Sweet Little Cameron

Last month we celebrated Cameron's 3rd birthday! What a big boy! He got lots of fun toys that he loves to play with. Here are a few pictures of all of the fun we had!








We are so lucky to have Cameron in our family. He's always making us laugh. We just love those dimples too. He is currently obsessed with the Power Rangers! He talks about them all of the time. His favorite is the Blue Power Ranger, because blue is his favorite color. Actually, now there is a gold one and that's his favorite. He wanted me to call him Antonio one day because that's the name of the gold Power Ranger. He's too funny! This morning I overheard him singing "You Are So Beautiful" from the movie, Little Rascals. (I caught him on tape and am crossing my fingers that I can get it to post on here.) Then he talks about the Froggy kid saying, "I whipped out my lizard." I love this boy!

So Blessed!

I've been wanting to post these pictures for months now and I am finally getting around to doing it. I am so grateful to have these beautiful little children in my life. I love each one of them so much. They bring my life so much joy. I am SO BLESSED!

Mike and I continue to be amazed at how creative and smart Kaylee is. Just recently she wrote a book about a mouse who loves to draw and eat cheesy nachos. It was so cute and clever!



Jace is going through a stage right now, where he likes to wear pajamas all day. He'll get dressed and go to school, come home and change into pjs, change back into his clothes to play at a friend's house, and come back home and change back into his pjs. It cracks me up! It is nice at the end of the day to not have to tell him to go get ready for bed.



My boys have become the best of friends lately. They play with each other more than they ever did before. They like to take their shirts off and "exercise,"
which to them is running back and forth from the family room to our bedroom and dive onto our bed, and doing push-ups (it is hilarious watching them try to do them with their skinny little arms). Cameron is at such a cute age where he says the cutest things with his cute little way of talking. Just today Jace said, "Cameron you're so cute." And Cam responded, "I'm not cute, I'm awesome." He thinks the Power Rangers are so cool right now and will go on and on talking about them.



Lily is already five months old and it makes my heart ache thinking how fast that has gone by. She is our last baby and I just want to enjoy this baby time as long as possible. I find myself holding her as she sleeps and just soaking in the feeling of her in my arms and smelling her sweet baby scent. When someone gets her to laugh I stop whatever I am doing so I can hear her adorable little giggles. It melts my heart every time.

Lily Mae is Here!!!

We are so thrilled to have another little baby girl in our family. She was born on November 7th at 9:33 pm and weighed 7 lbs. 7 oz and was 19 inches long. Here are a couple of pictures of her. She is so much cuter in person. Our camera isn't powerful enought to capture the amount of cuteness that she is :)




After looking over baby pictures of the other kids she really looks the most like Kaylee, a blonde version of Kaylee. So far she is as sweet as can be and we can't get enough of her.

The labor and delivery all went quickly and smoothly, if you don't count the hours of false labor I had from 1:00 am to about 10:00 am. We went back to the hospital at about 6:30, had my epidural within the first hour there, a little pitocin to speed things up, they checked me at 9:20 and felt a head and after a few pushes she was here! It really was a breeze. We're just so glad she's here and is healthy.

On Monday morning the kids came to meet their baby sister. They were all so excited to see her. Cameron was happy to see her, but was more interested in the hospital room and looking out the big window. Oh well.




It's funny how different boys and girls are. When Kaylee saw what was left of my belly she was surprised at how small it was. A week later she said that it's getting even smaller. What a sweetheart. Jace saw my stomach and said I was still fat. The next day he asked why I was still fat. Boys!

Summer 2010

I was going to try to catch up and do a post for every event that took place this summer, but have decided to throw it all into one. So here it goes:

Over Memorial Day weekend we went camping up Hobble Creek Canyon with some of our favorite friends, the Carpenter's, Larson's, Jenson's, and Robinson's. The kids had a blast playing with each other and exploring the world around them. They were NEVER bored! It was a little chilly at night, but we survived okay.



The first weekend in June, Mike and I went down to Las Vegas with my brothers, Tom and Jared, and their wives, Carrie and Ashley. We met up with James and his girlfriend Ai-Ling, who flew in from Georgia. I'm not a huge fan of Las Vegas, but I really wanted to meet Ai-Ling. James was supposed to propose to her while we were there, but left the ring back in Georgia. We had a great time in Vegas. Our hotel was nice and family-friendly, we went to the Human Body exhibit, saw the Beatles Love show, and the fountains at the Bellagio which went off to Patriotic music, it was really cool!



