Thursday, September 30, 2010

Baby’s (and Mom’s) Best Friend

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Liam LOVES Kiki. He always smiles when he sees her, even rolling across the room just to play (see video). 

I suppose it could also be entitled, “Why We Have Dog Hair All Over the Floor”.001Nike tends not to stay put, so he’s less fun to play with.   Maybe it’s because he’s getting old.  Now that he’s reached the ripe old age of 8, he doesn’t have to put up with that kind of nonsense like Kiki will (she’ll do anything for even the mere thought of a treat). 007I even found some black hairs a few weeks ago, so I guess that means he’s going grey. Makes me kind of sad, especially that he can only keep up with me for about 3-5 miles (earlier this year, he did 20!). This makes running at 5:30 am a less-than-appealing option. The way I see it, I have 4 options.  1) find someone willing and able to run at 5:30 with me; 2) make Steve wake up at 6:30 to watch Liam while I run before he goes to work; 3) get a new dog; and 4) Run by myself (alone, in the dark, carrying mace; you get the idea).  I think option #3 seems the most appealing (and most likely…).  If I mentioned #2 to Steve, he might even recommend getting a new dog instead. Too bad we’re only allowed to have two…

Luckily, however, Liam has found another best friend, one who’s always there for him and always makes him happy. And even though he leaves the mirrors a lot smudgier than before, we love having Baby Billy over to visit (with that cute face, who wouldn’t?).Best Friends Baby in the Mirror

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Slow and Steady Wins the Race

Slow is right; He certainly won't be winning races anytime soon! He does a wounded (more like amputated) soldier/roll/inchworm crawl, and really struggles to move forward. But from all the other moms I've talked too, maybe we're the lucky ones.

After an afternoon with his friends Rushton, Macy, and Celia a few weeks ago, peer pressure finally got to Liam. He's mobile (sort of).


His favorite things to go for are Mom's "toys" (iPod and cell phone). Who wants their own toys when Mom's are so much cooler?

Next stop, walking (which he's probably closer to than learning to really crawl now that he’s cruising, too).

In other news, Liam loves the teacup ride. At least someone will go on it with me now.

Monday, September 27, 2010

Family Photos 2010

We got new family photos when we were up at Hebgen.

Hebgen family family 2 hebgen sweaters lake sweaters family photofamily photo 2    

My favorites are these (though I don’t think we’ll get it blown up for obvious reasons). William was making the silliest faces the whole time we were there.funny face

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Sunday, September 12, 2010

Inland Empire

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On Labor Day April, William, and I loaded up the car and headed into the interior to explore the IE. Our first stop was Hadley’s, which is basically the world capitol of dried fruit. We loaded up on trial mix, dried papayas, and chocolate covered pretzels to fuel our adventure (in retrospect the chocolate covered pretzels were a poor choice for an expedition into the desert).

Next stop: the Salton Sea (think the Great Salt Lake only hotter, more desolate, and even smellier). DSCN2489 DSCN2490 DSCN2523

The shore was made up of these coral shell thingsDSCN2488

And also dead fish, lots of dead fish.DSCN2515 DSCN2509 DSCN2510

Next we explored the date farms and back roads of the Coachella Valley.

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On the way home we took the scenic route through the mountains to Idyllwild.

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Tuesday, September 7, 2010

I'm a Mormon

The Church has a new campaign meant to highlight both the diversity and normalcy of individual Mormons. Unfortunately, they couldn't include everybody. Here are a couple of Mormon profiles that didn't make the cut:


Aaron Eckhart

I'm the boyfriend in a notoriously cheesy seminary video,
I am Gotham's White Knight,
and I'm a Mormon.

Brandon Flowers

I am human,
I am dancer,
and I am Mormon.


Who else got left out?

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

What Would YOU Do With 2 1/2 Days Off?

Steven would spend it at the cabin. Steve’s family spends two weeks at a cabin in West Yellowstone every summer. It wasn’t easy for him to get the time off, and he had to work 10-12 hour days and weekends to do it, but he was very glad to get a long weekend at his very favorite place with his very favorite people.

Garffs at Cabin Luckily, Liam and I don’t have that problem. We went up to SLC a week earlier to have a baby shower for Katie and bridal shower for Kristi, two of our favorite people. The showers entailed lots of presents and lots of food and fun.

Getting into the presentsPlaying with Katie

At Katie’s shower, Liam met a girl who may possibly become the love of his life, Kambree (the daughter of our friend, Stacy). He was all over her.

Rolling on Kambree Cuddling with Kambree

Rolling overGirls with Bows

He has a thing for girls with bows as you can see from his date with Macy.

Kisses from Liam We spent LOTS of time with uncles and cousins. Some of his favorite times were spent looking at the cats (who wouldn’t stay close enough for a picture) or the birds (the turkey, Christmas, and Uncle Arthur, on the other hand, would)

arthur and the turkey He thought hanging out with cousin Lucy Porter was hilarious.

Lucy and Liam

Liam and Lucy Fun with Lucy

Cousin Nick loves babies and was great at keeping Liam entertained.

Liam and Nick

Will had fun with us too. Will and Liam LOVED hanging out together.Will and LiamHe begged to go to Target with us, since it’s his favorite store. The whole way there, Will was making William laugh hysterically. When we got to the store, I asked Will what he did to make Liam laugh…he was pushing on Liam’s face with his hand.Will and Liam in the car

Liam even got to play a real piano with Spencer.

Spencer and Piano But by far, the favorite cousin was Daniel. Liam couln’t get enough of him.

Daniel and Tummy TimeWrestling with Daniel Sitting with Daniel

Everytime they were together, Liam would laugh and talk and giggle and reach for his new bff.summer 2010 010 summer 2010 012

With Daniel in front of the fire

And after a week without Dad, my favorite part was when we got to see Steven again.

Driving the boat

Liam’s favorite part of the trip, other than playing with his cousins, was the beach. Playing at the beachGrandma Garff at the beach

We even let him get good and dirty.Getting Dirty

He was NOT a fan of the boat.

Boating with Mom

Grandma and Grandpa Garff even watched Liam so we could go out on a triple date with the other Garff boys and their significant others.

Grandsons with Grandpa Garff

The Williams had lots of good fun. Sitting with Grandpa

The beard was especially interesting for little baby hands.

Grandpa Garff's Beard Liam learned to brush his budding teeth (which have been threatening to break through for nearly 6 months now).

Brushing teeth

Liam also started saying “Babwaba” whenever we feed him banana-flavored puff snacks. We think he means, “banana”.

And, my personal favorite, saying “Mama” (which mostly happens when he is sad, but heart-wrenching, nonetheless.)

Cuddling with mom

The separation anxiety, on the other hand, was less than heart-wrenching. Especially when he decided to “nap” from 7-9 pm and cry for mom and dad until 11 or 12. Needless to say, we were all tired in the mornings.

Sleeping with Dad

Makes us glad to be back home.