Days Like Today

It's days like today that make me love being a mom. With this little boy and his silly smile as a son, who wouldn't want to be a mother!

Liam was especially good today, and I had a blast watching the ducks, eating fruit snacks, and playing soccer with him. We even got to see a REAL police car with a siren, and the police officer even waved at us. I think that might top seeing Mickey Mouse at Disneyland! Add Liam walking into the room with a hose around his waist and explaining that he was a rocket, and the day was completely perfect. Nothing spectacular, but everything special. Just the way I love it.

Happy Birthday Greg

Our good friend, Greg, recently had a birthday, so Will and I threw him a surprise birthday party. (I'm taking the picture, and that little dark round bump near the left bottom corner is Liam's head. Oh and no, that is not our child that Will is holding, that's our friends' (Rob and Lindsey's) little girl Sadie. )

It was a fun Dr. Who themed party. (For those Americans out there (who haven't been influenced by Greg yet), Dr. Who is a British sci-fi T.V. show equivalent to Star Trek in the States minus a lot of the "I am Keptar from the planet Ooptigarn. My ship is damaged and is in need of whobitigoobity and a refractory some scientific word lasar warp engine" and all that mumbo-jumbo. Not that that's bad, I grew up on Star Trek and we ALL know Will did; he even had a Federation uniform at one point. It's just a little harder for Star Trek outsiders to get into. Dr. Who is a little more mainstream. It's been around forever, but has recently been re-done, and Will and I are hooked. It keeps getting better and better as time goes on.)

What Dr. Who party would be complete without a Dalek cake?

Greg also lets us borrow his movies all the time, so as a present, I made him a Tardis DVD carrying case. It turned out much better than I expected.

(If you too are a Whovian and want a Dalek cake or a Tardis bag, I should have the instructions up within the week on my craft blog refugeecrafter.com.)

The Best Daddy in the Whole World

One glorious morning, Will let me sleep in. I awakened to find Will and Liam in the kitchen playing with the play dough. Here are the creatures they created. Apparently Liam requested monsters from
Disney/Pixar's Monster's Inc.(From left to right-Sully, Mike, Waternoose, Ceila, Randall)

Can you see the similarities?



Waternoose is my favorite.

Happy Birthday Will!

We recently celebrated Will's birthday. Birthday plans included going to the Disney Store and buying Liam a toy, watching Space Chimps in a real theater, getting a Jamba juice, visiting the duck pond...wait this sounds more like Liam's birthday. It's what Daddy wanted to do. We also had Chick-Fil-A for lunch...a very Daddy thing and got a movie from Redbox...also another Daddy thing.

The best part of Will's birthday was that he got to spend the WHOLE day with us.

I know all that sounds like a lot for one day...it was. We ended up having to spread the festivities over the whole week! He's such a wonderful daddy and husband, he definitely deserved more than just a day of celebration.

The Big Boy Bed

Liam is officially sleeping in a "big boy bed." After repeatedly crawling out of his crib, we decided it was time to take the side off the crib to make a toddler bed.

My little one is growing up too quickly!

Pettit Family Vacation 2

Here we are at the San Diego Animal Park which was really pretty awesome. I felt closer to the animals, and the animals seemed so much more lively. Well, all except for Liam who fell asleep at the end. We tried to wake him up enough for a carousel ride, but he was O-U-T. I was glad that he got to feed the animals in the petting zoo at the beginning of the visit.

Pettit Family Vacation

We just had a wonderful visit with our family! With seeing Les Mis at Tuachan, playing and shopping in Provo, visiting Grandma and Grandpa Great in San Diego for the Fourth (alternatively names include Great-Ma and Great-Papa, Liam hasn't settled on names for them yet), going to the beach, and the wild animal park our time has been well spent.

It was especially fun to have Aubrey and Aria stay with us though N8 who was busily studying at home was sorely missed. Aubrey and I were amazed at how much better Liam and Aria acted together than they usually do alone, particularly when shopping. Grandma Julie had a lot to do with this too, I'm sure. It's too bad that we live so far apart now that we actually have time to play with each other.

Here's a cute picture of Liam and Aria in the bath. I suppose we can use it as blackmail later.

Liam looked so cute in his Fourth of July outfit. I just wish I'd gotten a picture of him with his Lightning McQueen shoes on too. (They were a gift from Grandma Julie, and Liam LOVES them. Convincing him that he has to wear Sunday shoes to church instead is quite the feat. Pun intended.)

Here's my favorite picture from the beach. It helps that my hindquarters in a bathing suit aren't featured!

Dummy Cop

I just thought this was hilarious. In the southern Utah area we visited this weekend towns are far and few between. In an attempt to decrease the amount of travelers inclined to speed on the open roads, the towns of Orderville and Glendale have each placed a mannequin in a cop car on their city limits. Here's the one from Orderville:

Stevens' Family Reunion

We spent this past weekend in Mt. Carmel, UT, for a family reunion held at the farmhouse my grandma grew up in.

It was a long car ride as demonstrated by Liam's woebegone pose.

Seriously though, Liam held up pretty well thanks to our recent purchase of a portable DVD player.

We were pretty far from civilization. Cell phone coverage was pretty-much non-existent, not to mention the primitive ways we had to travel. Okay, so it was really just a Flintstone-like car outside of a rock shop. A REAL rock shop shaped like a rock itself. Too bad I couldn't find a white stone necklace like Wilma's.

We also visited the Coral Pink Sand dunes where we found a toad. Uncle Brandon caught it in a cup and showed it to Liam and Will. The frog literally leaped at the opportunity for escape when Brandon lifted his hand off the cup and FREAKED Will and Liam out as it shot towards their faces. We're not sure, but we think it actually smacked into Liam's face as Will who was holding him whipped around to avoid the attack. Liam's account of the event as documented in the police report goes as follows:

"Froggy get me!"

We had a lot of fun hanging out with the animals on the farm, most of whom were related to us. The goats and horses weren't bad either. Playin' in the "crik" was enjoyable too.
All in all, it was a pleasant trip.

Ball Helmet

Obviously, Liam is not alone in realizing the head-wear potential of a deflated ball. Placing a deflated ball on one's head is apparently a genetic tendency as demonstrated by our niece Katie.

Great...being that Katie is my sister's daughter, this oddity must come from my side of the family.