Cookie Baking

So Maria, Liam's godmother, got him a Car's apron, Car's cookie cutters, and a Lighting and Mater spatula set. Well needless to say, he wanted to use them asap! I made him wait a day until I could make the sugar cookie dough and wash the cookie cutters. He was so excited after his nap to make cookies. We put on the apron and got him our stool and then began the baking. He loved using the cookie cutters. It was so cute to watch. I usually don't let him help to much in the kitchen because the space is small and our oven is "special". He was so happy to make cookies. We will be spending more time in the kitchen together. He is so cute!

Ready for Baking!!! 

Not sure about this face but it is cute

Helping or something like that. 

Making cookies

We love the cookie making

Our cookies! 

Not sure what was going on here but he loved the spatula

Finished cookies

Without sugar

With  sugar

Look I have cookies

yummy cookies!!! 

Pirate Ship

Liam and I played pirate ship this morning. He was so excited to have a pirate hat and a ship (the sofa). I even made him a flag. He thought this was great. We turned the dinning room table into the jail. This is were he promptly put the cat. Liam also said he needed a plank. So the ottoman was turned into a very lovely plank.  I was then told to walk the plank. He thought this was great. Liam laughed and played. It was great to see his imagination at work. He is becoming such a big boy! I just love how he thinks!

Putting the cat in jail. Poor Duncan! 

Liam and mommy before I had to walk the plank.

Putting up our Frog flag

My captain of the Frog pirate ship! 

Driving the pirate ship! 

Big Boy Bed

Last week, Liam climbed out of his crib one morning. Right then and there we decided it was time to convert to the big boy bed. I know we are lucky since he stayed in his crib for 2 1/2 years. Liam and I talked a lot about our move to the big boy bed. He was excited to look for Lightning McQueen sheets! He was even more excited we found a Lightning McQueen bed rail. We were going to get the bed rail that matched the bed but for $70, we thought it was not worth it. The bed rail Liam loved, $29.99! So we tried it. Our first night went great. He stayed in the bed and we never had to go into his room. At nap time the next day I did have to put him back in bed. Now he goes to bed like a champ. He does check his door some night after we leave but always returns to his bed promptly. He does not get out of his bed. He waits for us to come and get him. It is nice. I did put door knob lock on his door and the attic doors just incase. Over all he loves the bed. I am so glad this transition went well.

Liam and his big boy bed. 

I could not find a Cars sheet set for just a toddler bed without buying the entire set of sheets and comforter. So I decided to make one. Well Chris talked me into it. I had tried int he past to make a sheet and I hated every minute of it. I found a new pattern and we decided to try it. It took me a hour and a half to finish it. Liam is so happy with it. i didn't have the sheet when I took this picture so I will update soon. 

Lots of changes

The Torres family to going though lots of changes these days. Let's start with Chris. Chris is finishing up his prerequisites for PA school. He is working on A&P II and Chemistry II. He is doing well with both so far. I know that Chemistry is going to be the hardest one and most time consuming for both of us. I know in the long run it will all be worth it. We did find out about PA school. Chris did not make the main list but he did make the alternate list. We just don't know were on the alternate list he is ranked. There are about 140 people on the list. So now we are in the waiting game. Chris also put in for an extension for us to stay in San Antonio one more year. We don't know what is going on with that either. If we get neither a spot in PA school or the extension, we will be leaving San Antonio in February/March. I really hate this unknown period. I am adjusting to him not being home on Tuesday night for school and some other days he is studying.

Liam has a lot going on too. He just started a preschool program at our Church. He loves it. He really loves having his two best friends, Lachlan and Isaiah in his class. Liam is also potty training. He is doing great. He still has a few accidents but they are few and few as the time goes on. I was worried about starting potty training. I had heard boys were very hard and can be stubborn. I think we timed it perfectly. We started the third week of August. He did great! We do have a reward system in place. We use a sticker chart and he gets a special surprise after 3, 5, & 7 days of no accidents. We are slowly getting there. The most he has gone is 5 days before we have to start the count all over again. He does love his underpants! He thinks they are great! Liam has hit his testing phase. He does try to test Chris and I. He tests me more than Chris. I think it is because I am home with him all day. I hope school will help him learn to follow directions more. He does well but he does push the limits some days. He doesn't fully know how to express himself yet. I know this leads to some crying and lashing out. I am working on patience and prayer. Chris and I are standing firm on our rules and disipline. I know it is a phase but I strongly dislike this phase. Thankfully, with some patience and lots of prayer I know this too shall pass.

Pete and Cathy are doing well. Cathy is in her third quarter of nursing school. She is doing so well and I am so excited for her! She is so close to being done. She graduates in January and then takes her NCLEX. I am so happy that things are going so well for her. Pete is having some more pain. We are meeting with the ortho doctor next week. We are hoping he will do the hip surgery. Pete's potassium levels are back to normal. He worked very hard on his diet to get there. We did see the kidney doctor a few weeks ago. Things are looking okay. His kidney function is still about 20%. We are trying to keep it there until we get his hips fixed. We are not sure where or when dialysis will start. We know we have a few options but right now we are focused on getting his hips replaced. Chris and I are so blessed to have them live with us. Liam just loves to see them and play with them. I am looking forward to the day Pete is feeling better and has much less pain. It will be a glorious day!

