Happy 29th Ryan!

This amazing and wonderful husband of mine celebrated his 29th birthday last week! Since it was on a Sunday Ryan and I went out to lunch at PF Changs while my parents watched the girls. It was such a nice, peaceful lunch. Then we did a little bit of Christmas shopping. 

On Sunday, we celebrated his birthday by a day of delicious food. I made the yummy pudding rolls and sausage for breakfast, an Asian pasta salad for lunch, and for dinner we had Bob and Sue join us for some Chicken Parmigiana. 

Birthday presents this year included: a new pocket knife, car cell phone charger, new running socks, new extra large towels, some new clothes, Boggle, and some birthday checks (which he got a new coat with). 

I love this man so much! I am so grateful for him and for how much he does for our family. I am so proud of him and all that he has accomplished by the age of 29. He is such a great example to me, and I am so lucky to call him mine! Happy birthday honey!

November Randoms

We had such a beautiful fall. It was very mild, which made for many warm fall days. One morning, we met our friends Jess and Oliver at the park and enjoyed the awesome weather. Penny was having a tough time, but I just had to capture this amazing frown. She is the just the cutest. Livy, also the cutest thing ever, just said, "Wee...wee...wee..." every time I pushed her on the swing. She was on the swing for over 30 minutes. We are now looking forward to some fun times in the snow!

 We have also had such a great time this last year having dinner with Grandpa almost every single Wednesday and Sunday. Livy calls him "Other Grandpa". She loves to give him big hugs. This picture was taken one night when she volunteered him to play catch with her with her stuffed animal. I'm loving this time we are able to spend with him. 

I have the best friends. Even if it has been months and maybe even years things are just where we left them. We had a last minute get together to introduce little Penny, as well as Liz's little Matilda. I hope we can continue to get together for years to come. 

This was the years first snow in Provo. Livy was so excited, she wanted to go outside and touch it, run in it and play in it. She's especially excited about her new coat that has a little pink owl on it and a belt with a bow on it. 

Livy's preschool went to the Fire Station last week. We learned there is a difference between a Fire Engine and a Fire Truck (the truck has the big ladder), got to see all of their equipment, and they taught them to call "911" if they see a fire, and to "Stop, drop and roll" and showed them what a real fire fighter looked like in all of his gear so they wouldn't be scared if they ever saw him in an emergency. The kids were all slightly frightened, but loved it at the same time. 

 Baby Pen is a great little helper with the laundry. This is how I'm often carrying the laundry up and down the stairs. 

Sisterly love. Livy will most of the time ignore Penny, but occasionally she'll give her the sweetest little hugs and kisses.  

This has become one of my new favorite things, Penny loves looking at herself in the mirror. She thinks it's pretty funny. She almost gets herself laughing. 

Ryan went on a business trip to North Carolina, so I was lucky enough to have help from Mimi and Grandpa, and even got treated to a night at one of our favorites, Brick Oven.

3 Months

Sweet Baby Penny is 3 months old! She is such a joy. I always have people asking how she is, and my response every time is, "She's perfect". Honestly, this baby is such a dream. She has been sleeping 7-9 hours every night from about 10 pm - 5 am, then she eats and goes right back to sleep till about 8 am. She is happy for about an hour, then will sleep, eat, play, repeat. She is such a sweetie. She spends most of her day naps in her swing, but she'll go right to sleep at night with out much of a fuss and sleep in her bed all night long.  

She has been such a big smiler the last few weeks. She loves to be talked to, and loves hearing different noises, especially a purring noise. Almost every time we make her smile, she turns her head (like the picture up on the left). She has the sweetest little smile, and little dimples on each cheek. She has the most kissable cheeks. Penny has had a lot more awake time where she is content and happy, which is so nice. She doesn't have to be held all of the time. She really has started to enjoy my mom's little bouncer that has some lights, music, and moving parts. She'll kick her feet, and swat her hands. We love this little girl so much and are so grateful for the happiness she brings into our home. We love you Baby Pen!

Snow Canyon Half Marathon 2013

While I was still pregnant, some how I thought I'd be ready to run the Snow Canyon Half only 2 1/2 months after I had a baby. Well, that did not happen. I was able to run 3 miles that other day though! But last month Ryan decided it'd be fun to have a little get-a-way and run the beautiful course through Snow Canyon. The girls were absolutely perfect during the drive. Livy was great with her iPad, and Penny slept almost the entire time we were on the road, besides the last 30 minutes or so. We were fortunate enough to get to stay in Ryan's Aunt Nancy's home down there. It was a such a beautiful and relaxing weekend. Ryan did awesome in his race too! He felt great, and had a great time, and said it was probably one of his favorite races ever!  As we were leaving to meet Ryan at the finish line I realized the race came right by the house we were staying in. So we were able to stop and cheer him on a few times! I was so proud of this handsome and tenacious husband!!

