Ryan’s employer hosted a Santa Party today and we were able to go and meet Santa! Olivia really warmed up to him and even told him what she wanted for Christmas. . .music and books. She also picked out a teddy bear that was made in the North Pole! We had a great time!
And here are just some pictures from a fun night hanging out at home.
Olivia with her two Gogums and her Lily. . .I think she’ll be taking these three to college! That’s how much she adores them.
Aye Aye Captain!
I just have nothing much to talk about lately. There isn’t a lot going on, I guess. So, pictures will have to suffice for now.
I did want to wish my sister-in-law Laura a very Happy Birthday today!! What an adventure the next year holds! Also my sister-in-law Kim and her family spent their first full day in their new house in Arkansas and we’ve been continually praying for them! Quite the adventure for them as well!
Well, I’ve been out of commission for a few days with an awful stomach bug. Today, I’m finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel and now I just hope Ryan and Olivia don’t get it. It pretty much spoiled my entire Thanksgiving weekend. We did manage to get a bit of shopping done and put up our Christmas decorations. Many thanks to my husband for holding down the fort while I was in bed. I think Olivia enjoyed the extra time with daddy. Olivia has been overjoyed with all of the Christmas stuff and was so excited to “build our Christmas tree.”
Olivia putting on her first ornament of the season.
Our Christmas Tree
Our stockings were hung by the chimney with care. . .
I think we have an ornament bandit in our midst.
Just a reminder of how little Olivia’s feet were at birth.
This year, we even decided to decorate the bathroom in gingerbread.
Many blessings to you from our family to yours!
We had a girls’ night out tonight at Paint The Towne and we painted wildflowers. Even though I am about the world’s worst artist. . .it was fun! I was able to spend the evening with 4 of my very favorite people! Thanks girls for a wonderful time!
Kerry, Laura, Me, Shelley and Kim
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Is your mouth watering yet? These are all creations from my friend, Angie, at Worthwhile Moments Sweet Shoppe. If you live in the Wichita area and need something for any occasion, I’d recommend giving Angie a call.
Find her on facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/pages/Wichita-KS/Worthwhile-Moments-Sweet-Shoppe/148666191825822 OR
Go to her blog at Little Worthwhile Moments
or contact me and I’ll get you in touch with her. You’ll be glad that you did.
My dad with his two granddaughters.
Would you believe that I almost have my Christmas shopping done? Thank goodness for grandparents who offer to watch Olivia. A little of this and a little of that and I’m done. I’ve never been done this early and never before Thanksgiving. It’s crazy. Our desire to start early ended in finishing early too, I guess. I can’t believe Thanksgiving is Thursday and we’ll be putting up the Christmas tree soon. We always do it on Black Friday. We avoid the crowds and instead. . .turn on Christmas movies and decorate. Hopefully this year Olivia will get into the Christmas spirit and have fun along with us.
Well, after a few weeks of talking nonstop about the scary hand. . .we’ve moved on to something else. Last week, we were eating at Applebees and Olivia went into the bathroom to wash her hands. Well, you know how the music is always louder in the bathroom? Olivia deemed it “the singing bathroom.” Now, she wants every bathroom to be a singing bathroom. . .maybe if they were, she’d be potty trained by now. She just needs a little music. LOL.
As for me. . .I’ve discovered two of my new favorite things this weekend. . .they are totally random, but I’d highly recommend both. The first one is Nature Valley Granola Thins in dark chocolate. I think my exact words after my first bite were “This is the best thing I’ve ever eaten!” Yes, I have diabetes and they technically aren’t the best for me, but I figure they are packaged as one little square. One little square can’t hurt, right? Either they are truly super delicious or I just don’t get sweets very often. The second thing I’ve discovered is www.mixbook.com. I’ve had a lot of fun creating with this site. I’ve used a lot of similar sites and this is by far my favorite! Now, sit me down with my laptop at www.mixbook.com with a granola thin in my hand (and throw in an iced tea) and I think I’d be in heaven.
Olivia is doing so well in school. She comes home singing new songs, playing new games and often with a treasure from the treasure box. (They get this for good behavior.) I have really seen her blossoming and she’s come such a long way in less than 2 months. I had a chance to visit with one of her teachers the other day and she mentioned that Olivia’s crying is pretty non-existent. She says that if Olivia does tear up, all she has to do is tell her the next few things that she is going to be doing and she’s fine. Olivia just needs to know what’s coming next. I forgot to tell Olivia that we weren’t going straight home after school one day and I got an earful when we turned the “wrong” way. She definitely doesn’t get her directional abilities from me. . .I still get lost at the zoo!
