Christmas 2011

We had a fabulous Christmas weekend out at The Compound with my parents.  There was lots of relaxing, eating, and opening of presents.  On Friday, we opened presents from Mike's family at our house and wouldn't you know, Olivia does NOT like opening presents!  We thought for sure that she would be eager to tear off wrapping paper and dig into gift bags to find the new treasures inside but she was not having it.  The only thing we can think of is that she understood that we were giving her a wrapped gift and then when we tried to help her open it by ripping the wrapping paper, she thought we were ruining it.  There were big tears and everything!  Oh well, there's always next year.

Here she is on Friday opening her Winnie the Pooh pillow from Bethy.  So far, so good . . .

Ok Mommy, I'll help you open this book

This is the beginning of the freak out.  I don't have any pictures of her mid meltdown, we were too busy trying to calm her down

Muah!  Kisses for my new baby from Nana and Papa

Morning milk in her Christmas jammies

Hmm, let's try this present thing again.  It seems OK if I open Mommy's presents

I've very good at putting all the wrapping paper in the big box

Breakfast break - chocolate croissants and ham

Here Paw Paw, you can have this bow

Who needs presents when you have paper towel tubes??

She was happy to pull this soft toy out of a gift bag and give it a big hug

Surrounded by tissue paper, I've got some major tidying up to do!

Look at that pretty baby Granny!

Cheeeeeeese!

Shortly after this picture was taken, Olivia decided that it was nap time.  After we put her down (for her 3 hour nap!) we opened the rest of our presents and sat down for a Christmas lunch of chicken and sausage gumbo, mmmm.  Don't worry, we gave her some when she woke up!  Once we had her fed, we sat down to open all of her presents.  Wait for it . . .

WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO MY PRESENTS???

I don't want to open presents!

But I will drink my milk while my Mommy opens them for me

Lining up all my new Mega Blocks on the dining room table . . .

. . . and draw pretty pictures on my new etch-a-sketch

Here Auntie Nina!

On Christmas night we all got comfy in the living room to watch the Bears game.  You can't see it, but Olivia is wearing the new Bears shirt that her Aunt Nina gave her.  We are so very blessed to have my family so close and enjoyed every second that we were able to spend with them.

Merry Christmas!

Fun with bows

'Tis the season for wrapping presents and therefore the season for playing with bows . . .

Poor Santa

When we took Olivia to The Domain last year to have her picture taken with Santa, I didn't have high hopes.  She was 4 months old and not really in love with strangers so when we got this picture out of her, I deemed our visit to Santa a success.

Fast forward to the present.  Last week, we took Olivia back to The Domain for another visit with Santa.  We purposefully went in the afternoon during the week so that there wouldn't be a long line and we could take our time, letting Olivia see that Santa was in fact a very nice man.  Olivia didn't mind looking at Santa, or talking to Santa, or playing with the ornaments on Santa's Christmas tree, but when it came time to sitting on Santa's lap . . . .

Holy meltdown!

Even Mr. Rabby could not save the day.  Notice the second shoe falling to the ground in this picture.

The only way we could get a picture with Olivia and Santa in the same frame (smiling was out of the question) was for us to make it a family picture.  Note to self: Next year, make sure to go to work in picture-with-Santa appropriate clothes on that don't make you look as big as a house. 

Oh well, there is always next year.

Little helper

Olivia is so helpful!  In this video, Olivia is taking clean socks out of our sock drawer and putting them in the laundry hamper.  So helpful!

Thanksgiving 2011

What?!  A blog post on the day of the actual event?  It happens every once in a while plus I need to do something to distract myself from the poor performance from the Texas Longhorn football team tonight.  ***Disclaimer: I wrote this blog post during the first half of the Texas v. A&M game at which point the Longhorns weren't doing well.  We came back to win in the last few seconds, Hook 'Em!!***  We had Thanksgiving at our house this year with my parents and my sister, Nina.  It was a great family day filled with cooking (not me!), eating (definitely me!), and lots of football.  Holidays have a different meaning now that we have Olivia.  They have always been a special time for my family and for Mike's, but now it is our job as parents to make them special for our sweet Olivia as well.  Lots of pictures . . .

My Auntie Nina has pretty good taste in clothes

Look!  A picture of my Mommy in a blog post.

There are a couple of pictures of me in this one.  For once I wasn't the only person behind the camera

Milk break with my Paw Paw

Well the bow is in her hair, it's just not on the headband!

Here is my special Thanksgiving day turkey shirt.  It's a bit big so you might see it again next year!

Taking a paci break with my Mr. Rabby.  For those of you who don't know, Olivia sniffs her Mr. Rabby and rubs his arm across her nose when she's sleepy.

Time to get out the Christmas decorations

Hmmm, what's in here??

I'm so sweet for sharing my toys with Paw Paw.

We had to put up a toddler-proof tree this year.  Notice at what point on the tree the ornaments start.

Me and Mommy making funny faces

Miss Claus just chillin . . . see what I did there?  Miss Claus, North Pole, ice, chillin?  Never mind :-)

Yup, that's a good spot for that ornament

ANOTHER picture of my Mommy!  Must be a record.

Happy baby!

Look at my belly, just like Santa!

We gave Olivia a little slice of pumpkin pie with some whipped cream on top.  Whipped cream - success.  Pie - not so much.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!

Halloween

Yes, I know that it's mid-November, I've been busy.  Olivia and I went over to the Damuth's on Halloween night - unfortunately, Mike had to work.  Katy and I spent most of the evening chasing the kids around trying to get decent a decent picture, of which there are not many!

Here's my little cupcake with her friend Mazzy - a geisha.  You can see Katy in the background waiting for Mazzy to turn around to try and take a picture :-)

Mommy, let me go!  There is playin to be done!

Mazzy with huggy Beth who was a demented sock puppet monkey or something like that

Sonnie as Dorothy.  I didn't get a picture but her parents were the wicked witch and the scarecrow.

This is the ONLY picture that I got of the boys and it was blurry!  Miles, Hayden, and Mazzy

Olivia doesn't eat candy and therefore did not trick-or-treat.  Well that and the fact that she is not in love with holding my hand when we walk on the sidewalk so I made a great investment and bought this wagon that Olivia and Mazzy cruised around in.  I did give Olivia a dum-dum lollipop as a treat that she sucked on for a while before she got bored with it and started chewing on the stick.  All in all, a successful Halloween!

Pumpkin Patch 2011

There is a great pumpkin patch every year at a church near our house.  I took Olivia last year and she cried the whole time so I was excited to go again this year and get some great pictures.  We went with Olivia's friends Miles (Mom is Angie), Hayden (Mom is Tonya), and Mazzy (Mom is Katy). 

Well hello Miles, it's nice to see you again

Hmmm, gotta find the perfect pumpkin . . .

 . . . and I found it!

Hanging out with my little friends

Mazzy, Miles, Hayden, and Olivia

And hanging out with my best friend!

This is a comfy spot

We tried SO hard to get a picture with all the kids a. looking at the camera and b. smiling.  I couldn't get Olivia to put her sippy cup down and this is the closest we got.

We ended up going back to the pumpkin patch the next weekend with Angie and Miles and Leigh and Sonnie

You remember Miles and this is my friend Sonnie too!

I love the pumpkin patch!