LIfe got the best of us!

Wow! Our calendar has gotten the best of us! We are sooooo busy and I have completely let this blog get away. I hope I'll be able to find some time once a week to try and update everyone on our family.
The regular district football season is over and the Panther's are the new district champs! So far we have an undefeated record of 10-0! Go Panthers!
Emmalee's volleyball season went very well as well. Her freshman team only lost 3 games and lost only 1 district game. It was so much fun to watch her and her friends play!
Robbie is enjoying life in middle school and loves his waterboy duties - he'll continue his "job" throughout the basketball season. Speaking of basketball, Jeff and Emma started practice last week, so right now we are pulling double-duty with football and basketball.
Livi is growing like a weed! She has been crawling around for a couple of months now, but she has really got the groove down lately. She can get anywhere pretty much faster than you can :) She is pulling up and standing and will walk along a couch while holding on... such a sweet baby! We are so blessed to have 3 wonderful children!
Keep in touch and I'll try my hardest to post some pics and updates a little more often!

Wow! We must have gotten busy...

Sorry for the giant gap of postings, but life has moved into super-speed with the beginning of school, football and volleyball.
Since then, so much has happened! I'll make a few posts to share some pics: The first is that Livi has learned to sit up! She can scooch all over the floor and will push herself up into a sitting position. Nothing is safe anymore - she is sooooo close to crawling, but can get anywhere she needs to - and fast! :)

Great Great Aunt Mable and Uncle Eddy

Livi is sitting with her Great Great Aunt Mabel and Great Great Uncle Eddy. They came in for the parish picnic, and I'm so glad we got to see them and pose for pictures!

We had fun at the parish picnic!

We didn't get to stay as long as we would have liked - or as long as we usually do, but visiting with family and friends is always nice! Here, Livi and Aaron are kicking back on their pallet enjoying the auction.

Aaron has a faux hawk!

His mom ran to the store the other day and Aunt Carrie and I couldn't resist! Now, if we could only convince his parents to dye the hair purple and give him some feather earrings! :)

Avacados - yum... maybe!

Livi's first real food was avacados... a true Texan at heart! She ate them well enough, but we paid for it later! :)

Robbie liked the Dominion too!

He ususally ran around the rough looking for lost golf balls and checking out the fish and turtles in the water hazards. Next year, he'll play too!

Emma at the Dominion

Emma had a great summer of golf. She played at Alamo CC twice, Schriener CC in Kerville, Fair Oaks and the Dominion. We had so much fun watching her and we got to see some really great courses. It was a great chance to for Emma to get some tournament experience. She won 1st place at 3 tournaments, a 3rd and a 2nd place.

Her first food - rice cereal!

She did so well and continues to love solid food. She eats like a champ! Already she begins to lean in for the spoon and always opens wide. The first few bites were a bit messy, but now she knows the good stuff goes in the mouth!

4 months old!

Livi's feet kick up as soon as you lay her down, so you can see Jeff's hands holding her legs in place for this picture. Ha! :) She is growing so fast! She is such a good girl - we are always on the go, but Livi seems to take everything in stride. I hope that continues throughout football and basketball season. Her 4 month wakeful period is starting to wane a bit, she is only waking up 1 time a night instead of 2 or 3. She love attention, and as long as she is in the middle of any action, she'll just sit and watch and enjoy life! So beautiful and how blessed we are!

Awwww! Too cute!

Here are the girls at Bennigan's last Friday. We were school shopping and they were both having lots of fun!

Livi and her mom

Finally! I made a picture! ;) Jeff decided to pick up the camera the other day and I was so happy to find myself on the other end of the lens for a change. I don't have too many of her and I together, and I thought this one turned out nice.

17 weeks old!

I can really see how much Livi looks like her Daddy in this picture. :) She is babbling up a storm, eating cereal, grabbing for toys and scooching all over. We love her so much!

NaNe and Livi

I just thought this was a cute picture!

Her first dip in the Frio!

