Happy Birthday Baby Girl!!

I just dealt with my little guy turning 3, now it's time for London to turn 1! Again, it doesn't seem like it's been a whole year, but I couldn't have asked for a better baby. She's always smiling, and is such a joy to be around. We didn't want to have a big party, since she is only 1, but we wanted to do something, so we had some friends over for a play date/party. There was a carnival theme, and fun was had by all :)


Here's the food: Puffcorn in the cute little popcorn boxes, hot dogs, and caramel apples...except the caramel exploded in the microwave just before party time, so they ended up just being apple slices :) A couple of the treat bags are in the background with balloons tied to them.


The Happy Birthday Girl after her cupcake- or at least the icing! This is the messiest it got. Liam never got messy on his 1st birthday either...maybe they have my neat-freak genes!

Cupcakes- I was tired of decorating cakes at this point, so I went with cupcakes. Liam

really liked helping me spray the pink on the icing and do the sprinkles.

This is the only picture I got of London at her own party...isn't that terrible of me? The pic of her eating her cupcake was taken on her birthday, when we were celebrating with just Josh, Liam, and I.

Fun Party!

Liam got invited to a Birthday party a week after his for his friend Jack (see Jack's cake in the previous post). It was at Iowa Gymnest, a gymnastics place that we had never been too. What a fun place! Josh was post-call, so he got to come to the party too, and I think that we had just as much fun as Liam did. Here are some pics of the fun

Liam and Josh in the pit of foam blocks. There was a trampoline right by the pit, so you could jump right in.

Liam on the Trampoline

London Yelling at me. This child is constantly yelling :)

She had fun crawling around on the springy gymnastic floor.

Cake!

I've been up to my ears in cake lately! I really enjoy making cakes, so it's been fun to have reasons to make them! My friend Missy and I hosted a baby shower for our friend Molly- the theme was Baby is Blooming, so I made this flower cake.
The week before that, our friend's little boy turned 3, so I made this cake for his party- just one week after making Liam's Toy Story cake.

Like I said, it's nice to have an excuse to make cakes, because it's not something you just do for the heck of it- otherwise you have an entire cake sitting around the house! I'm about caked out for now though, so for London's party, I'm going with cupcakes- simple, but cute ones that match her theme. That will give me enough of a break to want to do another cake soon :)

Liam is 3!!!

I CANNOT believe that Liam is already 3. It seems like just yesterday I was laying on the couch (hey- I wasn't lazy, I was on bedrest, remember?) watching Jim Carrey and Steve Carell on Oprah talking about their new movie Horton Hears a Who, and feeling my first contraction. In some ways it seems like it was just yesterday, and in others it seems like Liam's been a part of our family forever. Either way, we love him so much!


Liam and some of his friends waiting patiently for cake.

Time to eat!

The "Spread" (pizza still to be delivered!) and Amanda...Hi Amanda!


The Cake! This one was probably a little bit too involved. it was the chocolate fence that took the longest!


Blowing out his candles- his party was the day after his birthday, so my mom brought him cupcakes for his actual big day! Candles are his favorite part of his birthday- we lit them several times!

Happy Valentines Day!

we made you some cookies!

Changing Specialties

So some of you already know, but our family will be moving, once again, at the end of June. We're going back to Michigan, but this time to Ann Arbor (which is 20 minutes away from where were lived before, and an hour and a half from where Josh went to Med School at Michigan State). He considered his options carefully, but decided that neurology is not the field for him after all. He still loves it, and enjoys neuroscience, but he misses the musculo-skeletal aspects of Physical Mecidine and Rehab- a field that he was also interested in during medical school. It took a lot of faith for Josh to step out there and apply to the open spots- by doing so he was essentially giving up his spot here at UIHC. Luckily, his program made him feel pretty comfortable doing so, and were very supportive of his decision, telling him that he could still stayy if he wanted.

He hit the interview trail again (this time to North Carolina, University of Washington- thus our trip to Seattle, and the University of Michigan). After a lot of travel, there was a lot of wait. He interviewed at U of M on December 17th, and we waited until January 20th to hear that he was chosen. Woo Hoo! The process was long, and we are STILL filling out paperwork, but we both feel it was the right decision for our family. He will be doing what he loves, and will have more time at home with the kids and I. We will be back with our friends and our church in MI. Of course, there are so many people that I will miss here, and the city too. We've had so much fun exploring Iowa City, and it really is a great city to have a family in. We'll just have to see what our 3+ years in Ann Arbor bring! Here is the cake that I made for Josh to congradulate him. I know the M is off center, because the ganache didn't set right. It still tasted good (and don't judge...have you ever tried to make a giant letter from M&Ms? It's way harder than it looks!)

