Gingerbread House

Decorating the Tree

 

Anthony took this pic of us

 

We got a fake tree this year.  YES!  Best thing ever.  It went up so fast and left no mess.  A loved decorating the tree and was careful to put the breakable ornaments where Liv couldn't reach them.  Liv was pretty good about not touching the tree and didn't pay too much attention to it. 

Funny face

Park

We went to the park that's just a few blocks away on Jared's birthday.  It's a great park and Anthony loves it so hopefully we can spend more time there when the weather is warm. 

Thanksgiving

We had a lovely day at Kim & Lynda's - my family all came and Jared's best friend Joe was able to join us as well.  Just love spending time with our families - we always have such a great time.

November

 First pancakes

 Snuggles after a cold family photo shoot

The kids started taking baths together - Liv loves the water. And A loves pouring water on her.

So Mad

So far Liv seems to have a bit of a short fuse.  This pic is from November when she could pull herself to standing, but then would be stuck standing because she couldn't figure out how to go back down.  She would instantly get so upset.  As of now (March) she still can't figure out how to go down a step - whenever she tries it's a total tumble.

Future Huskies

All the cousins!

Costumes

Anthony was SO excited to go trick or treating this year.  The new neighborhood was super quiet - we had hardly any kids come to the door.  Liv wore her cousin Brooke's old costume.

Liv on Halloween

All smiles while helping unpack boxes in the new house.

At the end of October Liv started pulling herself to standing

Pumpkin Carving

Anthony was so excited to carve pumpkins with dad!

Pumpkin Patch

We went to possibly the lamest pumpkin patch ever this year - will definitely not be returning next fall!  Anthony didn't seem to notice though and had a good time playing and picking out pumpkins.  Every year I am miserable at the pumpkin patch - they are just so muddy and not wheelchair friendly.  I'm thinking this needs to be an activity I skip from now on....:)

Liv starts crawling

End of October, 2012.  Liv crawled on her hands and knees.  It was adorable to see her tiny little body crawling all over the place.  We can't remember if Anthony ever had a real crawl or if he just army crawled.

Maui

We were fortunate enough to spend a week in Maui in the middle of October.  The timing couldn't have been more perfect.  We closed on the house right before we left so our contractor was able to start working on the house while we were on vacation.  About a week after we got back we were able to move into the house. 

The vacation was so relaxing - we really had a wonderful time.  Anthony loved swimming and wanted to be in the pool or the ocean as much as possible.  It was a lot of work flying a 5 hour flight with an 8 month old baby - she didn't cry much, but we had to constantly entertain her.  Anthony was great on the flights.  It was great to get away from the apartment for awhile because that wasn't the most fun experience with two kids in the same room! 

We spent most of our time there on the beach or at the pool and doing lots of eating and laughing.  We ate plenty of ice cream and talked about how hot it was and watched the sea turtles from our condo which was right on the water.  The guys tried paddle boarding and I went snorkeling for the first time since being paralyzed which was awesome.  I got a few strange looks from people on the beach - I'm sure they were wondering why these men were just tossing me in the water - but I was quite safe as Jared, Kim, and Mike just swam around me as I was floating around checking out the fish.  I got in the pool everyday and swam - it was so great to be in the water.  Bellevue has a great pool for paralyzed people and I definitely plan to start using it.