Olivia's first horse ride!

Here is a picture of Olivia from Monday, when she was at her Papa & Grandma C's house and got to ride Noah! This is the first time Liv has ridden, and she did pretty good. She wasn't afraid or anything, but maybe a little tired.
Liv was able to hang on pretty well. Maybe she's a natural! :)

More fun pictures of Olivia!

Olivia gets her picture taken quite frequently! She is always doing things that are so darn cute, that I can't resist! Here she is, after emptying some of her toy bins. As you can see, she has toys spread out all over, and looks at me like "What?!?" Silly girl!

I just like Liv's expression in this picture! She has been "cruising" on the furniture, walls, doors, whatever she can hold onto, she uses to move around the house. And of course, she usually has her tongue out!

Here is Liv with her pal Rusty. She LOVES him and enjoys laying on him, hugging him and pulling his hair! Luckily, he is such a great dog, he just sits there and takes it! I think he just likes the attention.
This is becoming a more common sight in our home. Liv will pick up something and then realize that she's not holding onto anything. She's getting there. We'll see if she starts walking by her birthday!
And again, with Rusty! She holds onto him to "cruise". She moves around him, and he just sits there. Just an FYI, the brown thing in front of Rusty is NOT a pile of poo, but rather Liv's monkey from her train set. Looking at the picture, I did a double take, and wanted to reassure everyone that it was in fact a monkey and not a pile of poo!
Here is Liv showing off her "Little People" from her pink car that I bought for her. She carries the baby around everywhere and occasionally the mom, but usually just the baby.

This is Liv one morning last week. She is such a creature of habit and is used to her routine. Every morning Travis takes her to daycare. When he gets ready to go, she gets all excited and can't wait to get into his arms to go. This particular morning, Travis went outside to do something before he left, and she sat at the door, like "What about me?"

10 months old!

I can hardly believe it! Olivia turned 10 months old yesterday. Only 2 more months and she'll be a year old! It seems like just yesterday that she entered our lives, but yet in the same moment, it feels like she's always been a part of our family! She is so much fun and such a giggly little girl! I tried to put a little bow in her hair this morning, and she wanted nothing to do with it, so she might be more like me than we thought! :)

Here are some of the photos from her 10 month picture session.

Random pictures

Here is a picture of Liv, looking dapper in her cute outfit from Grandma Cindy. Liv is really getting big, and last week at her doctor's appointment (she has another ear infection) she weighed 20 lbs on the dot! She is now in her 12 month clothes!
Here she is, loving on her daddy! Travis was working on the kitchen, and she kept crawling up to him, as if to distract him from his work. The kitchen is looking great, and is almost done. We still need to replace the counter tops and re-paint (after the cupboards were painted, I decided that I didn't like the new wall color, that we just put up a few months ago). So, we'll be painting it a chocolate taupe color. But the cupboards look great!
We took a break from the work to have dinner together. Yes, it was pizza, but on a Sunday night when you're finishing up a kitchen project, pizza is the only way to go. Liv has been doing so great at eating table/finger food, that we decided to give her some crust to chew on. She thought it was great! She'd get a little chunk off and gnaw on it for a while and then go for another! She is doing so great! She is a big fan of green beans, apples, bananas and spaghetti.
Here is the best picture I could get of Liv's upper tooth. She doesn't give us too many opportunities to get these shots, so this is the best I could get. You can see her upper left tooth is in and coming down. Her lower right tooth is really in well. It also looks like her bottom left tooth will come in soon as well as her upper right. She likes to grind the two teeth she has together, which drives me nuts! But they're new to her and she's just playing with them! What are you going to do?
And this is Liv this morning, in a cute outfit from Grandma Betty! It was a bit cool today, so I thought it was the perfect day for this outfit!

We also took Liv on Sunday to JC Penny's to have her pictures taken, and they were CUTE!! I'll post those as soon as I get them, but she was a little model. So many great pictures to choose from! We also had Kate's mom to mom sale on Saturday, where I bought Liv a bunch of new clothes for the end of summer and fall. This girl will be such a fashion plate.

Have a good Monday!

Liv and her water table!

