Friday, December 31, 2010

2010

January: We kicked off the new years as a family. Liv turned 5 months while we were visiting Pat in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Liv owned her passport when she was 4 months old...she's a world traveller.

she looks so different :(

not quite sitting by herself.

our family in Belfast, Northern Ireland, where Pat played for the Belfast Giants and went to the University of Ulster

February: Six month old livi decided she would like to sit unassisted.

I bought this outfit at h&m in Belfast and it still fits her ha.
March: Seven months.

naked baby chub.

I remember being quite proud of this picture. My mom made her hat.
April: 8 months brought on the crawling.

this is where it all began. the craziness that is liv on the move.

auntie Dani and Livi.

May: Crawling didn't last long....Liv started walking at 9 months! my all time favorite video.



June: 10 months - the month we were reunited with daddy.
my sister is pretty awesome with her camera.


July: Pat and I got married!!! Liv also turned 11 months. Pat started his job and Liv and I headed back to Michigan for a visit.


4th of july. scared of the balloon.
August: Liv spent a lot of time with her grandma in August and she also turned one years old!!! We celebrated with a circus themed party.

liv and grandma lisa. i love this picture.

i loved her 1st birthday. outfit and hair piece were courtesy of auntie dani.
September: September was the month we drove all the way back to Calgary. My great grandma (grammy) joined us in our 27+ hour drive.

i had to include this picture. my mother loves it. she looks pretty.
October: Halloween! Liv's obsession with elmo made it easy for me to decide to make her an elmo costume.

bolting. notice all the other children sitting nicely.

my hard work paide off. she looked great, wasn't thrilled with the hood though.
November: November is the month I lost my best friend. She loved Liv very much and I thought it only appropriate to dedicate November to her.
shannon and liv on her 1st birthday.

me, dani, and shannon
December: Liv's second, but definitley, most fun Christmas!



2010 was filled with a lot of firsts, a lot of happiness, and was not lacking in dissapointment and grief. 2010 has been my most trying year yet.
I've lost a best friend. This is something that I will think of every day for the rest of my life.
I've gained a husband and a family.
We moved to Calgary.
I've learned to value and appreciate my friends and family.
I'm hoping that 2011 is filled with a little less heartache and I'm looking forward to Pat and my bright future and building a home together.

Happy New Year! 2011 here we come.

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

uh oh.

I really wanted to post on the blog because I took some pictures of Liv in her new outfit that mommy and daddy got her for christmas. I have been just waiting to put it on her. I had it stashed away for a few weeks and it took everything I had in me not to break it out early and put it on her.

On the home front, Liv will be 17 months on Sunday. I'm looking forward to that post because I feel like there has been a lot of different changes going on. Especially in the talking department. I have to share a quick story that happened last night.

I was cleaning out my closet, it needed it badly. Liv likes to steal things out of my closet like shoes, purses, and belts. All of which are sitting in a tupperware because we are a little crammed. As I was cleaning out my tupperware, Liv spotted her portable dvd player. I have been hiding it because it usually causes a meltdown. But, I tried to put my controlling instinct at bay, and set it all up for her in her room. I played some cinderelmo (her favorite) and when I left, she was sitting cross-legged with my water bottle, happily watching and bopping to the music.

Then about 3 minutes later, Liv came out and walked up to me and said "uh ohhh". So I asked her what happened, not that she would answer me, and followed her back to her room. She spilled a little water, so I wiped it up and went back to the livingroom.

This continued. She did it about 4 times before I moved her dvd player into the livingroom. It amazed me how quickly she caught on that if she came out and said "uh oh" that I would follow her, which is ultimately what she wanted. So cute. The cutest part was how she would run her little legs back to her room as soon as she got me to follow her...very proud of herself for being so sly.

But, like I said...it ended in a meltdown, obviously. Due to the fact that her dvd player wasn't charged and needed to be plugged into the wall, and while plugged in it couldn't reach the table where she wanted it to be...tragic I tell you. She lost it, came over and put the dvd player on my lap and threw a fit. The life of a toddler.


snacky snack snack


I just have to sigh because my god does she look like Pat in this picture

outta here

ahhhh baby bum in skinny jeans...gets me every time.

Monday, December 27, 2010

my new favorite accessory

Liv is my number one favorite accessory, but I have to say my new ring comes in at a veryyyy close second. I suppose this is more for my family because skype hasn't really done it justice, so here are some pics of my new ring.
btw, the red mark on my pinky is a birthmark, I didn't burn myself (I get that a lot)



Sunday, December 26, 2010

Christmas!

Merry Christmas. It's a day late, but we've been busy :). We had 3 different get-togethers this week. We went to Aunt Donna's house on Thursday for the Bateman's Christmas, Friday it was to Great Grandma Doreen's house for the annual Christmas eve bash, and then Christmas night we went to my mother in law's house for dinner.

Liv was up late every night and surprisingly did pretty well. She definitley didn't sleep in, that trick never worked for us, but she did take some extra long naps. So all was well.

Christmas eve, Pat and I put together Liv's kitchen and chair, well I should say Pat put together her kitchen and I put together her chair. I won the race, but the chair had a significan number of fewer pieces (ha!). While we were putting our baby's presents together, Pat and I were chatting and he said "oh, did I tell you I got you something for Christmas, but don't worry...its little". Keep in mind, we weren't supposed to be exchanging gifts and I bought him some to-go cups...they were really cool, but lets be honest, they were just cups. He walked out of the room with a little box and inside was an engagement ring. A really beautiful ring that matched my great grandmother's wedding band that I have been wearing. I was so surprised and it was special because Pat isn't much for a surprise and I really appreciated it.

If you're a little confused, my wedding band did come before my engagement ring. No typo there. We like to do things the backwards way around here.

I have to say though, that even better than my ring, was Liv on Christmas morning. I have a lot of pictures so I'm gonna lean on them for the rest of the post.

the christmas set-up

christmas morning. she would have been happy with just a broom.


surrounded.

sing-a-ma-jigs! Liv kept going "ooooh"

Add caption

loving her baby and baby accessories

christmas night.

handsome husband

crawling up and down, up and down.

daddy crawling after liv...good thing he has a cute bum.

dancing to "i want a hippopatamus for christmasssss"

her newest move requires a lot of back bending

christmas eve, our little family. liv was determined to ruin every family picture this night. this was the best one

putting on her lip chap

her favorite part of the night. sporting her new christmas jammies.

mozart

drink break


very into it

yayyy, clap for me!


Merry Boxing Day!!!