another year

Last year I wrote this post about the wonderful woman that I am lucky enough to call Mom.

Today we celebrated another year of her life. Another year of love, giving, and memories.

Happy Birthday Mom! I'm looking forward to many, many more.

welcome to the world baby girl

Last night at 8:05 pm something beautiful came into this world. My cousin and his wife welcomed their first child, Makenzie Michelle. She wanted to take her time so her mommy had to be induced and after 11 hours of labor and two and a half hours of pushing they were finally able to hold their blessing from above in their arms. Weighing in a a whopping 9 lbs. 11oz. and 22.5 in. long!!

Ladies and Gentlemen I give you Makenzie Michelle and her wonderful parents Shane and Kristen.

She is beautiful, just beautiful. And seeing her and holding her in my arms made me want another one even more. Soon I hope, soon.

halloween 2009

This year Jarad and I wanted Livi to be something cute and funny. We figure she's two and next year will probably have her own ideas of what she wants so this year we went with a flower garden gnome. And honestly I don't think there was a better costume for her. She looked so stinking sweet!

Our Halloween festivities started on Thursday at her preschool. They have a Halloween parade and the kids walk around in their costumes. It was so much fun seeing all the different ones. The teachers all dress up as different color crayons!

Today we made cupcakes then did a lot of running around. After going out to trick or treat my family we went over to my sister-in-loves house for dinner and then trick or treating in her neighborhood. After dinner all the kids got dressed and ready to head out and get some loot! It was so much fun watching Livi walk up to the houses this year. She seems so big and I don't know how we got here. My mom wasn't lying it really does go by fast.

Livi sitting by her princess pumpkin getting ready to go.

Claire the spider

Levi Buzz Lightyear

Drew Black Spidey

CoCo the Cop and Levi

And since I didn't post these already, here is my fall decor.

Hope everyone had a safe and fun Halloween!

a huntin' they will go

I wrote this post last year telling everyone about the hunting lodge the boys have. This year PaPa decided they needed an outhouse. So he built one. And we all took it down to Conway. Here are some pictures of our fun day at the farm.

Enjoy.

Here they are taking it off the trailer. It is really, really heavy.

"B" is going to hate me for posting this one but this just shows you how heavy this thing is. I mean look at that face.

CoCo and Livi found playing on the trailer to be a lot of fun.

Helping Daddy load up some dirt.

With all the work done, its time to play.

thankful

My morning routine is the same everyday. Wake-up, pour a cup of coffee (that's a new one for me) feed the dogs, check facebook, and then get Livi up. This morning when checking my facebook, I noticed Aunt KiKi had her status as, "Aunt KiKi is just plain thankful for my life." When I read that I laughed. And not because I thought it was funny. I laughed because I was thinking that same thing all day yesterday. Actually there isn't a day that goes by that I'm not thankful for my life. I'm thankful I have a roof over my head, a vehicle to drive, and three meals (if I want to eat three) a day. I have a beautiful daughter and a husband who in my eyes hung the moon. I have a family and extended family that would do anything for me and I would do anything for them.

I may not have all the riches in the world. My house might not be the cleanest on the block, we might not be wearing the latest fashion, and some months we might pay our bills a little late. But we have smiles on our faces and love in our hearts and for that I will be forever thankful.

livi goes to school

We decided to send Livi to mother's day out this year. She's in the 2/3 year old class with her cousin Cohen and her buddy Levi. We are sending her twice a week. So far I believe she loves it! She asks to go all the time. When I picked her up the first day her teacher said she had a great day but they couldn't get her to sit down for any period of time!! ha! I guess I should have warned them that she is a busy body!

Some pictures from her first day.

summer summer summertime

To say its been a busy one would be an understatement. We have been going non-stop around here at the Giddens household. So far this summer we have:

Celebrated a second birthday and got some really cute pictures taken of our cute little girl.

Went on vacation to South Dakota with NieNie, Pa, Aunt Amber, Uncle Jesse, Hannah, Cade, Aunt Abbey, & Uncle Chris. Where we saw:

The Badlands

Stopped at Wall Drug and found a really neat chapel.

Mt. Rushmore

Woke Livi up from a nap so she could play with the animals at Old McDonald's Farm.

Road on the 1880 Train

Spent another day in Hill City looking at the trains and shops.

We drove on some very narrow and curvy roads with tunnels cut out of the mountains.

We saw lots of these:

We went to the Mammoth Site and saw, well, mammoths.

We went to Prairie Berry Winery.

Woke-up every morning to this.

and this is just half of it.

to be continued.....