My life as Olivia's mommy and Ben's wife

oh what funny things 2 year olds say!

2009-01-20T20:43:00.000-08:00

I just had to stop what I was doing and tell you about 2 things that Olivia had done/said in the past 2 days that has cracked me and Ben up.

The first is~Last nite Ben was sitting on his couch playing a video game and I was sitting on my couch watching him and playing with my new phone while Olivia was over in the dining room playing with her kitchen. She only had her diaper on because I had already taken her clothes from the day off and just hadn't put her pj's on yet. All of a sudden she walks over to us and has NO diaper on, NO clothes on, NOTHING!!! she is NAKED!! She just stands in front of us and smiles. Before I even say anything to her I look over and Ben and we both look at each other like what in the world?!?! I then ask Olivia why in the world she took her diaper off? She looks at me and very simply states, "I wanna take a bath mommy" Well then, okay. It was so cute all I could do was laugh as I got up and started the bath water. I did talk to her about how we don't just take our diaper off and walk around. My biggest concern was her peeing all over the floor...another reason I need to work on potty training!!! UGH!!! I keep reminding myself that I was potty trained by the time I was 18 months...we are a tad behind!

Tonite Olivia was sitting on my stomach and she pointed at my shirt and said, "what's that mommy?" I assumed she was asking about what was ON my shirt so I said that's Jesus~because I am wearing a Christian tee about Jesus...She preceded to say, "Noooo, it's a shirt" Duh Mom!!

She is so funny these days. She is talking so good and in full sentences. She says sooo many words. Among those words are: Amazing, beautiful, and many more. She continues to amaze me daily. She can say her ABC's all by herself and can count to 10 all by herself. She sings sooo many songs. Her latest that she has started singing out of the blue this week is One Two Buckle My Shoe. I took her to the doctor today because she has a pretty bad cough and for the first time since she was itty bitty she didn't cry at all when they were examining her!! I was sooo proud of her. It may have been because Pop came with us or because we saw a different doctor that was a woman, but she was such a big girl!!! She is just growing up so fast!
Tomorrow we are supposed to have a playdate at Burger King with our Benton Playgroup to celebrate all of our January birthdays and Olivia is one of them so I am hoping that we both feel up to going. Olivia's is just a cold and my sinus' are acting up again so I haven't been feeling great either. Olivia needs to see her friends though and MOmmy needs to see some adult friends so we are going to try really hard.
I am going to leave you with a couple recent pics. Enjoy!!

Hello there strangers!!

2009-01-18T20:36:00.000-08:00

Wow has it been a looong time since I have blogged!!! It's not that I haven't been on my blog website~I just haven't taken the time to write. SOrry :(

I will try to do better.

Olivia is now 2 years old. She turned 2 on January 15. Wow! I can't believe I have a 2 year old. Me?!?!

We are still active in our playgroups and I am still staying home with Olivia. We try to stay busy during the week and stay out of the house because if we don't I tend to be lazy around the house. I am sure Ben wishes I was more of a cleaning wife~but OH WELL!!! Never have been. I do try to "keep up"

That's all for now~ Please be praying for a blogging friend of mine~Scott and Kelly Stamps~She had her first baby girl, Harper, on Friday and she is in VERY critical condition in the NICU in Tulsa. She could really use all the prayers she could get. She has pneumonia and some heart problems. She was a big baby~over 9lbs and is gorgeous. We know that God is faithful and can heal this baby girl. Check out Kelly's blog at www.kellyskornerblog.com

Halloween Pictures

2008-11-01T22:31:00.001-07:00

Halloween wweekend 2008

2008-11-01T22:11:00.000-07:00

Well since I haven't done so good at keeping up with this lately I am just going to pick up where we are right now...Halloween weekend.

Last night was Halloween and although it was actually Olivia's 2nd one~it was her very first time to get dressed up and go out trick or treating. I ordered her costume from ebay and was expecting it this week and was hoping that it would come in on Wednesday. Reason being~we had a costume party with our playgroup on Thursday morning. Well of course her costume did not come in. Well let me take that back. It came in on Thursday which normally would have been fine since our mail runs early in the morning...BUT OF COURSE on the day I NEED it our mail runs late in the afternoon. OH WELL...Olivia was extremely cranky that day and so that made mommy even more cranky so we skipped the playgroup party.
Let me just say Olivia looked ADORABLE as Cookie Monster. Ben got home from work a little before 5 and we started getting ready. I painted her fingernails bright blue and tried to spray some bright blue color in her hair. She was having NO part of it so being the brilliant mommy I am I sprayed my hair blue to show her it was so cool and so beautiful to have blue hair!! She didn't buy it!! So mommy had her t-shirt and jeans on with bright blue hair and Olivia looked adorable without the bright blue hair!! We left the apartment around 5:45. We headed for Geyer Springs Baptist that is on I-30 because they where having a Funfest that was being advertised as "large" scale. Well we pulled into the parking lot and it was more like the FAIR!!! I swear it was HUGE!!! It would have been great I am sure but with Olivia being as young as she is we decided to not do it this year...maybe next year. We knew she wouldn't ride any of the rides and would want to be carried so we opted out. PLUS she didn't get a nap all day so we didn't want to push our luck. So we headed towards Benton to go to Ben's mom and step-dad's neighborhood. They usually have tons of kids out and so we knew that it would be a good place Olivia fell asleep on our way out there before the activities even started!! We parked our car at their house and walked around with Uncle James, Aunt Lauren, and Tyler. Olivia had so much fun!! She loves Tyler anyway so she really took to walking up to the doors with him and saying, "trick or treat" She would rather have them hand her the candy so she could put it in her bag herself but other than that she got the hang of it pretty quick. She would yell, "Thanks!" as she was running down each driveway and on to the next house. It only sprinkled a little bit on us and not enough to deter Olivia. We went from house to house for about an hour or so and then had to head back to Little Rock. By this point, it was getting dark and the older kids were starting to come out. And mommy and daddy were worn out!!!
After trick or treating we took daddy home and Olivia and I headed over to Mammaw and Grandad's. They had to see Cookie Monster before she turned back into Olivia. They of course thought she was adorable!! We played over there and watched Barney for a little while before going home to take a bath and get to bed. I think Olivia had a blast on her first "active" Halloween!!
Today was November 1st!! Can you believe it?!?! Every 1st Saturday of the month our church helps put on a picnic with the Help Stop the Violence organization. Ben usually goes and helps but this time Olivia and I went too. It was at Promiseland Church off of Geyer Springs and we had hot dogs, cotten candy, snow cones, a big jumping thing, and a talent show. Olivia loves running around with all her little friends from church. I made cotten candy for the first time and let me tell you~~That's hard work!!! I got it EVERYWHERE!!! I had cotten candy in my hair, on my clothes, on my arms, anywhere and everywhere!! My hands where cramping from twisting the sticks around the machine. It was so much fun serving everyone and reaching out to the community. I think Olivia and I might start going more often!
Tomorrow we are gonna take it easy. Sunday is our good nap day and I fully intend on taking advantage of it!! We have had a busy weekend, but it has been so much fun. I am so thankful that I am able to share all these moments with Olivia. Instead of trying to add all the pictures to the blog I am going to just do a picture blog with all of her Halloween pics in it!!