As many of you know, my sister-in-law, Kim, and her family are moving to Arkansas next month. Kim is Ryan’s sister. I have been hesitant to say anything because it’s like. . .if I say it, it must be true. As happy as I am for them and Kris’s new job, we’re heartbroken to see them go. Kim has been busy packing stuff away and trying to decide what to take with them. Lucky for us. . .they decided not to take the Leapfrog LeapPads. So, Christmas came early for Olivia today and she got a LeapPad! She has been playing with it all afternoon and was overjoyed to learn there was even a Dora book that came with it. Olivia sure is lucky to have such amazing cousins (all of them) who share clothes and toys with her. Thank you to Kim who always gives to us so generously. We are blessed.
Kris, Kim, Alex, Katie, Aidan and Kaleb. . .we will miss them so much!!
Tobey’s never too far away from his Olivia.
Tobey with Olivia’s “banklet.”
Olivia and her kitty, Tobey, are the best of friends. Some days they do everything together. One example is playing on the slide downstairs. Olivia will go down the slide. . .then Tobey will climb up the stairs and sit at the top of the slide. Olivia will give him a push and he’ll slide down. . .then Olivia will slide down and so it continues. It is adorable. I managed to catch it on video tonight, but I missed Tobey climbing up the stairs and he sort of jumped off instead of sliding down. But, I’ll try to post it anyway. As far as cats go, Tobey can be a real pain. But, I see how much he means to Olivia and how good he is with her and he starts to rank up there with the best of the best.
Well, Olivia is sick now too, so we just hung around the house all day. Daddy had to work and Olivia and I were looking for some new things to do. I pulled out my old Nintendo DS to see if Olivia showed any interest in it at all. To my surprise. . .she loved it. . .especially Mario Kart. Sure, she just kinda bangs into walls and goes backwards, but she’ll learn. She is Ryan’s child, after all. Olivia has been walking around with it saying, “I’m playing a DS. Kaleb has a DS!” Ryan got out Mario Kart for the Wii to see if she liked that. She did, but she was quickly back to her DS.
I wonder if I’ll find myself living with 2 video game nuts. Oh well. . .for now its good for her hand eye coordination and fine motor skills. And, it’s helped keep her mind off of her runny nose.
You know how much I ♥ pigtails!
Ryan and I have been a bit under the weather. Ryan has a cough/ chest congestion and I was awake throwing up at 5 am. Olivia, our amazing micro-preemie is holding strong. We still managed to get some Christmas shopping done today. We’re hoping to do it this year in little spurts. I can’t believe Christmas is here in less than a month and a half. Tonight, Ryan and Olivia then went over to his parents for dinner. I stayed home because 1) the thought of food is a bit repulsive at the moment and 2) I needed some rest and relaxation. I never know what to do with myself, however, when I have an evening to myself. You’d think I’d kick back and enjoy it more. :) Hopefully, I’ll be back to normal by tomorrow. . .or at least I hope my stomach will be.
Well, here is Olivia’s preschool picture. . .LOL. Hopefully, next year she’ll smile. :)
You know what happens when I don’t have any new pictures of Olivia? You get pictures of my cats. LOL. Tobey is getting better and better every day. . .it’s just taking him longer to learn what NOT to do. The other day, he managed to break a ceramic dish and spill two glasses of water within 10 minutes. He is super, super good with kids, though. Olivia carries him around for much of the day and he doesn’t seem to mind. I think he actually prefers Olivia’s tough love over our more gentle approach. He has to be in the middle of all the action, whereas Autumn prefers the sidelines. Two very different kitties, but at the end of the day. . .they both end up in our bed wanting to be cuddled. Yes, my husband and I are officially declared “cat people.”
Speaking of my husband, he threw his back out and has been in a lot of pain. He went to the doctor today and was referred to a specialist. Hopefully, we’ll find out why he consistently seems to have problems with his back. He sees a chiropractor regularly, ices his back every night and tries to take it easy. Even the simplest of tasks can reek havoc on his back. Please pray that we find some answers and that he feels better soon.
