Oregon State Fair!

On Wednesday we took Alivia to the state fair for the first time! Eric and I have gone every year since we've been married so I was excited to continue the tradition with Alivia. It turned a little cold (in the 60s) so we bundled up. Didn't really feel like summer but it was nice that it wasn't blazing hot. Please ignore the cheese in her mouth.

Me and my sweet girl. Yes, the poor thing didn't have any shoes on.


No smiles for daddy ha!

Then Eric and I went on the slingshot. He's been trying for the last five years to get me to go on and this was his lucky year. It was fun but not worth the $60.


Alivia LOVED the petting zoo. The goats were obviously used to getting treats because they would just swarm you as soon as you walked in. Alivia is so used to having the dogs in her face that it didn't bother her at all. This lovely goat tried to eat her sweatshirt and she just pet it.

We had such a fun time and already can't wait for next year!

Silly Doglet

This picture just makes me laugh. Check Zoey out in the background ha!!

Tired, Tired, Tired

Oh my goodness the last few weeks have been crazy. Eric has been gone two weekends for work, Alivia is getting a molar, and I'm working on weaning her. Lets just say that I'm dead tired by the end of the day. Poor thing is just not herself. But we did get a few smiles out of her!

She's become quite the climber and I turned around this morning to find this.

She looks so pleased with herself. I love this picture.

Alivia's other favorite thing lately is to use Zoey as her pillow. She just lounges on her. Zoey loves it because she thinks she's being pet ha!

Sorry for the blurry pictures, our camera battery is dead so I have just been using my iphone lately.

Hopefully life slows down a bit in the next few weeks. I'm really looking forward to having her weaned so that Eric and I can go away for the night. It's been tough because she doesn't take a bottle so I've never been able to leave for more than 3 hours. But I'm so thankful I was able to meet my goal of nursing her until she was one. Well, I have two weeks left until then but I highly doubt she'll be fully weaned before that.

I think the rest of tonight will be spent catching up on some TV :)

Blueberry Picking and Grandma and Grandpa's House

Eric had to work today so Alivia and I decided to head down south to visit my parents. I was soooo ready to get out of the house. I've been wanting blueberries so we headed to the blueberry farm to pick some. This is about the worst picture ever (I swear I don't have a roll like it looks like) but it's the only one I have with Livy Lou.

I thought she might like to stroll but that didn't last long before she wanted out.

And no that is not a blanket - it's a thin fabric that is in place of sunscreen. I love it.

I love this picture of Alivia enjoying some blueberries and just smiling at my dad.

After lunch mom and I took Alivia for a walk to check out some garage sales.

Oh how my mother makes me laugh. This bench was just at a random cross walk so of course she had to try it out. We totally have the same weird humor - poor Alivia doesn't stand a chance of being normal.

And then to finish out the day Alivia enjoyed splashing in a little water.

It was so nice to spend the day with my family!

Crazy Days of Summer

Whew the last few weeks have been killer. First Alivia was getting her 8th tooth, then she got sick, then we went camping and now she's going through a growth spurt and is eating like crazy. Add in to the fact that I'm trying to wean her and it's just been very tiring. Not to mention she's into absolutely everything. Things like laundry (too bad she can't help me with it yet ha!) -


And the flowers (she crawled over rocks and stood in them on her bare feet ouch) -

She picked a whole lot of petals off after this picture.

Thankfully we've been getting more smiles in the last few days. As long as I keep her well fed that is. If she's hungry, watch out. I've never heard such a loud scream in all my life.

She might be exhausting but I wouldn't trade her for anything! I'm trying to enjoy these days of summer when we can be outside before the rainy winter comes along.

Anyone have any ideas to help the weaning along? She doesn't take a bottle but she's doing really well with a sippy cup. I'd love any suggestions!

What a Week

My goodness it has been quite the weekend/week. Alivia was sick the whole weekend with a 102 fever and then it just suddenly went away Sunday night. I was so happy that she seemed to be getting better but she still wasn't herself so I took her in to the doctor yesterday. Looks like it's just a summer virus. She has been the fussiest/clingiest EVER. He said that adults who are getting this say that it gives them a pounding headache. Poor girl. It didn't help that Eric went out of town so we were on our own. Plus I'm trying to get ready for camping this weekend. Ugh! But today was much better and my mom came up to help and play with Alivia.

Eric and Mandy's birthdays are this weekend camping so I made some chocolate peanut butter cupcakes to take. I made an exception to our no processed food for their birthdays. I mean come on, you have to live a little. They look so yummy. They have a peanut butter filling inside that reminds me of a peanut butter ball without the chocolate coating. I might have died and went to heaven.


Then this little miss got into the dogs' water bowl and just went to town splashing. Uh gross but it kept her entertained while I finished dinner.

So I filled up a bowl with some toys and took her outside. Who knew tupperware and water could be so much fun!

I think the water felt good at first but when she was done, she was DONE. I will say this. I have so much admiration for single moms. I honestly don't know how they do it. I'm so exhausted when Eric has to go out of town for one night. I'm very thankful for a husband who is so hands on and works so hard to support his family!

