Santa Visits and Christmas Lights

Bear with me- Santa visits of the past!

2008:



First try of 2009:



Second try of 2009:



This was our second try this year- the first picture was so bad, I didn't buy it! She's still not a fan of Santa. She's OK with him from a distance, but she WOULD NOT let me put her down this year. So, I am once again in her Santa picture:



She looks so big in this picture, especially after looking at the ones from last year! Maybe next year we will have a Mommy-less picture.

Olivia loves looking at all the Christmas lights. We discovered this house a few weeks ago. It's only about a mile from us and they broadcast their own Christmas music in sync with the lights. Pretty neat! I don't know how I would feel if we were next door neighbors, though- the lights are bright!

Merry Christmas 2010!

I hope everyone had a great Christmas! We enjoyed a nice, quiet day at home in our pajamas! We took Olivia swimming yesterday, where she once again enjoyed the pool to herself:





We let her open one gift- a little train set- to tide her over until this morning. The magic of Santa still isn't high on her priority list, as she slept until 9:00am this morning. When she finally woke up, I excitedly asked her if she wanted to go see if Santa left her presents and she said: "I want to watch Dora." Ha! She did get excited when Michael finally carried her downstairs (sorry it's so wobbly!):



Here's the "before" shot of her goodies:



She has mastered the art of opening presents:







She has gotten several packages in the mail from friends and family (thank you all sooooo much!) and we've let her open them as they've arrived. It worked out really well, because she didn't have a ton to open this morning. Just the gifts from us and a few from Granny (who got her accessories for her kitchen). She loooooves her kitchen- I knew she would! She keeps telling us she's making coffee, not sure where she picked that up! She also loves her learning tower that Daddy made for her:





I saw a picture of one in a catalogue and showed it to Michael. He started on it a month or so ago and when the weather cooled off, put it on hold. He started working on it again yesterday and finished it today! She is at the stage where she wants to "help" and be in the middle of everything I'm doing. She had started pulling a chair over to the counter to stand on, so this solves that problem and she's pretty well contained. It's nice, because I can give her little "jobs" to help me- like unwrapping bouillon cubes. She's pretty content if she has something to do. :)



I took Olivia to see Santa Wednesday. It didn't go very well- I'll scan the picture in later, it's pretty funny! We're really excited to head to TN Thursday! Merry Christmas!

Teenagers in Training

Avry and her baby brother came to play today. Olivia and Avry were cracking me up. I was in the living room giving Ashton a bottle and when I finished we went to find them. This is what I found:



We had the same situation last week (I was giving Ashton a bottle and the girls were supposed to be watching Dora). They pulled Olivia's potty chair up to the counter in the kitchen and ate a whole tin of fudge I had planned on giving to our neighbors. Mental note: do not leave 2 year olds alone. EVER.

Parenting Advice from the Post Office

The closest post office to our house is located in a dry cleaners (strange, I know). It is extremely busy this time of year, like most post offices. There is a basket of suckers on the dry cleaning desk that they graciously share with PO customers. We've been to the post office enough for Olivia to know their exact location and she gets one each time. We stopped by Tuesday to mail a few things and there was a long line. There was a mom with two little girls (I guessed their ages around 3 and 1.5) in front of us and they and Olivia all got a sucker at the same time. Their mom immediately told them they couldn't have their suckers until after lunch (it was around 11:30 am). I thought that sounded like a good idea, so I told Olivia the same thing. I should point out that I have NEVER made her wait to eat her sucker. She was busy admiring her sucker and didn't pay much attention for a few minutes. The girls played together in line, then Olivia remembered her sucker. She started taking the paper off and I reminded her to wait until after lunch. She looked at me quite calmly and said: "No." She continued unwrapping and I bent down to her level and reminded her again. She looked confused, so I asked her if she wanted to put it in her pocket until after lunch. The other little girls were watching her, eyeing her sucker. This is when she lost it. She threw the sucker across the floor, threw herself on the floor and screamed. Several post office patrons commented on her lung capacity.

Hard to imagine this sweet face throwing a tantrum, isn't it?



The look I was getting was more like this:



I kept talking quietly to her, but it seemed to make matters worse. By this point, we were getting some not nice looks from the other people in line. I headed for the basket to grab another sucker and that's when it happened. One of the women in line said: "I wouldn't do that if I were you." I looked at her and she went on to tell me that her daughter is 16 and she has to tell her "No" to all kinds of things, blah, blah, blah. I said: "It's a sucker and this is the first time I've made her wait to eat it. The tantrum is my fault this time." She gave me a few more words of wisdom, but I gave Olivia the sucker anyway and she immediately calmed down. I hope I don't give unsolicited advice when Olivia is 16! Especially at the post office. Granted, I probably didn't handle the situation the best. I just wanted her to stop screaming, ha!