catching up and keeping up

2008-10-13T20:09:00.000-07:00

Wow~~ So it has really been a while since I have posted anything! It's not that I haven't been online~I just haven't taken the time to write. I have good intentions but then get preoccupied!
SO I will just write about a couple of the "big" events that has happened lately.
On October 4 my grandfather who I call Papa~I cried through the whole wedding. It was such a bittersweet moment. I am so happy that he has found someone to spend his life with. At the same time it was hard to see him with someone other than my grandma. My grandma died April 10, 2007. It was very sudden and very hard for our family. So I am very happy for my grandfather. Wilma, his new bride, seems to be very nice and kind. She does remind me alot of my grandma but that is ok. I hope they are happy together. I am keeping an open mind...or trying to. So we went to the wedding and the reception afterwards~then we went back to their house for a barbeque. There was probably 50 people in and out and it was very nice to see all of my family.

October 11~my mom, me, and Olivia walked in Race for the Cure. It was my 3rd time to walk and Olivia's very first time! She loved being outside and watching all the people. It is always such a rush to see the thousands of women that come out to support the race. It still amazes me that you wait 30 minutes once the race starts to even start walking because it takes that long for all the people in front of you to get far enough ahead for you to move. I am so glad that we went.Olivia was worn out by the time we were done. But she had so much fun getting beads and all the other goodies they were handing out~!

Olivia and I spent the night with my mom that way we could just get up and go. Friday night we went to the Texarkana/Benton football game and saw my cousin Shelbi cheer. She is a junior for Arkansas High and a great great cheerleader. My aunt and Uncle were there and it was great to see them. It is my mom's brother and they live in Texarkana and we don't see them near as often as we should!!

Olivia is getting so big! She is 21 months and acting like she is 21!! She is repeating everything!! We are really having to watch what we say around her. She is so much fun!

Air conditioning, finger cuts, and Spiderman

2008-09-27T20:32:00.000-07:00

Wow! I am not doing very well at keeping up these days. No reason really, just haven't made this a priority! Sorry! :(
Let's see...where to start?
I will start with with this past week. On Monday night I had tambourine practice. It sounds funny to call it that right now since we don't do anything with the tambourine during practice. We are still working on getting our room at the new building finished. We didn't have a closet at all so one had to be built and we still aren't finished painting the new walls. So all of our clothes and stuff are still in the middle of the room just like the first day after we moved in. There is just so much to do and trying to get it all done in between stuff we are working on and everyone's busy schedules is very hard. We are working on a choreography for a new dance. We have been asked to dance in a wedding at the end of October. It should be very nice.
On Wednesday I woke up to our air conditioner being out. This wouldn't be that big of a deal expect that it was just out the week before. So Ben called the office and they said they would call on it first thing. I tried to wait around to see if they would come but by 1pm Olivia and I were burning up so we gave up. We ran to Walmart and then went to my parents house for the afternoon. Ben got home at 5pm and it was still hot in there so he called again and supposedly the AC people had been there but left. Guess it was more serious than what they thought. So Olivia and I spent the night at Mammaw and Pappaw's on the floor and Ben went to his Dad's house and spent the night there. It was fun having a sleep over at Mammaw and Grandad's for Olivia. When I got our palett laid out she thought it was the neatest thing and was running in circles all over it! As I was getting things out of our bag I suddenly felt something not so nice on my finger~I pulled it out and apparantly the cap had come off of my shaving razor and shaved a nice little chunk off the tip of my middle finger. It bled for a long time and I ended up having to put it on ice to get the bleeding to stop. After it did I put some neosporin plus pain on it and wrapped in in gauze and taped it up. It hurt!
Thursday Olivia and I got up and went to storytime at Terry Library with Nicole, Isaac, Carder, Adrianne, and Brett. IT was really different than our Bryant storytime as it was geared to older kids but Olivia still seemed to enjoy it and so did the other kiddos. Craft time is her favorite besides singing which they didn't do too much of there. After storytime we all went to Burger King for lunch and let the kiddos play on the playground outside. We stayed until Olivia was too fussy for mommy to handle. Adrianne had to go to Tate's school so I took Brett with me and we went back to his house and played Wii. If you haven't ever played the Wii~you need to!! It is such fun!! And semi-active for a video game!!
All day Ben had been calling the office at the apartments trying to find out the status of our AC. Finally at 4 I got the call that our apartment was all cool! YEA!! So we ran by my parents house and got all of our stuff and we back home. It was so nice to be back in a cool place!! You don't realize how much you take it for granted until it's gone!
Friday I HAD to stay home and get our house clean because I am having a Premier Jewelry party on Sunday. I got my bathroom all clean, but not much else. I had a headache most of the day so that kept me from getting as much done as I would have wanted to. We stayed at home and relaxed on Friday as a family. I cooked dinner and Ben did dishes...that's always nice.
Today...Saturday...I stayed home all day too and worked on the house. Finally at 9pm it was all clean...carpets shampooed and floors mopped! Although, I hate housework, I love it when it is all clean and you have that sense of accomplishment! I am looking forward to the jewerly party tomorrow after church. Hopefully I will have a decent turnout!
I haven't taken as much pictures lately because my camera is dead and the charger is in the back of a friends car and I have a different phone that doesn't take very good pictures. Hopefully I will get some soon!
Oh and Olivia is very into Spidyman right now. We spent some time with the Stone boys last weekend aned thye have everything Spidyman so Olivia caught on!

