HAPPY FIRST BIRTHDAY, LIVY!!!!!!

Livy's official first birthday isn't until tomorrow, the 9th, but I wanted to post about her tonight so that I have zero distractions tomorrow. I can't believe my baby is one! It's so crazy that I gave birth to a tiny awkward newborn one whole year ago! Man, the last year has been so crazy and awesome. Livy has learned A LOT of things this year -- as have Matt and I. It's been an incredible journey thus far and we thank Heavenly Father every night that we have this little one in our lives.

I'm so excited for tomorrow. Matt and I are decorating the apartment tonight with streamers and balloons and whatnot. In the morning, we're going to let her open her presents. (This will be another celebration made possible by Grandma Baumgartner who sent Livers a billion presents that we just got today.) I wrapped all of her presents with tissue paper so that it will be easy to get to the goods! Hopefully it will go better than Christmas. Then we're going to do cake at lunch before Matt has to go to work. And then if the weather is good I'm either going to take her to the park or the zoo. Then until bedtime, we're going to watch her favorite shows and let her do whatever she pleases -- including play with chapstick and q-tips -- her all-time FAVE.

So anywho... here are some fun things about Littlest Liviest... (A nickname given by Matt's brother, Luke)

*She can sign several words which really help us out: milk, please, all done, and more (which also means "I want" to her)

*Her favorite breakfast is oatmeal and yogurt (Activia of course - no more constipation ever again!)
*She can throw tantrems now -- not fun!
*She loves going down the slide - despite the little mishap a month ago
*She is completely off of bottles and formula - now she just has a cup of milk with her sippy
*She only eats "human" food - she never did the baby food which was awesome and horrible at the same time.
*She has ZERO teeth - still! Ahhhh! When will those suckers come in!
*She prefers to walk everywhere now - it literally happened last week - no more crawling
*She thinks it's HILARIOUS to lick us - or anything for that matter.
*She loves to give things and people "loves" where she rests her head on them to show she cares
*She LOVES to dance - especially to the Madagascar 2 song - The Traveling Song by will.i.am
*She also loves to dance in her carseat while listening to Jack Johnson
*She loves watching Dancing With the Stars with me - seriously - she'll just sit there and watch them dance
*Her favorite place to sit in our apartment is under our desk next to the printer

*She loves to wave as we pass by people and say hi
*Her favorite show is still Little Einsteins
*She loves sweets and always knows when you have them
*She's a total begger whenever she sees anyone eating anything

This is how she signs "please" - I love it. Now we're working on thank you.

This is my favorite picture from today. I love it!

Throwing a tantrum...

Livy's First Easter Bunny Experience...

So we were at the mall today and we saw the Easter bunny and I was like - we have to get her picture taken!!!! I was so excited and for some reason I thought Livy would love the idea of sitting in the lap of a crazy, ginormous, fuzzy BEAST... When I was about to put her in the bunny's lap she was holding on to me tighter than she ever has in her entire life! She was clinging so hard! Then she sat down and they snapped this pic before the real screams began. So funny.

Happy Birthday Grandpa B!

My dad turns OLD today and we sure are proud of him! haha Love you, Dad! We donated $100 to the Human Fund in your name! Best. Present. Ever. We know.

My baby's almost one!

It's the final countdown to Livy's first birthday - less than two weeks! I'm so excited. I'm planning to go and do all of her favorite things that day. I might even let her play with a Q-tip and tampon - her two favorite things in the world, don't ask. We won't be having a huge birthday party because, well, she has no idea what's going on and I don't really see the point until she gets older. But there will be cake, and that's all that really matters to her at this point.

So anywho, this last week was Matt's first week at work and it was AWESOME. Haha - training always sucks but he's excited about the new job! Also, it's been strange to get use to life without Matt. I was use to having him around all the time, but no more... tear. Also, my friend Shara and her two little kiddlies are in town and it's been so fun reuniting. She has the pictures that I will be jacking from her blog and putting on here. Get excited.

Anywho, that's the update. Here's some pics from Livy's little photo shoot in her tennis dress. So cute!

