Who knew?

Guess what? Livia can't wrinkle her nose. I didn't even know that was a possibility.

Do you think that's something you can learn how to do? Like winking? Or is she doomed to have an immobile nose for the rest of her life?!

This is serious stuff, folks. Ü

Perceptions

Livia's at that age where she understands a lot, but not quite everything, which makes for some pretty entertaining conversations. One day Emily and I sat down with her and asked her some questions:

Me: What do you want to be when you grow up?
Livia: A ballerina, an artist, and I can't remember what else...maybe a tooth fairy.
Me: Oh! What do you think the tooth fairy does with all the teeth she gets?
Livia: She sails them.
Emily: She sells them? Or sails them?
Livia: Sails them.
Me: Oh, like in a boat?
Livia: Yeah.
Emily: Where does she go in the boat?
Livia: To a very big town.
Me: And then what happens to them?
Livia: What happens is they go into a very big pit...as mud.

Me: What do kids do at school?
Livia: Do homework. Do math. That's it, I guess.

Me: Who do you want to be like when you grow up?
Livia: I want to be like the baby sister.

Me: What does mommy do? What's my job?
Livia: To take care of all of us! To do the laundry and stuff.

Me: What do you like to do?
Livia: I like to wear tap shoes and play the piano, and that's it.

Me: What does it mean to be old?
Livia: It means to be died. You die when you're old.
Me: Oh. And what is it like to be old?
Livia: You get older and older and do stuff.
Me: Do you look different?
Livia: Yeah, you look old.

Me: Are you going to get married someday?
Livia: No, I want to live with you.

Me: How old is Grandma?
Livia: Hmm, I don't know. 21st?

Me: Can you tell me a story?
Livia: Once upon a time, there was a hippo who ate lots of marbles and got sick. And that's it. And he died.

Me: Why is the sky blue?
Livia: Because it's Heavenly Father's, and he painted it.

Me: If you bought something from a store, what would you buy?
Livia: A tree, flowers, and a boat. Not trees, I mean leaves.
Emily: What are you going to do with the leaves?
Livia: I'm going to glue it to the flowers, so it'll look pretty.

Me: What do kittens eat?
Livia: Apples, violins, crayons, hippos, ostriches.

Me: Are you going to have kids when you grow up?
Livia: No, I don't want a shot.
Me: What shot?
Livia: The shot in your tummy. But there's medicine to help you not feel anything owie.

Me: Who are you going to marry when you grow up?
Livia: NO ONE!!! I want to stay with my family and blankie. I don't want to eat anymore (presumably, so she won't grow up).

Additionally, the other day she asked me if Daddy would be home from work "by midnight or center-night?"

Don't you love these little glimpses into their world?!

Visitors

When we left Apple Valley we brought my youngest brother and sister along with us. We had so much fun having them visit for a week! My girls were in heaven, and missed them very much when they went home.

We did lots of fun things while they were here, like going on a hike:

Getting frozen yogurt at Pinkberry

Exploring the tide pools in Half Moon Bay

Hanging out at the beach

 
Playing together at home

And swimming, playing games, making cinnamon rolls, and going to the park (all not pictured).

I would so love to have them come visit again! It's so nice to get to spend time with them and get to know them better!

Family Home Evening

Livia chose a Bible story for her family home evening lesson, and drew it for us. Can anyone tell what it is??

Answer: Lazarus being raised from the dead. Do you see him? In the tomb? And then the bearded man outside is Jesus, and the two other people are Mary and Martha.

July travels--part two

We had a family reunion in Heber, Utah. Chase even flew out for a couple of days!

My brother Jon, Chase and Jane, and my cousin William.

My cousins Annie, Andrew, Andrew's fiance Laci, and Erin.

 Laci, my cousins Lauren and Annie, and me.

 My grandma and Uncle David

The Jon Fitt group

Everyone. This reunion was for my Grandpa and all of his brothers and their descendants.

But I did get several pictures of Jane in her bathing suit! Because she's just so dang cute.

Aah! The rolls!

We got out some water toys

 And then a storm rolled in. The kids didn't seem to care and went right on with their water fight.
 This picture of Liv cracks me up.

 Giant rocking chair on the way home, in Beaver, Utah

 I spent another couple of days in Apple Valley before heading home, and was able to see a few more friends. I did remember to take one picture!!

July travels--part one

We kicked off our month of family time with a week in Apple Valley, and Jane discovered the joy of sprinklers and slip and slides (she also discovered what burning hot car seats are like. Yikes):

We all had so much fun together and I was able to visit with some friends of mine, but I hardly took any pictures. I did manage to snag this one of everyone out on a walk when it started drizzling. My sister Emily looks so much like my dad in this picture.

4th of July

The day started with a pancake breakfast and children's parade. 

Livia's helmet always squishes down her eyebrows and makes her all squinty. It kills me!

 Livia made the switch to a booster seat that day, and broke it in by promptly falling asleep. She never does that anymore.

 We ended the day with fireworks at Shoreline with friends and family. Jane hates loud noises. Really. She cries every time I get out the blender or vacuum. And then once I actually turn it on, oh boy! So naturally, I was a bit apprehensive about fireworks. But she fell asleep in her stroller before they began and even though they woke her up I swear she thought it was a dream, because she just stared at them, totally relaxed and glassy-eyed. Hooray, for that!

(Note: I think Liv has gotten a lot more USA pride since the olympics began. On the 4th we tried explaining to her why we're grateful to live here, but she didn't seem to care. Now she usually at least roots for the US, so that's progress! Sometimes she decides she wants China to win though, and once she announced she'd always wanted to move to Latvia...)

June

Every time we go to Shoreline park Livia asks to do the pedalboats. Usually I'm all by myself with the girls, and Jane is too little to ride. So one weekend we stole Chase away from his studying and he took Liv out on the water.

 She was pretty excited.

It would have been better if she was tall enough to reach the pedals, though!

The girls love going to the park with their daddy!

June is also ollalieberry season, so we headed down to Gizdich ranch with some friends and picked several pounds worth.

The girls enjoyed playing on the tractor, and Livia, Emerson, and Waverly helped me make jam the next day.

That night we went camping with our friends, the McPhies, up in China Camp state park.

The girls slept surprisingly well, and had a lot of fun! The only real incident was that Jane woke up cold during the night so I put her in my sleeping bag with me. Not a big deal, except at some point she head-butted me and gave me a huge fat lip. Awesome.

Ty posed this picture all by himself and was pretty excited about it. It makes me smile every time I look at it.

Liv had her first experience climbing a tree! She was extremely proud of herself.

And Jane just melted us all with her deep blue eyes. She also got really, really dirty.



We ended the trip with a quick hike, during which all the kids melted down and ended up being carried. Ah well, we tried.

Growing up, my family camped all the time, so I really do enjoy trips like this! And a big shout out goes to Rachel, who spent hours on the phone figuring out a place for us to camp (we didn't even think about the fact that it was the 4th of July weekend, and everything for miles around was booked)!