Walkin' in a Winter Wonderland!
Hi everybody. Today we got LOTS of snow! I woke up at 7:30 and immediately asked if we could go play in it. Mom finally gave in about 11:00 and I had a great time tromping around the yard in my snow boots. I even made a snow angel and went down the slipper slide into the snow. It was fun.

Here are some pictures of me helping decorate the "big tree" and me with my own little tree in my room.

Just four more weeks until my baby sister is due. I am so excited! Mom has been bringing stuff down from the attic to get ready for her and I am having a great time playing with everything. Flower has been eating lots of bottles and getting lots of baths in the baby's bath seat.

I said some pretty funny things today. Mom thought we should share:

At lunch, I was having a hard time "focusing". I kept jumping out of my chair and smearing spaghetti everywhere and being kind of a goofball. Finally, Mom lost her patience and told me to straighten up and sit down and eat (or something like that). After a few minutes, I said,

"I'm happy when it's a sunny day and you don't yell at me."

Then tonight while Mom was picking up the house, I found one of my Dora movies. I gasped and said "Hey, Mom! I just realized..." I didn't really quite know where to go from there but Mom thought it was pretty funny that I "realized" whatever it was.

Just a Few Funnies
Hi, everybody! I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We had lots of fun. We went to my Nana and Grandpa's house in Pittsburg and then to Grammy and Poppy's in Fredonia.

Mom wanted to share a few funny things I said today. We needed some funnies. Mom made me wear panties all day in attempt to finally get me over the potty training hump. I'm not there yet, but getting closer. Anyway, here is what I said (Mom says sometimes she forgets if I'm two or twelve...)


I could tell Mom was getting frustrated with my antics as she wrestled me into a diaper before my nap so I said,

"I'm going to cooperate with you."

As I was sitting at the kitchen table eating oatmeal,

"Hey, Mom! Will you bring me a paper towel so I can wipe the oatmeal off the table?"

And finally, as Mom and I were playing kitchen before bed,

Livi: "I'm going to go get a blanket."
Mom: "Okay."
Livi: "Come with me."
Mom: "No, you can do it."
Livi: "No! I need a friend to come with me." (and after a few seconds) "I want you to come with me because you're my friend."

A couple of other things out of my mouth recently:
"That's interesting."
"I'm going to the pyramids."

Princess for a Day
Whew...what a big day! I was a princess for Halloween and it was LOTS of fun (as you can tell by my grin)



Mom was a princess too...and even my baby sister got in on the act! This afternoon, Mom and I made cookies and we took some to my very favorite neighbors when we went trick or treating. Here I am at their house. And this is me with my babysitter, Natalie (Nat). My friend Clara and her baby brother Noah and I all went together to trick or treat. We had a lot of fun (even if I got a little scared by a pirate right off the bat and Dad had to carry me the rest of the evening). Clara was a ladybug. Isn't she cute? Our neighbors had 60 JACK-O-LANTERNS in their yard!!! Can you believe that?! At the end of the night, we headed home to pass out candy. It sure went fast! Lots of love to you all from the princess!

Mom was proud of me...

I had kind of a cold or something today so I didn't get to go to the nursery tonight like I usually do on Thursdays while Mom and Dad are at Challenge. So, Mom and I took dinner to campus and ate with Dad and then left to run some errands. Yesterday we made caramel corn for the nursery workers so we dropped that off and then Mom said,

"Livi, do you want to go look at shoes or just go home?" I replied emphatically,

"I DO want to go look at shoes, Mommy! I very much want to." (Mom says she has passed on her shopping gene to me) Since we had a few free minutes, we drove to Payless. When we walked in the door, the nice lady asked Mom if she wanted her to measure my feet. I wasn't at all excited about that but she tricked me with Dora and Princess stickers. Mom was shocked to find out my feet measured at almost a 9.5! I guess I take after Mom that way too :) Anyway, Mom needed to look at her size so we went there first and then headed to look at my size. I immediately spotted beautiful pink sparkly glitter shoes with PRINCESSES. I grabbed them and started shouting, "THESE, Mommy. I really want these shoes. Please, Mommy. I want these."

Mom looked at them for a minute and then, bracing for a huge reaction, said "Livi, we came to look for tennis shoes. We really don't need this kind of shoes." I think she was holding her breath but I really don't know why. I just said, "Okay, Mommy," and walked off to look at something else.

