Kaitlyn's Junior Prom

 

This is my cute cousin, Kaitlyn.  Not too long ago, Kaitlyn went to prom.  For those of you who aren't familiar with prom at BRHS (the local high school), it's a big deal. The prom is a community event - everyone goes to the high school auditorium to watch promenade - each couple is announced and walks out on the stage and through the auditorium.  Then, they load up and go to the actual dance and dinner and whatever else you do on prom night.  This year the dance was in Logan - a good 30 miles away.  

Back to Kaitlyn.  We didn't make it to the promenade but Liam and I went over and watched her get ready and then hung out (along with my sister, Kaitlyn's grandma, etc.) until her date came to pick her up.  No pressure.  :)

Liam was very excited about her cute dress and jewelry.  He really wanted to teeth on her pretty ring, necklace, you get it.

  

 

 One of the most memorable moments was when it was time for Kaitlyn to put the boutonniere on her date.  She was struggling and her dad came to the rescue.  He owns a funeral home and has a lot of practice.  It was a very cute moment that showed the softer side of my Uncle Joe.  (Don't worry, he did have a gun out sitting on the piano when her date arrived.)

I have to end with a shot of their choices of footwear.  Cowboy boots and fancy flip flops.  That's prom.

Spring on the Farm

Even though it (still!) doesn't feel quite like Spring in Northern UT, having baby calves (and their moms) in the backyard since March has assured us that the seasons are indeed changing.  Liam loves going out back to visit the baby calves.

Thanks to Jake (owner of many of the cows/calves) and my grandpa, he even interacted with a couple calves up close and personal!

Once he even talked Grandma Ronda into visiting the calves with us.

He also likes the horses that are in the backyard.  They are a little friendlier than the cows (especially the mommas when they think you might be messing with their calves.

Cute, cute calves.  They are so fun to watch.  I am amazed that they are born and immediately try out their tiny legs and start walking.  They seem much more self-sufficient than my baby (especially at just a few weeks).  The other amazing observation I've been enjoying is how they all know each other.  One momma bellows and her calf comes a running - and, if one of those calves gets a little hungry, they find their momma really quickly.

I just noticed that Liam is wearing the same sweatshirt in all these pictures even though they were taken on three different days.  He does have a couple other sweatshirts... and he's grown out of this one now!

Grandpa Rudd (Great-Grandpa to Liam)

I had to follow up the note from Sunday about Liam sitting on my grandpa's lap with some cute pictures of the two of them.  I will miss spending time daily with him when we get a house and aren't living so close.  It is wonderful to get to go for rides and hear his stories and opinions.  He really looks out for us, and all of his grandkids.

I love this little sequence of pictures.  Clearly, they are having a fabulous conversation and Liam is very excited about whatever story he just heard (possibly about Old Ephraim or the Washakes).

Dadadadada

  

Too say that Liam loves his dad is an understatement.  He lights up when dad comes in the door each evening and almost always will pick him over me when we are both around.  And, that love and excitement is equally reciprocated - Will can't wait to see Liam each day and really treasures bath time and other time that he gets to spend with him in the evenings and on the weekends.

He has also started dadadadada-ing the past couple of weeks.  It makes it much harder for Will to put him down from a nap when he yells dadadada as soon as he leaves the room.

Cute Pictures of Liam from February 2010

  

 

I know this month of blogging has been a month of cute picture overload.  I'm that mom.  Oh well.

Grease

Tonight our family (including Liam's grandparents) went to see my cousins perform in the High School presentation of Grease.  It was fun to see my cousins sing and dance and perform.  It was even more fun to watch Liam watch the musical.  He stood on his Daddy's lap and held onto the chair in front of him while he watched the students sing and dance, and when he'd see his cousins singing or dancing he'd start to scream at them to get their attention.  It was really cute, even if we did have to distract him to stop the excited screaming for the benefit of our neighbors.

I was going to take pictures at the musical, but the camera never came out of the diaper bag, sorry.

The little things

Today in Sacrament meeting, I sat with my husband's arm around me and watched Liam sit on my grandpa (his great great grandpa)'s lap.  Grandpa was helping him play with trains in the hymnal holder.  Liam would play for a few minutes, then lean back for a cuddle.  How many babies get to cuddle with their great grandparents on a regular (almost daily) basis?  We are so blessed!

High Expectations

Sometimes, things happen that make me wonder if people really are as good as I think they are.  I generally have high expectations of people (and society in general).  Today, my high expectations were tested and ultimately met.  Because I'm tired, I'll stick with the short story.  My mom lost her wallet in Ogden, we searched and searched for it and didn't find it.  She was really discouraged.  Canceling bank cards and checks is one thing, but the time it takes to replace everything else that resides in one's wallet (drivers license, work ID, insurance cards, concealed weapons permit, insurance cards... you get it) is something that my mom just doesn't have.  She gave her number to several places to have them call if they found it and tonight, when she hadn't heard anything, she was pretty discouraged.

Then, she checked the answering machine on the home phone.  The first message was from an angel who said that she had something that belonged to my mom.  Even though it was 10:30, we called her right back, hoping for a happy outcome and a more peaceful night for my mom.  She has her wallet!  Ironically, she found it somewhere completely different from where we searched (and searched).  We're not sure if it got there via someone who took it or via the top of our car ;) but it was found. 

Such a great reminder that it is okay to expect the best of people. 

Cute pictures of our eleven-month old (!!!) to come tomorrow.

Ten Months - March 24, 2010

Ten Month Stats:

Weight - 23.4 lbs (according to our scale)

Length - way too hard to measure at home!

On St. Patrick's Day, Liam and I were busy in the kitchen.  He was enjoying standing up next to a step stool and I was working away.  Next thing I knew, he had pushed the step stool all the way across the kitchen.  We decided it was time to get him a push toy to practice his walking and I loved this fun radio flyer.

