...my favorite things....

Raindrops on roses, whiskers on kittens?  Mmmm....not so much. Roses have nasty thorns, and kittens?  I could personally do without.

My favorite things are far more awesome, although might be flirting with embarrassing, depending who you ask.

The number one, irreplaceable, favorite of all favorites, my boys.

(Seems like it was not that long ago Liam was that small!!)

Alright, I'll be honest, Suka is a little reatrded and can easily be the most annoying thing ever. Nevertheless, he is part of our family.  Suka is our Marley; the world's worst dog who will grow up with Liam and all future Loy babies. My boys = my entire world = pure love = happiness. To sum up my feelings about my family, on June 9, 2006 my life completely changed, on September 27, 2009 my life became complete.

My other favorite things don't mean quite as much as numero uno, but they do make me happy!

It might be corny, the singing might not always sync up with the mouths, but seriously, it has to be one of the most fun, instant good mood shows on!  Do yourself a favor, watch it.

Moving on to one of my newer all-time favorite movies.

If Zac Gayfron ever did a good movie, this is it. Even I must admt, he was awesome in this movie.  I was really hesitant to ever watch this, because it, quite frankly, looked 100% ridiculous.  Ugh....I could not have been more wrong. It's become one of those movies that if it's on tv, it's staying on. Guaranteed!!!

I love that Liam will have such awesome buddies to grow up with.  Liam and Joshua are only 2 1/2 weeks apart. Addison was an April girl but they're still close enough to be good friends! Addison insisted on holding Liam's hand, too cute.  I don't know Josh, you might need to step up your game if you're going to have a shot! Danielle and Michelle are awesome Mamas too, so that makes my part easy to enjoy!

I have sooo much to be happy about these days, and very few things that are worthy enough to get me down. One wish for the night: quit growing so fast Baby Boy!!!

still in the hospital, 9/27/09

First day home 9/28/09

10/2/09  five days old and already looking different

This was not that long ago, he was smiling at Daddy who was giving him a bath.

Same Liam, same swing, but ten weeks time difference. How is that possible?!

It's the best thing ever too see him smile, hear him laugh, and watch him while he explores his surroundings.  I can fully comprehend the "enjoy it while it lasts, they grow up so quick" comments now.

Lesson learned: Cherish every moment, you only get it once.

The Peanut

The little man that has taken over everything in life is almost 6 weeks old.  That's absurd. Where has time gone? It's been a total trip to think back on how small he was the day we came home for the first time as a family of three.  Now all Liam wants to do, other than eat like his dad and sleep, is look around and explore the world around him.  He's wicked strong.  It's so neat to watch him look around and take in all the new sites.

Yesterday after getting home, he woke up and I greeted him with a "hey Peanut!" A big grin followed, which had to have been his way of telling me that was my nickname for him. That, and Chubs because, well, he's plumping up quite nicely! 

He is just a bundle of love and so adorable.  Browning eyes, good complexion, beautiful coloring, and a glorious light brown hair. Looks great in all colors and patterns, and has the sweetest spirit imagineable.

I think it is a little sad how fast he's growing up. We think he's going to be quite the independant little boy, merely because he always wants to be looking out at the world.  Even though I would lvoe for him to stay small for a LONG long time, I'm excited to see how his personality will develop.

Ah, life.

Today was a day filled with many different thoughts and feelings of life in the world.  I was thinking to myself what a wonderful life I have and how much I can't get enough of my little family of three. It's truly amazing to me how much an "oops baby" can change your life.  What started out as a night of upsetting tears and anxiety ended up as a moment of the most pure genuine whole-hearted love looking at me for the first time. 

September 27, 2009 at 4:47 am is when my life, our lives, changed forever.

 How is it possible that so much happiness and love can come from an 8 lb 4 oz 21inch little body?

 How is it possible that a little body that requires so much time and drains every last ounce of energy is the very thing you want to leave everything else behind just to be with?

