Things have been a little busy around here! So busy, I didn't take many pictures this week. Shocking, I know. I did manage to snap a few yesterday. We went to a playdate with Yarelys and Caden. Caden outgrew this little horse and they gave it to Olivia:
She loves anything she can ride or push. See?
Watching Bodine out the window:
One reason we've been so busy, is I started a part time job at Target. I work nights and weekends and asked for 15-20 hours a week. A stress free, easy job, except they scheduled me for around 30 hours this week and next. It will be perfect as soon as my hours are cut (probably after Christmas!). We've been trying to get a new routine down. Usually, it involves Michael getting home from work and me leaving for work! I still have Avry here and there, so things are working out well.
I've still been knitting like crazy:
There is a method to my madness, which I will tell you about soon...
Michael got Olivia a baby doll stroller while I was working one night. She likes pushing it around, but she especially likes sitting in it. Avry was here Tuesday and they were having problems sharing the stroller. I finally sat Olivia in it and Avry pushed her. Two happy toddlers!
Since there were only (gasp!) 2 pictures of Olivia on this post, I'll leave you with a picture I found a few days ago. Not sure how I missed it (maybe because we have around 4000?...). She's 8 months old here and we had just gotten the new camera:
Olivia's Mamaw and Papaw (Michael's parents) visited this week. We were busy, busy! They arrived last Wednesday night and left this morning. Thursday, Olivia actually stayed with them most of the day and let Mommy get a haircut and Daddy go to the eye doctor. She's doing much better with the clinginess, actually not screaming when Michael and I aren't in her sight. Fingers crossed it stays that way! Friday, Olivia had her 15 month appointment. She weighed in at 16 pounds even, but we think she weighed a little on the heavy side. I'll spare the details, we'll just say she was a little stopped up that morning... ;) She's right on track developmentally, with around 12 words she uses regularly and appropriately. She knows 4 animal sounds and can point to most of her body parts. We discussed a few things and finally decided to go ahead with the blood work we had been thinking about doing since her 9 month appointment. Talk about torture. Try holding down your 15 month old while a nurse tries to get 3 vials of blood from her teeny tiny arm. Not fun. Luckily, we got the results today and they were all normal. She's just a petite little girl! And we're fine with that. :) We hit Estes Park after her doctor's appointment and this was Olivia when she got out of the car (after being in it an hour and a half):
She was literally squealing, running down the walkway. Estes Park is another place we take most of our visitors. It has an entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park and you are pretty much guaranteed to see elk roaming around.
It's a shame she never gets any attention! Ha! All eyes on her:
We only saw 2 elk in the park and were somewhat disappointed; until we turned a corner and saw this behind the grocery store:
That's more like it! We kept pointing them out to Olivia; she would nod and say "Doggie!" We stopped at The Stanley Hotel on the way home. It's the hotel where Steven King wrote "The Shining" and the TV mini-series was filmed there. It's supposedly haunted and we wanted to take the tour, but they don't allow children under 5. So, we wandered around and stared at the people that were there for the Paranormal Events conference. Lots of people carrying around books titled "The Ghost Hunters Survival Guide," and "How to Catch a Ghost." Interesting...
The hotel had an ice cream/coffee shop and we stopped for a snack:
Smart people stocked that little shop. They put the stuffed animals on the shelf closest to the floor. You know, the shelf all the kids can reach?
That's Olivia, after she grabbed a bear and headed out the door. Needless to say, he made the trip home with us:
Saturday we headed to the casinos in Blackhawk. It's about 45 minutes from our house. We ended up spending the night and swapping out staying with Olivia. Michael's luck was in check that night and we actually won some money! David won a little and I think Pat broke even. It was a nice little trip and Olivia enjoyed running the halls of the hotel. We spent the rest of the week around town, visiting different places. Like Little Monkey Bizness:
Going down the slide:
Avry came to play with us Tuesday and we took them to a new kiddie place called The Hop. Look at this place:
Olivia squealed with excitement when we walked in. However, I took her down the "big" slide first. Avry had loved it and she likes slides, so I thought she would be fine. She WAS fine going up and about the first six inches down, then we picked up speed and she was terrified. She left claw marks on my arm, she was holding on so tight. Poor thing. This is what she did the rest of the time we were there:
She loved that car, but I felt really bad she was scared! I got her into one of the bouncy houses with Avry and she did OK:
Mental note: start with the small slides first! We went to the aquarium Monday, where Olivia sported her first official pigtails:
Does this picture look familiar?
We took a picture in the exact same spot back in May when Mom was in town (and Olivia was sporting her first official half pigtails):
6 months makes a big difference! Michael and David went to the Broncos game that night and seemed to have a great time! I'll post some pics of the game when I get them off of Michael's phone. Olivia spent many afternoons going on walks with Mamaw (while Mommy and Daddy napped, ha!):
We had a great visit and were sad to see them go this morning. So nice to have a built in babysitter's for a week!
I have to add this video from Halloween. She was being so cute, sharing her candy with Mommy and Daddy:
It warmed up enough Saturday to melt some of the snow and with the sidewalks cleared, we had a great night to trick or treat! Friday we went to a Halloween Party with our Mommy's Group. It was at a Family Fun Center about 15 minutes from our house (imagine Chuck E. Cheese without the pizza). Olivia LOVED it:
So did Avry:
Have you figured out her costume yet? This picture might help:
Little Miss Muffet! I was mistakenly calling her Little Miss MuPPet for some reason and she was often mistaken for Little Bo Beep, but whatever. We left the party with this:
Her Pappy (my dad) got her this dress last year around Easter. It was a little big then. It fits now, except it's a little short. Luckily, Sarah had MADE the little bloomers she's wearing for Liza when she was one. Mom sent her the spider (hairbow) and we had the hat. Perfect (cheap) Halloween costume!
Saturday we were invited to our neighbors' (Matt and Robin) for pizza, then we took all the kids out trick or treating.
Olivia found another baby doll stroller to sit in:
Here she is with Liza the bat:
She was a little unsure at the first few houses:
She liked the houses with dogs the best:
She couldn't understand why we couldn't go inside all the houses:
She quickly caught on:
And LOVED it:
One woman even told us she had heard about Olivia. Her daughter lives a few doors down and called her to tell her to watch for a "cute Little Bo Peep." Funny!
Overall, it was a great Halloween!
I think she was more impressed with all the shiny wrappers than the actual candy:
Hello from sunny Colorado! Well, not really today. Or yesterday. Tomorrow's not looking too hot either. It started snowing Tuesday night. It snowed all night Tuesday, all day and all night Wednesday, and it's still snowing today. They're predicting it to stop sometime around 6:00 pm tonight, so we'll see. I think this storm is a little bigger than the weather people thought it would be!
It's hard to tell in this pic, but Olivia is actually standing up, trying to pull her leg up out of the snow:
I won't be going anywhere for awhile (at least not in my car!):
Michael shoveled the sidewalk in front of our house when he got home from work yesterday. It's covered in snow again (obviously), but at least I could put Olivia down and not worry about her being over her head!
She had a little trouble walking in her snowsuit:
Snow drift against our gate leading to the backyard:
22 inches of snow on our grill:
Poor dogs! Bodine can push his way through and Rambler just follows behind him!
Not a chance this will all melt by Halloween, but everyone around here is really good at keeping the sidewalks shoveled (thanks to the HOA), so we should be fine to Trick or Treat. We have a Halloween party tomorrow that I hope we can get to!
