Category: Pictures

This morning we celebrated Gran’s birthday for the first time and Matt’s birthday for the last time (this year, obviously).  Here are some pictures from the morning:

Reading with Greatdaddy:

Reading with Greatmama:

“Where’s Liam?”

“There he is!”

More reading:

Birthday Boy:

Birthday Girl:

Liam was convinced that Matt’s Mister Rogers card was all for him:

“You can never go down the drain…”

“You’re bigger than the water, you’re bigger than the soap!”

It wouldn’t have been a 30th birthday celebration for Matt without a little Wii:

Liam shows Greatmama his trains:

Checking out the weather with Gran:

Fruit pizza!

Shoulder ride from Dad:

Fin.

Because no one in this family can celebrate an event/holiday fewer than three times, I bring you the second installment of Matt’s birthday extravaganza.

Today’s installment was brunch at Grammie and Pop’s house and featured Guest Stars GGMom, GGDad, Aunt G. and Ean.  Here are pictures from the day:

Playing cars with Grammie:

It’s a well-known fact that helicopters can’t get you if you put your hands behind your back while inspecting them:

Liam realizes the photogs are out to get him again and obliges with a “cheese!”

Grammie joins in:

Let the cheeziness continue:

Cheddar, anyone?

A boy and his Pop:

“Oh, yay!  Power tools!”

Hilarity with Aunt G:

Playtime:

A boy and his Aunt G:

Boy meets ball, ball meets…

…bush!

Boy meets ground with ball under bush:

Pensive moment:

“Man, I sure wish that ball was doing something more exciting than just sitting there like that…”

“Dreams do come true, it can happen to you, if you’re…”

A boy and his GGDad:

Caught red-handed…

Fun on the trike (with help from Grammie):

Pop takes a turn:

Southern Lady In Repose:

“But I’ve got these sacks…”

A boy and his GGMom:

Liam joins in the Bocce fun:

Liam takes his turn with the jack:

Lynne gets serious:

Liam’s ready for his turn:

What an arm!

Strategizing with Grammie:

Williams’s compete to win.  Always.

Here comes the cake:

Sheer determination:

Cake…strawberry…cake…

Strawberry!

Mmmmm!

Lest you think he ignored the cake…

Strawberry + cake = contentment

Hide…

…and seek:

Grilling is a blast!

Mmmm!  Grilled potato chips and deep fried ice cream!

Wii concentration:

Southern Gentleman In Repose:

Intergenerational Wii battle:

Fighting to the death:

Proving that, in fact, anyone can Wii:

Now it’s time for cake-eating session #9.  Oy vey.

As requested (and requested again and then requested once more for good measure…) here are the pictures of the renovation.  There are still shelves that need to be hung.  There are still artwork decisions to be made.  But the most important thing is that my house is once again mine to live in as I choose.  My child can nap when he needs to (without having to endure power tools and the loud grumbling of construction workers who shouldn’t have told his mother that she was free to be back in the house because things were going to be pretty quiet a week before things actually got quiet).  I can nest with wild abandon.  Things are as they should be, hallelujah and praise be.

Before:

Looking towards where the half-wall is now:

View from the entryway:

Where the pantry doors are now:

From inside the old ‘bonus’ room:

From the old ‘bonus’ room looking out into the kitchen:

During:

The view from what is now the back of the pantry looking out into the dining/kitchen area:

The view from inside the ‘bonus’ room:

Door to the garage and the backside of the new pantry:

Chair mold and door to garage:

Pantry!

After:

View from kitchen:

View from entryway:

Pantry:

Pantry (the organization makes me unreasonably happy)!

View from the old ‘bonus’ room (hereafter known as the ‘new space’ until we can think of a better name) looking into the kitchen:

Looking into the new space from the dining area:

Dining area, new room, and part of pantry:

And now, boys and girls, the renovation story on our house is complete until we have two children who both sleep through the night.

The End.

In honor of Matt’s birthday, Liam spent most of yesterday running around wildly in circles screaming variations on the theme: “Birfday Cake!”  “Presents!”  “Gonna blow out da candles!”  “Happy Birfday, Dad!”

