pumpkin paradise

Livia loves pumpkins (or pun-tees, as she calls them). We decided to take her to a pumpkin farm last week, and she was in absolute heaven!

At first she was a little overwhelmed, but by the end she was running around yelling "PUN-TEES!" every 2.6 seconds.

For FHE we decided to carve our pumpkins. I thought that since Livia loved pumpkins, she would enjoy carving them and pulling out all the "guts." Unfortunately, I grossly underestimated just how much she loved her pumpkins, and when we cut into them she completely flipped out. So we hurriedly put her to bed and set to work. Chase did the spider, which turned out to be a little too fragile and collapsed within 24 hours, and I did the wolves. When Livia woke up the next morning and saw what we had done to her beloved pumpkins there were some major tears. But she's over it now and likes the pictures on her pumpkins. Ü

Livia went to a Halloween party with our playgroup on Friday. Here she is in the little costume I made her (the only way I could get her to hold still was to let her hold a pumpkin. Can we say obsessed??)

When we got to the party we discovered that one of her little friends was Bam-Bam! I couldn't have planned that more perfectly. Unfortunately, this was the best picture I could get. Trying to get one toddler to pose for a picture is hard enough. Two? Practically impossible.
She had fun at that party, but the ward trunk-or-treat that night did NOT go so well. She was completely overwhelmed and was glued to my side the entire night. Again, there were tears. But she cheered up once we got home, and we got a quick picture.

So Happy Halloween, everyone! I'm dreading throwing out our quickly dying jack-o-lantern. Livvy will be crushed. But at least we have Thanksgiving to look forward to!

5 reasons you should always keep a journal

I received my first journal on my 8th birthday, and have been an avid journal writer ever since. I recently acquired a box of my old journals from my mom, and found that first journal among them. As I began reading through it, I determined that it was WAY too good not to share. Ü

(I'm posting these verbatim, as the misspellings make it so much better. I'm also abbreviating friend's names, because it just feels like one of those situations where I should do that...)



There are a lot of reasons you should keep a journal, you know.


Reason #1: They're filled with great advice to your future self


7-26-96 (age 10)

Never, Never, have a chicken burrito with hot sauce. Never!



Reason #2: You find another reason to call up your parents and apologize/thank them for putting up with you.



8-21-94 (age 8)

Today is Sunday, the 21st. My Dad has made me really mad. I was changing into my play clouths, and some of my hair got stuck in a Button. So I yelled "MOOOM." My dad came instead, of course, he can't come in when I only have a slip on. But he said, "Mom can't come right know, because she's making Lunch," and he said "what do you want?" And as I said before he can't come in when I only have a slip on. So I couldn't tell him or he would come in.



But any way he's not being mean anymore. So I'm happy know.

9-3-94 (age 8)
Today is Saturday. We're soposed to do something fun today but my mom's to tired so she's leaving Daddy in charge, he wants to go to the temple for fun. but Laura said "we can make the day fun." So I guess it will be alright but I just wish that my Dad would remember us.



Reason #3: Spiritual instruction



8-7-94 (age 8)

Today is fast Sunday. I fasted Breakfast. When I first started fasting, I didn't know that I had to do it for a Reason. Then my mom told me so that I could tell that to Heavenly Father in my fasting prayer. A fasting prayer is a special prayer that you say before you eat, The things that you say are why you fasted, to do that Blessing, and something else I forgot what it is. I was starved! I enjoyed fasting for a purpose. Bye-Bye. Sincerily, Mary



8-29-94 (age 8)

Yesterday after noon, I was Babtized. When I got Babtied I felt 3 things. I felt Important, happy and cold. I'd better explain what being Babtized is. Being Babtied is a very important thing to me. It's where you go to church to have a special meeting. When you get there the person that's getting babtized get's Dressed in some spiecial cloths. (So does the person that's Babtizing you.) then you sit down for the opening prayer and talks. Then you and the person that is Babtizing you goes down into a font (by the way the person that's Baptizeng you has to have the Priesthood.) That is filled with warm water. The person that's Baptizing [finally spelled it right!] sayes a prayer and Dunks you in the water. Then your Baptizied! then you change into a white dress. Sit down some more and then people take lots of pictures. I'm so happy. Sincery, Mary

Reason #4: The drama!

