An update... FINALLY!

My laptop is finally fixed and now I have lots of pictures to download and edit!

It has been almost 2 months since my last post. Winter is finally on the way out and Spring is moving in!

Olivia and I have been going on walks after dinner the last couple of nights. She loves to be outside and run through the neighborhood. She has discovered that we have a creek and other small streams on the paths that we walk on and likes to toss sticks into the water. We also have had a kitty cat, who I think is expecting, follow us the past two nights. She comes out from the yard of one of our neighbors and meows as she follows us for about three houses, then she stops and watches us for a while before turning back to go home. Olivia thinks this is too cute, she asks if it is her kitty and wants to pet it. The kitty is not so sure of Olivia and has not gotten close enough for Olivia to reach out yet. Olivia seems to have also gotten over the slight "fear" she had of dogs. She now talks about seeing doggies and like to pet the neighborhood dogs we see on our walks.

Olivia is growing into such a cute toddler. I think our baby days are gone. Her vocabulary is amazing and she repeats what she hears with such dramatic gesturing and expressions. She sings songs, dances and reads her books. She has actually memorized some of the books we read to her, it is so funny to hear her read herself to sleep at night.

Olivia went to her first wedding this past weekend. My younger cousin Tommy got married about 2 hours north of us. All of the family was in and it was so nice to get together for such a happy occasion this time. The six pack had a fun time dancing and running around with the other cousins and kids at the wedding reception. She did pretty good during the ceremony. Was very excited and a wouldn't whisper when talking, but for her first wedding ever, and being a wiggly toddler she did ok :-)

Now that my computer is fixed, I'll update more often. Here are some pictures from the last couple of months.

Ruby, Olivia & Violet waiting for the wedding to begin

Our little dancing girl!

Resting with Daddy before the next song

Visiting with Bennett

Cleaned out the entire cupboard

First time finger painting, she had a great time and the paper was covered by
the time she was done!

Olivia's Self Portrait

Olivia now has her own camera, here is one of her pictures.

Olivia & Daddy looking for something.

Happy Valentines Day!

Here is our cute little valentine!

 

My laptop is on the fritz, so I'll have to update more at a later date once it is all fixed :-)

Hibernating...when is spring?

Not too much going on here, it's winter, cold, snowy and I prefer to hibernate! I worked from home every day except Wednesday this week. Which is the only day I have left the house... and it is now Saturday! Jeff and Olivia did go out to the store yesterday. When the temp finally does get above 25 or so, it is so windy that you still can't play outside. Come on SPRING! We want to play outside!

Olivia loves to take baths now, she probably asks every night to take one. She loves to play in the water, splash and "swim". She got a bubble-octopus for Christmas that plays music too, she likes to catch the bubbles and pop them.

 

 She had a good week of  using her own potty. We still are following her lead on this, but she earned some M&;Ms and some stickers when she went #2 on her potty! She was so excited!

 

She has a little play phone that makes a noise like she is taking a picture, so she has been walking around taking pictures of things. This time it was taking a picture of mommy, taking a picture of her! 

 

And then she moved in for a closer look...

 

Notice her snarl, she was probably whining a bit too trying to get my camera :-)

For Christmas we got her a larger table for her play, we are hoping to set it up with a computer for her in the future, but for now she enjoys playing with her toys and other things at it. In this she is taking apart a small flash-light and taking out the batteries to show us. She is pretty good at putting it back together too!

 

Nothing too exciting, but that is our life this week. Olivia hasbeen fighting a cough and runny nose the past few days, hoping it doesn't morph into something else.  Hope everyone is staying warm!

Christmas & New Years

Ok, so I'm a little behind on getting Christmas pictures posted, but with all the activity of Christmas and then her birthday I needed a little extra time!

Christmas was a lot of fun this year, Olivia had some clue about what was going on but still not 100% sure.  We made cookies for Santa (which were yummy with Champagne!) and left a carrot for the Reindeer.

My brother and his family and my parents came over for our traditional Christmas breakfast, my dad makes a ham and cheese bake, my sister-in-law makes a sausage casserole and we make a pastry that Jeff's family always had, Welksnagel. It is very yummy, but for some reason we can never seem to get it right on the first try, always takes two batches. Thankfully there is not much that goes into it, just the specifics about making it!

I love this tradition and hope it will continue in some form, since my grandparents passed away this year things will probably be a bit different next Christmas.

Around Noon we headed out to Jeff's parents and had Christmas with his family. Olivia was the only grandchild there this year. She was slow at opening the gifts and a bit of non interest in the packages. Once something was opened she wanted to play with that gift instead of continuing on. We had a good time, although we did miss the cousins this year. After a few hours it was time for the next leg of Christmas 2010. We then headed out the door for the last stop of our Christmas Day celebrations.

We went to my grandparents house for one last Christmas. It was nice to be there again, it had been a few years since we had Christmas at their house. Wish my grandparents had been there, but it was still nice to be in their home. I'm glad this year we were able to have Easter and Christmas with Olivia at the same place I did growing up for so many years. At least my grandparents got to see her and their other great grandchildren hunt eggs in the same yard their grandchildren did for about 40 years. What special memories I will always have of holidays at my grandparents. I hope we can come up with some new traditions that we can share with Olivia and her cousins.

New Years has come and vacation time is over... I like the holidays, but am always ready for the normalcy to return.

Olivia has blossomed over the past couple of weeks, her vocabulary is growing leaps and bounds each day and the funny things she comes up crack us up. She likes to walk her baby doll in the stroller around the house, she will stop by Jeff and I to say "good bye, be back soon" as she takes off around the corner. She is also singing along with songs she hears and certain words in the books we read to her each day.  We got her some word flashcards for Christmas and she like to play with those and does pretty good at most of them. Some word I don't remember teaching her but she knew them somehow... must have been on a Mickey's Clubhouse episode somewhere.

Happy New Year!