Sugar Cookie Making

I am a true baker at heart. I love a good excuse to make a bunch of goodies. Even though sugar cookies take a few hours, I love it. I had some help this time from my mom, and Livster :) In case you are in need of a super soft and tasty sugar cookie here's the recipe:

Sugar Cookies
2 sticks of softened butter
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
3/4 cup sour cream
1 tsp. vanilla
5 cups flour (add until not sticky - may be a whole cup)
1 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. baking powder

Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs, sour cream and vanilla. Add dry ingredients. Roll out 1/4" thick. Use a cute heart-shaped cookie cutter. Bake at 350 degrees for 7-10 minutes depending on size of cookie. If they get golden brown they'll get crunchy.

Cream Cheese Frosting
 8 oz. cream cheese
1/2 cup margarine
2 tsp. vanilla
3 cups powdered sugar
Red Food Coloring

Use a hand mixer until well combined. Don't mix too long or it'll get too thick.

 

Livy and her Puppies

Saying that Livy loves puppies is a huge understatement. This girl has quite the collection. Most of them are being borrowed from Grammy Sue, but boy does she love them. She carries them around, pushes them in her stroller, cuddles them in her crib, and takes very good care of them. My favorite part is their names. Liv has always been very good with names, she knows all of her friends by name, and a lot of kids at the Kids Club at the gym, but these puppies have very special names. "Cute puppy", "Baby pink puppy", "Tiny Puppy", and "Big puppy". A few of these are repeated if there are two "Tiny puppies". Love this little girl. 

Potty Training

I have been thinking about potty training for months. I found a super cheap little potty at Big Lots, Livy picked out some "My Little Pony" panties, and we've been talking about it a lot. Then one day last week, I was changing the worst poopy diaper ever, it smelt so bad. So I decided that was it, I was done with this diaper thing. So I told Livy that we were going to start on Tuesday. I told her "no more diapers", and that she's "going to go on the potty" and we were going to "potty train". She knew it was coming. 

So we woke up Tuesday morning, took off her diaper, covered the most trafficked part of my carpet with towels, and we were in the bathroom every 20 minutes or so. The first two days were completely awful. Completely awful. I had gotten some advice from my sister-in-law Shanna, read a bunch online, and knew this was to be expected, but it didn't change the fact just how awful it was. It took her a whole day to actually realize that when she was going, is was going down her legs and on the ground. The second day she was getting closer to going in the potty, but would get excited after only a few drops, then stand up or walk away and finish going in the other room. So after lots of M&M's with the success, and lots of talking about the bad, the third day was wonderful. She just knew she had to stay sitting down and wait until her "potty was all done", and not just a few drops. She got 5 M&M's after going #1, and a box of Nerds if she did #2. 

To be honest, most of the third day, she literally sat on the potty. Wanted her to have a lot more success than failure, so we pulled her potty right up so she could see the TV, we read lots of books, played on the iPad, and even though it was the longest day of my life, there were NO accidents. With faith in Livy and myself, day four was better than I could have ever imagined. She went in the morning, we got ready, she went again, we went to take something to Ryan at work, came home, she went again, and her first poop! I thought I'd never be so excited to see a little piece of poop, but she was super excited too! She was especially excited because she thought it was shaped like a heart, haha, silly girl. We even ventured out and went out to dinner with some friends. She did so great, no accidents again!! I'm hoping for the best, knowing we will have accidents down the road, but so far I'm super optimistic. We love this little girl of ours. She just keeps amazing us!

Cruise to Cozumel

Back in September I was super busy sewing and selling my little boots. I realized that I wanted to work towards something and have all my hard work pay off and reap the benefits! So I told Ryan we were going to go on a cruise. I'm not sure he really believed that I was serious. I researched for months. Then I finally found a 4 night cruise through Costco Travel for only $650 for the both of us! Then we also had a companion ticket with our Delta Skymiles. So we were able to fly and cruise on the Royal Caribbeans "Jewel of the Seas" for less than $1000! It was awesome. Needless to say, this was our very first vacation with our little munchkin. I was so nervous and sad about leaving her, but looked forward to the sleep! We couldn't have done it with out my wonderful parents, especially my mom who looked after and cared for our sweet Olivia. We were able to enjoy it that much more knowing she was safe and happy!

