Wordless Wednesday

She's not afraid of the *jumpy house* anymore!!! She loves it!

You Never Forget The First Day

Last week Colby spent the night with us and boy did we have a good time. He was such a good kid and even encouraged Olivia to pee pee on the potty. Way to go!! I did however learn why God has only blessed me with one child right now, or at least why he didn't bless me with twins. Having two 2 year olds running around really wore me out. I was beat at the end of the day. Believe me another baby is not in the works anytime soon, especially after last week:) Today was Olivia's first day at preschool. I've, we've been looking forward to this day for months. When we first went to check it out she was excited and wanted to stay. We've been getting her psyched to start in August. Heck, she would even tell people *I'm going to school in August* Talk about getting her ready. Well nothing I could have said or done could have prepared her for what was to come bright and early this morning. When I woke her up she jumped out of bed and announced *I'm going to school today* to say she was pumped was an understatment.
Her backpack all packed and ready to go for the day.

Walking in with Daddy, she had to show him where and point too(look at that little finger). Notice she's wearing her backpack. She insisted on wearing it, but you don't see Mommy carrying all the junk she needed for school(rest mat, blanket, pillow) and taking pictures.

So we walked in Olivia saw the toys and she was off. While I was turning in all our paperwork she kept telling Paul that's my classroom I want to go in. She was super pumped about the day. I had to call her away from playing to get a kiss.

Well the day wasn't all smiles and excitement. Around 11 the school called and told me that she was crying and wouldn't stop(she was fine for about an hour after we left) which resulted in her getting sick quite a few times. She then preceded to tell me I had to come and get her--WHAT THE HECK!!! I couldn't believe she was so upset. Once I got there she ran to me, practically climbed up my leg and wanted to go home. The Mommy in me wanted to take my baby away from the scary place and love her BUT the teacher in me knew that was not right and I've told parents a million times not to do it. Soooo, we sat down at the lunch table with her class ate lunch and followed all the rules, went back to the classroom to get ready for naptime. I convinced Olivia to lay down with her blanket and I would be right back after I talked to someone. I waited for about 15 minutes outside the door to make sure she was ok and left. It worked she fell asleep until it was time to go home. But when I got to the door to pick her up at 2 I could hear her screaming at the door(her classroom is about 10 ft from the entrance). I think the reality of Mommy and Daddy leaving set in and set her off. Needless to say we're going back on Thursday. I think after a few weeks she'll LOVE school, well let's hope she does or it'll be a long school year for us all;)

Wordless Wednesday

Olivia + Finger Paint = FUN!!!

Well after about a million tries at getting my pictures to load I finally got them to. This was suppose to be a wordless Wednesday post but instead you get it today and it's far from wordless.

The other day we went to Target and picked up some color wonder finger paints, thanks to a tip from a fellow facebook friend. If you haven't heard/seen of color wonder stuff your missing out. This stuff is great you can paint and color and it doesn't make a mess. Olivia thinks it's pretty great too. Yesterday we took out the paints and painted a beautiful picture that is now placed on our oven very nicely with scotch tape. Now, I'm not trying to sell you the stuff Olivia asked for it by name, scotch tape(it's from a book). Here are the shots I got from our fun with finger paints yesterday morning.


I LOVE this shot of Olivia with her tongue sticking out. This shows the complete concentration on her part, I know this because I do it too.

This was probably one of the best purchases I have made this summer for Olivia. She has asked about a hundred times to paint since I got them Tuesday night.

Wedding Bells

This weekend we had the pleasure of attending Lonnie and Stephanie's wedding. Lonnie is Paul's cousin. We were also honored to have our darling Olivia in the wedding as the flower girl. So I thought, oh my goodness, Olivia a flower girl, are they crazy, she's never going to walk down the aisle in front of all those people and throw flowers. Come Friday at the rehearsal all of my fears came true. Olivia DID nothing that she was asked to do and I began freaking out. Now in her defense she did have a sinus infection, was on the verge of a double ear infection, and didn't nap at all and it was 6pm. Well after a lot of screaming, crying, and a great night sleep it was time for her to wow us all. And WOW us she did!! She walked down the aisle like a champ tossing her flowers and looking fabulous. I was such a proud Mommy!!!
Russ and Jen's kids were also in the wedding....aren't these three just the cutest all dressed up??

This has to be one of my faves from the day. While the rest of the wedding party was posing for pictures my little darling walked over to the piano and starting playing away---thank goodness it was closed and she was pretending. Look at those bare little feet:)

Kendall tried her hardest to get Olivia to smile and pose for some pictures. She's such a good big cousin but her efforts didn't get Olivia to smile, we had a long day and she was exhausted.

Congratulations to Lonnie and Stephanie!!!!! Thank you for letting us be part of your special day.

It Got Me Thinking

Tonight as I was putting Olivia to bed I started thinking about how much life changes and how quickly. As you may or may not know Olivia is now in a BIG big girl bed, a full size bed. We've been slowly redeocating her room to be a BIG GIRL room...sad. As I was laying there with her talking about our day I started thinking about how different this summer is compared to last. Last year this time I was fighting with Olivia to sleep at night. Most nights I had to rock her until she was almost asleep if not all the way to sleep. This year not so much...we read a few stories finish up a cup of milk from our before bed snack and go to bed. I tuck her in all snug as a bug in a rug as I tell her and lights out. Ok so maybe not so quick and painless, she did ask for another kiss tonight--I couldn't argue have you seen how cute my kid is lately:) I just can't believe how much of a big girl she is becoming. This is such a fun age, except for the tantrums, I wish she could stay 2 forever!!

Sorry no pictures tonight, this was a last minute late night post and I don't have the energy to sit and wait to upload. I'll be back in a day or two with some pics of her new room.

It's About Time I Feel Like Myself Again

Well this last week has been trying to say the least. A week ago yesterday I had, what the doctor said was minor, sinus surgery. Minor my butt!!! I think I slept for 48 hours straight-yeah, try being a Mom when all you want to do is sleep. Not only did I sleep for 2 days straight I haven't been able to bend over or lift more then 20 lbs, what fun when you have a VERY busy toddler at home. I think the doctor had lost his mind. We'll we've managed and I'm finally back to, almost, normal. I'm so lucky to have my Mom and Stacy to help us out when we need it--they kept Olivia from my surgery day until Friday so I could recover. THANKS!!!!!

Even though I had surgery it didn't hold me back to celebrate the 4th of July with our family and friends. Sunday we loaded up the boat headed out to Bird Island to enjoy some sand and sun. Olivia and Daddy did a lot of sand castle building. Actually Daddy did a lot of building and Olivia did a lot of this........smashing the castle Daddy built. I don't think he minded one bit, he kept building and she kept smashing. We had a lot of fun.

We also took Olivia to her first fireworks this year. I was a little nervous but she LOVED it. I wish I would have brought my camera but I left it in the car. We went to downtown Fernandina Beach and sat by the docks to watch. Olivia *copped a squat* as she calls it in the grass and was ready for some fun. She ran around, played with other kids, and played with rocks until the fireworks started. She sat down and watched every minute of the show. She would say *oooohhhh, aaaahhhh* as they went off. When the show was over she cried, yeah cried because they were over. She told Daddy that she wanted to take the sparkles home with her. We told her that we could go back at Christmas and see some fireworks, she replied *that sounds like fun*

You may remember I posted a few weeks back that Olivia got some watermelon seeds that we planted. Well they grew and grew and grew and grew. Well they aren't really that big since they were mini's but Olivia sure was proud of them. Here she is with her first crop of watermelons. Paul and Olivia have tried them and said they tasted pretty good.