Labor Day Weekend Extended

Olivia and I headed to East Texas for Labor Day weekend. We made a stop at my grandparents' house on the way to my mom's house for a quick visit. It had been a few months since they had seen Olivia so I know she had changed a lot! She ran up to Pat (my grandmother) as soon as we got there and reached her hands up to be picked up. It was the strangest thing, as Olivia isn't usually overly friendly to people she doesn't see very often!

This was my Granddaddy's chair when he was little. Mom said she thinks his uncle built it for him, but Granddaddy, we need confirmation of that! HA! I was lucky enough to have my great-grandparents until I was in college, and this little chair sat in their living room for as long as I can remember. It now sits in my Granddaddy's living room. I'm glad Olivia got to take her turn sitting in the little chair too! I love it!

Unfortunately, I waited to take a group picture until we were about to leave. Olivia was quite aware that we had cleaned up the toys and packed our stuff, and she wasn't too interested in taking a picture. She was very concerned that I was going to leave her!


On Saturday, we went out and visited with Charisa and her family. Mom and Connie (Charisa's mom) can get together and talk for HOURS, so we were there for quite a while! It was so good to see them and hang out for a bit. It seems like our visits are usually very hurried, so the relaxed atmosphere was nice!

Here's Mrs. Connie showing Olivia how to golf. She was a BIG fan of Connie. I was glad she FINALLY got to meet her, as she was pretty much my 2nd mom growing up!

And here she is today getting ready to go out and battle the rain! She woke up coughing a lot in the middle of the night and has ran a low fever for a few days, so we kept her home and went to the doctor. Turns out it's a sinus infection, which means antibiotics, which in turn means TORTURE for mom and dad twice a day for 10 days. *SIGH*

SIDE NOTE:
Olivia has said a few "sentences" recently. Her first was "Hi Nana!" on the phone. Ok, so it's not a long sentence, but it is a sentence! HA! She has also said "Bye-Bye Water" (talking to the bath water as she watches it go down the drain...Gram E taught her that) and she said "Night Night Nana" plain as day this weekend; she told Jason "Thank You Daddy" last night. Her vocabulary has really blossomed lately. I know a lot of her words are probably only works that I know as I hear them all the time, but she definitely tries to say A LOT. Lately, she's been repeating everything. We sing "backpack backpack" from Dora; she tries to say "Yo Gabba Gabba" as it's currently her favorite show; the list goes on and on and on and on. It's just amazing how much her little brain can hold!

The Weekend in Pictures

I'm exhausted and don't have many words for you. Between my Thirty-One business, our recent move, work, running around after a 19-month old and preparing to consign in a children's consingnment sale, there's just not a lot left in me tonight! So here's what we did this past weekend....as you'll soon see, we didn't do much at all!

We went to church and came home with a cup of goldfish (see windowsill).

We allowed Olivia to nap in the dog crate with the dogs. Well, maybe we didn't, but I don't think she would have minded!

Olivia helped me go thru some of her baby things, where she found this newborn hat. She just insisted on wearing it and I must say it was pretty funny since it was a few sizes to small.....but she didn't care....she was PROUD.

Olivia ate with Daddy at the big table for the first time. I'm thinking she might need a booster seat.

And last, but not least.....it only took her a month to find the plastic containers. It was bound to happen at some point! When it was time, she did help me pick them up and put them back in the cabinet!

I'm sure that's it for the week! BUSY BUSY week ahead! Hope it's a good one for all!

19 months old

Olivia, you turned 19 months old on Friday! You are now closer to two years old than one year old and that makes me so sad! Where has the time gone? WOW! You are growing up way too fast.

Let’s see….we haven’t done your stats in a while, so let’s start with that! You weigh about 24 pounds and are wearing 12-18 and 18 month clothes. I keep thinking you’ll be ready for the next size soon, but who knows! It’s making it very difficult for mommy to buy your Fall/Winter wardrobe! I don’t know if you’ll need 18 or 24 months! Oh, the horror!!!

You are FUNNY. You have always had the best facial expressions, and that still holds true. You still like to give the mean face, although you sometimes pair it with the “pretty eyes” that Nana taught you, which makes for a really funny face. You like to make people laugh. You are VERY strong willed. You are gradually starting to want to do things by yourself. I used to try and feed you the messy things, but you have been very adamant lately to feed yourself everything (see earlier spaghetti post). You eat pretty good…just depends on the day. You LOVE fruit but aren’t too fond of veggies. Your favorite fruit is blueberries, and you’ve been saying “blueberry” for about a month now.

Your vocabulary is growing daily. I find you trying to repeat almost everything I say. We definitely communicate pretty well, which is one nice thing about you getting older!

So far, you seem to be a girly-girl, which I love! You love to have your toenails painted. When you see the polish, you “ooh and aah” and sit down ready to get your toes done, then blow on them with me! You also like playing with your baby dolls a lot. I caught you today trying to put your diapers on one of them. I think we need to buy you some teeny tiny diapers for that!

