god bless little boys

one of the things i love most about being a mom to a little boy is seeing his face when he discovers something new... something he has never seen before... discovers he can do something he has never done before - or say something that he has never said before.
such sweetness in the innocence.
such joy in his happiness.

the sheer uncomplicated bliss of little boys.
nothing to do but explore the world and make us smile!

he is feeling better... back to his normal inquisitive curious little self. and this alone makes me happy.

this weekend the weather was nice...
nice enough to spend a good chunk of time outside. he loves to run - run free.
explore new things, no parameters, no stinkin baby gates, nothing off limits...

running...

and running...

gleefully running.

checking out the world.

all of this running, and playing, and exploring, learning doing.
makes a little boy very tired.

and leads to very long crashed out naps.

thank god someone invented video monitors - so us moms can enjoy these little moments!

have a great week.

Happy Bday Dakoda!

Happy Birthday Dakoda, Dak-man, Big D, Little D, "D"...

we so enjoyed your visit! you have grown into such a wonderful young man (wow.. your auntie sounds REALLY OLD when she talks like that huh?!) but seriously... you are a joy and so much fun... not to mention a total ROCK STAR HOCKEY MASTER!

thanks for all of your help while you were here - we know Lima Bean LOVED hangin out w/ his big cuz. Have a great year Dak man... wishing you the best of the best!
lots of love!
KK, AK, and LB - oh jinxie and aceface too!
p.s. maybe you can have a diet cooooke on your big day! xoxo

Thanks for being part of the morning routine... first breakfast on the couch w/ some juice and yo gabba gabba.

Mama Sherri... don't you look at the picture below and still see your "little" man... about the same size as Lima Bean? No matter how big or old you get Dakoda... you will always be your mama's baby boy!

ding ding ding... we have a winner!

well.. as usual, with a big decision - my practical side takes over and kicks my creative sides ass... and ... ((drumroll)) PC wins!

the good news is - we just ordered a smokin' fast Dell laptop w/ a 17" screen and most of the bells and whistles, loaded w/ microsoft office etc.. my company has a partnership with Dell, so I was able to use a 25% off promo code and we got it for less than we could have picked up the base model 13" macbook pro.

yes mom - it comes with a camera. get ready to get your skype on!

under the weather.

maybe lima bean is sad and not feeling so good because scott and dakoda left today... i know we are all a little bummed out that they had to go home. we miss them already... liam has had a little cold all weekend, and today woke up w/ a fever :( he stayed home from daycare today and got to nap on the couch.

i think this is his sick pose... see this post from the first time he was sick... looking about the same, just a teenier version.

i hope he feels better very soon although selfishly i am enjoying how snuggly he is. he slept for an hour on my chest this morning... reminds me of the wittle baby days... ahhh...

goodbye great grandpa f. jan. 22. 2010.

today Liam's great grandpa joined his great grandma alice in heaven.

the video below is part of the video that we made to show at his 100-th bday on 07-07-07... grandpa finkenbrink was nearing 103 years young when he joined jesus.

he lived a very long life. he had a loving marriage to his wife alice.
he was a lovng father to daughters arlene and helen.
an extraordinary grandfather to scott
and kurt, diane and elaine.and amazing grandfather-in-law to sherri and kari.

and of course.... great g-pa to ashley, dakoda, karen, kristen, jason, jeffrey and limabean...

we love you grandpa.
enjoy heaven.
see you soon!!!!

it was our honor to know you and love you.

welcome east siders!

I am happy to say that Scott and Dakoda arrived safely at LAX last night and we are so excited they are here. There very first stop was to swing by and see Great Grandpa where they met up with Grammy M.

It has been almost 2 years since Grammy M. has seen Dakoda... and my oh my what a difference 2 years makes. Especially the 2 years between 13 and 15! Our sweet "little" "Dak-man" is 6 foot 2!! yes, 6 foot 2! AND playing VARSITY hockey... and killing it!

Grammy M's expression when she saw Dakoda for the first time...
her face says it all!

And to put a better perspective on what it is like to look UP... WAAAAAY UP to your first grandson.. check it out!

* photo credits to Kurtie-pie.. nice shots honey!

Happy 17 months Lima Bean

Happy 17 months to my favorite buddy.

This is going to be a quick entry because we are busy getting ready for your uncle Scott and cousin Dakoda to arrive - your daddy just left to go pick them up from the airport. They are coming to meet you for the first time, and to see your Great Grandpa who is really really sick right now. Speaking of your Great Grandpa, we took you to see him this week, he was mostly unaware of who was in the room... except for you. When you said hello to him and touched his hand... he lit up like a Christmas tree... really Liam - you have a way of doing that to people! It made his day - and it really made your Daddy's day to see that. THANK YOU!

