Friday, July 27, 2012

One Year Old



It seems absolutely surreal that our little girl is already a year old.  She is changing everyday from a little baby into a toddler.  She says "mama" and "dada", that, this, and up.  She also gives kisses and just learned how to blow kisses.  She is walking pretty well.  She can take up to 20 steps before losing balance and falling.  She knows what she wants and points to things and says "that!"  She is our little nosey rosey and loves to see what everyone around her is doing.  She reminds me of my Uncle Wally in that way... a people watcher.  She has a great sense of humor and knows that she is funny, trying to make those around her laugh.  She's pretty good at sharing and giving us things we don't want her to have.  But she's also an escape artist.  Her favorite time to show off this skill is when she is getting her diaper changed!  She continues to enrich our lives, making us laugh and bringing continuous joy to our lives.  She is absolutely precious and melts my hear everyday!

Friday, July 20, 2012

Fourth of July...

Since this was Olivia's first Fourth of July, we decided to stay home.  We had a neighborhood block party and it turned out to be a great time!  I made these fun red, white, and blue jello stars, and boy were they tasty!



Olivia never ceases to amaze me with how good of an eater she is!  She ate beans, smoked macaroni and cheese, and veggies...











This floating lantern made me think of Emily (her favorite movie is Tangled) so I snapped a quick picture of it to show her...


Olivia went to bed at about 6 pm, but woke back up at 10:30.  I took her outside for a couple of minutes to see the fireworks.  My neighbor Sarah grabbed my camera and snapped a couple of pictures of us before I took her back to bed...



Thursday, July 19, 2012

The last week of June...

A few days after school was out, Olivia and I headed up to Mount Vernon to visit and take care of the cousins for a couple of days while Anne and Bryan went to a conference in Spokane.  It was exhausting and gave me a whole new respect for what my sister does everyday, but we had a lot of help from Grandma Emily and we had a great time. 

We brought Olivia's fun, new tunnel from Gymboree with us to play in...






Friday we headed over to the Joneses to play and finally celebrate Father's Day with Grandpa Jim...






I love watching these two play together.  Olivia is one tough girl and definitely holds her own, and Charlie is really good with her...



Auntie Anne bought this cool balloon rocket launcher for the kids to play with while her and Bryan were gone.  They got plenty of use out of it beginning Sunday morning before they left...


Olivia loves playing with her cousins.  This time, she only got to watch them for a while...



Not even one year old and Olivia is already learning to do chores.  Her favorite one?  Unloading the dishwasher...













Olivia's first time in a big bath and her cousins couldn't wait to join in too...


Tuesday we took a trip to the park.  Grandpa Jim joined us and helped Charlie join Emily in the "Rapunzel" tower...





Charlie always cracks me up.  He is such a little man in a little boys body...


Wednesday we celebrated Charlie's 2nd birthday a little early.  Uncle Mike and I took the kids to the park for a while so Grandma Emily and Anne could finish setting up the party...









I didn't get any pictures of Charlie's party other than Olivia eating watermelon for the first time...



One last wrestling match Thursday before we had to head back home.  Daddy sure did miss us since we were gone a whole week!