Observations and Such

Christmas Pictures

2009-12-10T02:43:00.006-05:00

Ok this post is out of order from all the rest being that I have about 5 more drafts left to post but I am too excited about these pictures to keep them from you.

I took the girls to get their Christmas pictures taken today and boy do they look cute!!!!

We Got the first, second & last pictures.... I didn't have money to get anymore of the individuals otherwise i would have. We got the package of pictures of the first picture of the two of them and then a sheet with 4 wallets and a 3 1/2 x 5 of Olivia and the same for Rachel. I can order more prints if I want to from the site i got the proofs off of. If anyone wants to order yourself some like a bigger picture than might get sent to you, I can send you the login and pw to get into the site to order these pictures :D I think they came out really great :)

Ok off to bed.... nighty night! Xmas tree pictures to come as soon as I put my tree skirt on and get a good tree topper

Halloween

2009-12-07T02:24:00.010-05:00

We did a lot for Halloween. The weekend before we Rachel and Olivia to the Gilbert Halloween Festival. It was cute and we all dressed up for it. Olivia was a princess, Rachel was a ladybug, Chris was a Winged Reaper and I was Dorothy from Wizard of Oz. The festival was cute but kind of a bust cuz the girls were still too little to do anything like the bounce houses.

Here they are - The Princess and The Ladybug

Olivia wasn't too sure about that hat and Rachel wasn't too sure about those wings.

As you can see these 2 are sans hat and wings at the Halloween Festival lol.

see her princess shoes? ^ :D I love them

On Halloween we went to the Arizona Irish Festival during the day for a music project Chris had to do for his Music in Culture class. We walked around the Irish cultural center and everything was really cool. There were people in period dress and people playing instruments and lots of little kids in costumes. It was a lot of fun.

(Hey... I didn't know Doc was Irish lol)

The main band we saw - The Knockabouts. They're pretty darn good :D

We got home in time to go Trick-or-Treating to the other town homes here and we had a blast. Olivia had her little Glow stick flower wand and her princess shoes and we were off.

We had lots of fun :D

Camping in Tonto National Forest

2009-12-07T02:23:00.016-05:00

In October we went Camping with our friend Michele and her 3 girls and the babysitter. We bundled everyone up and drove about an hour and a half north east to the Tonto National Forest where it was about 25 degrees cooler than at the house. So it was pretty chilly that night but we kept the fire going and everyone had a blast. We made taco salad for dinner and we roasted hot dogs and marshmallows for dessert and had a blast. Idk how soon I'll go camping again though lol
Here are the pictures I took:

Rachel & Olivia banging on the picnic bench

Playing in the dirt with Sydney

Rachel probably walked on the cement beam for a good 30 minutes with Chris back and forth. I love this picture of them. / Sydney being cute / Rachel bringing her plate to Ray Ray (the sitter) ...somehow Michele's oldest, Tatum managed to escape my pictures lol

Olivia, Ray Ray & Aubrey / I love this picture of Liv & Aubrey - The girls fought over who got to play with and watch which baby. I love it. They love Olivia and Rachel so much & we love them.

The campsite. I particularly loved that old tree that has been used multiple times for firewood (we left it alone though and sent the girls to go get wood that was already scattered through the woods)

Random Pictures in AZ --- Take 1

2009-12-07T02:23:00.015-05:00

Olivia's Birthday (NY & AZ)

2009-12-07T02:22:00.007-05:00

On September 29th my baby girl, Olivia turned 1. It never ceases to amaze me how fast that has gone by and how much she's developed and how smart she is.

Well I moved before she turned 1 from New York to Arizona, so I decided to have a birthday party for Olivia before we left for Arizona. So she actually had her 1st birthday party a month early. Here's some pictures from her party day in NY.

Then after we got to Arizona and it was her real birthday we celebrated with a little cake that she got to eat a nice big piece of lol

Thank You

2009-11-06T10:46:00.002-05:00

I promise I will blog some more about what we're doing out here soon. But I saw this video on youtube and It's really touching. So I wanna say thanks to all the men and women that serve our country especially my 2 brother-in-laws. Love you guys.

Arizona

2009-11-03T00:48:00.008-05:00

Well yet again I am a bad blogger.... So I will try to be more faithful I promise.

This blog is dedicated to my favorite pictures from my trip to Arizona. Laura came with me and we drove for 6 days from NY to AZ. First we stopped in Virginia to see Colleen, Dan & the kids for 2 days. Then we stopped in North Carolina to see Rachel and Bea (Robert was camping). We made a detour through Nashville *side note* we were looking for one of those pressed penny machines to get ourselves an Elvis penny from Nashville but there was a festival going on in Nashville so we just drove through *end side note* And we stopped at the Cheroke Trading Post outside of Oklahoma City to get ourself some souvenirs.

