A Recital, a Birthday Party, and Christmas Time

Olivia had a dance recital on the 20th, we left for the Tri-Cities on the 21st, and Paige's birthday party was the 22nd.  Throw Christmas and the flu in there and that will sum up the end of December for us!
Olivia's class had 2 dances, ballet and hip-hop.  Their ballet dance was from part of The Nutcracker, Polichinelles (clowns).  The costumes were cute:

There were a few "hiccups" with their dance.  They were told to stand on the wrong colored tape before going out and they all stood around looking confused.  Ha!  They got to start over.

This was the first traditional recital for Olivia.  As in, she was in 2 dances, one at the beginning and one towards the end with lots of dances in between.  Have you ever tried to keep a 1 year old quiet for a hour and a half or so?  Not very fun.

Her 2nd dance was to Santa Clause is Coming to Town.

We hightailed it out of there when it was over.  We decided to take a break from dance.  Her gymnastics team is possibly moving from 1 to 2 days a week and she claims to want to try soccer again.  We'll see how it goes!

Santa was kind enough to visit our house early that night, since we were leaving the next morning for the Tri-Cities.

Paige was not interested in opening presents.  At all.  The empty boxes were much more fun!

We packed up and headed out after presents!
The next day was Paige's party, which Brett and Rachel were kind enough to let us use their house.

She had lots of attention:

And still loved her cupcake:

She did slightly better with presents (possibly because of the extreme interest from her sister and cousins):

Thank you to everyone that came to her party!  December birthdays are hard. :(  After the party, the kids and I loaded up and headed to Granny's to spend the night.  Santa made a surprise visit!  Paige was thrilled:

That picture cracks me up.  Note that Aiden is not pictured.  He is still apprehensive of Santa and not small enough to force into the picture, ha!
We finished Christmas shopping the next day (cutting it very close!).  Michael had called me that morning and said he wasn't feeling very well.  When we made it back to Greeneville, he was pretty sick.  It got worse that night and he ended up at Urgent Care the next morning (Christmas Eve).  The girls and I went on to Dad's when I got the text that he had the flu.  Fun!  So, Daddy had a rough Christmas.
We were all spoiled by family.  We missed all the fun last year (since Paige was only 10 days old), so Olivia was soooooo excited.

Papaw (my grandfather) had a game at his house.  Each person got a number, he spun his Bingo balls around, and if your number was called you won.  He had several "prizes," ranging from a roll of pennies, to a mini gumball machine, to a toy Ninja set.  The kids were SO excited about this:

After the game, I attempted to get a picture of Olivia and Paige, since I had yet to get one of them together looking at the camera.  Paige was getting tired by this point:

Ha!  We moved on to presents:

Poor Aiden was surrounded by girl toys, ha!  All 4 girls loved this piano:

Maggie and Aubrey are the coolest kids around in Olivia's opinion. :)  We were winding down and I asked Rachel to get a picture of me with the girls.  This was the series:

If Paige doesn't want to do something, there is no distracting/coercing her.  Have I mentioned she's stubborn?

We headed back to Greeneville to check on Daddy, who was absolutely miserable.  The flu is awful!  Even on Tamiflu, he was still pretty sick.  We left him alone and headed to bed, since we had another busy day ahead of us.

The next morning was Christmas!  Here's Olivia (looks a little pale, doesn't she?):

And here's Paige (ha!):

Olivia decided to go ahead to Granny Stills with Mamaw while I came later with Paige.  Michael was still feeling too sick to go.  About 10 minutes before I left, Papaw called and said to bring Olivia some medicine for a headache.  Can you see where this is headed?

Poor thing, being sick on Christmas is NOT what she had planned.  She did manage to open her gifts.

The sickies:

Mamaw and Papaw got Paige this Minnie car.  She loooooves it.  Here she is trying to climb on it while it's still in the box:

You can now find us multiple times during the day like this:

I took Olivia the next morning to the same Urgent Care, where they confirmed that she also had the flu.  Luckily, she had the flu shot and wasn't as sick as Daddy.  Paige also started running a fever, so I called her pediatrician and he called her in Tamiflu.  Although they weren't as sick, the cough and feeling run down has lasted awhile (for Daddy, too).  Mamaw, Papaw, and I were fortunate to escape the germs!

Thanks again to everyone for a wonderful Christmas!  Wish we could have spent more time visiting and less time sick, ha!

One in a Flash

One year ago, a sweet baby girl joined our family.

Weighing in at 6 pounds, 2 ounces and 18 1/2 inches long, she filled a hole in our hearts we didn't know we had.

And though it was a big adjustment to add another child (like it is for everyone!), it was one we were ready for and gladly made for this little face.

The months progressed:


Feb 2013

March 2013 (Yes, I have all 52 weeks with Pooh.  I'll spare you!)