We took the red-eye (first big mistake- blah! awful!) Wednesday night, got to Tampa Thursday morning, rented a car and explored for a few hours before we had to board. We got some food, went shopping (H&M!), got some more food, then filled up the car before we returned but took a wrong turn and found ourselves on 7 mile bridge toward St. Petersburg, we couldn't turn around so we just had to ride it out. So we had to fill up the car, again, and were on our way to the port. 

The ship was amazing, our room was incredible, balcony and all. The weather was beyond perfect, a cool 80 degrees was much better than the below 0 weather we've had in Utah! We loved all of the food options, and took advantage of it all, we also got a self-serve ice cream cone pretty much after every meal. We slept almost 12 hours every single night, it was just what we needed. We worked out in the morning, ate, slept, ate, read, ate, and slept. 

On Saturday we were in Cozumel all day. We decided to do one of the ships' excursions and swam with some stingrays. They all had their barbs removed, so we couldn't get hurt, they are such funny creatures. We got to feed them and swim with them. Then did a little bit of snorkeling and saw a huge barracuda (on the other side of the fence, thankfully!). We relaxed, had a hermit crab race, Ry's crab won. 

These pictures make me laugh. First of all, we are both really white :) Then here we are all proud that we're holding this massive sting ray all by ourselves...

And then she took her big ole' tail, whipped me in the face and swam away! Haha. 

So we decided to do big Mexican kisses instead. Love me a sting ray kiss. 

We took a taxi into town, and loved walking around and looking at all of the fun shops. Ryan's absolute favorite part of the whole trip was being able to use his Spanish to barter with all of the locals. He was pretty good too! We got a hand-painted nativity scene, a Mexican blanket, and got Livy a pink maraca. Then we found this little restaurant, and all we wanted were some authentic tacos. And that's what we got! They were so delicious! I told Ryan a funny joke before I took this picture :)

We had the most amazing and relaxing vacation. We were so grateful for the opportunity to go, and can't wait to do it again in a couple of years! My favorite part was spending every single second with my honey. He's the best husband I seriously could have ever asked for. He is so funny, so kind and sensitive, and my very best friend. Love you honey!

My favorite of the our towel animals from our stateroom attendant

First Official Snow Day

Today is the last day before my sisters go back home to San Diego and Austin. We have loved every minute that we’ve been able to spend with them.  Someday…we will hopefully live in the same state once again! While the nice warm sun was out, we took advantage of a snow day. We all met at David and Crissi's house. Livy has never really ventured out into the snow. She doesn’t really like getting dirty, so this has been something she hasn’t been eager to explore. But after the fun she had to day, I have a feeling we’re going to have to pry her out of it. She made snowballs, even threw a few at grandpa. She watched daddy make a snow angel, and talked about the angel the whole way home. Then Ryan found a fun little sled to pull the girls on. They loved it; it was the perfect little ride for them all. I would say that our first official snow day was a huge success.

New Years Bash

For the last couple of years, we have just gone to bed well before midnight on New Years. So with family in town, we decided to go big and actually stay up to watch the ball drop. We had everyone come over here, had some awesome appetizers - layered bean dip, cranberry cream cheese dip, a veggie try, a caramel apple dip, candy, and chocolate caramel pretzels. We ordered some pizza, feasted, and hung around watching all the little girls all play together. By 8:30 we finally got all of the kids in bed and asleep. So we pulled out Catch Phrase, a Farnsworth family favorite, then Hedbanz, and a few "Minute to Win It" games Jen pulled together. As it got later, the games just got even more funny as we all got a bit more tired and loopy. We rang in the new year and it was the perfect way to do so. 

 

Jen was sleeping like Snow White, so Livy did not hesitate one minute to kiss her and wake her up. 

Minute to Win It Challenge between Ryan and Crissi. 

I love my family. We missed Ryan & Shanna and their kiddos. I hope everyone was able to ring in the new year with someone they love!