Cover Photo Contest

Ok, so I finally entered Olivia into that Photo contest for Baby Talk Magazine. They will pick 8 finalists to be flown to NYC for an all expense paid trip for a photo shoot. Then the best 3 will be picked to be on Good Morning America and will be voted on by the public to be on the cover of Baby Talk Magazine. So . . . wish us luck. I found a way to cheat . . . a little. They would only let you enter one picture and although we were never completely happy with the pictures we had (i.e. we couldn't seem to get her to show off her pretty eyes and smile at the same time - unless, of course, I cut off the top or her head in the photo or it came out blurry or something!!). So, I entered one in my name and Grant entered one in his name. Here are the two that we entered. Let us know what you think!

This one is our favorite - just wish I hadn't cut off the top of her head

Wilmington Trip - Part II: The Aquarium

Hello again! Ok, so onto day 2 of our Wilmington journey. We awoke on Sunday morning at 6 am to a chattering Olivia . . . ugh . . . early . . . so, I fed her a small bottle in hopes that she would go back to sleep . . nope . . so, yes, we did the sin of all sins, we brought her into our bed and she finally fell back asleep for another hour. Thank you, baby!

So the plan was to take our time getting ready, meanwhile hit up the hotel breakfast, then head out to lunch before going to the aquarium. Then we would head over to my friend Jason's house to have dinner with him and his wife (a good friend of mine from college).



And here's what actually happened . . .

So I already told you about our early wake up call - no big surprise there, then Grant showered while I fed Olivia breakfast, then I showered while he got her dressed. Then he went down and scavenged us some breakfast (all according to plans so far, right??).

Ok, so here's where it went awry. We couldn't find her sandal and it was time to check-out. We looked everywhere . . . twice. . . each! She is in this stage where she loves to put stuff into things so we figured she dropped it into one of our bags (and you know that we had to pack up half our house for that one night so it could have been anywhere!!). So I was looking through bags and Grant was looking through bags and we were both getting frustrated as we were running late. Well Grant went ahead and got us checked out and I still couldn't find it by the time he got back (did I mention that I was also playing phone tag with my friend Jason that whole time, too, to set up our dinner plans!). Anyway, so in our rush to try to find her shoe, finish packing and get the heck out of there, Grant stuck his hand into the side pocket of our bag and screamed. uh oh! Yeah, blood . . . and a LOT of it! Apparently he had hit his razor head on with his middle finger (right hand) and nearly sliced off the tip of his finger! ick! So he was running it under cold water trying to get it stopped for about 10 minutes with no luck and I packed up the rest of the room. (of course, the stupid pack-n-play collapsed right on my bare foot when I was folding it up in my rush and now I have a bruise across my foot - ouch!). AND, we never did find the sandal!


SO we were off to the urgent care for some stitches. Fun - the aquarium would have to wait. After about 2 hours and a few stitches later, we still hadn't had lunch and had to get a prescription filled with a VERY cranky baby in tow. So, we found a drive through pharmacy, dropped off the perception (baby sleeping in the back) ran through the taco bell (very healthy), picked up the prescription and headed out toward the aquarium and ate in the car on the way. At least Olivia managed to get about an hour nap during all of that.


Well we FINALLY made it to the aquarium and we had a fun time. Olivia loved seeing all the fishies and enjoyed people watching even more. (we figure this must be where she picked up the hand, foot and mouth thing since there were so many other kids around there). Well, without further ado, here are the pictures and videos from our trip:

Look at that little turtle!


Can you tell that she is really into pointing now??

Look how big that alligator is!!

Check out how big this aquarium is:

Ok, so isn't this the strangest looking fish?? A flounder - look at his eyes - they are both on the same side!!!

Olivia sized lobsters:

Here's a hammerhead shark:

And a tired little Olivia with her brand new little turtle from the gift shop.

