"Olivia the Good Witch of the Northwest"

We had so much fun this Halloween! Olivia didn't really get what was going on, but she had fun dressing up, playing with other dressed up kids, and knocking on doors where people greeted her with treats (who wouldn't love that). She was a cute little witch and she loved her costume... well everything but the hat. On Halloween night Myles was at school until late so his sister Misha and I took Olivia around the neighborhood and it was a blast! Our new neighborhood is a neighborhood with a lot of families, so a ton of kids were out and the homes were decorated up so cute, it reminded me of a movie. I'd forgotten how fun trick or treating was and it was so great taking Olivia around and seeing her eyes light up every time someone stuck a big bowl of candy infront of her face. She caught on to the whole routine by the third house. She'd help us knock on the door and then when the candy came she would take a piece, just one (so polite), and then stick it in her pumpkin treat bag, we'd say thanks and then we were off to the next house. The holidays are so fun with kids around, it just reminds you of the excitement you felt when you were little and that is the best feeling in the world.

Liv was not happy when I tried to squish her hat on her head...

but she got over it when she noticed the camera and I told her how pretty she looked.

Liv was so willing to share her candy with everyone. We tried to cherish the moment because we were sure this would be the last year she'd give up her Halloween treats so easily.

On the Saturday before Halloween we also went on a little adventure to Biringer Farm, which was so fun. They had animals, a pumpkin patch, a corn maze, slides, music, a little trolley to ride on and lots of mud! Olivia loved it and she drew a crowd of admirers when she started showing off her dance moves near the entrance of the farm. I think the music was her favorite thing and she wasn't afraid to let everyone know it.

Liv loves animals, but only from a distance. She gets really nervous when they get too close, probably because this psycho cat pounced on her once.

Later that evening we went to Myles' parents ward for a Halloween party and "trunk or treat." So needless to say Olivia had a ton of Halloween fun and was completely exhausted by the end of the day.

Liv loves playing with other kids so she had BLAST!

Liv and Dad ready to catch a big one.Aunt Misha and Liv...aren't they the cutest little witches you've ever seen.All the excitement made her thristy. She loves drinking out of the cup by herself.

WE MOVED!

It has been forever since I wrote on our blog and so much has happened in our lives. A few weeks ago, my job asked me to work full time (well actually they told me that I had to work full time or that they'd find someone else) and I was heart broken. I love my time with Olivia, but I also have a husband who is trying to get through law school and our family has to eat so I now have to put in my forty hours a week, blah. We got our schedule all worked out though and everything seems to be going great so far. To get our schedule to work though, we had to pack up our life in downtown Seattle and move north to Everett. Myles' mom was a life saver and agreed to watch Olivia everyday so we moved close to his parents to make that arrangement possible. Olivia loves her time with her "Bojanney" and I think her "Bojanney" loves the time too...well I hope so.
Luckily my parents and my sister Eryn were here the weekend that we moved. They helped us out so much and we couldn't have done it without them, plus it was just really fun to have them around. Myles' parents also worked their booties off trying to get our new place all fixed up. Myles' Dad actually owns the home we moved into (we live in the main level of it)and he was sweet enough to want it to look great for us, so they really did work hard to get it all spruced up and it looks great! (I'll post pictures of the new place soon)
We are starting to get used to the new place and it feels more like home everyday. We are really blessed in our lives and this move has really made us realize that things work out for the best and that our families are the greatest people in the world and will do anything to help us out. We love you guys!

Myles giving me one last kiss in our old place.

Pausing for a quick photo before we left.

We barely fit all of our stuff in this U-haul.

We were amazed at how much we had crammed

into a 500 square foot apartment.

I thought I would add some shots of the old apt.
before we packed everything up. We loved our orange walls!

It was our first "long term" apt. and we loved it!

Our "master" bedroom. It was huge...not really!

Olivia's cute little nook. She didn't even have a door
door to her "room," but it was still a great little place!

