I'm baaaaaaack...

After a nearly 2 month furlough, I have returned to the blogging world. We took a trip to Amarillo, TX in August and it totally broke my blogging momentum. But I'm back and need the therapy of typing my life and emotions.

The camera is still broken. You'd think it wouldn't be that hard to just take it in and get it fixed, but in my world that is so much easier said than done. It requires me loading up and hauling around two awesome little kids at some time when I can rely on both of them to be patient and happy while I wait for the Best Buy dude to inspect my bugger of a camera. And pretty much, I have a long list of such tasks that I will tackle...I'm not sure when. Actually...I will tackle it when my in-laws come to visit on Saturday! Will's parents will be here Sat. through Thur. and we are so excited! I love having visitors on my calendar to look forward to. And we are missing family!

Here's a few pics from our Amarillo trip in August (from Sandy's camera). We had an awesome time. Thank you Grandma and Grandad for having us!

The Copeland Boys - Billy, Will, Liam and Ellis

Cool chicks, Sandy and Hayden

no fear

little fish

grandmas loving on the grandkids

Our dear friends Lexia, Nola, and Gus - oh we miss them!!!

Liam is STILL talking about mowing grass with Grandad

Brothers changing diapers - i think it was Ellis' first diaper change

me and my girl

daddy and daughter

I was spurred on to pick blogging back up because Will has started taking over-night call - meaning he went in today at 6 am and gets off tomorrow at noon. So these long nights at home by myself is a perfect time to blog. Will is still really enjoying work and is doing a rotation in the ICU for the next 3 months. The schedule is actually really good. He goes in at 6 and is home for dinner at 5:30. Then he takes call every fifth night and gets a day off post call. So we are going to have him home way more through the holiday months. Love it!

Here's the scoop on our household right now: poop, poop, and more poop. Actually, I've had to clean up so much of it lately that I would rather use another word for poop. Liam Copeland will NOT keep his diaper on! When this saga began, I walked into his room one morning and and he was standing there buck naked with his full poopy diaper lying on the floor and tread marks of poop on his bed, his car chair, his carpet, his blanket. i mean, seriously? So I gave him a very serious lecture about not stripping, especially if he's shooey, as we like to call it. Next thing I know, 6 hours later at nap time the scenario repeats itself (this time just pee). But after a 2nd morning of poop from floor to ceiling we have resorted to wrapping him with duct tape. And so far it's working. When I tell Liam it's time to get ready for bed he says "I don't want tape". Sorry buddy.

Last night Will, Liam and I had a drawing contest. We all drew trucks - Daddy won. We all drew cats - Mommy won. We all drew flowers - it was a tie. So we drew pictures of Hayden to break the tie. Daddy won. He drew a little round head with tears running down her face and the word 'barf' coming out of her mouth. And that pretty much describes Hayden lately. She's been fussy and she spits up massively all the time. But she's still the sweetest baby girl in the world.

Story of the week: On Friday mornings I'm part of a medical spouses Bible study called Side By Side. This past Friday I was in charge of bringing breakfast for my small group. So I was rushing around the house trying to get the food ready, the kids dressed, my make-up on, etc. I ran out to the garage to let Lucy out to pee. Liam was fiddling around with the door and then followed me out. We turned around to go back inside and the door was locked! Hayden was inside in her exer-saucer, contained luckily, but it only took about 30 seconds for her to work up a real good cry. I grabbed Liam and ran across the street to the neighbors' house to call Will. The neighbors, by the way, had just moved in 2 days ago and I hadn't even met them yet, but they were the only people with cars in the driveway. I was in my tank top and pj pants (no undergarments might i add) and it was in the low 40s and sprinkling that morning. Glorious. Will was able to get away and got there in about 20 minutes. I was upset though and I told Liam not to ever mess with the locks on the doors again. He looked up at me and in the sweetest voice you ever heard said, "I'm sorry mommy".

And a Copeland story continues...

a friend for dragon and other stories

Liam has a book called "A Friend for Dragon". It's about a little blue dragon who lives alone and gets lonely so he goes out looking for a friend. Dragon meets several different animals and asks "will you be my friend?". He ends up becoming friends with an apple and the story goes on. It dawned on me today, I totally relate to dragon!! I feel like I'm walking around meeting people going "will you be my friend?, will YOU be my friend?" and i think right now i would even be friends with an apple. :)

My camera is having issues so I have no pictures. I will just tell a few little stories from this week.

