Spring Break

We were able to get a little bit of work done on the house during the week of Kirk's Spring Break. The biggest stride we made was sanding the wood floor.

A Hard Workin' Man

Half Done

Isn't the orange color just ugly?

Doing the edges....

That thing was soooo heavy, and watch out, if you didn't hold on tight, away it would fly!

Can you see the number of staple holes in this pic?

Now you know why I had blisters for days!

First round complete

The finished product....until staining that is!

And yes, it was worth it!

Refiner's Fire

I know that the Lord can mold us into things that we could never imagine for ourselves. I like to let him be in charge....most of the time.

BUT......today my "Refiner's Fire" is REALLY hot, is there any way that I could step out for awhile and take a dip in the pool?

More Livvy'isms"

Livvy is at the cutest stage right now! I love all of her new words! She wants so badly to have a full conversation with me (and she does, I just don't catch ALL of it).

New words are added daily.

Amazing.

Some of my favorites:

*"Tay"= ok

*"Kuh-Kuh"= Carter (her cousin)

*shumpabedth= jump on bed (Livvy would jump every minute of everyday if she could; we need a trampoline! For now, she will settle for the bed, but mom does not agree to it!)

*toot=cute (everything is cute....not sure where she picked that one up :). The other day I had just gotten dressed and she pointed to my shirt and said "TOOT mom"! She also points to all the clothes when we are shopping and says "TOOT"! She is a true girl.)

*"Wivvy do it" or "wivvy help"= Livvy do it- she is at that stage, she wants to do EVERYTHING by herself

*She can count to 10 with a little help, except in her book, you start with two, one does not exist

*We are trying to correct some of her words so she says them correctly. For example, the word banana. Instead of nana, we are trying to add the "ba" before it. So after we correct her, this is what we get: Ba...pause....nana. Same with Olivia: "O...pause...wivvy"

*She calls her dad "Kirk" after she hears me say his name. He HATES it and won't answer :)

*She is starting to blame others. When I ask her if she is stinky, she says, "no (really drawn out), mama stinky". Also, we were riding in the car and she said "shumpabedth" and I said "did you jump on the bed today?" and she answered "no, Kuh-Kuh (Carter) shumpabedth!"

*A couple of days ago when Kirk went into her room to get her out of her crib after a nap she tilted her head to the side and said "Hi Dad, I awake!" with a big smile.

*She asks for two things on an hourly basis: to wash the car and go to church, nursery, wear a dress and a bow. She will look at me and say: "go church, dess, bow, nushy?" Maybe its because she hasn't been for 3 weeks! She was sick the first week, then I had it the next week, and General Conference was last week. The poor child is definitely deprived. I was excited to put her in a dress and let her pick out a bow to wear to my Grandma's viewing on Sunday, I was hoping it would suffice and get us through another week. No such luck, she was asking for it the minute she woke up on Monday.

Sweet Grandmama

Grandma-

I am happy that you are finally free of your wordly cares and ailments. You are in Grandpa's arms today after 30 long years and you are able to see your parents and all of your brothers and sisters as you are the last. I know you are enjoying yourself as you deserve to be.

Some of my favorite memories of you are:

*Trying to teach Jaci and me how to sew (sorry I was such a failure at that)
*Homemade bread every week after church
*Playing Hide the Thimble, Button-Button and Colored Eggs on your back porch
*Playing cards for hours, while we laughed and laughed at your "new" rules
*Sleepovers on the pull-out couch
*BINGO on Christmas Eve

*Winie Roasts and S'mores

*FHE on Fast Sundays with toasted cheese sandwhiches, cheetos and the candy bar game.
*Homemade jam
*Going on walks and to lunch with your "older" neighbors as you quietly taught me serve others
*Reading "Hungry Hungry Caterpillar and "Alexander and the No Good Very Bad Day" over and over again (thank-you for indulging me)
*Book Sharing, you always knew the latest and greatest book to read. I attribute my love of reading to you.
*Your honesty (even though you told me I looked great right after I had Livvy; like I hadn't had a baby at all, I thought it was sweet)
*money taped to a bag of M&M's for our birthdays

And many, many more...

Dad and Grandma

Kirk, Livvy, Jerome, Carter and Grandma

4 Generations

Until we meet again Grandma!

I Love You!

Surviving the BIG 3.0!

Yep, that's right. I have survived being 30 for a whole month now.

Amazing!

Remember when you were 12 and 30 seemed so old and fogey that you hoped you would never make it there? Now I can see why the magical number to stay at year after year is 29.

Despite the fact that the birthday had to come....it was great.

Since my birthday fell on a Sunday, Kirk planned to take me out to celebrate the Friday before, but as we were getting ready to leave, he sheepishly admitted that the cold and cough he had had for over a week, were bad enough to go to the doctor. So we spent the night at the Instacare instead. We left with a diagnosis of Bronchitis, sinus infection and strep throat! Eh....

Sunday morning as I got up to go get Livvy from her crib, Kirk bounced right up and told me to go back to bed....what a treat! I slept until 9:30! Kirk woke me up with waffles, topped with strawberries and whipped cream....I have been craving these since we moved in with Grandpa and our waffle maker is in the depths of the storage unit. No worries, Kirk bought us a new one on Saturday night! They were so tasty.

So Delicious!

After church, (which we missed the first hour of because we forgot about Daylight Savings...duh! this was just after we fell asleep the night before talking about how I was about to be jipped out of one hour of celebrating!) we had a great dinner, cooked by Kirk, opened presents and went for a walkabout around the block. I finished off the night watching "Australia" and scrapbooking. Could it get any better?!

Livvy bringing in my present from her.....and it is......

A food steamer! Yes! I have wanted one of these for awhile!

Scrapbooking

The next Friday, we were able to celebrate a little more. Kirk took me to Benihana Tokyo for dinner and then we went to see Mall Cop. (The movie was a treat.....I think its been almost a year since Kirk and I have been to a movie together!).

Benihanas..sauted onions, zucchini and chicken. Fabo!

Here's to embracing 30 but feeling 18!