We Bought a House!!!

Its official! Well, almost...you know how house buying can go (its never for sure until closing day). We are going to be first time home owners starting Dec. 23!! Lately, we have been making many trips to the house for various reasons and this past week we stopped at a nearby park. Lizzie gave it her approval- so we decided it really must be the right place. :)

We are so excited to finally own a house! A couple facts about our new home:
Located in Lakewood/Oakbrook area
Big backyard
Lots of trees in the yard
Color: Blue
Brand new roof
All bathrooms newly renovated
Plenty of space for our family to grow
House is connected to a backup generator
Beautiful front room w/ vaulted ceilings
Crawl space, attic, and third garage (hooray for storage space!)
Short walk from a park

And the first bit of work we are going to do as soon as the title is handed over to us is completely recarpet the place!!




PS- Our new computer finally arrived so its time to play blog catch up!!

Blogging on Hold

Yes, I have been totally slacking about posting on my blog. In fact, I have been slacking in taking ANY pictures at all lately. I have to admit I did not take any pictures this Thanksgiving either! :(
I am just too frustrated with our computer situation. It is not working well and I cant download any pics....we ordered a new one and now we have to send it back for repairs...it should be here soon..maybe.

I just couldnt let Thanksgiving go by without any post, though, so HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!! We celebrated with the Stevens Family and had such a good time! Lizzie was spoiled by her grandparents and we all just had a lot of fun together!!

The Dark Side

Some people are book smart and do really well in school.

Others are "street smart" or "people smart" and do really well with people. Some may call them "Masters of Manipulation." Now, these skills may be used for good or evil.

Don't let this cute little BYU baby fool you. I know she LOOKS like the scholarly type.

Today, when I was blow drying my hair Lizzie was getting upset because I was not paying much attention to her. A few minutes ago, however, she had bumped her head and was crying so I stopped what I was doing and held her and calmed her down.
I then went back to blow drying my hair.
I'm watching her in the mirror and I see her purposefully and very gently knock her own head into the door then she lets out some ear piercing shrieks and fake crying.

Like I said, these skills may be used for good OR evil...apparently Lizzie has joined the dark side.

Lunch With Elder Perry

Today we had the amazing opportunity to have a private lunch with Elder L. Tom Perry! It was the Stevens family plus Elder Walker and his wife too. I have always enjoyed hearing Elder Perry speak but it is usually on TV and I am sharing the experience with millions of people all over the world. It was really fun to meet him in a personal setting, shake his hand, and get to know his personality. He has a great sense of humor and surprisingly spry for his age. He has a great gift of making the people around him feel comfortable. He asked Dave a lot of questions about his new career in dentistry and told some fun stories about his past careers and life experiences including throwing a couple of the first pitches for some Red Sox games (upon our requesting to hear about it) Aside from these fun experiences at lunch, I think I most enjoyed hearing him speak at Stake Conference. There was such great truth and power in his words when he testified of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and the gospel.

The Generational Pumpkin Costume!

My mom mailed me the exact costume that I wore for Halloween when I was one year old. Although Liz was a flower girl for Halloween I thought it would be fun to have pics of her in this pumpkin costume too! In this picture I was younger than Lizzie is now but when you compare us at the same age in other pictures we look SO similar!

Lizzie's First Halloween Birthday Party

Since Lizzie was born the day before Halloween we will forever get to have fun Halloween/Birthday costume parties!! To celebrate her big day we threw a small family party. Lizzie is the cutest flower child ever!


We are the classic Seattle family- two hippies and a flower child! heehee.

I absolutely LOVE making kid-type Halloween treats and so it was fun to get to make these for her birthday.

I made Lizzie a big lion head cake since she LOVES lions so much. The idea was to let her tear into it and stuff her face with cake. However, she's too much of a dainty eater to eat in such a sloppy manner. The cake made her smile but she seemed hesitant to ruin it and dig in. She's actually not a big fan of sweets so she never really did more than taste bits and pieces of it. She did like the chow mein noodles though.

After she picked at the Lion head for a while I gave her some cucumbers and mushrooms- thats when she decided to finally eat! She loves her veggies!

1 Year Old

Lizzie is now 1 whole year old! I feel like it was just yesterday that our sweet Lizzie was born. I tried to capture on video all of her "1 yr old tricks" but she just has too many now and will not perform well when the camera is out. I did get some good ones though!

We are so lucky to have her and she brings so much joy to our lives. It is so exciting to live with a one year old. She is full of personality! Some adjectives that come to mind when I think about Lizzie: smart, spunky, beautiful, hilarious, opinionated, determined, sweet, entertainer, and dancer.

Favorite Activities: Reading, playing with a ball, dancing, bathing, swimming, riding in stroller, and hugging Lenny.

Favorite Color: Yellow (Yes, she already has a favorite color. It started with a book about colors and she loved lifting the yellow flap and hearing me say "yellow!") Ever since she took to hearing me say "yellow" she has been excited about anything yellow and can point to yellow objects when asked.

Favorite Words/Phrases: Animal sounds (octopus, dog, hungry bear, snake, lion) "kick the ball", "daddy", "mamma", "bye bye", "Ta-da!", "doggy", "baby", and "baba (bottle)." Signing: all done, more, and bye bye.

Favorite Animal: Lion. Tigers are a close second.

Favorite Foods: Cheese, avacados, cucumbers, pickles, strawberries, and bananas. She generally does not care for sweets except ice cream.

Favorite Song: "La Grange" Daddy and Liz's dance song!

Favorite Book: "Lift the Flap ABC Board Book"