Christmas Sunday

Just wanted to say thank you to everyone for sending us your cute Christmas cards! I love to read the updates and see your sweet families. Sorry, but you won't be receiving one from us this year. My big postpartum rear end refused to be photographed. :)Maybe next year! I tried to take a picture of the kids after church, and they just weren't having it. You get what you get, terrible flash photography and all! Wishing you all a Very Merry Christmas!

Avery's Birthday and stuff

Avery and Drew both LOVE the book Pinkalicious. It is about a girl who eats too many pink cupcakes and turns pink. The doctor tells here that she has to eat a "steady diet of green vegetables to return to normal". So we decided to have a Pinkalicious Cupacake party for the big day.

Here are the invites

and of course the cupcakes :)

For lunch we served all green foods. Green jello, green grapes, celery, cucumbers, green ranch, green pasta, and green juice. The kids thought it was so fun!

The kids and I made a cupcake pinata. It was a fun project to do, and only cost about $5!!

reading the story

Make a wish!!

The Birthday girl opening presents

Avery and Bailey

Here are a few snapshots I haven't posted yet. Livi on Dec. 3. look at the chubs!

Nov. 13 (1 1/2 months old)

Avery was holding Liv in the rocking chair and fell asleep. so cute!

Trying on Grandma's glasses

Say it ain't so!

My baby is

TODAY!!

Where does the time go? Happy Birthday my sweet angel baby. we love you! And now for the picture overload :)

Blessing Day

What a great day!! We blessed Alivia today, and I couldn't ask for a sweeter husband to give such amazing blessings to my kids. He always does such a great job. I held my breath as he paused before "officially" naming her. I was a little scared that he might change it on me, but Alivia Rae it is :) In the blessing he said that she was named after her great grandpa Ray Squires and her Grandma Cindi Rae and how they found/find so much joy in life. Joy seemed to be the theme of her blessing as he blessed her that she too would find much joy and happiness in her friendships, through her talents, as a mother, and most importantly in her relationship with the Savior. He also blessed Alivia that she would always remember and strive to live up to her potential as a daughter of God, and to always serve and love those around her. I know this little girl has a great life ahead of her and I feel so lucky to be a part of it! She brings so much joy to our family. We love you Livi!



At 9 weeks she weighs in at 10 pounds 10 ounces. She is starting to get CHUBBY :)

here you go ashlee!

there's no place like home for the holidays

Before Livi was born, we decided that it would probably be too hard to travel with 2 kids and a newborn. So we didn't make plans to go anywhere for the holidays. Now that the season is upon us, I am feeling a little home sick. We've always gone home for the holidays, both Thanksgiving and Christmas. I'm pretty sure I can make it through Thanksgiving by ourselves, but I'm not so sure about Christmas. To me, Christmas is full of cozy traditions and fun times with the family that help us reflect on our love of life, family, and the Savior. I have so many fond memories of celebrating with my family and love the new traditions added to the mix from Andy's family. The kids love it too!! Since we are on our own this year, I want to start our own little family traditions that our kids will remember with fondness through the years and try not to be so homesick!

Some of my favorites include opening PJs on Christmas Eve and then eating grandma's orange rolls with hot chocolate and wassail. Or anxiously waiting for my turn to eat the chocolate mint candies tucked into the advent calendar pocket and hanging an ornament on the felt tree. Another tradition we started when we got a little older was that the girls would do a fun craft on Thanksgiving while the guys watched football.
I think this year on Thanksgiving I am going to make an advent calendar similar to the one my mom made and using some inspiration from this one.

So what is your favorite family Christmas tradition old or new? Please share and help us have a better Christmas this year (or you can just buy us plane tickets ;) !

A Little Closer to Home

Last week we found out that the Air Force is sending us to Omaha, Nebraska after Andy graduates. He will be doing a 1 year residency(the AEGD). I've heard good things about Nebraska, so I am excited. Even more excited that we are that much closer to the west coast! If anybody knows anything about Nebraska, let me know! We will probably be going out there in a few months to check it out. For right now, I am just doing a little research on the internet. They have a Costco, Target, and Mall nearby, so I think I am good to go :)

Happy Unbirthday to You

look who's 6 weeks old today! Little Livi Lou is a stinker, but we still love her. 

Happy Halloween!!

We had a great but COLD Halloween this year. I decided to take it really easy with costumes and told Avery she could be any princess that she wanted to be out of her dress ups. She went with Cinderella. Saturday morning she reminded me that she needed a choker, earrings, and a headband. I totally forgot and started worrying that I was going to have to drive around looking for the stuff. But, I was lucky enough to find everything we needed in my trusty old crafting stuff. I found some rhinestone and stuck them to her ears with GLUE DOTS, and then attached the headband and choker with glue dots as well. Worked like a charm! Here she is in all her glue dot glory. Sorry for the overload, I couldn't decide which pic I liked better.

I just love her eyes in this one

Drew was Buzz lightyear. I took him outside to take pictures and he wouldn't hold still for 2 seconds. He ran around saying he was flying and yelling "to infinite and beyond!"

The kids have been eating candy all day and Drew has been super hyper. I just walked into his room, and this is what I found. The big crash after the sugar rush. He NEVER falls asleep like this!

Still waiting for a real one,

...but here is a gassy one for now :)

10 days old

Livi's Anouncement

already??

I can't believe it has already been 4 weeks since sweet Alivia joined our family. Life with three kids is BUSY and there is never enough hours in the day to do all the things I need to. I'm feeling a little overwhelmed, but I guess that can be expected. Here are a few pictures from the last month.

We've been trying to potty train Drew for months now, and he just wasn't getting it. I was ready to give up because I thought once the baby came he would totally regress, but something just clicked and Alivia's birthday was the day he decided to be a big boy. He was excited to teach his little sister how to use the potty, and we bribed him with a toy story bike :)

We have a bassinet for Alivia right next to the bed. When she was just a few days old, I put her in the bassinet and left Drew on the bed watching cartoons while I ran downstairs. I was gone for maybe a minute when I heard a little voice say "LOOK MOM!" from the top of the stairs. My heart sank and I ran as fast as I could (which wasn't very fast at this point) to find Drew holding Alivia at the top of the stairs. I tried not to panic so he wouldn't drop her, but I think he saw it on my face. I grabbed Alivia and he started to cry. He was so proud of himself and thought he had done such a good job and was sad to find out that it wasn't okay. I have NO IDEA how he got her out of the bassinet and onto the bed, and then some how he got off the bed with her. The Bed is as tall as he is! She was still wrapped in her blanket and sleeping peacefully, and he was holding her nicely against his chest. I guess it is better that I don't know how he did it!!! Lesson learned.

2 weeks old

Both of the kids are enamored with their little sister and can't get enough of her. Avery loves to read her princess stories and they both BEG me to hold her all day long!

This picture makes me laugh. Livi had No control over her left eye for the first couple of weeks. She was always cross-eyed

I had so many ideas for newborn pictures, but taking pictures of your own baby has turned out to be impossible, plus, the sun seriously didn't shine for the first 3 weeks of her life. Darn Cleveland! Her are a few attempts at a photoshoot with Livi.

1 month stats:

7 pounds 12 ounces

20 1/2 inches