"They Grow Up Overnight You Know"

In the past 3 days Liam has sprouted his first tooth, learned how to crawl and learned how to stand up on his own.

So proud of you sweet Liam!

Liam's Buddy Griffin

Friends are such a blessing. We are blessed by so many wonderful friends. Haley took a couple pictures of Griffin and Liam and put them on her blog.

http://tylerhaley.blogspot.com/

Here's to Being Spoiled But Not Rotten

This is Liam with ALMOST all of his Christmas presents.

Here is Will with sweet baby Jack- the only thing we wanted to take home but couldn't!

Mostly For Lea and Logan :)

Christmas At The Laing's (Part 1)

Will and I have a tradition of going to Huber's Farm and cutting down our Christmas tree and this year Liam got to experience it with us! We found this beautiful Douglas Fur to enjoy this Christmas season. It smells so wonderful!

We celebrated Christmas with my "immediate mom's side" since Ashley and I will both be away for Christmas Day this year. Will, Liam and I got so many wonderful goodies including this beautiful chandelier for our dining room

I wonder why I felt especially blessed this Thanksgiving?

Gobble Gobble

I think it's only natural to call your 7 month old little boy, your little turkey around the time of Thanksgiving, right? Or maybe it's just us :)

I thought Liam needed a shirt to reflect this sentiment so I went to town cutting, ironing and sewing and this is what I came up with. I need ALOT more practice, but everyone has to have a first try right?

The Most Wonderful Time of The Year

Like many other we are waiting to do too much Christmas prep until Thanksgiving is over, especially since we are hosting Thanksgiving, we want to enjoy the Holiday without skipping ahead too quickly! However, these arrived via the UPS truck a few days ago and I couldn't resist hanging Liam's stocking immediately. We don't have a mantel at this house, but this cute stocking holder from Ballard Designs will do quite nicely until we have a fireplace someday! Will's and Liam's have a few little "stuffers" but they are not quite full yet.

Tomorrow I hope to post my first tutorial of an applique shirt I am in the process of making for Liam, so be on the look out.

I am WOMAN, Ha!

I think ever since I went through 11 hours of drug-free childbirth, I can pretty much do anything. I had gone for a jog here or there since I had Liam, but am embarrassed to say I hadn't really pushed myself. Yesterday I decided I would, so I ran 3 and 1/4 miles and felt like I could do 3 more but came home to help Will with Liam. Tonight I ran 4 and felt like I could do 4 more. Saturday I am going to try to run 5, maybe 6. I'm excited!

Okay, on to the good stuff...

Liam playing in his room.

Liam and Jase and best buddies, Jase decided to put his little hand under Liam's, I had to take a picture!

Liam used to SCREAM in the car, he has finally learned if he is tired in his car seat he can shut his little eyes and go to sleep.

Liam is such a good helper!

Liam's First Time To Go Hiking

Today Will and I took the long drive to Natural Bridge, it was a beautiful day and we had such a wonderful time. The actual hike was a really good workout with an extra 20 pounds of love-bug strapped on, but Will and I took turns. We are the WORST about taking pictures, neither of us are very good at it and we don't have a very good camera so that pretty much amounts to all of our pictures being taken on our I-phones.

Happy Birthday Granddad!

My Dad turned 44 on the 2nd and we had a family dinner at our house last night to celebrate. Happy Birthday!

Happy Graduation For Me

I have had my work done for school for several months but I received my diploma in the mail today! I am proud of it for sure, in four years I met Will, got engaged, got married, bought a house, had a baby, and finished my Bachelors of Science in Christian Education with a 3.3 GPA. I am thankful for Will's encouragement to finish strong and my parents financial investment.

Biblical Manhood and Womanhood

This is a subject I am very passionate about and this morning Dana Stinson (Randy Stinson's wife) taught on raising masculine men and feminine daughters at Mom2Mom. It is such a tendency of moms to want to baby their sons. Dana said to over-protect your children is harmful to them. Liam is mine for 18 years and it is our job to train him to be a Godly husband and father, to be a leader, protector and provider.