It was way too cold to go swimming, but I really loved this view all weekend. 

Halloween 2013

There was no question what Livy wanted to be for Halloween this year. She has been talking about it ever since last Halloween. Ariel. Not just Ariel, but Ariel in the Pink Dress. We were grateful for a modest Ariel and not one with a tight fin and a shell bikini top. I was so happy we found a dress and wig to complete the perfect Ariel look. Livy was in heaven. She was so funny when I first put on the wig, she immediately started singing, "Ah, ah, ah... ah, ah, ah..." just like Ariel. 

On Halloween we realized that our schedules collided a bit so we all got together last minute for a fun Halloween lunch party! Ryan and David were able to leave work, and Crissi brought all of her girls. Including the sweet 1 week old Brooklyn!! 

Penny. Oh Penny. Just the cutest little ladybug ever. 

That evening we went to Qualtrics for their Halloween family party. I decided last minute that Ryan and I were going to dress up too. So We found a decent wig for Ryan so he could be Prince Eric with Livy. And I was a bee with Penny. Livy is always calling Ryan Prince Eric, so I thought this was a perfect time for her dream to come true. They were the cutest. Livy was so happy. And Ryan on the other hand, was a trooper, but he is a much better blond! 

We went to my parent's ward Trunk-or-Treat since we missed our wards' a few weeks ago. Penny was cold, tired and hungry, so Ryan took Livy up to go trick-or-treating with Grandpa Bob. He said she was the best and cutest trick-or-treater. Once again, she really only wanted pink candy. But she accepted a few brown ones. It was a fun and successful Halloween. 

Oceanside Get-A-Way

A few weeks ago I was talking to my sister Melissa, who is living in San Diego about how Ryan was coming down to Long Beach for a few days. She also said how her husband was going to be out of town those same few days. So I was trying to convince her to come to Utah, when I thought of the genius plan for me to go to California! Since I was pregnant all summer, we did not go anywhere. No vacations, no days off, and we were exhausted from the craziness of the last few months with a new baby and moving. So I used our companion ticket through Delta Skymiles to fly into Long Beach. My Aunt Yvonne let us stay in her beyond beautiful condo right on the beach in Oceanside. It was perfect.

Olivia was an amazing little traveler. I bought a sit-n-stand stroller so I could maneuver her carseat, the baby, our bags and her through the airport. She was a such a trooper. Livy was perfect on the plane. She played with the iPad almost the entire time. Penny was an angel as well, she just slept and hardly made a peep. 

I then had to stand in line for the rental car for at least 30 minutes or so. When I got up there they were out of the full size sedan I had reserved, so she walked me out to a minivan for the same prince instead. She opened the door for me and set the keys on the front seat. I then put in both car seats, both girls, all of the bags and stroller, and when I went to start the car it wouldn't start! It was so hot, and both the girls were crying, so I ran to see why it wasn't starting and to the lady's surprise she had put me in the wrong van. So I then had to move everything over to the van next to us. Grr! So frustrating. But we survived. We hit the rode and both girls slept soundly on the road.  

 We met up with Melissa, Lucy and Liam at the condo. We grabbed some lunch and Melissa had to go teach some piano students and a class at the gym. So Livy, Penny and I took a little nap. Then I met up with my bestie Brittany and Callen at the outlets in Carlsbad. We were there for a while, shopped a bit, snacked a bit, and played a bit. Then Britt got to take me to her beautiful new condo. Livy and Callen played, watched Ariel, and I loved just hanging out with Brittany like old times. Tristan came home and got us some delicious Mexican burritos from a local favorite. It was such a fun afternoon. 

That night the girls took a bath and played together for a couple of hours. They were so excited to tell each other things, play princesses, and tease each other a bit too. I can't get over how funny this picture is of Livy. She really really loves her cousin Lucy. 

The next morning we got up and ready to go to Bates Nut Farm. It was a huge pumpkin patch, and the girls and Liam got to go for a pony ride and play in the petting zoo. They were both a little tired, so we had to fight a few battles, but it was fun! And of course the sweet baby Pen was just as perfect as ever. 

After some lunch and naps, we decided to get some nice warm beach air. So we walked down the to beach, and played on a playground right on the beach. The girls were obsessed with the swings. They kept wanting to get higher and higher. And I loved having some one on one time with this amazing sister of mine. 

