You go girl!!!

I just wanted to document that Liberty slept 11 hours straight last night!!!! I couldn't believe it when I woke up at 5:00am and still hadn't gotten up with her! I had to go check on her to make sure she was okay. And the best part was that when she did finally wake up she didn't even cry. I just heard her talking and playing in her bed. When I got in there she just looked at me and smiled. What a sweetheart! Hopefully she will make this a habit, but I'm not counting on it. I'll take what I can get though.

Finally some smiles!

Well I finally figured out some tricks to get Liberty to smile for the camera - without someone's help! Of course it happens while she's in her pajamas, but we'll take it! I think yellow is her color though.

Spring Break!!

Liberty is ready for Spring Break! We are dying to come enjoy the Arizona weather! We can't wait to see everyone soon! Everyone wish Trever the best on his finals this week and next!

Late birthday dinner

So this weekend we were able to go to the restaurant we were supposed to go to for my birthday. It is in a small town called Bevier about 35 minutes away with a population of just over 700 people. At the beginning of the year they gave all the students a $25 gift certificate to their restaurant called "The Pear Tree." It is kind of a hole-in-the-wall place, but super clean and nice. The owner or his son personally greets and seats everyone, and comes and talks to you a few times throughout the dinner to check on you. The food was excellent! We started out with some onion rings that are the "best onion rings in the world" according to the owner's son. They were pretty darn good! You didn't even need to dip them into anything they were so good. Then we had a tasty salad with homemade croutons that came out warm, and three really good dressings to choose from. I told Trever that after the rings and the salad I would have been happy to leave! Then, Trever got the sole and I got filet mignon. For dessert, we had raspberry cheesecake - the "2nd best in the world" - next to NYC. The whole experience was wonderful! Liberty also got a lot of attention that night. Everyone just loved coming by and talking her and told us how cute she was. On the way out we had to walk past all of the other tables because we were in the back, and I was holding Liberty, and everyone could see her pretty well. I promise, at every single table we passed, someone made a comment to whoever they were with on how cute Liberty was! It was pretty funny. Although the restaurant was pretty pricey, I sure hope we go back again.

3-day Spring

Well, after way too many weeks of freezing cold weather and snow, we had about 3 days that made us think Spring was on its way. I never though I'd say "It's such a beautiful day!" about a 45-degree day. There was actually one day where it got close to 60 degrees and the sun shined the whole day! Now that was a perfect day! We took advantage of the beautiful day, and Libby and I went on a walk with some friends. We enjoyed it so much we walked for over 2 hours! Unfortunately, it's only a few days later and there is snow on the ground and it's cold again! Where is Spring?

Funny faces...

I mentioned that Libby is really good at making funny faces. She has recently found that she can move her lips, her tongue, and mouth to make faces, noises, blow bubbles, and talk. It is quite entertaining. I forgot to mention one other thing - she loves looking at herself in the mirror. She smiles and talks to herself in it. It is super cute!

3 Months old!!!

Liberty officially turned 3 months old on February 17th. We can't believe she is already 3 months old! She has grown so much it's crazy! She has many new talents and tricks, and somehow continues to get cuter everyday! Some of her many talents are: holding her head up steadily, push-ups, huge smiles, talking and laughing, blowing bubbles, making funny faces, sitting up (with help), standing up (with help), rolling onto her side, holding onto things, playing with toys, putting everything in her mouth, sticking her tongue out, etc. She really just thinks she's so big! Trever & I enjoy just watching her focus and work so hard at reaching for things with her hands. She will hold on to anything she can get her hands on, and sometimes it's even hard to get her to let go! It is so fun to have her interact more. The other day in relief society someone said something that made everyone laugh - and Libby laughed too! We seriously can't wait for everyone to see her again! Most of these pictures are on her birthday.

Valentine creations

I thought I'd share a few of my Valentine crafts and treats.

First, I threw a baby shower for a friend here, so since it was February, we made it a Valentine's theme. I made the invitations, which turned out cute I thought. I also made some yummy heart-shaped sugar cookies and a strawberry jello poke-cake.