And how is it possible that even in a stressful, dark, overwhelmed moment, a smile from that little body can melt your heart and bring back the joy and light?

It's amazing.

Then there's the other side to happiness.  I think of those I know who have seemingly endless struggles and trials. Those people who long for happiness, but can never seem to find it. It's so sad to me. It makes me wish I was more able to help these people I care about, so that they might know the happiness I am so lucky to have.

new attempt

not tonight, but I will shortly try to rejoin the blogging world. Now I feel I have more legitimate things to blog about since my little stud Liam joined us almost six weeks ago. As for now, my mind is full and my heart is heavy, as tomorrow I am scheduled to go back to work. I know deep down it is a small sacrifice for our family and will help us reach our long term goals. However, it is so hard to imagine leaving my boy who I am completely head over heels for and haven't been away from for more than 20 minutes since he was born. Today has been so hard for me, and I've tried to manage my emotions as best I can. I am thankful I have family who can watch him while Mom and Dad are working, but no parent wants to leave the care of their most precious treasures to someone else, regardless how trustworthy they may be. I am still keepng a small silent hope that my work will give me the chance to have some work adjustments that will allow me to be with my baby.

Photo Giveaway--Ashley Madsen Photography!

I'm returning to the blogging for my own personal gain rather than updating the few who might be interested enough to look at my blog on the latest of life's happenings. A friend of mine is a photographer doing another giveaway! This is something my little fam WANTS SO BAD!!!! Especially, with the little Loy set to make his appearance in about a month. We would love to have some professional pictures taken by, you guessed it, a professional.

Even though I'd rather win myself, you don't have to know her to enter the giveaway! Follow the link and complete the tasks for your own chance to win, and should you win and want to pass it along to me---I wouldn't mind so much. :)

She has a great website with tons of pictures that she's taken. Go check it out and keep your fingers crossed for me that I get lucky!

http://ashleymadsenphotography.com/blog/

Ashley Madsen Photgraphy Giveaway!!

A friend of mine is an awesome photographer that is doing a giveaway for a photoshoot! I think it would be sweet to get one for the little one on the way. One way to get an entry in the giveaway is to do a blog about it.

Everyone needs to check out her blog. If you already have a blog, follow her directions and you can be entered to win the giveaway too! But if you dont have any use for it, you can give it to me!!! eh hem.... hint hint.

here's the link to her page: http://ashmadsen.blogspot.com/2009/02/drumroll-please.html

Go look!!!

Guess who's having a baby?!?!?!

I'M PREGNANT!!

So here's the story with this smidgett of exciting news: last week, Saturday night to be a little more specific, I took a home pregnancy test, and BAM....positive. Sunday night, same thing. We told our family that sunday and everyone was really excited. This will be grandbaby number 13 for Joe's parents and the first for my parents!

Tuesday I was able to schedule an appointment with an OB for today at noon. What a week of mixed emotions and anticipation!! Definitely a long week. Today, man, what a killer. I was at work for the morning before I went home to meet Joe so we could head out to the appointment. About 35 minutes before I left work, I started freaking out. But, luckily for me, my man helped me calm down and reassured me everything was going to be fine. I tend to get a little stressed out when I don't know what to expect in situations, such as a first prenatal exam.

We made it to the appointment and got busy getting weighed, blood pressure, pee test, all the goods. We then met with Dr. Newman who we really liked. She answered a few of our questions, gave us some basic information, and was able to get us in for an ultrasound. The entire reason we rushed to get an appointment so quickly was for an ultrasound/sonogram cofirmation, you can't deny a heartbeat!

After downing 32 ounces of water in ten minutes, we waited in the imaging office for about 35 minutes. As my bladder was ready to explode all over the waiting customers, I was finally called back in. On went the gel and they started the ultrasound. Apparently, Joe, knew exactly what he was seeing on the monitor, while I, on the other hand was totally lost (Joe has seen a number of ultrasound photos from all his neices and nephews). About ten minutes after she started, she said, do you see the heartbeat? She pointed it out to me and then pointed out the head. The little thing kept moving, it was so amazing. I'm still in awe about the whole situation. We are both super excited and can't wait.