In June I had my ultrasound. Baby looks good and after a lot of searching we found out we're having a GIRL! We are all so excited! The name we have picked out is Lily Mae. Her name comes from my family and Mike's, so it worked out perfectly! We can't wait to see her!

Jace turned 5 on June 24th! He had a friend party at Chuck E Cheese's. The kids had a blast! We got him the Super Mario Bros. for the Wii, which he has wanted for months. He loves it and has passed the whole thing already! I'm amazed at how good he is.



For the 4th of July we went down to Provo to go to some of their Freedom Festival events. It was pretty fun. The weather was perfect! I was worried about spending all day out in the heat, but it was so nice all weekend.



In July I went down to the Shakespeare Festival in Cedar City with my mom and two of my Aunts. I had such a great time! All I did for 3 days was eat, sleep, read, and watch some amazing plays. I grew an even greater appreciation for Shakespeare and how brilliant he was as a writer. I'm afraid I'm hooked and will be going down there every summer possible!

We live so close to the Kennecott Copper Mine and have never been there as a family, so one Family Night we decided to check it out. Wow that place is HUGE! The kids especially liked the big trucks. Now we can point it out to them while driving down the street and say, "remember when we went to the Copper Mine over there?"



Over the summer Jace played T-Ball and Kaylee gave soccer a try. Let's just say Kaylee never wants to play soccer again. But I'm proud of her for trying something new. Jace, on the other hand, had a blast playing baseball and now wants to try football. He's a pretty good little athlete. At every T-Ball or soccer game Cameron wanted to play with them so badly! Hopefully he'll have his chance next year.

The Big Three-0!

This was a very important and very big year for my hubby Mike. On May 25th he turned 30!!! I can't believe I am married to a 30-year-old! He is sooooo OLD!!! Ha Ha! He didn't want a big party, especially not a surprise party, which is what I was planning to do. So we had a big Jazz birthday cookie and sent him on a little treasure hunt to find his gift. A new TV!!! We've had this little 19" in our room since we've been married and I decided it was time he had something a little bigger and a little nicer so he can watch all the Jazz games he wants! Apparently I didn't get any pictures of the birthday boy on his birthday, but I did take a picture of his big cookie and the kids got a hold of the camera and took some of themselves. We love you Mike!!

Cam Turns 2!

On May 19, 2010 our little blonde boy turned 2! We had a baseball themed party for him at a park after one of Jace's T-Ball games. Cameron is obsessed with balls and sports. He will randomly just name off sports. The funniest was when he was trying to poop and was a little constipated he was saying, "baseball, football, soccer game..." It was like he was thinking happy thoughts in a time of struggle :) So cute!! We got him a T-ball tee, mitt, and balls. He also really loves Meem (Lightning McQueen), so we got him a remote control McQueen for his GeoTrax. We had lots of family there to celebrate with us. The weather was perfect! We had baseball cupcakes, popcorn balls, and ice cream cones. We had just found out that he was no longer allergic to eggs so he was loving those cupcakes!





I can't blog about the party without mentioning what happened to Kaylee! Kaylee had a loose tooth and when she bit into her popcorn ball it popped right out and got stuck in her popcorn ball! Let's just say it surprised her and she wasn't too thrilled about it at first. This is technically the first time she's lost a tooth. She had her bottom teeth pulled by a dentist because her adult teeth popped up behind her baby teeth. So she was definitely not expecting this!

El Cinco De Mayo

Every year, on the 5th of May, the Liljenquist family has a Cinco De Mayo party. It's so fun getting together for tacos and a pinata, and flan if we're lucky :) My brothers usually compete to see who can eat the most tacos. This year most of my brothers were away for work, so the title went to Tom. It's August now so I don't remember how many he ate, but I think he broke a record! The kids loved hitting the pinata. No one was afraid of it this year :)

Easter and Big News!

We had a wonderful Easter this year. We did the usual traditions: coloring eggs, Easter egg hunt, and eating way too much candy! We also had the kids pictures taken by an old friend of ours in their adorable Easter outfits. They turned out great! I love them! Here are a few of my faves:








Cam would NOT smile normal for us. He either looked concerned or when we told him to smile he made a cheesy face. What a cutie!

