William's Birthday

Our sweet baby keeps growing, and has reached his first birthday.  I can't believe it's been a whole year. It seems like just yesterday I was at the hospital, in labor and so excited to meet my new baby.  We didn't find out what we were having, so it was extra exciting to be there that day and anticipate if we would have a girl or another boy.  Both Thomas and I had a feeling, as we waiting during contractions, that we were having another boy.  It was probably the fact that the baby's heart rate was so low.  Both KC and Xander had low heart rates also.  So, while I labored, we debated over a name for our new son.  Thomas was watching Sports Center, or some show like that, and they were talking about some athlete and his name was William. We both liked it and agreed that would be his name if he were a boy.  I have to admit, my heart dropped a tiny bit as the Dr. announced it was another boy.  But as I held my 3rd son for the first time in my arms, and as he gazed up into my face, I felt so proud to be the mother of 3 sons.  I love it.

William is such a joy to have in our home.  He is always so happy, especially in the morning when first waking up.  He greets us with smiles and cuddles.  Tom usually has a hard time getting out the door in the morning for work, because William is usually grabbing all of his daddy's attention.  I think that he is leaning on towards being a daddy's boy, which I'm okay with.  Here are some things about William:

He no longer nurses.  He is drinking 100% from the bottle, whole milk.

He is small!!  Only the 5 to 10% for his height and weight.  His head size is in the 90%.  I always have to laugh when people say that he is a big boy, because he surely is not!  It must be the large head and all the hair that throws people off.

Some of his favorite foods are: peas, carrots, mac n cheese, noodles, mandarin oranges, strawberries, bananas, marshmallows, cheese, jello, pancakes, and crackers.  Just to name a few.

He does not give kisses. Ever. Which makes me a little sad, but he makes me feel good when I pick him up out of his crib and pats me on the shoulder a few times.  He mimicks what I have done to him.  It always makes me feel extra special when he'll lay his sleepy head on my shoulder and give me a few pats on my shoulder.

He LOVES his big brothers.  LOVES them to pieces.  Thomas and I are always saying to each other that he will want to grow up way too fast, so that he can catch up and compete with his brothers.  There is a 5 and 7 year age difference between them, so that's a lot of growing up that I'm not quite ready for.

He is very active and wants to get into almost anything that he shouldn't be getting into.  He keeps me busy and I am constantly baby proofing things around the house.  He loves stairs and most of the time is not allowed to climb ours because they are hard wood with no carpet.  When he is able to climb them though, he literally squeals with excitement.  It's pretty darn cute.

He babbles a lot.  The only recognizable word he says is Dadda.  He has said Mama before, but only when he is crying and needs something.

He started walking about 2 weeks after his birthday, and he loves this new freedom of his, and I do too.  He especially likes it when we are outside and he can roam where ever his heart desires.

William has taken a real liking to balls, of any kind.  He loves to throw them and then chase them and pick them back up again.  He recently decided to try and join his big brother's basketball team and try to play with the big boys.  Sorry buddy, you have a good 5 or 6 years to go before that happens.

He loves our cell phones, and manages to push buttons and change browsers and settings on them.  It leaves Thomas and I baffled, because he can change things on the phone that we have no clue how to do.  If he can't get his hands on one of our phones, then he will pick any object, toy, or piece of garbage nearby  and put it up to his ear and babble at it.  He sure is a funny boy.

We celebrated his birthday a couple weeks after his actual birthday, due to painting our home and then Thomas' grandma passing away.  I don't think he knew the difference though.  We had our family over and the Alleman's over too.  I made some monkey cupcakes, I found the idea on the internet and had to try it. Some of the pictures are a little blurry, not sure what was going on with my camera.

 Opening presents . . .

 Presents . . .

 Presents . . .

 and more presents!

 Pushing around his new toy.

 He got this big grin when we started singing to him. It was so darn cute!

 Not sure what to think about that candle.

 Pulling it apart.

 Really enjoying it now!

William and Auntie Em.

I love this boy so much!  He is a our little ray of sunshine. Happy first birthday William!

Xander's Birthday

Xander turned 6 on March 1st, and wow, what a fast six years it has been!  He is such a good little boy when he wants to be.  I love him so much.  He tries my patience every day, but can be such a sweet tempered little guy also.  Xander is one that wears his emotions on his sleeve, just like his mom.  He can scream at his big brother, and the next second burst into tears over something that has happened.  Here are some things about my little Xan Man.

He loves candy and sweets. Any holiday where he gets candy he has it eaten within a couple of days.  Quite the contrast of his older brother who forgets he even has the candy and never finishes it.  Again, he gets this from me, unfortunately.  This addiction is probably the culprit of his 8 cavities he had filled last year.

He reminds us every night to pray and read our scriptures. Every night.

He says he hates church and complains every Sunday morning, but he always comes home and tells us everything he learned that day.  His primary teachers, Sister Cooper and Sister Peterson love him.  They tell me that he asks "out of the box" questions.  I believe he gets this from his daddy.

He is spiritually minded. A few years ago when my grandpa passed away, he was so curious about this. Where did grandpa go?  We talked to him about how his body would go into the earth and his spirit went to heaven. And then explained how they would be joined again at the ressurection.  He was even so curious as to why we couldn't see grandpa's legs in the casket (this part was covered by the lid), the guy from the mortuary lifted up that part of the lid so that Xander could take a peak at grandpa's legs.  It reassured Xander that his whole body would be put in the ground.  Xander had a dream two nights after my grandpa died, and he told us about it.  He said that he saw grandpa, and he was happy.  He was with his friends and he was happy.  About a month ago Thomas' grandma passed away.  The day that it happened and after we heard about her passing, he said to me, "Mom, Tutu is the reason why I'm an eighth Hawaiian."  It made me smile, and I was proud that he made that connection to her.  While at her viewing, he often wanted to go up to her casket and look at her.  He often asks us when we are going to go see her grave at the cemetary.

He is so funny!  He is constantly saying some funny things.  He still has an accent like he's from Boston and can't pronounce certain syllables.  I know it's important to work on his speech, but I have to admit that I will be sad when he starts talking like the rest of us.

He is constantly leaving pairs of socks around the house.  He takes them off and forgets where he puts them when he needs them again so he gets a new pair.  I'm not sure how to brake him of this obnoxious habit.  Sometimes I just have to laugh over it, otherwise I'll go bonkers trying to correct him on it.

He just recently learned to ride his bike with no training wheels.  It took him awhile to learn, but I knew that he would do it in his own time.  He can be pretty stubborn when it comes to learning new things.

 His best friends are Elliot, Carter, Sierra and Suhani.  He loves to play with his friends, and recently is outside all day long playing with them.  He and the neighbor friend, Suhani, recently tore a hole in the fence between our houses so that they could go from eachother's house much quicker than before.  Funny kids.

He doesn't love school.  He tolerates it. When I go into his classroom to volunteer, I notice that he is pretty quiet at school.  More so at the beginning of the year, he has opened up a little more recently.

For his birthday he really wanted a Stars Wars themed party, which is what KC had when he turned 6, so we couldn't say no...  he was so excited!  Here are some pictures of his party/birthday.   I love my Xander boy so  much.  He has brought a lot of joy and laughter into our family!