Mom watched the babies and cleaned while the rest of us packed up. What a trooper, especially since Olivia was freaking out about the whole moving process. She was so worried we were taking her things away and she wasn't going to get them back. She'd look in the cupboards in the kitchen and when she saw that they were bare she would just start bawling. It was so sad, but so cute at the same time.

What a vocabulary!

I was hanging out with Olivia yesterday and was totally blown away by the vocabulary she's developed. I mean I've noticed every time she's said a new word, but yesterday I just realized how amazing it was and how quickly she is learning. So I thought I would list all of the things she can ramble off. She's only 14 months and she can say: Mama, Dadda, hi, bye bye, uh oh, poo poo, shoes, thank you, bubble, purple, ball, bath, dog, yum, no, yes, eyes, nose, bird, moo, keys, duck, book, baby, belly button, food, and her absolute favorite lately is "oow" (like if something is gross, I don't how to spell it). Like I've said before, she is so smart that we can't even stand it! We love our little gal, we are so proud, and we're convinced that she's a genius!

Anniversary Trip to the San Juan Islands

Myles and I had our third anniversary on August 28th, but because of school and our crazy schedules we postponed our celebration of it until labor day weekend and went on a really fun over night trip to the San Juan Islands. It's about an hour drive and then an hour on the ferry, but it's worth the travel. I'd never been on a ferry that long before, but it was really relaxing and the scenery was extremely beautiful. We stayed at a cute little Bed and Breakfast, went on walks around the tourist town, took a bike ride (we are so out of shape), and ate at a fancy Mexican restaurant...ok it wasn't that fancy and it had a t.v. playing the UW football game so needless to say Myles had a hard time staying focused on me and we had a really romantic dinner, just kidding, it was great! Anyways we had a fabulous time and we just wanted to share some of the pictures with you guys. Oh and we would also like to give a special thanks to Myles' parents for watching Olivia and spoiling her like crazy so that she didn't even miss her Mom and Dad while we were gone.

On our ferry ride. You gotta love Myles' famous crazy eyes! He laughs every time he sees this picture.

Outside on the deck of the ferry before we docked. It was really windy.

In front of our cute B&B. The room was great, breakfast was delicious, and the owners were so nice.

Getting ready for our bike ride. Myles said he refused to wear a helmet, but when he saw the pink one he couldn't resist.

I don't think I'd been on a bike for like five years, but I did all right.

"We did it!" We went on a ride that loops around the entire harbor, like 8 miles or something and even though most of it is flat, there were times when we were struggling and our legs felt like they were on FIRE! We came to the conclusion that we're really out of shape and need to excercise a whole lot more.

Right before we left we got some killer ice cream (it was really good!!) and paused for a photo on the pier. We had such a great time but we were also very excited to get back to our little Livy.

Big enough to do it on her own.

I love yogurt!!!!!!
YUM, YUM!
The bath that always comes right after, good thing she likes the tub!

Olivia has come to the conclusion over the past few weeks that she is big enough to use a spoon (or whatever untencil) by herself. If you try to feed her anything she'll bite down on the utencil as hard as she can until you let it go and she's free to use it herself. She's so smart, we can't even stand it! As you can see from the pictures she's really good at only getting it in her mouth and I'm always surprised at how tiny the mess is...hehehe. I think we give her at least three baths a day now. We love the little bugger though and who knew you could have so much fun with a cup of yogurt.

We're on board

Jeron's Fam & us at the tulip festival

Liv lovin the pool at the Armstrong Reunion

Liv and Lucy's first big tube ride...woohoo!!!!!

Myles floating with Liv at waterbabies, she loves it!

Liv's first birthday! (We went a little overboard on the candles)

After watching everyone around us become bloggers we thought we better jump on the band wagon. We're new at this whole thing but we figured it was a great way to keep in touch with the people we love and miss so much. Life in Seattle is great, Myles just started his third year in the JD/MBA program, I work part time and have a blast with Olivia the rest of the time. So here's a few pictures of the fun little adventures we've had in our lives recently. We love you all!

Our Little Family