FIRST BIRTHDAY PARTY

We were invited to our first birthday party last Thursday. One of the girls in my Bible study has a daughter that was turning one. It was a group of 5 families, all Mayo people. Will had to work so I braved it alone. Sadly I was the only one that showed with no husband. It was a little insane. Liam was running circles around the other kids and he kept wanting to play by the grill because there was a basketball goal mounted on the side of the garage by the grill. Hayden was starving so I was trying to feed her oatmeal which she was spewing out all over me. I literally had oatmeal dripping on my eyelashes, running after Liam who was running after the basketball that was bouncing towards the burning grill. Then I was nursing Hayden and Liam was grabbing whole bratwursts off of the food table with his greebie hands. Wow, so we had to eat cake and hit the road. A fun time had by all.

HEY Y'ALL

A couple days ago Liam was playing with his barrel of monkeys. He was lining up all the monkeys on the couch and talking to them, mostly jibber jabber, but I heard him say, "hi guys." I said "what did you say?" He said, "hi guys!" I said, "no, no baby. It's 'hey y'all. can you say 'hey y'all'?" "HEY Y'ALL!" he said. He WILL be southern!!!

LIAM, WHO DO YOU LOVE?

Yesterday Liam woke up from his nap on the wrong side of the bed. He was rolling around on the floor, fussing and whining about nothing, and so I was just trying to make conversation with him to get his mind off of his crabbiness. I asked him, "Do you love Mommy?" "No," he said, of course. This continued on. "Do you love Daddy?" "No." "Do you love Hayden?" "No." "Do you love Lucy?" "No." So then I asked, "Well then who do you love?" And Liam said, "umm...Grandad." (Grandad is what Liam calls Warlick, Will's mom's dad.) An apology to all of Liam's other grandparents.

PROTECTIVE BROTHER

We were at the park yesterday and there was a little boy, about 9 months old, sitting next to Hayden in the grass. The little boy was touching Hayden's arm and trying to crawl over her. When Liam saw him he went over there, moved the little boys hands and told him no. It was pretty cute. Big brother watching out for his sister.

CRAWLING BABY

Hayden is crawling!! She officially started on Monday, the 10th. She get's up on her hands and knees, moves one hand and knee forward, kinda pushes her body forward and goes back to her belly, then does it again. It's not a full out turbo speed crawl (like Liam did pretty much out of the womb) but she get's where she needs to go.

BYE BYE LION CHAIR

Liam's lion chair has seen it's last days. He had peed on it a number of times and Febreez was no longer masking the smell. I know, that's disgusting. I was feeling like a bad mom letting him sleep on it. Plus the stuffing was falling out. We bought the good ol' lion chair at a garage sale for $1 but the joy it brought to Liam was priceless. :) So today we went to Wal-Mart to find something cheap to replace it. We decided on this Lightning McQueen fold out chair. I ran downstairs and got a picture with Will's phone of Liam asleep on it. (yes that's Liam under the pillow.) I don't know why we even have the toddler bed anymore.

One of the semi-stressful parts of moving is finding a new person to do your hair! I know it's just hair, but I had Brenda cut my hair for 15 years in Little Rock! I'm getting it cut tomorrow with a new girl. First haircut in Minnesota. I hope it goes well...I'll post pictures of the cut...good or bad.

liam funnies

I don't want to forget these funny little two-year-old things that Liam says...

We've been working on counting and if I really get him to concentrate he can count to ten (with a little help and guidance). Otherwise when he counts things on his own it's always "6, 7, 9, 6, 7, 9"...as he points to whatever he's counting with his big huge thumbs.

Since we've moved and made the transition to his toddler bed Liam has made his own transition from his toddler bed to his lion chair. Here's a pic of the beloved lion chair:

EVERY night I tuck Liam into his bed, turn on the fan, and turn out the lights. And EVERY night after I leave he immediately pops up, turns on the lights, turns off the fan and crawls up into his lion chair for the night. And surprisingly he sleeps great - 7:30pm to 8:00am (or later) and he's been taking 3 hour naps!! So I'm not messing with his system! When I come into his room in the mornings I say, "Did you sleep in your bed?" and he says very quietly "yes". Then I'll say "or did you sleep in your lion chair?" and he'll smile and say "ine chair".

Liam also has an obsession with fruit snacks or "c-kaks". Sometimes when he gets cranky at the dinner table and wants to get down he'll just start yelling, whining and not using his words. I'll say "Liam, look at Mommy and tell me what you want." And more times than not he'll look at me with a twinkle in his eye, like I just gave him an open invite to ask for anything in the world he wants, and he'll joyfully say "C-KAKS!"

Liam LOVES our dog Lucy or "Cee-dee". He goes in the backyard a couple times a day to "mow grass Cee-dee" (mow the grass with Lucy). And usually I'll go with him in the mornings to scoop the poop out of the backyard. Liam likes to run around with me and help me find the poop. "I FIND IT!", he hollers when he comes across a pile of poop.

