So happy to see mommy!

I started working mornings on campus in the School for Public and Environmental Affairs. While I'm away, Liv stays home with Daddy. They have been having lots of fun together, and she's been taking great naps for him. Today Tyler took me to school because he had some errands to run, and then came and picked me up because he needed to go to the bookstore before our class. I met him in the parking lot, and as I was walking up to the car, Liv saw me and let out a big, happy squeal and gave me a huge smile! I just love her so much! I was so happy she was excited to see me. I love my job, but I miss getting to be with her. I'm glad Tyler gets to be with her in the mornings, and that she sleeps for a lot of the time that I'm gone, so I don't miss out on as much!

Snuggles with Daddy

So for the last few weeks, Liv has been wanting me to hold her and not leave her with anyone else, not even Tyler. He was feeling a little bit sad, or at least left out. But then Saturday I had just finished feeding her, and she turned out of my arms towards Tyler and gave him a big hug! It was so cute!

A bit later, she would come to me, give me a hug, then turn and go to Tyler, give him a hug, then come back to me. She went back and forth about 15 times. It was so funny! She is so sweet to give me and Tyler attention now :)

Ice cream!

Liv caught with her hand in the cookie jar! Or in this case, face in the Oreo shake...What can I say, she loves ice cream!

Crib time

Gotta love that mischievous look!

Another scrunchy face while standing all by herself in her crib!



Liv realized she didn't know how to let go from standing up. She took the topple well.

Happy baby :)

Bedtime

Tummy time!

Checking out the camera up-close.

Looking for more stuff to play with.

I finally got a good one of her scrunchy face!

Liv hanging out in her jammies.

Liv likes to hold her lotion bottle after we put her lotion on. I didn't get a picture of it, but she also really likes to suck on the cap. I guess lotion tastes good?

Stuffed Animals

Livvy was so excited to play with her stuffed animals today! She was sitting in front of me and kept trying to pull the basket with them in it over. She finally got it!

Sharing pears with daddy

Pull ups

Liv also tries to pull herself up to standing. Poor thing got caught on the chair the other day--too close to sit down, too close to stand the rest of the way up!

Push up time!

Liv now goes from crawling to push-up position. It's so funny! I think she's stronger than I am...

One more messy face

Messy face!

So, we basically strip Liv down when it's time to eat, because as you can see, it gets everywhere! But it's pretty cute, so we'll allow it :) She started doing monkey face, which meant her favorite sweet potatoes ended up in her hair, on the back of the chair, and smeared all around her face (she moved just as I went to put the spoon in her mouth). We have a fun time at meal times!

Cuddling up on a Sunday

After church, I was laying on the floor after Liv finished eating. She rolled over and cuddled up to me. So cute! She's also been giving me her binky lately, which makes me love her even more. I had held it in my mouth a couple of times (backwards) when I'd be doing something else before giving it to her, and she would take it, put it in her mouth, and then try and put it back in mine. Now she just randomly will give it to me sometimes, and I think it's so sweet she's willing to share her binky with me.

To crawl or not to crawl...

So Liv really wants to crawl. She spends all day practicing. And she's so close! She is so good at getting her knees under her and supporting herself. She rocks back and forth, lunges...and then dives on her tummy. She can really scoot around sideways and backwards, but what she really wants is to be able to go forward. I'm expecting any day now. She'd probably have it by now if it weren't for all of those days in the car lol

Monkey face!

So Liv has started doing this thing where she covers both her ears with her hands, and it is so adorable! I call it her monkey face, and it makes her laugh. Every time she does it, I say, "Monkey face!" in an excited voice, and she just cracks up. Sometimes, I make the face back. Yes, even at the grocery store. But hey, I even do little dances and songs for her at the grocery store, so that can't come as much of a surprise. But back to the monkey face. She was doing it the other day over and over at the grocery store. We were having a great time! While daddy was shopping for produce, Liv and I were playing the monkey face game. A college-age girl near us said, "That's so cute she does that!" And it really is. I'm trying to get a good picture of it, and of course erased the one that ended up being the best because I thought it was blurry at the time. Here's one that turned out okay, too, though.

Vroom-vroom

So Tyler is taking Liv on an imaginary car ride in hopes that she'll fall asleep. He buckles her, then puts down the cover. As he walks around the house taking fake turns, he makes fun car noises *vroom-vroom*. It's actually really endearing.