In case you haven't heard, we are expecting baby #4! We are all so excited! Kaylee really wants a baby sister. And I admit, I hope she gets one. We'll see. I had my first appointment this week and heard the heartbeat. So far, everything looks good! I'm due November 12th. Can't wait!

The Sweetest Thing

Two days before Valentine's Day I went scrapbooking at Pebbles in My Pocket in Orem. I pulled into the parking lot and saw 4 big trucks! I've been coming to this scrapbook store for years and on a normal day, I'll pull into the parking lot and see mini-vans and SUVs. So I'm thinking, "that's weird." Then I walk into the store, and for the first time ever, I see about 6 manly men at the scrapbooking tables, scrapping away like this is totally normal. Something they do every Friday night. Now that was a sight to see! It turns out they thought it would be nice to make Valentines for their sweethearts. I'm thinking, "oh, how sweet! That would be nice if Mike did something like that for me."

So then, after a good 5 hours of scrapbooking, I come home to a homemade Valentine card waiting for me on our bathroom counter. Mike asked each child what they wanted to tell me in the Valentine card. It said:

Jace: "Thank You?"
Kaylee: "She can have this (Reese's PB cup), I don't care."
Cam: "A Mama, yeah."
Mike: "I love you, Happy V.D. Peace out!"

There was a heart shaped Reese's PB cup taped to it from Kaylee, and an orange Skittle taped to it from Jace. Isn't that the Sweetest Thing!

Happy Halloween!

We had another great Halloween this year. We went to a couple of parties, visited family, carved a pumpkin, and went trick-or-treating. Kaylee dressed up as a purple fairy for two parties, then decided her costume bugged her, so she found a cat tail and ears in our halloween box and was a cat for her school party and trick-or-treating. Cameron and Jace were Jazz basketball players, and Mike and I were their fans. Trick-or-treating was another first for Cameron this year. He was so excited to go to the first door with the big kids. He got his treat and was good for the night. He was totally content with the one treat.

We hosted a party with some friends and family this year. Mike wanted to come up with an original Murder Mystery game for the party. And it turned into a Hypnotism game instead. It was still really fun. It was the first time playing it, so there are a few kinks to work out. I was amazed that he could just make up a fun game like that so quickly. We'll have to find some more people to hypnotize someday soon!

Hogle Zoo!

Kaylee was off-track for the first 3 weeks in October, so one of the fun things we did was go to the zoo. Mike took a Friday off so the whole family could go. Apparantly we weren't the only ones in the state of Utah who had that idea! The place was packed! We bought tickets to ride the train and never ended up using them because we didn't want to wait in the long line. The weather was perfect, which is good for the animals and our little monkeys, too. It was Cameron's first trip to the zoo, so it was fun to see his reaction to all the animals. I think he liked the monkeys the best. They had a lot of baby animals this time. A baby giraffe, three baby tiger cubs, and my favorite, a baby elephant. She was adorable! The highlight of the afternoon was watching a howler monkey pee from the top of a tree, and his friend below reaching his hand out to touch the stream. It was pretty funny! I wish I had it on tape!

Gotta Love the Pumpkin Patch

We hit the pumpkin patch early this year, one of the first weeks in October. There's a great pumpkin patch in Riverton that has a little corn maze for the kids to run through, tractors to climb on, and tons of pumkins! Kaylee and Jace had a great time in the corn maze and picked out some green and white pumpkins. You heard me, GREEN and WHITE! Whatever. Cameron was more interested in the "Titty." It was a fun Family Night activity, and I'm sure we'll be back there again next year!

Cheese!

Cameron went through a stage where he would make this cheesy grin. So cute!

Happy (late) Birthday Kaylee!

Still playing Catch Up! Kaylee turned 6 on August 23rd! All of her friends are 6, so she could NOT wait to be 6 like them. She had a friend party the day before. She loves doing art, so we thought it would be fun to have a Flower Power party and do flower related art projects. We made flower necklaces, finger print flowers and coffee filter flowers. They all seemed to have a good time. Our AC motor burned out the day before, so we had the party in our unfinished basement! Later that night we had a party with my family and played games. Apparently Kaylee had a few too many sweets that day and barfed in the middle of the party! Poor girl! She was pretty embarassed about it. Then on her birthday we had a party with Mike's family. We gave her a doll house and thanks to family and friends we were able to fill it up! She loves it so much and is currently earning money so she can buy more stuff for her doll house.