It is funny seeing her in her pj's. She is too cute~!

She is repeated EVERYTHING now!! And even saying some stuff we have no idea where it came from!! The other day she told her daddy to shub bup!!! He got onto her while I hid my laughing. Although not nice it was kinda funny! She is now expressing herself very well when she disagrees with you too. She says, "hmmph" and crossing her arms in front of her and frowns. it was cute at first but not so much now.
Olivia can count to 10 pretty much on her own!! She stumbles a little around 5 and 6 but then picks right back up with 7, 8, 9, 10. It is amazing!! She really is smart!
Oh and my finger is doing ok...really not that bad after keeping it covered for a couple days! Dora bandaids rock!!

Wow...been awhile!

2008-09-20T18:56:00.000-07:00

So I was looking and saw that it was like the 7th of September the last time I posted anything!!
This month has flown by and we have been super busy. I have been babysitting alot for friends and doing alot of stuff during the days with Olivia.
Olivia is now 20 months old! Only 4 more months til she turns 2! I am already looking at different ideas for her birthday party. I really want to do the Wonder Place but it's like 300 bucks for what I want!! Not too sure my husband would go for that!!
Nothing much to report as far as new things. Olivia is talking soo good and so much. She is putting her words together soo well. The cutest thing is when you say Thank you Olivia she replies with I welcome instead of your welcome...smart girl if you think about it.
We went to target today and she rode in the big part of the basket and was standing up facing out and every time we turned a corner and there was someone there she would say sorry. Like we were running into them or something. It was so funny. It was cracking up the people in the store. She talks to everyone these days. Unless I want her to of course. Whenever we are leaving a store and finish checking out she always tells the cashiers bye.
I have a tiny bit of a headache tonite so I am not going to write more. I will try to do better at posting. We have some exciting things coming up in the next few weeks that I will want to share...for example, my grandfather is getting married in a couple weeks!!

Flowergirl dress and face bruises

2008-09-07T20:23:00.000-07:00

We had a great weekend! Friday nite we went to Dixie Cafe and had a good dinner. Olivia loves veggies so she had a vegetable plate and ate soo good. SHe hasn't been eating that well since her throwing up incidents but is getting better. She hasn't thrown up anymore so that is good. After dinner we went home and Ben and I watched a movie I have been wanting to see...What Happens in Vegas...it was funny. We enjoyed watching it together.
On Saturday Olivia and I met Lauren and Kaelyn and some of Lauren't bridesmaids at David's Bridal to pick out their flower girl dresses. That was fun. Olivia loved twirling around in the big poofy dresses like a princess. Then she hit her face on the corner of a mirror and that ended the fun. She has a pretty good bruise on her face from it. After that she didn't want to try anymore dresses on but mommy bribed her with M&M's and she tried our favorite one on again. I do have pictures but for some reason cant get my phone to email so I will add them later. Olivia looks adorable in it!
We then spent the rest of the afternoon at Mammaw's and Grandad's just hanging out and taking a nap. Grandad left around 4 for the Hog's game in LR so we had a girlie evening. We hung out with Mammaw and ate and watched a movie and semi listened to the game on the radio. About halftime Olivia and I left and went over to Uncle James' apartment where Lauren, Bunny(Ben's stepmom), Kaelyn, Christian, and Tyler were and stayed there for a few minutes. All the guys...Ben, James, and Granddog were at Granddog's house watching the game so the kids and the girls were together. The air at the apartment were out and I had a migraine so we didn't stay long. It was a fun day though.
We went to church today and then went to eat lunch with the fam at mi ranchita. After that we came home and took a nap. Today was the start of the NFL football season so Ben will be going to his dads every Sunday to watch the Chargers game. So I will be a football widow for the next 6 months or so. We will take that time to spend the time with my parents on Sunday afternoons though. Naps first of course then time with Mammaw and Granddad.
So all in all it was a great weekend. I will try to figure out how to get my pictures sent from my phone...not sure why it is being difficult!!

Labor day weekend fun!

2008-09-03T15:02:00.000-07:00

Can you believe it's September already?!?! I can't! It seems like just yesterday it was January 15 and we were celebrating Olivia's 1st birthday! Now it is almost time to celebrate her 2nd birthday!! Time definately flies.
We had a great Labor day weekend. I babysat a 10 month old baby boy, TJ. His mommy and me have been friends since she was 10 and I was 13 or so. We lived next door to each other for a long time. TJ stayed with us this weekend so his mommy and daddy could have some much needed vacation time. Olivia loved having the bay-bay to play with. They hugged on each other all weekend. It was too cute.

Monday, Labor Day, we went to Grammy and Paw Paw Pete's for lunch. This is Ben's mom and step-dad. Ben's brother, James, fiance' Lauren, and her son Tyler came over too. Olivia just loves Tyler and always has. James and Lauren are getting married in December and Olivia is going to be a flowergirl. I am excited about that. James has 2 kids from his previous marriage, Kaelyn and Christian, but they were with their momma for the holiday. We ate ribs, chicken, hot dogs, baked beans, cole slaw, corn on the cob, bread, and pina coloda cake. So we were stuffed!! Olivia was shy at first but warmed up when Tyler got there. She even got down with Paw Paw Pete and Tyler and played with the blocks. After we ate, we sat around and visited for a while and watched Tyler and Olivia play. It was a nice time.

