Liam's 4 Month's Check

Today Liam had his 4 month check up. Liam was such a doll the whole time. He didn't mind getting undressed for the doctor or waiting.He didn't cry while he was being checked out and hardly cried when he got his shots. Liam is a really good baby but I di have concerns not only about how often he spits up but how much. He also would fuss a little after it happened, plus a few days before the check up he would even become horse. I spoke to the doctor about it and they decided that Liam has acid reflux. The doctor gave me some liquid medicine that hopefully should help him.

Liam's 4 Month Stats...
Height: 27in Off the charts
Weight: 16lbs. 13 oz 80th%tile
Head Circumference: 17 50th%tile

Things I want to Remember...

• Liam is very good with his hands. He grabs on to so many things and pulls it right up to his mouth. He really likes to play with toys he can hold and move around.
• He has a lot of happy engery. I say this because when he see me or something makes him happy he gets the biggest grin and then he moves his legs up and down really fast. He also does this cute thing with his hand where he puts them all the way out and shakes them...it is really cute.
• Liam loves his big brother so much. Whenever he see him he smiles so big. He likes to watch him move around the room and play. Sometimes I put both of them in the crib and they just sit in there and play together.
• Liam and Eli have actually even started playing together. Eli will make a funny noise which makes Liam laugh which in turn makes Eli laugh and they do this over and over again. Sometimes I see both of them on the floor and Eli kind of pretends to wrestle him and Liam grabs Eli really tight. They both just start laughing when they do this. I think these two are going to be great friends!
• Eli always loved me the most and I knew it but Liam loves me more then anyone else even more. Liam can be in someone else arms and he will hear my voice or see me then realizes that I am not holding him so he starts to cry and look at me like "why aren't you holding me!" He now even reaches for me when someone else is holding him.
• I am convinced Liam will be an early walker or crawler. I will put him on a blanket or in his crib and for weeks now he can move around that crib or even off the blanket. He has already learned to put his feet beneath him to push himself forward.

474 W. Orchard Way

Since we are getting ready to move in a few days I thought I would get some pictures of our house before I start packing it up. We really do love this house and we will miss it. I get sad sometimes when I think about leaving the only house Jacob and I have ever known married, and the only house our boys have ever know...however our new house is like a dream come true so I won't be sad too long...I THINK!

We're Moving!!

My parents sold the house I grew up in a few years ago. To make a long story short the new owners immediately had buyers remorse and never even moved into the home (money pit for them) and because of their buyer’s remorse hate my parents. They have listed it for short sale a few times with no bites. Jacob and I recently figured now was the time to buy a bigger house for our growing family, so we looked at the Riata house. Jacob instantly fell in love with it. However, I loved the house I just didn’t see it as OUR house. Since I was not 100% on board Jacob humored me and we checked homes at the auction and on the MLS. We looked at 100’s of homes went into dozens of homes and could not find something that we both loved and thought would work for our needs. One day after looking at some homes, we were driving by the Riata house, and I said, “Let’s walk through the home again and talk about it like we do these other homes. Jacob liked the idea so he pulled into the neighborhood. This time when we walked through the house, WE LOVED IT!! We were so excited and really felt like it was the “perfect” home for us.

Since Jacob works in the auctions everyday, he had a good idea how to figure out the banks true value of the home. Meaning the bank was probably willing to sell the home for less than it’s true value. The home is bigger than most of the homes in the subdivision, so it is a difficult home to pull comps on. So we were banking on the fact that the bank had no idea that it was actually worth more than the comps. We both decided to make a VERY low offer and just see what the bank came back with, that way we would have a good idea the kind of money we would need. The house was listed at $599,000 and we offered $350,000 on July 3rd.

The realtor listing the property was initially upset about the offer but Jacob explained to him the recent bank owned and short sales in the neighborhood and why we had offered such a low offer. He also told him this was just a starting point we were very interested, but we really wanted to get an idea what the bank was thinking.. Once Roger (the listing agent) heard all this from Jacob he had the Harmon’s (the sellers) look at the offer. They signed it and we sent the offer to the bank. We waited for what seemed like forever, wondering if the bank would pull comps like us or since the current owners owed over $950,000 they would try to get more from us. At the end of August, we finally heard back from the bank with a counter offer at $405,000. Jacob and I were willing to pay up to 450K for the home SO OF COURSE, WE WERE ECSTATIC. We were in escrow with our dream house for what we thought was a great price.

Things to Remember….
I wanted to tell everyone right away that we were moving, however, Jacob working in real estate always says, “Stacy, it’s never a sure thing until it closes.” He sees how quickly a deal can go sour, so he didn’t want to tell anyone we were moving. I convinced him we should tell people because we needed to give our ward and neighbors a heads up that we were moving. We decided that it was a good idea to tell everyone around September 15th.
How excited we were finally hear back from the bank and such an amazing number. Jacob and I couldn’t believe it. We had prayed so long and so hard about this house we knew our prayers has been answered and this is the house we were to live in.

Funnies

I think my boys are funny and I want to remember some of their funny moments so here are a few of the latest...

