...As long as we both shall live

The Marriage Celebration of James & Lauren

June 27, 2009

We had a very full weekend celebrating the wedding of James and Lauren. Good thing Noah didn't get any extra attention. :)


The wedding program

Sealed with a kiss!

Officially the new Mr. & Mrs.

5 years ago in August we got married in this same church.

Located on the "table from heaven" (according to my little nephews) were plates of cookies, candy, chocolates and delicious fudge.

Beautiful cake topped with pink and white flowers.

The old couple with the new couple. We're so happy for you guys!!!

First dance as a married couple at the after-party out in Lauren's backyard...the sun was setting... so romantic!

James and his best man, Jason. Jason's words of advice were to resolve conflicts quickly, preferably before going to bed to live in harmony with your wife.

Time to Swim!

Noah enjoyed playing with his cousins yesterday morning in the sprinkler and their baby pool. He and his cousin Benjamin enjoyed the baby pool, while the older boys hooked up the sprinkler to the playset slide to make a waterslide. :)



What's the capacity of this pool?

Benjamin (who is wearing a regular diaper here, fyi) did lose his diaper later due to extreme saggage. :)

Playing with Cousins

Sometimes we trade off kids with my older sister and her husband so the one couple can go on a date night. Jason and I both love spending time with our nephews, Caleb, Elijah, and Benjamin. These pics were from a week or so ago.


Benjamin is only about 4 months older than Noah, so they like playing together too! They even have matching shirts sometimes. :)
Noah giving Benjamin a hug?

Just chillin' together

Here Benjamin is showing Noah how to turn a doorknob. (I mean, what are older cousins for other than showing their little cousins how to get into trouble?)

Both crying at the gate. Let us out!!!! (You would think it's so bad to be stuck there, but that is where all the toys are!)

Love this one of these two...little smirks on both faces!

The bigger boys having fun with Uncle Jason. This is just after they finished wrestling on the floor for at least 15 minutes straight. Jason's face looks red! He said they wore him out!

Fun in the Sun

Noah and I went to the playground that has a splash park yesterday to enjoy the nice weather and play with Mary and her twin boys. This was Noah's first time this summer to wear the swimsuit (and his new cloth swimmi diaper!). We played in the water that sprayed from various pipes, and Noah kept running off to play in the playground instead. We were there for about 2 hours enjoying the park and we ate a picnic lunch with the twins. Best of all, the park is completely free!



Bye bye Mommy!

You mean I am supposed to wait for you?

Playing with buckets of water....what fun!

Love the little potbelly. :)

15 months, our little mischevious one

The 15 month marker was last week on June 10. Noah has turned into an all-around climber! He climbs on everything and gets into things he could previously not reach. A lot of new challenges for keeping him out of things now! (I did go last week and finally purchase a gate, so that he could no longer access our office room and do this again:)

Noah loves forts! This old couch has served many children their fort building fun, including Jason as a child! Last week he played in this fort most of a day.

At his checkup he weighed 26 lbs, 2 oz and measured 33 inches tall, putting him in the 60th percentile for weight and 90th for height.

Video: Noah & the Window

Every kid loves to smoosh their face on a window or screen door at some point! :)

Donating Expired Coupons to the Military Overseas

Having lived overseas myself for five years, I have learned from real-life experience it is much harder to find sales, bargains, deals, discounts, etc. at the grocery store in other countries. So when I found out about this program I was excited to start helping out.

My sister and I have been collecting coupons for the past several months, and those that we decide we don't need to use we donate to military families overseas. These military bases can accept coupons expired up to 6 months at their commissary (grocery) stores and PX (department) stores. For the small price of international Parcel Post postage ($5 ish depending on weight), I can mail thousands of dollars of coupons to these military families.

My sister and I have "adopted" the U.S. Naval military base of Rota, Spain. There are about 8,000 Americans living in Rota, most of whom are military members and their families. Just from the past 2 months of saving unused coupons, we are sending $1300 of coupons to Spain.

Here is the link where you can find out more information http://www.ocpnet.org/

If you want to help out but don't have the time or energy to clip and mail your own coupons, I would love to send your coupons along with mine too! Send me an e-mail or leave me a message to let me know you want to send your coupons too, and I will try to get something worked out. :)

Noah's Words

If you've spent any time around Noah lately, you know HOW MUCH he talks!!! It is exhausting to listen to him sometimes! All toys are cell phones (even his own hand!), because he simply loves to talk nonstop! He is such a cutie, and he sounds like he is really trying to tell you something. Most of his "words" are still undecipherable, but here is the list of words he has said:

Mama

Dada

Hi

Hey

Cat

Dog

Paci

Ball

Bye Bye

Baby

Nana (for Banana)

No

big decisions

I wanted to share a bit about some big things that this "Team Liechty" has been processing in the past few weeks.

• House Hunting

With low interest rates, deeply discounted house prices, and an $8,000 first time homebuyer tax credit, we are very motivated to buy a house this year. Yet what a big decision it is. HGTV makes it look sooo easy to find the perfect home in 30 minutes or less. :) We are finding out just how tricky it is to find the "right" house; plus we are intent on staying under budget. We made a top 5 list for a house in our price range: open floor plan, 4 bedrooms (or 3 with an option to make a 4th), 2 levels (or a basement), yard space to play, and manageable utilities expenses. Other factors are not necessarily deal breakers, but these 5 are pretty much core to what we're looking for in a house. Though we did offer on one house, we are still house hunting at this point.

House hunting has made us realize how excessive the "American way" truly can be. Buying big houses all too often means buying lots of stuff to fill them. We are determined to fight this cultural norm as much as possible by not buying more house than we can afford, keeping our lifestyle simple and being okay with having unfurnished rooms/bedrooms that we will grow into later.

• To Stay at Home or Go Back to Work

I recently interviewed for a part-time elementary Spanish teaching position at a private school. This position forced me to consider where I am in life and what our goals and needs are as a family. After much prayer and discussion, we concluded that though this job might be a good fit for me as a person, it doesn't really fall in line with our family needs and goals at this point. It was exciting being offered a job, and in a way it validated that I am still marketable in the teaching world. However, going through this decision-making process reaffirmed in me again the value of being a full time mother for this season of life.

• Choices can be so challenging.

There are lots of good things we can say "Yes" to in life. And many times we do decide to do those good things. BUT. Sometimes we have to say "No" to the good things so we can instead do the BEST things. God has a plan for our lives and we desire to follow where He leads us and honor Him in the choices that we make. Our prayer is that no matter where we are in life, we are able to discern and choose the BEST things over the good things, that God may be glorified through us!

Little Computer Nerd in Training

Noah loves electronics as we all know. Keys are only fun to play with the opener part, cell phones are his best friend, tv remotes are difficult to extract from his little fingers (and doing such usually means a bit of a meltdown!)...and so forth! His latest love for electronics includes the computer. We have a broken or unused keyboard that we let him play with now after he broke three keys off of our laptop.

Good thing there is no computer nerdiness in his genes. :) He is in for some nerd trouble I think, from looking at his parents...