like father.....

like daughters.

olivia and mallory got some of daddy's favorite treat today...

some oreos.

this is the aftermath. aren't they cute. mallory is obviously a little more messy than olivia but liv still got messy.

brett will sit down with a thing of oreo's and some milk and eat half the bag. don't tell him i put that on here(shh!) . also, anyone who knows the story of how we first met knows that oreo's are part of our history.dirty face #1

dirty face #2

brett has also taught the girls to do silly faces.

this is some of their best work.

silly face #1

silly face #2

we love you daddy!

apple orchard!

on saturday we went to an apple orchard. we went with another couple, juli and steve and their cute kids. it was really fun. the girls loved to look for apples and step on the gross apples on the ground. livy really wanted to carry our bag of apples. she was adorable and carried it almost the whole time, even when it was pretty heavy.

brett is showing livy what to do. she really wanted to get an apple. they had these apple pickers so you could get to the really high apples. i am sure they have them at every apple orchard, but i have never been to one to acutally pick apples. so this was new to me.

doesn't kallie fit right in??
cali, livy and mallory. good friends already.

they also had a little consession stand and were selling fresh produce and stuff. brett couldn't pass up the apple butter and some fresh, real apple cider. we also got a apple cider slushie. IT WAS SO GOOD. i would go back just to get that again. we had so much fun and i think we will go back next year!

waterman's farm

a couple a weeks ago we decided we better do something fun with the girls because of the move...so we headed to a local farm/pumpkin patch. we had a ton of fun. waterman's had horse rides, fun blow-up slides and jumping thing, corn maze, pumpkin patch and a hay ride.

livy died when she got to ride this cute little horse. she still talks about how the boy helped her. she says when she gets bigger she is going to ride a horse "all by herself". so cute.

neigh, moo, oink. don't we look great!

this is the sweetest little cow i have ever seen. he came right up to you and let you pet him!!
i haven't ever pet a cow, so even i thought it was super fun. the girls loved him.

here are some of the slides they had to play on. i think mallory and olivia went on these ones about 100 times.

the girls LOVED the little pumpkins and both picked one out. olivia was so proud of herself for finding this pumpkin. she carried it around and treated it like her baby.

mallory was so funny. she wanted a big pumpkin, as you can see. she tried and tried to pick it up, even grunting and eventually asked for help. it was adorable. she only got to get a little one though, mean parents.family photo on the hay ride. the girls thought it was so great. they took us all around the farm. it was a really fun place.

i always find myself talking in a higher pitch to the girls in videos. i don't know what that is all about?

i found a park mom!!

this is very exciting news in our life. we could not stand being inside anymore, so we went a found a park!

livy was so cute. i pulled up and she just yelled

"there it is mom, i found the park".

she says the funniest things these days.

REALLY! when did these girls get so big and SO cute??



i told the girls to get on their shoes and this is what i got. i thought it was adorable.
what is it about little cowboy boots?? i LOVE them.
we have been back several times, even with daddy.

now you know some hoosiers!

yes, that's right....we live in INDIANA!!

what? when? why?? you ask. these are all good questions that we are asking ourselves too.

WHY?

brett's call center got shutdown. we had the choice to move to indiana and still have a job or option two- find a new job.

WHEN?

we have actually been here for almost 3 weeks. we got here on liv's birthday and have almost totally settled in. we love our apartment complex and enjoy the neighborhood. we haven't seen too much of indianapolis, but i know where the nearest walmart, target, costco and red robin are so we are set.

here are some pictures from the journey to indiana!

this was the view for me and the girls the whole way there. brett driving the moving truck pulling the car. i did some caravan driving, blocking for brett (i think that is what greg called it) and we had a really good trip.

here is the welcome to indiana sign. still so weird we actually moved. i think we all expect to go to wendy's tomorrow and to see all our friends at church and play group on wednesday and greg, why haven't you called to make lunch plans?

