Celebrating 2 beautiful years with our good friend, Jack

August 18th was our two year anniversary! Woo! We decided to go to the Jack Johnson concert to celebrate. We went with Matt's sister, Amy, and his brother, Ben, and his wife, Donnie, and some of her family and friends. It was really fun to hang out with everyone. Here's the happy couple that has made it through a whopping 2 years of marital bliss. We've become relationship experts...
Here's our awesome anniversary dinner. They claimed it was Papa John's, I claimed that it wasn't and that it was AT LEAST a week old.Jack was pretty amazing in concert. Here he is:
Okay, obviously we had lawn seats... The opening acts were pretty awesome, too. We took Livers because I didn't want to leave her for such a long time. She was pretty awesome the whole night. She fell asleep right before Jack came on - it was lovely. Here she is camouflaged under all of her little blankets and an OK! magazine postcard.Before the show, she demanded her own blanket...
She loves playing with us now and is starting to giggle! It's awesome.She also has a love-hate relationship with her Aunt Amy. Here's the love:
And here's the hate:At first we had her in her Rock Star outfit that she likes to refer to as her "concert outfit" or maybe just Matt and I do. Then we put her in this sweet outfit for night time.
We didn't end up getting home until like 1:00 in the morning thanks to the worst parking layout EVER in the history of amphitheaters and rude, crazy, drunk drivers. Here's Livers when we finally got home, poor baby.

A hilarious series of pictures...

So Alivia loves to watch us eat and has, on several occasions, lunged her whole body forward in hopes of getting at least a little of whatever we're eating in her mouth. She attempted this trick at our cool, new local hangout Hello Yogurt.

(Side note: this place has been opened about a week and we have been there at least 5 times. Someone actually recognized us as "regulars" which has been a long time dream for Matt and I - we were pretty excited to say the least.)

Here's Alivia longingly watching Matt try a sample of the raspberry flavor...

Un-freaking-believable...

I'm at a loss for words. Well not really since I'm venting in this post, but I am so upset! So I've been blogging my feelings towards women's gymnastics lately and this will be my last and final post regarding this subject matter. (There is a warning... if you have any feelings whatsover about China winning the gold then you are going to be furious.)

So I found out, yesterday, that THREE of these girls on China's team are younger than 14. You have to be 16 to compete!! I'm talking 12 and 13-year-olds competing! What!?!
I know what you're thinking, DUH!!!! I know it's obvious. I mean look at this picture! Some of these girls look younger than my little 11 almost 12-year-old brother, significantly younger!

Okay, so right now you should be excited and thinking that this is awesome news because now the U.S. obviously deserves the gold. Well the stupid International Olympic Committee isn't going to do anything about it! How appalling is that! NOT ONE THING. China has freaking brainwashed these people! If it were the U.S. that pulled this kind of shinannigan - heaven knows there would be serious repercussions! So why not with China?!

I also found out that the reporters are being censored to a certain extent. They aren't being allowed to access certain internet sites after the Chinese representatives promised they would. These reps have also been screening everything that has been going out. What the freak?? Why aren't we doing something about this!

So, people, HOW ARE WE GOING TO TAKE CARE OF THIS! I'm looking for answers. I'm thinking some sort of huge rebellion. Obviously petitions won't affect China, these people are beyond those. We need to fight fire with fire! There might be bloodshed, but I promise it will be worth it! Our team deserves the gold!

P.S. I was trying to find proof of these underaged girls and came across something interesting... so a random person was blogging about this back in July, here is the blog entry. They quoted a Chinese newspaper that was talking about one of the Chinese girls on their team and how awesome she'll be on the uneven bars at the Olympics.

So for the interesting part - this person quoted the actual article and it said that she is a 14-year-old newcomer. So I went to look at the article at the actual newspaper's website which you can see here. They changed it to 16-year-old newcomer, recently... what dirty tricks...

Pleasure and Pain

We will start with the pain...

Thursday started off pretty good with a visit to the doctor for Alivia's four month visit. We found out that she is quite advanced for a little baby and that she has graduated from the 45th percentile in length to the 55th- can I get a what what! She is now 24 1/2 inches, 14 lbs. 11 oz. (75th percentile), and has a respectable 75th percentile head.