She gave some practical tips- like creating adventure, and even allowing somewhat dangerous situations, teaching them that boys don't whine or cry. Teaching them they need to protect their sisters. And that public affection is in-appropriate past a certain age between mother and son- we need to match our expectations to the Biblical pattern (i.e. we don't need to expect our 10 year old son to hold our hand or lay his head on our shoulder.)

We need to dress boys like boys and girls like girls.

I know I don't have a daughter but she also said bossy daughters become nagging wives and to teach your daughters to not boss your sons.

We need to teach them to accept and love their roles and to be humble, not to have some macho-ego about being men.

We need to teach our children this intentionally and by example.

Sweet Day: June 6, 2008

We feel so honored to be used as an advertisement for weddings at Southern. More than that to see pictures of our wedding makes us happy to think of that special day and the last two and a half years of marriage. Marriage is such a neat picture of the gospel. A way to tangibly and practically see the gospel lived out. Christ as the husband and the church as the wife, how the husband pursues, protects, loves and leads the wife. And as the wife submits to and helps the husband.

So thankful Christ loves the church. So thankful for such a beautiful wedding and my sweet parents for paying for it!

Beach Bums

Back in the summer I saved this post as a draft instead of publishing it. Here are a few pictures of our trip. September 2010.

Lonely House...

There is only one bad thing about this weekend... Monday morning. Liam and I are sad to have a lonely house today.

Ashley, Troy, Chase, Brenda, Joe, Lea, Logan and Jack were all here this weekend and it was so good to have everyone together. We had such a good time. Tyler and Sarah had their beautiful wedding on Saturday at Gingerwoods.

We went shopping, out to eat, hung around the house, visited Brooke, Jon and Baby Anderson had brunch at Dad and Lindsey's, and went to Cherokee Park where we took lots of great pictures.

Liam would tug on Jack's ear and try to scratch his head, sorry Jack!

Chase was not too excited to take a cousin picture

Sister Love at Tyler and Sarah's wedding

My farmer-joe
Ash with her nephew and son

6 months for liam

This Saturday Liam will be 6 months old. Our sweet baby boy has completely captured our hearts in the past six months. He brings us so much joy, I never knew you could love someone so deeply, I get emotional just thinking about him getting big and growing up.

At his checkup he was 16 pounds and 27 inches. 25% for weight and 50% for height. Which is amazing considering he was not even on the chart six months ago at 4 pounds 18 inches. He is officially average size! YAY! The doctor said between 25% and 75% is right where they want them. He is totally healthy

Liam ...

is serious, but loves to laugh

loves to stand up with help

loves to grab toys or anything and put them in his mouth

grabs my hair all the time- meaning pony tails for me all the time

found the top of his head and scratches it

rolls and rolls and rolls

gets happy when you put music on

acts like a little old man

looks exactly like his dad, especially these looks he gives

has fit in perfectly with our family

He loves his food. (5 months)

He loves his momma. (4 months)

Finally getting some chunk on him! (3 months)

So little in his bumbo. (2 months)

He was so tiny in his car seat. (1 month)

A few hours old.

Our little bitty (early) blessing. It was so hard to see him like this. It grew our faith in the Lord so much.

Weigh In

I know that no one cares about this, but I have been bad about posting it.

Today 146...yay!

6 pounds to go for my initial goal

and 16 to go for my BIG goal.

Really anywhere in between 130-140 would be great with me.

So thankful to be seeing some results.

I have been doing the 30 Day Shred and running.

Oh and a big shout out to Will, he has been working out at the gym 5 days a week during lunch and you can tell a huge difference. Way to go babe!

I want to train for the 3 mile, 5 mile, 10 mile and 13 miles races here in Louisville in the spring, but I really need to work on getting a jogging stroller to do that.

If anyone knows anyone wanting to sale their BOB, let me know. Thanks!

Scrub-A-Dub...

There's a clean bug in the tub...

Liam is especially cute and sweet when he is fresh out of the bathtub before bedtime.

*Please excuse the mess in the background we are in the middle of painting our bedroom.