The trip went smoothly and Laura and I switched driving duties. We stopped at a lot of rest stops to stretch our legs and let Olivia get some air and get out of her car seat. Olivia slept a lot with minimal screaming which was nice for the trip. We were smart and brought along the portable DVD player so she had something other than us to entertain herself.

And then we were in Arizona. It was beautiful and exciting and what a relief to know the end was almost near. I was sick of driving. Luckily everything is within a 5 minute radius here lol.

Here are some of my favorite pictures from our trip:

Fun Post

2009-06-28T14:37:00.004-04:00

So my 2 youngest nieces decided when they walked in the house today that I needed to post a blog. Because, as they said, you haven't posted in a while. Which is true minus the blog from the other day. So I told them - if you let me take pictures of you then I will blog them!!! Of course they were all for it. So as I promised, here are the pictures of Olivia, Mitchell, Avery & Julia. (Excuse my camera's poor quality... idk what the deal is today :P)

Vacation...

2009-06-25T01:28:00.006-04:00

I apologize for my BAD (and i mean HORRIBLE) blogging skills these last couple months.... just been doing other stuff i guess. Well I decided that if i don't post now about my vacation i never will.

Olivia and I took a trip to Arizona to see Chris (her dad/my boyfriend). We had a blast visiting with him and with her half-sister Rachel and it was cool to see the girls warm up to each other. Rachel is a lot shyer than Olivia so it took her a little bit but after hanging out together for a while Olivia was getting nice pats on the head and such.... Regretfully i was having so much fun on vacation that i didn't take nearly as many pictures as i should have.

The desert landscape was absolutely breathtaking and I honestly loved driving especially cuz that's when you saw it the best. The mountains and the cactus and the trees and the flowers... It was just beautiful. We saw little lizards here and there too. I love lizards so I thought it was cool.

Other than going to restaurants like Wienerschnitzel and Macaroni Grill and Jack in the Box and a few others that arent in NY and the occassional trip to Walmart, we went to a few of the Outdoor Malls like Desert Ridge Marketplace and my favorite was Tempe Marketplace. Friday was our most eventful day. We went to the Phoenix Zoo and then killed time at the Desert Ridge Marketplace and a beautiful park in Anthem before we went and had dinner with Carolyn, an old friend, and her husband and parents (and 4 dogs lol). That's the only day i took pictures lol so here are a few of my favorites.
The Zoo was hot but it was awesome.... Here are pics of both of the girls playing at the park.

And lastly a picture of Olivia with Carolyn.

....All in all im really glad we went and saw Chris and Rachel. I had a great time no matter how hot it was and I really can't wait to go back.

Hoppy Easter!

2009-04-12T16:39:00.002-04:00

HOPPY EASTER EVERYONE!!!!!

This just made my night....

2009-04-12T01:21:00.001-04:00

hahaha this kid is hysterical!!!! This video made my night and i thought I'd share.

Amazing Dancing Kid!

Guinea Pig.....

2009-04-10T23:34:00.003-04:00

I was the guinea pig... I got my hair cut yesterday by none other than ... my sister Kate. She is going to school for Cosmetology and is now out on the floor cutting actual people's hair starting this past monday. So she didn't want to work on a mannequin and convinced me to come in and at least get it washed and dried - I, obviously on crack cuz im very picky bout my hair, said - hey why dont you trim it too! So before i knew it (actually it took a while cuz everything gets approved by the 1 and only instructor that is bring torn between 25 girls) I was shampooed and getting my hair trimmed. Then half-way through i realized that other than a mannequin, i was her first haircut! I thought - OMG! What am I thinking?!?!?!?! - and i bugged the crap outta her to make sure it came out good - but all in all it came out pretty great! :D See below...

...in the process

...just finished (then i got my eyebrows waxed)

... just now! :D

Looks pretty good right?

Look what I can do!

2009-04-10T23:24:00.004-04:00

I woke up the other morning and Olivia was playing in her crib and then did this.......

Yes that's right! She pulled herself up w/ help of the slats to her knees... grabbed onto the railing - and pulled herself up to standing position and stood there for a while talking to me and Kate and we even got my mom up there to see it before she left for work. And since then Olivia was waiting for me on her knees in her bed today holding onto the railing when she woke up from her nap and found her way today to the diaper box and sat there on her knees and then 1 knee and 1 foot for a while just playing w/ it and opening and closing the flap.

She's too much... Someone tell my why my 6mo old is already crawling (and speed crawling that is and laughing when i try to get her cuz she thinks its funny and a game) and now pulling herself up!!! She is gonna be walking before i know it... Cuz all of this stuff sure crept up on me.

Let's do the Army Crawl!

2009-03-31T09:53:00.005-04:00

Olivia has figured it out... the cute little baby army crawl and now she's REALLY all over the place.

