I have a blog.

I have a blog. I don't update it. I think about it. A lot. I wish I was a better writer. I'd be less self conscious about updating this. 

The past year or so has been crazy. We bought a house. Sold a house. Had a baby. And I am tired. Sawyer Paul cope was born at the end of march. He was 5 days overdue. He weighed in at 8lbs even. He was a great baby until reflux rocked our world 5 days ago. He's still a great baby. He is just miserable from 7pm to 11pm. And I feel helpless. Poor little guy. It is so hard to see them uncomfortable. I am so grateful for my children though. I had a lady today at Joann tell me "3 boys. That's enough. You can be done" I walked about baffled. She said it jokingly. Didn't make a difference to me. Growing up when we said something rude and then said "I was just joking" my mom would always say "90% of you was serious" and she was usually right. I think she would be right today. 

I've heard so many heartbreaking stories lately of mothers losing their children. My mommy heart can't handle it. It makes me want to snuggle the kids all day and wrap them in bubble wrap then attach them to my hip. 

Liam is growing up way too fast. He's 5 and learning so much. He has the beat memory and creeps me and Matt out with the random things he remembers. Henry is a feisty 3 year old. That kid couldn't be more opposite than Liam. He wakes up every morning by 630 to head to our dining room table to play "yegos". EVERYDAY!  He's hilarious. 

They both love their baby brother. Henry has way more interest in him. Liam usually asks to hold him when he's suppose to be heading to bed. 

Matt is the best. As usual. He's up installing a new closet system as I type this. It's midnight on a Friday night and he's been working on it since he came home from work. He also made himself dinner and put the older boys to bed while I took care of the baby. Good man. 

I'm tired. And too tired to get off the couch and go to sleep. I have problems. 

Birthday donuts for hanky. 

Thoughts from a 4.5 year old

"Liam. Take off my sunglasses before you break them."

"Mom! I won't break them! I don't break things." 

"Liam, if you break my sunglasses I am going to take money out of your piggy bank to buy me a new pair!"

"Mom! You can't take money out of my piggy bank! Don't you want me to get married? I need that money! I can't get married if I don't have money"

"Then take them off!"

"Mom I need money for my mission. Take it from somebody else. Like Henry."

 "Henry will need money too Liam."

"Mom! Henry won't get married. He's too little!"

...

As if you're so big my little Liam! 

Privacy Please...

I am going to make the blog private. Even though I blog very little I feel like I may blog more knowing who is reading what I do decide to post.
Don't know you? Friend of a friend? Friend of a family member? Don't be shy. I don't think anyone reads this since I have stopped being a frequent blogger but if you do and want to keep up with our life comment with your email address. I will be making the switch in the next week or so.

Liam turns 4

December is a busy month in general but we also have two birthdays to celebrate in our house. Liam has been waiting for weeks for it to be his birthday. He knew that after Christmas it would soon be his birthday and he was so excited. When he woke up this morning I said "happy birthday Liam! I love you" he gave me a hug and said "thanks mom! I lub you too!" I seriously can't get enough of him. He says the funniest things and has the cutest voice. Matt and I took down our Christmas decorations last night and decorated for his birthday. When he walked downstairs this morning he gasped. "Decorations! Presents!! Happy birthday!" Liam had requested to go to kids club at the gym this morning and to johns incredible pizza for dinner. Matt threw in getting donuts for breakfast and a movie date while mommy and Henry napped. So off we went to Safeway at 8am in our jammies for donuts. Liam couldn't wait any longer to open his presents either. He is so fun. He even gets really excited for new clothes. He asked for new Legos and picked out what present contained new Legos :) after kids club they went to see monsters inc 3D. Liam wore then glasses for an entire minute and then said the movie was a little blurry. Once they got home from the movie I tried to get him to take a nap before johns incredible pizza but he told me "I can't! I'm too excited!" So we left an hour earlier than expected. Aunt Rachel met us there along with our friends the jorgensons and the coxs. As usual we ate too much and had a great time. Next week he is going to have a little birthday party with a few friends. It was too hard for me to pull off so close to Christmas and now we get to celebrate a little longer. I don't mind and I'm sure he doesn't either.
I feel so blessed to be the mom of this sweet 4 year old. It has been so amazing to watch him learn and grow. He is very smart and oh so clever. He's a great big brother and told us tonight driving home that he doesn't want just 1 little brother he wants 2 brothers and a sister. I love listening to him play and sing songs. He's like buddy the elf "singing is my favorite!"
Time is flying by so fast and I am grateful to spend so much time with him and Henry.
Happy birthday Liam. We love you!!!