Love my friends, love my life

I got together with some of my favorite people tonight. Ammon, Jen, Liz, Mama, and Shane. It was so fun talking about old times and remembering just how much I love these people and that time of my life. We laughed and told stories, and Katie mistook Liv for Mama's baby (mostly cuz of her name ;) ). We even realized that Shane and I had gone out three times, and I remembered a fourth after he left lol There was a scandal as I mistakenly thought Ammon had been de-friended on facebook. Turns out it was only in real life. Phew ;)

As everyone was leaving, I was thinking how great it is to have such good friends and to be able to keep in touch. I was thinking how sad I was that I don't get to see them as often as I used to. Then I walked upstairs and went to crawl into bed and there was Liv, sleeping peacefully. All the love I have for Liv and Tyler just hit me so hard. I thought, how lucky am I to love my old life, and to love the life I have now? How I got so lucky to have such great friends and a great husband and daughter I'll never know. What I do know is that I am so blessed. Looking at Liv's cute little face while she slept filled me with so much peace. I love what I have, I love where I've been, and I'm so excited for a future filled with family, friends, and new experiences yet to come.

Starting out strong...until we give up

So Tyler and I decided we're going to try to eat better (yes I realize this is ridiculous, given that I'm making a chocolate chip cookie pie). We've been talking about doing the Zone diet and were saying we were going to miss carbs, especially cereal. So I said that we didn't necessarily need to be strict, we could just do our own version. In response, Tyler said, "We should start out strong and then slowly give up." So here's to starting out (somewhat--again, the cookie pie) strong, and give up from there!

And we're back...

So for months I've said I'm going to start blogging again. Every time something funny happens, I say, "I'm totally blogging about this." But then I never do. So I'm in the middle of making a delicious chocolate chip cookie pie (from ourbestbites.com) and thought, oh I'm going to blog later. Instead of waiting and never doing it, I'm blogging now. Here is the pie I'm making. It looks so delicious!!

Nephews' and nieces' thoughts on pregnancy

I really should have written a lot of this when I was at home, because I know I won't remember all of the great things the grandkids said about the baby. A couple of my favorites, though:

Annalee--"How does your baby get out?"
Me--"Anna, your kids have a question for you!" I then went on to explain the doctor makes a little cut so the baby can get out (their mom had c-sections with them), and then feeling like this might be traumatizing, I threw in, "And there are other ways..." before quickly changing the subject.

As Anna was driving away with her kids, there was a chorus of, "Bye Kimmie!" "We love you!" "Bye" "See you soon!" and then my favorite..."We love you! And we love your baby, too!"

Leslie and her kids came to visit, too and had some great oneliners. Jared was dying that I was married and pregnant (he's 14) and thinks I should have stayed single forever so I could be the fun aunt and hang out with him instead of talking to Tyler. After he met Tyler he really liked him though, so I think he's torn on that point.

Janie, one of Leslie's girls, went shopping with me for baby clothes. We walked into Carter's and she saw the sleeper pajamas and said, "Oh, I hope they have those in a 6T! Oh, I hope they have my size! I wish I was a baby!!" She would then bring me all these cute clothes to look at, and would say, "I'm gonna die! These are so cute, I'm gonna die!" This soon changed into, "We have to leave--I don't want to die!" Seriously so fun to shop with.

So many fun things were said, I wish I could remember them all. A post for a different day, I guess :)

Is your baby comin' out??

For the sake of just posting again, I thought I'd write about my cute niece Taryn and her thoughts on my being pregnant.

At first Taryn was a bit confused by this whole "baby in my tummy" thing. She's about 2 1/2 I think. Maybe 3. I'll fix this later lol So she gets it now that I have a baby that is growing in my tummy, but not so much this whole 9 month thing. I tried to explain that the baby wouldn't come until about Christmas time. Still, every time I saw her while I was in Utah she would ask (in the cutest Taryn voice), "Did your baby come out yet?" or "Is your baby comin' out?" I think she gets it, but we may still need to work on this one.

Another time Taryn says to me, "I'm gonna tickle your baby, put her in the stroller, and rock-a-bye baby!" She's way excited to have a new cousin.

My mom told me that now Taryn comes up to her and says, "We don't do this with Kimmie's baby" then punches her own arm before saying, "we go like this--so soft!" and starts petting her arm. The other day while I was talking to Taryn on the phone, grandma asked her, "Are we going to be rough with Kimmie's baby?" Shocked face from Taryn: "Oh, no! We be so soft and so nice!" and then starts petting her arm again.

It was really cute a couple of days ago. We were talking and Taryn said, "How's your baby?" I told her she was doing well and that she kicks all the time now and that if Taryn was here she'd be able to feel her kicking and even see my stomach move when the baby does. So later that day my mom asked if she talked to me and Taryn says, "Yes, and the baby was KICKING the whole time!" My mom said that at the same time Taryn was kicking her little feet back and forth. Taryn had also talked to Tyler that day (as they were talking she said, "How is your day?"--she's learning to talk like a grown-up :) ), and my mom asked who else she got to talk to. She got all excited/shy and said, "Tyler." She has a little crush on him I think. When she first met him she went home and was talking about "cute baby Tyler" and always asks where he is when I'm around.

These stories may not be as cute to you, but that's just cuz you can't hear her little voice and see her cute curly blonde hair and funny faces :)