Those are 2 videos that I took last night while she decided... "Ohhh i think I'm gonna be over there! nope now i wanna be over there!" She was everywhere last night and it was no different when i put her on the floor this morning. Actually today was better. Which means i need to baby proof and get a gate or something of the sort.

Here are just some more pictures of Olivia sitting up and in her new Tinkerbell stroller and playing with mommy and sitting in her highchair waiting for food lol.

In other news....... I signed up for online distance learning classes to get my Interior Decorating Certificate!!!! It's about time and I'm really excited... sooooooo if anyone wants me to decorate I'm game :D I can probably finish school anywhere from 9-18 months and The courses look to be very detailed and that means there is soooo much for me to learn and I just cannot wait! David Bromstead look out cuz Liz is on her way up!!!! LOL (p.s. I heart David Bromstead - I think his designs are amazing)

6 months!

2009-03-26T12:39:00.004-04:00

Ok so time goes REALLY fast..... in 3 days Olivia will b 6 months old ALREADY!!! It's crazy how fast it's going!

She can get where she wants to go if u put her on the floor... She is babbling and singing - she says da da da a lot and gives people respberries and plays along with you when you pat your hand over her mouth so that she will make noise... She gives kisses and cuddles alot now... oh yea and she can sit up without help (most of the time). She's AMAZING!

She's also eating babyfood now... she really likes bananas and green beans.... I am introducing applesauce today - we'll see how that goes. :D

Yesterday we went to the doctors for her 6mo checkup. Olivia is 17lb 9oz and 26" long! She had a couple shots and had a slight fever/reaction to them yesterday and today too... Last night was not a fun night... she slept for 2 hours and then was awake from 12-3am - thank goodness she is taking a long nap this morning. She needs it. Because of the shots she has been a little more fussy than usual and definitely clingy... but i like when she cuddles and wants me to hold her.

Anyways here are a few pictures I've taken recently... Last night i gave her some pizza crust at dinner and she went to town on it.

Sitting up all by herself in her crib... she was watching baby Einstein on the piortable DVD player and being SUPER cute :D

Mommy and Olivia - she was trying to get my phone while i took the picture

Making faces at the camera while saying da da da da da
Sitting in her crib and watching finding Nemo while I cleaned the room
I LOVE this little girl!!!

Little Leprechaun

2009-03-17T16:33:00.003-04:00

Olivia says... Happy Saint Patrick's Day! Now don't ya be eatin' me lucky charms :D

Randomness

2009-03-16T10:01:00.004-04:00

Just some pictures that I've taken over the last few days :D

So I finally got my rear in gear and decorated Olivia's "nursery" end of the room. I bought 2 pink panels to go on either side of the yellow panel on the window and hung up the letters i made of her name and put some butterfly and gerber daisy wall stickers that i found at the dollar store :D also had to buy a bumper for her bed cuz she likes to bonk her head on the wood now that she can crawl around and a new bedskirt... I'm very proud of it :D

Guess what Olivia found.... lol

2009-03-16T09:53:00.003-04:00

Olivia was taking a nap in her pack and play the other day and before she fell asleep i decided i wanted some blueberry whoppers at which point i put 4 in my hand and looked back and noticed only 3... So I looked around on the floor and in her pack and play and couldn't find it, so I just assumed that it had either rolled under the couch or fell back into the whopper box.

Olivia fell asleep and I was sitting at the computer and Mom was sitting on the couch when Olivia woke up. Mom was trying to ignore her in hopes that she would fall back asleep but then was watching Liv and was wondering what the heck she was doing in there. Mom got up to check on her and started laughing and telling me to get my camera and come over there. Needless to say when I saw Olivia I nearly peed my pants I was laughing so hard. Apparently that fallen whopper did find itself into the pack and play and blended in w/ the blanket and Olivia found it and ate the whole thing minus the blue smeared across her face and the little bit that was left on the blanket.

She had that "what are you laughing at me for? What did I do?" look on her face.

And here she seems to be very proud of herself... Cuz she really did eat that whole thing... Needless to say a couple hours later she puked blue on me lol

Professional Pictures

2009-03-16T09:09:00.005-04:00

I picked up the professional pictures we got done while Chris was here the other day and OMG they are Amazing! I cannot believe how big Olivia has got since she was born. Time really does fly! Hope you love them as much as i do!!! :D

Playtime and Crawling

2009-03-11T21:30:00.004-04:00

Playing on the blanket Aunt Colleen made her and crawling.... At the bottom of the pictures is a video - PROOF that this beautiful little girl is going to be full on crawling w/in a matter of weeks and its the beginning of my end lolol.... actually she's already all over the place but once she knows she can get around without my help it's gonna be funnnn. She's gonna keep me on my toes FOR SURE lol.

Just Because....She's SOOO CUTE!!!!

