Utah Here We Come!

The time has finally arrived! Livi and I leave for Utah tomorrow morning and Phil will be joining us in a week and a half! I have been so excited to see everyone. And my siblings and parents have all planned a trip to go to seven peaks on Saturday. I was so looking foward to seeing Livi play with her cousins and to go down the lazy river with her and just hang out with my family. BUT I woke up this morning and my eyes were pretty sore and I could tell they were all goopy. I went in to Livi's room to get her and I reached my arms out for her and she wouldn't come to me! She looked at me like she didn't even know who I was. Phil came in her room and I asked him if I looked especially scary or something and he said my eyes looked pretty gnarly. I went in the bathroom to look, and I couldn't blame Livi for being terrified. My eyes were all swollen and blood shot and slimed. I called my Dr and much to my dismay they are pretty sure I have conjunctivitis or "pink eye." He prescribed some drops and ointment so hopefully those help. But if it's not cleared up by Saturday I can't go to seven peaks. Unless I want to spread this lovely treat to others.

I Heart Coldplay and Summer Nights

You can tell Livi isn't quite sure what to think.

Nothing like forcing your child to pet a dog.

Last night was amazing. We ended up going over to this park right along the side of the pavilion and we could hear everything perfectly. It couldn't have been more clear, even if we were inside. We could see the people in the concert on the back row, so it was kind of like we were in the nosebleed section. We got ice cream and walked along the river and Livi loved running up and down the hills. She stopped to pet a dog and a horse (some of the policemen ride horses around here). She was actually terrified yet mesmerized by the horse. The policeman stopped so she could pet the horse and her hand on the back of my shirt went into a death grip. We stayed until a little after 10:00. People were probably looking at us thinking we were horrible parents for having our small infant out that late, but it was marvelous and she had a great time so I didn't care. When they started playing In My Place I wanted to cry, that is one of my favorite songs. Not just of theirs but of all time. You know those girls that are sobbing uncontrollably when they see rock stars? I always wondered what was wrong with them. But last night I came to the conclusion that if I saw Chris Martin up close and personal I would probably cry like a baby.

For some reason it takes forever for my computer to load videos directly to Blogger, so I prefer to load them to youtube and just provide a link. Here are some videos of last night so you can see how awesome they sounded.

Coldplay!

I'm so excited! Tonight Coldplay is playing in the same outdoor pavilion that we went and listened to the symphony for July 4th. Tickets sold out before I even knew they were coming, so we don't have tickets....but, whenever there is a concert over there we can hear them from our balcony which is a good 5 miles away (because it's an outdoor stage). So tonight we are going to go over and just walk around the outdoor mall that's across the street and listen in. Here's hoping it works out!

Tickle Time

I love tickling Livi, her laugh is the sweetest thing in the world. Yesterday after church we were just chillaxin' and this is what came about. Please disregard the pile of clothes.

First Trip To The ER

Oh, what a night. I made my first trip ever to the ER last night. It all started at dinner time. Livi had just finished eating and I undid her straps on her high chair to get her out. I turned around to put my fajita down and just then I see Livi attempting to leap from her seat. I lunged for her but wasn't fast enough. She fell straight down and landed on her forehead, then her whole body flipped over her head and her neck twisted in a very unnatural way. I wasn't sure if I should pick her up, but she was reaching for me so I did anyway. She only cried for about 30 seconds and then she requested some cheese and was back to normal. We all went in the living room to sit down and watch a movie and Livi was just sitting on the floor playing when all of a sudden she spits up, not vomit, just spit up. She never spits up (I can probably count on one hand how many times she has spit up her entire 13 months of life) so I was a little concerned, knowing that one indication of head injury is vomiting. I had read that vomiting is really only serious if it happens two or more times. Maybe an hour later I was holding her and she spit up again, this time with a little more force and more substance, but I still wouldn't call it vomit. Nonetheless, I was still worried about her and decided to call the 24 hour nurses at the Dr. office and see what they thought. The nurse I spoke with said with head injuries she would prefer I talk to the Dr. so a few minutes later Livi's Dr. calls me back and I replayed the incident to him. At this point it has been over 2 hours and Livi is acting completely normal, except for the two spit up incidents. She is getting a little sleepy, but because it's her bedtime. The Dr. told me I needed to take her to the ER. He said if she was prone to spitting up he wouldn't think much of it, but since she so rarely does, it was better to be safe than sorry. He told me to take her to this place a few minutes away because they would be able to get us in and out quickly. I said, "Are you sure she needs to go the ER? She acts fine." To which he replied that with potential head injuries you never know. When we arrived at the ER we were the only ones waiting so we were able to get in and see a Dr within 10 minutes. Which was a very pleasant surprise. The nurse checked all of her vitals, asked for the details of the accident etc, and then the Dr. came in and looked at her. He wanted to avoid a CT scan if possible, so he asked that we give her some crackers and juice and hang out for about an hour to see how she responds. They gave us a bunch of toys and some bubbles and we just sat and played for an hour. When the hour was up Livi seemed perfectly fine so they let us go home. I put her and myself to bed as soon as we got home. Then about 1:30 I hear Livi crying, not her usual cry, but an upset one. So I rush in there and she is all sweaty and her sheets up by her head were wet. I couldn't tell if they were wet from her sweat or if she had thrown up. I brought her into our bed where she layed in between us and fell back asleep. I was trying to go back to sleep but was so worried I couldn't relax. So I got up and called the ER back and spoke with the nurse and told her what happened and she said the most important thing was whether Livi was acting like herself or not, which she was once I got her out of her crib. So that put my mind at ease. I eventually put her back in her own crib (how do people sleep with their kids?!) and she slept till 8:30 this morning. Which is a record for her. I woke up in a panic when I realized how late it was and she was still asleep. I went and checked on her and she was just fine, sound asleep. She as been great all day so I'm hoping everything is ok! I'm thinking about wrapping her in Styrofoam and never letting her out of my sight?