OOOOH! It was cold! Livi seemed to tolerate it for a bit, but didn't want to spend too much time in there. We spent 3 days at the Frio with NaNe and PaPa, the Migls and the Sofkas. We had so much fun splashing around in the river, playing Bolo Golf and SkipBo. Can't wait until next year!

First Cereal

Livi had a taste of her first cereal last week. She did pretty good, considering it was the first time she used a spoon. She's a regular feeding champ now! She'll open her mouth when any eating utensil is put near her mouth!

16 weeks!

At 16 weeks Livi has found her feet and likes to suck on them all the time, she is sitting very pretty in her Bumbo or other support chair, has really found her voice (see post above) and is slowly learning to go to sleep by herself.

She is such a wonderful joy in our lives!

Livi loves her Johnny Jumper!

We put her in the Johnny Jumper a few weeks ago and she wasn't quite big enough... so we waited and tried again yesterday. She loved it! She bounced and bounced and twirled around... it looks like this will be a staple in our entertainment bag. :)

My two girls...

... aren't they cute!

Happy Fourth of July!

We missed Robbie so much, but Livi and Emma posed for this picture. Both are wearing their red, white and blue! Happy Independance Day everyone!

Emma's ears are pierced!

Finally! It took years and years of beggin, cajoling, bribing, and encouraging - finally we have earrings. She only cried a bit, mostly from fear, but soon realized that it wasn't that big of a deal after all! Yea for Emma!

15 weeks!

She's outgrowing all of her newborn and 0-3 month outfits. If you look close, you can see her stretching this outfit to the seams :) Such a cute, good baby! She loves to smile and has discovered how to cough this week. At first we were worried she might be getting sick, but soon realized its her way of letting us know she wants attention! :)

Let's try a video

Let's see if a video will post - here are Livi and Aaron again.

And they're off!

I thought I'd post a before pic... stayed tuned for the after. :)

Packing everything up

I should have taken this picture a few hours earlier - camping gear was everywhere! Robbie, PaPa, Uncle Jerry and Uncle Buddy are taking a canoe/camping trip to Canada. Robbie was so excited, he could barely contain himself.

He was worried about the bears. We told him that he didn't have to outrun the bears - He just had to outrun his uncles! :)

Her new favorite thing...

... is hanging her feet in the air! For some reason, this position is the one that Livi loves the most. She finds herself entertained by a toy or a smiling face and BOOM! her feet go straight up!

14 weeks old!

And she rolls and rolls.... she started rolling tummy to back a few weeks ago (I posted about that), but now she rolls back to tummy - which is much harder. She drools all day and constantly tries to put her hands, toys, etc into her mouth. We are wondering if she'll start teething soon. She reaches and grabs for items now - she hasn't perfected it, but definately makes a grab at everything! Livi is growing up too fast! :)

It was a great weekend!

It was so much fun to spend time with the whole family!

Playin' Hide and Seek

Grace and Brianna were hiding underneath the picnic table yelling, "I'm stuck! I'm stuck!" I thought the pic was too cute not to post!

Livi Swims!!!

well, not really - but she did have her first dip in PaPa and NaNe's pool this past weekend. She did well for the first 3 or 4 minutes, but it was nap time and she didn't last too long. That's OK - I'm sure she'll spend plenty of time in there for many more summers.

Six Flags Fun!

We had a fun day at Fiesta Texas last Thursday... Dylan joined us and rode his first roller coaster! Here are Dylan, Robbie and Emma waiting in line to ride Overboard! - I think they rode it 4 times :)

3 months old!

My how the time flies!!! My baby girl is 3 months old already. She has been busy rolling over, cooing and gurgling, playing with her hands and feet, drooling and sucking on her fingers. That's her favorite thing to do - her fingers and hands are in her mouth all the time! She has outgrown her newborn clothes and has moved into the 3-6 month group. Such a beautiful baby - we love her so much!

I'm not happy, Mommy!

