Liam's First Christmas

Liam's First Christmas was nothing short of MAGICAL.... having a baby in the house puts a whole new spin on the holiday, and I have to say - we love it! I think we spent 3hours opening gifts (hardly something to complain about) but the little guy is LOVED, and had many beautifully wrapped brightly colored boxes and bags to open - thanks to everyone for your thoughtful gifts, Christmas Cheer and Love! Merry Christmas!

Liams favorite gift was the paper!

Leaving Cookies for Santa on Christmas Eve.

Christmas Bedtime Story.

Waking up very joyful Christmas Morning.

SANTA WAS HERE!

Stockings in bed.

Love.

My hobby horse from Grandma Arlene!

My handmade bear from Auntie Sherri - his name is Bilbry.

The best gift under the tree!!!

SIT....STAAAAAYYYY!

Santa Came Early!

Santa made an early visit to come and see Liam last night! Our dear friend Chris (aka Kris Kringle) stopped by to make sure he knew exactly what Little Lima Bean wanted for his First Christmas! It was awesome!!

This is Liam opening up the green pajama's he is wearing in the Santa pics... Grandma and Grandpa Deitz sent them from Oregon with a note to "open early!" good thing we did, so he had the perfect outfit to meet "the big guy!"

4 months!

Wow, 4 months already, and you just keep on getting to be more and more fun!!

We had your 4 month appointment with Br. Bromberg yesterday and you continue to keep on tracking in the 90th percentile in height and weight. 17.9 lbs and 26.5 inches... do you know that means that you are nearly TWICE the size you are when you were born??? Thats quite an accomplishment Liam, nice work! Speaking of accomplishments, you rolled over by yourself... three whole times on the day before you turned 4 months!

In the last month you have been a very busy little guy, and pretty much truck around with us everywhere we go! You have visited the Getty Villa and gone to the beach when your grandma and grandpa deitz were here visiting you. You are a trooper in restaurants, and in the car - and love walks in your BOB stroller. You have experienced some cold nights lately - as low as 39 degrees, but you stay toasty warm in your 72 degree bedroom - which by the way, you are now sleeping in full time!!! Although I know it is the best thing for you and you are doing great in there, I really miss you being in our room so close by at night. Now, we watch you on your video monitor to make sure you are safe and sound. You are doing great in daycare, and being a good boy for Grammy M when she comes over to take care of you, which she is doing more often these days (we even got a date night out last night for mommys bday - thanks grammy M)

We are so excited to have you here with us at Christmas time - it brings a whole new magic to the season - we know you don't quite understand it yet - but we can't wait for Christmas morning - the first of many.. making new traditions together and anticipating that priceless Liam smile!

You are so handsome and get a lot of attention - especially for all of that hair of yours that still refuses to lie down (thats ok, we think its cute!) Everyone still thinks you look just like dad - but your Grandma Merlinkey brought over some baby pictures of me, and I have to say - you look a lot like your mommy too!

Nice work on 4 great months Lima Bean!

Photos of me as a baby and Liam :)
* none of these photos of Liam were staged - purely coincedental! *

A visit from Grandma and Grandpa

My mom and dad came for a holiday visit from Oregon. They hadn't seen Liam since he was about 2-3 weeks old, so they were beyond excited to see how much he has changed and grown, and how much more fun he has become in only three months. They stayed for about a week, and in the week we did a lot of plain old relaxing, but also had a lot of adventures too! We went to the Getty Villa, celebrated Kurts 40th, the boys went on a Harley Ride, we all went to the Boat Parade in Westlake, got Grandpa caught up on 4 seasons of the Sopranos, and got the house ready for Chrsitmas. We dropped them off at the airport this morning and were sooo sad to see them go. We hope they come back to visit again soon!

Grandpa, Liam and Grandma at the Getty Villa in Malibu.

Happy Holidays w/ gma and gpa!

Mom and Dad at the Beachcomber in Malibu for Kurts 40th bday!

Fun with Grandma, she had Liam cracking up!

Grandpa bought his boy the entire collection of Curious George - he saw it at the airport and just had to buy it for him. I have a feeling we will spend a lot of time reading this one, Liam loves it already!

Very sweet - grandpa and his boy!

A star on top.

We got our ARTIFICAL Christmas tree this year, and for a girl from Oregon; growing up in the land of the "$10.oo U-cut" lots...this is a hard reality to come to grips with. However, the tree we got is 9ft tall, and ALMOST looks real... the only thing missing is the smell of fresh cut pine. We will have to buy some fresh wreaths to get the smell... it just isn't Chrismtas without it.

Kurt is putting the star on top! (You will notice that the top portion of the tree is not yet decorated... I needed a ladder for that since the tree is so dang tall!)

We tried to take pics with the flash and without - neither way does a lit tree any justice... but you get the picture :)

These photos of Liam are just a bonus thrown in for fun. He was sitting up in my office this morning in his pj's with his Lion, and I just thought he looked so cute! (Also... his hair is ALMOST staying down, this is the first time it hasn't stuck straight up) He is looking more and more like a little boy and less like a baby every day.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Oh so much to be thankful for this year! But rather than getting all mushy and making a list that would just be way too long - I am just going to post some photos from what had to have been one of the most beautiful days we have had all year - Thanksgiving 2008.

We started our day with a morning trip to the Park.

Ace and Jinx ran their little doggie bootys off!

If you loook VERY closely - you will see Kurt, Jinx and Ace in this photo...
look at that clear blue sky and just a trace of the puffiest white clouds...

The dogs put their ball in Liam's basket...


Back at the house - great grandpa finkenbrink, and grammy M showed up!
A champagne toast to Great Grandpa's 101st Thanksgiving and Liam's 1st.

Is this priceless or what?

Ace is patiently waiting for a crumb or two


Ready for food now!

Don't skimp on the whipped cream Kam!


The end of a very happy first Thanksgiving! Liam is all tired out and READY for bed!

First Day at Daycare

We survived.

Barely...