2009-03-11T21:11:00.003-04:00

I'm uploading pics of olivia that I've taken in the last few days.... The order they uploaded is most current to least current (but really the pictures only go back as far as saturday)....

My little Leprechaun - modeling her St. Patricks Day Hat :P

Mommy and Olivia

Olivia in her Ballerina Outfit

Hangin out at Anita's house - lookin all cute in green

Well she WAS on the blanket but found her way over to the entertainment cabinet and discovered the metal handles

Chillin on the couch in her Sunday Dress (thanks to the hand-me-downs of Rachel's from Chris)

Mom holding Livi... She's waaay too cute in her dress and hat (there are socks to match too) :P

Up on her knees crawling

Tattoo :D

2009-03-06T13:31:00.005-05:00

Yep! I got a tattoo on my right shoulder blade... I've had it planned for a while and I got it for my birthday... It's a stargazer Lily with Olivia's name underneath it... the artist did an amazing job at drawing it up and channeling what i wanted into the tattoo... He even drop shadowed the name with pink... it's so awesome. I got the stargazer lily because i wanted it to symbolize Olivia reaching for her dreams and the stars.

ALSO - I started Olivia on cereal... so I took this picture this morning - I thought it was pretty friggin cute :D

Life catch-up cuz I'm a BAD/Lazy blogger

2009-03-06T10:04:00.010-05:00

I admit it.... I've hardly blogged in this last month... i really need to get back into the habit of blogging...

Sooooo lemme catch you up on Olivia...

She just turned 5 months old and is getting bigger and more adorable everyday. She's learning how to crawl... like she will find her way around by launching herself forward and trying to move her legs and she has not problem getting up on both her hands and knees now... but if u leave her alone for more than 5 minutes you can almost guarantee that she's not going to be in the same spot that you left her in. Che can roll from her back to her belly w/o a problem now and anything she sees or passes she needs to touch/grab/feel it... it's really cute.

As for me...... I turned 22 last Thursday and had a very eventful week... First I got my hair cut and i got glasses that were much needed the week before that.

Then on Thursday 2/26 (my b-day) Olivia's dad (aka my boyfriend) came to see us...

Right now he's getting his act together and going back to school out in Arizona and getting a business degree so he can open up a bar and grill which i have high hopes for. He's also taking care of Olivia's half-sister Rachel who turned 1 just under a month ago.
~Chris and Rachel~

If Olivia progresses anywhere near as fast as Rachel did, Liv will be running around by the time she's 1... and as you can tell she's well on her way already lol.. SO anyways Chris came to see us and Olivia knew he was her dad... she was nothing but smiles and laughs and hugs and kisses the whole time (yes she gives hugs and kisses now too)

So we spent Thursday - Monday with Chris and it was awesome... we went and got some new pictures of Olivia taken so those will be coming soon too... Chris' flight got canceled due to the nor'easter we had.. so needless to say instead of flying back on Monday night from the airport that is 15 minutes away, I had to drive him to a larger one that was 1 1/2 hrs away at 3am the next morning... yeah that was fun. And of course goodbyes are never any fun but I'll see him soon...

Also this week I got a sort of job offer to help my friend out with her company's website and do some marketing/advertising for her... It's just for about 15 hours a week but it's more than before and most of it i get to do from home :D So I'm looking forward to starting that back up too....

I will try to post come pics and videos of Olivia crawling around in the next couple days...

....Disclaimer ~ if you're hurt/mad/upset/annoyed/etc. about Chris and I, I ask you to please be considerate of my feelings, because I'm truly happy, and if you can't accept that then trying to talk me out of my own life decisions and bashing him any more than he's been bashed in the past is only going to make it worse and I'd like for people to be happy for me as opposed to telling me what I'm doing wrong and how you would do it if you were me because you're not me....thanks for understanding....

Amigurumi Swaps!

2009-02-10T21:58:00.005-05:00

Ok as you know I recently sent out a Happy Poo to my swap partner for the 2009 Amigurumi Celebration Swap. I just received (yesterday) my swap package from my partner for that swap.... She lives in Spain and makes some of the cutest stuff.... and Here is what she sent to me!

She crocheted the doughnut and tea cup for me, as well as sent me some tea. And how nice of her was it to crochet a dragonfly (my favorite bug) for Olivia!!! :D I LOVEEE IT! I was so excited to get my package.

I also joined a Winter Amigurumi Swap on Swap-Bot... I'm still waiting for my package to get here (it's coming from Australia). I did however send mine out... Here is a picture of what I made for my partner! :D

A Gingerbread Man!

I loved that gingerbread man....

OK well now i'm off to work on my current WIP - a Seahorse

Just because...

2009-02-10T19:38:00.003-05:00

...Olivia is soooo cute :D Here are a few of my favorite recent pictures