Worst blogger ever...

I feel like a slacker...once again. I continue to find myself thinking "I'll never forget that" "That was the cutest thing Liam has ever done. I'll never forget that." "Henry is the most adorable boy ever. I'll never forget this stage"  By 5pm I have forgotten and never wrote it down or pulled out the camera to document. Boo for me. 

2012 has been a big year for our family. Lots of traveling, plenty of school and graduation!!! (for Matt), not enough family (but still a lot) and so many changes in our adorable little boys.

Hanky Pank will be 18 months old next week. How that is possible I don't know but he is the cutest 18 month old on the planet right now. He is everything feisty and sweet. We love that little munchkin. He is communicating a little bit. He really loves to say no and doesn't like to give as many kisses as he use to but will blow you a super cute kiss. He loves his brother and they are starting to play better with each other. He is still working on getting more teeth! He has four top front and still just 2 bottom front. He has cut a few molars but nothing else in the front. It is the funniest thing to me. When I go to get him out of bed in the morning he has the same routine. He points to the fan to tell me to turn it off (white noise) then points at his diaper which needs to be changed. I always say "do you want me to change your diaper?" 

Airplane

"NO! Uh-uh" All while he continues points at his very full diaper.

 It's hit and miss with him at meal time. He will grunt while pushing me to the pantry throughout the day to ask for cereal, crackers, fruit strips ALL DAY LONG. Maybe that is why he doesn't always eat...  His hair has grown out over the summer and he has curls on the back of his head just like mine when I was little. I die over them but will be cutting it tomorrow. He loves airplanes and points to the sky every time he hears one overhead. He doesn't even look for them. He just points up and continues on his way. He loves Liam's scooter and is getting better at pushing himself on it and loves to climb on Liam's bike. After putting Liam's helmet on, of course. He likes cars and is starting to push them along the floor and really loves to make a mess of everything in each room. He is a handful but we wouldn't want it any other way. We love our Hanky Pank. 

Liam will be 4 in just over 2 months and I cry when I think about it. He is very inquisitive and loves to know everything about anything. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do about preschool for him since he will have 2 years of it but he has been asking since his older friends went back to school in September. We found a cute little school in downtown Hillsboro that I hope to get him started in next week. When we went to the tour yesterday he said to me "Mom, will you leave now?" Mr. Independent is ready for school and I need to get on it. I look forward to the time with Henry but tear up at the thought of having him gone. School will 2 days a week for 2.5 hours. He will love it. He is our social butterfly. 

He loves to point out letters and likes to spell his name for everyone. He is doing great with his letter recognition and is decent at writing them. He had a stomach bug a few weeks ago and learned that he doesn't like to throw up. It was so sad to see him feeling so icky. We have been blessed with great health and this sickness was hard for all of us to deal with. SO MUCH LAUNDRY ;) 

Liam is a socialite and loves to play with his friends. Everywhere we go he is asking if his friends will be there too. He's not too happy when we have to say no. He will usually say "oh. I don't like family time. I lub my friends." He is really starting to like legos and would play with them for most of the day if Henry wasn't there to destroy his work. Poor boy. He loves to play outside and is getting more and more independent and he has the best sense of direction and memory. It is really unreal. He hates having his picture taken these days when it's my idea. But is always willing to be silly. He is a wonderful little boy and is very sweet to all around him. He is growing up too fast. 

Matt continues to be the best husband around. He finished his MBA at the end of September from Arizona State with a GPA of 3.92. He is such a hard worker and the boys and I appreciate him so much. I am so proud of him. We were lucky enough to have him around all summer while he was on his sabbatical from work. We had so much fun visiting friends and family all summer. We had some major withdrawals when September came and we were back to reality. 

