summer time, summer time, sum sum summer time!

summer is here, and we are loving it.  liam loves the water and loves to swim.  audrey loves to eat and loves to sleep.  i think that is how it is supposed to be.  it is so weird how much faster time goes by when you have two.  i remember i would just stare at liam for hours and now, i have to make sure and take time to stare at my beautiful daughter.  liam is so great and so tiring all at once.  he knows what he wants and when does he want it?  NOW momma!!  of course i can't always get it now and that leads to a disagreement between us.  he thinks i should put audrey down and not feed her or change her, and i think he needs to work on learning patience.  we both win about half the time!  

i was reading on a friends blog about she has not been as good about tummy time and all those things, and i promise i have been worse.  with an active toddler running around it is hard to remember to roll audrey onto her tummy and then be aware enough to keep her older brother from squishing her or poking her eyes out.  

i think the novelty of the new baby has worn off on liam.  he used to want to hold her at least once or twice  day and now it is maybe once a week that he asks and then very quickly decides this is not what i wanted to do.  he is still so sweet.  we were out and about the other day and audrey was in her bassinet stroller and i said "audrey is a sweet girl."  well what should i hear a few minutes later while i am looking at some shirts; liam leaning over the edge of the stroller telling audrey that she was "a sweet girl".  it doesn't get much cuter.  the boy will repeat just about anything and loves to talk and use his new words.  you can hear him saying things over and over again at night until he falls asleep.  so cute.  we are waiting on the potty.  he is not ready and neither am i!!  

audrey is just precious.  she is so alert and is always looking around.  she loves to sit up and sometimes spit up! audrey is a grazer when it comes to eating.  she will eat two ounces, act like she is done, and then be hungry 45 minutes later.  i feel like i do nothing but feed her somedays. but she is eating and growing and i can't complain about that. we go back to the doctor late in july, so i will update her stats then.  so for now, she is squirmy and wiggly and wonderful.  did i mention she is sleeping through the night!  thank goodness.  i am a mommy who loves her sleep.  she is becoming her own little person.  

mommy is doing well, especially since she is getting more sleep.  the summer spoils me too much.  i am not saying that is a bad thing, but it does make it hard when school rolls around again.  we all sleep until we get up and then matt and i stay up way to late reading or watching TV.  i can't get too far off schedule!!  especially since i am teaching 7th grade English next year and will have to start all over again lesson planning.  did i mention that the class starts at 8.  our mornings are now going to be more hectic.  i am excited to get back to jr. high.  i love jr. high kids and am looking forward to teaching them more.  i am still getting my jr. high and high school drama, but will maybe, hopefully be competing in some competitions this year.  i am not a competitive theater person, so this will all be new to me.  pray that i can find good plays and direct them well.  it should be exciting.  

daddy is great.  he is finishing his shop, after two years, and has a new truck (we lost the transmission on the old one that had 151,000 miles on it!), and is overall being a great dad and husband this summer.  he helps in the morning with the kids, goes to swimming lessons, the science spectrum, and other places with us.  he is awesome.  i may get onto him sometimes, but he really is a great dad and husband.  i am a spoiled woman because of him!  i thank God everyday for spoiling me with him.  did i mention he still has to finish is dissertation!!  we'll see how that goes this summer.  

well, that should get everyone caught up.  it seems to be harder and harder to find time to update, but i promise they will not all be this long and grueling.  here are some pictures of the summer for you to enjoy!  i hope you are all enjoying the heat and fun of summer.  i am excited about the 4th of July next weekend!  it is always one of my favorites.  well, i guess i will have to post on that in the next few weeks.  

splash pad fun

pooped after a day of swimming

the little artist

such a sweety

swim time with daddy

water fun

the bumbo wars!  who will win?

at the science spectrum

hugging on jacob and a spinny laura

spin daddy spin

aunt jonna and audrey (jonna is due in 5 weeks with a little girl, we can't wait!!)

we are off for now!  zoom zoom!!

where did i leave off . .