You are a neat freak. You cannot stand for anything small to be on the floor (i.e. thread, piece of mud, small piece of dirt). You always stop and pick up anything that shouldn’t be there. If there is trash in parking lots, you scream “Uh-oh! Uh-oh! Uh-oh!”. You often take mommy and daddy’s shoes to their closets when we leave them out. You have also started taking your snack cups and sippy cups to the kitchen and either place them on the counter or throw them over into the sink when you are finished!

You love to play hide and seek. Your favorite hiding places are in the pantry and in my closet behind my clothes. You will stand for a good 2-3 minutes in the pantry with the door closed until we come “find” you. When we open the door, you are always just standing there like you’ve just been patiently waiting on us to come get you! You find this game GREAT fun!

We love you so much and cannot wait to see what the next 19 months hold in store for our family!

Here you are playing the pantry game with Daddy today

Uh-Oh, SpaghetiOs!!

She INSISTED on feeding her self this wholesome dinner!

....ENOUGH SAID!

Turner's Christening

Last Sunday, Olivia and I went to baby Turner's Christening. We have not seen Turner since he was pretty young and couldn't believe how much he had grown! He is SUCH a sweetheart and never made a peep the entire day!

I had to steal these two pictures from Clancy's facebook. I failed to get a picture of him dressed!

Isn't he a doll????

Olivia was very sweet with him.

Maggie wasn't interested in pictures, but she's still a beauty!


These two girls crack me up! They both play games on the iPhone and KNOW what they are doing! It's amazing how fast kids can pick up on things! According to the looks I got from them (see below), they were playing very serious games!

A Peek at our House

Ok, so I've been reprimanded by more than one person for not showing any pictures of our new house! The house isn't exactly ready to show, as we've only been here for one week and it's not finished, but here's a little peek anyway!

It's not an extraordinary laundry room, but it's better than my last one and I'm loving the rod to hang things!

Curtains not hung yet...

"Wonder Pets" on TV.

I spy a poodle.

We are LOVING the openness of this house. It's great being able to be doing different things but still being in the same room!

That's it for now! More decorating still to do!

$1 Monogramming Special

August 1 marked the beginning of the new Thirty-One Fall/Winter catalog, and it's awesome! I'm so excited to share some of the products with you! The month of August has brought $1 MONOGRAMMING! What a deal! It's never too early to shop for Christmas, so make your list, check it twice, and order from the convenience of your air-conditioned home! Your family and friends will appreciate a unique and personalized gift from you! We have lots of baby gifts as well. Don't hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or if you need ideas/suggestions!

Check out the catalog and order online at: www.mythirtyone.com/tdominy

Yes, we're still alive!

It feels like forever since I've posted about our lives! I guess moving requires more dedication than I thought it would! We've now been in our new house 1 week and LOVE it! To be honest, the night before closing I was having "buyer's remorse"....or maybe it was "seller's remorse"....or maybe it was just a little of both! I was seriously doubting whether or not we made the right decision about moving. I LOVED my old house. It was our first house. It was the only house Olivia had ever known. It was home, and I was really sad to leave it.

I can HAPPILY say that I no longer have any second thoughts. We have SO much more space and storage. I even have some kitchen cabinets with NOTHING in them! Oh, and did I mention the pantry? I think we are all in love with it! We didn't have one at all at our old house. It's Olivia's favorite "room". She goes in and closes the door at least a few times a day! The neighborhood is awesome as well. We've only met a few neighbors, but so far, so good! I LOVE our new HOME! It's the people in the house that make it a home anyway, right?

Since I've been slacking in posting lately, I've just decided to include some pictures of the past couple of weeks which will tell you what we've been up to. Enjoy!

Miss Olivia helped pack lots of boxes. Maybe she was worried we'd forget her stuff!

She loved those cabinets being empty!

We sold our furniture the week before we moved, so we spent a lot of time on pallets on the floor.



Olivia "helping" again.

Walking with the cool whip container on her foot. This was quite amusing for her.

We played in tutus (ok, SHE played in HER tutu) just like the Teletubbies.

So I've been told by more than one person (mom, Jason, Nicole...) that I'm being silly, but I was SOOOOO sad to leave this little girl's empty room **See beginning of post...I'm no longer sad!


Olivia's new wall in her new room! LOVE the way it turned out!

We've gone swimming in our new yard.

We've spilled Fruit Loops and had them stick to our feet.

We've gotten the puppies new beds, as we are attempting to have a "no couch" rule.

We've treated the new dog beds as baby beds!


We've spent time doing some serious coloring.

The "Masterpiece"

We've spent time watching our new "pet" dove. I'm sure she is quite annoyed by us. I'm sure she thought the house was abandoned when she decided to build her little nest. And now, here she is...stuck with 2 standard poodles and an 18 month old. Yes, I'm quite sure she is rather annoyed!

This evening the dove went out for food (we guess) and there are two babies! We previously thought there was only one, but there are definitely two. So cute (in an ugly cute sort of way).