Short Update

Seriously?!? It's been THREE entire months to the day since I've updated my blog....holy cow...I really stink at this. Wow. Well, good news: I have a new camera on it's way!!! Goal with new camera--that would be take TONS of pictures and UPDATE THE BLOG!!!!! Until then, here's a bit of our new updates!!!! :)

First and very most exciting.....We're expecting again!!! YAY!!!! Due date is June 30th. Just a couple more weeks until I can feel "out of the woods" so to speak. So far, this one is WAY more different that Livi. Still never actually have been sick (thank lucky stars) but I have been oh so nauseous and must eat at the very least every single hour. We did get to see baby at the first ultrasound and boy oh boy was baby moving like CRAZY! Now I understand the whole eating constantly!! Speaking of boy...everyone seems to think that it's a boy already. Everyone except Livi that is. She's determined that baby is a girl and that her name will be Octopus. That's right everyone Octopus. Don't ask.....

Second super exciting news: WE ARE NOT MOVING!!!!! WAHOO!!! I'm SO excited!!! Jade got a job here in Twin at the plant that he's been doing his internship at all summer. He starts on the 19th. SO happy!!! I wasn't really looking forward to moving and having a new little one without any family.

So life is super amazing right now!! I do promise that I will be better about posting and updating pictures!!! I can't not keep up on this!!!

Until soon!!! Thanks for reading!!! :)

And so it begins....

Olivia started pre-school today!!!! Can't believe it!!! She's getting oh so big. I love it!
Doesn't she look all grown up??? She was SO excited to go to school this morning! LOVE our daycare, Diana (the greatest daycare lady EVER!) does the pre-school in the back of the room. They have a little table with tiny chairs all around it. Cutest thing!

Here's Livi's first "homework" to take home:

This is the treat bag that they got to decorate and then Diana filled it with candy...that's it, I'm signing up for this pre-school thing...We had to get a picture of her Dora backpack. I swear she could probably fit in it...

She told me on the way home that pretty soon she'll be big enough to drive my car. Oh holy bananas, let's not go there quite yet please!!! I want to soak up as much pre-schooler as possible before we must deal with teenage drama! :)

She's THREE!!!!!!!

Olivia Rose turned 3 yesterday!!!!! It is rather unreal. I keeping asking myself that good old cliche: Where did the time go!!!!!!!
We had a very fun day! We talked to Robin and Jacob for a bit in the morning and took a drive to Kimberly for a picnic lunch at the park.

Grandma Kim and Grandpa John got Livi a swing/slide set for her birthday. She could hardly wait to go out and try it out! It's the perfect size and I think she's gone down that slide close to a hundred times already! We filled her little pool and put it at the end of the slide. She was SO excited to get her swimming suit and have her own water slide! Her friend Lily came over too!

Those two girls played until they were all wrinkly! I'm going to miss summer. There is nothing more cute than a little toddler tummy and bummy in a bikini!!!! :)

We had a delicious BBQ dinner (thanks to John!) with some family and friends. I have a wonderfully talented friend from work that made Livi's cake! When I asked Livi about a month ago what kind of cake she wanted for her birthday, she told me chocolate cake, chocolate frosting, and Minnie Mouse. Yep, she's my kind of girl!! It pretty much turned out totally awesome!!!

Of course what party would be complete without balloons! I took Livi to Zurchers earlier in the week to pick out what colors she wanted, must say she did a very good job making a good rainbow! And we just had to have a big Minnie Mouse head to match the cake too. :)

We have lots to do this upcoming year before Livi turns....dare I say it....four. Ba-pa and Ra-ma got her a super cute hopscotch so we're working on her hopping skills. Her daddy got her a tiny ball and mitt and her friend Lily got her a little bowling set. I'm thinking that all breakables need to be put away for the next few months....

Oh Happy Birthday Olivia Rose!!! May the next year be more fun and memorable than the last! We love you SO much!!!

Livi and her friend Lily!

By the way: to those of you who are thinking in the back of your minds....especially since Olivia is now three......are they going to have another baby???? Here is my answer: All in good time my friends....all in good time. ;)

Also, thanks for those of you who haven't completely given up on me and my oh so sad blogging attempts! :) Love!

It's almost time!!!!!!

In three days Miss Olivia Rose will be three whole entire years old. I just can't believe it. Three.... She is no longer a baby, toddler is flying out the window, bring on the little girl! And might I add a very dramatic little girl. :)
Livi is a wonderful little girl. She is very energetic and full of love. She has a GREAT sense of humor and always makes us laugh. She's very methodical and has a reason for everything she does, even if I don't understand. Livi has been talking very well for quite a while. At first she was saying full sentences, those have now bloomed in paragraphs and stories. I LOVE it!!! She says things all the time that I can't believe she can comprehend. She uses words like "actually" and says things like "really mom" with this attitude that just won't quit.
She has her three year old check up the end of September. I'll be sure to post more later about her!!!
AND I do promise to post some pictures of her birthday!!!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY OLIVIA!!! We love you SO much!!! :)

Our First Family Vacation

WARNING: Slight picture overload ahead!!!!! Pace yourself!

