A busy week

Tuesday we went swimming: no pictures

Wednesday I tagged along with some friends in a neighboring ward to go berry picking. (I will most definitely be going back in a couple weeks, for anyone who wants to join me!)We drove with these two lovely ladies.

Livia ran wild in the strawberry patch
And ate a green one because I specifically asked her not to.

Playing with her friend Sarah during lunch

Livia did pretty well with the olallieberries, and picked only the really ripe, black ones. She may or may not have eaten more than her share straight off the vine. Whoops!

Thursday was swimming again. Here she is lounging with her friend, Ty.

Friday we went to the beach with a bunch of friends.

Initially terrified of the frigid waters, Livia finally overcame her fear and had a blast playing in the waves with her friend, Miles.She kept running back to tell me "I do it! Livia do it!"Saturday (after an extremely disappointing game in the world cup) we headed out as a family to a local park.

Say hello to the "cauliflower trees"

Livia picked out her own outfit that day. Not bad, eh?

It was fun. We took good, long naps every day. Here's to being busy and spending time with friends!

Life with Livvy

Snug as a bug in a rug (one of her new favorite games) Father's day with Daddy

Reading to her baby

Spinning at happy hollow. This video makes me dizzy just watching it!

Cousins

This is for my wonderful in-laws, Rich and Cheryl. It's so fun to watch Livvy and Ella play together!

Wowza

This is what I have to contend with every morning and every afternoon after naps. Is it a wonder Livia runs away at the sight of a comb??

Brilliant

Today I was in a bit of a funk. Livia woke up before I did, and something about having to be responsible the second my eyes open in the morning makes me cranky.

And so we had breakfast and played together, but all the while I kept looking around the house and seeing all the things I wanted to clean or organize, and I confess I wasn't the most eager playmate for Livia.

I especially wanted to wash the windows. That's been on my to-do list for two weeks now. And then suddenly I had an Idea.

Livia helps me dust all the time, so why in the world couldn't she help me wash windows? After a quick lesson in Windex use (you squirt only windows. ONLY windows!) we set to work. And besides being a little trigger happy and squirting the same few inches of glass about 20 times, it worked out really well!

I kept asking her if she still wanted to help or if she'd rather go play, but she insisted on helping and we made it through every set of windows in our apartment in less than an hour.

And then I was left to wonder, "why didn't I think of this before??"

In the end I was happier, my windows were (mostly) clean, and Livia was pleased at having been such a good helper. My day is looking brighter! (literally...hahaha...)

Lately

In the past several weeks we've gone...





Swimming:





Hiking:

(I still think we live in one of the prettiest places ever!)

To the beach: (Livia and her friend Cameron both sampled some Santa Cruz sand Ü)

And spent time having fun at home.


(So I uploaded a bunch of recent videos of Livia, but now they keep saying "error." I'm going to leave them on here just in case they decide to start working, but you'll have to do without captions, cuz I have no idea which video is which)

David

None of us were surprised when my mom became pregnant with David. After Emily was born more than one of us felt very strongly that a little boy was missing from our family. That's right, I specified "boy." My mom never found out the gender before any of us were born, but none of us had the least doubt that this last child would be male. I was lucky enough to be present when David was born, though I hid in the adjoining bathroom during the actual delivery, because I did not particularly want to watch that process. Still, I was able to hear his very first cry, the "it's a boy!" announcement, and to be there for all the tears of joy. (And that's more than I can say for my delivery with Livvy! I was completely unconscious for the first three hours of her life.)

David is one of the most naturally funny people I know. He's been cracking jokes since he was 3 years old. Jokes that were legitimately funny to us adults! He's clever, this one, and never fails to make us laugh.

David is somewhat obsessed with video games. I think he would spend all his free time with a controller in his hand if he were allowed to. He's pretty good at it too, and can give most of us a run for our money though he's only 7 years old.

He's a smart kid, an excellent reader, and a sensitive soul. He may be scared easily, and he may not particularly like the outdoors, but David is one cool kid. He's also got some wicked cool dance moves.

He wasn't even 2 years old before I moved away to college, so I don't know David nearly as well as I should like to. I'm grateful we don't live too far away from my parents, so we can visit a few times a year. Also, skype. Best invention ever.

I am so excited to see more of David's personality and talents develop! Love you Squeegee!

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And there you have it. My family. I feel SO blessed to be a part of it. I love and respect each of my family members, and am so happy to be sealed to them for all eternity!