 

 

Livy also wanted to, and actually played in the sand and water! We went to Maui in April and she absolutely wanted nothing to do with it the whole time we were there. So I was so happy to see her run around and have fun with Lucy at the beach. She called it the "Beach with waves". 

Brittany and Tristan came up to the condo that night and hung out for a little while, and both of our husbands came home as well. So we got some good rest to gear up for the next day at Disneyland!! Livy was so excited. And we were so excited to take her!

I think one of my favorite memories was when we saw Minnie Mouse right at the entrance. After waiting for our turn, which to Livy seemed like an extremely long time, she ran up to her and gave her the biggest hug. It was the cutest thing. This was definitely a favorite picture of the day. 

Livy couldn't stop talking about Minni and her red dress with white polka dots, her bow and her yellow shoes. She even talked about how she was holding her dress up with one hand. So cute. 

First on the priority list was the see the princesses. So we went to the little house right by the castle, waited in line for about 20 minutes and we were able to have one on one time with Aurora, Ariel and Cinderella. The girls were in absolute heaven. Livy screamed and cried when we walked out and she realized the princesses weren't there anymore. She wanted to go back so badly. She didn't understand why she had to leave, and why she couldn't go back in. 

Then we went to the Dumbo ride, and of course Livy had to get a pink one. Once again she screamed and cried when she realized we had to get off the ride and leave, she just wanted to fun to last forever!! We went and saw Rapunzel, once again in heaven, then went to get some lunch.  Baby Penny was grateful to get out of her car seat for a bit, get fed, and be held for a little while. 

We went over to Adventureland and went on both the Jungle Cruise and the Pirates ride. The girls loved them both, and it was a nice easy ride the baby could come on too so we could all be together. 

We went on the Buzz Lightyear ride, and once again it was a huge hit with both of the girls. Then using the fast passes we grabbed earlier, we switched with Mel and Ryan so we could both go on Space Mountain. It is such a fun ride, it always seems to be closed when we go, so I was so grateful it was open! 

We had talked to Livy about the magical tea cups, and we were all looking forward to them, but then we got there and they are under construction. So we found this pink one our front, and told the girls this was the ride. They both seemed a little disappointed, but still seemed to enjoy it a little bit.  Then we went over and took turns on Splash Mountain. We decided to save this for the end of the day in case we got drenched, but all of us came out okay! It was nice to do a few fun rides and get some adult fun out of it!

It was then time to feed Penny again, the kids were all tired since none of them really had had a nap, so we decided to start heading to the exit. We weren't going to stay for the parade, but we found a spot right at the exit of the park, which was also the beginning of the parade. It worked out perfectly. We were able to see ALL of the princesses in the parade. The girls eyes were so wide, and they were so happy. That's probably what Livy has talked about the most since, was seeing all of the princesses in the parade. 

 

As exhausted as we all were, we were also starving. So we went to the Cheesecake Factory across the street, got seated immediately, and enjoyed sitting down and eating some delicious food. It only took Livy 10 minutes to fall asleep in the car, and slept the whole way home. We must have worn out Penny too because she slept 8 hours that night!! It was so heavenly. We were all so tired, and that full nights sleep was heaven sent. 

 

The next morning, we took it easy for awhile, then the Ryan's went for a run, then Mel and I went for a run. It was my first real run since the baby and it felt amazing. We got dressed and headed down to the beach. Livy, once again loved playing in the water and sand. She had so much fun playing with Ryan. We were there for almost 2 hours, and by then Livy was ready for her nap. We got lucky with perfect weather that morning because it was cloudy all afternoon. 

 

 

That night we went to the outlets again for a little shopping, Ryan was sad he missed out the first time, then we met up with the Perdues at a restaurant called El Torito. It was so yummy. Their chips and salsa were delicious and everyone pretty much cleared their plates. We were kind of in the corner of the restaurant, so we let the kids go wild, and everyone enjoyed themselves. We all went back to the condo to do some caramel apples. I think they all turned out pretty awesome. Thanks to Brittany and Tristan for getting the supplies we were able to carry on the tradition of doing apples every year! 

We had a super early flight, so we had to wake up at 4:30 am, drive an hour to the airport and head home. The girls were pretty good on the airplane, but this time I was so grateful to have Ryan with me! It made everything a whole lot easier. We had the perfect last minute get-a-way. I want to make sure we can do things like this as often as possible so we can strengthen our relationship as a family, create memories and have fun together. It was such a great week.