First Day of School - Thanksgiving

Livvy started going to Preschool a couple of weeks ago with a few other kids in the ward. She LOVES it! They work on letters, numbers and colors, but best of all, she gets to take her 'pack-pack'!!!




For Thanksgiving this year we met my parents in Las Vegas. Liv had lots of fun with Grandma and Grandpa. We got to spend time with family for almost a week.




After coming home from Vegas, we decorated for Christmas. Livvy thinks that all moments without the lights on is a moment lost, but she is very excited. She also tells just about everyone she sees that "Santa bringing a baby girl!" (Which isn't exactly true, but close enough.) Here are a couple of pictures. (They were taken during the day so they aren't the best, but you will still get the idea.)














Liv took this one all by herself! (Mary, Joseph and Baby Jesus. She loves cameras and taking pictures.)


Here a couple other random pictures that I thought were cute...

Happy Halloween!

So I realize this post is a little late. Someone relocated our camera, and I finally found it last night. Liv had so much fun with Halloween. We carved pumpkins together a couple night before. Livvy really like the pumpkins seeds, and started carrying one around and calling it "Honey." She knew which one Honey was too. It was pretty funny.

















Livvy went as Belle (a bundled up Belle!) She was SO excited to finally wear her Belle dress. Daddy was an army guy and mommy was a snowboarder.























We were out for 2 hours and finally told Liv we had to come home because it was time to get ready for bed. She would have stayed out all night. She had so much fun. She was a great little trick-or-treater too. She would walk up to a door and knock and then say "trick-or-treating" (she always added the "ing" to it for some reason.) She'd get her candy and say "tank you." After we got home we still had kids coming by our house so we left Liv help hand out candy as we were getting ready for bed. She would pick up the candy bowl and wait for kids and get so excited when she saw some coming. It was great.




This is a video I took of Liv a couple days after Halloween. She was running in circles around a pillar we have while talking on her phone. She got a little camera shy once she say me taping her, but it was so funny.

They're Finished!

I got the stocking finished finally. I was a little afraid to put the letters on, because once on, they weren't coming back off. They turned out really well though I think.

Marcus


Erika


Olivia


The baby's looks the same as in the last picture since I don't have a name to put on it yet.

Stockings Almost Finished!

I got all of our Christmas stockings sewn together! They are finished, expect for putting on the names.

From left to right: Marcus', mine, Livvy's and the new baby's

Christmas Stockings

I decided to make Christmas stocking for my family. My cousin was making some, and I liked the idea. Liv still doesn't have one, and Marcus and I just have generic ones from when we were first married. I thought making us all ones would be fun. This is just a picture of the fabrics - I haven't started putting them together yet.

Marcus' is the one of the left and mine is the one on the right.

Livvy's is on the left and the new baby's is on the right.

Lack of Exterior Plumbing

So we had our ultrasound this past Thursday and then went up to Orem for Justin's blessing the next day so I haven't had a chance to announce our baby. The ambilical cord was between the baby's legs the whole time, but the doctor finally gave us a fairly confident "I'm going to say that due to a lack of 'exterior plumbing' it looks like a girl." So we are having a girl! We are super excited. We even asked Livvy what we should name her, and so far she has only come up with "I'm not a boy." I'm not sure we will go with that, but it could be helpful during those first few months when people have a tricky time. (Even when dressed in pink flowers there are still some people who tell you what a precious boy you have!) The due date stayed the same as well, and the baby is due on Jan 25, the day before Liv's 3rd birthday.

Livvy's Belle Dress

Here are a couple pictures of Livvy's Belle dress. I decided I would try to make one for Halloween. (BTW - I made it a size 4 so she could have it for a while, that is why it looks big, it is.) It turned out ok. Not magical, but hopefully it will at least make it till Halloween. She loves it though!

Livvy's Curtains

The pics aren't very good because her room was dark, but her window was really bright. :)

Trip to LA - New Car - The Past 2 Months

So, first we had an awesome trip to LA, well Valencia, California. We got to spend a week visiting with cousins and aunts and uncles, going to bouncy fun-lands, and Magic Mountain. We celebrated Easter and went swimming. With the exception of some tricky bedtimes and a middle of the night child throwing up in someone else's house, crap I don't know where anything is episode, it was such a fun trip.

So, the day we left we finalized buying a new car. Silly timing, I know, but it just happened to all fit into place right then. We ended up getting a Saturn VUE. It is everything I never knew I wanted. We took it on our trip and LOVED it. Lots of room, but not a boat, and I don't have to bend over to put Livvy in her car seat!

Here are a couple other picutres from our week there.

So, we drove to LA, which wasn't as bad as I was expecting. I think I've said it before, but that Heavens for portable DVD players! Aunt Kari and Uncle Scott got to come for a few days too and go to Six Flags with us. Here are some pictures from Magic Mountain. In some of the pictures she looks terrified, but she actually loved the rides. It was fun for her to have other kids to go on them with too.

So a couple days after we got back we went to the Kite Festival here in St George. Winder Farms had a vendor booth there so we went with Marcus and hit up some rides after. Livvy loved the little train they had.

















Last month we went and visited my cousin, her husband and their baby boy, Jack. We took Livvy and Jack to the Springs Preserve in Vegas and then hung out at their house for a while.













Here are just a couple other random pictures. A few pictures of Livvy being cute. This bag is one I made because I got called to the Primary Presidency and couldn't find a bag that would work well, so I made one. I am just proud you can tell it is a bag!

Why Costco Is GREAT!

Ok, I know I need to post a real post, and I'm going to, I promise. However, I was headed to Costco today so I looked through the coupon book they send each month. They had a coupon in there for Buy One Get One Free seasons of X-Files and Stargate: SG1. We aren't so much for X-Files, but Marcus LOVES Stargate (I will admit it is growing on me to where I will actually suggest watching it.) I figured that since it was a B1G1F coupon the seasons would probably be close to suggested retail of around $50/season. That adds up when you still need seasons 3 - 10. I figured if it was a decent price I would get 3 and 4 for him. So I get there and look at the price. Imagine my surprise when I see they are $24.99 per season. With the B1G1F coupon it made them $12.50! $12.50 for a full season of anything is awesome. So we bought all 8 of the seasons we didn't have. 8 full seasons cost us $100.00 - at the Amazon price, which I usually consider pretty good, those 8 seasons would have cost us $240. Those are the visits that remind me why I like Costco!

Asleep in the Hall

I couple of weeks ago I took the side off of Livvy's crib and put a toddler rail on. Since then she has been trying to see just what she can get away with at nap time. Yesterday, when I went to check on her, I found her at the end of the hall where I couldn't see her from the other room. She had fallen asleep there. I was trying really hard not to laugh, but just couldn't help it in the end, but this video is pretty funny.

OLIVIA

In our old house, I had Livvy's name in vinyl lettering on her wall. Since we are renting this house I didn't think I should put vinyl on the walls, so I painted the letters of her name so I can put those on the wall instead. I think they turned out pretty cute so I thought I'd share.

(I thought I had a picture of the old one on this computer, but it is on the other computer which is not working right now.)

Here are the letters with the base coat of paint and the pin striping.



This is the pink over the white and the pin striping.



Here it is with the striping taken off, before it is finished.



And here is it finished.