After Liv had so much fun on Thursday with the water table, we decided to go out and her one. She really enjoyed her new water table. She thought it was even better when she started getting grass in it. It came with two boats - which Liv had to have at least one in her hand the entire time. Little water wheel and tower, which Liv was pretty impressed with.

She enjoyed splashing around in the water, and got herself completely drenched. She also thought it was pretty funny when I would splash her.
A big smile from the girl!
I particularly like this picture, because if you notice, she isn't holding on to anything. She is just standing next to the table. Over the last few days, she has started to do this more frequently and for brief moments. She is getting very brave and even wants to start climbing on things. She just hasn't figured out the entire coordination thing yet. But I'm sure it will be soon!

Family Fun Night

On Thursday, Liv's daycare had a Family Fun Night! They did face painting and games. It reminded me of the fun carnival nights we used to have as kids at school. Olivia's main caregiver, Nancy was the face painter. She went to Barnum & Bailey's clown school - now that sounds like fun school! She was eager to paint a beautiful butterfly on Liv's face, however, Liv wanted nothing to do with it. She was shaking her face back and forth as quick as she could. So, we settled for mouse whiskers - she looks a bit like a mouse who got in a fight, but she didn't want to sit still for long. At this age - you take what you can get!

They also had a chance to pick up floating ducks out of the "pond" for a prize. I'm not exactly sure if Liv actually picked up a duck or if she just enjoyed splashing around in the water. She thought it was pretty fun, and was completely drenched by the time we were ready to leave. Of course no picture would be complete if Liv actually kept her tongue in her mouth!

Olivia's funny faces

I love the faces that Liv makes, and once in a while, I am quick enough to catch them on my camera. These just brighten my day! I hope you enjoy these as much as we do.

Mother's Day!

Well, this year was my first Mother's Day! We spent the day with my mom, sister and family. My mom loves to have the little kids together. She insists on getting pictures of her with the little ones. So, below is a picture that was taken at Thanksgiving (Jimmy was only a week old) and then yesterday. What a difference 6 months makes!

The day started off a little cool, but was wonderful in the sun. We sat on Kate's deck and enjoyed the weather.

Julia even let Liv borrow her tractor. This was the push n ride that helped Julia learn to walk. Actually, she would pick it up, and push it sideways. Liv thinks that it's pretty cool, and really likes the songs that it plays. She did pretty well walking behind it. She's been cruising a lot, so we thought that she'd like trying to use this to walk behind.

And after a long day, a nice bath always does the trick! Travis decided to take advantage of her growing locks, and make her a faux-hawk! She was pretty excited about it!

Every day, I feel so lucky to be this little girl's mom. I love it when she reaches out for me and then hugs me as tight as she can. She is simply amazing!

Big Girl!

Olivia had her doctor's appointment on Wednesday and she's doing great! She weighed in at 18 lbs 8 oz (down about a pound from before she got sick, but the dr isn't worried about it). She is 28.5 inches long. She's in the 75th percentile for height, and 50th percentile for weight. Her little head is growing too, and is now in the 25th percentile (at her 6 month appt, her little head was only in the 5th percentile). The doctor was pleased with her development and her new teeth. She also pointed out that the other two (lower left, upper right) look like they're going to pop real soon too. So, we'll be on the lookout!

Yesterday at Liv's daycare, they had a Mother's Day luncheon. I went and had lunch with my little girl. It was fun, we gave Liv some pieces of bread, she ate a few (gagging the whole way). We'll keep working on the solid foods, she's just not a fan. But as you can see below, she's doing great with her sippy cup! She's also started to really move quickly "cruising" around on our furniture and between her toys.

Curls?

Olivia is feeling much better and her massive appetite is back in full swing! She has been gobbling food down like crazy! We go to for her 9 month check up later today, and we'll let you know how she's doing in the growth & weight gain department.

Lately, as Olivia's hair has been growing, she's starting to get the little flip curl in the back. I'm hoping that this means that she'll have cute little girl curls. My niece Julia has the cutest curls, and I hope that Liv gets those as well. Travis had VERY straight hair as a kid, and I had pretty curly hair, so I'm hoping that she'll pick up the curls from me! So, here's a picture of her cute little curls!