Just a few funnies to remember and more to look forward to...

And here's a few pictures from the past week just hanging around the house:

chillin' with dad

Hayden trying out the activity table for the first time

haircut time, manageable when Liam's watching his all-time-fav show, Clifford the Big Red Dog

Hayden's so close to crawling!

Liam sits like I used to as a kid

Hayden's face after trying green peas for the first time...not her fav

Oh these funny kids! Make me laugh every day! :) And I have to announce that Hayden is officially sleeping through the night! 7pm to 7am! Yay Hayden!!! I love my life!

healthy babies

Today Hayden had her 6 month check-up and she's healthy as a horse! Well, a miniature horse. She's in the 25th percentile for weight and height, weighing 14 lb. 8 oz. and measuring 25.4 inches. She's petite but the doctor said she's growing just fine. Physically she and Liam are totally different babies! At 6 months Liam was in the 90th percentile, weighed 17 lb. 11 oz., and measured 26.5 inches! I went back and looked at some of Liam's pics when he was Hayden's age. Kinda cool to look at both of them both side by side. Here's a few:

Liam, newborn

Hayden, newborn

Liam, 3 mon.

Hayden, 3 mon.

Liam, 6 mon.

Hayden, 6 mon.

I love these babies! They favor each other but they are definitely their own little people.

I really like the new pediatrician that we saw today. Our pediatrician back in Little Rock was a younger woman so with her it was like talking from one mom to another. I really liked her and was so sad to have to leave her. Our new pediatrician here is an older man and talking with him feels more like father/daughter. He's very gentle and personable, and I feel great about taking the kids to him. I went by myself with both kids this afternoon and it was a little wild! Liam had his two-year-old check-up before we moved so only Hayden was actually seeing the doctor today. I went armed with trail mix, milk and toys for Liam and he did pretty good while Hayden was being seen. And you can't ask for better health care than at Mayo Clinic! It is a well-oiled machine! I feel so fortunate to have this kind of care for our family for the next several years.

God has blessed us with two healthy babies and I will continue to thank and praise him for that! Here are few pics that we took this past week:

yea!! daddy was home half of saturday and all day sunday! we were lovin' life!!

we went to saturday night church and afterwards there was dinner and games for the kids

Liam of course was not scared of the big honkin' slide!

Hayden was totally zoned out. She's not really into partying past bedtime yet.

when i took this pic Liam was saying "tall like Sansom"

a typical afternoon lately - popsicles and sidewalk chalk

sweet little 6 mon. old girl

cheese

Hayden looks like she's been captured by the Mad-Laughing Liam - Yah ha ha ha ha!

little baller

where did he get his mad skills?

precious profile

Tonight Will got off early and took our little fam to Culver's for dinner. Culver's is famous for butter burgers and frozen custard concretes...yes please. It was D-licious. Will set his coke next to Hayden and she knocked it over everywhere. Liam dissected his corn-dog to find the "sausage" that was "hiding" then dumped his melted ice-cream on Will's shoes. And I ate a butter burger in record time so we could get the kids home to bed. I always feel like I'm in one of those ESPN eating contests when I go out to eat with my kids - stuffing my face as fast as I can, food and drinks flying everywhere as we all cheer each other on to EAT! These are glorious days!! Now I need to roll myself to bed!

ladies lunch kicked my tail

We have been visiting a community church that is close to our house. A girl that I met there had a lunch at her house for several of the Mayo wives today. I think it was mainly an opportunity for me and another new girl to meet some other Mayo wives at the church. I really appreciated her reaching out to me, inviting me over, introducing me to some new people. But I have to say, once I got there I was ready for it to just be over!

It literally took me all morning long to prepare for the lunch. The lunch was at noon, right at Liam and Hayden's naptime, so I put Hayden down for her morning nap later in hopes that she would be able to take her noon nap later. Then I spent the morning making fruit dip and fruit kebabs for the lunch, getting myself showered and ready, getting the kids cleaned and dressed, packing a lunch for the kids, packing a diaper bag, writing down directions, nursing Hayden, and the constant task of occupying Liam while trying to do all of this. And even though I was working towards getting out the door on time all morning long I was still late.

So when I finally got there at 12:15 and hauled the kids, the diaper bag, the food and Hayden's bumbo in the door, I was drained. And I was the only one late! Someone told me that Minnesotans are on-time people. I'm at serious risk of having no friends if that is the case. There were a couple of older kids that were going to watch the younger kids while the moms ate. So I got Liam and Hayden settled eating lunch with the other kids and finally sat down with the other moms, who were already half way done with their lunch. Did I mention that I had worked up a major sweat from all the hard labor? Yep it was really cute.

