Way Behind

I am so far behind on my blog that it's a bit overwhelming.  I know it's only been two months but those last months were jam-packed full of all kinds of blog worthy things.  So, I'll just start from the top:

Livvy's 1st Birthday

I know she's already 14 months old so this is a little overdue but I need to document it.  We celebrated as a family and it was pretty low-key.  Her favorite present was a little stuffed kitty which she loves and sleeps with every night.  She is an absolute joy to have in our family.  Some things she can do now are:

-She talks, not much but there are a few words she says.  Her favorite word?  Kitty.  Nearly every animal is "kitty".  Somtimes mom and dad are "kitty".  The books are "kitty".  She can say bird ("ba"), bottle ("ba ba"), and banana ("ba" followed by gibberish), she says all done ("ah-duh"), hi ("hi-ee"), and sometimes says up ("up") when she wants to be picked up, and loves to say "yaaaaaaay" while clapping her hands.  And of course she says daddy and mama.  She mostly just says daddy.  Or kitty.  Mostly kitty. :)

-This didn't happen around her first birhtday (in fact, it happened last week) but she is walking now and she's getting pretty good.  She loves exploring now that she can move and have her hands free.

-She loves to "jump" on the trampoline...well she tries to at least.  I put her on there, zip up the net and let her loose.  She tries to jump but obviously her feet never leave the ground.  It fact, her bottom never leaves the ground.

-She loves to look at books.  It reminds me of Shailey at her age.  She would spend long stretches of time looking through books.  Olivia does the same thing.

-She loves to eat bananas, Cheerios, noodles, peas, carrots, green beans, and peanut butter toast.  And she loves her bottle...not sure how we're going to wean her from it...

-She loves to give hugs and kisses.  Her hugs include little pats on the back.  Her kisses are, what I would call, extreme kisses.  She opens her mouth, and pushes her lips onto your cheek so hard that you feel her teeth digging into your skin.  She's not biting, just kissing reeeeeeaaaaally good.  She loves kisses.

She is such a sweetheart.  We can't imagine our family without her.  Everyday I think how wonderful she is and how happy I am that she's a part of our family!! :)

Christmas Break

We took our annual trip up to Oregon for Christmas.  It was a little different this year since Danny's parents are on a mission in Tahiti right now and Ammon is serving a mission in Brazil.  We missed them but know that they are where they need to be.  We even got to Skype Ammon on Christmas day.  That was pretty cool!

The whole family!

Here are just a few of my favorite photos taken during our time up there.  I wish I had taken more!

Aren't her eyes just gorgeous?

Grandma Berta and Shailey.

Mom, Grandma Berta, and Shailey (with a typical "Shailey expression"... or is that a typical "Kimberly expression"?)

Olivia wearing the cutest little Christmas dress.

My dad and I.

My birthday.  (Thanks again for the Twilight card, Danny.  And you are hotter!  Ha ha!)

Poor Isaac.  Ran a little too fast through the house.  I like the pink "cool-aid" type stains on the corners of his mouth, too.  For some reason, it just really goes with the rest of the shot.



Danny with nephew, Nick.

The annual building of graham cracker houses, where more candy is usually eaten than decorated with.

The view from the car on the way back home.

So pretty!!

After we got home, we enjoyed the Oregon game (regardless of the outcome).

And Danny surprised me with a 30th birthday dinner with all of our friends.  (Thanks Danny!  You're the best husband EVER!)  I really was so surprised!  He told me it was a dinner with his co-workers.  When we got there everyone started yelling and I was thinking, "Why are Danny's co-workers whooping and hollering at him??"  Then as I looked around, I started to recognize faces and it occurred to me what was happening.  That sneaky, wonderful husband of mine even had our babysitter in on it!  I love him! :o) Thanks to Gary and Jen for getting there early to save the tables and thank you Anelieze for taking the pictures!

Phew, and now, with only Shailey's birthday to catch up on (which just happened a few days ago and which I will cover in another post) I feel much more caught up.  Hopefully I will do better and not let the blog get so far behind! :o)