After lunch we ran by Target and picked up a few things then went home and took a nap. After a long nap, we went over to my parents, Mammaw and Grandad's house and had dinner. Mammaw had fixed homemade chicken strips, fries, and blackeyed peas. Uncle Trey, Casey, and Uncle Ben were all there. It was a nice time with everyone there. We don't get alll of my family in one place much anymore.
That nite around midnite I was awakened by Olivia throwing up. She sleeps with us so me and her were already in bed sound asleep. Ben was still up. She threw up all over our bed and the floor on the way to the bathroom. We finally made it to the toilet and she threw up a few more times after that. She finally fell back asleep around 2am and slept the rest of the nite. She was so pitiful though. I would ask her if she was ok and she would shake her head no. I felt so bad and so helpless. I would rather be sick the rest of my life than have her sick 1 minute.

At first I thought it was a virus, but then wondered if it was because she drank some white grape juice that day and she never does that. On Tuesday she was fine all day long. She played and ate like normal. You would have never known she was sick. Since Ben was up with us late he stayed home from work on Tuesday. He was my hero because while I tended to Olivia and sat with her in the bathroom he stripped the bed down and washed all the sheets and pillow cases and cleaned the floor. He was great!!
Then on Tuesday nite at midnite I was awakened to Olivia throwing up again!! Same time, same place!! In my bed again! So I rushed her to the bathroom and I sat with her. She didn't throw up as much as the nite before so that was better but I am still worried about why she is doing it. Ben was my hero again and cleaned up the mess. She was sick for about 45 minutes and then she was up playing. She has been fine today all day again. So I am ruling out the virus and the juice because today she drank her normal juice yesterday. So maybe it is reflux and when she drinks her juice laying down at bedtime then that is why? Not sure why it would just start though? She did have acid reflux when she was a baby though. So we have been dealing with this. I am going to try to prop her up tonite and not give her anything to drink before bed and see if that makes a difference. If she still wakes up throwing up then I will be calling the pediatrician tomorrow morning. So we are praying that she will be fine and that it is just a fluke thing.
That's about all that has gone on so far this week. Semi enjoying all this rain. It's fine as long as you can stay at home during the day snuggled up on the couch watching tv. It's not much fun if you are out in it. It is a little cooler though so that is nice. I hate freezing cold weather, but am not too fond of the 100 degree weather either so this break is nice. Just wish fall would last a little longer than it does.
We will see what the rest of the week holds. Until then...

doctor visit info...

2008-08-26T18:05:00.000-07:00

Just an update. I did take Olivia to the doctor today. Her ears are fine and the cold isn't in her chest just yet, but they went a head and put her on Amoxicillian(SP?) because she has had this for over a week. He is hoping this will take care of it and prevent it from going into anything more serious. She did cry while he was examining her but was a little better before and after. We saw Dr. Ledbetter and we have seen him before and I really like him.
That's all for now.

storytime and trails

2008-08-25T21:09:00.000-07:00

We went to storytime at the library again today. Olivia was so much more interactive this time. She even let me put her down and participated!!She loves singing all the songs. She did better listening to the story this time probably because it was called The Wheels on the Bus and that is one of her favorites. The craft this time was a backpack. The teacher made the backpack out of construction paper and ribbon and Olivia colored all the supplies and we glued them in the backpack. She is very proud of it!
After storytime we went over to our church...it is right next door to the Bryant Library, where Adrianne was working and she went with us over to Mills Park and we walked on the trail there. She is doing something called Letter Boxing so we went looking for the hidden clue. It is kind of like a treasure hunt/scavenger hunt. Pretty interesting. Olivia loved being outside and walking in the grass. You could definately tell she is not one that spends alot of time outside. Maybe when it gets cooler her momma will take her out more. I am sooo not an outdoor person when it is hot...unless we are by a pool.
I went to the church tonite and we worked again on getting the tambourine room painted. We have been in the new building since May but haven't gotten our room ready yet. We had to have a closet built and then paint the room and stuff. We have finally gotten the closet painted...it was one of our last things we have to do before putting up shelves and racks and stuff for all of our stuff. Right now all of our stuff is still in boxes in the middle of the room. It will be so nice to have it all finished.
I am taking Olivia to the doctor tomorrow to have her ears checked. She has been kind of croupy sounding and had a runny nose so I just want to have them checked since last time I had no clue she had an ear infection. Better safe than sorry right!!
I will try to post tomorrow to let everyone know what the doc says...hopefully we will get a great report.

Mommy, I cute!

2008-08-24T19:09:00.000-07:00

Just had to share the latest Olivia story.
This morning I got her ready for church. She wore this adorable red sailor type dress with white sandals. Her hair was in pigtails with little red bows for each "tail" She looked super cute. I, of course, am saying "Oh Olivia you look so cute" trying to encourage her to leave her hair alone and her shoes on.
A little bit later I was in my closet searching for something to wear myself and Olivia walks in she says, "Mommy!!" I say, "yes, Olivia" and she says, "Mommy, I cute!" I replied of course with what every parent would say, "Yes you are too cute!"
I thought it was so adorable that she said that. Of course, she had been hearing me tell her that so she was really just repeating it...but who cares!! She is just too cute!! I had to share!
She did so much better during praise and worship today!! She played with her tambourine and streamer. I still had to go out during the sermon..we will deal with that later. We have a nursery but it has all boys in there and a few are wild so I am not ready to put her in there yet. Maybe soon.

There's no place like home in the rain puddles!

