Look What Livi Can Do....

I have been meaning to blog about this for a few weeks now.  I am so impressed with Livi.  A few months ago she was riding her bike and one of the training wheels fell off so we put the bike in the garage and kind of forgot about it.  While my mom was here back in October Livi wanted to ride her bike, so instead of putting the training wheel back on I took the other one off. I just wanted to see what would happen.  I honestly didn't think she would actually ride her bike.  She got on, I held onto the seat and started to push her, she started to peddle, I let go and.... she kept on riding.  The FIRST try!  My mom and I just stood there speechless with huge grins on our faces.  I was anticipating tears, and fits and lots of scrapes when it came time to teach her how to ride a bike.  As much as I would like to give the credit to her incredibly athletic genes, I think her riding a glider bike from when she was little is what really made the difference.  She already knew how to balance on two wheels, so it was just a matter of learning to peddle.  It took her a few more tries (and tears and fits) to figure out how to turn around, but that came really quickly as well.  We have been riding our bikes everywhere since. I put Jack in the trailer on the back of my bike and we will go to the store, or to the park or just ride around the neighborhood.  One of the fabulous things about The Woodlands is the trails.  There are trials all over the place connecting everything, so technically we could ride our bikes everywhere.

She has had a few minor spills.  The scariest one was coming home from Kroger with Phil. I wasn't with them but he said she got going so fast down the parking lot she couldn't make the turn onto the trail and ended up flying over her handle bars, landing a few feet from the busy road.  She is still trying to figure out the whole brakes thing.

Halloween

We had such a great Halloween this year.  I love celebrating holidays with Livi and Jack, they make everything so much more fun!  We made Halloween sugar cookies, carved pumpkins, made caramel apples and went trick or treating 3 times. (our ward Trunk or Treat, the YMCA trail trick or treating and then the actual trick or treating.)  Jack was a spider and Winnie the Pooh.  We found this awesome dress at Family Thrift for Livi (for $1.50!) because she wanted to be a witch.  However, she decided that she was really a step mother, and ditched the witches hat.  She recently watched Cinderella for the first time and I think the wicked step mother made quite an impression her.

Our friends told us about this "Shenandoah Safe Streets" so that's where we went trick or treating and it was awesome.  A block of a nearby neighborhood was sealed off and fire trucks were placed at each entrance.  The kids got to explore the fire truck if they wanted to. All the people giving out candy came out on their driveways so you didn't have to knock on doors and could go from house to house in no time. The police and fire department supplied all the candy so you knew it was "safe" and they supplied a TON.  Each person was giving out handfuls. We only did this one block and we ended up with a huge bag full of candy.  When we got home Phil tried to take Livi out around our neighborhood but they did 3 houses and she was done.

  

 our trick or treating friends

 she is the sweetest sister anyone could ask for.  She helped him all night and took such good care of him.

 my sweet friend Emily

 he refused to wear the head piece

 the YMCA trick or treating

 ward trunk or treat