Saturday Morning Scene

It's Saturday so that means linking up with Katie for Saturday Morning Scene!

The poor miss has come down with her first bug. She's been fighting a fever and you know she doesn't feel good when she is cuddly and lays around watching baby einstein. I've never seen her be so content to just be still before. So hopefully with lots of love and rest today she will be feeling better!

Bye bye, wheat...again.

As I've mentioned before, for the last several months I have cut out wheat (among other things) to help Alivia's acid relflux. Her refux has been gone for a few months now so I thought I could probably let her have some whole wheat bread. So on Saturday I gave her some delicious bread from Great Harvest. She LOVED it. Well, I think she has some sort of intolerance to it after all. It was so heartbreaking. Last night and again today she has had absolutely terrible stomach cramps (at least that's what it seems like) and just screamed and screamed in pain. It was awful. Even with her acid reflux she's never acted like this. She's sleeping peacefully now so hopefully since I'm not giving it to her anymore she'll just go back to normal. My poor babe :( Good thing I have a lot of months under my belt of no wheat!

10 Months Old!

My little Livy Lou is 10 months old today! How is it possible she is now in double digits??

8 1/2 months was a miracle time for us. All of a sudden she started crawling, her acid reflux disappeared (THANK YOU LORD), and we were finally able to do some sleep training. Up until then because of her acid reflux she just did not sleep. And I seriously mean that she would wake up every 1-2 hours crying and I would have to pick her up, give her some colic calm, and hold her until she went back to sleep. And this was all with her sleeping with us. I swore I would never do that but when you get almost zero sleep you do what you have to do. At it's worst she wouldn't even take naps or go to bed at night without me sleeping with her. Let me tell you, I was getting seriously sick of going to bed at 7 pm. Anyway, all that to say, you can see that it is a true miracle that she is now sleeping like a champ! I am able to put her down awake and she usually sleeps until 6ish and wakes up to eat. Sometimes if we're lucky she'll go back to bed until 7-7:30. Some other things that Alivia has been doing this month are:

She is getting her 8th tooth. We're hoping for a good break before her molars start to come in.

Pulling herself up like a champ and cruising on the furniture.

{Showing off some toofers while climbing up the couch}

Loves her some Baby Einstein - thank goodness because otherwise I don't know how I could get ready in the morning!

Eats all table food - she loves eggs (yolks only) and peaches for breakfast. Sometimes she shares my oatmeal with me. She also loves all meat and pretty much everything actually. The only thing she didn't like was banana but she seems to like it now.

{Enjoying some eggs for breakfast}

She got her first taste of bread and let me tell you, she is just like her mother and loves her carbs.

Waves on command to either hi or bye. She also loves to wave at random people in the store. Also, if anyone makes any sort of eye contact with her she thinks they want to be her best friend and gives them the hugest smile ever.

She LOVES sunglasses or glasses. She tries to swipe them and she's so quick about it.

{Trying on daddy's glasses}

It sounds like she's starting to try and say dog. I'm sure it's because she hears me yelling at our dogs all day long!

She also loves to chase and annoy the dogs. She has also recently started to try and feed them from her high chair. Lovely.

{Chasing after Zoey}

We love you baby girl! You make our life so much better and you are just so fun. We can't imagine life without you!

Pool Time FAIL

We've finally been getting some hot weather around here so I thought it would be fun to get out Alivia's little pool. She's always liked the bath so I thought for sure she'd like sitting in the pool water. It started out good. She was having fun climbing all over me trying to get the camera while daddy was blowing up the pool.
Then it was time to get in the water. And this was the best picture I could get ha!

She freaked out before her feet even touched the water??? I don't know if the pool scared her or what. She's been a little cranky lately because she's getting another tooth so maybe that's what the deal was. I love how Sadie is looking on just dying to jump in the water. I guess we'll try again in a few days and she if she likes it any better.

Just Because She's Cute

Playing at the Park and Other Randomness

This last week has been craaazy. It wasn't the best week but we did have some fun moments. We took Alivia to the park for the first time. Here's her first time going down the slide. Please ignore her outfit, her daddy dressed her.


Sadie tried to walk on the play equipment. She wasn't a real fan of the grates ha!


Zoey showing off with her one trick that she can do -- jump really high to get the ball.

And then yesterday I tried to make our ugly back fence look a little prettier with some hanging baskets. They are really pretty in person. We're trying to get the backyard all spruced up for Livy's 1st birthday party. How is it possible that I'm already planning her first birthday???

As you can see, our dogs are wrestling and trying to destroy our grass.

Then we headed down to my parents house for a few hours while Eric went to the shooting range. Alivia decided to attack Cameron's face. It was quite amusing.

The best part was later when we were watching the pictures on the TV, she was laughing at herself. Too funny. She's also mastered waving and she now waves at random strangers. She's much friendlier than her mom.

Have a wonderful Saturday!

Saturday Morning Scene

I'm linking up with the lovely Katie this morning.