2008-08-23T19:49:00.000-07:00

**DISCLAIMER** I AM NOT SURE HOW TO ARRANGE MY PHOTOS IN THE ORDER I WANT THEM JUST YET, SO THESE ARE IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER

Tuesday was a fun day for Olivia. Jackson and Eli came over for a couple of hours to play. Their mommy had a couple of appointments to go to so we got to keep the boys. Olivia just loves other children and Jackson is no exception. The last time he came over Olivia hugged and kissed on him, but he wasn't too sure about her. He was a little better this time and played along with her. I got him to tickle her whenever she started loving on him! She absolutely loved Eli!! Baby! Baby! She couldn't keep her hands off of him. I wish I had gotten pictures of that!!
Uncle Trey came over on Thursday and hung out. He sat with Olivia for a long time reading her a book, over and over again. I was cleaning out Olivia's closet and came across her cousin Kaelyn's "dorothy" shoes, that we were given, you know the red sparkly ones she clicks the heels together and says, "there's no place like home" THOSE shoes!! So Uncle Trey put them on her and she was showing them off. They are still a little bit but Olivia didn't care at all. It had rained off and on that day so late that afternoon we got her rain boots out and went walking in the puddles. She loved it and had a blast. Her clothes were soaked when we got home, but who cares??!?! It was fun! Later that night, I attempted to make rice krispie treats for the very first time. It was so messy, but they turned out great!! Olivia and Daddy really liked them.
Friday afternoon Olivia scratched her leg up pretty badly on something. I was in the kitchen cooking and she was in the living room playing and next thing I know she is running to the kitchen crying. I am still not sure what got her but it looks worse than it actually is. She is fine. I wondered about when she would get in the bathtub if it would hurt or sting but she didn't even notice it!!
I am praying that church goes okay tomorrow. I am involved in the worship team and I am either playing tambourine during praise and worship or I am singing on the worship team. I switch and do each thing every other Sunday. Olivia is having a hard time when I can't hold her during worship. She has been crying during worship the last month or so and it makes it really hard for me to do my "job" I am hoping it is just a stage since I have been doing this since before she was born so she should be used to it!!
She is so cute these days though. The other day I told her, "Olivia, let's go take a bath!"
"okay mommy" she replied and we both take off walking down the hall...well I was walking she was running. Being the normal multi-tasker each mommy is, I stopped in the middle of the hallway to pick something up and she runs right into the back of my legs. I pat her head and make sure she is ok and keep going and as I get into the bathroom I hear her say, " I sowwy Mommy, I sowwy" AWWW how cute is that? I immediately had to call mammaw (My momma) and tell her how cute Olivia is. She just melts my heart...most of the time!!

new experiences

2008-08-19T19:28:00.000-07:00

So we have experienced a couple of "firsts" the past couple of days. The first one was Olivia was invited to her first birthday party! Her friend, Carder turned 2 and had his birthday party Sunday afternoon right after church. I took Olivia and Ben decided to pass on such a fun time! We went over to their house and ate pizza. Olivia is loving pizza these days!! She ate 2 whole pieces...well she ate the toppings off of 2 whole pieces. That counts right?!?! We then put all the kiddos in their bathing suits and took them to the backyard where there were 2 kiddie pools set up. Olivia was the youngest child there and 1 of the only 2 girls there. All of my friends have little boys!! Nicole has 3 of them! Olivia had a blast playing right in the middle of them though. She definately held her own. She loves the water though, so I wasn't too surprised. After they tired of swimming a little bit we all gathered around Carder and a blanket and watched him open his presents. It is very hard for all the other kids to understand that these were all for Carder and not theirs. Olivia had her breakdown the night before when I was wrapping Carder's present and some of the other kids had a hard time understanding at the party. The last thing we did was cake and cookies. They had a Thomas the Train cake that was soo yummy. The whole party was Thomas themed. Olivia is really into the choo choo right now so she loves it! We left with a Thomas ring and a goody bag full of candy (for mommy)!! Olivia had a blast and fell asleep on the way home. We got home around 3:30 and she slept til 7:30! It's hard for her to be such a social butterfly. I don't have any pictures yet...I forgot my camera so I am hoping to get copies of the ones Jason and Nicole took...I'll post them when I get them.
On Monday I decided to get on up and not sleep in late. Olivia and I went to storytime at the Bryant Library. I am part of a stay at home moms group that was going so I met the other moms and kids there. It is for ages 1-3. It was a blast!! Olivia was shy at first but warmed up and started participating soon. First they sang songs that are very interactive. She didn't want to do them at first, but then they started singing the ones she knew so she joined in. She can sing and do the hand motions so she loved it. WE sang itsy bitsy spider, wheels on the bus, if you're happy and you know it and ring around the rosies. The instructor tried to read a story but when you have 47 kids it's hard to hold their attention for that long! That's right...47!! I couldn't believe it. It's a small library but they sure have a great thing going. After the short story she went back to singing a couple of songs. They then had a craft to do. Olivia colored a mouse and strawberry and we put it on a stick and stuck in down in a styrofoam cup that was colored like grass that way the mouse was hiding in the grass and could pop up and say, "I see you!" Olivia was so proud of her creation!!! Mommy was a little bit proud too since this Olivia's first craft time. I took it everywhere we went that day and showed everyone what my baby did! We are definately going to go back as much as possible. They have one storytime at 10 AM that usually only has 15-20 kids and then the 11 AM one that has 50 kids. I am going to try to get Nicole to bring her boys...Keaton is in school now so she could bring Isaac and Carder and then I am going to bring Brett too. Don't have any pictures of this either, but will try to take some next week when we go.
So I have been a very proud momma so far this week. I love watching Olivia learn new things and experience new things. It's good for us to get out of the house too and not just be cooped up all day.
Olivia is talking more and more everyday. She is repeating everything and even saying things that we don't know where she got them from. She is definately growing up even faster it seems than before. She is becoming a little girl and now a baby girl. I have baby fever because of it though and am ready to have another baby around the house! We will see what happens on that one! I'll keep everyone posted! :)

Zaxby's, Wild River Country, and pizza!