• We were at my parents house and my aunt was holding Liam. She was kidding around and told Eli that she loved him baby brother and was going to take him home with her to live. Eli looked at her totally freaked out and said, "no, no. Baby brother milk! No Mama give baby brother milk!" What a clever little boy to know that Liam needs his Mama for food.
• It is football season right now and Jacob loves to watch the games. He is always saying how he can't wait for out boys to get bigger so they can watch the games with him. Well I don't think he will be waiting long! Eli loves football. He links to squat down say hike and then run at you and tackle you. He yelled "touchdown!" a lot. Lee also likes to take him to the park and they play there. Eli loves to go after the ball. He has no fear and will just dive on the ball to beat the other kids to it. Also when Jacob sees and good play a lot of times he say says, "Wow Stace get in here you have to see this." I get up walk in there look and then leave. Shortly after I will hear Eli says the same thing. I will walk in there he will show me the screen say the same things and smile and cheer...too cute.
• When I shop with the boys I will give them little things in the stores to play with. I was in a store so I grabbed two stuffed animals gave one to Eli and the other to Liam. As I was checking out I noticed Liam playing with his. It was a little beanie monkey and he loved it. He was holding it and talking to it. I went to take it away because I didn't want to accidentally take it, but when I did he put on the saddest face. I decided that I would buy it for him, but when the girl when to take it from him to ring it up he started crying. He just loves this monkey.
  
• Eli's new thing is to pretend all of his toys are real. So lately I have to feed Woody first thing Eli will eat it. Eli puts Woody or spider-man in his high chair asks for food, by saying, "Spider-man hungry!" Then he feeds him then he eats it. I love to see what toy I am feeding.
• Eli spent a lot of time in time so he finds pleasure in sending others to time out. Sometimes he hear him say no hitting buzz go to time out. Then he puts him in time out. Another time I heard he say no pushing Woody go to time out. I have even heard him say to Liam no kicking go to time out.
• Eli went on his first play date this week. Denise Uptain (who's brother in law I grew up playing with down at Debbie's) has a little boy named Bo a few months younger then Eli. Her older two boys are in school so she needed someone to come play with him on Friday. Eli went and had such a wonderful time. He didn't get scared leaving me, he was nice, they played great together, and when we left he said bye friend. He also plays with Sharisa's little boy Merrick a lot, and they are cute together too. I love having little play dates.
• Right now one of Eli's favorite things to do it so to the aquarium. Jacob bought me a year pass so I can go whenever for free. Eli loves to see the fish and so when he gets bored at home he looks up at me and says Mommy see Fishes? or if we drive anywhere he looks at me when we park and asks me, "Mommy see fishes?"
• My sister recently got a new car and I took it for a little test drive. It is really fast so I just had to check it out. Aly, Ethan, Eli and I went for a quick spin. I would accelerate really fast. I think Eli saw the shock in the other kids eyes and felt the speed. I looked back one time after speeding up and Eli had big eyes grabbed his chest and said, "scare me!"
• Eli loves Toy Story or as he calls it Buzz and Woody. Liam loves to be picked up like he is flying so I made a little game they both like. I will take turns lifting up the boys and flying them around saying things like, "Eli to the rescue or To infinity and beyond." They both love it!

Milwaukee

Day 1 - We flew there and got picked up by Cecil. We drove up to their beautiful neighborhood. Seriously it was so cute LOVED IT. Had a yummy dinner put the kids down and visited.

Day 2- Woke up let the kids play for a little then headed to the zoo. This zoo was amazing. All the animals were so close so we could see them really well. The exhibits we well done and so real and everything was just so neat. They also have a lot of animals we do not have. We saw Penguins, they have an amazing monkey thing with Orangutans, gorillas and all other types of monkey's. They have an Aqua spot with such cool fish, Jelly's and sharks and cool things. We saw a seal show I enjoyed watching them clap it would crack me up. They also of this mechanical Dino Exhibit. It really scared Eli. I tried to show him they were not real, but he would not touch them. At the end Linda bought all the kids a Dino toy...which they all loved a ton and then we got them to take pictures on the dino. We could not miss taking a funny picture with Liam in it's mouth. After the zoo we played around the house had a yummy dinner and then went to bed

Day 3- We went to the fair. It was so much fun we ate a lot of yummy and NOT good for you foods. Went to this little farming exhibit where Eli had to pick veggies, milk cows and do other farm work then at the end he sold it to the store and they paid him and he used his money to buy Chocolate milk. Seriously one of the cuties things I have ever done with him except I think Jacob and I liked it more than Eli did. We also played under this Giant inflated cow it was fun and of course we had to take another funny picture of Liam nursing from the cow...we think we are so funny. We saw lots of animals, enjoyed a funny pig race and then again ate a lot of fattening fried food...the list included fried Oreo's, Twinkies, cheese, crème puffs, Elephant ears, veggies and much more...we got sick.

Day 4- Some people got up early and went sailing on lake Michigan while the rest of us stayed back and went to the farmer's market. Where I bought fresh organic chocolate cow's milk from a Quaker woman. Then that evening we had a fiesta and even had a piñata. It was a blast.

Day 5- We went to church, relaxed, took naps, went on bike rides, enjoyed the park and lots more. Great day.

Day 6- Some people headed home while the rest stayed back watched a cool movie called Cranford, rode more bikes, more park and had another amazing day.

Day 7 - Another day at the zoo where some crazy happened. We wanted to show Fred the monkey's because he wasn't there for that. Jacob and I were a head of everyone when we reached the Baboons. Jacob put Eli down in front of the glass when all of the sudden the big one saw Eli and charged at him through the glass. Jacob reacted quickly and picked up Eli. I saw it scared Eli and I didn't want him to be a wuss so I told him the monkey was playing peek a boo. When clearly he just wanted to eat Eli for dinner. I then got Eli to run back and forth saying boo when he reached the other side. Each time the monkey would follow him and then lung and the glass. It was crazy because he only followed Eli, and a big crowd had gathered watching this. It was so cool and I will never forget it.

We had a blast!!