We had family Christmas pictures made last week and they turned out really well. Olivia did great- really into posing and she fell for every trick the photographer threw her way (stuffed animal on his head, a flower tickling her toes, etc). Here are a few:









So glad we had pictures made this year!

Olivia and I decorated a Gingerbread house tonight. This is what it was supposed to look like:



This is how ours turned out:



Ha!

Naturally, most of the candy ended up in her mouth, but she had fun trying to make them stay on the roof:



And if you come over to visit, you probably don't want to have a bite:



My friend Lindsay and I have been working out together. It works out well, because one of us will work out while the other watches the kids. Last Wednesday, we took Olivia and Lindsay's little boy, Rohen, to the rec center with the kiddie pool. They had a blast while we took turns working out:



Definitely something we should do every week!

Hope you have a good week!

Build A Bear, Thanksgiving, and Decorating!

Time to play catch up!
The weekend before Thanksgiving, we took Olivia to Cherry Creek Mall to check out the new indoor playground (it has been COLD lately!). It was super crowded, but she liked it!



They just completed the new playground- it was breakfast food and now it is Looney Tunes.







I had a coupon for Build A Bear, so we headed there next. She picked out a Christmas moose, but was kind of scared of the stuffing machine. She did pick out a heart:



She loved giving her an air bath:



We have since decided that she is too young for Build A Bear. She just didn't really get it and we spent $20 on (another) stuffed animal. Naturally, she liked the box it came in the best and insisted on carrying it by herself. Which proved to be difficult, considering the size of the box:




We spent Thanksgiving with the lovely Twiss family (we also ate with them 2 years ago). We were really excited, because they are great cooks, ha! We split up the sides and desserts and everything was wonderful. We had such a great time just hanging out and eating!



Sweet Liza made everyone a Pilgrim, Indian, or Turkey hat:



And I do mean everyone- we even got Michael to wear his for a picture:



How cute is that?! Baby Beckham was asleep during the picture, but not to worry- he got to wear his turkey hat (complete with beak and gobbler) when he woke up:



Olivia looooooves this baby:



I know I've said it before and I'll say it again- we are really lucky to have such great neighbors!

Thanksgiving night found me at Toys R Us at 8:30. Michael thought I was crazy for leaving so early, but people were lined up around the building when I got there. I'm not sure how long the first people in line had been there, but they had chairs and a propane heater! They started letting people in the door at 9:30. They let in 50-75 people every 10 minutes. I got in around 10:15 and found everything on my list except for 1 thing! Then I waited in line for another hour to pay. Luckily, Michael gave me my anniversary present early (a Kindle!), so I read while I waited!

We didn't really do much more Black Friday shopping. Not worth the trouble, although I saved almost $100 at Toys R Us- love that they opened at night. I would much rather stay up late than get up early!

We put up our Christmas tree today. It made my heart smile to see Olivia pulling out all the ornaments.



She was more interested in decorating herself:



She was especially interested in playing with the Nativity:





I love decorating the tree. The ornaments bring back so many sweet memories:











Love it!



She got tired of decorating and went with Daddy to play her new favorite game: hide in the fort!





I love that she thinks she can put a blanket on her head and we can't see her! Hope you had a great Thanksgiving!

Girls Night

Michael had inventory last Friday night, so Olivia and I were on our own. We headed to the outlets to get her a heavy winter coat, then I took her to Red Robin. Red Robin is a very kid friendly burger restaurant. We sat in a 2-seater booth with her across from me. She took a little nap on the way and woke up with lots of energy! She is such a people person. She said "Hi!" to every table we walked past and then spent a good 10 minutes pointing to everything in the restaurant, saying "Mommy, YOOK!" She started getting a little antsy, so I grabbed her crayons and menu and started writing. This is the conversation we had:

Me: Let's write your name!
Olivia: YAY, YAY, YAY, OK Mommy!
Me: O-L-I-V-I-A. What does that spell?
Olivia: NAME!

Oh my sweet girl. How I love you!

Playing with her balloon from Red Robin:







Her new winter coat:



It has been a little chilly, although we had a nice day today. She does so much better when she gets to play outside for a little while!

She is super excited, because Liza, Landon, and baby Beckham are staying with us tomorrow night! I pulled a few baby things out of the basement and she loved sitting in her old Bumbo:



Pretty funny how well she fits in it! Hope you have a great week!