This is the first frown I've seen on Livi during bathtime since the day she was born. Bathtime is ususally her favorite time of day - but this day Livi was trying to take a nap but was fussy with gas. So I got the great idea to try and calm her down with a bath. No good! She just wanted to go to sleep - The frown remained on her face the entire time. She wanted out! No worries, by the next bath the smiles reappeared and bathtime was fun again!

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to Daddy, PaPa, and PaPaw! Hope your week is wonderful... we love you!

Livi and Addi

Livi met her new cousin Addi Akin last week at Aunt Jamie's house. Addi is 11 mos old and we're sure that she and Livi will be fast friends. Welcome to Texas Aunt Julie and Addi!

She was so proud of herself! Surprise!

Livi has started rolling a bit this week. I haven't made too big a deal of it, because its been mostly accidental. She sleeps on her tummy, so anytime she gets agitated there is potential for a roll.

So, while I was Ebaying this morning, Livi was napping across the room in her bed. She was being fussy and not sleeping very well... I kept having to get up and give her her binki, put my hand on her back, etc. Finally, she just started gurggling and cooing, so I stopped and watched her for a moment. All of a sudden, she just rolled right on over, looked me straight in the eye, and broke into the widest smile. She was so proud of herself - and she was so proud of the 'little' gift she left me! :)

11 weeks old!

Last week Livi was 11 weeks old! Time flies... she is getting so big - I sorta miss my little newborn. She barely fits on my lap when I'm feeding her :(

Rollin' Rollin' Rollin'

Livi is a'rollin'! The first couple of times you think it was an accident... but she seems to be doing it pretty good now!

The Brave Ones

Here are the courageous helicopter riders!

50 dollars is 50 dollars...

... inside joke! NaNe finally got to ride in a helicopter! They had helicopter rides at Tom Tom and NaNe found a bargain. She and Emmalee and Katherine rode for only $20 each. I didn't get a good shot of her inside, but here she is exiting. Robbie, Trey Elizondo and I followed in the next helicopter. It was a fabulous ride!

Tom Tom Parade

Livi made her first Tom Tom parade this past weekend... she slept through most of it, but she was there! She didn't like the sirens and horns, but the rest of parade was fine. Here she is with her Great Aunt Bonnie holding her next to cousin Vicky and Homer!

Aunt Carrie and Uncle Clement are in the back...

Scary Movies with NaNe

NaNe has always had a bad habit of letting her grandchildren watch scarey movies, then sending them home with me to deal with the nightmares. :) She is now inducting Livi into the mix... here is the 4 of them watching Disturbia at her house last weekend.

Chillin' in her Bumbo!

We've started putting Livi in her Bumbo for a few minutes at a time. She loves it! She's upright and can see all that goes on.... but her head isn't quite strong enough to last a long time, so we have to take her out.

I've been lax on my posts recently. I had to go back to work for the last week of school and then lost my USB cord... I found it and so we're back online! Sorry for the interruption - I'll be posting several tonight to catch up!

10 weeks old...

Livi has had a fun week with NaNe! She came up to Blanco to babysit for us while I returned to work this last week. It was hard leaving Livi for the first time, but I knew she was in the best hands. I think NaNe enjoyed herself too... :)

Livi looks a bit grumpy in this picture - we couldn't get her to smile. I think it was because we had just taken her out of the bath!

Happy Livi!

She has the brightest smile - here is another picture of her laying out at Fiesta Texas. Everyone comments on her big, beautiful eyes.

Mommy and her baby

I thought I'd post this pic of Livi and I... I like it! :)

9 weeks old...

... look at my little baby growing! She is so good. She still has reflux, but it seems to be getting a bit better. She only cries when she's hungry or when we're not paying enough attention to her! :) We love Livi!

Fiesta Texas!

Livi and I joined Emmalee and her classmates last Wednesday for their 8th grade trip to Feista Texas. The kids had so much fun and Livi was such a good baby. She and I camped out in the shade most of the day, but I did get to sneak away for a bit for one ride. Emmalee actually rode the roller coasters and the log ride - an achievment on its own! It was such a good day!