Suzhettes...tales of 3 wandering Mormons: July 2012

Church

Liv was pretty anxious to get to church today, so she grabbed my hand to lead me inside

I convinced her to to let us take a picture first :)

Liv made her own makeshift bed out of a pillow

I need a necklace, and other stories

We went shopping at TJMaxx yesterday, and out of nowhere, Liv says, "I need a necklace." I had my sunglasses hooked on my shirt, and she thought it made a pretty necklace. We let her wear her new sunglasses like mommy, and that seemed to do the trick.

We also had a reception at the Polish Center for SWSEEL teachers. It was great to see old friends and meet new ones, too! We met an amazing couple from Afghanistan and spent most of the evening talking with them. We wish they were going to be here longer, but they move in one week :( Liv also had some fun friends to play with. In addition to Coady and Lauren being there, there were fun little girls to play with. Arena and Segal loved playing with Liv. Segal came up and asked if me and my daughter would like to join them for a children's party outside. They were so sweet with Liv.

Liv's new outfit

She was so good to sit and pose for me, then she would come and look at the pictures, then sit for another one

Liv and baby Olivia. Liv kept asking where Olivia was when she left with her dad. She was so excited when her new friend came back, and as you can see, they had a fun time taking pictures. So cute!!

YW breakfast at Katie's

Liv kept grabbing cookies off the shelf at Aldi's and putting them in our bag

Cute chair Liv found at TJMaxx

Ran into our friends Coady and Lauren at the SWSEEL teacher reception

Liv found this kitty and thought it was so cute, until it tried to jump at her hand, then cute kitty became "scary tiger."

Sunglasses

Okay, no sunglasses here, but I love this picture of Liv and Tyler. As she would say, "I'm flying!"

We finally got Liv some sunglasses. She has been wanting them for a while now.

I decided I should get some new glasses in support of Liv :) Gotta love buy one get one 1/2 off

Evening Walks

While we were busy cooking, Liv was mostly sleeping, until she woke up. Then she was a good sport and mostly entertained herself. We decided we all needed a break and went outside while our food was simmering. Liv was excited to get to bring her soccer ball and stroller (two of her favorite things).

Cooking, cooking, cooking

Tyler and I made borsch (Russian/Ukrainian beet soup) and golubtsi (steamed cabbage rolls) for an event the second year Russian SWSEEL classes are having tomorrow. We also made a delicious recipe I found on pinterest of chicken, broccoli, and red potatoes. Needless to say, there was a lot of cooking going on here tonight! Hours and hours of it, in fact. Here's a peak at what we made:

This was so good! Definitely adding it as a weekly dish. Insanely easy and yummy :)

The meat mixture for our steamed cabbage rolls

Cabbage leaves, just ready to be filled and rolled up

Into the pan!

Our enormous put of borsch, pre-beets

The lovely beet mixture

Rolls, pre-steaming

And, I forgot to take pics of the final product, so maybe you'll get to see that tomorrow ;)

Our Apartment

We're going to be moving soon, but I wanted to be able to look back at how our apartment looks. I remember seeing pictures of my parents first apartments/houses, and I always thought that was fun, so I thought Liv might like these someday.

Our front room

Dining Room

Liv's room

Our room

Park

We haven't been to the park as much this summer because of the heat, so it was nice to get to go more this week.

Daddy and Liv on the swings

One of Liv's favorite places to sit and think :)

Liv is so excited to try new things, even if they are hard, like climbing ladders

Liv was throwing wood chips on herself. I have never seen her this dirty! I wish we could have gotten a good close up the fine dirt covering her entire body. One of the little girls that came over to play with her kept brushing her hair to try and get some out. She told us Liv was dirty, and that she couldn't get her clean, so Liv needed a bath lol

Stuck!

Liv had a dress on the other day and got it tucked under her knees when she was kneeling. She went to stand up and couldn't. I said, "Are you stuck?" "Stuck!" she said, and then realizing it was funny started making faces. She'd hold her hands up at 45 and 90 degree angles and make a funny face and say, "Stuck!" Then if her shirt wasn't pulling, she'd try to pull it so it looked like she couldn't get up. She is so funny.