Weekly Routine

This week was pretty much just a typical week for us, with each day pretty much the same.....wake up, go to work, come home, eat, play, go to bed. Olivia is doing much better sleeping at night, which is AWESOME! Mommy feels much better now! The last 2 months were pretty rough...I don't think I realized how deprived I was of some much-needed sleep! She has been sleeping approximately 11 hour stretches at night, which is GREAT!

Here are a few random pics from this past week.

Olivia was playing in her crib one evening and I walked in to check on her. She had fallen asleep and was hugging her bunny. How sweet??!!

It seems all of our posts have been food-related lately, but I guess that's the main thing going on with her, and every few days we get to try something new!

The following pictures CRACK me up! This was after Olivia tried pears for the first time. She's kind of a picky eater!

Bite #2


I took a couple of pictures before church this morning...I just thought these were sweet.

Show Us Your Life - Wedding Ceremony

Kelly is hosting Show Us Your Life, and the theme is weddings. This week we are suppose to show our wedding ceremony (reception to follow next week). I don't have very many pictures saved to my computer, and I don't know where our wedding disc is, so I'll just share the ones I have.

Jason and I were married March 18, 2006. By the time the wedding day finally arrived, we had been dating for 6 years....we didn't waste any time, huh! :)

My nieces were the flower girls...adorable!

The florist painted the center of the gerbera daisies black. How clever!

I also loved the black candlesticks in the Bapitstry. These are now in my house.
*I really wish I had better pics scanned*

These two little girls sure have grown in the last 3 years!

We did this flower arrangement on every pew or maybe it was every other pew - I honestly don't remember. Thanks mom for taking care of SOOO many of those small details!

Check back next week for our Black & White Reception!!!!

A Picky Palate

Olivia LOVES to eat........milk and oatmeal, that is. The introduction of other foods hasn't been so successful thus far. We started on green beans....five nights of gagging and then refusing the oatmeal because she wouldn't trust me anymore! So we moved on to sweet potatoes.....three nights of gagging, then two nights of "tolerating" them. Tonight we started carrots....and LOVE AT FIRST BITE!!! I fully expected to have to go thru 4-5 nights of gagging like we've done with everything else (even the cereal until she just finally gave in). She took her first bite of carrots, looked at me funny, then smiled and opened her mouth for more! I'm so glad I've found at least one vegetable she'll eat! I was starting to get discouraged. Green peas still to come...YUCK!

Here are a couple of pics of one night eating sweet potatoes.

"Thanks, but no thanks...I'll just eat my fingers".

"Gosh Mom...enough already"

"That's it...I've had ENOUGH!"

1st Sippy Cup

Olivia got her first sippy cup on her 6 month birthday. She really seemed to like it. I think she just thought it was a new toy. Sorry for the no bloomers - the nurse got blood on them when she gave her shots, so we took them off when we got home.

What if?

Today Olivia and I were on our way home from her 6 month check-up, when I noticed a "homeless" man standing at the light. It must be a decent light as Jason and I saw him standing there yesterday as well. He was probably in his 50-60's, bearded, wearing a hat, backpack on the ground, and he had a cane. I was several cars back from him, but locked my doors as I always do. I try to do it before I get too close for them to hear the locks, as I don't want to offend them. Then you sit and avoid eye contact for the entire light, and I often wonder if the person standing with their sign is as uncomfortable as I am.

Back to today...I was sitting at the light and had just opened my sack from Chick-fil-A and ate a couple of their amazingly good waffle fries. I immediately felt so guilty eating when I knew the "homeless" man was probably hungry himself. I had already had lunch around 11:00 and would have dinner eventually, yet I had stopped and gotten a kid's meal to hold me over (for those who don't know, breastfeeding makes you hungry all the time, but I'm still losing weight, so I guess it's ok!). When I got to the light, I held out my sack of food and gave it to him. He said "Oh, thank you so much ma'am".

Now, maybe he is out there just wanting drug money, but what if he's not. What if he lost his job and has been out looking and can't find anything? What if he is truly homeless and has nowhere to go? What if he's a veteran or what if he's just mentally ill? What if he has grand kids he's too embarrassed to see because of his situation? What if......??? Or just maybe he is out there wanting drug money. And if that's the case, then I feel sorry for him still. Do you ever watch Intervention on A&E? It's heartbreaking.

My heart aches for homeless people and people who struggle and don't live what we call "normal" lives. I'll never forget seeing a homeless man one day a few years back, and I told my mom that I think if I had millions, I'd want to work with the homeless. She said I was the most compassionate snob she knew. HA!