Other fun updates, Liv loves to give hugs! This is probably one of my favorite things! But when we hug her, we often pat her on the back. Well...now when she gives hugs, she offers the pat back to us! It is the cutest thing! She is just so much fun!

The teeth are here!

Yes, it's official, Liv's teeth have popped through. She has one on the lower right, and one on the upper left. Travis' mom was here this weekend and told us that when Travis' teeth came in (8 months old) that he had the same two appear first. No big surprise, since Liv is really just the female version of Travis. I guess my genes are extremely weak!

With Grandma Betty here this weekend, Travis & I were able to get a lot accomplished! Yes, we pretty much abandoned our child with her grandma, to which Grandma Betty was thrilled! We are putting in 94 arborvitaes along our fence in the back yard (with a few in the front). Hopefully in a few years, they will provide quite a bit of privacy for us in our backyard and pool. It just feels a little odd to be swimming in the pool and have your neighbors sitting on their deck watching you. Or, have a 10 year old boy stand at the fence and watch....just a little creepy!

So, on Saturday, my mom came over and we dug the holes for the arborvitaes. I'll say, that we work rather quickly together. Then on Sunday, Travis and I got some good compost from my dad's house, and put some of that into the holes, and around our newer young trees. The arborvitaes should be delivered Thursday or Friday this week, and then we'll start planting. But at least the holes are dug. Planting should be fairly quick.

We've been keeping on pretty good schedule for my project list. Yes, there's a detailed list of what needs to be done and when. The kitchen cabinets are painted! The holes are dug, and the plants are ordered. Our next project is to put up landscaping block around the front of our house.

Liv isn't feeling so great...again!

Well, our little girl is not feeling so good. Over the weekend, she was not the perky girl that we're used to. It looks as if she has rota-virus again. Over the weekend, she had it coming out at both ends. By Sunday, I was also sick, this is a pretty contagious virus. Luckily Travis has been able to stay healthy, and I'm feeling back to normal. We thought she was on the mend, and we sent her to school on Monday. Well...after she vomited on 3 people, they sent her home. Nothing like being 9 months old and already getting kicked out of school...but hey, that's my girl!

I took her to see her doctor, and she was slightly dehydrated, and therefore they gave us two options. We could either take her home and replenish her fluids using pedialite, but if she got worse overnight, then we would have to take her to the ER. Last time, we did try to do it ourselves, but she got to a point where she was throwing up the pedialite. And our ER seems to just take forever, and wasn't much help last time.

Our second option was to take her to the hospital right then, and have an IV started, so that they could give her 1 bag, and quickly replenish her fluids. Not my favorite option (the IV last time was pretty hard on mommy), but I knew that it would likely be the best option. We weren't admitted, and were only up there for about 2 1/2 hours. She perked right back up. Luckily my mom came up there, and went into the room with the nurses to administer the IV (I couldn't do this a second time).

Between Travis and I, we have been switching off taking time off to take care of the girl. She is slowly but surely getting better. Travis is off today with her, and his mom will be here tomorrow. Her trip from Florida was scheduled perfectly! Hopefully Liv will be in a better mood. Speaking of her mood...we also know why she has been so cranky along with this sickness...she is sprouting teeth. That's right, I didn't say a tooth, but teeth. We can see at least 1 on the bottom, and 1 on top. But then again the mili-second amount of time that she gives us to look, we couldn't tell if there were two on the bottom. But the one looked big. So, we'll see. We've also figured that blowing in her face makes her smile a big gummy smile, so we can sneak a peak. But I think she's onto us...

The pics are of Liv sleeping on Travis (the only place she's comfy, is sleeping on one of us). And of her after her bath last night. She looked like a little pod snuggled up to her daddy.

We're looking forward to a beautiful weekend, with a full time baby sitter! We have major yard work to do, including digging holes to plan over 100 bushes. It is going to be a busy weekend. But I'm sure that Grandma Betty is looking forward to having Liv all to herself for most of her trip! She hasn't seen Liv since she was 2 months old. Liv has a few new tricks to show Grandma!