I am busy trying to keep up with them all. I have fallen in love with Zumba and try to get to the gym 3x a week for a fun workout. I've realized it helps us all out when I can get to the gym and spend sometime on myself. I was recently called to the Relief Society presidency as well. I am warming up to the idea and still feel a little lost but I am looking forward to learning and growing spiritually from it. I have really been thinking about prioritizing my time and making the best of it...maybe that means blogging more often ;) 

I lub them all

I Took Liam to a preschool this morning for a tour. They have a cute little turtle that they let out on the floor and he wanted to take a picture. I gave him my phone and he then took 11 pictures of the thing. The teacher told him to look at the pictures and pick out his favorite one. He looks through them all then responds, "I lub them all" I just looked at them. They all are exactly the same. That funny boy.

Winter

Liam and I were talking about one of our favorite summer activities today, the splash park. We talked about how we play in the splash park when it is hot out. He then told me "we can't play now because it's winter. Too icky to go outside." ha. Poor little Oregonian! Then we talked about how he new it was winter. He couldn't tell me where he learned that but he told me his mom and dad were smart. I'll take that!

Liam speaks...

While pointing to a small hole in the knee of his jeans he says "oh mom I have hole in my jeans. Can you sew it for me? Can you fix it pleeeeease?!!?"

Where does he come up with these things?

Love that fluffy haired boy.

10 months

Henry turned 10 months old Saturday and took 8 steps today. I can't believe how fast he is growing up. Matt and I just got back from a week long cruise in the western Caribbean and while we were only gone 8 days both boys seem to have changed quite a bit. Liam just looks bigger and seems to be speaking better and clearer. Henry finally cut his top left tooth and has another about to come thru and is so much steadier than before we left and is now taking steps! He had taken a few before we left but now he actually looks like he knows what he is doing. He is so small it just looks wrong! We love our boys and are happy to be back home with them but loved getting a break and enjoying each others company while getting a tan.

Snapshot of Henry at 8 months

Henry is such a sweet little boy. He loves his big brother and basically everyone else who looks at him. He had been working on the transition from army crawling to "real" crawling at the beginning of December and decided while we were in Utah that real crawling was faster than army, he also learned how to climb up the stairs. Definitely not what I was expecting. He is so proud of himself for it too. Grinning all the way to the top. Thankfully our stairs at home aren't in his line of sight and he hasn't bothered with them. He started waving goodbye and hello over Christmas vacation as well. It is probably one of the cutest things I've ever seen. He will also clap when we ask him too. Which is also on my list for the cutest thing ever. Matt and I are both shocked that we can tell him to clap and he will do it with the biggest grin. He had been sleeping through the night up until the 10 or so of December when he got a double ear infection. Then when that was over he started cutting his first tooth. It was awesome. Poor little guy. He has been doing better since we have been home and is now catching up on some much needed sleep. and so are we. He is such a joy to be around. I am amazed that he is approaching his 9 month mark. I want to pause him just where he is at. He is so much fun!

A little sunbeam

Yesterday was Liam's first day in sunbeams. I'm not sure who it was more traumatic for, him or me. It started with him walking past nursery saying he wanted to go play with toys and then me coaxing him into the primary room. He wouldn't sit down and right when I thought he was getting cozy I see a blonde boy dart out of the room. He proceeds to run down the halls giggling as Henry waves goodbye to him. I'm sure Henry was taking notes. Liam Thinks this is hilarious. I don't. Especially after i get him back to primary and he just runs through the room. At this point I went to get Matt. I'm crying for three reasons. One, my child is in PRIMARY! Two, he Is hating it and scared of the change. Three, I'm embarrassed. We end up finding him hiding behind a couch in the foyer! After bribing him with gum and one visit to find me and see that I am still around he makes it through singing time. I'm not exactly sure how class went. I walked by twice and peaked in the window. First time he was yelling no at his teacher. The second time he was screaming for me. Matt walked by once and found him standing on a chair.
I use to be happy that he made the cutoff by 3 days and didn't have to spend an extra year in nursery. Now I'm not so sure.

Nursery Time

When we got home from church today I asked Liam what he did in nursery.
Liam: "I played cars"
Me: "Oh what did you learn?"
Liam: "Jesus."
Me: "Does Jesus love you?"
Liam: "Yeah. I follow Jesus. See!" (He proceeds to walk very carefully in a straight line.)
Love that little boy.