Since Olivia can't make a wish for her half-birthday, my wish for her is that everyone quits being so self-centered and selfish, and that we think of others and have compassion for others. Help someone out, whether it be a friend, a neighbor, or the homeless guy on the street by at least providing him a meal. Sometimes I think it's ok to be a bit naive and not think so bad about people. Hey, if it were me or my family standing on the side of the road, I'd want someone to help us out.

Olivia's Half Birthday!

Olivia will be six months old tomorrow! I just cannot believe it! She has grown and changed so much in the past six months. Time goes by way too fast and I wish I knew how to stop it for just a minute!

She's becoming a bit of a momma's baby, and as long as it doesn't get too bad, I don't mind a bit! Ha! She is started to become a bit cautious of strangers, and has really started to reach for me when other people are holding her. I just hope she doesn't become too attached, but she shouldn't since she's in daycare and is apparently just happy as a lark there (which I'm so glad)!

We went today to have her first "professional" pictures. It's a bit overwhelming, as they took over 100 shots, and you don't have much time to go thru and pic the ones you want. I was disappointed with both the quality of the pictures and of the lack of creativity of the photographers. I guess the saying is true...you get what you pay for. It's not that the pictures were terrible or anything...I just feel like I could have taken these myself. Hopefully we'll be able to have a photographer with a more creative eye for her 1 year pictures!

Not the best angle....her arms look VERY long!

Pictures were very overexposed - Jason had blue in his shirt and Olivia's name is actually monogrammed on this dress in pink. Like I said, disappointed in both quality and creativity! Some did turn out cute though.

Olivia and Wyatt

I have a friend at work that had a baby about 3 weeks after I had Olivia. We've been trying to get together forever, but it seems like one of us has something planned every weekend. We finally got together yesterday for the babies to play. They talked and smiled a lot at each other and seemed to enjoy each other's company!

I couldn't get them to both look at me. Olivia was looking at Deborah and Wyatt at me.

Wyatt sitting up. Olivia refuses to lean over so she can rest on her arms like he does. She wants to just go to a straight sit, which is not working out as well as she'd like! I try to force her to put her hands down, but she doesn't cooperate, so I figure best to just let her do it her way!

The babies with Averie, Deborah's 5 year old. She's a mess! What a talker!

Wyatt enjoyed playing with the toys. Olivia is a BIG fan of toys.

The Weekend Wrap-Up (in pictures)

We had a long 3-day weekend. How come they are NEVER long enough???

First time I managed to get a pic of her "sitting up". She was in the process of falling I think, but at least she knew to catch herself with her hands.

Ally and Olivia. Ally was here for less than 24 hours before she had to catch her flight back home, but we enjoyed the short visit anyway!

Ally and Mom blowing out Mom's candles

Happy Birthday (I'll spare putting your age on here!)

This is the reason we have trouble sitting up! She gets SOOO excited and her legs never stop kicking. Kind of hard to balance with your legs kicking like crazy!

Look! I'm doing it!

Check out Little Miss Rollie-Pollie!

She has really grown a lot recently.

She was focusing on Michael, her step-cousin? We'll just call him her cousin!

Oh, and Jason wanted to know what happened to the rest of her shirt...HA!

LOVED hanging out with Michael

with Auntie Em

Happy Birthday to both Mom and Elizabeth!

watching a little Sunday TV

(Praise Baby DVD - I'm telling you...GET ONE!...amazing at getting their attention!)

Getting ready for bed so we can start the week again!

Aren't these PJ's so sweet?!

Who's Feeding Me?

Jason fed Olivia her cereal for the first time the other night. She KNEW the difference for sure. When she saw him with the bowl, she just looked at me like "what's going on?". So sweet....but he hasn't done it again. I guess once was enough for him! I think he realized that it's not as easy as it looks...not at this point anyway!


I just love all of her facial expressions. I don't even really need for her to be able to talk to tell me what she's thinking...her face usually tells all!

"Daddy, do you know what you are doing?"

Happy Independence Day!

We've had a fairly low-key 3 day weekend thus far. We went to a friend's house Friday night for an early celebration of the 4th. Today we hung out around the house, ran a few errands, and had some great Mexican food. No fireworks, no hot dogs, no hamburgers, no watermelon, no sunburns.....just the three of us spending some time together. We are planning on church in the morning and lunch with Mitch and Ashley. Hopefully we'll then get a Sunday afternoon nap! Hey, a girl can dream, can't she??

HAPPY 4th of JULY!

GOD BLESS AMERICA!!!

This is something she's started this weekend...she makes a "kissing" sound. I love watching her mouth when she does it....she seems so proud after she makes the noise, like she realizes she has done something new. I think she's a genious and already "blowing kisses"! :)

I'm still lovin' this baby's profile....I should have someone do a drawing of her profile for me.

She's just loving her exersaucer more and more every day.