Proud Parent Moment - I Don't Think So!

I bought some new toaster strudels the other day. The kids had been begging all morning for them so I put them in and went into the bathroom to finish getting ready. Olivia came in about halfway through hers and said, "Mom, these are damn good." I just had to hold back the laugh because of the dead serious look on her face. I really don't know where she learned it from. Robb is trying to blame me and I am trying to blame him, but she could have picked it up anywhere (at least I am trying to convince myself of that).

Olivia's First Boyfriend

So Olivia had been talking about this boy in her preschool named Olivier (cute huh, Oliver and Olivia). She just kept telling me stories about him, but usually preferencing it by saying don't worry he likes me but I don't like him. Some of the stories included her and him pretending to be on a date, and the other girls at preschool serving them. I wasn't too worried until I ran into Oliver's mom at the store. She told me that Olivia had kissed Oliver on the check. I was shocked. Seriously, what was the whole "don't worry I don't like him he likes me." So, I asked her about it and she said, "mom, don't be mad, but yes, I kissed him on the check." So, I started in on the whole lecture about how we are too young and you can't do that until you are 16 and on and on. She just looked at me and said, "can we please stop talking about this." Honestly, I dread the teenage years with this girl!
At his birthday party at Boondocks!

Stacie and Mitch are so good to our kids (and us). A few weeks after Kendal was born they offered to take Ethan and Olivia swimming. They had sooo much fun. They love to swim and I was in no position to be swimming yet. They just love Stacie and Mitch.So happy to be able to go down the slide.

I love Ethan's face in the picture behind Stacie. I have no idea what he is mad about, but he looks very unhappy!

Swinter

Seriously, could this spring be any colder. I am so tired of the cold and snow. The kids are just so tired of being inside, that when it snowed a few weeks ago, they just went outside anyway without all their complete gear. They had a great time, but really wanted hot chocolate when they came inside. I think the time has passed when I should be serving hot chocolate!

Mother's Day Tea Party

Today was a good day. I went to Olivia's Preschool for a Mother's Tea Party. It was so cute. I was choked up on numerous occasions. When I arrived I was greeted by Olivia saying "Welcome to our Tea Party" and she gave me a little sunshine corsage she made that said I Love You. Then she led me to my chair right across from where she was sitting. After all the moms were seated they sang, Skitta-ma-rink a dink. It was so cute. Then Miss Mary read a paper that she had each child answer with questions about their moms. It was so sweet. Some of the answers were interesting but all very insightful! Here are Olivia's:

My mother's favorite color is: purple

My mother's favorite food is: soup (not really sure where she got this one, except I eat soup for lunch a lot)

My mother's favorite thing to do is: Play with us!

My mother looks prettiest when: She goes to church

My mother is really nice when she: takes us somewhere

My mother gets mad when: we do something that makes her mad

My mother is happy when I help with: Kendal

My mother love me because: we love her back

I love my mother because: she loves others

I loved it. She was so embarrassed and giggled alot. She looked like she was crying, but later told me her eyes were just watering. Then they sang "You are my Sunshine." It was just what I needed today. Then they pulled up their chairs so they were sitting really close to us and served us some juice in fancy cups and cookies. Olivia was whispering to her friend to make sure and watch her mom's cup so that if we ran out they could refill them. I loved it! It was so fun and so sweet to have a special little occasion to share with her.

Purple Lipped Lady
We have been dealing with Thrush for months. The doctor ended up giving us some medicine that we painted in her mouth that turned everything purple, neon purple. She kind of looked like a little goth baby. It was kind of funny. People at the grocery store would talk and whisper about her because it really looked like she had some lipstick on it. I love this picture because she was always trying to bust her hands out of her blanket and suck on her fingers which she would end up turning purple. We had to stop swaddling her a lot earlier than the other kids because she would always bust out.

My two girls! I love them both so much. Olivia is such a good big sister and such a helper to me. She loves Kendal so much and Kendal loves her too. She always gives Olivia bigger smiles and laughs than she does to anyone else.

Easter 2011!
We had a good Easter. It was a fun/busy weekend. Lots of Easter Egg hunts and candy. The kids were most excited about their stinking pillow pets. Robb made some comment to them about maybe getting them for Easter and that is all they could talk about. Everyday the week before Easter we talked about what was happening during that day with the Savior. It helped us focus on why we really celebrate Easter. I love Easter. Happy Girl!

Wish I had a cuter picture of the two of them together, but this is pretty much what all of our pictures look like of Olivia lately.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!
Someone told me that Kendal really looked Irish that day. Barbara, Robb's adopted Grandma gave the kids these shirts. We had green food that day and the kids thought it was awesome. They are getting to the age where they remember stuff we have done in past years and it is fun to carry on traditions like that.

This is what happens when Dad is in charge. I was at Young Women and came home to this. Robb was on the bed in our bedroom and didn't notice the sound of the jets turning on, just suddenly got a strong smell of strawberries. Half the bottle of shampoo was used up, but they were having a great time! Seriously, sometimes I wonder what Robb is doing while he is with the kids, now I know!

Robb's family loves to take in all sorts of people. This lady started coming to different holidays for at least as long as I have been in their family. Her name is Eileen and she doesn't have any family. Bless the Lifferth's and their open hearts, they do a lot of things that I wouldn't be able to do with people and they have taught me a lot about opening up to people. Robb decided to snap a picture of Olivia with her on Christmas. I am surprised Olivia got this close to her because when she was little she was always a little nervous around her.