One of our friends are expecting their first baby the first part of September, and then i just read on my cousins blog that she's expecting their first baby and is due 3 days before me!

I'm so excited. I hvae a couple pictures of things, i'll try to get them up here soon.

Events from the past

So far, this week has been extremely uneventful.

We'll begin with Sunday. This past sunday was our little Austin's second birthday. Ok, so he's not really "our" Austin, we jsut take some of the credit for helping to raise him the first year of his little life. Megan and Joe decided they would have a "party" for him. Originally it was just going to be a little family get together, but then the proud parents in them took over, leading to a guest list of roughly 20 people. It was just a simple park birthday, emphasis on the work "simple." Here's a picture to sum up.




Now, everyone did not show up who was supposed to; there wasn't an abundance of excitement that afternoon. We did manage to get some really cute pictures of the little snotface. He's getting so big!!

He loved his Spongebob cake

This was cute--he would ride his bike down the hill

Then carry it back up and do it again.

Grandpa Don and Ausin

"slow work days, especially fridays, can lead even a stable person to contemplate suicide"

Friday....most likely the most looked forward to day of the student and non-retail working society. Friday festivities, however, can't begin until you make it through the day. Today, unfortunately, was not a "where;s the time gone?" kind of day. Nothing can start off a weekend worse than a slow, boring, miserable day at work-like today. To reiterate the title of today's thought, "slow work days, especially fridays, can lead even a stable person to contemplate suicide."

As miserable as the day was, I made it to the light, A.K.A clock-out time.

After returning home and going through the friday night decision making crisis, we finally made it back out of the house to dinner and a movie. A word of advice, stay away from italian restaurants that serve delicious warm rosemary bread with olive oil and pepper while you wait for your meal, and where the primary entree is some delicious variation of pasta....especially when you're on a low carb, low fat, low tastey diet. I managed to find "skinny chicken" on the menu that would do for a meal; ironic though, go wanting pasta and end up ordering "skinny chicken" instead....

After that we hopped in the truck and drove about 1/4 mile to park and head into the movie theaters where we saw Mall Cop. Kevin James is a hoot, the movie itself was really corny and had completely cliche dialogue, but it was entertaining. I'd recommend it to anyone who likes Kevin James.

And now, I sit while Joe and his dad begin a torturing 19 hour long game of Axis and Allies....goodbye my only company for the rest of the night....


........

Yay for Blogs!

So we, but mostly I, decided to jump on the blogging bandwagon. I figured I could stand to have a harmless hobby.

I'll start off with a little bit about us!

We were married in June 2006. In July we moved to Utah to see how out-of-az life would work out. We never really got settled there are were only "residents" for 8 months before we decided that Utah just was not the place for us. Too cold and too many.....weird individuals. So, in February 2007 we packed up and moved back to the desert where we've been ever since. Right now we're living in a lovely little house across the street from our favorite people in the valley. Hopefully we'll be able to buy eventually, we'd love to stick around here for a while.

The free time we have tends to be taken up by watching Lost like crack addicts, watching House--the most awesome Smart-A character possibly of all time, and hanging out with the Brauers and Smiths (the before mentioned favorite people in the valley). Oh, and all the neighbors have pimped out, personalized Razor scooters that we use to rude to each others' houses.....it's completely awesome.

Other than that we're just working right now, hoping to get our paperwork together and finished so we can get started on school in the fall.

We're fortunate to hvae most of our family here in az, but are sad that a Big Papa, brother, and sister, along with some aunts and uncles live out on the East Coast in Virginia country. That just makes seeing them that much more enjoyable, and gives us a place to go on vacation!

HA!!! i just decided I look like the cheshire cat and joe looks like Quasimoto.