2008-08-14T19:43:00.001-07:00

I haven't written much lately. This week I haven't felt great. Sore throat, stuffy nose, headache, etc. I haven't even been on the computer as much which is unheard of for me!!
I am not sure what is the last thing I have told you about besides Anna starting school. We had a busy weekend last weekend full of dancing with the Deborah Company. I was actually happy that Monday started a new week! I was exhausted. I am very thankful I don't have to get up and go to work. I am blessed of God!! I also have an awesome daughter who stays up late with momma and sleeps in late too! I couldn't ask for anything more.
Uncle Trey came over one day this week and hung out. Olivia loves it when he comes over because he plays with her. He is so good with her and they adore each other! Wednesday night we went over to my parents...Mammaw and Grandad...we try to go over there at least one night a week for them to see Olivia. If not I get a phone call asking where she is. Olivia loves going over there because there is always a house full of people to pay attention to her. This time was no different. Let's see there was Mammaw, Grandad, Uncle Trey and Casey, Uncle Ben and Linsey and Jeremy. Olivia is not too sure about Jeremy and this was the first time for her to be around LInsey for any length of time. Linsey got on the floor and played with her and she ate that up. She always plays well with Casey. She says Casey and it is soo cute. I wish everyone could hear her.
Mammaw and Grandad bought Olivia a picnic basket that is full of fruits and veggies. She loves to go grocery shopping with it and pretends to eat on them. She learned what broccoli is and says it so cute...bwocci.
Today (Thursday) we went with Adrianne, Tate, and Brett for the day. We went over and picked them up from their house and then went by Mammaws work. That is always a treat for Mammaw to get to see Olivia in the middle of the day. We then had to go by Tate and Brett's nanna's work. She owns Ramhorn Furniture in downtown NLR. Olivia had never been there and was shy at first of course. She finally got down and was walking around and noticed a little ride on toy that she thought was fun. She played on it and when it was time to leave she said, "bye mommy" This is from the child that is attached to my hip! She was letting me walk out the door to leave her at some strange place to play with this toy!! Needless to say, Mrs. Angela gave it to Olivia so we now have a new toy to add to her collection. And this one goes "BEEP BEEP"!!
After those errands we went to Maumelle and had lunch at Zaxby's. That was a first for us. It was pretty good. Olivia like it. We then went by the ALlstate office that I worked for when I first got married and until I was about 6 months pregnant. Heath was a fun guy to work for and I hadn't seen him since I was pregnant. He had never met Olivia. I am not in Maumelle very often...ok never....so we took advantage of it and stopped by to say hi! It was good to see him.
Maumelle has changed sooo much since the last time I was there. Walmart wasn't even there the last time I was there!
We finally made our way to Wild River Country!! It was alot of fun and not that busy at all. Olivia loves it and it wears her out!! We stayed all day until about 5pm. No sunburns though!!! YEA!! Just my tan water baby.
We took Adrianne and the boys home and we made our way home. I ordered pizza from Dominos to be delivered because I was way too tired to think of cooking much less actually do it! Daddy was glad that Olivia was home and helped give her a bath. We are now relaxing in bed and while I write this blog Olivia is laying her with my watching PBS kids sprout. She loves being a sproutlet!! If you have no idea what I am talking about check out www.sproutonline.com
That's all for now. We are considering Wild River COuntry again tomorrow. We will see how mommy feels in the morning!! We are definately getting season passes next summer for the whole family though!!

Anna is 9 and in the 4th grade???

2008-08-07T10:40:00.000-07:00

So most everyone knows that I have another "daughter" that I have had for 9 years now. Anna Marie, is my best friends daughter and has been "mine" too. I did keep her a lot more when they lived in Conway and her momma worked all the time, but now they live in Jackson, Tennessee so I don't get to see them as often. I do get her when I can though and miss her like crazy.
Well, Anna started the 4th grade this week!! 4th grade!! I can't believe it. I remember the day she was born. I had been out of high school for 4 days! Now it's 9 years later and she is growing up way too fast. She is pre-teen almost. She is such a joy to be aroundand has turned into such an awesome young lady. She is always such a big helper with Olivia. She is a great big sister! I love her with all my heart and will always consider her my first child!! I love you baby girl!!

2008-08-06T22:25:00.000-07:00

Wow has this been a busy week. Add migraines on top of it and it doesn't make for very much fun. We are dancing this weekend at 3 different places so we have had tamourine practice 3x already. Sunday after church, Monday night, and tonight. I am exhausted and my body is telling me to slow down. I was supposed to have my Arbonne launch parties Thursday and Friday but had to cancel them because my stress level was too high and when that happens I end up in bed with migraines. Not worth it!!
I haven't really had much time to think about anything else so not much else is happening. Olivia has dealt with my illness pretty good considering.
I'll have to write more later...

Blue's Clue's, salt and vinegar chips and apple juice

2008-08-01T20:12:00.000-07:00

Well another week has come and gone. It's Friday night and as I am starting this blog Olivia is sitting in my lap, watching Blue's Clue's and eating salt and vinegar chips. She is definately my child!! She loves anything sour and fruity candy. Can't imagine why? Except that it is what I ate most of my whole pregnancy.
Olivia and I had a great day today. First we went to AR Blue Cross Blue Shield and had lunch with my mom/Mammaw. Olivia usually is very shy with everyone there, but today she was better. She actually got down and walked around and talked some. WE have been going up there since she was born but she always clung to me so we haven't gone in a long time. She was barely walking last time we visited, but decided it had been long enough and wanted to try again. We stopped and got lunch at Wendy's first and took it upstairs to mom's cubicle to eat. Olivia loves chicken nuggets but in trying to get her to warm up to them, all of mom's coworkers were giving her treats...so instead of her nuggets she had cheetos, smarties, and dumdum suckers. She loved all of it!! She was a very happy child when we left and Mrs. Kim gave her a sucker for the road. I have to admit it was a nice diversion from the fact that she didn't want in to be in her carseat. She road fairly quietly. Next stop was Adrianne's to scrapbook. Olivia played with Brett most of the afternoon while momma got 2 scrapbook pages done!! She got really cranky around 4 so I laid on Adrianne's bed with her and she fell right to sleep. She slept for about an hour and woke up very unhappy!! Momma packed up her stuff very quickly and we headed home. I left her sippy cup there so we had to stop at Burger King for a kid's meal and apple juice since she didn't really eat her lunch from earlier!!
We have been home since then just hanging out. Momma tried to lay down to rest but Daddy was on the phone with Tony and making all kinds of noise so that was out of the question. I have had a semi-headache all day so I sent Ben to Kroger for Imitrex. Now I won't be without it this weekend just in case I were to get a migraine.
Ben was playing with Olivia on the couch...well Olivia was on the couch and Ben was standing next to it and he kicked the couch very hard and knocked half his toenail off. That was interesting. He is now sporting 2 very cute Nemo tattoo bandaids.
Tomorrow evening we are going back to Adrianne's to babysit Brett and Tate for them to go to a wedding. Sunday morning is church and maybe we will try to get to Wild River Country since it didn't happen last week. Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

Happy 21st Birthday Uncle Ben!!!

