Christmas Day Continues

Ryan's family came over for Christmas dinner. It was so fun! Linda brought a Rodolph nose, which everyone had to try, and even a dancing Santa. Chase got Hulk boxing gloves, which I think I will enjoyed more than him :)

The day went so smoothly, everyone got there regular naps and stayed in a good mood. We decided to press our luck and run over to Ryan's Aunt Jane's house to see them and had a great time! Aunt Jane had her new grandson to show off and Linda was busy chasing her wild grandkids (which are mine, of course).
What a perfect day!

Merry Christmas!

What a GREAT Christmas!! Chase and Olivia are at such great ages for holidays- especially Christmas! Our morning started at about 6am, usual for us. The kids didn't seem particularly excited, they don't quite understand what "Christmas" is yet. But as they opened presents they enjoyed each one. And they love each others presents, so every present for Chase is one for Olivia as well- bonus!!
We saved the best for last- Chase got a power wheels Jeep!! He loves to drive so it seemed like the perfect gift.

It is so cute, it even has a working radio. Chase drove it around in the backyard for a while, and was eager to show Ryan's family when they came over. He was sure to put his seat belt on and he even adjusted his mirrors :) I thought he would have trouble getting the hang of it but he has picked up the "STOP" skill very easily, and this morning I took him for a ride over at the field and he did great with "turn", "back-up", "straighten out" and even "look up" (he gets focused on watching the wheels and forgets to watch where he is going).

Olivia got some baby gear for her new dolls and some Little People sets. She mostly just wants Chase's toys, tools included!

My big gift was a new camera!! I have been wanting a more serious camera to take better pictures of our little ones, so Ryan surprised me Christmas Eve with an amazing camera!! I am still getting the hang of it, it will take a while, there are a lot of terms just in the quick guide I didn't even know, scary!!

Butterfly Birthday

We had Olivia's big birthday party on Sunday. It was a lavender butterfly theme. We rented our community golf clubhouse which made it so convenient, and I didn't have to worry about cleaning or food. They did a great job and were very accommodating, they even cut the fruit up into toddler friendly pieces :)) The first hour of the party we had on the outdoor lawn. I had some games for the kids to play. And then we went inside for brunch. Some of you may know I have a party obsession, so of course I drove myself a bit crazy trying to make her party beautiful. Thankfully, I had a great team! The morning of the party my mom, dad, sister, Kalli, Luke, and Kara (my college roommate, who flew from GA to be here) all got up early and helped get everything set up. My mom made a beautiful dress for her to wear and even a matching bib.

Olivia's Birthday

Here are some pictures from Olivia's birthday. She got to open presents (Chase helped), blow out her candle (Chase also helped), and eat her first cupcake (Chase even helped with that!). It was a family affair!

Olivia's First Birthday

Our baby Olivia has turned one!!
Friday was her official birthday. We had a busy day- filled with family activities and work to finish the party preparation. My parents came into town this week and my sister joined us at the end of the week, which was good because I needed a lot of help to get everything ready for our big bash!

Today was her big party! She was adorable and everything went so smoothly. I am exhausted tonight so I will post party pictures another day, hopefully this week.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving! We had planned to split the day between Ryan's family and my family but had to change plans at the last minute. Olivia woke up from her afternoon nap Wednesday with a fever and by Thursday had a runny nose too. Ryan's cousin has a new baby (Yeah!) and we didn't want to take any chances with bringing our germy family to their house for dinner. We missed them :( and I was so disappointed I didn't get to hold Baby Ethan.

But thankfully, we also had an invite to Misti's house, with Lynee and the kids, and little Sureya was also sick so we didn't have to worry about contamination. Misti is an amazing cook and we had lots of extra hands to make the afternoon relaxing!

We are so thankful for our wonderful family and great friends!

"In the Trees"

On our drive home from church on Sunday, Chase pointed out his window at the tree line and asked what it was. Ryan told him it was trees and we call it a forest. Chase replied, "I want to go in there." And so that is what we did, after lunch and naps of course. We went to the nature trail and took the kids on a great walk. Olivia was so cute. She would walk a few steps and then squat down and point at the dirt (she sees me doing that when we find ants or bugs). Chase loves being outdoors and enjoyed picking up the biggest branches he could find and dragging them down the path.

It was such a sweet adventure! (It would have been more relaxing if speeding bicycles didn't fly by every 10 minutes, forcing me to scream "BIKE- DO YOU HAVE HIS HAND?" in my super panicked voice with a scared out of my mind look on my face)

We did enjoy a great acorn fight. I shielded myself well behind Olivia (was that wrong?)

Wow! Where has the year gone? Time has been flying by- our little girl is about to turn one. She is running around the house. Her favorite game is "Let's hide from Mommy", which is so cute but makes it difficult to get any work done because every 10 second I have to run and find her. She is building a little vocabulary which now includes, Daddy, bye, ball, gak gak (which Ryan thinks means Thank you), she loves to say Putah but we have no idea what it means. We all walk around the house saying putah with her.
Chase has been hard at work learning to use the potty the past few weeks. He started really strong and was doing great with only an occasional accident every couple of days, but he seems to have lost some interest this weekend and at times refuses to use the potty. We are giving him some room to decide he is fully ready to commit to potty, it is a big decision.

