Ho, Ho, Ho

Merry Christmas! 

This holiday season takes on a whole new meaning this year. I was super excited to begin our family traditions. Blake and I both have traditions that we've grown up with up and I look forward to see how we can blend them together to create experiences with Olivia and make them our own. Only one bummer was Olivia had a virus over winter break, with a continual fever. She was a good sport. 

Our best present this year!

 We began our tradition of opening one gift on Christmas Eve, which includes new jammies and a book. She is still learning the fun of opening gifts. She was tentative of taking the paper off.

She made an adorable elf and enjoyed her new book Llamma Llama Jingle Bells.

Christmas morning was even more magical watching our little one. 

 
We even skyped Grammy, Pop, and Uncle Billy to open up the gifts they sent.

We were lucky enough to have both sides of the family around to celebrate. Blake's dad came into town as well as us hosting my family's Christmas at our house. 

 Loving this Christmas!

 She loved Avery's American Girl Doll, looks like she needs to get her own baby doll.

 Everything went onto her head, what a silly little one.

 She had so much fun playing with her cousins.

We also get together with both my parents sides-so lucky to experience her first Christmas surrounded by so much family.

Olivia is our best gift

Stay tuned....let's bring on the new year!

So many thanks

Our first Thanksgiving as a family of 3, gives us so much to be thankful for this year. Olivia is such a blessing! Our love for her continues to grow. 

Blake's family was able to join us in Iowa for Thanksgiving this year. It was great to have them visit and spend time with them for holiday.

Enjoying snuggles with Uncle Billy-can't wait to have him visit again

We even went to a wedding reception for my cousin and made our first hotel stay with Olivia. Let's say we are looking forward to a better hotel experience the next time around.

Blake and I both had some time off for Thanksgiving and we took full advantage of getting some extra snuggles from Olivia. 

 Stay tuned, holiday spirit is in the air!

Ho, Ho, Ho

Family is what it's all about when it comes to the holidays. As soon as Thanksgiving was wrapped up, we continued the festivities beginning with a Christmas on my dads side. 

 Olivia got many snuggles at our white elephant Christmas. She also really enjoyed playing and ripping all the tissue paper. I think opening gifts this year will be fun!

Who wouldn't want to hang out on the dog bed? Olivia likes to be around Gus and Lucy very much. Any time she sees them enter the room she makes /d/ /d/ sound. 

She is really into table food now, baby food just doesn't cut it anymore. Basically she is eating what she can of the meals that Blake and I have. She loves noodles and bread. Luckily she continues to eat some vegetables too such as peas, carrots, and black beans.

Olivia is continuing to build stamina in her walking. Now she is taking 3-5 steps each time she tries. Pretty soon we are going to have a runner and we won't be able to contain her anymore. 

We had a rough go for a bit with sleeping. Olivia had to go on two rounds of antibiotics for an ear infection and that seemed to throw off her sleep routine. We are just getting back into the swing of things slowly after 3 weeks. 

With all the celebrating, we get to enjoy our 10 month old!

Stay tuned, Santa is coming! 

1 Small Step for Man, 1 Giant Leap for Mankind

......or something like that, Olivia has been working very hard on all her skills- pulling up, standing on her own, cruising, and talking. We have been waiting and taking bets on when she will take her first steps. Well it happened! She took her first step and of course it was at daycare. It was so exciting to hear, but bittersweet since we haven't gotten to see it yet. We are anxiously waiting. We are thinking we will have a walker by the end of the month. She is a mover!!!

11-14-14

First Steps

She has also discovered the stairs and is starting to enjoy going up the stairs as she learns to navigate them.

Snuggle Suit

9 months we waited patiently for her and now 9 months have flown by, stats are 18lbs. 28 inches.

Stay tuned.....more snuggles to come!