i can't remember and i haven't slept much since then, so i am just going with what i can remember.  opa finally made it!  no more of those pesky icelandic volcanoes to get in our way, instead this time it was mechanical issues at the lubbock airport.  but he made it and got to meet audrey.  i would have that picture but it was on the hard drive that fried.  :(  so sad!  so i am picking up where my camera picked up!  here are the most recent pictures and i shall tell you there story - enjoy!

we went to visit j.e., megan, and the kids for a few days.  

so here we have j.e. (my brother) he had a massive head injury

sadly, you can't tell any difference with him

as the family grows oma's hands get more full!

liam at the bundy drive in (who doesn't love the drive in)

oma and opa with grandkiddos!!  they were in heaven!

we had everyone over to our house.  so we also decided to thaw out liam's birthday cake that we never got to eat.  liam's party was postponed for many reasons 1) icelandic volcanoes 2) gallbladder surgery and 3) ear infections

aunt kristi came to visit and the snuggling ensued!

ros and bob came out for their texas reception.  but before the reception we had to get together more informally.  for bob that meant showing us a different side of him while playing games!  we partied like we were in college and then were miserable the next morning.  we are not as young as we used to be.

liam and g.g. had a great time at the reception.  they had a competition to see who could get the dirtiest in the shortest amount of time.  it was a tie in the end.

audrey's room is finally finished and all the guests have moved out!  i love her room.  it just makes me smile whenever i walk into it.

here is the other wall.  the colors are bright and cheery, but not too bright!  she is finally sleeping in her own room and really loving it.  she is sleeping between 6 and 8 hours at a time!

audrey in an adorable outfit that the lee's from san antonio sent her!  

i just though she looked gorgeous in it! 

liam had his first swim lesson today!  it was great.  he loves water and he loves to splash, but actually kicking and blowing bubbles we re going to have to work on.  we will see how he does the next two weeks! 

summer is in full swing at the byars' house!!  we are excited about the time off with the kiddos and hopefully some sleep.

where does the time go!

i just have to put something on here!!  i have not posted in over a month.  things are great here.  life is crazy busy, always, but my kiddos are precious!!  i would post some pictures but my hard drive fried and i lost everything.  we are sending it off to a laboratory to see if they can extract any information.  all my pictures from the last few months are gone!!  i am heartbroken!!  i knew i should have backed everything up, but i got busy and forgot!!  so we are starting new with a fresh hard drive.  so i will hopefully have some new pictures soon to post, sorry aunt spazzy!  time is flying and hopefully summer will help me to catch up.  liam is loving winnie the pooh right now, so in the words of tigger - TTFN (ta ta for now!)

who knew . . .

okay, so hang on as i try to sum up the last few weeks. busy, exhausting, wonderful, and emotional. so maybe that wasn't so hard! ha ha! life with two has been an adventure already. you wonder how you can love two separate beings so much, but amazingly you just do. you also wonder how you can ache so much when one of them is in pain. i think i hurt more than they do! you also wonder how so much can happen in such a short span of time.

let me back up a bit and fill you in on the last few weeks. as you know audrey has joined our little family, and she is amazing. she is little and sweet and has so much hair i still have to take a second look. liam has been adjusting amazingly well. he loves to name all of audrey's parts, especially her eyes, which he then likes to try to poke out!! he really is such a good boy and just a joy!!

all was going well at home, and we were all adjusting when bam, last thursday matt had to take me to the emergency room, where within the next 8 hours i had my gallbladder removed. that was more than a little unexpected. then we went to the pediatrician on monday only to find out that both little ones have ear infections. so now we are on antibiotics and liam's are making his little booty so red and sore, i just have to cry every-time i have to change his diaper. it is so sad to see him so sad. hopefully this is going to end very soon. i am not a strong mommy when my babies are sick. it just makes me so sad to see them hurt. i know they will be fine, but i want them to be fine now! so now, i have a two year old, a one month old, no gallbladder, and three ear infections to deal with. for those of you that know me, you know, i am a big baby. adversity and me do not get along. so of course i fall apart and cry (it also doesn't help that i am working on 3-4 hours of sleep at a time)!!

we are fine and will be fine, i just need to get it all off my chest sometimes. aaahh! i feel better.

now you may scroll down and look at some adorable pictures from the last few weeks. they are in no particular order, because i don't have the energy to try to put them that way!!

oma and miss audrey

look who is 2!!

the grandkids (on the byars' side) at easter

is that an adorable family or what?