We started the day by heading to Southern Sweets because my husband loves a good carrot cake and unfortunately I’ve never made one.  I didn’t want to risk it for such an important occasion, so we headed to Decatur to get one from the experts.

From the minute we started talking about going to the bakery, Liam was talking about eating cake.  I kept trying to tell him that we were going to pick up the cake, but we couldn’t eat any until Matt was home because it was his birthday and his birthday cake.  At some point I think Liam picked up the concept (after much repetition) because from the back seat he quietly said something like “Dad gotta blow out da candles, Liam gotta be patient.”  He was slightly confused (but happily so) when the lady at Southern Sweets gave him a sample of the old fashioned chocolate cake (my favorite) for being charming.

After grasping the concept of waiting for Dad to come home to have cake and presents he went about the business of running all over the house waiting “patiently” for Daddy to “COME HOME…RIGHT NOW!!!”  This included ‘helping’ me wrap the presents and sprawling himself at the bottom of the stairs intermittently shouting “I think I hear him!  I think Daddy’s home!”

Needless to say, by the time Matt arrived home, Liam had reached fever pitch (a state in which he stayed right on through until bedtime).  We went ahead and opened presents and had cake at 5pm because it was clear that Liam really wanted to participate.  Here are pictures of the cake experience:

“C’mon, Dad.  Are we really just going to sit here right next to this cake and not eat any?”

“Okay…I get it…here’s one cheesy smile for you, Mama”

First attempt:

Second attempt:

Liam becomes a little worried that it’s all a cruel joke and that he’ll never be allowed to eat any cake:

“You swear this isn’t a trick candle, right…?”

Liam thinks:  “I think maybe he’s got it this time…”

“Yay!”

Liam whets his whistle while Matt takes the first bite:

Finally!

Thumbs up?

Thumbs up!

Our Easter celebrations have been going on since last weekend’s egg hunt, but here are pictures from this weekend and the official holiday:

First off was a visit with Grammie and Pop yesterday during which Liam received his first Easter candy.  Here are some pictures as he discovered that there were M&Ms inside that egg:

The Easter Bunny came to visit Liam:

As you’ll notice the Easter Bunny brought a coloring book, a package (containing a little toy and a CD), and some Easter candy.  As you’ll also notice, Liam’s attention went immediately to the chocolate bunny and he hasn’t opened anything else yet.

“Oh!  Chocolate!”

Here’s where we tried to take other things out of the basket to show Liam.  You can see how interested he was…

Here’s where I gave up and opened the bunny for him:

And the big moment:

Shortly thereafter we moved to the table and added a bib:

He took a brief bunny break for an egg:

Aaaaannnnnd…back to the bunny:

All dressed for church:

After church we snuck in a couple of family pictures:

We finished up the day at Gran and Granddaddy’s for an Easter dinner.  Liam was so high from the sugar and being overtired that we only took about 8 pictures, but here are a few of those we got:

The Easter Bunny visited Liam at Gran and Granddaddy’s too.  In true Liam fashion, he was finished checking out his basket as soon as he saw the first thing in the stack, which in this case were stickers.  He was briefly diverted by candy, but when he learned that I really wasn’t going to let him have more than one piece, he moved back to the stickers…

“Look, Dad!  Stickers!”

Closer inspection:

Elmo loves Liam:

Liam loves chocolate:

It was a jam-packed day.  I just hope that Liam wakes up well-rested and without a sugar hangover because we’ve still got a couple (hopefully only a couple) more days as nomads before we can go back to business as usual.  Fingers crossed that everyone makes it intact!

Last week Liam had great fun on Gran’s porch with the bubbles.  Here are a few pictures:

So many captions, so little time…

“They’re coming to get me!”

Liam decided he was “ti-wad” and that it was time for a brief nap:

Another nap:

“BUBBLES!!!”

“So this is how you make bubbles, huh…?”

“Oh!  Wow!”

Gran tries to show Liam how to blow a bubble.  Liam tries to eat the bubbles.

“Really, Mama?  Because this doesn’t taste so hot…”

“OH MY GOODNESS IT’S COMING AT ME!!!”

Dirty feet are a sign of an afternoon well spent: