North Carolina

For Christmas my sister, Sharee, got her and my mom tickets to fly to North Carolina to see my Aunt Shelley. Well, Christmas came and I found out that my other sister got a ticket for Christmas . . . so of course I was all not wanting to be left out. Thankfully I have wonderful friends here that helped out with the kids while I was gone! AND . . . they were alive when I got home from being with Cory for a week! We all connected in SLC for our flights and off we went. It was a really relaxing week actually. We did A LOT of reading and a lot of laughing! I hope my mom had a good time as well. We went and visited with our cousins while there and met their families and had a girls day and went to the Biltmore House that was about 3 hours away. It was so great! I remembered so much of it when I was 10 but it had a whole different meaning seeing it as an adult. Loved seeing the original things in the house and hearing of how life was in the early 1900's for the wealthy. We also did a lot of shopping . . . that was fun!! I bought my first Coach first as a major splurge and maxed out my budget right away but had so much fun doing it! I hope in the future we can have more trips like that and spend more time trying to build up our relationships as a family.

Livee is 1!

Miss Livee Maurine is One!

My Livee has officially turned 1 and I cannot believe how fast that went. We had a party for her while we were in Idaho and then we had a small one on her birthday on the 16th of Jan. I will have to say that this past year has been a bit of a challenge and my little munchkin has been a trooper. I am so blessed that she came to us. She has brought such a light to our family. The kids adore her and she is always so happy. I will say though . . . she is a stubborn little thing. If she wants it . . you know about it. If she doesn't . . . you know about it. She has been a late bloomer in her physical aspects of development. She never really rolled over til 11 months. I mean she did it once in a while but I think it was more of an accident. She didn't start crawling until 11 months. While we were in Hawaii first of Dec. is when she started to crawl. She is now standing up and walking slowly around furniture and will let go once in a while. But she is just taking her time learning how to do things, which is fine by me. She JUST started drinking consistently from a sippy cup last week. Which has been hard. She is finally wanting to drink where she has literally been on a liquid strike for the past 3 months. I stopped nursing her the first of November to get ready for our trip and she would not drink a thing after that. I started supplement her with formula and cereal and lots of applesauce to keep her hydrated. It has been hard but we made it through it. 

Here are Livee's facts at age 1:

*Weighs 18 lbs 7 oz (10%) Height 27 inches (10%)

*Livee LOVES her silk blankets. Just like Araleigh . . . we cannot go ANYWHERE without them.

*She LOVES fruit loops, cheerios, string cheese and pasta.

*She can say a few words: MOM (main word in her vocab), dada (not often though), A-aw-ee (araleigh), Num Nums (food), nigh nigh (night)

*She is obsessed with my cell phone. She throws tantrums when she gets it and I take it from her.

*She looks JUST like my Grandma Roberta. I get daily doses of reminders of Grandma because of this and I love the sweet reminders. Guess she was named after her for a reason. 

*She HATES socks/shoes. As soon as I get them on . . . they are just as fast off. 

*She is in size 3 diapers and has her daddy's bum 

*She looks NOTHING like my other kids to me. 

*She has 3 teeth all on the bottom.

*I love her bright blue eyes!

*We literally get stopped everywhere we go with people gooing after her because she is constantly smiling and trying to talk to people.

*She really loves feeding people . . . or "sharing" her food. She is always trying to get us to have a bite of whatever she thinks is amazing!

*She doesn't like her car seat . . . poor thing doesn't weigh enough to be in a front facing one just yet. 

*She (as do the rest of them) LOVES her daddy. When he comes home, she lights up and when he turns and walks out of the room . . . she SCREAMS until he comes back. 

*She is a NIGHTMARE to try and change her diaper. In nearly takes 2 to do it . . . or a dab of lotion on her hand that she eats to keep her occupied.

*She LOVES bath time. She will just crawl into the bathroom and stand at the tub if the door is open.

*She has EXTREMELY tiny feet. She is still in size 1-2 (6 months). Her little feet aren't quite up with the rest of her body. 

*She is really into scratching . . . she thinks it's funny when I scream "OUCH" . . then she will do it again. Not funny.

*She is already a jewelry girl . . .she must get this from her Grandma A. Sometimes to change her bum I will hand her one of Araleigh's play rings and she will just sit there and put it on . . look at it then put it on a different finger. Today in the grocery store I had a bracelet that she just kept putting on her arm and that kept her busy for a bit. 

  

 

Christmas Time!

Well, Christmas this year was suppose to be spent in Idaho. But after all the crap we bought and how big our Christmas was this year (not on purpose) we decided it would be easier to stay home than the try and get it all there and back again.We have not been to Sugar for Christmas in 3 years now. I cannot believe it. So since we chose to stay home . . . as usual the Arnold's came up our way. Things weren't as convenient as last time with the house next door being open . . but we made it work! Lacey and her family came up as did Bryce and Cory's parents. It was enjoyable to at least spend it with family. It's hard not having family around on holiday. The kids were EXTRA good this year. They got a little bit too spoiled. And I got a little spoiled this year. I really wasn't expecting anything big because we JUST got back from Hawaii . . but Cory got me brand new washer and dryer. (Which I did need actually) I LOVE THEM. He got me some gift cards and clothes as well. So I was very spoiled as well! Its funny I absolutely HATE doing laundry . . but since I got my awesome new ones . . I just watch it. It amazes me how such little water can clean clothes. lol The day after Christmas I decided to leave and head to Idaho. Kind of a sudden thing I just didn't want to waste another week of Araleigh being out of school. We had a great time. We spent the week with my family and went up to Island Park to a cabin. The kids went sledding and snowmachining. They had so much fun. Then we did a mini party for Livee on Monday night along with the New Years Eve party. It was great. Most the kids were starting to pass out by 12 but it was fun.