You are still a ham. You dance and laugh a lot.. but you have a temper too. You walk like you have walked your whole life...and are RUNNING. RUN LIAM RUN. You are fast... like the wind. The other day, when daddy and i looked away for MAYBE 5 seconds, you had already made your sneaky escape out the dog door where we found you cracking yourself up in the backyard. This is typical you. Good thing we got the pool gate! Along with your advanced mobility comes the advanced boo boos... today you scratched your cheek on a box AND got a fat lip at daycare... BE CAREFUL young man.

You are a helper. You know where trash goes, and like to help throw it away. You are also very interested when I am cooking anything.. you say UP UP UP, so that i will pick you up to see whats cookin.

You are a ladies man, and have two girlfriends... and recently got totally busted for it... BE CAREFUL young man!

This month we had Christmas, New Years, went to the zoo and were a social butterfly - you took it all in stride. I love that you are the kid who just rolls with it.

I can't wait for you to spend some time with your East Coast Family this upcoming week :) they love you so much... so do I!

xoxo
love mama.

floodwatch 2010

yes, its does rain in southern california.... and its raining here.
hard. and it doesn't look like its going to stop anytime soon.

we are starting to flood... and the drains are backed up. we are hoping the rooter guys can make it out today. busy day for them!
grass also is starting to flood.

a few inches accumulation so far

dreary dreary dreary...

i love the weekend!

hallelujah its the weekend!
nowhere to go.
noplace to be.
our kind of day!

waking up to yo gabba gabba, some milk and a snack.

on to pumpkin spiced pancakes (thanks for the mix g-link ... mmm). with home made blueberry compote. unsure about the whole thing.

what? i really have to eat this?

whateves.

i can't wait til' i can pick what i wanna eat. mac n cheeze EVERY DAY! phltttt!

have you noticed?

I have joined the rest of the blogosphere in participating in "project 365" which in my case is a blatant misnomer... in fact, i did not jump on the bandwagon until 1.9.10... so, really - it should be project 365-8ish (i am bad at math, and who's counting anyway?)... but really, one of my resolutions was for 2010 (i will share the complete list soon i promise... again, spoken like a true procrastinator... we know this about me by now) is to find joy every day, and to capture it.
so far, i have posted beautiful abby, a kick-ass paint job, a sunset that i found while doing the dishes, a peek into my quest for a sippy that doesn't leak and some delicious cookies (which by the way, i did NOT eat - we'll talk about THAT resolution someday)... anyway. these nuggets of "daily joy" will have no rhyme or reason (other than arrive at some point daily), and probably wont follow any "golden rules" or "rule of thirds"...they might not be in focus, the exposure may be all out of whack and the composition may be ALL wrong. i am not promising anything other than a snippet of something that made me smile, that i would like to remember.... and share.

mac or pc? open discussion...

what do you have?
what do you wish you had? why?
pros? cons?

kurt and i are getting a new computer - (our family christmas gift to eachother)
we have been longtime pc users and are on the verge of making the switch (gasp) to mac. do you use one? is it really worth the extra $$?

christmas photos - 3 a day + 1 v.4 (final)

are we all over christmas yet?

we still have our tree up, lights up - and even some random wrapping paper strewn about... a half eaten gift basket on the table and the candy cane crumbles have turned into globs of peppermint glue and are stuck to the counter from the baking adventure that was weeks ago.

i have high hopes that we will wrap it up this weekend... but that is a HIGH hope. in efforts of moving on, and starting a fresh new year (which i have decided by the way, that mine isn't officially starting until next week)... i am posting the last of the christmas 2009 photos.

you've heard of the elf on a shelf? we have a family of them. they aren't the REAL "elf on a shelf" - but i think they are cuter! they keep watch over little boys and girls to make sure they are being nice, and report any "naughtiness" back to the big guy.

aren't they cute?

i am just putting this one in here, because it looks like liam is about to pluck the light straight off the tree. i thought it looked kind of cool.
...visions of sugarplums...
AND milk bones!
i hope your holiday season was merry and bright.

uh oh... uh oh.... uh oh...

Party in my tummy... so yummy.

2010.. a year for eating at the big boy table!

bon appetit.

hello 2010

goodbye 2009.

the last photo of Lima Bean in 2009. reflections and resolutions to come...