2008-07-27T22:20:00.000-07:00

Not much has been going on this week. Fairly relaxed if I do say so myself. WE usually spend more time at the pool, but since Olivia had an ear infection and was on antibiotics all week I decided to take a break and let her ear fully heal before getting it under water again. She seems to be doing better as far as I can tell...although I didn't even know she HAD an ear infection in the first place so not sure I can be the judge.
We had a pretty decent weekend. Friday nite we took a late nap and woke up around 7pm. I was hungry for Mexican so we went to Las Palmas right by our house. The were so busy that people were waiting outside. We went on to Bryant and went to Casa Mexicana. By this time, Olivia was running fever and a little cranky so we ate quickly and ran to Walmart and bought a new thermometer. We have one that is useless so I wanted a new one. WE got one that does ear temperature and forehead temps. Pretty neat. I also got some children's tylenol while we were there. I didn't think Olivia was "sick" she does have 2 teeth coming in and a little bit of loose stools so I fiugred the fever was from that because she does this everytime she is teething. She ran fever all day Saturday but was fine for church this morning.
Saturday was July 26 and my youngest brothers 21st birthday!! I can't believe the baby of the family is 21! He has turned into such a handsome young man and is doing so well with his work and everything. Him and a group of friends went out that nite and I know they had a blast just from looking at all the pictures! Happy Birthday Uncle Ben!
I went to the grocery store on Saturday morning...fun fun. The only good thing about it was that Ben kept Olivia at home so I was able to shop all by myself...let me tell you...if you have ever taken an 18 month VERY active child to the grocery store you know what a treat going by yourself is!!! I took my time and actually enjoyed it! My receipt showed this too! But we are good for a couple weeks. I made a new meal that night too...Adrianne gave me her recipe for Mexican Lasagna. Turned out really good. We are enjoying new things, because our list of meals was getting old.
Got up and went to church this morning. Ben had to run the sound and the young adult worship team which I am on led worship this morning. Chris Truby was our special guest today so that is always nice. I love hearing him speak. Afterward we went out to lunch with James, Paula, James, Lauren, and Tyler. We ate at Mi Ranchita in Bryant...our new fav.
We decided that we were going to come home and take a nap and then get up and go to Wild River Country around 5 or so and stay til they close at 8pm. WELL...we didn't wake up til 6 so that was off the plan book. Ben stayed in bed, but Olivia and I got up and ate a sandwich and went back to bed until 10pm...oops. So now it's 12:30AM and we are all wide awake. Not so bad for Olivia and I since we can sleep in, but Ben still has to get up and go to work.
I am started to sell Arbonne now. I am very excited about the opportunity that it is and what it can do to help our family! We are in need of change and want to get out of some debt and other things so I believe this is the door that the LOrd has opened for us! My first "launch" parties are scheduled for August 7th and 8th at my house! Please spread the word and email me at oliviasmommy07@comcast.net if you are interested in coming and I don't have your address or email address. This is an invitation to everyone!! Please help me build my business!
That's all for now...hoping to get to Wild River Country on Tuesday and hope to have pictures of it for you to see...until then...love to all!

Corn on the cob

2008-07-22T20:45:00.000-07:00

Not too much going on so far this week to report. My Monday was fairly uneventful. I did babysit a little girl from our church for a couple of hours for her grandma to go to an appointment. I will be keeping her again on next Monday. Amber is her name and she is 8. Olivia liked having the company even if it was only for a couple of hours.
Today we went over to Adrianne's and hung out for a few hours. Olivia loves playing with Tate and Brett and I enjoy getting out of the house. We didn't do anything really. Watched a movie and ate lunch. Adrianne needed to unpack from their vacation and likes having someone to talk to while doing it so I was happy to oblige. I will be keeping her boys next Tuesday so Adrianne can take our friend Sandy for a doctor's appointment. I love keeping Tate and Brett. They are 7 and 4 and sooo well behaved. I never have any issues with them. SOmetimes I keep them at their house, but sometimes they come to mine and we go to the pool. They love swimming. I have gone to Wild River Country with them too and that's alot of fun. Maybe I can take Olivia again soon. She loves it.
I did cook meatloaf for the very first time tonight. I used Adrianne's recipe since my mom swears she can't do a good meatloaf and it turned out really good. I liked it which says alot since I don't usually do hamburger meat unless on a burger. I also fixed corn on the cob, purple hull peas, and baby carrots and we had a tad bit of mashed potatoes left over from last nite. So we had a pretty decent dinner. Olivia loved the mashed potatoes and corn on the cob. She was so cute eating the corn. I think it was her first time to eat corn on the cob.
The only bad thing about cooking like that is the dishes afterwards. I am very blessed though because Ben will do the dishes if I do the cooking. He usually keeps the kitchen clean anyway. He is the kitchen man and I worry about the other stuff. FIne with me cuz I hate kitchen work. I did unload the clean dishes for him so he would have an empty dishwasher and put up all the left over food for him.
SO a pretty boring week so far...tomorrow (Wednesday) I have an appointment with Amy Darcey and Arbonne girl. I have been talking with her and Nicole about maybe selling Arbonne in addition to Pampered Chef. Don't know if it will work out yet...just trying to wait for God's leading. The extra money would be sooo helpful. We would like to get into a house of our very own soon. Although, we did just sign another year's lease but maybe we can get our finances in order to start heading in that direction. We love it here in Otter Creek but a yard for Olivia as she gets older is a must. I also have a bigger kitchen with a pantry and a bathroom with a jacuzzi tub on my list of must for a house.
So I am just rambling away...I do hear Olivia fussing a bit at her daddy. They have been playing really good, but she is getting tired and I am hearing "NO, NO, NO Dada!" a little more often!
Write again soon!

I lost a day!