We took our very first family vacation these last three days to Salt Lake City with the Hogle Zoo as our main destination. Olivia did amazing in the car with hardly any complaint. We stayed at the Plaza hotel near Temple Square. Livi was very impressed with the hotel and huge fluffy pillows! :)


We went to Texas Roadhouse for dinner that night and turned in early for the long day ahead.

We got to the zoo at about 11:00 in the morning the next day and surprisingly there were hardly any people there, it was wonderful!!

Livi was the most excited to see all the monkeys especially the spider monkeys that her grandma talked about. Unfortunately, this is what the spider monkeys were up to that day.....

Believe it or not, there are probably 4 or 5 monkeys all balled up in the corner there. It was nap time for quite a few animals. :)
I was looking forward to seeing the elephants the most since I have a memory is riding one at the Hogle Zoo when I was little. There was a new baby girl elephant that was almost 2, her name was Zuri and she was SO cute!!!This huge silver back gorilla came right up to the glass and just stared at Livi for the longest time. We tried to convince her to go stand by the glass so we could take a picture but she refused, can't say I really blame the girl....he was pretty intimidating!!

There was a carousel that she just had to ride! Too bad we can't fit one of these in our backyard.

I can't remember what these things are called but they look like a small rabbit with a kangaroo head type creature. Whatever they are, they're cute. Particularly the one in front with the adorable smile...

The giraffes were pretty awesome and had "whoa, long necks". The one in the back kept licking the doorway...weird.

The big egg at the Discovery Playground area that she wouldn't sit in without her daddy. May I add that he nearly got stuck in it too. Apparently the height requirement does exist for a reason.

After leaving the zoo filled with 3 hours of fun, we stopped at a "Beach-Mex" restaurant similar to Cafe Rio but in my opinion WAY better!! It was SO yummy!!!! I wanted to bring home gallons of their fresh salsa!!!

After we went back to the hotel room for a nice long nap, we went to the Gateway mall to do some shopping. The mall is only a few blocks from our hotel but we had to ride the train a.k.a. Utah Trax to get there.

After a while, poor Jade had enough of walking around stores with no purchasing success so we stopped by the arcade to waste some time and quarters. He won Livi enough tickets to buy a purple Care Bear. When I asked Livi what her new friend's name was, she quickly responded "go-egg-a". Where in the world she came up with that crazy name is way beyond me.

Our first family vacation was a smashing success and we can't wait to go on another one. Livi is already asking to go to the zoo tomorrow. :)

Thanks for reading my incredibly long overdue post!!!

Until next time, love you all from Livi and Go-egg-a! (not sure how to spell that...)

Beware!!!

I have a one goal this week and that is to post WITH PICTURES our first family spring vacation when we return home tomorrow. I think it's rather sad and incredibly pathetic that I haven't posted anything since Halloween.....
But, I'd like all of you to know that I very regularly check up on all of you. Mainly because I think that your lives seem to be more interesting than mine most of the time.
This is a very classic example of a "journal" for me. I'm sure there are countless numbers of partially filled journals of mine. Page numbers would probably be the furthest that I would ever get.
So, stay tuned and I do promise to post something later this week!!!!
Thank you to anyone that took the time to read this....I appreciate you.

Happy H-A-double L-O-W-double E-N!!

So I still remember learning how to spell the word Halloween in elementary school by singing that song. Which explains the spelling of my title. Those few Hollister Hawks may relate....

My WONDERFUL and extremely talented little sister made Olivia's Halloween costume once again this year. And of course since she is now a Minnesota official fan, Olivia was a Minnesota Twin baseball player. We attempted to get some pictures taken yesterday at CSI but of course Miss Livi was being two in every imaginable way. Dad still managed to get a pretty darned cute one though!!!

Don't let the cute little face fool you though, this is what the rest of the day was like.....

It was drama central. Oh to be two. She is quite the character though and talking like crazy!!

I am SOOO happy to say that she is fully and completely potty trained now!!! Wahoo!!! She caught on very quickly and has done awesome!! She even wakes up during the night to go. Brings on a whole new chapter in life though. There's nothing like screeching tires into a gas station parking lot and running into the bathroom trying to line the seat with a good thick layer of toilet paper while a little two year old does the potty dance!

We sure do love our Miss Livi Bear though!!! She's a crack-up and keeps us always on the run!
Happy Halloween everyone!! Hope the sugar high doesn't get too crazy!!!!! :)