Cherry Juice

I bought some cherries today. As I sat down on the couch with a bowl full of them, Livi reached over and grabbed one and took a big bite out of it. As she did, dark red cherry juice squirted everywhere. I don't know if any of you have ever got cherry stains on your clothes but it is difficult to get out. So I hurried and stripped her down and tried to get the stains out as much as possible. Then I had to clean the couch and the carpet and my shorts. Here is a picture of Livi afterwards. I think she was a little confused.

Independence Day!

What an amazing Fourth of July! I'm not sure why, but I was especially excited for this years' fourth celebrations, and I was not disappointed. The good times began when Phil got home from work early Thursday afternoon and had Friday off. I love long weekends. Friday night we went with some friends and watched the Houston Symphony perform various patriotic numbers in an outdoor pavilion. It was insanely hot but very much worth it. The concert didn't start until 8pm but it was still almost 100 degrees. You can see how hot and sweaty Livi was. Luckily they handed out fans at the door. The concert was incredible and we had a marvelous time. However, We ended up leaving at the intermission because Livi was starting to have a meltdown. The kids behind her pulled out some french fries and she went bonkers. After we left we went and got some ice cream to help us cool down.

ripping my earring out, her favorite past time

Saturday morning we headed over to the parade. Phil really isn't in to parades and neither is Livi (yet), but I really wanted to catch me some candy so we headed over. Once again we left about half way through because A) I had yet to see a single piece of candy B) it was becoming increasingly hot C) we really wanted to go swimming and D) all of the floats we had seen were pretty lame. There were what seemed like 50 different cars showing off a variety of Texas beauty queens and a fire truck and some political figures. I'm sure we left before all the good stuff came but I wasn't too disappointed because we were going swimming!

After the parade we met up with a bunch of friends from church at this sweet pool. They wouldn't let Phil hold Livi on his lap going down the slide so that's why it looks like he's about to launch her into the water.

She wasn't such a fan of the shower effect.

After the pool we went home where Livi took a 3 hour nap and I made a pink lemonade cake for the BBQ we went to later on that evening. If you are ever feeling the need for a refreshing treat I highly recommend a pink lemonade cake. It's an ice cream cake that is very simple and delicious. Here's the recipe:

1 pk Yellow cake mix

1 qt Vanilla ice cream

1 cn 6oz fz. pink lemonade concentrate

6 Drops red food coloring

1 c Whipping cream

2 tb Sugar

Prepare cake mix according to package directions. Bake in two 9x 1 1/2 in round cake pans; cool. Meanwhile, stir ice cream to soften;quickly stir in 1/2 cup of the concentrate and the food coloring. Spread evenly in foil-lined 9x1 1/2 round cake pan. Freeze 2 or 3 hours or until firm. Place cake layer on serving plate; top with ice cream layer, then with second cake layer. Beat cream with remaining concentrate and the sugar till stiff. Frost sides and top of cake; return to freezer at least 1 hour or till served.

We went over to a friend's house for a BBQ that afternoon and stuffed our faces. It was too hot to eat outside so they moved all of their furniture and put blankets down on the floor for everyone to eat on. It was just like having a picnic, minus the unbearable heat and the killer fire ants! I wish I would have taken a picture but I was way to interested in the plethora of food before me. I'm salivating just thinking about it. After eating and hanging out we all headed over to watch the fireworks

I'm sure you're all wondering how you can have awesome hair like me.

Our ward has a tradition of meeting at the same place every year to watch the fireworks together. So we met up with even more people in the parking lot of Pier 1. They set off the fireworks over Lake Woodlands and so thousands of people were packed into the parking lot of this strip mall a few miles away from the lake. We saw an amazing fireworks show while eating caramel popcorn thanks to Tonya. We finally made it home about 10pm after a long and event filled day. This was definitely one of the best fourth of July's of my entire life. On the way home Phil and I were talking about all of the people we have met and become friends with since being here. We have never lived somewhere that is as outgoing and accepting as this place. I love it here. I can't say it enough!