Happy Birthday Olivia!!

How can it be??  One already?!?!  But it's true...our little baby is one.  The year has flown by.  While there have been a few long days along the way, it really has gone by quickly.  She went from newborn, to sitting up, to now pulling herself up in what seems like moments!

On Saturday we had a family party celebrating Olivia's first year!  What a fun day filled with all the best things - family, food, presents, and of course cake!!

 

 

Olivia was excited about having cake, but really didn't eat too much.  She mainly played with the frosting and licked her fingers!

 

And she succeeded in making a big mess, as is expected on the first birthday!

 

This picture is from today - the actual birthday!  Since we already had the party and she is still clueless, we're not doing too much today to celebrate!

 

She did get another wear out of the birthday shirt!  And we are going out for dinner to celebrate tonight!

 

Looking back over the year, it really is amazing how babies go from sleeping all the time and not being able to do a thing to moving all around on their own, understanding so much of what is going on, and even being able to communicate through some words.  We are grateful Olivia continues to grow and develop so well, and it will be exciting to see where she is one year from now!

 

Happy Birthday sweet Olivia Constance!!

Early Thanksgiving Celebrations

Even thought Thanksgiving is not until Thursday, we have already celebrated the holiday a few times!!  The first celebration was with our youth group!  We did an evening of turkey bowling!!  The second celebration was at Shane's preschool.  The entire school shared a Thanksgiving feast together after chapel last Thursday morning!

 

As part of the chapel, students were able to bring forward shoe boxes their family's packed for Operation Christmas Child.  Since we did that, Shane was able to bring our box to the front!  He was very excited!

 

After the kids finished eating, which was actually pretty quickly!, they had some time to just run around and play!  It was fun to see Shane at school with his friends.

 

Our final pre-Thanksgiving celebration was with my family today as they were all out to celebrate Olivia's first birthday!  More on that in another post!  It was a real treat to have a Thanksgiving meal with them - we haven't all been together on Thanksgiving Day since I moved out to California 11 years ago!  And it was so nice that my brother and sister were here too.  We made all the traditional foods; it was as fun to put the meal together as it was to eat it!  As always I'm always thankful for family and the time we spend together!

Another new Olivia Trick!

Even though she is two weeks away from turning one, it still seems hard to believe that our baby is pulling herself up to standing and even taking a few steps while holding onto furniture!  Already?  Just another reminder that this first year has flown by!  Sure, there were some long days thrown in there, but overall I can't believe how big Olivia is!!

This is a picture from this morning!  The first time I actually saw her pull herself up was last night.  I started a bath for her and was getting everything ready when I looked to see what she was doing and she was standing at the edge of the tub!  And trying to climb in!  The girl loves to take a bath!!  Then this morning during nap time when she was still playing after 45 minutes, Steve peeked in on her only to find her standing in her bed!  Naturally Olivia is very proud of herself and excited about this new accomplishment! 

 

And the other two crazies in our family!  It was crazy hair night at Awana! Faith requested pink hair with pigtails, and Shane wanted green hair.  While shopping last week, Faith and I found green hair spray, but of course he thought it would be crazier to add some pink too!  They had a great time!

Shane rides his bike!

For a few weeks now Shane has been talking about how he wanted to ride his bike without training wheels.  So Steve took them off, and when he first tried riding with just two wheels, it did not go well!  He seemed far from being able to do it.  Yesterday he wanted to try again.  Steve and I took turns running alongside him, keeping him from falling.  It did not seem like he was ready.  And then all of a sudden something clicked!  The determined little guy figured it out and was soon doing laps in the driveway!  He was so proud of himself!  We took a few videos yesterday, and these pictures are from today! 

 

And while we are talking about Shane...another story from today!  After Faith's piano lesson we had to run to Bed, Bath, and Beyond to make a quick exchange!  While I normally try to avoid running errands with all three kids if I can, I had to exchange something that I need for hosting Bunco tomorrow night!  I told the kids what the plan was.  After the lesson I drive to the store, and as I'm unbuckling the baby, Shane tells me there's a problem...he didn't wear any shoes!!!!  He claims he thought they had a drive-thru!!??  So I just threw him in the shopping cart with Olivia, and in we went!  Never a dull moment in our house!

 

 

And a few of Olivia!  She is constantly pretending to talk on the phone!  It's adorable!  Anytime she sees a phone, hears a phone, or hears the word "Hello", she pretends to talk!  It's adorable!  And if she doesn't have one of her pretend phones, she uses something else or just her hand to be the phone!

Halloween

We had a fun-filled Halloween complete with dressing up, going to a party, and of course Trick-or-Treating!!  Olivia even dressed appropriately in her orange shirt for the day!

 

My good friend Melissa had her annual Halloween party!  It really has become a fun event as we enjoy dinner together, and then head out to her neighborhood to do the trick-or-treating.  It's fun to see how the kids have grown from year to year!  At the first party, Shane had just turned one and went around in the stroller!

 

The kids wanted to pose showing off their muscles before we went to the party! 

 

And while I tried to get a picture of the three of them together, none of them turned out! This was the best I captured!  Poor Olivia could not sit up in her costume!  Because of the body suit being so rounded on the bottom, she toppled over every time she attempted to sit up!

 

Olivia and I at the party!  And yup, I was a cowgirl once again this year!

 

While this picture was not taken on Halloween, it was from a Halloween party that Steve and I went to this past Friday night.  Some friends of ours from church really get into decorating their house for Halloween, and this year they decided to have a costume party as well.  It was fun, and Sumo Steve was a hit!