Happy Birthday Graciee!

Yesterday, we celebrated Graciee May's FIRST Birthday!! It really seems like yesterday we were sitting in the living room on Thankgiving counting Britt's contractions. Time flies SO fast!

Brittanee held it at the NW Kids Club and Gracie was SO excited! She was running around with a HUGE smile on her face for about the first half hour she was there. There was SO much to do!

After the little ones played for a while, we decided to let them try out the bouncy house. Olivia was nervous at first, but once I climbed in there and she saw her older cousin having fun, she decided it was okay.

And then there was cake!

And presents....

Graciee was so funny! She kept running over to Olivia in the middle of opening presents to kiss her and play.

And then Olivia thought she should help too.

I'm SO proud of Britt! I knew she was going to be a great Mother, but still, she never fails to surprise me at how amazing she is!

Good job Sis, you made it through the first year!!!

Olivia's first Thanksgiving!

This was definitely the BEST Thanksgiving ever! (Olivia would say the same, if she could talk)

I wanted Livvy to be able to enjoy a good Thanksgiving dinner like the rest of us, but didn't want too big of a mess, so we stripped her down, and put her in her easy to clean travel bed.

At first, she was a little confused, and I think she was scared to eat her food because she tries to eat off our plates all the time and we are constantly telling her no.

But then she dove in. I'm still not really sure how much of it ended up in her mouth, and how much of it ended up on her body and the travel bed, but she had A LOT of fun playing with it!

Once I realized that she was making a huge mess, I picked her up to wash her off and she saw an opportunity to eat Mama's food too. She grabbed it and plunged it into her mouth as fast as she could! Oh well, it's Thanksgiving.

At least she wiped her hands off after :)

7 Months!

Olivia, you're 7 months old!! I know I say this all the time, but it's crazy... one day, you'll understand. This by far has been the biggest month for growing. You're able to sit up perfectly by yourself now, and love sitting in shopping carts :) It's so much easier for you to see everything that's going on!

You're crawling like CRAZY!! I got home from work one night and uncle Skyler was so excited! It took a lot of coaxing, but you finally crawled to me, and I was so happy, I cried. The world is so interesting to you now. You love to explore and get into EVERYTHING, but I don't mind it as much as I imagined I would, it's just a habit now to put the DVD's back on the entertainment center every night.

Your toys are FINALLY getting used...

It's getting hard to get pictures of you now, because you always want to take my phone! You saw me taking this picture, and crawled towards me faster than I've ever seen a baby crawl.

You can pull yourself up now too, but you can't get back down and you'll cry. Anyone who sees you right now, will think I beat you! I can't even count how many times you've pulled yourself up and then lost balance on your way down. It's so hard too, because I want to just help you down, but then you'll never learn how to do it yourself.

Weekend mornings are my favorite; we wake up early and cuddle on the couch. You're finally showing me that you know who I am, and that you miss me by getting sad when I leave, and excited when I come home. You give loves, and you're starting to give kisses. I have been waiting SO long for this, and am loving every minute of it!

I love you more and more every day!

Love, Mommy

Olivia's first Halloween!

I remember Trick or Treating with Brittanee last year, both of us pregnant, and thinking about how weird it was going to be having babies to take around. It was SO much better than anything I imagined!

Sunday night I made potato soup and rolls for dinner and then we carved pumpkins while watching 'The Nightmare before Christmas'. Then we had apples, ice cream, and caramel for dessert.

This is Livvy's first pumpkin. We traced her hand and then carved it out. I tried to do both hands, but that was pushing it! I'm glad we at least got one :)

Monday (Halloween), I got home from work and put Olivia in her costume. I was SO surprised at how much she didn't care that it was impossible to move around in. She didn't love the hood at first, but got over it pretty quickly.

Everyone met at Grandpa's house... Skyler, Shaylee, Kayla, Ashley, Brittanee, Graciee, Dad, Pat, Cinnamon, Gabby, and Kyle. It made it so much more fun to have a big group!

Olivia wanted to hold her bucket, which worked well for a few houses, and then she just wanted to throw it. I LOVE this pic! By the time we got home, her ribbon was SOAKED from her chewing on it.

The other great thing about a big group? Taking turns! I only had to carry Olivia to a few houses and then everyone else wanted a turn. Here's Livvy and Grandpa :)

The girls were troopers! I was suprised at how content Olivia was going around to all of the houses. Once we were finished Trick or Treating, we headed back to Grandpa's for hot cocoa. It was the best Halloween yet!