10 years and still smiling!!

someone takes after her mommy and likes to sleep

we went to zoo!

liam loved the giraffes

we believe in group napping

is all of this really happening!!

poor audrey looks terrified sometimes, well almost all the time she is awake!!

audrey

hello audrey! welcome to the world!

she made her grand entrance at 9:43 pm on March 23, 2010

she weighed in at 7 lb and 13 oz and was 22 inches

perfect!!

liam loves his little sister and always wants to

"hold the audrey"

she loves to sleep, during the day that is! for some reason she thinks that 4 am is the perfect time to wake up. we are trying to make her understand that 7 or 8 is a much more reasonable time to wake up. other than her for midnight and 3 am feeding.

she is a cuddler! which of course we all love. we have a holding schedule in our house to make sure that we have equal time with the cuddle bug!

daddy's holding time tends to turn into nap time.

audrey is, of course, a fashionista! her mother will have it no other way.

audrey is wonderful and perfect. we are having a great time adjusting to our new little one. oma is here for a while so of course i am spoiled with more help than most, but i am not turing it down. we are almost done with her room so stay tuned for pictures.

liam is turning two and getting so big. we look at audrey and can't help remember how little and precious he was. he is of course still precious just bigger now. he talks and talks and is becoming so independent. i love watching him turn into a little man, but i am sad at the same time that he can't stay my little boy.

God has blessed us amazingly and we can't thank Him enough!!

spring break sick!

so, my poor little boy has the ickies!! we have run a fever off and on since friday and have a yucky cough, a runny nose, and no appetite. he will drink very little and is being quite obstinate about everything. i feel completely helpless and frustrated. i want to just pick him up and hug the sick out of him. if only that would work, sadly i have tried several times, and it doesn't.

funny things . . .

okay, so matt and i have decided to record for perpetuity (matt's word, i was thinking posterity) the funny things that liam has said. so, here are some of them in no particular order:

1. before he could pronounce his "f" sounds they were all "b's" - we had bingers and a boot instead of fingers and a foot.

2. he pairs very specific words together - he wants to watch "the woodybuzz" (toy story), our dogs are not maddie and panzer they are "maddiepanzer" and tigger and pooh are no longer separate characters we have "tiggerpooh"

3. love you sounds more like "love ooh"

4. matt will get liam up on tuesdays and thursdays and when liam doesn't see mommy then it is obvious that "momma seepin" however on monday, wednesday, and friday when momma gets him up and there is no daddy then "daddy work"

5. he also loves "bercessities" - see if you can figure it out!

6. i don't know where he gets it, personally i blame matt and mema and grandad for this one, but if he sees glenn beck the first words out of his mouth are "d'american".

7. oh yeah, he puts "d's " before everything - "d d d juicy" "d d d mickey mouse"

8. if you ask him his name it is "arde' byars" we say the first name and he supplies the rest.

9. he loves to be saved - it is a game of chase and one of us will say "i'm gonna git you" and then he runs away saying "daddy save you" "grandma save you" "momma save you" depending on who he wants to be saved by or who he happens to be running toward.

10. our bed time ritual is probably our favorite - it starts with hugs and kisses, even some for audrey, then we say "love you" and he responds "love ooh", then we say "miss you" and he responds "miss (pause) you", then we say "see you in the morning" and he responds "moorniing" (you have to extend the vowels). then he rolls over and grabs seahorse and sometimes goes to sleep, other times he will play with "tiggerpooh" or blanket.

he is such a blessing and a wonderful little boy. it amazes us how much we can love something so little. audrey is going to have a great big brother!!

i want to put the lens cap on

watching "the woodybuzz"

"d d d juicy"