11-6-94 (age 8)
On Friday K (my best friend) spent the night at my house! I was really exited because K hasn't spent the night at my house for a long time...we wrote secret admirerer letters. And talked about who we liked. Me and K both liked this one boy who's name is J. K said she loved him. I said I loved him to. He's awfully cute, he's nice, and funny and friendly. So you probly think he's perfect but he's not. He said Heavenly Father's name in vain so now I just like him for a friend now. I might still love him.

11-27-94 (age 8)
Well a few days ago on Tuesday. On Tuesday I found out that J (the one I love) likes K!
How did I find out? Well M, one of my friends asked J if he liked K. Well, J said "Yes." And of course M told a few people (me of course) but this one girl named Cherl told almost everybuddy about it. So now I don't have any one I like. I'll just have to wait till high school, or colage.

12-11-94 (age 8)
Today Laura and Perry have been bothering me all day about J. I promised I did not like him. Then I went into another room and said, "Sike, sike, just kidding, just kidding." Well, see you next time.

[I wish you could see the drawing I included depicting all of this. ]

Reason #5: Personal history

2-5-95 (age 8)
[I gave a really long explanation of getting a tooth pulled at the dentist and then...] My mom looked at me and told me to smile. I did, and I looked so weird. My smile was lopsided. Anyway that night the toothfairy gave me 2 dollars! Maybe I should go onto another subject. Yesterday I went to Millisa's baptimin [seriously, this word apparently gave me major issues]. I guess it was sorta cool. Yesterday I also went to my first BasketBall pratice. I guess I'm pretty good. But I don't think so. Afer that we went to the mall. I love it there. Espeiselly is I get to go to B. Dalton. A book store. We got to go their and I bought a book. I also got a jaw breacker at the general store. Well I guess that's it. See you next time! Bye.

[again, I included an awesome picture of the dentist pulling my tooth]

Okay, so this may have only been entertaining for me. In any case reading through all of this renewed my love of journals, and I've now gone from being not-so-consistent to writing every single day again (sleepless nights with Livia were what first killed the habit).

18 months

That's right, folks! Livia just had her half birthday! (In case you were wondering, we did celebrate: ice cream, balloons, and a reason to give her the play food I had just bought and was trying to convince Chase to let me give to her before Christmas). It's amazing how fast they grow. One second they're a totally dependent newborn in your arms, and the next...


Holy cow! They're driving!!!



And playing wii (with excellent form, I might add)
Helping you clean up the house

Sword fighting with their uncle

And practicing for their piano recital

In all seriousness I can't believe how much she's grown. Her vocabulary continues to grow and her pronounciation has become quite good, thank goodness. Her wilfullness has also increased, resulting in an extremely long grocery shopping trip this afternoon, as she figured out how to get out of the little seat belt-thing and stand up in the cart! Over and over...and over again.

Livia loves to read, and I love the opportunity it gives me to cuddle with her everyday.

Here she is in her reading chair:

She also loves to get outdoors, make us laugh, and has a gazillion little routines that she likes to follow. For example, whenever we put her pajamas on we have to say "pop!" every time a hand or foot is in it's right place. If we forget, she says it for us. Ü Her bedtime routine is also extremely exact, and if we do anything out of order or forget something (like to get out her blankie AND bunny during scripture reading) she lets us know!

All in all, she's a toddler. That means one second I'm loving her to death, laughing at her antics, and feeling joy as I watch her learn, and the next I'm about ready to tear my hair out, cry, or lock myself in the bathroom for a minute to calm down.

But really, I can never remain frustrated for long with this cute little thing around!