Snow Days!

We have had quite a few snow storms (ha! I was typing snow, and I typed snot instead. Can you imagine a snot storm? I'm sure it would give a whole new meaning to not wanting to go out in the storm!) this winter. One big one, and a few smaller ones as well.


Josh and Liam building their first snowman together. He lasted over a month, and then we had one warm day and he fell over. Liam said he was taking a nap :) He got burried by the big storm. Most of our snow is (thanfully) melted now.


Having a snowball fight in the front yard.

London sat in the wagon and watched everyone else play in the snow. She loved it!


And this is "The big one". Josh was on call the night that this happend, and had to drive home from the hospital. The roads were pretty clear, but it's illegal to park on the street during a snow emergency, so we had to have a spot big enough for Josh's car to park in cleared out of our driveway (which Liam is standing in) before he got home at 1:00. We spent two hours and, with the help of one of our neighbor guys, got a spot just big enough for the car. When we finished, three more guys came over with Shovels and a snow blower and finshed our drive and the neighbor who had been helping me. It took them about 20 minutes- we need a snowblower :) Liam had to go inside and watch a movie while I was shoveling this time. He didn't like the snow being this deep. It took him almost 20 minutes to hike from the end of our driveway into the garage. When he got in there, he started jumping up and down yelling "I made it! I made it!".

Happy (Belated!) Birthday Josh!

Last time I updated this blog, Josh was still in his 20's. His 30th birthday has since passed! His parents, grandma, sister and neice all came up to celebrate with him the weekend before his birthday. On his actual day, we didn't get to do much worthy of such a special number, because he was on call. I made him a cookie cake, but he was on call. His post-call day was an annual party at one of the very good restaurants in town, the 126. We just pretended that it was in honor of his birthday :) Just wanted to wish Josh a very happy 30th birthday- to one of the best husbands and dads around! We love you!

Shoveling

We've gotten a couple of snowfalls this year. This one was only a couple of inches, and Liam loved to be outside "helping" me shovel. The second snow was much bigger, and he didn't like shoveling it...it was too hard. But he does loving making snow angels. He'll show you how on the carpet if you ask him :)

Christmas Photos

Here are a couple of this year's Christmas photos of the kids.

Merry Chistmas!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! Josh and I sure did! The kids and I left for my parent's on Friday (the 17th). Josh had to work the 20th and 21st, so he didn't get to come with us. My Dad's 54th birthday was on Saturday, so it was fun to be there to celebrate with him. On Sunday, we got together with all of my aunts, uncles, cousins, and 2nd cousins to celebrate. I got a mild case of the stomach flu on Monday night, which was no fun, but very short lived. Then on Wednesday, we packed up and drove to Josh's sister's house where we celebrated with her, her husband and their daughter, and Josh's parents and grandma. It was nice to be able to spend so much time with family!

We drove back to Iowa to spend Christmas eve night, Christmas Day, and my Birthday as a family of 4 before Josh had to head back to work on Monday (the 27th). It should be a 5 hour drive from Amy's house to ours, but it was snowing and the roads were pretty bad, so it ended up taking about 9. We got back much later than we would have liked, but still had enough time to watch a movie and eat a pizza!

Christmas day we were hungry. I had made breakfast, and was making dinner, but we had no plans for lunch, and no groceries in the house, other than those which were planned for dinner, since we had been away for so long. So we packed the kids in the car and went to the Chinese Buffet- we knew it would be open because of the movie "A Christmas Story". I called to find out their hours, and the lady acted like I was nuts for asking "Normal hours today" she said. We later found out that IHOP was open, and we should have gone there, as it is Liam's favorite place!

New Years Eve was a big deal for us...ha! We went to bed at 10:30, because Josh had to work early the next day. We did watch the Best of SNL after the kids went to bed though. We are such party animals! :)

London and Daddy opening her gifts on Christmas Morning.
Liam playing with a construction set at my mom and Dad's. Thanks for that one gusy...it takes forever to put together :)

Merry Christmas from Liam and London!


Happy Birthday Dad!