Fall Festival Fun

Chase's school hosts a Fall Festival which we attended this year. They went all out with bounce houses, a fire truck, pony rides and a bunch of arts and craft activities. Most of the activities Chase and Olivia were too young to enjoy but they had one ride that Chase went crazy over- a train ride. The "train" was made of a lawn mower decorated to look like a train engine that was pulling barrels that had been cut open to make a bench seat. He was so excited about his ride and insisted he get a second ride before we left.

His teacher has been doing a lot of great fall crafts with the kids. On Thursday he came bouncing out of the classroom wearing his pumpkin head hat- how funny! This week she put up a poster saying "Which pumpkin is yours?" and underneath were pictures of all the kids in his class with their pumpkin hats on.

We're Off to See the Wizard

Happy Halloween! Sorry I have left you in suspense over what costumes we chose, I couldn't seem to get up to the computer this weekend. Halloween was a big hit at our house this year. Chase loved his costume, he didn't know what a scarecrow was but figured that he should be scary so he went around roaring at people in an attempt to scare them. Hey, whatever gets him in the costume and happy I will take.

Halloween night he would walk up to the people calmly and say, "Trick or Treat...Thank You" and then look over at me and say "RUN" and he would take off down the sidewalk to the next house. He was so cute and managed to fill a whole basket in just one hour. Thankfully all Trick or Treating seems to end promptly at 8pm in our neighborhood so the evening went smoothly and everyone was tucked into bed at a decent time.
Olivia did great. She sat in her stroller, looking adorable, just checking out the festivities.

We are looking forward to Christmas!! The holidays are so fun now with little ones!

Puppy Love

Chase is quite a little animal lover. Drew and Linda came by for a visit recently and Chase had a chance to "walk" their dogs. He was loving it! They are little dogs, just the right size for him. He was dragging them around. Some of you maybe wondering if we are thinking of getting a dog, let me assure you we are definitely NOT getting a dog anytime soon. I am not ready to add any members to the family yet. We are just getting to a really good place, where things have slowed down to a more comfortable speed and I am enjoying it!

XOXO

Olivia has perfected the art of kissing, including the whuu sound. She doesn't give them out easily but if you catch her at the right moment she can be very generous. This is a little clip of her sweetness.

Everyone is doing great here. Chase is loving school and often runs to the door saying, "can't wait". He did have a little incident on Thursday, I guess he was handing another boy a toy a bit too excitedly and the boy stepped in and got bonked in the face. Ooops! But the teacher said he is doing great, he is eager to help and very smart. His favorite things to say now are "He is so funny, he makes me laugh" and "that makes no sense". He is starting to get into the alphabet and can even sing the ABC song (some letters are more pronounced than others).

Olivia has become quite a little drama queen. It seems that every little bump gets a big boohoo (even when it is a slow tip back onto her padded rear). Sometime when Chase just looks at her the wrong way she starts crying. She is doing great on her feet and is enjoying her new freedom. She runs for the open dishwasher or fridge (unexplored territory). The weather has cooled to a very comfortable 80 degrees so we have been going outside to play more and more. We are looking forward to Halloween this coming week, our neighborhood goes all out and it should be a fun night!

We Have Liftoff

Although Olivia has been very mobile and has been cruising since August, she has been reluctant to walk totally on her own. For a good month now she has been physically able to walk on her own but didn't have the confidence she needed to take that leap. But that all changed on Tuesday, maybe she was getting bored with her hand holding or was just feeling strong that day but in the afternoon I noticed something was changing with her attitude about walking. I gave her a little push and spent the afternoon helping take bigger walks on her own and then when Ryan got home she just took off. She walked all around the upstairs that night while we went through the bedtime routine. She is very solid and great at stopping and standing, she walks with her arms out in front of her (in case of a fall).

We are so proud of little sweetheart!!

Two to Tango

As one would expect, the relationship between siblings is complicated. At first Chase wasn't so interested in Olivia. Then for many months he was super protective, screaming if anyone even looked at her. But then Olivia learned to crawl and we saw a different side to our sweet Chase. Olivia would follow Chase around and would try to play with the same toy, which of course Chase wanted no part of. Chase would push Olivia down, pull her over, hit, pinch and scratch. I could never leave them in the room together because he would seize even the smallest of unsupervised moments to attack. I was glued to her side all day and even being super careful she would have at least one attack a day. Ryan and I were really worried and upset by the new development. We thought that Chase needed to learn how to share with his sister but after discussing the issue with my pediatrician she suggested giving Chase some space.

So I spent most of the day keeping them apart. Olivia would play with different toys on the other side of the room and when she would try to venture his way I would drag her back to her area. It was a pain but it worked!

In just the past few weeks we have seen a huge change in their relationship. They are playing together and even sharing stuff. Sometimes I see a little twinkle in Chase's eye (the "I am going to get her" twinkle) but usually I just have to say "Hey, stop" and he doesn't go any further. This past week he has even started crying whenever Olivia is crying. He gets so upset if she is hurt or tired. That makes it hard for me because then I have 2 crying kids but it is nice to see that he has empathy for his baby sister already.

Olivia on the other hand has been totally in love with Chase from the first moment. She smiles and giggles when he looks at her and talks to her. She eagerly takes anything he offers her. She just lights up when she sees him. She doesn't use a binkie but whenever Chase take his out she immediately goes over to get it and chews it for a minute.

They are so cute!!