I also made some cute Valentines for my friends.

Finally, the spouse association here (SAA) has a cooking club that gets together once a month and everyone brings something to share that goes along with the theme for that month. I hosted at my house this month, and it was a Valentine's romantic treat theme. I made coconut macaroons. I always had wanted to make some because I love coconut! They turned out pretty good, although next time I'd use milk chocolate to dip them in instead of semi-sweet chocolate.

Oh my Bosch!!!

For my Valentine's Day/Birthday present Trever bought me a Bosch mixer! It was even his idea! They just came out with a Limited Edition red one for Valentine's Day, so I had to get red. I can't wait to make yummy bread, cinnamon rolls, and other tasty things - and Trever can't wait to try all of them out! Thanks Trever!

Happy Birthday to me!

I'm the big 2-6! I feel so much older! For my birthday, my friends took me to lunch at El Vaquero - one of our wonderful Mexican food restaurants here. Besides us, I think there were two other tables occupied. I had been in the mood for Mexican food, and it was actually pretty good. Unfortunately, it was freezing cold on my birthday! We had to practically run to and from our car it was so cold. Trever & I had planned on going to dinner at this nice restaurant about 35 minutes away to celebrate my birthday. But, there was a blizzard that night, and definitely didn't want to be driving in it! (The picture doesn't do it justice.) So we went to the ward party instead - nice trade-off, huh? (You can tell from the picture that Libby enjoyed it.) It was a chili cook-off and ward talent show. It was definitely the wierdest talent show I'd ever been to! Trever even took the rest of the night off, and we watched a movie in bed - one of my favorite things to do, that we hardly ever do anymore. Besides the weather, it was a great day! I think it was in the 70's or 80's in Arizona that day :)

Happy Valentine's Day!

Even with Trever's busy schedule we were able to celebrate Valentine's Day. A lot of the girls here talked about what fancy meal they were going to cook their husband's, but I figured since it was a holiday for me too, I wanted a break from cooking and cleaning, so I wanted to go out! A little selfish on my part, but Trever was happy to go out too. We don't go out here very much anyway. So, we went to none other than Ruby Tuesday's! It was really good, and we both enjoyed getting out. One of my favorite things at Ruby Tuesday's is their croutons, and I didn't order the salad bar, but they brought me a side of croutons anyway. Liberty was nice enough to sleep in her carseat while we ate too. Well I saved a cute outfit for the actual day of Valentine's Day for Liberty to wear. Unfortunately, we had to change her outfit even before the day was halfway over. I bet you can guess why! :) I surprised Trever with a racquetball racquet for his gift - so romantic, huh? He was excited. I had one of Trever's friend's help me pick one out, since I don't know a thing about racquets. Trever plays racquetball intermurals, and plays a lot for fun with his friends. He told me if he had his own racquet, he'd be better... I guess we'll see how it goes! :)

A cute little Valentine!

I got a little carried away with all of Liberty's Valentine's Day outfits, but I had to get pictures in all of them. These pictures were taken over probably 5 different "photo sessions." After awhile, she realized what I was doing when I got out the white blanket and sat her on it, and started getting mad. She is still in the phase where she will smile like crazy - until I get the camera out! I promise, she has the cutest, biggest smile in the world!

For fun

Whenever Liberty is smiling a lot, I'll get the camera out to take pictures. But, as soon as I get the camera out she stops smiling! She'll look right at the camera, but it's so hard to get a smile out of her! I'll even put the camera down for second, and she'll smile again, but by the time I get the camera again, she stops smiling!

Play day

This is Liberty playing with her friend Maeva. Maeva is one of the best behaved and happiest babies we know. She is Libby's role model.

Fun with Dad!

Last night Trever and Libby were playing a "game" that Trever would make these funny noises, and Libby would crack up like crazy. Not only would she smile, but she was seriously laughing so hard. It was hilarious. They did it for a long time - I don't think Liberty ever got tired of it.