I Like to Play

Yesterday Will and I had Stella, Huck and Liam, because the Campbell's needed a little help. Well Stella and Huck just totally make their selves at home here which I love! I opened my computer this afternoon and on my desktop was a Word document with the sentence: I like to play. I just think it is crazy how smart and tech-savvy kids are these days. I'm glad six year old Stella knows how to open Word, spell those words and type them :) The kids played so well together, we wore them out with bowling, Chick-fil-a, the mall, and lots of playing the Wii. Huck kept calling Liam the chubby man and he wanted to hold him the entire day. So cute.

This picture was Liam's first time in his big-boy pj's. Gap has my favorite, favorite pajamas for babies.

Liam's Latest Trick Is...

Chase is a good sharer

Liam loved getting to play with all of Chase's toys, Thanks Chase for letting me play with all of your cool stuff!

Liam

Photos

Sooo big! He is getting so chubby and active, squeeling, squirming, rolling stomach to back, back to stomach, scooting every direction, laughing, cooing, grabbing everything and putting it in his mouth. Everyday he does something new.

My flowers Will sent me while Liam and I were in Charleston.

Chase and Liam, car riding buddies.

The view from our balcony one morning.

Will and Liam in the pool. Liam is such a little waterbug.

My first birthday as a mom, at the beach. So blessed, at only 22 to have the best husband, baby boy, family, in-laws and friends!

Post from 3 weeks ago

Before I had Liam, I had all of these ideas of things I would and would not do. Knowing some of them would change once he was here. And that is so true! I thought I would never give him a pacifier, never give him formula, never give him Tylenol, not have a problem with letting him cry for a few minutes in his crib before he went to sleep (once he was old enough) and not work outside the home until he was in school.

Well he has had a pacifier, formula a few times and Tylenol twice now, and it is sooo sad hearing him cry for a few minutes before he totally settles down and goes to sleep.

And Friday I worked for 6 hours. I did miss Liam but I really, really enjoyed being with other adults and helping clients. And I am sure I will enjoy getting a paycheck! Liam stayed with my mom and they had a great day. We decided I would work 2 days a month! Woah, I know it's a lot, lol. If at any point I don't want to, I won't and at any point I want to go to 4 a month I will. But for now this is perfect. The money will go to extra expenses like seminary, vacations, Christmas gifts, etc.

We still whole- heartily believe my first priority is taking care and serving our family and our home. But for now I can still give my best to my family and work a few hours a month.

More excitingly Liam laughed for the first time! It seriously gave us more joy than I could have imagined, you would have thought we won a million dollars, Will and I were so excited.

Liam is just precious, we love playing with him, bathing him, feeding him, just loving on him.

Liam and I are headed to Charleston, SC on Sunday, his first flight and I am a bit nervous to do it by myself. I have already started praying he is super quiet on the flight. My sister and her husband got me a ticket to fly down to watch my nephew Chase for the week, their nanny is out of town. Seriously, I can't wait to spend a whole week with Liam and Chase!!! But even better than that I get to spend two weeks! We are having our family vacation the next week, so Will and my Mom, Bobster and Tyler are meeting us down the Next Saturday.

UPDATE- Liam did amazing on the flight, slept right through both flights. So thankful, I am the kind of person that would have had a complete meltdown if he had been fussy :)

Catch Up On Life

Liam is four months old now and his favorite things to do are: roll over, push up, try to talk to daddy, work on getting his teeth in, and eat avocado and squash.

He has been fussy and waking up during the night, I'm assuming from the teething.
We went to dinner and bowling with my Dad and Lindsey for Will's birthday. Let's just say I might have to teach Liam to bowl instead of Will. But that is the only activity/sport, that I will be teaching :)

We have started doing cloth diapering some with Liam and it has been going really well, I still use disposable, I am more supplementing cloth to save money. My friend Holly made Liam that adorable bib he is wearing.

We celebrated Will's 29th Birthday with Spaghetti and Meatballs, Salad and Carrot Cake.
This is Liam after his four month check up, he had to get two shots. But he is a growing boy: 12 pounds and 25 inches long. I think he looks mad at me in this picture! Ha!

I neglected to update my weight last week. I'm still 149. I am beginning to wonder if most of the weight will stay on until I finish nursing Liam.

Rollie Pollie

New Blog Home

I have been wanting to switch from wordpress to blogspot and I finally had the time to make the switch so here we are. Welcome to the Laing's Blog- Will, Alyssa and Liam.