As soon as the doctor's visit was over we gave Alivia some baby Tylenol and headed over to the Public Health Department for the dreaded vaccinations. As you can see from the blotchy red face of the baby and the pouty face of the mom, neither of them took it very well. The good news is that Alivia won't get any diseases- I think if she could just understand that point she would complain a lot less about getting the shots.

All's well that ends well- look how happy she is at the end of the day.

Now for the pleasure...

Friday was the long awaited and much anticipated trip to the Tracy Aviary in Salt Lake. It started with a fantastic bird show hosted by some of the greatest showmen Utah has ever seen. There were dead mice being eaten, ginormous birds flying inches above our heads and a Golden Eagle which if it hadn't been shot 20 years ago and lost the ability to fly could have carried Alivia off to his nest (like the big bird in the Rescuers Down Under).

We then moved on to look at some of the birds from around the world. Here we have Alexis gazing longingly at her friends the flamingos. She just loves them.

This is my sister and I chanting U.S.A. and pumping our fists. You may not understand why until you look closely and see the magnificent Bald Eagles in the background. They are awesome to see up close.

What a tender moment shared between my sister and my wife feeding the captive aviators while all the while I was behind them singing feed the birds from Mary Poppins. Good times.

I saw this little kid feeding a duck out of his hand so I thought I would try to feed Daffy Duck here. It was the funniest feeling in the world- that little beak pecking at my hand- me and Daffy became quite close in those brief moments that we spent together.

Little Alivia had a great time at the Aviary-she was a bit drugged up the whole time but look how happy she is. I don't get to spend many mornings with her so I am always amazed at just how awesome she is. You will also notice that she and I have the same dimple on our left cheek. You might not actually notice that since I am not in the picture but you can just take my word for it.

Throw in many hours of watching the Olympics and it was an exciting couple of days.

Redemption for women's gymnastics...

...Yet I still feel a little empty inside. Matt and I have been sitting on our couch all night on pins and needles with our hands covering our eyes as we watched each tumbling pass in the last rotation.

So I'm finally over the fact that these little Chinese girls are nowhere NEAR the eligible age to compete, but tonight's competition brought on a whole new problem - CHEATING JUDGES! What in the world! How many bobbles did they freaking overlook while the little Chinese girls were on the beam? And how freaking harsh were they on little ShawnJohn (that's what Matt and I lovingly refer to Shawn Johnson as).

I was really hoping ShawnJohn would take the gold. She's just so cute and she seems so nice! She's always smiling and bouncing around, literally. Nastia is awesome, but she always looks furious, which you can clearly see in these two pictures... Okay obviously I carefully selected these two pics to prove my point, but still. Also, another point - Nastia wasn't even born in the U.S.!

Come on!

You're gold in our hearts Little ShawnJohn!
~ Your biggest fans, Matt & Alexis

P.S. Bela Karolyi is my favorite man ever, I love watching him give his enthusiastic thoughts on what's going on. The expert did coach the only person to ever get a 10 on the beam (Nadia Comanici is my hero). I also love how the Romanian coach has transformed into an avid U.S.A. fan.

P.P.S. Matt loves gymnastics now.

P.P.P.S. Matt and I kept wishing that the Chinese girls would stumble or fall, but then we'd quickly take it back thinking that their families would disown them or their coaches would revoke their eating privileges later that night or maybe forever.

A bit of inspiration...

So I've been a posting like crazy lately, can you tell I'm putting off writing a paper? Anyway, I've seen this person's blog via numerous blogs lately and I wanted to post her blog on here for any of you that have never heard of her.

This woman lost her 14-month-old daughter, Camille, about two months ago and she decided to use her blog as an outlet to discuss her entire journey through the grieving process. It sounds kind of depressing, but it's not. It's so inspiring. I'll sit for hours at a time and read what she has to say and just bawl like a little baby, Matt makes fun of me.