Speaking of cute, I was slightly over-dressed. I was thinking, ok a ladies lunch, i will get out of my every-day mom clothes and try to look cute, not dressed up, but cute. I had on jeans, a cute shirt, heals, a little bit of jewelry. Pretty much everyone else was in capri pants and flip flops. Not that big of a deal I guess, but makes you a little self-conscious in a group of new people. And it was one of those days when I just felt off. I couldn't think of interesting things to make conversation about! I was going, come on alisa, talk about something besides the weather! I don't know, I just couldn't pull it together today.

On the positive side, the kids did great. There were no meltdowns and we were able to stay for the whole lunch. We headed home around 1:30 (with my fruit kebabs that no one really ate). I got the kids in their beds and they both slept for 2 hours. And I sat on my new couch thinking...those ladies probably think that I'm a socially-awkward resident's wife with a sweat problem who shows up late to things because i'm too busy picking out what high heals to wear. Oh well, I guess. Just one of those days.

As much work as my two precious kiddos are, I love them more than I can describe, and I look forward to my days with them. Here's a sweet pic I took of Hayden today. I can't believe she's almost 6 months old!

Tomorrow I'm going over to a girl's house from my Tuesday Bible study for a playdate. She lives close by and has two boys that are 3 and 1. Should be a much easier morning!

Nini, Pa and a new couch

My parents have officially been introduced to Rochester, Minnesota! (remember, that's where i live.) We had such a great time with them here! We had a couple of days with temps in the 50s. Memo to Minnesota...it's JULY!

Mom and Dad standing in front of Mayo Clinic with the kids

Mom was here for the whole week, and Dad drove in on Thursday for a long weekend. Liam took full advantage of them both! "Nini read", "Nini play toys", "Nini popsicle". Then "Pa read", "Pa play toys", "Pa mow grass", etc., etc., etc. And that started about 5:45 every morning. I don't know what the deal was, but he was waking up so early while they were here! The guest room is downstairs near Liam's room so Mom would get up with him when she heard him hollering for her. Mom, very concerned, asked me "Oh, who's going to get him at 5:45 in the morning when I'm not here?" and I said, "uh, pretty much, no one." Tomorrow morning, I will get Liam at 7. It's back to the real world with his mean ol' momma! Here's some photos of our week together:

at the pool on one of the few warm days we had this week

Will was post-call and got to come with us!

sharing trail mix with daddy, Liam's not a fan of the peanuts

Yeah, Pa is here! Reading the story of Samson or "Sansom" for the 100th time

picnic at park on Pa's first day in town

Hayden sitting up so big! 5 1/2 months - officially mastered sitting up

Liam climbing the ladder all by himself

Pa loves this baby girl

beautiful day at the park

Thursdays on 1st, walking around downtown

family pic, waiting for the band to play

Liam bustin' a sweet dance move

a little sidewalk chalk action on our driveway

Liam showing me his chalky hands

Hayden trying to avoid the cold July winds...i think that's an oxymoron

mowing grass with Pa

Pa and Nini, we had so much fun! Mom, despite what you may think I was NOT worn out when you left! I loved cooking for you and spending my days with you...even if we didn't actually "accomplish" much! (We had plans to do great things on the house but did a lot more playing than accomplishing!) We miss you already and love you so much!

In other news, we bought a new couch and it was delivered on Friday! Woo hoo! It's awesome! It is our first big furniture purchase since we've been married. And it's actually a sectional with an ottoman.

Will looks like he's modeling his legs, but he's actually just studying

my cute new Pier One pillows...and my cute husband

And I have to show this picture, mostly for my mother-in-law. I know Sandy wants to picture what her doctor son looks like when he's at work everyday so here he is!

I told Will to pose. I guess this is his super doctor pose. You know he is an official doctor because he's wearing a LONG white coat. Medical students wear short white coats. Also, you know he's a first year resident because he has a neuro-surgery handbook in his right pocket. I tease him about telling his patients to hold on a minute while he looks up their symptoms in his handbook (he doesn't actually do that...i don't think). But I think he looks pretty official and definitely good-looking. Hands off nurses!!! Dr. Copeland is a one-woman man!!

I talked to my dear dear friend Lexia on the phone for a while today. I miss her so much! I told Will on our date last week that one of the hardest parts of moving away has been leaving her. We spent almost everyday together in LR! I don't know if I will find another friend like her here. And our boys loved each other too. Yesterday after dinner we went to get ice-cream and I asked Liam who he wanted to come with us. He said Gus. I wish he could have! We are planning to see them in Amarillo around Thanksgiving. Seems a long way off...