Love this little girl. Don't you just want to smoosh her fat little cheeks? Especially with all the crazy red hair? Sometimes she looks a little grumpy faced, but it is just because her cheeks way down her little mouth. I could just kiss her little face all day.

Kendal's Blessing
We blessed Kendal March 6. It was such a good day and I am so thankful to all the family that came. It is so good to have family to support you on special occassions.

Not the best family picture, but it is about all we got.

Everyone that stood in the circle, Great Grandpa Lifferth, Great Grandpa Murray, Grandpa Bike (Rick), Grandpa Hillyard, Uncles Spencer, Ryan, Mitch, Randy, Scott and family friend Darren.

Dance Rectial 2010 I am trying to get caught up on some stuff so some of the posts are going to be old, but it is stuff that I wanted to have. Olivia had her first dance recital in June 2010. She took dance at Luv 2 Dance and she danced to "Dig a Little Deeper" from Princess and the Frog. She did a great job and had so much fun. She said she wasn't even nervous at all. I loved watching her dance on the side of the stage before it was time to go on. She was just so happy to be there and get flowers from Grandma & Grandpa and from Dad.

Olivia has started her spring soccer season and she loves it. Spring is not as fun,as fall because of the weather, but she is having so much fun. My favorite moment this season has been when her and the other girls on the field were just giggling and running even though the other team was scoring left and right on them. She scored 10 goals during the fall season and it is so fun to watch her play. I have a feeling I will love being a soccer mom! Her team name is the Purple Princesses. She really wanted their name to be Purple Power but the other girls really wanted to be princesses!

Goodbye 1994 Ford Taurus

It was a good run and you served us well, but it was time to say goodbye. Robb's car died. I mean literally. He was driving down the freeway on the way to work and he started smelling something horrible. He just kept getting over into different lanes because he thought he was just driving behind some stinky semi trucks. That is when he noticed the smoke was billowing out of his car. He barely made it into the parking lot at work. When he got out of the car he noticed oil everywhere. He towed it home and we ended up getting $100 for it for parts. Ethan is beside himself in these pictures as is saying goodbye. For days after he would get choked up if he thought about it. As they were loading it on the truck to haul away I snapped these pictures. Classic.

Kendal's First Month

Looking through my pictures I just can't believe she was that little not too long ago. Her hair looks so great too! She had a nice thick head of red hair, instead of the little whispy hair she has going on now. It was a busy first month, her first Christmas and New Year's and all the crazy family time that goes with that.


Kendal's middle name is Dixie after my Grandma that passed away last year. My Grandpa is holding her for the first time.

Under the lights just like Olivia and Ethan had to be. I always cry the first time I see them in there.

Ethan is 3! I love this picture of him. He is such a funny little guy. He wanted to have a spiderman birthday party, even though I have no idea how he even knows who spiderman is. He was so excited to have his cousins come and counted down the days until his birthday. Here are some of my favorite things about him:

He is so cuddly and loves to give kisses
He has the cutest little voice
He loves to play with fire trucks and police cars
He loves to build forts with pillows
He LOVES both his "sissys"

Kendal Dixie Lifferth

Kendal Dixie Lifferth

December 16, 2011
8 lbs 3 oz

19.5 inches

She is our little redheaded beauty. We love her so much and are so happy to have her here. My water broke at 8:00 am and I got the kids out of the bath and dropped them off at Robb's sister's house. Robb was driving very quickly back from work where he had just arrived when I called him. I met him on the way to the hospital and we arrived just as the contractions were really starting to hurt around 9:00 am. I received my epidural and started pushing around 11:00. It was a good labor and delivery. She is a good natured baby and I love to just hold her and kiss her.

Henry's Lake

My dad loves to go fishing in Island Park on opening fishing day. We decided to make it a family vacation this year and we all went. It was sooooo cold. It was raining and snowing practically the whole time we were there, but that didn't stop us from going out in the boat to catch some fish. We had a good time, despite the cold and the kids had a lot of fun being on Grandpa's boat.


Ethan was a little grumpy about wearing his life jacket.


Olivia fishing with Uncle Jake.

Olivia with her 1st Fish Ever! She was so excited. When Uncle Jake was taking the hook out of its mouth it slipped back into the lake and Olivia was really upset that she didn't get to keep her fish. She felt like she hadn't really caught one because she couldn't keep looking at it in the cooler.

Disneyland 2010!

Robb and I had been debating taking the kids to Disneyland for a few months and finally just decided to do it while the kids were at an age where they would be in awe of everything. It was so fun! The look on their faces as they experienced everything was priceless! The weather was perfect and the crowds weren't too bad. The kids were so good, I think just because they were so happy to be there. Olivia just kept saying how this was the best trip ever.

I love this picture because Ethan is so enthralled with Mickey. The whole time he just kept saying "Hi Mickey." He is giggling because Mickey tried to kiss him and for the next few hours he just kept saying "Mickey try kiss me." It was so cute.



Olivia was so excited to see the Princesses there was no way that we weren't going to wait in line for an hour to see them. She was most excited about Princess Tiana from Princess and the Frog.




We had been talking about Lightning and Mater the whole time we were there and Ethan was so glad to finally see them. I think it is so sweet how he just had to give Mater a big kiss.

I love the end picture because I have one of me doing the same thing when I was little!

Our family photo in front of the LIF for "Lifferth"