Other than all of that, we've just been trying to get this little one healthy. She has her last swim class tonight so we don't want her to miss it. I'm going to have to get going here so I can get her to eat and get a good nap in to be ready for class. Daddy is going to try to make it to take some good pictures for you all. Then Grandmom and Granddad are coming up tomorrow to hang out with Olivia without us so we can head up to Maryland for Saturday night to see one of Grant's classmates from Duke tie the knot. It will be a fun, but hectic trip. Until the next time, here are some more cute photos of the little one:

Wilmington Trip - Part I: The Beach

Hello all! So we had a fun (and LONG) trip to Wilmington this past weekend. It was so LONG that it will take me 2 blogs to catch you up on everything. There has been a lot going on since then, but I'll fill you all in on that later. First, let's talk about the beach!

So we left Saturday morning to head over to Wilmington so Olivia could see the beach for the first time and we wanted to check out the NC Aquarium (see Part II). We got there around lunchtime and were able to check into the hotel early and get some lunch then head to the beach. Finding parking was tough on the holiday weekend, but we did and we were off to the beach.

Look at her ready to go:



What is this stuff????

I Know what I should do with it . . .

I think she likes the sand:

Now let's see what she thinks about the water . . .

Here are some more pictures and videos of us hanging out at the beach. We had a good time.

Look at that silhouette!!

Not the best family shot - but the sun was in our eyes.

Well, all in all, she loved the beach. The water was a little cold - but she had fun running around on the beach (yes RUNNING!!) and playing in the sand and water. We didn't stay out there long, but long enough for her to get worn out . . .

Look at the poor little pooped out pumpkin! Well that was the end of day one at the beach. She is still not sleeping very well away from home - so, we'll need to work on that, but you all will need to see Part II to hear what happened on Sunday's part of the trip (that's when it got interesting!!!)

On a side note, Olivia is sick again! Yup AGAIN! She went to daycare on Tuesday and when I picked her up she felt really hot. So when I got her home I took her temp and she was running a 103.5 temperature!!! OMG!! I gave her some Tylenol and called the doctor and she said it was probably just a virus and since she had been eating ok and playing ok (according to daycare) it would probably pass in a day or so. So I stayed home with her on Wednesday. Well, the fever came down some but she refused all of her solid food and slept more than normal, but I just figured it was her just not feeling well. Then when she still had a pretty good fever on Thursday morning, I took her to the doctor - yup, her throat is all broken out. They tested her for strep and it came out negative. The doctor said it was most likely Hand, Foot and Mouth and that 1/3 of kids never get the rash on the feet and hands. To this point she only has one little blister on her hand, otherwise, it is just in her throat. So we are mostly just dealing with a sore throat and fussiness. So . . . I've missed most of the week of work, but at least Olivia is finally starting to feel better.

Also, I have finished her bear and he is ADORABLE! I will show you all pictures after I give him to her.

We have a walker!

Hello all and Happy 11 Month Birthday to Olivia! I can't believe she'll be 1 in less than a month!!! Wow! Well, Thursday was her actual 11 month birthday and on that day we deemed her an OFFICIAL WALKER!! She now prefers to walk than crawl. And she is practicing ALL of the time. Here is a picture of her walking over to me and a couple videos (in order of development) from the last couple of days. Look at her go!




This first video is from Friday afternoon (after swim class)

This video is from Saturday Morning.

Aside from walking, she has become an expert climber. She has been climbing on her toys and standing on her little cars for some time now, but she has some new tricks. I blame swim class. So at swim class, we are learning to swim to the edge of the pool, monkey-monkey down the edge of the pool and then climb out. All good survival skills for being around the pool and I'm glad she's getting the hang of all of that. However, after repeatedly teaching her how to get her knees up on the edge of the pool, then climb out - she has now realized that she can apply her new skills to other things . . . like the couch. Now I'm not just talking about climbing onto the couch, no no, she has figured out how to climb OVER the couch! Well, I guess our little gate setup isn't going to do much good anymore.

Here's a video of the little escape artist in action:

Here's just another funny video of her doing another one of her tricks. You know how you can make "indian" sounds (like cowboys and idians) by patting your hand over your mouth, well she has figured that out. When she was real little and got upset, I used to pat my hand over her mouth to make that sound and help her stop crying and make her laugh. She always thought it was funny. Now she does that to herself and even tries to do it to us sometimes. It is pretty cute.