We had fun taking pictures with it last month.  He really likes to put things in it to push around (including the monkey) and especially loves it when someone is willing to push him around in it.  His cousins are wild drivers but they have a fun time.

Liam's favorite toys remain our electronics.  He gets very excited when he hears a voice he recognizes (usually Will's) on the phone and loves to open and close my cell phone.  He is actually pretty gentle with the phones, especially when compared with how he treats laptops.  He likes to pound on them and has figured out how to take the keys off my PC.  He seems to prefer the taste of the k and x keys.  He can't pull keys off my MacBook but he somehow is amazing at finding shortcuts and completing commands.  This week, I had minimized a browser window and was letting him "type" in Word.  About two minutes later of him pounding away, I looked and he had: 1) maximized the browser window; 2) switched tabs to my gmail; 3) opened the trash/deleted items folder; 4) opened an old email from Will that I had deleted; 5) changed the language to Russian; and 6) typed out ддддш.  I couldn't resist sending it to Will.  He clearly was trying to type his favorite word - dadadadadadad!

And, that leads me to another funny story.  About two weeks ago, Liam started saying dadada.  After work one day, Will was trying to convince him to say mamama.  Each time Will would say mamama, Liam would laugh at him and say dadada...  Maybe you had to be there, but it was very funny!

I'm blog babbling.  Time to go to bed!!

Nine Months - February 24, 2010

Nine Month Stats:

Weight - 22.3 lbs.

Length - 28 in.

Still growing!

We missed the obligatory monkey shot for January.  In February, Liam refused to just sit by the monkey.  He wanted to tackle the monkey.  

Eight Months - January 24, 2010

Eight Month Stats - Unknown (My little booklet where we were recording his stats has disappeared, hopefully I'll find it somewhere!)

This was one of  the few days we had in January that were warm enough to go outside without so many layers that Liam wasn't recognizable.  January and February are such long months... I'm grateful to be into spring and longer amounts of daylight.  (Although, as I type this, we're having a huge hailstorm.)  

Seven Months - December 24, 2009

Pardon my mom journaling, the remainder of this weeks' posts are going to be dedicated to catching up on the growth of our little man, counting down to him being 11 months old on Saturday.  I cannot believe we're one month away from planning a birthday party, this year has flown by.

Seven months came on Christmas Eve.  Liam loved all of the people, the lights, and the attention that came with the holidays.

He asks you to please ignore the drool dripping down his chin.  He was working on some teeth.  At seven months, he had two teeth - front middle on the bottom.

Seven month stats:

Weight - 20 lbs. 4 oz.

Length (does it become height when they measure him standing up?) - 27 in. 

At seven months, Liam was becoming more and more fun to play with.  He slept well, ate well and played well.  It was a tough month, the seventh one, adjusting to his dad having a new job and not being around all of the time to entertain him.  Other big adjustments happened during his seventh month including a cross-country move.  After the big move, we all enjoyed staying put for a while, preparing for the holidays and spending time with family.  Liam enjoyed socializing at holiday parties but, as posted previously, found Mr. Claus to be sleep-inducing. 

and MY Cousins!

In addition to the benefit of Liam getting to hang out more often with his cousins, living in Northern Utah also means that we see a lot of my cousins!  The first of the year was a rough one for our extended Rudd family and so we decided a cousin trip to the cabin was in order in early March.  I picked kids up from school, we gathered our stuff together and headed to the cabin.  However, we arrived in Logan to find out there had been a snowslide in the canyon and that it would not be cleared for hours.  Not to be deterred, we waited it out at the bowling alley.  I have so many pictures of my cousins it was overwhelming to choose some for this post so I stuck with pictures containing Liam.  The other pictures will have to be collaged and posted soon.  

The day of the party happened to coincide with my cousin Jake's 18th birthday.  He is great, we love him.  Happy Birthday Jake!

The bowling alley happened to have a vending machine that dispensed disposable mustaches.  They provided for entertainment (and pictures) galore.  I think we'll encourage Liam to wait a few years before growing a real one!

And, me and Sam on the snowmobile.  This was an adventurous ride for many reasons.  Not the least being that we while were idling waiting for others to catch up, I turned around to watch for them and the snowmobile suddenly started going really fast.  Sam was holding down the throttle with all he had - luckily no one was in our direct path!  

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Cousins

One of the great things about living in Utah is that we are so close to my siblings.  While I was in my photography class, Becca, Sam and Porter came to visit and we had a lot of fun taking pictures.  These are just a few from one of the weekends they were here, I need to look through my pictures and find some from Porter’s baby shoot we did.  We love being close to cousins!

Cute Pictures of Liam - January 2010

I know these catch-up posts are a little picture-heavy, but I have so many cute ones of Liam it's hard to resist posting more!  When I get caught up to the present, hopefully my posts will include more words!

One of my New Year resolutions (draft post on that started...) was to engage in activities that would keep me constantly learning.  I started off with a fabulous photography class in January.  If anyone is looking for someone and is close to Cache Valley, I highly recommend Brooke Snow.  

For class homework, and just because I was exploring my camera, I took a lot of pictures in January.  Since I started the class, I have taken all of my pictures on manual mode, which I am very proud of.  I still have a lot to learn and want to take Brooke's advanced class, but I'm having a lot of fun.

Liam loves these buckets of toys.  He especially loves to tip them over, dump out all of the toys, and pull himself up to stand on them.  In the picture on the left, you can see Liam's wooden lobster from Maine.  Just this week he's figured out that it does cool things when he pulls it across the floor!

He loves to eat, especially when he can feed himself!

He also likes to share his treats (even when they are toys) with mommy.  He really likes to put things in his mouth, then my mouth, then back into his.