miserable each time he came down the slide, but he always came out of the pool begging to go again. Liam had this girl, an instructor in training, wrapped around his little finger. She was always holding his hand or carrying him. One day after lessons, she said, "He is the sweetest 3-year-old I have ever met!" That made this mama's heart happy to hear!

 At the end of class, each child was given a sucker, a progress report, and a free swim pass. Looks like we'll be heading to the pool this week! 

Swim Lessons

Liam started swim lessons last week and has done so well! 

On the first day, all he would do was stand in the water, refusing to put his belly in the water, and play with his friends. Now, he puts his face in the water, kicks, blows bubbles, floats on his back, etc.

(What's up with this smile? This is what I get every time I try to take a picture of him!)

He has even "jumped" off of the diving board a few times! Talk about coming a long way!!!

Father's Day Fishing Fun

A couple of weeks before Father's Day, David received an invitation in the mail from Liam (or his daycare), inviting him to a picnic and fishing for some father/son time. Liam was pumped. David...not so much. He's not real into fishing, but definitely sucked it up for his baby!

I was lucky to get to tag along as a helper since we live across the street from the pond where they were fishing! It was so cute to see 10 dads and their kids fishing together. :)

The boys ended up catching 4 fish! (Too bad it is a catch and release pond!)

 Liam was not too sure about that fish on his fishing pole at first! He refused to touch it.

 He was a little more into it the second time they got a bite, but he still wouldn't touch the fish.

By the end of the night, I completely took over the fishing pole and had a blast! Who knew fishing could be so much fun!?!?! Here's my big catch of the night....

Liam is such a lucky boy to have David as his daddy! Happy Father's Day, Daddy!

A birthday and an Anniversary

June is always a busy, busy month for us. We celebrate David's birthday, Father's Day, our anniversary, and our nephew's birthday all in the same month. It gets a little crazy, so David often ends up with one big gift for his birthday, Father's Day, and our anniversary. This year that big gift was a trip to Texas to tour the Ranger's Ballpark and to go to a Ranger's game. (We had to leave Liam behind because of his peanut allergy. A baseball park full of peanuts plus a toddler with a severe peanut allergy would make for quick trip to the ER!)

The tour of the Ballpark was so cool! David and I are both huge fans, so getting to go behind the scenes was really exciting for us. We started out by visiting the press boxes. This is their view every game. So jealous!

 Then we got to go into the room where they hold post-game press conferences.

While in the batting practice area, our tour guide pointed out this whiteboard with a verse and some inspirational words written by JOSH HAMILTON!

And, to wrap up the tour, we were able to go into the Ranger's dugout. We both got to sit in Ron Washington's chair!

 While in the dugout, Ron was getting his workout on right in front of us!

We also got to see the batboy putting out bats for the game. We spent some time talking to him about how the players knew which bat was theirs. He pointed out the initials on the top of the bat. Easy enough! (This bat belongs to Elvis Andrus.)

After the tour, we went back to our Bed and Breakfast for a quick nap before heading to the game. The Ranger's made an awesome comeback from behind to win the game! Go Rangers!!!!