This picture shows off my little ball of personality. She freaking waves at everyone we pass, wherever we go. It's so stinkin' cute.

This is how Livy sits, ALWAYS. These little legs have been crossed since the womb! It's true, we have an ultrasound picture of her little legs crossed while her entire upper body was scrunched together. So funny.

I love this face.

The Cruise EXTRAVAGANZA

Get ready for a very, very long post. Everything you could ever wonder about our trip is listed below... I know you're excited.

Here's our room on the ship. This is where we chilled each night and still caught up on our shows... I love vacations.

This became a favorite game.

And of course, Livy found the drawers.

Each night we came home to a new towel animal. Usually they put eyes on them that Livy would eventually try to eat. Other nights we got a frog and a bird I think. It was cool. Kudos to the housekeeping people.

Here's where we ate each night. It was so awesome just ordering food and not even having to think about how much it was.
Here's our waitress for the week, Corina. She's from Romania. She freaking loved Alivia. She would tell everyone about her and how cute she was. Each night someone new would come up and look at her and Corina would be like, "See? Didn't I tell you!"

Everyone around would entertain Livy. It was so funny! They would just stare at her and sit next to her. A bit awkward at times but way cute as well.

This was where we ate for breakfast and lunch. This is also the place where we consumed at least 12 ice cream cones per day. The guys that worked there would also play with Livy non-stop. This is where a lot of the awkward moments took place with people just sitting with us and watching her... AWKWARD.

Here's our first destination, Catalina Island. We decided not to go on any of the excursions there because we just wanted to take a look around and go play at the beach with Livy on our own. Here we are in front of the casino that the island is famous for. I can't remember if it's a casino or theater. Whatev, it suficeth to say was huge and pretty and is famous somehow.

I guess we were too far from the cool beaches because this rocky one was as good as it got. But Livy had a blast exploring and putting sand and rocks in her mouth. She even snuck a big rock home! We were laughing so hard. So we kept it for her as her first official souvenir.

We passed this cool wall on the way to the beach. I was trying to take a cool picture... it didn't really turn out, but oh well, the wall is cool.

After we got back from Catalina Island, we took Livers to the little kids pool that was warm. She freaking loved it. It was so cute! She would kick her little legs like she was swimming. We bought this little flotation device for like $2 and she loved it. Except she figured out that if she leaned forward she would fall out of it. Ah! It became frustrating. But she kept trying to "love" the water which she does by bending down and putting her head on the water to give it a hug.

Ensanada, Mexico! We decided to do an excursion and tour the coast. It was cool.

Here's our tour guide, Irma. She reminded me so much of my grandma. She was super nice and very funny. She informed us of things Americans say wrong in Mexico. Apparently, don't ever say you're chilly in Mexico. We're not completely sure why still, just don't do it.

Here's the first thing we ever bought in Mexico. We handed Livy this doll--whose name is now Maria--to see if she liked it and she wouldn't give it back. It was so funny.

Here's our second stop on the tour. It was freezing so we used the ponchos to stay warm. They were pretty gross but we were in Mexico... we had to get the full gross effect of it all.

We had our first ever real Mexican chips, salsa, and nachos. Matt was in heaven!

This picture Matt took is his pride and joy. He claims he focused on the coke on purpose... Also, never ask for Coke in Mexico - only ask for Coca-Cola, another tidbit of advice from Irma.

Here are our awesome souvenirs from Mexico--wild crazy Mexican rings. It was funny bartering for our stuff. And it was super scary for a minute there. Also, these poor little kids would just follow us with cups. So sad.

And we got Livy a freaking cute little dress.

You've finally reached the end of a ridiculously long post. Congratulations!

We're back!!!!

We made it home alive from Mexico! Woo! The cruise was so much fun, there'll be plenty of pictures and videos coming your way. Also, they told us we'd still feel like we were on the water, which I completely scoffed at, but right now I feel like I'm swaying in my chair... what the! Anywho, I came home to a pleasant surprise. The little book I made Livy was featured on scrapblog's actual blog! They pick five scrapblogs out of thousands each Friday and mine was picked this week! Cool beans! Anywho, you can see it here along with some other awesome scrapblogs! Enjoy!