I guess every time she talks about Camille, I think about Alivia and I can't fathom ever losing her, but this woman couldn't fathom losing Camille, either. She shows that there is life after the death of a child, and even though it's extremely hard, it's possible to keep living after something like that.

She's kind of become my hero over the past couple of days. She's an incredible writer. I really recommend you read it, especially if you're ever feeling defeated, this blog has the power to put everything into perspective and uplift your spirits. Here's the blog. Enjoy and make sure you have a box of tissues at your side.

WHY TEAM U.S.A. WHY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Okay so my favorite, up until now, has always been the women's gymnastics, until we freakin' choked!!! What!?!?!?! They're a bunch of hooligans! And I don't even know what a hooligan is! I am so peeved right now!

First, we can't even mount the beam - come on! And then say goodbye to staying in bounds on the floor. I wait four freaking years just to watch this event and kick China's butt, but instead I'm left with an empty hole inside of me that will never be filled! What a kick in the pants!

Here they are before ever taking off to Beijing... If only I could send them a message from the future:

LOOK OUT! YOU'RE GOING TO FREAKING CHOOOOOOOOOOKE!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh hey, I have a tongue!

...And it's freakishly long! So Alivia discovered her cute little tongue yesterday and she's been playing with it ever since. She's always sticking it out and I finally caught it on camera! Get ready for an awesome series of pictures...

Here's another look at the crazy long tongue that she got from her daddy:

What a freakin' cutie!

My kid loves the Olympics and the Ivins

So Alivia loves the Olympics. I'm not even joking. She particularly loves watching the swimming events. I'll sit her down on the couch and she'll just sit there for minutes at a time - it's the longest she's ever chilled. And then she'll start to talk to the swimmers - it's so cute.

Here she is with her eyes glued to the T.V. She's taken over my role as master of the remote...
I love how the remote is almost the same size as her torso.
Two fanatic Phelp fans watching him in awe as he crushes his own world record.
Alivia's showing Reece that having a baby could provide him with fun-filled, tender moments as she holds tight to his finger.
This picture might lead you to believe that Alivia just loves to chill and is so happy all of the time... what a little tricker...
Also I just looked at all of these pics of my cute baby and noticed that she looks like our little white trash baby who never wears clothes. Well, it's the truth. She pukes so much that Matt and I have given up dressing her altogether. We've also given up on dressing ourselves. In fact, I was actually puked on while doing this post...

And this pic is just for the Ivins. I was able to document their first enchanting encounter with Rock Band - and now they're hooked!

Cousinly Love

So this weekend I was able to see some of my cousins from my dad's side that I haven't seen for years! It was really exciting - we're all newish moms and so we were able to have all of our little ones finally meet each other. We were also able to get a picture with my grandma and all of her great grand children that she currently has.

This was the best one we could get. There was at least one child screaming in each picture. This one featured Berlin as the unhappiest baby of all! So on the top row is Rocky, Owen and Sienna. And then there's Berlin and Alivia on Grandma Boley's lap.

Alivia was so chill this afternoon - it was crazy! We weren't sure it was even our baby. I don't know if she was just overwhelmed by the massive amount of people in the same room, but she was just chillin with anyone who picked her up. Also, she was never the one crying during the picture taking extravaganza. She's so funny sometimes.

Here's me with Sienna. She was so fun to play with! It makes me really excited/terrified for Alivia to get bigger. She'll be fun to play with, but she'll also have the ability to take off when I'm not watching! Ah!

Always keeping us entertained...

So one night Matt and I were getting Alivia ready for bed and we ran across a couple of hats that we didn't know we had. So we decided to play dress up for a little bit. First - this brown one was hilarious! It looked like some gross brown wig! We were laughing for hours.

And then we found this weird little yellow one. I love this face. It kind of creeps me out.
Also, we've been getting Alivia some awesome play things that make my life SO MUCH easier. Here she is in her little gym. She'll only lay under it sideways. Matt and I joke that she teleports in that thing because we'll put her down one way and literally one minute later she will have pulled a total 180 without even crawling! (Can you tell Matt and I have recently got into the series "Heroes"?)
And then we got her this awesome little jumper thing. She loves to stand so we figured she would love this. When we put her in it she found out that if she leans to one side, she'll spin around and around - it's so funny.
And here she is with her favorite parent... I love her little smile.
How cute is this picture??? She loves her daddy!