When we got to the car, Mom said, "Livi, can I tell you something?" She said she was very proud of me for not throwing a fit and accepting that we couldn't get the princess shoes. I didn't think it was that big of a deal but Mom sure did. We had to stop for gas and Mom let me pick out gummy worms. I think I will always not throw fits!

(the pink sparkly Princess shoes are on my Christmas list now - I just don't know it :)

Some recent Livi-isms...

Monday, when we walked outside to go for a walk,

Livi: "What was that noise?!"
Mom: "I think you heard a bird chirping."
Livi: "I think it was an eagle."


This morning, while we were getting ready to go to bible study,

"Mom, you're not new? You're old?"


To Dad the other day, while they were playing,

"Dad, you want some slime?"
"Slime? From where?"
"From my mouth."

Tonight at bedtime, here's how my prayers went...

Mom: "Dear..."
Me: "Jesus"
Mom: "Thank you for..."
Me: "My curtains and...my baby sister."

Apparantly I've been pretty funny today! Here are just a couple of examples:

Tonight is family night. Mom and I had been talking all week about making mini pizzas and watching "Cars" together. But, when Mom went to get the movie at the library, it wasn't there. Before she went to Blockbuster, she wanted to make sure that was still what I wanted to do, so she said,

"Livi, I have a question. Would you rather go to a special park tonight and play or stay at home and watch the cars movie."

"I would rather go to the special park and THEN watch the cars movie. I want to do both."

Mom and Dad laughed a lot and said I already knew how to negotiate, whatever that means.

Later, we were all playing with Play-Doh, my new favorite thing in the world. My baby sister was kicking a lot so Mom asked if I wanted to feel her moving. I was really pretty busy with my Play-Doh but I said okay. I stuck my hand on her tummy for about one second and said,

"Oh. She feels pretty good."

Here's one from one of my friends Chelsea, who watches me while I'm in the nursery:
"Livi, do you have a stanky diaper?"
"No I don't."
"Livi, are you sure?"
"No!! I'm not livi, I'm Snow White."

Last night as Mom was helping me out of the carseat, I told her "You're always sweet." Then later in the evening, for good measure I said, "You're always cute." I think Mom needs to hear nice things like that when she's feeling big and pregnant.

I have been spending lots of time in the kitchen lately. The other day, Mom was craving sugar cookies, which turned out pretty good for me! They sure are a lot of work but we had lots of fun making them. I loved using the cookie cutters. We ran out time before my nap so Mom had to make the frosting while I was sleeping. When she asked me what color she should make, I said, "Ummm.....silver!"

After my nap, I got to sample our work. Mmmm!

Tuesday night is family night at our house. Because Daddy has to be gone so often in the evenings, we make sure to all be home to do something together on Tuesdays. Last week, we all three made dinner together. Daddy and I made the dessert: cherry crisp!

Very carefully buttering the dish
Helping Dad shake everything into place.

Hi there! It's Livi. Since I'm getting really good at lots of things like talking (nonstop) and counting and playing with babies, I decided it was time for a new activity: blogging! I want to keep everyone (especially Aunt Kellie and Uncle Matt) up to date on what is happening with me. Before long I'll be reporting on the new baby too!

As you can see, I really like to do "crafts". I'm VERY careful with glue, to Mom's amazement. Today Mom and I made pictures with buttons and paper scraps. What fun! When I'm ready for more glue, I say "another squeeze!"

Last weekend was a lot of fun. Grandpa, Nana, Aunt Kimberly and Uncle "Kev" came to visit! We played with puzzles and went on an adventure. Grandpa and Daddy had been reading in the paper about the 8 Wonders of Kansas. When they realized two of them were within 30 minutes of Emporia, our day was planned. We drove to Cottonwood Falls to see the Chase County Courthouse and ate at a yummy place called the Emma Chase Cafe. Then we drove to the Spring Hill Ranch and to see the Tall Grass Prairie. I had lots of fun running around pretending to be "Farmer Livi." I don't think Aunt Kimberly had as much fun as I did! Matt and Kellie, we took a special picture for you.

Daddy's birthday was last week and Mom and I got him a bike trailer. I'm having lots of fun in that thing! Last night we all rode out to a pond and threw rocks in. I could have done that all night!

Well, it's time for lunch so I'll sign off for now. I'll leave you with a few of my famous recent sayings:

(to my doll) "Come on baby. Work with me!"
(on our walk) "It sure is a nice day today!"
"What's that noise?" (when I hear ANYTHING)
"Come on, amigos."
"I have a secret. Bike trailer." (when spilling the beans about Daddy's birthday present)