Lamanite War Paint

If you've been a follower of this blog, you might remember this event that took place exactly one year ago...

Well to commemorate that day, I put the paint on the actual baby! Haha, we were having fun. We even did crazy ponytail hair.

Making war sounds.

Lamanite making a phone call.

Here's another awesome picture that came from today's mini photo shoot. With the 60's effect of course - can you tell that's a favorite as of late?

Also, Livy loves to give kisses lately. She also loves to slip a little tongue every now and then. Here with Matt she has taken this to an entirely new level by licking his face. I'm serious, she IS a puppy.

And she just discovered this area on top of the printer. Awesome.

Random Recent Videos

Is she laughing or crying??? She started out laughing and then things turned ugly.

She can walk!




She can dance!




She thinks she's hilarious.




While we went to Santa Rosa this week, Gma Wiseman got a "thank you" out of Livy. It's so cute. I know it's a stretch, but it really is thank you. Look, she's trying to do the best she can without any teeth! It turns out the whole -th- sound is pretty rough without those pearly whites.

A photo shoot at the park

We have some free time this week since I'm not working and our cruise isn't until next week, so we decided to have a little fun at the park.

From this picture it would be safe to assume that Livy loves the swings...wrong! She kind of hates them but she likes holding on to things so I think that is what we captured here.

This one is legitimate, she really does love going down the slide. She is a bit of a thrill seeker.

This was in between parks. Livy loves playing with her feet while we are driving around. Quite often we will look back to see her with both feet pulled up by her face.

This is me and my baby...we love each other, enough said.

Livy just looks so big in this picture. It is crazy how fast she is growing up. Our little baby is going to be a year old in less than a month. It goes without saying that we think we have a super cute kid and we love playing with her at the park.

My name is Alexis and I am a Scrapblog-aholic...

Ginormous, Big, Gigantuous News!!!

So... Matt got a job! An awesomely amazing job! Guess where!

That's right - he's working with Comcast which not only means awesome pay and benefits - but free cable and internet - WOO! So what have we decided to do with our two more weeks of freedom together? A CRUISE!

Matt and I have never been on a cruise or to Mexico, so we decided to pull a couple of firsts next week and go on a Carnival cruise! Yay! We're taking Livers with us. We're so freaking excited! It's a five-day, four-night trip from L.A. to Catalina Island to Ensenada, Mexico then back to L.A. We can't freaking wait.

In other news, I am now a licensed California driver! Woo! The whole process only took an hour at the DMV and was relatively painless, but I was so scared to take the written test - I don't know why. So beforehand, I took all of the little practice tests online and briefly skimmed the little handbook online. Then I went through everything at the DMV and then my test was last. It took me about 5 minutes, then the lady graded the 36 questions in about 2 seconds - literally. And guess what! 100% baby! Woo! Here's the proof.The lady was excited for me and wanted to shout hooray for me but she couldn't (serious case of smoker's throat) so she drew the happy face instead!

Needless to say, we've felt seriously blessed today. Even though things didn't happen the way he had hoped - they turned out 10 times more awesome! We're very grateful!

Livy's Crazy Little Life

Why are little kids so freaking obsessed with technology?? Why can my 11-month-old work a DVD player!?!

Also, she has Ace Ventura hair thanks to her pigtails. I love it. We just need to curl her bangs up.

This kid is so freaking cute! We found out how awesome pigtails are on her. She looks older to me like a little girl now. Weird. I can't believe she'll be 1 in a month! Ah!

Also, here is Livers' favorite hang out spot. Needless to say, we don't keep anything in these drawers. Here are two hilarious faces.
I'm pretty sure she wasn't crying in this one. She makes this face when she sees a camera sometimes. Crazy kid.

Livy's Latest Tricks

This is old, obviously, we're in our last place. I just think this trick is funny with Matt.