How'd that taste???

So lately, Matt and I have had this theory that Alivia only likes to puke on him. Seriously, every time I hand her off to Matt, she'll usually puke. So last night, I had finished feeding her and tried to burp her and then handed her off to Matt once again.

About a second later, I hear Matt yell and so I rush over to him thinking that Alivia was hurt or something was wrong and here's what I saw... (Viewer discretion is advised - this is not for the weak stomachs!)

And of course, here is the close up. In case you're wondering - yes - it did go in his mouth, which is actually kind of hilarious because she had just puked in my mouth like a week ago. I think it's because we started calling her bird lately - she now thinks that she needs to regurgitate her food into our mouths...

Cute Baby Jake!

Matt's brother, Ben, and his wife, Donnie, had their baby last week and he is so freakin cute! He has the longest blonde hair I've ever seen on a newborn! Matt was so excited to hold his newest little nephew. It was so weird for us to hold such a tiny baby! Alivia looks HUGE to compared to the cute little one!

So Donnie and I spent a lot of time talking about our pregnancies with each other because our pregnancies were so close; and then there were so many weird coincidences with mine and Donnie's pregnancy and delivery! Here's just a couple:

1. We both had weird little white spots on our arms.
2. We both leaked colostrum at a really early stage - bleh!
3. We both gave birth on the third day after our due date.
4. We both went through many hours of labor and then had to have a c-section because we couldn't dilate any farther.
5. I gave birth in a hospital right next to their house and she gave birth right next to our place.
6. The babies' birth times were both palindromes 6:06 and 11:11 (Matt figured that one out, he's a nerd)
7. We both puked after delivery (not a pleasant memory for either of us)

And those are just a few that I can remember right now.

Also, Matt's shirt rocks my world.
So every time we went and visited them in the hospital - Alivia was freaking out. I think she could tell that all of the attention had shifted from her to her new little cousin. This is clearly illustrated in this next picture. She's mastered the stink eye at such a young age! It's hilarious!

My two little baldies

Here's Matt sporting his latest do... He's on trek this week with the little delinquent boys and the other two guides decided they all wanted to shave their heads. In fact, I think Alivia's hair is actually longer than his in some spots! What I love most about this picture is the fact that the have the exact same expression. I'm a pretty big fan of these two.

Coolest invention ever!!!!!!!!

So I was looking for a cool site to do some online scrapbooking that I could print off and make a little book out of, and I was talking to my sister-in-law and she said that there was a site that allows you to download your blog and make a scrapbook out of it! How cool is that! So here it is! Scrapbookblogger.com - I think this is so cool! I just thought some of you might enjoy it as well!

Awesome pics and videos from Hawaii

So we went to Hawaii for a week with Matt's family. It was really fun - we went to Oahu. Unfortunately we learned some things about Alivia that made Hawaii the worst place to ever take her.

First of all, she is allergic to flowers. The second we landed and you could smell them, Alivia started breathing like a little pug - it was cute/sad/hilarious. Second, she's extremely sensitive to heat - she had to be naked the whole time because any time we put clothes on her, a huge heat rash would break out all over her body.

Also, we took a little mist fan anticipating how hot she'd get at the beach, but we found out that whenever she freaks out - we can put the fan right on her and she stops immediately - it was hilarious. She'd start crying and we'd turn on the fan and blow it all over her body and she'd start to laugh and love life! What a crazy girl.

Here's Alivia on the 6 1/2 hour plane ride there. She was really awesome for some of it - and then she wouldn't stop screaming for a lot of it - poor passengers - I'm pretty sure most of them were giving us the stink eye when they passed us as they got off the plane...




Here's Alivia's first time at the beach - she was telling me about how much she loved it! She has the cutest little mouth!

Here's Alivia's first time in the water. She wasn't too sure about what was happening, but she didn't cry. Also Matt's awesome farmer's tan makes me very happy. In his defense, this was the beginning of the trip - it did improve - sort of...