Watching some baby einstein (seriously the dumbest movies ever) while eating breakfast. Eric had to work today so I knew this would be the only way I could get ready. Mother of the year right here.

Father's Day

For Father's Day today we decided to head down to my parents to go to church with them and then to their house for lunch. Unfortunately, church fell exactly when Alivia was supposed to take her nap and she immediately started freaking out. There was no way we could stay - she was arching her back and screaming. So we took a drive and she took a nap but she did not wake up a happy camper.

Eric and Alivia on his first father's day. She was still not in the best mood at this point.


Me and my sweet girl.


Mom and Addie Mae. Little Miss Addie Mae has a lot of practice smiling in front of the camera so we are able to get big smiles from her!


Then when we got home poor Eric had to say goodbye to his motorcycle. He sold it a few days ago but the guy was unable to pick it up until today. Happy Father's Day honey. What a sad day to get rid of it.

Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Refined Sugar Free Muffins

Over the past few months of having to go dairy free, sugar free and gluten free for Alivia's stomach problems I've learned a lot about being creative with my food. Basically I've been eating all whole foods - fruits, veggies, meat, etc. I don't get the convenience of processed or packaged food and that can be challenging. But this muffin recipe from my mom was one I was able to adapt and it's perfect for when I'm craving bread.

Mix the following:

2 1/4 cup gluten free oatmeal
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon

Mix the following together and then add to the dry ingredients:

3/4 cup coconut milk (regular milk works fine if you aren't dairy free)
1/3 cup honey or real maple syrup
2 large eggs
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 tsp. vanilla

Then you can add anything your heart desires like blueberries, bananas, craisins, any small diced fruit.

Bake at 350 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes.

I have these baking right now because they'll be a good snack for Alivia. It's hard since she can't eat wheat, so toast, small pieces of bread and that sort of thing are out. I think she'll really like these. And they freeze great!

Speaking of food, someone had a little too much fun with their yogurt tonight.

We're Still Alive

Well it's been about a million years since I've updated but here we go. Our days lately have been filled with sleep training. Oh the joy. Since Alivia's acid reflux is finally gone it was time to teach that girl how to sleep. She had a lot of bad habits due to the pain, mainly wanting to only sleep with me. And by sleeping with me, I mean holding onto my arm at all times during naps and night time. Needless to say that wasn't working for me anymore. So I resorted to letting her cry it out, which I swore I would never do, but nothing else was working. I still know that when she was tiny I never could have let her cry, but at this age I could tell she was just mad and that's a lot easier to deal with. So it's been 2 1/2 weeks and she is doing so great. The last few nights she's been sleeping until around 4, getting up to eat and then going back to bed until around 7. This is a true miracle as she was seriously waking up 5-10 times every night needing me to put her back to sleep. Thank the LORD!!!

Last weekend we had a family reunion and took Livy to the beach for the first time. She loved the sand!


Me and my girl:


For a guy who wanted a boy, he sure does love the little miss.


We got about 20 minutes of nice weather and then the rain came. And came. And came. At one point we all went down to the beach anyway and Eric brought his new RC car out. That was all fine and dandy until he let one of the little kids drive and they ran into my bare foot at 20 miles an hour. That was fun. I love trying not to cry in front of 20 people. Nice. Other than that it was a lovely weekend!

I'm just ready for summer to be nice and sunny so we can go outside and do this:

3 Months Old

Dear Alivia,

Yesterday you were three months old! On the one hand, I can hardly believe you are already three months but on the other, I feel like I have been your mama forever.

You are starting to laugh and it is the most hilarious sound ever. Your daddy and I think it is the best thing we have ever heard. When you smile you smile with your whole face. You are finally taking better naps. You will normally take three 45 minutes to one hour naps per day. By the time 7 or 7:30 comes around you are exhausted and ready to go to sleep. You usually sleep for a stretch of five to six hours before waking up to eat. Then after that is when it goes downhill and you wake up several times until morning. I am learning to get by on little sleep!

You are starting to really like your toys and you love to grab on to them in the car. Speaking of the car, you have finally made peace with the car seat. Praise the Lord. Most of the time you normally talk a little, watch out the window and then fall asleep. You have a favorite little toy elephant that is light enough for you to grab and chew on.

You love to talk and talk and talk. Your poor daddy isn't going to get any peace and quiet ever again. One of my favorite things is when you are nursing and you look up at me and get the biggest smile on your face and then just chat away.

You have grown so much in the last few weeks that we had to up your acid reflux medicine. You HATE the taste. Then I tasted it and saw how disgusting it is. We have to blow on your face to startle you into swallowing or else you spit it all out. I feel so bad when I do that but I would rather do that than have you in pain. The problem with the medicine is that is seems to make you constipated so we are working on figuring that out.

You are a big girl! At your last check up you were in the 95th percentile for weight and 90th percentile for height. You are giving your mama some STRONG arms and a very sore back most days :)

We love you so much and can't wait to see you continue to grow and learn new things!

(It is so hard to get her to smile for the camera!)