My Little Reader

This is how I found Olivia the other day.

Just too cute to not share with you!!!

Our New Ride

Yeah! Daddy is putting together my new car! I can't wait to drive it!

Still waiting for it to be whole...

Woo-hoo! My car is ready!


I love my car, but I really wish it had a backseat for these babies that insist on riding with me!

Christmas Day Continued...

After Santa, we had Jason's side of the family over for breakfast and gift opening. This was my first time to host on Christmas Day, so needless to say I felt like a real "grown up"! I was excited to get to use my Christmas Dishes from PB. They had only been used once before, so it was fun to get them all out!

My mantel this year....I seem to do it differently every year, and I wasn't overly thrilled with it this year. I loved the red mesh ribbon, but need more large things to put on the mantel. Oh well...it will come with time!

Olivia with Nana (my mom) checking out the tree



VERY poor attempt at getting this gang to take a picture!

This group did much better!

Elizabeth & Mom
(Gram E & Nana)

Olivia taking money from Emily. Glad we've taught you well!

Deanna, Griffin & Michael

Our little TCU cheerleader

Me, Olivia and Gracie (our 50 pound poodle) in the tent together. Gracie has since gotten in it a couple of more times. She SOOOOOOOOOOO thinks she's a little human!

Playing with her new Aqua Doodle from Santa. Highly recommend this toy. She loves it (as she loves to color and draw), but it's just water, so there's no real mess! Fabulous idea!

Tried and tried to get pics of me and my girl before going to Elizabeth's for the evening round of Christmas, but she wasn't having any part in it!

Playing with giant legos

Daddy won't let Olivia do any of the work!

Yeah! Daddy let me put on the last pieces!

Hope you all had a very Merry Christmas! I know we had a great one with Olivia and I'm sure it will only be better next year!

Santa Found Our New House!

We were worried Santa wouldn't find us in our new house, but he did! I woke up several times throughout the night. I guess I was just excited and ready for the morning so Olivia could see all of her new things from Santa!

She just stood and took it all in for a minute.

Then she slowly started looking at each thing.

Loves the bling.

Loves her new baby! She's toted her around all weekend.

And definitely loves the tent. It's her new hiding spot when daddy gets home!

Thanks Santa!

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve 2010 began with quite a bit of cooking....everything always takes twice as long as I think it's going to take in my head! My mom and stepdad arrived early afternon. We opened presents, went to Christmas Eve service at our church, went out for dinner (after searching for an open restaurant), drove around and looked at lights, then came home and had an early mini birthday celebration for my stepdad. We crammed a lot into the one evening!

I believe this was technically Christmas Eve Eve, but I wanted to share as she was SO happy!

Another candid moment (although it was on Christmas Eve). This is proof that O's babies need diapers of their own! She had gotten one of her diapers for each of her babies. I'm tired of having to diaper 4-5 baby dolls in size 5 diapers! (Santa purchased a pack of newborn diapers for the babies...and she has loved them).

Opening presents with Nana and Papaw.
Wonder what's in the big one???

The baby bed has bedding to match Olivia's room. So cute! Thanks Nana! We love it!
My mom makes Scrabble oranaments. I think the way it works is you pick your own letters and she charges by the word. They've been really popular where she lives. She made Olivia one for her tree (although here's Olivia hanging it on the big tree).

One of the gifts from my sister....The Bee Bop Band....THANKS A MILLION for this super quiet toy!!! HA! It actually is really cute. She knew immediately what to do with those drum sticks. It also came with some other band pieces that are stored inside of the drum when not being used. Pretty cute!

Nana, it's time to open the big one please!

Nana got Olivia a little starter kitchen, and she loves it.

Hard at work.

Unfortunately, I never got any pics of us dressed for church or Olivia in her Christmas dress, but she's worn it several times before....she even wore it to church last week AND on Christmas Eve....**GASP**! Ha!

We ended the evening with a birthday party for Walter, who's birthday is actually on Christmas Day. I figured it would be best to celebrate the day before since our house was going to be really full on his actual birthday. Happy Birthday Walter/Papaw!

2010 Christmas Card

I had a local photographer take some pictures of Olivia for me in her Christmas dress. My camera was in the shop for a couple of weeks and I wasn't totally sure I'd be able to get any decent pictures. Anyway, we met at a local park. As I pulled into the parking lot, Olivia began vomitting in her car seat. JUST OUR LUCK!!! I had not dressed her yet, but needless to say I was still a bit flustered! I got her out of the seat, cleaned her up, and decided we'd give the pictures a try anyway. Needless to say we didn't get any fabulous pics, but we got a few decent ones. Poor, poor baby!

I made the cards on Shutterfly.

23 Months Old

You'll be 2 years old in just one month! Oh my goodness, that breaks my heart! You are becoming such a big girl! This weekend you began calling me "mommy". You still refer to me as mama, but mommy has become very popular in the last couple of days.

You say a lot of phrases regularly, including these:
"I get it"
"C'mon mama" (or dada...whoever you are needing)
"I wub wu"
"I don't know"
"I help"
"Where'd he go?" often followed by "I don't know" (whenever someone leaves the room)

I know there many more, as you are starting to talk quite a bit, but I can't possibly list everything you know!

You are wearing 18-24 month clothes, although 24 month pants are still really big. I don't think you are short, but maybe you just have short legs and a longer torso. I just know you are at an awkward stage and it's hard buying you clothes, so you've been wearing a lot more dresses/leggings.

You still love your babies. This weekend I caught you taking the rectal temperature of one of them. I died laughing. You also use the nasal aspirator and "suck" your babies' noses. You change their diapers and waste your wipes on them. You are a great little mommy!

You love to help.

You like to do artwork.

You like to cook.

You enjoy puzzles.

I suppose this will be our last "monthly" update. Instead, I'll post what you are doing at 2, 2 1/2, 3, etc. At this age, you are just changing SO MUCH from month to month that it's impossible to keep up with all of the things you are doing!

We love you SOOOOOO much....."tis much" as you would say (with your arms stretched out wide open).

Christmas Cookies

WARNING: PICTURE OVERLOAD! I just caught some really priceless expressions today and had to share so they'd be preserved!

I think it's SO important to spend quality time with your children. As a working mom, it's sometimes difficult to find time and to remember to slow down. Weeknights are busy eating dinner, taking baths and going to bed, but we try to make sure we reserve book time and a little play time as well. I also try to utilize bathtime as a time to sit, talk and play games. Weekends are busy doing all the things we can't do during the week, like grocery shopping, cleaning house, washing clothes, etc.; however, I have learned to set aside some of those things in order to spend time with my daughter. Life will go on and be ok if the house isn't super clean. Kids grow to fast to get caught up in those little things!

So, today Olivia and I decided to make cookies. It's 5 days before Christmas and I have company coming, but I have faith everything will get done! I've wanted to make cookies with Olivia for the last few weekends and I finally decided to just do it! This was a first for us. I wasn't sure how she'd do or if she would listen to me, but she was awesome! She totally understood everything. When we were low on flour and our rolling pin was sticking, she'd tell me to put on "mo" flour. She cut a lot of the cookies herself. She was 100% into it.

The pictures pretty much speak for themselves....she LOVED making cookies!

Making icing.

She doesn't like having her hands dirty. Daddy told her to like it off. She was pretty hesitant at first, but once she started tasting it, she cleaned off those little fingers!

THE FINISHED PRODUCT

Yes, those white globs are Frosty the Snowman. Really. They are.

I think I'll be working on Olivia's birthday cookies by myself this year! Shhhhh....don't tell her. She'd be heartbroken!