Well, it’s November and I thought I would do something a little different. I decided to look back through my pictures to see what I was doing each November since 2002 (the first Nov. that I had a digital camera.)
In November of 2002, I was engaged and looking forward to my upcoming wedding in June 2003. That November, my bridesmaids and I picked out bridesmaid dresses. From left to right: Kim, Stacie, Tamar, Me, Tiffany and Marilee
In November of 2003, we were newly married and building our first house. It was completed January of 2004.
In November of 2004, we had a lot of guinea pigs! All the pictures from that month were of my guinea pigs. LOL. Pictured above is Penelope. We had started trying to get pregnant in the summer of 2004 and I think the guinea pigs were filling a void. . .or at least attempting to. :)
I actually had no pictures in November of 2005, so I had to jump ahead to December. Ryan and I went on a vacation to Orlando, FL and visited Sea World and Universal Studios. We went to Disney World the year before. I’m grateful for that time with my husband.
By November of 2006, we had added 2 rats to the mix. Again, I was looking for something to nurture. My husband is allergic to cats and dogs, so we had to improvise. We were still going through fertility treatments and I was losing hope that I’d ever get pregnant.
By November of 2007, the sunshine of our life had arrived. We had been through a lot in the past year. I finally got pregnant. . . . with triplets, miscarried Baby B, gave birth at 23 weeks to twins, lost my son when he was a month old and visited my daughter daily at the hospital.
One of my all-time favorite pics of Olivia was in November of 2008. She continued to grow stronger and healthier with each passing day. That first year was really hard as we did not yet know how Olivia would progress. She was sitting up, but not yet crawling. Boy, was she a cutie!
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By November of 2009, she had finally grown a little more hair, had been wearing glasses for about 6 months and had been walking for about as long.
And here we are today in November 2010. I’m a mother. . .someone I always longed to be. I didn’t realize my journey to motherhood would be so difficult, but I wouldn’t trade it for the world. Olivia continues to bless our lives each and every day. Who knows what the next 8 Novembers hold for us, but I look forward to discovering it with my husband and daughter by my side. Wow. . . in 8 years Olivia will be 11 years old. That’s a scary thought. We won’t even talk about how old I will be. . .that’s even scarier. LOL! May all of you have a blessed November!
I’ve come to the conclusion that Olivia doesn’t need a lot of stuff for Christmas. Some of the best gifts can’t be bought. Sometimes, especially this time of year, we overwhelm ourselves with “things". Some of the best things are simply sitting down with your child to read a book or color or dance around the house to “The Bunny Song” from Veggie Tales. . .Olivia’s favorite. It’s like we put pressure on ourselves to “perform” for our family and friends by what we buy them when gifts are not what they really want. Plus, it’s always the little things that Olivia seems to like the most. . .the unsuspecting items that capture her heart. So, with that. . .I’m off to go make my daughter smile by just being her mom.
Olivia with her cousin, Julia, looking at a dollhouse.
We are having a hard time deciding what to put on Olivia’s Christmas list. She has more toys than she knows what to do with. And, she is not yet to the point where she’ll tell you what she wants. We even took her to Target today to see what interested her. A lot of the things that peaked her interest were things that she already has. I can’t say that I’m in a rush to get to the “I want” stage, but I wish she could give us a few hints. Santa is going to have a tough time this year. :) Her main interests right now are watching Dora and LeapFrog DVDs, coloring, Veggie Tales, books, music, dollhouses, trains and whatever the toy of the day is. That could be anything from the Chipmunks (from a McDonald’s Happy Meal) her Laugh and Learn purse (that I stashed away because I thought she’d outgrown it) or her My Little Pony car. She isn’t showing a lot of interest in baby dolls or princesses, which dominate the 3 year old market. I’m sure we’ll come up with some ideas, but if you have any that your 3 year old LOVES, I’d love to hear from you. I’m especially interested in all of the Tag Junior, VReaders, Leapfrog Explorers, MobiGoTouch, Fisher Price iXL etc. Boy, there’s a lot out there and I have no idea if Olivia would like any of it. There are also quite a few highly ranked Nintendo DS games targeted for preschoolers. . .and I already have a pink DS that I never use. Oh, and there’s that Playskool Alphie robot. He looks kinda cool. It’s hard to believe that Christmas is just around the corner. . . .yikes!
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