we are really missing minneapolis.
mallory, the girls were so good on the way out!!
silly olivia
we took 2 days to get here and stopped in chicago for a night. we didn't see much because we left minneapolis late and it took much longer than i thought. i forgot about big trucks having to go 55 mph!! SO SLOW!! so, because of the long trip i got a hotel with a pool so we could all play and have fun after the drive. well, just kidding. we got all suited up to go and i looked on the hotel map to see where the pool was and there was NOT a pool!! AHHHHH! i was a little mad and promised the girls we could have a bath when we got to our new house. well, here they are in the HUGE garden tub we have in the master bath. so fun.

and right after this picture was taken, mallory left her mark and claimed this as her territory by POOPING in the tub. luckily i saw as it was happening and quickly saved olivia and got mallory out when she was done.

now i know i am home.

happy birthday livy lou!!

we had two great b-day parties for this sweet girl. one at the park with all of her friends and the other at wendy and kenny's with the fam. olivia was in heaven.

we are singing happy birthday and she is wearing a too small birthday hat.

here is the cake she picked out herself. she LOVES princesses.

no, i didn't make it not enough time.


liv was so excited to open all the great presents. she has such great friends and they all gave her such fun stuff. we need to practice opening gifts though, she wasn't too good a the rip and go fast technique.


these are pictures of the family gathering. greg made ribs and ckicken, it was soooo good. as with minnesota birthday tradition greg also brought an icecream cake. wendy and i did fill in the gaps in the dinner and didn't make greg do all the work. aren't we good sisters!

we were actually celebrating all of the september birthday's,
greg(23), liv (26) AND wendy(30).
at the family party, olivia thought all her gifts were from nana! it was really funny. i can still catch her asking mallory, "these jammies are from nana, aren't they pretty". so cute, so thanks nana!

what a fabulous time for olivia. thanks to all her friends and family for making her 3rd birthday such a great one. we had tons of fun. thank you!!

announcement

i think almost everyone knows, but i am pregnant!! we are shocked but very excited. i am due jan. 26. we actually found out the sex of the baby today and if you can't tell already...

we are having a boy!!

i can't believe it is true. we are all very excited and i am still in shock. i feel kind-of scared. i feel like i don't know how to have a boy?? what do i do with him? ahhh!!

brett is beside himself. he has produced a male. the first thing he said was "we have to go on NFL.com and get him a tampa bay bucs outift". so funny. now, on to the shopping!

summer of '08

i know, i know. you are all so excited that i am finally back to blogging!! yeah. we had a great summer with tons of playing and swimming and all sorts of stuff!! here are the highlights.

we bought a new van!! for anyone who knows us, this was a very hard decision for us because- truly we really don't like minivans, but we needed to think of the future and this chevy venture gets MUCH better milage than the durango we were in love with. the girls LOVE the van. livy gets to open the sliding door EVERYTIME we get out. she loves it and she never gets tired of it. it has TONS more room and we are liking it.

this is a cute picure of the girls and brett on father's day. aren't they so cute??
this is the fourth of july. we got to go to wendy and kenny's and have good food with them and greg. we played in their pool forever. brett and i even got to play since mallory slept and wonderful cousins took care of olivia for awhile. then went home to go to a ward party and watch the fireworks. liv was in HEAVEN. she ran around with all the other kids and had so much fun. she is even flushed in this picture because of the running around.
both girls LOVED the fireworks and brett and i even had a fun time!! we really like our ward.
here is another great picture of our van and my cute girls!! isn't mallory so cute.
we went swimming atleast once a week. either at a cute little tot-lot, at a friends or at one of the lakes around here. the girls loved it.

i take care of a friends kids once a week, adam is above with olivia. adam is a year older than liv but they are the best of friends and play really well together.

this is adam sister, emily. mallory and her are only 2 weeks apart and they love eachother as much as 1 and 1/2 year old can.

the girls having dinner one night. mallory loves to do everything by herself and this is usually the result!

we got to go to the primary pioneer celebration since brett and i are both primary teachers. the girls had alot of fun. don't they look adorable in their cute pioneer hats?

this picture has a story. liv is running after some birds, as you can see. whenever liv sees some birds she always says, "mom, birds! i want to catch one". so this is her running to catch a bird!! she is so cute. livy still hasn't caught one yet!well, there is more. so keep looking.