Goodbye Missouri...

This was us getting ready to leave Missouri and head to Arizona for a few weeks. Poor Trever had to stay for another week.

Christmas in Missouri

We had our own little Kirksville Christmas on December 15th, since Liberty and I left for Arizona on the 16th. It definitely made us look forward to when we could be in our own home on Christmas! We opened our presents first thing, just like Christmas Day. We all must have been really nice this year, because we all got pretty spoiled. Liberty got a dirt devil vacuum just her size. Whenever I vacuumed she always wanted to sit on top of it while I vacuumed, so I figured this would keep her busy while I vacuum. She of course loved it! She also got a little CD-player boom box to listen to her cd's. She loved dancing to her new music! She also got a little pink ATSU-KCOM sweatshirt, some cd's, etc. Trever got an Ipod shuffle and an ATSU-KCOM sweatshirt. I got a Dirt Devil hand-vac to match Liberty's. It's exactly what I wanted! Trever & I also got a GPS for the car. Liberty enjoyed unwrapping presents some of the time, but as you can see from the pictures, she really enjoyed sitting on top of the presents the most. Liberty spent the morning dancing to her new music and trying out her new vacuum. As you can tell from the last picture of the slide show, she got pretty worn out!

Ice storms

We have had a few wonderful ice storms here this winter. I won't complain too much, because they definitely could have been worse. For all of you who haven't experienced "real" winters (Arizonans), and ice storm is basically freezing rain. As soon as it hits the ground, trees, cars, houses, etc., it freezes, making a nice big coat of ice. If your car is outside, it will have one big sheet of ice covering it. We have been SO thankful for a garage these past two winters! Even each individual blade of grass is coated with ice. Ice storms are very dangerous for obvious reasons - the streets are pure ice! Also, trees get so heavy with the ice covering them, they break, hit power lines, and the electricity goes out. Luckily our power hasn't gone out during the ice storms yet! Although most people hate ice storms, it actually looks pretty amazing all over the trees and grass. I took some pictures to see what it actually looks like.

BFF's

I had to post these. Liberty has recently found a love for "Ring-around-the-Rosies" and will do it over and over. After the Children's Social, Liberty & her BFF Maeva were playing it together. This is one of the first times Liberty will actually let other kids hold her hands. Aren't they adorable?!

Santa Pictures

As I posted earlier, Liberty just wasn't a fan of Santa this year. We tried 3 different times, and she was terrified all 3 times. The second and third time she would wave at Santa and smile the entire time we waited in line, but as soon as we got up there, she freaked out. Are we mean for putting her throught that? Hopefully she isn't traumatized.

2nd Visit: SAA Children's Social



3rd Visit: Ward Christmas Party




(I think Santa ate too many cookies)

(1st visit with Santa not pictured - I'll add it later)

Liberty's new moves

Liberty loves to dance! Whenever she hears music, whether in the car, at home, the piano, at the store, on TV, etc. she will dance. Usually she just sways and waves her arms, but the other day she came up with some new moves. Our favorite move is what we call "quick feet." Check it out!

Santa

We took Liberty to see Santa on Saturday. She was terrified of him! The second she saw him she started crying and trembling! It was so sad. We tried everything to get her to calm down, to no avail. As soon as she would stop crying, she'd see him again and her bottom lip came right out and she began to cry again. There was a photographer taking pictures, so we'll see how the picture turned out - I had to hold her standing next to Santa.

What is it with kids being afraid of Santa? My only guess is that maybe the fact that they really can't see much more than his nose and eyes, which scares them. We have 2 more things going on this week where Santa will be, so we'll see if she gets used to him.

Liberty did look really cute for Santa!

Laughing Libbs

Liberty is easily entertained!

More snow!

It is officially winter - the ground is covered in snow, and it doesn't get much over 30 degrees these days. We got a few inches of snow a few days ago, and I ventured out and took Liberty to see it. I wasn't brave enough to get all the way in the snow, but I let her get close to it and touch it. She wasn't very excited about it. I don't think she liked the feel of the cold snow on her hands. She just basically stood there and stared.



A few minutes after we went inside and took off our warm clothes, Trever came home and wanted to go play in the snow. So, we bundled back up and went outside and actually got in the snow this time. Although she was a little unsure at first, Liberty loved walking around in the snow.

Check out Libbs

This was taken a few weeks ago. You can see that she is a pro at walking now!