That Liberty

Liberty comes up with the greatest things these days. She has amazing vocabulary for a 2-year-old, and speaks very well. Everyday I think, "I need to write that down!" when she says hilarious stuff. Usually I don't write it down, but here are a few I did manage to write down today:

As she sat down at the bar to eat breakfast this morning, her barstool was a little too far away from the counter to reach, so she said, "I can't eat with all this crack in the way!" Of course, she was very dramatic about it.

A couple of minutes later she declared, "Mom, I'm missing something..." I replied, "What are you missing?" She says, "My drink!" In other words, "Mom, get me a drink!" (She's a little on the bossy side.)

A week or so ago we were going on a family run and Liberty and Hadley were in the jogging stroller and she tells us, "I'll make sure Hadley is not too fuzzy." "fuzzy" = "fussy" She has talked about Hadley being fuzzy several times since then.

Lately, Liberty is always telling us all the things she wants to do when she "gets bigger." The other night we were at the park and there were some people - mostly adults - playing volleyball. She said to me, "I want to play volleyball! I wish my arms were longer so I could play volleyball."
The next night, Liberty and Trever were dancing to music and watching some ballerinas on tv. Liberty talked about how she wants to be a dancer when she gets bigger, and have a blue ballerina dress. She told Trever that she already had a Snow White princess dress and a yellow princess dress, but she wanted a blue ballerina dress. Then she said to Trever, "I wish my arms were longer so I could be a ballerina." Trever tried to explain to her that her arms were the perfect length for a 2-year-old... I'm guessing she still wants her arms longer.

Liberty is dying to go to school. I'm not sure how exactly she pictures school to be like in her mind. We always talk about what kids do at school... read books, learn things, do art projects, etc. The other day she says to me out of the blue, "Mom, am I big enough?" I respond, "Big enough for what?" She says, "Big enough to go to school? I want to be big enough so I can go to school." By the way, she wants to go to a pink school. Anytime we mention somebody's school, she asks what color it is.

The other day in the car she says to me, "Mom, your hair looks beautiful!" (It was in a ponytail.) I thanked her, and she responds with, "You are gorgeous!"

Father's Day

We celebrated the wonderful fathers in our lives this weekend. We sure have some special ones! Liberty learned that "father" means "dad." As I mentioned that we were going to give Dad his presents, she was a little confused, and asked, "Is it Dad's birthday?" She was pretty sure that Dad's birthday probably wasn't already here again, but she didn't understand why we had presents for Dad. Regardless, she loves any chance to give presents, have parties, and get together with cousins! She sure enjoyed the celebrations!

On Saturday we celebrated Father's Day with Trever's family. We went swimming and had a barbecue at Paka and Grandma Helen's. Liberty couldn't get enough of the swimming and enjoyed playing with her cousins, especially Haylee. She also gave Paka his very own special Father's Day card with "lots of colors" on it. She was so proud of it!

On Sunday, we started out Father's Day with a yummy breakfast of biscuits and gravy. It was my first time making it, and it turned out pretty darn good! Before church we gave Trever his presents, which Liberty of course loved helping Dad open his presents. I made a special book from Liberty and Hadley titled, "We love our Daddy." It had all the pictures he had taken with is precious little girls. He sure enjoyed looking back beginning with his first day of fatherhood. He sure is a great daddy!

After church we got together with my family at Emily & Troy's house for dinner and celebrating. I made homemade ice cream and brownies to add to the celebration. There was so much good food I ate until I was beyond full! Papa and Papa Ben were there, and we were able to celebrate Father's Day with them. Liberty made them special cards, as well.

We are so lucky to be so close to family, so we can enjoy celebrating together. Liberty enjoys playing with all her cousins so much, that she has a hard time leaving when the parties are over. We are so blessed with so many wonderful fathers in our lives. Happy Father's Day!

The Cabin

Trever had a few days off this past week, so we decided to take a trip to the cabin. The Nielson's joined us for a couple of days, and then the Lines' came up. It was such a fun trip for all of us! It was nice to get away for a few days, the weather was beautiful, and the kids had a great time together. We spent our time relaxing at the cabin, enjoying each other's company, riding quads, and fishing at Black Canyon Lake. I even had a little time to craft!

Liberty, Emma, Abby, and Caitlin watching "Bedtime Stories"

Riding the quad - aka "tractor" or "four-wheeler"

Fish #1

Liberty's immediate response to Trever catching a fish "The fish are awake!" (During prior fishing trips, when they don't catch any fish Trever tells Liberty the fish were sleeping.)

Happy Hadley

Fishing

Taking a snack break.

Liberty was in heaven playing with sticks, the mud, and water. You can tell how much fun she had by the dirt on her bum!

Caitlin and Abby helped Trever reel in his 2nd catch of the day.

Liberty was very interested in the jumping fish.

