To new beginnings and fond memories

So the end of this year has come and a new one has begun....there are so many things to be thankful for and many things to look forward to.

Thankful for: little girl giggles and snuggles, her sweet voice calling out "mommy" "daddy".

As Olivia is getting ready to turn 2, she is loving showers, playing with baby dolls, doing puzzles, making animal noises, wearing undies, and keeping mom and dad on their toes. 

Looking forward to: Olivia becoming a big sister and welcoming Baby Marlowe #2, August 7, 2016.

Tradition

Tradition is something we want to start...this means taking things our families did growing up and making them our own. This year over Thanksgiving break, Blake took some time off as his dad came to visit, we cut down our Christmas tree from our yard, and we spent the day of thanks with my side-having a dual day of Thanksmas. Olivia exchanged gifts with Eddie and Aunt Jenny gave her some goodies too. She loved it all. It is always a treat spending time with family. It is very important to us that Liv enjoy spending time with family. 

She was a great supervisor!

We have also found out that she contiues to enjoy being outside, she loves playing in the snow! It actually is the biggest reason of her throwing a fit-when the time comes that she has to come in. It's a wonderful workout for us, but we get tired out walking up the hill and dragging her up on the sled. It's definitely worth it when she says, "weee," all the way down and asks, "more please."

Stay tuned....this little one has some snow adventures ahead!

Trick or Treat

Halloween is even more fun this year as Olivia is starting to enjoy dressing up and has learned that sweets are tasty. Her first piece of candy was a tootsie roll she got at trick or treating at Hy-Vee. Unfortunately I couldn't find the ladybug outfit that I bought last year for her to wear, but luckily we were able to use a cowgirl outfit from her cousin Avery.

Blake and Olivia took a trip to Maryland for his uncle's funeral. She also attended her first funeral, at Arlington Cementary. She also got to walk around the neighborhood Blake grew up in to trick or treat. Blake said she was very polite, but seemed a little confused with the whole concept. They had a great trip seeing Blake's side of the family and look forward to seeing them as they visit for the holidays.

She is starting to talk so much! I love her questions of "what is that?" or "where it go?" She is also saying some names of her friends at daycare and loves to say avey and poppa. Her little voice is so sweet. One of her phrases she is working on is "I love you" and we are so excited to hear that! As she learns more words she also pretends to read us books and initiates conversations-we aren't quite sure what she is always telling us, but we just go along with it.

She definitely is getting curious and is very opinionated. This means we have had some poo situations, as she doesn't like to have it on any longer than she can. Liv likes to have choices-in her clothes, her food, books to read, what we play, and where we sit. She also continues to teeth, which isn't easy on her.

Stay tuned, our little girl definitely has personality and sass!

Too Much Fun in Fall

This little girl is keeping us on our toes.....one morning Blake went to get her out of bed and she had taken off her pants. Then when I picked her up from daycare that day, they had to tie her straps on her romper a little tighter because she kept trying to take it off. Learning knew things and practicing them are keeping her busy!

Blake and I attended a wedding in Chicago and had a kid-free weekend with friends. Olivia had so much fun while she stayed with my parents. She did a wonderful job for them! They enjoyed the outdoors and made a trip to the zoo. Unfortunately they had some car troubles as they were leaving the zoo. They made it home safely and welcome us home. It was very sweet coming home to get snuggles.

  Looking good as she gets her second hair cut. She really does a wonderful job so far when others are working with her. She got to watch Mickey and got a sticker at the end.

 The apple orchard was calling our name, we checked out a new place this year. It had tons of things for Liv to play with. She really enjoyed petting the goats, watching the chickens, sliding down the big slide with us, and playing in the corn pit. She wasn't quite big enough for the big pillow jump-though she really wanted to get on there. Blake had just as much fun-I missed out on getting the video of him saying, "this is awesome" as he jumped around on the horses. It was a great day, full of memories.

What? I don't belong in a tire wheel, she loved trying them out. 

I'm not who had more fun....dad or Olivia

Can't wait to keep this fall tradition of going to pick apples

Stay tuned....Olivia is growing up!