She's in a good mood even when she's tired...

Alivia says "Hi everyone"!

Nap time!

This is Alivia settling in for a nap. She used to just lay down and quickly drift off to dream land. Not anymore! :) Now it's all about standing, crawling, and looking around her room before she gets worn out enough to plop down and close her eyes. She eventually falls asleep... I don't put her in her crib until I know she's good and tired so it's only about 15 minutes of playing around before she decides it's time to sleep. She must be a child that doesn't require much sleep during the day because she usually only takes 30-45 minute power naps anyway.

my favorite

I know I said the other one was my favorite, but now it's this one. Isn't this the cutest little girl ever? :)

standing up

Ahh.. she's almost there.just has to get her feet good and steady.

More of the same

These are more of the same pictures but a little bit lighter...

It's been a little while since I have had time to post anything on the blog.. Alivia sure has changed. Life is quite busy these days but we are looking forward to having a relaxing weekend when Grandfather visits. We are excited to see him....

It only took a matter of days after getting the crawling thing down to learn so much more. She is pulling herself up and even takes steps while holding a hand. She's growing up so fast but it's so much fun to watch her learn.

Here it is... Alivia crawling! Yay! It's fun to watch. She now can crawl all over the house and most of my day is runnig after her before she pulls something down on top of herself. Guess it's time to baby-proof.

Another cute one of her looking out the window.

This must be my newest favorite picture. It's amazing to see how observent Alivia is now.. she now notices that we have a window near all her toys and she loves to pull up on the window sill and look out... and of course put her cute little hand prints all over the glass. Don't worry dad, I'll clean it up before you get here!

She loves sticking out her tongue. Where did she learn that, I wonder?

Alivia wearing dad's baseball cap

Here is a video of what Alivia learned a little while ago. I just now caught it on tape...it's too cute.

swinging

This is Alivia's first time swinging... she enjoyed it. she laughed a little bit but smiled a lot.

almost crawling

Here is a video of Alivia's attempt at crawling. She almost has it.. but it's funny to watch her move one "step" and then plop on her belly. I bet she'll be crawling by the end of the week!

Just look at that huge smile!! Alivia has started this new thing when she smiles, she squeezes both eyes closed for a split second .. like she's winking. It's so adorable. I love it. I doubt I'll ever be able to actually capture it on camera, but this is pretty close!

Just a picture of mom and dad... hanging out one Saturday afternoon.

Here we are in "the white house", a place we used to hang out when we were kids. We always climbed this tree behind us.

Alivia got to meet her Uncle Jared for the first time! We all had fun spending the afternoon together... it was great to see them! Hopefully the next visit will be a longer one. But, I am so glad for the time we did have.

Spending time with Grandma!!

Me, Les and Shane.

Mardi and Alivia eating lunch

The water really was cold, quite cold... but it was so completely refreshing! We all had a blast playing in the water.... it was invigorating.

The first thing Salem did when we got to the beach was make sand angles! He's such a cutie.

Chillin' on the beach...

Silver lake and the dunes....

A day at Lake Michigan.

WooHoo...

Chris and Hailey on the Sand Dune ride

quality moments with Uncle Les

Mmmm, this looks much better than 1st foods mixed vegetables!

dozing off...

Hanging out with uncle Shane

At the river.

Shane and Hailey at the river

This is Alivia with her Great Grandma Coleson, I'm so glad they had the chance to meet. Alivia is the 14th great grandchild.

summer vacation

So, I took a vacation to Michigan in August. Kevin could not come with me due to school so I brought my wonderful cousin Stephanie and 2 of her 3 kids, Salem (4) and Hope (2). So, on Sunday morning Alivia and I and Steph and her kids hopped into my new jeep liberty and headed up the road to Michigan. The trip up took us 18 hours!! Unbelievable... it normally takes 14 hours but obviously we stopped a bunch so the kids could stretch their legs. All in all, the trip up went ok... only 1 major meltdown from Salem (and then myself). :) The trip home was easier, we decided to get a room in Ohio which turned out to be a great idea. And, I have to brag... Alivia did absolutely perfectly the entire week! She's such an amazing baby! She slept well through the night the whole week and she really enjoyed playing with her 6 cousins all week. We really had a good time, it was fun to spend the week with our family.... and to enjoy the Michigan summer. The weather was beautiful. Kevin wished he would have been there with us.... but by next summer he'll be done with school. It was a blessing to be able to make the trip.