Emily, Lily, Liberty, Huddy, and Lucy

Troy, Graham, and Trever.

Hadley's first quad ride.

Trever and Troy took all the kids on a quad ride, and Lucy and Liberty had falled asleep on the back!

Easter Sunday

Happy Easter from the two cutest girls in the world!

Liberty-isms

I wish I could write down everything that Liberty says! I really need to try to more often. Here are a couple of things she said today:

She was singing in the car on the way home from church today. She loves singing in general, and especially in nursery. She often comes home singing songs that I didn't even know she knew! Today she was singing, "The wise man built his house upon the rock..." She sang it pretty well, and then said, "Mom, I don't know how to sing that song!" (The, "I don't know how to..." is a phase she is going through.) I started singing it with her, and realized she knew the song really well... so well, she would correct me! Here was my favorite part...

"The rain came down and the flowers came up..." (supposed to be floods)

It was definitely way too cute to correct her!

Another thing she said today, which comes up often these days.

Trever let her watch Dora (her favorite show) tonight, eventhough it was bedtime. I said to Liberty, "Wow, you have a really nice dad!" She responded, "He's a handsome boy! And girls are prettiful!"

Spring Break

Trever didn't have a Spring Break this year, but he was able to take a day off so we could enjoy a little road trip. Also, since the schools around here had a break, there were plenty of opportunities to join in the fun!

We decided to opt out of the Disneyland this year where some of our family went. (SHHHH, don't tell Liberty!) We figured Liberty would enjoy and appreciate it more when she gets a little older. Plus, we knew it would be quite stressful taking Liberty and Hadley. There's always next year! So, we decided to take a little road trip ourselves. We are always talking about how there is so much to see and do in Arizona, and being here our whole lives, we still haven't experienced it all! So, we decided to take a trip to Tucson. We left Sunday afternoon, and got a hotel that night. On Monday we drove up to Mt. Lemmon. It was about an hour's drive to the top, consisting of lots of twists and turns. Unfortunately, Liberty got carsick about halfway up, and threw up, but luckily it didn't make a huge mess, and we were able to clean it up quickly on the side of the road. (Most of it ended up in mine and Liberty's hands. My "Mom skills" kicked in and I was surprisingly able to handle it without getting too sick myself.) The drive itself was beautiful! It was amazing how we started out in desert landscape, then passed through the high dessert terrain, and ended up in the mountain and pine scenery. There was even quite a bit of snow on the ground! When we made it to the top, there was a little ski town that we walked around and enjoyed the beautiful weather and surroundings. We even bought some tasty fudge, which Liberty particularly enjoyed. After we soaked it all up, we made it back down the mountain. Next, we headed to a Spring Training baseball game with the Diamondbacks and Rockies. Despite the lack of shade, it was a fun experience! We got lawn seats and enjoyed kicking back while Liberty danced and played, with an occasional, "Go, D-backs!" We love exposing Liberty to new things like a good ol' baseball game. After the game we finished off our trip with dinner at Outback. Liberty's favorite part was her bowl of sliced cucumbers... dipped in butter. The trip was nearly perfect! We were stress-free, got to see part of Arizona we hadn't seen before, and enjoyed time with our little family! And to top it off, the girls slept the whole way home!

We also joined the Bair’s in celebrating Ashlyn’s 8th birthday on Tuesday. Liberty of course had a blast hanging out with her cousins. I was taking a picture of Liberty and Hadley in their green, and some of the girls wanted to join in. There was no shortage of cute little girls that night!

For Lily’s birthday on Thursday, Liberty, Hadley, and I joined the Lines Family, Heather and Adam, Kasen, and Becky for a fun-filled day. First, we rode the light rail to Phoenix, and went to the Phoenix Children’s Museum. The kids had so much fun there! Liberty could have played there for a week straight! My favorite part (and probably Liberty’s too) was the play market. There were shelves with real (empty) food boxes and cans, a realistic produce section, grocery carts to load up, two checkout lanes complete with cash registers and a place to scan your purchases, and even an area to load and unload the delivery truck. The thing I loved most about it was how serious all the kids were as they shopped and “worked” at the grocery store. You could definitely tell they had all been grocery shopping with their mom’s! They were all so systematic about it. Liberty enjoyed loading her cart up, taking it to the checkout, unloading all her food, and then going back for more several times. I wasn’t surprised when she was really upset when we had to leave.

After the museum we headed back on the light rail. Unfortunately, it was pretty crowded, and we had to stand up the whole time. And, Liberty was worn out, and wanted me to hold her while she slept. So, I held onto the double stroller with Hadley in it, held Liberty while she slept, all while trying to balance myself and not fall every time the train stopped and started. But, we made it!

Once we made it back to town, went to Costa Vida for dinner/lunch, and then enjoyed some frozen yogurt.