Stylish

As I was packing for our trip to Utah, Liv was noticing all of her clothes on the bed before I had put them in the suitcase, and she decided to pick out this outfit to wear. With a little help from me she was dressed to the hilt in no time. I think she's got pretty good style. What do you think?

Birthday Girl

Today I gave Liv her usual naptime routine of singing songs, she laid her little head on my shoulder, sucked on her blanket, and only occasionaly quit sucking to suggest the next song for me to sing. "Uh God" (I am a child of God), "Uh baby boats", "Uh Jesus" (Jesus wants me for a sunbeam). As I sat there holding Liv, and thinking back on the last two years of my life, my heart felt so full, and I thought about how incredibly grateful I am for this sweet little girl.

Jaron and I don't let one day go by where we don't thank heavenly father for Olivia's sweet little spirit in our life.

She is happy.

She is beautiful.

She is kind.

She is feisty.

She is playful.

She is brave.

She is funny.

She is smart.

And now

She is Two.

(Opening Presents before dad went to work, still a little groggy).

The stroller was a huge hit. It has yet to leave her side.

Happy Birthday Gracey girl! You are the joy of my life.

P.S. On Wednesday we fly out to Utah for Thanksgiving so I will probably not blog until we get home! But in case I don't see you Happy Thanksgiving wherever you are!

Family Home Evening 11/17/08

Activity:

Turkey Drawings

Awards Given:


#1: Most Jackson Pollockish


#2: Most Colorful

#3. Most Disturbing

Thoughts Running Through My Mind Today

This is a picture of Liv from her very first Christmas taken the day she was blessed.

* Today I listened to Christmas music. I know I know, its way too early, but the truth is my Christmas playlist is my favorite playlist on my ipod. Full of Sarah McLachlan, Jewel, and Sufjan Stevens, its nothing short of music for the soul.

*In a few weeks we are going home for thanksgiving and although I'm so excited to see my family, I'm already sad that we won't be around them or Jaron's family for Christmas. This will be our first Christmas alone, and I'm going to try to think of things to do, traditions to start, and ways to serve so that we can make it a meaningful one. Your ideas would be much appreciated! But honestly I just know I might have to have a little cry on Christmas Eve with out my family around.

*Olivia is my doll. I still love dressing her up and playing with her. She has this fake pearl necklace that she loves to wear around the house with nothing but her diaper on. She loves to wear my high heals, and she loves to make people smile. Today at Costco she had all of the pharmacists smiling with her charming ways. Every time we would walk away after being told "Just another fifteen minutes mam", Liv would blow oodles of kisses in their direction and say "See you", "Bye", while waving profusely. I didn't exactly feel like blowing kisses after waiting for 45 minutes, so she is a good example to me.

*My favorite treat when it gets cold is grasshopper cookies and hot chocolate. We originally got this idea from Rich who introduced us to the New Zealand Tim Tam Slam! Tim Tam's are a delicious chocolate cookie that you take and bite each end off of and suck hot chocolate through. The hot chocolate immediatly melts the chocolate inside the cookie and you quickly slam it in your mouth. Ohhhhh its so good, but since we are fresh out of Tim Tam's we use grasshopper cookies instead. I recommend you go try it right now. :)

*I've been reading David Copperfield for three months now. Everyone keeps telling me it is worth the investment. I read the first 400 pages in two weeks, and somehow I've only managed to read 100 pages in the last oh. . .2 and a half months. Nice. I'll let you know if its worth it.

*I got word back from Olivia's bloodtests a few days ago, and as it turns out her allergies are more severe than I had realized. The first time we went to the doc she told us to avoid anything that was the straight form of milk, eggs, or nuts, but if eggs or milk were baked into things that was ok. This time, after seeing Olivia's numbers from the blood test the doctor told me that we need to avoid all traces of milk, eggs, or peanuts. This is going to be a major life style change for us, and was a little discouraging. I'm just grateful that we have doctors who can test these kinds of things to avoid life threatening situations.

*Sorry for the rambling. Hey can this count as a tag? :)

Snuggly

Halloween Fun and Birthday Festivities

This year we started out our Halloween fun with a ward trunk or treat. Olivia dressed up as a giraffe for that activity and thoroughly enjoyed going from car to car and getting candy.
She ate one sucker, and some greedy adult ate most of the rest of her candy. . . hee hee. Bad.

This is a picture of Liv and her good friend Dillan, the cutest scarecrow I've ever seen, at the ward trunk or treat.

Olivia came home pretty happy as you can see. Note to self: if your kid is not cooperating for pictures just load them up with some candy and that should get a smile on their face!

After taking a few pictures of this little giraffe Liv insisted that I take a picture of her baby doll as well. . . so I did.

On the actual Halloween day we took Liv trick or treating. I wasn't planning on taking her at first, because I thought she was too little, but after some convincing from my friends we took her out. And I'm so glad we did. It was so adorable to watch her waddle up to door after door, knock super lightly and say "Tweet!", or "Twickeet". Then she would thank them softly and walk away. The doors that had little dogs at them were the biggest hit with her.
After trick or treating. We came back to our house and did a spur-of-the-moment game night with our friends (See deviled egg and bacon below).

This is my cute friend Brittany holding Tiger on Halloween night

My friend Linea was kind enough to lend us the giraffe and tiger outfits, and after trick or treating Liv wanted to put the tiger outfit on. She was so happy in it, and when it was time for bed she refused to take it off. She felt pretty cool.

After Liv was down for the night, we made some caramel apples. I really had no idea that we were so skilled at making them, but when they were done they totally looked like famous people had made them! :)And they tasted even better than they looked!

Ok on to the. . .
Birthday Festivities!

So, on Sunday I turned the big 2 5! I think its going to be a good year. I like the sound of 25.
This year was one of my best birthdays yet. I felt very loved by those around me. Especially my sweet husband, who made me the best pot-roast dinner (sorry Rich) that I've ever had in my life.
On Saturday Night, we left Liv with our friends and went out to Cheesecake factory, yum, and to Norstrum Rack, where I found these little gems:


They are BRIGHT RED! It was love at first sight. And when I put them on, it pretty much feels like a down comforter is wrapped around my foot.

Another part of my birthday was a new hair cut. So,
this is for those of you who have asked for a picture of my new do. For the first time since I was four years old I have bangs! You actually can't see them too well in this picture, but I mostly just either bobby pin them or push them to the side anyway. Its a fun change. I find I need drastic changes when I am pregnant. Why is that?On Sunday after the pot roast dinner, my friend Brittany won a lot of smiles out of me by presenting me with this thoughtful gift:


It is a book of a bunch of pictures from my blog. Little did she know that this was on my wish list. I'm so glad that I do this blog thing and not scrap booking, because the books that you can print are really cute!
After the pot roast dinner there was cake: mmm confetti cake. Yum. Jaron said to me "Dont' you want a nice home made chocolate cake for your birthday?" but nope, what I really was craving was betty crocker's confetti cake. It's the best.

So until next year. . .
You look like a monkey. . . and you smell like one too!