April 2013

May 2013

June 2013

July 2013

August 2013

September 2013

October 2013

November 2013

And now she's 1!  We had a small celebration at home (small party with family next weekend when we make the trek home for Christmas).   I made gluten and dairy free cupcakes.  She didn't seem to mind (they were actually really good!):

Lucky for Paige, she has a big sister that is an excellent present opener:

Paige's newest nickname is "Monkey," because of her preferred method of crawling:

1 year stats:
Height- 27 inches (10th percentile)
Weight- 16 pounds, 10 ounces (5th percentile)
I don't remember her head circumference, but it was in the 70th percentile, which I find hilarious.  We have these teeny, tiny babies with big heads!
Teeth: 2, although her top gums are really red and swollen.  She hasn't gotten a new tooth since September!
Walking:  Nope.  And apparently no desire to start anytime soon.  Her pediatrician told me she could walk if she wanted to, ha!
Talking: Mama, Dada, mo (more), bah (ball), boon (balloon), and "Hi" sporadically.  She still signs more and all done, but has pretty much refused to pick up any more signs.  She prefers to point and grunt/scream until we figure out what she wants.  Stubborn, much?

Happy, happy birthday sweet girl!  We love you so much!

It's beginning to look alot like Christmas...

December is off to a busy start (everyone agrees, yes?).  It seems to be even crazier with Olivia in school this year.  She also has a dance recital on the 20th, which just adds to the madness.  Ha!
We've been trying to find a weekend to take the girls to Dollywood, but the weather hasn't been cooperating.  We decided to head to Gatlinburg anyway this past weekend.  Olivia really wanted to try ice skating, so we headed to Ober Gatlinburg (which, Michael and I thought hadn't been updated in at least 25 years).  Unfortunately, the ice skating was closed by the time we got there, so we played some arcade games.

Then we headed back to the hotel and let Olivia and Paige swim for awhile.  We were staying "on the strip" in Gatlinburg and Livi noticed a mirror maze and indoor putt-putt right away.  So, that's what we did the next morning.  She thought the mirror maze was "awesome."

We hit the putt-putt next and Paige was thrilled to carry around a ball:

 

It was still pretty early by the time we finished, so we ended up at Ripley's Believe It or Not museum.  Granted, we usually made fun of it, but it turned out to be pretty neat.  The entire 3rd floor was interactive, so the girls loved it!

 



 



Paige wasn't too sure about this chair:

We headed home after the museum.  Fun little weekend!

Olivia had her Christmas program last night.  I had to work, but Michael managed both girls.  I did get to help her get ready before leaving:

So grown up!  She did really well. 
Big day tomorrow!  We will have a 1 year old!

Gobble, Gobble

Olivia was off the entire week of Thanksgiving.  Before her break, her school had a Thanksgiving program.  It was really cute!  Getting ready to go:

Collecting her pumpkin (Paige and I "helped" her class make the pumpkins one day while we were volunteering!):

Pappy and Nana were on their way to Nashville and were able to go with us:

And if anyone is interested, here is Olivia reciting the poem from the program.  Her class only said the second stanza, but they practiced so much, she memorized the whole thing!

Since I knew we were going to be gone over Thanksgiving, we decided to put our tree up the weekend before:

To say Paige is obsessed with the tree is an understatement:

Nothing says "We have a baby in the house," like a Christmas tree with non-breakable ornaments on the bottom half!

We had a great Thanksgiving, although I wasn't my usual camera happy self.  I only managed to get a picture of the gingerbread house Olivia and I made:

And a picture of her and Daddy climbing a tree:

Yes, that is Bodine beside the tree.  We just loaded him up and took him with us!

Our Elf is back, too!  Santa left Olivia a note that said he had to send "Elfis" on a very important mission and a new elf, "Ginger," would be reporting to him.  Maybe Santa thought he was moving this summer, hid Elfis, and forgot where he is.  Maybe.
Our elf hasn't been too creative in the past, but seems to be trying harder this year.  So far, she has taken a bath in marshmallows:

Hung Olivia's panties from the chandelier:

And a few other things.  Olivia loves looking for her in the morning.  We are definitely in the Christmas spirit around here:

One more video:

Random

Long time, no blog!  We're in full Fall mode with school and activities like everyone else.  Don't worry, I have lots of pictures!

We've had some pretty sunrises:

Olivia had a hard time adjusting to the time change, but is getting better:

Little Bit sported her first pigtails recently:

Before church Sunday:

We went to the Creative Discovery Museum this weekend.  It was a popular idea!  Pretty crowded, but the girls had fun.  Paige LOVED the water feature:

Olivia loves everything about the museum!  She was moving too fast for me to get many pictures.

Paige turned 11 months old:

And if anyone is thinking about getting her a gift for her birthday/Christmas, she seems to especially enjoy Kleenex boxes:

Don't feel like you're limited to Kleenex.  She loves toilet paper, too:

She is too funny! 
Lilo bought Mom a pretty yellow dress when she was a baby and all 4 granddaughters have now worn it:

I was so proud of Olivia this week at gymnastics.  She had been working on her back hip circle on the bar for months and finally got it Friday.  I filmed this through the glass, which is why it's a little fuzzy:

So I took her in the preschool room after class and filmed it again!

She is also reading!  I have a video of her reading the first book she brought home, but she has improved so much, I need to take another one.  She loves school!

And this is what happens when you leave Olivia unsupervised with a video camera  in the room:

Hope you're having a good week!