(note: it was a really cloudy day, but she insisted on wearing her sunglasses the entire time we were at the park)

In other news she had her 18 month check-up today...and screamed as soon as the nurse walked in the room She never really stopped until we left the doctor's office. Yikes! You think she might remember the shots or something?? In any case she's doing great! She's still small: 25th percentile weight and 50th percentile height, but that's consistent with how she's been since she was a year old. Chase and I both feel so lucky to have this little sweetheart in our family. She is such a blessing to us, and I continue to learn from her each and every day.

We love you, Livvy!

It's about time!

Believe it or not, Livia is finally in a big car seat! I know, I know, most kids make the switch at about 12 months, but in my defense her infant carseat held up to 30 lbs, kids are not even allowed in a forward facing seat until they're 20 lbs, and at 18 months she only weighs 22.5 lbs.

In case you couldn't tell, she loves it. She spent a few hours playing in it before I brought it down to the car. She also loves being able to see what's going on, and now points out cars, trees, and dogs to me all the time when we're driving along. Unfortunately there is a down side: she can now see everything I do in the car! No more sneaking food without her knowing, no more faking the actions for the songs we sing as we drive along, and no more pulling out the cell phone without her demanding to hold it. Sigh.

It's still worth it though. Ü

My life is now complete

(this was a working robot some guy built and had wandering around Fisherman's wharf)

Vacation

Last week Chase and I went on a marvelous vacation. We drove down to Apple Valley and left Livia there with my parents!! Chase and I continued on to San Diego and stayed there for several days, as he thoroughly enjoyed not having to go to work for a week, and I even more thoroughly enjoyed being able to do whatever I wanted without the constraints of a toddler! We had many peaceful meals at restaurants, took afternoon naps, and could even stay out past 8:00. *Gasp!*

We took the opportunity to go to the San Diego temple, which we hadn't been back to since we were married there almost 3 years ago. It was kinda fun to go on a Wednesday morning...I'm pretty sure we were the only people there under 65. Ü


We went to Sea World one day and were surprised to discover that they now administer bioscans as you enter. Seriously, they take your fingerprint and connect it with the barcode on your ticket. We were wondering why until a man in line ahead of us got into a huge argument with the employee--turns out he had been planning on getting in with his ticket, exiting and getting a stamp, and then giving the same ticket to his son. Really?? I didn't know anyone did stuff like that, but it must be a problem because otherwise I don't think they'd bother with the bioscan.

Chase ended up lasting a minute and a half at this exhibit. My time?? 20 seconds. How embarrassing! (But at least it adds credence to my assertions that I have horrible lung capacity)
(I did try again later and got 45 seconds, but that's still pretty wussy)


We also went sea kayaking, which was cut short because I got seasick. I have a ridiculously weak stomach nowadays. I've now gotten sick snorkeling, kayaking, and fasting (I have thrown up multiple times when breaking my fast. It's kind of a problem). I felt badly that we didn't even make it through half our kayak rental time! So lame.

Livia was happy the entire time we were gone. I honestly don't think she missed us at all. It took her a good five minutes to warm up to us after we came back to AV, but then she was excited and wanted to show us all the fun things she had played with in our absence.

Since we were in Southern California, we took the opportunity to meet up with some good friends of ours from BYU. It was so much fun to catch up!

It was a perfect vacation. We got to spend time with friends and family, as well as have time all to ourselves to relax and have some child-free fun. (Not that we don't love having Livia with us...but since she is, in reality, my full-time job, it was nice to get a complete vacation from all my normal responsibilities.)

My parent's house has a LOT more toys and interesting things around than our little apartment does. Not to mention doting grandparents and super fun aunts and uncles. She had an absolute blast, and has been suffering from withdrawals ever since, I'm afraid. Here's a video of her playing the piano. I love how she wants to use the entire length of the piano, and how she sings along. Also, when she played she insisted a piano book be open, and would occasionally request that we turn the page. Ü

I don't know where she learned that since we don't have a piano, but it sure was cute!