I am doing well. We have had a few struggles these past few months. We have been trying to get pregnant since last October.  We finally went to see a fertility specialist. We did lots of tests. Some not so great. After a couple months, we found out that I was not ovulating and they put us on clomid. It is a drug that stimulates ovulation. Well what do you know in May, I got pregnant. We were so excited. We told family and friends! At about five weeks we saw the doctor and so seemed concerned about a few things. So we scheduled another ultrasound for the following week. Well before appointment, I started to have some bleeding. We went to the ER and was told it could be normal and to see your doctor. So we went back to the doctor. After a few hours at test and the run around from some not nice doctors, we got the worst news we thought. We lost the baby. The next few weeks we not so great. Thankfully we had the support of our family and our friends. Our Church was amazing. They really helped with Liam and meals. It was amazing. It was a true show of Christ's love. Since then we have been on more fertility medication. I am not a hugh fan. I feel it makes me emotional and a little crazy. We are on our second round of 100mg of clomid, but it is our fourth round all together. We are hopeful that this will work this go around. We trust in God and know he has a plan for us. Somedays I am better at letting it go and trusting His plan but some days I stumble and fall. I am slowly coming to terms with our loss. There are days that I am okay but there are days I truly struggle. I know that with Liam being in school it will give me some more time to relax and focus on somethings I have let go. I am glad to have my family and friends around to help. I have taken on a few more things at Church. I am the Ladies Bible class child care coordinator. It is a bit more than I thought. I do love it. It gives me something to do. Chris and I are also teaching games for our K-3rd Wednesday night class at Church.  It is going to be interesting. We are helping with our high school youth group on Sunday evenings. We are teaching 11th and 12th graders. We are staying busy.

Well I think that is all of it in a nut shell.

First day of Preschool

Today was the first day of Preschool at Northside. It was sad that Chris could not be with us. He had an A&P test this morning. Liam was ready for the day! I packed his lunch and prepped his bucket.  We talked about how Lachlan and Isaiah were in his class! He was very excited to have his two best buddies with him. He did have some confusion with his teacher. Her name is Miss Colleen and he confuses her with his Aunt Colleen. For the past two weeks I had to tell him that Hammy would not be there. Hammy is in Italy.  Liam needed some guidance that his teacher Miss Colleen is not the same as his Aunt Colleen. He is slowly getting it. He did great. He walked right into class. I however, was a mess. I cried like a baby. I can't believe my baby is in school.  He told me he learned about Jesus and firetrucks! My little boy is growing up!

Outside the Preschool building! 

Walking up to door

Mommy and Liam

 I love this face! 

Liam and Miss Colleen! 

Potty Training!

So we started the potty training. Liam was really interested in the potty so we bit the bullet and commited. Liam was very excited about his new cars underpants! We have been potty training for about a three weeks and he is doing great. He is getting better at telling us. I am excited to this new adventure.

Big boy underpants!!!! 

He loves his new underpants! 

Yes he is "reading"the paper on the potty! Silly boy! 

Pool Time!

We are so very blessed to have some wonderful neighbors. Not only do we have the Gibbins but we have John and Babette. They are an older couple catty-corner to the Gibbins.  They have a pool and let us use most days. Liam is a such a little turtle! He loves the water. He has no fear. We are constantly telling him that he needs to wait for us to jump. Just loves the water. We are seriously thinking about swim lessons for him. He just loves the water! 

Jumping to Daddy

Hi Mom! 

Jumping!

Swimming with daddy! 

Anniversary Weekend

Chris and I celebrated our six year anniversary with a weekend away. We were both so looking forward to the time together. I was a little worried to leave my Liam but he did great. Our friend Tina from Church watched him Friday during the day. He was so excited to play with Tina and go to McDonald's! Cathy and Pete took over in the evening and on Saturday! He was so spoiled by all those around him! Chris and I are so blessed to have such amazing support from our family and friends!

We started our weekend with an amazing breakfast at the Guenther House! It was beautiful and the food was amazing! As you will see we ate a lot of food. We also used Groupon for all of our outings. I know we are a frugal couple.

My breakfast! Biscuits & gravy, bacon, and fruit! Amazing! 

Chris' breakfast... Bacon, egg & cheese taco and Potato, egg, and cheese! 

Us! 

This was the pool at the B&B!!!! AMAZING!!!!! We spent every spare moment in this pool. We loved it! We want on just like it....... one day! 

We had lunch at the Madhatter's Tea house. It was around the corner from the B&B. 

Turkey sandwich with a caesar salad. 

Chris had a burger

Dinner that night was at the Boehlers. I was not to sure about this place since it is leaning to one direction. 

Outside the restaurant! 

Our appetizer was chicken and spinach quesadillas. 

I ordered the jalapeno fried chicken with mashed potatoes. It was so very good! 

Chris ordered the coconut jumbo shrimp. 

After dinner we went to the comedy club downtown. We had a good time. The comics were okay. The good thing was it was a Groupon. I told you, we used a lot of Groupons for the weekend.

The next day was our actual anniversary. We enjoyed a lovely breakfast at the B&B. It was so good. I was still so stuffed from all the food on Friday. Chris and I then went for a dip in the pool until our movie started at the Alamo draft house. Yes this was a Groupon too. After our lunch and movie, we browed Borders. Since they were closing, we thought we could get some good deals. We found a few. We got Liam a new cars hat, some books and small toy. The toy was his surprise for 3 days of no potty training accidents. That is a whole new post. After some book shopping, we went back to the pool. I am telling this pool was amazing and relaxing.

Chris and I decided on a last minute Groupon for dinner. There are no pictures of the food because it was not that great. I was mostly in love with the mac and cheese that was  side dish for Chris. The food was subpar and service was so very slow that our entire meal was comped. So now we have to go back since we have a Groupon. We are in no rush to go back.

Us after dinner. 

It was a great weekend away! We completely enjoyed every minute together. The best part was we did have to really worry about Liam. We knew he was in good hands! Thanks to everyone who helped us!