2008-07-20T18:31:00.000-07:00

This hasn't been the greatest weekend I've ever had, that's for sure. It didn't start out that way though.
Friday nite was pretty fun. We ate dinner and then Ben and I decided we wanted to try to watch a movie. Olivia did pretty good and actually fell asleep through the second half of it. We watched National Treasure 2. IT was great! It's not very often that we get to watch a movie together all the way to the end! Olivia woke up after the movie, of course, and was wide awake until about 1AM. I was up anyway so it didn't bother me that much because I knew that we could all sleep late on Saturday. We were going to go to the Evan's family reunion in Hot Springs, but Ben had decided that we weren't going so we were both happy to be able to sleep in.
Well...we slept in and when I did wake up I had the most horrible headache. It felt alot like a sinus headache instead of a migraine so I took all the medicine I could think of that would help. Naproxen, antihistimine, decongestant, etc. BUT I took it all on an empty stomach...yep...not good. I've been having what we are beginning to think are gallbladder issues and it started up again after taking all those meds. So now I was dealing with a headache and stomach pain. I was in tears...no take that back...I was almost hysterical because it was hurting so bad. Ben immmediately tries to call my mom and wants to take me to the ER. I hold him off and eventually get over the stomach pain. He runs to the pharmacy to get me an Imitrex, which is a not so cheap pill I take for migraines. This usually works but this time it didn't. So I was in bed, literally, all day yesterday. I got up to go to the bathroom and to eat a tiny bit and was back in bed for good at 8:30. Those who know me know that this is waaaay early for me.
This morning I woke up at 5:30am still hurting and knew I wouldn't be going to church. I have missed every other week it seems with something going on. I fall asleep off and on until about 8:30 or so. Thinking this may be a rebound headache and nothing is going to help I call a couple friends from church and have them to be praying for me. Ben's parents also came by and said they would be praying. I took 1 more imitrex and lots of prayer and almost an hour later I am better. It may have been the imitrex that finally helped but I would be more inclined to say it was all the prayers that went up. So if you were among those that were praying, THANK YOU!!!!
I got up and spent time with Ben and Olivia and then Olivia and I had to run over to my parents for a little bit. Olivia missed her mommy just a little I think. Ben had to play mommy this weekend since I was in bed. He did very well and she survived just fine. I think he surprised him self a little bit. She did very well with him and I am very thankful that he was there to take care of her and me. He is a great husband!!
So now I am back in bed, but this time not because I have to be! This is where I chill out and get on the laptop. Olivia is spending more time with her daddy since he was the one taking care of her and that is fine with me. I welcome the break sometimes. She needs to detach from me a little bit, I realize that. She is still a mommy's girl for now though. There will be a day very soon that she will become a daddy's girl, I know I did when I was around her age, or so I'm told. SO I won't complain too much about her wanting me all the time.
I keep thinking that today is Saturday and that noone has to go to work tomorrow, but it's not, and they do. Unfortunately I lost a full day while dealing with this headache filled weekend.

18 month check-up

2008-07-18T13:46:00.000-07:00

So I took Olivia for her 18 month check-up today and 15 month shots. Yes, I was 3 months late getting her last shots. I do have a good reason though...the last couple times she has been to the doctor she has had ear infections and today was no different. I'll get to that in a minute.
We had an appointment at 9:30. I got there only a couple minutes early thinking I wouldn't have to wait very long. WRONG!! I guess with it being Friday and everyone wanting to get their kids in before the weekend and all. By 10:10 not only was I getting restless but so was my 1 and 1/2 year old. Finally we get called back by the sweetest nurse so I'm thinking maybe Olivia won't freak out this time.
She was kinda whining a little bit when the nurse had me strip her down to her diaper and told me she would be right back. But by the time she came back and we had her laying down on the table to get her length she was freaking out. This was not even the hard part of the check-up We went on to get her head circumference and her weight. I was very curious about her weight because she has been 20lbs since she turned 1. Today was a little better...she was 21lbs 2oz. I was still a little concerned that the doctor would see this as a problem. Her length was 30 inches and her head was 18 and 1/2. The nurse left and I tried to soothe this hysterical baby girl. She finally got okay and was getting down off of my lap and checking out the stool in the room when in walks the doctor. I had thought I was seeing a different doctor but we ended up seeing Dr. Annulis which is who we had seen her whole first year. She is okay, I just prefer a couple of the other ones. No big deal since this was only a check up.
My calm child now freaks again. But this time it's worse. She cried during the questions the doctor was asking me. She was across the room and Olivia is still freaking out. She asked the normal questions...how is she eating, walking, talking, sleeping, off bottles, you know just generic questions. Then she had to examine her. That was difficult. I had to hold her still just for her to listen to her breathing! Everything was fine until she checked her right ear. Dr. Annulis looks at me and says, "has she been pulling on her ear?" "no" I replied. She goes on to tell me this is not just a minor infection but one that definately needs to be treated. Talk about making me feel sooo small as a mother. How could I miss this? I am with her 24/7. She hasn't been cranky or anything. We go swimming alot so the times I have seen her mess with her ears is after swimming when water would be in them.
So we finish up the exam and she says that the nurse will be back in to give her shots. Greeaat!!!
Olivia calms down a little bit again and in walks 2 nurses. She immediately starts up again. The way they do it is place her on the end of the table and pin her legs between the table and their body and I hold her upper body. So we do it and she fights and screams and we have to really hold her. They get the 2 shots done. One in each thigh and that's all there is to it. The nurse comments on her temper. I grab her up and love on her and she lays her head on my shoulder and stops crying immediately! I hear the nurses telling each other as they are leaving that she is soo small but soo strong! My precious little girl who must have her daddy's temper!
So that was my experience today. Believe it or not that was only an hour out of my whole day!
Hopefully the antibiotics will take care of the ear infection and we can get back in the pool soon. Olivia loves floating around with her arm floaties and jumping in from the side. I'll try to add some pictures so everyone can see.

Joining the world of the blogger.

2008-07-18T12:46:00.001-07:00

Well, I've decided to start this blog after reading several of my friends blogspots. I like the idea of one place to go and update everyone instead of using myspace which makes everyone create an account. This will be alot easier I think. I don't know how great I will be at this but it can't be that hard...