And, of course, here are some pictures of the little one exploring the house. She had a good time playing under the kitchen table.

What a face!!!

And here's a picture of her all pooped out after her swim class on Friday. Isn't she sweet?

Well, I actually got to spend a quiet night alone (no husband and no baby) on Saturday night! Grant took Olivia with him to Lenoir to hang out with his parents. He wanted to go fishing with his dad and his mom REALLY wanted to see Olivia. (And I had a TON of stuff to get done) So it worked out well for all of us. Unfortunately, the car ride there was rough for them - Olivia does not enjoy being strapped into the car seat anymore and screamed for a good portion of the ride. But . . . I hear that she slept pretty well over night there and was pretty well behaved the rest of the time. They got back late last night (so she would sleep better in the car) and I got to kiss my baby goodnight! This was the first night that I haven't seen her and I missed her - but I got TONS of stuff accomplished! I cleaned the entire house (even mopped and dusted AND did the bathrooms!). And I got to go hang out with my girlfriends on Sunday afternoon for our monthly craft get-together.

I am currently working on making her a teddy bear from scratch for her 1st birthday. That way it will be something that she can have forever. I am making it out of a mohair fabric and it is turning out really cute. I worked on it a bunch yesterday at my craft get-together and have now finished sewing all the pieces (ears, head, arms, legs and body), now I just have to stuff them and sew them together. Then I'll have to put the eyes and nose on there. Here's a picture of the bear pattern I am using. Now I am not going to shave down the nose like this one or use a necklace (but maybe the bows, though). I hope it comes out good - I've never done this before! :)

Well, that's about all for now. I'll keep you guys updated on her new skills and walking development. We have no swim class this week for the holiday weekend - our last class is on the 29th and Grant is going to try to come - so we may have some more swimming pictures coming. We're going over to Wilmington for a night this coming weekend so Olivia can explore the beach a little and we're going to take her to the NC Aquarium. That should be a fun little trip for us. I'll post some pictures when we get back! Until next time, take care!

Happy Mother's Day!

Ok, here's another post (yeah, I know I'm either all or nothing!) Well, yesterday was my first Mother's Day (since I barely missed it last year). It was really nice. We didn't do anything super special, just hung out as a family - and it was nice. Olivia is so much fun these days and she LOVES to give hugs! We don't mind one bit, she is a great little hugger. So, for Mother's Day, Olivia got me a nice Spa gift card to go get a day of pampering, and daddy made me a nice dinner. All in all, it was a good day. I hope that all the other Mother's out there had a wonderful Mother's Day, as well.

In other news, I FINALLY caved and joined Facebook! So if your out there and I haven't contacted you yet, come find me on there so we can catch up. I am still learning my way around on there. My goodness, it is like a whole new world! Now Grant is just going to have to join, too.

Here are just some pictures/videos of Olivia. You can see her teeth pretty good in the first couple.

Looks like she's up to something, doesn't she???

Well, while I was studying last weekend, Grant took Olivia out to explore our yard, here's some pictures and a video:

Here are just some more cute pictures of Olivia from the other weekend. Look at how red her hair looks! (And there's that face again!)

This is one of my favorite pictures

Here is a cute video of Olivia and Gracie from last weekend. Sara and I had gone out to the store while the boys had the girls and here's a little video they took of them. Aren't they so cute?!?! Look at the little buddies playing, isn't Gracie so sweet?

Here's another couple videos Grant took of Olivia yesterday. The first one is of her eating her ravioli's like a big girl. She is getting the hang of self-feeding now - she makes a mess, but usually makes it to her mouth.

Also, here's another video of Olivia snacking. We had gotten her a snack trap cup (to keep the snacks in there so they don't spill and she can reach in to pull them out). Well, the little bugger has not only figured out how it works, but has realized how to get to the good stuff. She LOVES her yogurt melts, everything else is just second place. Watch: