My Little Stinker...

I am TOTALLY a sucker for cute kids in footie pajamas! Especially THIS particular pair of PJ's. Grant thinks that when Olivia wears them, she looks like "a Who" from "The Grinch". :) Anyway, Liv walked out on the porch one evening, and I had to snap a few photos!

She has become SUCH a little stinker these days. She tells me the funniest things and keeps me laughing 24-7.

I tell Olivia that she’s “a stinker” at least 20 times a day. She has become SO mischievous, smart, and conniving.

Here are a few funny things she’s said or done in the last 3 days:

I was sitting at the computer, frustrated about something, and in an attempt to cheer me up, she said, “Mama, don’t you smile!” (We play that game a lot when Olivia needs some cheering up. It was just so funny to be on the other end of things.)

When I was in the shower the other day, I heard Liv opening and closing the toilet seat. I peeked my head out and told her NOT to touch the toilet. About 5 seconds later, when I heard it flush, I peeked my head out again and caught her in the act of dipping a little toy cup in the water and DRINKING it!!!!!! I almost died of disgust!

I had a big sewing fest last weekend, and had sewing supplies strewn all across my kitchen table. On Sunday morning, once again, while I was in the shower, Olivia snuck downstairs to play. I ran down and got her a few minutes later, and it seemed that she had just been pretending that my scrap fabric was a blanket for her baby. It wasn’t until we got to church that I found a little pile of my sewing pins hidden in the sash of her dress. When I took them away, she said, “No Mom, that my pocket!”

Lately, when I’m changing her diaper, she tells me, “Mom, I want butter on bottom. I have rash.” She never actually has a rash, and apparently she thinks that we use Desatin and butter interchangeably? :)

I'm discovering that nothing is MINE anymore. I used to be able to put things away, and as long as it was out of sight, Olivia wouldn't get into it. But NOW, she figures out how to get through child locks, pushes chairs up to tall countertops, and sneaks away quietly, just so she can get her hands on things. For example, the other day, I was cleaning in the family room and before I knew it, I looked over, and Olivia had reached up to our "junk drawer" grabbed an entire Costco sized box of gum, and was frantically unwrapping pieces and stuffing them in her mouth at lightning speed! I think I counted 5 wrappers, and yes....She swallowed every single one of them before she could get in trouble.

This girl also refuses to keep her pants on! I don’t know what it is about them, but within 20 minutes of getting her dressed, she’s trying to unbutton her pants and saying, “I help you, I help you!” (Meaning, help me!)

Olivia is totally at that age where she KNOWS she’s being funny. At least she’s still young enough that it’s cute and not annoying. Anytime I laugh at her she says in a silly voice, “I funny!?!?!” And the same thing goes when she thinks she’s being cute….She says, “Mama, I cute?!”

Right now, as I type, she is coloring all over my planner and talking on my phone, saying, “221-9.” And yes, that is the start of our phone number.

But no matter what crazy, sneaky, mischievous things this girl does, the minute she says “I wub ooo, Mama!” it makes it all worth it!

Great G&G Rogers

Last weekend was eventful and fun! Grant's grandparents were in town, which meant that we got to spend a little time with them. We've been wanting to go to one of his cousin, Creed's football games all year, so last weekend was perfect timing. On Saturday night, we headed out to the game and got to catch up with his Uncle Thayer's family, Aunt Angelia's family, and his grandparents. Olivia was spoiled rotten! She sat with Great Grandma and Aunt Angelia while they fed her popcorn and candy. She spent the night happily eating, playing, and LOVING watching the cheerleaders. I'm a bad mom though, and left my camera in the car so I didn't have to lug it around....

Sunday was stake conference (which was wonderful). After church, we headed over to Thayer and Alison's house for dinner. We brought my current favorite salad.

We celebrated Jarett and Grandpa's birthday's!

Olivia would not let her Great Grandma out of her sight. She became so attached and loved playing and coloring with Grandma. For the next 2 days, she begged for Grandma non-stop!

I was so happy that she was willing to go to someone that she has only met one or two other times in her life! She's usually very timid around unfamiliar faces, but I guess she could spot a grandma from a mile away!

We had a wonderful weekend catching up with family members that we rarely get to see!

Halloween Night

We had a fabulous Halloween this year! Olivia loved walking around barking and telling us her name was "Feeee Feeee." I think she was finally old enough to really understand the concept of Halloween, which made it fun for all of us. We read Halloween books all month, sang every Halloween song I know (5 million times each, per Liv's request), and talked a lot about spiders, pumpkins, witches, and trick-or-treating.

In order to carry on my mom's tradition, we invited some of Olivia's buddies (and their families) over for a "soup buffet" before we headed out for a night full of candy and trick-or-treating. It was so fun-- We have decide that we will definitely be carrying that tradition on as long as we have kids living at home. :) It's a great way to ensure that everyone gets some actual substance in their bellies before the sugar rush begins.

The Guerisolis:

The Micks:

We had a great time trick-or-treating too....We went to the Guerisoli's neighborhood which was pretty quiet....Perfect for toddler trick-or-treating! There were no mean teenagers to compete with and get trampled by!

The dads did all the work and loved taking the kids up to each door. :) And when the kiddies got tired but weren't ready to stop, they got door-to-door stroller service. Sweet deal, huh?!

The moms just got to hang out in the back, chatting and taking pictures.

And we ended the night (at a whoppin' 8pm) with a little visit to the Guerisoli's new next door neighbor. They had rented a bounce house and slide to try and entice all of the kids to come to their house! So fun! For some reason, Olivia refused to bounce, but loved the slide.

Unfortunately, we ended the evening with a tired, cranky, runny-nosed girl.

The best part about Halloween was that we all headed back to our house, put the kids to bed upstairs, and played games and ate these treats with hot apple cider until midnight! What a great way to end the night!

Already trying to think of what to be next year....

I Love to See the Temple...

Each Monday night, right after dinner, we do a little lesson and/or activity with Olivia. We call this Family Home Evening. Last week our lesson was on the temple. We are SO lucky to live so close to one, so we decided to take a walk around the beautiful grounds and have our lesson there instead of at home.

Olivia enjoyed walking around and talking about the temple, but she was not interested in sitting down for a lesson. We tried and tried, but instead she wanted to walk up and down the stairs 5 million times and play dangerously close to the fountains. We had to improvise and did a little 2 minute lesson on the car ride home and sang one of Olivia's favorite songs: I Love to See the Temple.

Grant and I try to go at least once a month, but for some reason, we haven't thought to bring Olivia. We will definitely do it more.

She talks about the temple whenever we drive by it, and in her prayers, she always says "get married in temple."

Caramel Apples with the Websters

Well, my sister's family finally arrived in San Antonio a few weeks ago! We picked them up from the airport the night they flew in and they stayed with us until the following afternoon. But since their moving truck still hadn't arrived, we had them over for Sunday dinner and caramel-apple dipping. We had a great time!

Brooke, Bryant, and Olivia are all such good friends and play together so well. Olivia has a little table set up in the playroom with crayons and paper for doing art projects....The following day, when she started telling me that she wanted to "make creations" I knew that her older cousin had already started rubbing off on her! Our "art wall" is now covered in at least 20 "creations" that Brooke and Liv made together!

As you can tell from the photo, we were NOT going for beauty with these apples....Instead we all tried to pile on as much of the good stuff as possible....We used caramel, mini chocolate chips, PB cups, Snickers, and Heath bars. Y-U-M.

We love having family close by and can't wait to do Sunday dinners and games at least once and month!

Trunk-or-Treat

Meet Fifi...

Well, we left for trunk-or-treat right on time, but got in the car only to find that we had a flat tire. Of course! Luckily it was a slow leak, but we still had to drive to two different gas stations to find one with a working air machine. Bad luck seems to follow us around these days.

It was nearly impossible to get a photo of Olivia that night, but you still get the idea....More to come after Halloween night!

Since Olivia was a French poodle named "Fifi," Grant and I threw together some last-minute costumes to go along with Olivia's theme....(See last photo for a better glimpse). We were French artists, of course!

Before the trick-or-treating began, we had a cornbread and chili cook-off. SO FUN! (Why have I never been in a ward that does that?!) If you'd like to see the recipes we entered, click here for the cornbread and here for the chili.

Of course, Olivia loved trick-or-treating with Miss Brooke!

And although this is not the most flattering photo, I had to include this one with Ellie because she was a poodle too! Actually, Olivia's friend Maile was as well....What are the chances?!

These are two of my favorite little Young Women that I used to work with at church! I love them (and so does Olivia)!

This is another one of Olivia's favorite people-- She will ALWAYS have a special love for Sister Whittaker! They are buds.

Not sure what's going on with my beret...But it most definitely did not look like a Russian soldier's hat when I left my house!

P.S.- Yes, we did get the tire problem fixed....The leak was due to a screw which was too close to the edge to be patched. Bummer! Grant had the car fixed up with a new one today, thank goodness.

Pumpkin Patch 2009

Earlier in the month, some friends of ours invited us to go to the pumpkin patch with them! But after some quick research, we discovered that all the cool pumpkin patches/corn mazes were WAAAAY out in the country (really just an hour away). We decided to make a day of it and headed to Hondo, Texas one Saturday morning. It was SO worth it, and I think we will be making it an annual tradition for sure. Olivia was SO happy to be there, but had a break-down every time we tried to pull her to the next activity.

I am IN LOVE with this cute little face. This photo totally captures her sweet little personality (and I love that heart-shaped face!).

Olivia was SO thrilled to see that Lincoln and Henry had come to the pumpkin patch too!

Cute little Linc.

Sweet Baby Henry.

The whole group in front of the hayride (minus me, of course):

The hayride took us to a field where they sold pumpkins. Olivia was BEYOND excited to see so many pumpkins....I love this age! She kept screaming, "pun-kins, pun-kins!!!"

....And she kept wanting to bend down and touch every one of them.

Here are Olivia and Grant headed back from the hayride! She loved the tractor and kept screaming, "BIG truck!"

Livvy helped me take a picture while sitting on my lap and this was what we got.....Her pun-kin tights!

There were lots of activities....They had a huge "jumping pillow" which was essentially a giant trampoline. Olivia was too scared to go by herself, so they let me jump with her. SO fun!

They also had a great swingset. I used to take Olivia to the park quite often, but a few months ago, she suddenly developed an intense hatred for the swings, so we've been avoiding the park. Apparently she's forgotten what she didn't like about it, because she's been asking for the swings every day since!

The kids went on a little barrel-train a few times too. Crystal was a good sport to take both kids the first time.

Before leaving, we ventured through a great cornmaze. I LOVE cornmazes, but it was a little strange to be doing it during the day, while it was so hot outside. The kiddos were sick of walking, so they took a ride on their Daddy's shoulders.

After leaving the farm, we stopped to get some hamburgers for lunch. Olivia crashed in the car and slept the whole way home. What a fun day!

My Little Singer

Olivia is such a little singer these days. I love hearing that cute voice! I have been wanting to videotape her singing some of her favorite songs, but it's been close to impossible lately. ANYTIME we get the camera out, she wants to hold it and/or see herself. So instead of us being able to tape all of her tricks, every video consisted of Liv saying "I wanna seeeeeeeee!" a million times, and usually ended with the huffs and puffs of a frustrated mom.

So I tried at least once a day over the past 2 weeks, and after a LOT of editing, I had a pretty good variety of songs and tricks. :) She sings MANY more songs, but this gives you a pretty good idea.



But for the sake of journaling, here is a list of her favorites:

-I Am a Child of God
-Twinkle Twinkle
-ABC's
-The Eensy-Weensy Spider
-Head Shoulders Knees and Toes
-If You're Happy and You Know It
-Popcorn Popping
-I Love to See the Temple
-Silent Night
-Edelweiss
-Stay Awake
-Pat-a-Cake
-and LOTS more!

A little sneak peak...

Today, Olivia and I spent the morning on the couch watching a movie and making her Halloween costume. She LOVED getting to watch a big-girl movie (aka "a mommy movie") and had a ball climbing all over me as I was trying to sew.

She DID get a hold of the scissors at one point, and when I looked over and realized what was happening, she had her dress nicely tucked between the blades of the scissors and was excitedly saying, "Look Mama....I cut it!!!!!" And she sure did.....Bye-Bye dress. :) I couldn't bring myself to be mad at her though, because she was so excited that she was cutting....Just like Mama! AT LEAST IT WASN'T HER HAIR!! I would most definitely be mad at her for that.
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Anyway, in case you're interested in a little sneak-peak at her costume, here it is!! I've been dying to make this costume since she was born, and finally she's old enough! Can you guess what she'll be?

Yes.....That says "Fifi."

Okay, I'm giving in....I've never been good at keeping secrets anyway. She's going to be a pink poodle! Here is Olivia's little trick-or-treat bag! Okay, it's really a purse, but I just couldn't resist!!!

The lengths I went to, to get this purse are a little sad. I saw it in the window of Gymboree one night several months ago. I was in a HUGE hurry though, and didn't have a spare second to run inside and buy it. So, later that night, I called my local store to put one on hold, and THEY WERE ALREADY SOLD OUT! I called every Gymboree within 2 hours of my house, AND every store in Southern California (hoping that my sweet mom or sister would be willing to buy it and mail it to me!)...But to no avail.

So, as we all know, as soon as we can't have something, we want it 10 times more....So I resorted to Ebay. I wish I could say that I got a good deal. But I am ashamed to say that I paid much more than it was worth.

ALL IN THE NAME OF A CUTE HALLOWEEN COSTUME, right? RIGHT??? :)

Chapstick Face

Olivia is completely obsessed with all cosmetic products. I can't blame her though, because I was the exact same way as a kid. My mom used to say that at the age of two, I could put lipstick on as well as she could....Haha, I doubt it, Mom!

ANYTIME Liv sees me getting ready for the day, she says "I ant some, please" over and over again, until I give her a "sample."

Her all-time favorite product is lip gloss (or chapstick if I'm not in the mood to share my good stuff). But the funniest part is what she does after I put it on her lips. She runs directly to the mirror and says, "Ohh, pretty. Like it?" And then she runs off to find Grant so she can show it off to him.

Then, she keeps her lips sealed (as demonstrated in these photos) for a good hour or so. If she has anything she wants to say, she says it out of the corner of her mouth. It's as if she's trying to disrupt the glossiness as little as possible. It is HILARIOUS!

I think I need to tell Santa that she needs a large stash of chapstick in her stocking this year!

My Helper

How is it that cooking can be so much more fun with a little 2-year-old around? Anytime I step foot in the kitchen, Olivia is dragging her stool behind me, saying, "help you cook, Mama!!" I love my buddy. Even if she does make the clean up ten times worse.

Our "Picnic"

Last week, when Grant had to stay late at work, Liv and I decided to have a picnic dinner...In the family room! She LOVED it and has been asking to have indoor picnics almost every day since.

Since she wants to be just like Mom, she pretends to take pictures of me too.

I did have remnants of Chinese Chicken Salad ground into the carpet for a few days (waiting for my new vacuum to come in the mail), but it was totally worth it!

Books...

We LOOOVE books around here. If only we had more free time! Grant, Olivia, and I can often be found with our head buried in a book.

Olivia has quite a few....But that's one collection that I believe can never be too big. We have books in baskets, books on bookshelves, books in toy drawers, books in bags, books in the car....You get the picture!

For the most part, Olivia plays with board books during the day (because of a few mishaps we've had lately....), but at naptime and bedtime, I read her longer stories. She loves the Olivia books, Fancy Nancy books, the Priscilla books, all the classics, the If You Give a ____ a ____ books....just about anything she can get her hands on.

But to be honest, I am SO sick of all of them right now! If you have any suggestions, I'm all ears!!

And just in case you want a good recommendation, we absolutely LOVE the "Little" books by Amy Krouse Rosenthal....Little Pea, Little Hoot, and Little Oink. They are SO stinkin' cute, and hilarious too. I love the simplicity of the artwork, the cute size of the books, and the messages they teach.

For example, Little Pea hates that he has to eat candy for dinner....He just wants to eat his green veggies!

Little Hoot hates that his parents make him stay up so late. He just wants to go to bed early like all of his friends.

And....Little Oink hates to be messy. He just wants to be neat and tidy instead of make his room look like a pig-sty.

They are so cute! If you don't already have them, add them to your collection!

Build-A-Bear

For Olivia's birthday gift, Brooke invited Olivia on a trip to Build-a-Bear! We met the Guerisolis for yummy pizza at Grimaldi's, and the girls each got to make a cute stuffed animal. They had a blast! Thanks guys!

Guess what little gem came in the mail this week?

Yep...you guessed it! MY DYSON FINALLY CAME! I ripped the box open, and vacuumed 'till I couldn't vacuum anymore. It feels SO good to know that my carpet is clean, once again.

I heard horror stories about people vacuuming with their Dyson for the first time. EVERYONE I talk to says that it will fill the dirt chamber completely for the first use or two. I secretly doubted this would happen to me....Okay, maybe I just hoped it wouldn't. After all, we vacuum religiously, and we have a no shoes on the carpet rule. Boy was I wrong.

Wanna see what my end result was? PROMISE you won't judge me????

NASTY, huh?! It was completely filled to the top! It makes me sick just thinking about it. But now, I'm happy to know that my two-year-old is not sitting in all that filth.

Will somebody please tell me when I got so old that a vacuum cleaner could make my MONTH? :) Because it has.

One more thing....

I keep meaning to mention this--

Since many of you have asked, YES, we have decided to file a claim through our homeowners insurance. It will be helpful, of course, but we still have a pretty good-sized deductible that we have to pay first. Let's just say that this is certainly changing our financial plans for the rest of the year.

And, just to add to the fun of it all, as I was heating up dinner tonight, our microwave sparked and is no longer working either. Hmph....Just as I thought we were making some headway.

It just scares me that this will happen with the rest of our currently "working" appliances in the coming weeks. Keep your fingers crossed!

Lightning Update...

I suppose I should probably post an update on our lightning situation.

Most days, I wake up an imagine that this was all a bad, bad dream. I WISH.

It's been quite a nightmare.....We've had more than our fair share of repair-men at our house this week. And unfortunately, Grant had mandatory training all week at work, so I had to deal with everything by myself. Talk about a headache. I bet I could tell you the name and hourly rate of every appliance mechanic in the entire city!

Thankfully, last week, we were able to get our A/C repaired, our fridge, water heater, and finally, by the end of the week, we had our washer and garage door opener fixed. Since electricity takes the path of least resistance, lucky for us, the motherboard/circuit board on each one of our major appliances was completely fried. $$$ On some of them, you could even see a little black mark where the surge of electricity hit. Tell me....Why was my hairdryer fine? And our junky t.v.? Completely unharmed. The lightning had to choose the pricey stuff.

We also bought a new cable modem, an AC adapter for my laptop, and another wireless router.

We still are waiting to have the elliptical fixed ( but might just be replacing it, since the repair costs so much). And I need to buy a new baby monitor as well. And then, once that's all taken care of, we need to have our roof repaired.

Thankfully, Grant was able to replace some circuit breakers and some of the outlets that weren't working.

Funny story.....

The GE guy who came to fix our fridge was not my favorite person in the world. He traipsed right inside my house without putting any shoe covers on, like every other technician in the world does. I noticed that he was tracking in footprints of red mud, and immediately let him know. He tried to deny it, but soon realized that I was, in fact, correct. He apologized and said he would wear his shoe covers, but before I could blink, he was ONCE AGAIN walking on my WHITE carpet to get them from his car. I couldn't believe my eyes. Believe it or not, the same thing happened 20 minutes later when he left his tool bag in my kitchen. Needless to say, GE is sending me a nice, big check in the mail to get my downstairs carpets cleaned. It seems that some people do not have brains!

Someone....PLEASE make this terrible month be over!!! :)

Halloween is in the air!

I LOVE Fall! It symbolizes the start of the holidays, and provides such a nice break from the crazy summer heat. Here's a peek at our house right now...

I found these cute little spiders at Pottery Barn this year when Erin was in town. I usually stick to "Fall" decor instead of specifically Halloween, but now that I have a daughter who appreciates the holidays, it was too fun to skip out on. She even has a little spider web placemat and always talks about eating next to her "sfider."

This candle is probably my favorite scent in the ENTIRE world! I turn it on the minute I wake up each morning, and it stays on until I go to bed. It's HEAVENLY, and makes it really feel like fall inside my house.

This is "The Halloween Song" my family grew up singing. My mom taught it to us, and now it is one of Olivia's favorites too! Here are the fun lyrics:

Hall-o-WEEN, Hall-o-WEEN!
Lots of fun on Hall-o-WEEN!
Black cats and ghosts...Skeletons too!
Clowns and witches all say BOO!!!

Pumpkins with eyes, shiny and bright,
Make us shiver with fright, woo!
Hall-o-WEEN, Hall-o-WEEN!
We love Halloween, BOO!!

I searched online to find a link so you can hear the tune. This was the ONLY one I could find, and it's a lot creepier than the way we sing it. No organ music for us....Our version is more of a fast-paced, silly song.

Halloween Song

Aunt Erin's Visit!

In the beginning of September, my sister, Erin, came to visit us! She used to be a Kindergarten teacher and would almost always spend her Fall and Spring Breaks visiting us! We loved it, but now that she's married, we're both so busy that we rarely get to visit one another. We were thrilled when she decided to come out for a week to play! She came just two days after we got home from our cruise. We worried that it would be a little hectic, but it's a good thing she came when she did, because it's been a zoo at our house since the week she left!

After MONTHS and MONTHS of a serious drought, the skies decided to POUR all week long. It was fun when we were home, hangin' out in our sweats, but we had lots of plans that involved being outdoors. Luckily, we were able to brave the weather, and still follow through with most of our plans.

I was a total slacker about taking pictures, but thankfully, Erin took a few. During the week, we:

1. Visited Riverwalk, of course! The last time we took Erin there, it was spring break and everything was PACKED. She's been dying to go on the boat tour, but unfortunately, this time, the tours were closed due to the rain. Such a bummer!

Instead, we just walked around, ate dinner, and did a little shopping.2. We went to "The Quadrangle" at the army base. It's this cool piece of protected property where deer and wild birds wander free. You can't feed them any bread, but we brought lots of apples, carrots, and lettuce to share. It was SO COOL to have deer and peacocks eating out of our hands!

Olivia was a little nervous at first, but loved the animals after a few minutes.

The deer were REALLY timid, so we had to gently coax them out of their resting area. (Don't mind the ponchos....We were doing this rain or shine!)

I can't wait to go back on a sunny day. I think it might be one of our new favorite activities this fall!

After The Quadrangle, we stopped for lunch at one of our favorite little sandwich shops....W.D. Deli.

3. One day, we decided to drive up to Fredericksburg, a little German town between San Antonio and Austin. We love it there, but were sad that we didn't get to do more shopping-- Everything closes around 5pm!

I have a travel magazine that lists the top 50 burgers in Texas, and the #3 was in Fredericksburg (at the Alamo Springs Cafe)! Naturally, we had to stop for dinner! The restaurant was a NASTY, scuzzy, biker's diner-- We weren't even sure if we were in the right place! But the food turned out to be amazing (and huge!). Erin and I shared one hamburger and were still stuffed!

After dinner, we headed over to some nearby bat caves to watch the bats emerge for their nighttime feeding. Unfortunately, it was pretty dark by the time they came out, but it was still REALLY cool to watch (but SUPER smelly too!).

4. Since Erin and I are nerds, we always have to plan a few crafts to do when we're together. This year, our crafts came from Martha Stewart's Encyclopedia of Crafts. We made glittered ornaments for our Christmas trees! Since Erin doesn't have many ornaments yet, she made all green and red ones (hers turned out GORGEOUS!).

I already have more than enough for my tree, but I made some pink ones for the all pink tree I am going to put in Olivia's room this year. They didn't turn out quite as striking as Erin's though.... :)

We also made a plate and mug set to put Santa's cookies and milk on each Christmas! I will post photos in December!

5. Here's another quirky tradition Erin and I have:

Every time we visit each other, we pick a book to read out loud together! It's so fun! It all started a number of years ago, when Erin would read scriptures to Shannon and I in silly British accents. Not to be sacrilegious.....It just helped our little minds pay close attention! We loved it! Anyway, I wasn't a huge reader until my freshman year of college, so Erin would always offer to read books to me while I scrapbooked, etc. Fast-forward a few years to when I was 7 months pregnant and packing my house to move to Georgia-- Erin came to help me pack. I quickly learned that I was too OCD to have anyone else pack for me, so instead, she provided the entertainment. She also read Twilight to me while I nursed my newborn Olivia. We've read aloud all of the Shopaholic series, I think a Harry Potter or two, and Twilight, among a few others. This trip, we were so excited to read the sequel to Hunger Games (Catching Fire)....One of our all-time favorite books. Sadly, we didn't have time to finish it together, but it was still so fun!

6. During the week, we also visited the P.B./Williams-Sonoma outlet, watched episodes from Arrested Development and The Office, and of course, played with Livvy! (Olivia is IN LOVE with Erin and talks about "En" all the time!)

Thanks for visiting! We miss you, "En"!!!

OH YEAH!!!! How could I forget? Wanna know the best thing about Erin?

SHE'S PREGNANT...Due in May! Hooray!

You have GOT to be kidding me...

I know I've said this before, but this last month has been one of the craziest months of our entire lives. We have some big changes going on....As a result, our house has been in absolute SHAMBLES-- Something I just can't handle. It is so critically important for me to have a clean, put together house...Otherwise, I just can't think straight!

Just as I was wondering if I was going to be able to handle another day of stress, a messy house, and no sleep, our vacuum broke. Uggggh. It wasn't catastrophic, but still, it was not something I had the time or spare change to deal with. We got through it though, and found a (relatively) great deal on eBay for a new DYSON (woo hoo!!!).

Then, the next day, I realized that my computer was about to crash-- BAD ME! The hard drive was obscenely full, and I had not backed up my photos in a WAAAAAY longer time period than I am willing to admit. So, I spent the next day and a half trying to fix all of my major computer issues. It's still not up and running like I want, but at least I know I my computer isn't about to crash.

Finally, on Saturday, I got my house completely cleaned and put together again, and even found time to decorate for fall! It was the perfect day to be inside-- Dark and stormy. And, on top of all that, we got to enjoy watching our church's semi-annual General Conference on TV all afternoon. I went to bed feeling relieved and relaxed. :)

It wasn't 4 hours later that Grant and I both LEAPED out of bed, screaming. OUR HOUSE HAD BEEN STRUCK BY LIGHTNING. Remember this? Yes, this was the second time that my place of residence has been hit. Grant says it's because I'm so electrifying. :) Or something in my blood? My aunt Betsy has been hit by lightning twice in her lifetime too.

Since I had experienced this once before, I knew EXACTLY what was going on. It's pretty unmistakable. We felt the HUGE hit to the house, and in a split second, our bedroom lit up with a florescent blue/white light and we felt a massive surge of electricity run through our bodies and house. It was absolutely terrifying. Thankfully, went into complete fight-mode and before we could even say anything, Grant and I both grabbed the emergency flashlights that we keep under our bed, checked on Olivia, and did a walk-through of the house to look for any fires and to assess the damage.

We realized then, how bad things really were. Here are the electronics that were destroyed from the hit: our air conditioning, our refrigerator, our front-loader washer, our elliptical, my laptop AC adapter, Olivia's ceiling fan/light, our satellite t.v., garage door opener, and our Internet modem. In electronics alone, we have about TEN THOUSAND dollars of damage.

After flipping all the breakers, we eventually went back to bed. There wasn't really any more we could do until it was light outside. This morning, we did a little more investigating, and realized that we were not only hit once, but TWICE last night. It explained why by brother-in-law, Kenny was CONVINCED that the lightening hit right outside his window, while we, too were completely convinced it hit right outside the master bedroom. The fact of the matter is that it did BOTH.

Here is a picture of where it hit our Dish satellite-- the area around it is charred and black.

But the front of our house, right at the peak of our roof also was hit. Our firefighter neighbor (and Grant) climbed on top of our roof to find out how bad things really were. They said it looks like the roof actually caught ON FIRE. Thank goodness for all the rain! It burned through the tiles on our roof, and now we have a hole there. Lucky for us, it's supposed to rain for the next 5 days as well. Oh boy.

This isn't a very good photo, but you can see the blackened area on the right.

Here is the view from the front edge of the roof.

Anyway, it's been quite a whirlwind of phone calls to friends, family, and repair companies. I hope you don't think this is a "poor me" blog post. It's hilarious, really. Well, I'm not laughing yet, but I know I will one day. Just thought you'd be interested in an update! Hope all of our fellow San Antonians were safer than we were!

Goodbye Summer...

This has been a LOOONG Summer. Although it was pretty crazy, there are a lot of things I will miss. Here are just a few:

And of course, we can't forget all the yummy summer foods:

Goodbye summer....Please don't visit us with your excruciating heat until next July. :)

The Starr's Visit

(L to R: Alyssa, Shera, Holly, Carol, Olivia, Noel)

A few weeks ago, I got a text message from my wonderful friend, Carol, saying that she was getting on a plane with her 3 daughters for a girls' trip in San Antonio!!! Despite it being a pretty crazy week, we were able to have them over one evening for dessert and a good catch-up session! It was SO SO fun!

Olivia was in 7th heaven....She got so much attention and stayed up until ELEVEN o'clock that night, because she was having so much fun!!!!! After they left, she stood at the door calling each of their names-- So sad!

The Starrs are practically family to me. I started babysitting their oldest kids when I was just 9 years old, and I continued to watch their 5 kids until the summer that I got married. Carol has taught me SO much about organization, cleanliness, and parenting throughout the years! I love every one of them!

The best friendships are the ones that you can pick up right where you left off....When we get together, it feels like there will never be enough time to update each other on our lives! Thank goodness for blogging-- At least we can stay connected that way.

Thanks for the fun visit, girls!

My two-year-old...

Can this be real??? My baby is actually TWO YEARS OLD!!! This fact becomes a reality for me more and more each day as Olivia and I have real-person conversations. I think this is my FAVORITE part of having a two-year-old. She is my total buddy...

At Olivia's 2 year check up, she weighed 27.5 lbs. (54th %) and was just under 36 inches tall (79th %).

Here are 20 things we're experiencing with Olivia at 25 months: 1. Right now, Olivia is learning, saying, and doing 100's of new things each day....literally. I am constantly in awe of what a quick learner she is. People always say that toddlers soak information up like a sponge....I never realized quite how true that was until the last few months. She says and does EVERYTHING we do!

2. She is SUCH a happy little girl when she wants to be happy (but she can throw a pretty crazy tantrum too)! She has a cute sense of humor and is always saying things like, "That funny, Mommy." or "Am I goofy?"

3. She is a very active and BUSY BUSY girl. Her favorite game in the WORLD is saying, "1,2,3 GO!!" and then sprinting through the house, running laps. She giggles the whole time, and especially loves when we can catch up to her. Olivia also LOVES jumping. She will jump off of ANY surface where someone is willing to catch her. But in spite of her active nature, she always remains very lady-like, which I think is hilarious. She puts her right hand up in the air, palm turned out daintily, while counting to 3....And then, she jumps into our arms!

4. Olivia became a really confidant swimmer this summer. It was wonderful, because by the end of the summer, I didn't have to worry (quite as much) about her drowning. She would wear her cute little lady bug float and swim all over the pool. I can't wait to start her in swimming lessons next spring!

5. Olivia loves anything art-related. Anytime I pull out a craft or project, she is in heaven. It totally reminds me of how I was as a kid. We're in the process of setting up an art station in our playroom, just so Liv can color and paint with watercolors all day long. As we speak, she is coloring a picture and repeating the phrase, "Oooh! Pretty!"

6. Olivia LOVES to clean and have her surroundings be clean. At least 5 times a day she will say, "I wanna clean, Mama!" I give her anything from a paper towel, to a rag, to a Clorox wipe, to my swiffer duster and a can of Pledge. The funniest thing is that she does a pretty good job! I can ask her to wipe up a spill or dust the table, and she will usually do it. I hate to say it, but I think she inherited some of my OCD-ness. :)

7. Olivia has ALWAYS been a fan of purses, dress-up, baby dolls, paying make-believe, and ANYTHING girly. This picture (minus the nose-picking...) is not an uncommon sight in our house:

8. Babies are probably Olivia's FAVORITE thing in the ENTIRE world. She is a very sweet little mommy and takes such good care of her dolls. She can often be found rocking her dolls, singing them a sweet lullaby, giving them a kiss, and saying, "Night night, baby."

She likes fake babies a lot, but LOOOOOVES real ones too. Henry is one of her favorites! Sometimes, when I'm putting her to bed, she won't let me sing any normal songs....She requires "The Henry Song," which is essentially Henry's name sung over and over to any standard tune.
9. Olivia has become very affectionate in the last few months. Sometimes, Grant and I abuse our privileges and ask for Livvy to kiss us 50 times a day! That cute little face is just too hard to resist! She also likes to climb in bed with me in the morning and cuddle. By cuddle, I mean, climb on top of me, and sprawl herself across my body so every millimeter of her body is touching mine. It's adorable, but it sure serves as a brutal wake-up call each day.

Ever since Liv learned to talk, we have tried to teach her to say, "Love you!" But for some reason, we could NEVER get her to say it.....Until recently. In her cute little voice, she now says, "I wub woo, Mama!" It melts my heart every time.

10. Although Olivia likes to be clean, she certainly knows how to make a mess.....

It's okay though, because within minutes of getting messy, she's asking to wash her hands (one of her FAVORITE pastimes).

11. Olivia wants nothing more than to be like a grown up-- This scares me to death!! But it is pretty funny to watch. Whenever she pretends to talk on the phone, she says, "221-9." We have NO CLUE how she learned it, but it is the first part of our home phone number. I guess she just picks up on more than we realize!

Sometimes, I'll catch her sitting at my computer, with the phone up to her ear, taking notes, and saying, "Uh hu...Okay....Yep.....Sure.....Thanks..... bye!" The girl keeps me laughing all day long.

12. She likes to be grown up at meals and drink out of a "big cup like Mommy and Daddy." She is also so good about folding her arms and saying prayers at mealtime and bedtime.

13. She loves wearing our shoes and my jewelry ALL AROUND THE HOUSE! And anytime she sees me putting on my makeup, she insists on wearing makeup too (well, she thinks she's wearing the real thing at least). Sometimes, when I won't give in and give her 5 more coats of lipgloss, she has to settle for some chapstick. Let's just say that every single one of my tubes of chapstick is now very misshapen. :)

14. We tell her she's beautiful, but can only hope that she doesn't ever get conceited....Here she is sitting in her beauty parlor chair from Aunt Leigh, glancing at her stunning reflection....Maybe we have some work to do on the conceited part! Haha! (Just kidding!)

15. I couldn't possibly discuss Olivia at two, without mentioning her friends. I hear about Brookie, Mai Mai, Lincoln, Henry, etc. non-stop, all day, and love that she has such great friends. Anytime we're out running errands, Olivia can recognize whose neighborhood we are in, and immediately wants to play with her buddies!

16. Unfortunately for Olivia, she has had to endure a LOT of pictures being taken of her over the last 2 years. Finally, she's turning the tables on us and holds up her imaginary camera saying, "Cheese!! I take your picture!"

17. Olivia loves to help me cook. She's finally at that age where she's not a huge burden in the kitchen either-- It actually makes cooking really fun. Anytime she sees me walking toward to kitchen, she pushes up her stool and says, "Mom, I wanna cook!" Yesterday I left a recipe and a bunch of spices on the counter. When I walked back in, I overheard Olivia saying, "Hmmm....Now let's see here...."

18. Olivia LOVES going to church. She's always talking about it, asking when we get to go back. I love her enthusiasm! On Sunday mornings, I hang her church dress for that week on the closet door. The minute she sees it, she screams, "YAY!!! Church!! I go to nursery!!"

19. Olivia has been progressing on her colors, numbers, and letters. I have not worked with her as diligently as I probably should have (but that is all changing now that it's fall). But she does recognize a few colors and letters, likes to help me sing the ABC's, and can count to 10 (although she thinks it's hilarious to skip 5,6,7).

20. I can't finish up a post about my Olivia without noting her INCREDIBLE language explosion (just so I don't forget). She has always jabbered a lot but was never particularly ahead in the language department....Until the last 2 months. It's like she's discovered a whole new world, and she's in heaven! Last week, at her 2 year check up, the doctor said, "does Olivia say at least 50 words and is she just starting to put 2 words together?" I just laughed and told him that I can't get her to STOP talking....And that she often talks to us in 4 and 5 word sentences. While sitting in the waiting room, she had all the parents and nurses laughing because she was talking non-stop....and LOUD! (Hmmm....Who do you think she got that from?) She has such a cute little voice and I love hearing her chat away with us. Anytime a word ends in -ING, she changes it to 'in...For example, "swimmin', cookin', dancin', runnin', cleanin'." It's so funny! We love our super sassy, Miss Olivia Jane!!

Here is a SMALL sampling of some of her phrases:

- (referring to her diaper) Whew! P.U. STINKY!

-(referring to good food) You like it, Mama? I like it!

-Mama, I want you.

-I hold you (a.k.a Will you hold me?)

-Yay, we're home!

-We did it!

-I "aunt" (a.k.a. want)....ice cream, outside, bed, etc.)

-Oh no! Where'd it go? Oh! There it is!!!

-Oh my goodness!

-I "unt" (a.k.a don't) want it.

-Please, I have it?

-No thank you.

-(If someone coughs or sneezes) Bless you! You okay?

-(My favorite....The name she calls herself.) I'm Wibby (a.k.a Livvy).

Olivia's 2nd Birthday (the ACTUAL day)

I am a bad mom....Olivia's actual birthday was a month ago, and I STILL have not blogged about her or her special day. But, in my very weak defense, the last 2 months have probably been two of the busiest months of our lives. In the next few weeks, I will expound upon that a little more...LOTS to share.


Also in the last month, we:


1. Recovered from our trip and had to re-train Olivia on all the basics of her existence. :) (ie. sleeping through the night, sitting at the table for meal, actually eating food, not throwing ridiculous tantrums, using her manners, etc., etc.) I NEVER could have imagined the price I would pay for leaving my two-year-old for 8 days. I think she was just trying to punish us for ditching her. But now, all is well in the Griffeth household once again-- Thank goodness.


2. Two days after returning home, my sister, Erin, came to visit us for a week!! We had so much fun, eating, playing, and spending $$$ like we were on vacation too!


3. We also found out that my sister, Shannon, and her family are going to move from Las Vegas to SAN ANTONIO!! Whoo hoo!! 1 sibling down, 2 to go. In the meantime, my brother-in-law, Kenny, has been staying with us, interviewing for dental jobs and house-searching. They will all move here officially in 2.5 weeks.


So, for the next month, I will be playing a major game of catch-up on my blog.....Forgive me in advance!
------------
Now, on to Olivia's 2nd birthDAY! We left for our cruise LATE the night of her b-day....Well, technically, the next morning-- at 2am. Still, we were determined to make her day EXTRA special! Since Olivia is thoroughly obsessed with Blue's Clues, our entire day was centered around that theme. She was in HEAVEN!!!!! Planning the very low-key day only got my creative juices flowing....If she's still in love with Blue next year, we might just have to have a Blue's Clues party. I have TONS of fun ideas now.


The morning started out with Grant and I bringing Olivia a birthday sign, along with a cup of milk with one of Blue's clues on it. She was so excited and kept screaming, "A CLUE, A CLUE!" She also got to open her first gift of the day, which was a Blue's Clues Beanie Baby.


There was a trail of paw prints (or clues) that Olivia had to follow from her room to the kitchen table. She knew exactly what to do!

Her spot at the table had some Blue's Clues coloring pages for her to play with while I finished cooking breakfast.

Livvy LOVES her Blue.

She also got to open another gift which was a little pink backpack for our first "ADVENTURE." Inside was a little "Handy Dandy notebook" that I had made, along with a green crayon (just like Steve!).

Olivia looked SO grown up with her backpack on! All day long, we made EVERYTHING into an adventure-- She LOVED every second of it.

She also got to open lots of gifts from her cousins and a few B.C.'s DVD's and books from Mom and Dad.

We finished off the morning with these yummy buttermilk pancakes (one of Liv's favorite foods!) that were shaped like paw prints.

It was a GREAT day and we loved getting to spoil our Liv with lots a attention!

10 Things I Learned About Cruising

1. NEVER book a cruise based solely on the ports it will be headed….Base it on the cruise line instead. You will spend a LOT more time on the ship than you do in the ports anyway!

2. Bring LOTS of cash (why didn’t we think of that?). You will probably need a lot more than you expect for taxi fees, beach entrance fees, etc.

3. Next time we’re in St. Thomas, take a water taxi to St. Johns, rent a Jeep for only $25 and cruise the island. There are over 100 abandoned beaches!! Not another soul in sight.

4. ALWAYS bring some non-drowsy motion sickness medicine—Even if you’re convinced that you won’t get sea sick.

5. Go on a cruise with good friends or family. There is a LOT of time spent just sitting around talking. And while I LOVED doing that with just my hubby, it would have been a BLAST with some of our friends.

6. Always bring some card games and a good book. They made our down time so much fun. We must have played 30 rounds of Phase 10, 5 Crowns, and Nertz during the course of the week.

7. Whatever level SPF sunscreen you usually use, DOUBLE it. When you are close to the equator, you FRY really quickly. We learned that the hard way. SPF 15 and 30 just didn’t cut it out there.

8. Bring comfy tennis shoes. Your feet will hate you if you don’t—Trust me. We did TONS and TONS of walking.

9. Bring some nice Nalgene water bottles and a good back pack. Both would have been really nice to have for excursions.

10. BE PREPARED FOR CHANGE!!! You can never predict what the weather can do to ruin your plans! But no matter what happens, HAVE FUN!

Our Caribbean Cruise!

Well, we made it home from our much needed, week-long cruise to the Caribbean! From what we hear, Olivia did really well, and was lucky enough to have a mini vacation of her own (she got to stay with several of her best buddies for the week). She was in heaven until day 5 when she got really SICK! She had a temperature of 103.8, along with a cough and runny nose. She’s still fighting it off, but will hopefully be better soon. I felt SO bad that poor Courtney had to deal with my sick baby, and I couldn’t do ANYTHING about it!

I pretty much spent the entire week before we left crying NON-STOP about leaving my little Livvy. Anytime I thought about our trip, I would just burst into tears—It was pretty pathetic, but it was our first time leaving Olivia (See? It was very much needed!). Thank goodness Olivia was in such great hands. And although we thought about her constantly, and my eyes welled up with tears every time I saw a toddler, I did just fine all week long.

I do have to say, I was pretty distraught when I went to hug Olivia for the first time and she wanted nothing to do with either Grant or me! SO SO sad! I’m not sure how much of it was the fact that she felt YUCKY from being sick or if she was just holding a grudge about her parents ditching her for the week. Once we got home, it took her about an hour to totally warm up to us, and she was back to her happy self. What a relief!

We came home with very mixed emotions about our vacation. I think we must have had a "bad luck cloud" following us around all week! It seemed like everything was going wrong! On one hand, it was fabulous to have a week with only ONE of my children in tow (haha! Just kidding Grant!). And we really did love the idea of a floating hotel that took us to 3 wonderful destinations…But we were NOT at all fans of our particular cruise line. (You can call me a snob, it’s okay.) We definitely had been warned about Carnival not being very luxurious, but I don’t think we quite realized what we were in for. :) Most importantly, the people on the ship were a far cry from our “crowd.” I think we were the only sober, non-gambling couple on the entire ship!!! But all of that aside, I really did LOVE spending every waking moment with Grant for an entire week. We need to do that more often! Plus, the 10 hours of sleep we got each night certainly didn’t hurt!

I should also mention that Grant was so proud of himself for not falling prey to his inherited motion sickness gene. He didn't get sick ONCE the entire time! Instead, I (who NEVER gets sick travelling) was the one popping motion sickness meds. Thank goodness it was nothing bad enough to ruin our trip though.

Here's a little synopsis of the week:

SATURDAY:

After a LONG day of travel (that started at 3:30am!!), we were exhausted by the time we finally reached the ship. Within seconds of setting foot on the ship, Grant ran into an old High School friend (Josh Bonner) on the elevator. Such a small world!

We spent the afternoon eating lunch, exploring the ship, and taking a nice, loooong nap. We didn't imagine we'd sleep as long as we did, and didn't wake up after dinner had already started (we quickly learned that a 6pm dinner seating was far too early for us)! We threw on some fresh clothes and rushed to eat. Unfortunately, we were seated at a small table that could only accommodate 4 people. Luckily, we enjoyed the couple's company and were shocked to discover that the girl GREW UP in my hometown of Mission Viejo and that the guy currently lived in Salt Lake, and had always had a crazy fascination with Armenia (where Grant served his mission). Go figure!!

After dinner, we headed to the main theater for the first of many shows. We always enjoyed the Broadway-musical/dancing-style shows, and this night was no exception.

Here is Grant in our TEENY TINY room. We need a balcony next time, for sure!

SUNDAY:

Sunday morning, we woke up bright and early to explore our first port: Nassau. We stepped off the ship to find clouds and a drizzly sky, but still planned on going on our most anticipated excursion: swimming at Stingray Bay. After standing in the rain for 30 minutes, we were informed that our excursion had been cancelled due to a 40% chance of rain. I was SO SO bugged. Since we weren't really interested in Nassau at all, aside from the stingrays and Atlantis, we just headed back onto the ship. Here is a photo of us with the awesome Atlantis resort in the background:

We only had a few hours in port anyway, so we decided to spend it at the ship's spa instead. We called ahead to book the couples "spa taster." We were quickly directed to two SALON chairs draped in towels for our treatment. Grant and I were both confused about why we weren't in a dark massage room, but before we actually realized what was going on, it was too late to say anything. So we sat UPRIGHT for an hour, listening to loud rock music and blow dryers while we got a dinky little scalp and neck massage. When we got back to our room, I broke into tears and Grant called Guest Services to complain. After a lot of lengthy explanations, we figured that the spa had mistakenly booked us for a "SALON sampler" instead of the SPA one. Thank goodness, they were willing to let us come back for a couples massage later in the week!

After another nice nap (we were still recovering from no sleep on Friday) we changed our dinner to the 8:15 late seating. We were placed at a table for two-- Although it was less of a social opportunity, Grant and I really enjoyed dinner by ourselves! Sunday night was one of our two formal nights. We had fun dressing up, and then headed to the show after dinner. (P.S.- It never even ended up raining all day! Go figure!)

This was the gorgeous theater we got to enjoy all week:

We always loved coming into our room at night to find a turned-down bed, mints on our pillows, and a funny-shaped towel animal. Here's our elephant:

MONDAY:

Monday was a full day at sea. We finally got to sleep in until 1oam! We spent the day going to a cooking demonstration put on by the head chef of the fanciest restaurant on board (The Supper Club). We also went to high tea in the afternoon, and saw 2 hilarious shows in the Comedy Club. In the cooking demo, I learned the coolest trick about cooking meat! I'll post it later in the week!

Here was Grant making fun of tea time-- But no matter what he says, he really did enjoy it. How could you not when you put FOUR packets of sugar in your mint tea?!?

Whenever we had free time, we could be found playing card games, doing these silly "relationship" mad-libs, or reading our books (Grant read "The Hunger Games" and I read "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society". Both were FABULOUS books!)

At the comedy club, we found a guy with the most hilarious mullet. It reminded us of a certain wig Grant used to own, so I couldn't help but sneak a photo for his family to enjoy. The Harley shirt is really fitting too, don'cha think?

I'm pretty sure this was a pig, but Grant was convinced it was a dog:

TUESDAY:

On Tuesday morning, we arrived in beautiful St. Thomas. We had scheduled a ride around the island on a crazy FAST jet boat called the Screamin' Eagle. Grant and I are thrill-seekers, so it was pretty wussy and disappointing for us, but we still had fun. We did, however, enjoy seeing the HUGE, gorgeous mansion that Tiger Woods had built for his mom as a surprise Mother's Day gift. Wouldn't it be nice?!?!

We were also SHOCKED to discover how salty the water was in St. Thomas! If it even sprayed in our eyes it was ridiculously painful. We found out that because St. Thomas is so close to the equator, water evaporates more quickly leaving more salt behind. As a result, the water is 12% saltier than what we're used to in the US.

We spent the rest of our time in St. Thomas on two different beaches. First we went to Coki Beach which is famous for its great snorkeling. We rented some snorkel gear and had a great time exploring. I am TOTALLY freaked out by fish coming up to my face, so I really don't know why I keep doing it to myself. We took a waterproof camera, so I will update with more photos when I get them developed.

We decided that Coki was a little too crowded for our liking, so we took another open-aired taxi to Maegens Bay. It was serene and perfect!

St. Thomas really was a nice, beautiful, clean island! If we ever go back, we really want to take a water taxi over to St. Johns though!

That night, we discovered that we were allowed to use our cell phones since St. Thomas is a US territory, so we got to call home and talk to little Liv. For some reason, they kept delaying our departure time, so we didn't end up leaving the port until 4 hours later than we were scheduled. We kept assuming it was due to technical difficulties, but during dinner, they announced that we were being re-routed due to a potential tropical storm. We were SO SO bummed. We were supposed to be headed to St. Maartin, which was our most anticipated stop, but instead, they decided to take us to the island of Grand Turk. I am NOT a very flexible person, especially when I have my heart set on something, so this was quite an adjustment for me. Unfortunately, we had planned on doing all of our shopping in St. Maartin, so I wasn't able to buy any fun new jewelry like I had planned. Oh well, there's always next time!!

Luckily, we ended the night on a good note with a really cool Illusionist show-- I loved the magician's name: Justin Illusion (as in, "it's just an illusion").

WEDNESDAY:

Wednesday was another day at sea. We did a lot of reading, playing games, and relaxing. We also went to high tea again and went shopping on-board. We planned out our last-minute excursions for Grand Turk, and were thrilled to find that they had a tour that took us swimming with stingrays!

That night was another formal night. We had reservations for dinner at The Supper Club, which is a fancy gourmet steakhouse that you pay extra to eat at. We heard it was totally worth it, so we decided to try it out. They served us a huge 6-course meal, and we could hardly stand up straight by the end of dinner. :) For our main courses, Grant ordered a massive 24 oz. porterhouse steak and I ordered the Surf and Turf (lobster tail and filet Mignon). I ordered fish...Aren't you proud of me?

I think this towel animal was supposed to be an orangutan?

THURSDAY:

We arrived in Grand Turk bright and early. Grand Turk was by far the most beautiful island we went to-- The only problem is that 90% of the island was in ruins from Hurricane Ike, so there was only a tiny area for tourists to enjoy. The water really was TURQUOISE though. (And for the record, I didn't enhance any of the colors in photoshop...This was the real deal!)

Our cruise ship is the one on the right. We were bummed that another ship was re-routed to Grand Turk also, because it made the island SO SO crowded!

Our tour took us on a pretty uneventful snorkeling cruise before swimming with stingrays. We did swim with a 3 1/2 foot baracuda though!!! SCARY! It was just a couple feet away from us.

Afterwards, we went to a little cove and stood chest-deep in the water while about 12 huge (3-4 foot wide) stingrays swam in between and around our legs. It was totally creepy but we loved it. We even got to hold them in our arms. I have photos, but I still have to get them developed.

I think this was my most gorgeous photo from the trip-- TOTAL paradise! We spent the rest of the day lounging on our rafts in the water. I also bought some pretty, new pearl earings and a jeweled pink purse for Olivia.

After re-boarding the ship, we sat in the whirlpool in the spa. By dinnertime, I could hardly even keep my eyes open. We headed to bed by 9pm and slept until 9am! Woo hoo!!! We thought it was pretty fitting that our towel animal was a stingray that night!

FRIDAY:

On Friday, we soaked up the last few moments of our vacation. We enjoyed our couples massage and went on a pretty interesting tour of the MASSIVE on-board kitchens. They had these gorgeous carved watermelons on display that were unbelievable!

We also went to a really cool art auction (that had lots of Picassos and Rembrandts), went to high tea once again, and enjoyed the chocolate fountain. Before dinner, we packed our bags and were ready to see Olivia by morning.

Overall, we had a wonderful time and are DEFINITELY anxious to go on more cruises in the future. Next time we'll just plan on a Princess or Celebrity cruise though!!

Now we're home and adjusting to life on land. You can often find Grant and I standing in the middle of the family room swaying from side to side. :)

(NOTE: If you made it through this entire post, you must be a true friend. It was a LOOOONG one. Also, I hope it all make sense because I'm not going back and proofreading it!)

Olivia's "Circle" Party

**Sorry for the absurd amount of photos! There were just too many fun details I wanted to share!

On Saturday, we had Olivia's 2nd birthday party! It was a little chaotic, but SO much fun. When I started planning her party MONTHS ago, she wasn't old enough to care about a theme. So, I made the executive decision to go with a pink and orange POLKA-DOT theme! Unfortunately, in the last month or so, she became completely and thoroughly obsessed with Blue's Clues. If I were a nice mom, I would have changed my plans altogether, but instead we just talked about her "circle party" till she was BEYOND excited about it. She would tell everyone that she was going to have a circle party-- It was so cute. In my MANY attempts to video tape Olivia talking about it, this was ironically the only time I actually caught it. Go figure.


Here are the invitations we sent out...

The front door.....The walkway had a trail of polka dot confetti leading up to the house. We also had pink and orange polka dots all over the walls inside!

I made a happy birthday banner for last year's party (see here), but who was I kidding thinking that I'd re-use it every year?! I was SO excited to make this girly, frilly, polka-dotty, pink and orange one! It was so fun!

Here's our little family of three!

The food table:

I made a little mobile-looking-thing by taping fishing line to the ceiling. At each of the ends, I attached two cardstock circles with double-stick tape in between. I think this was Liv's favorite part of the party. I must admit that they are still hanging up in our kitchen-- And every time Olivia walks downstairs she points to them and talks (in her toddler language) all about her circle party.

Here's the cake!! Up close, it looked pretty terrible, but that's because I wanted to use a yummy buttercream frosting instead of fondant, so I couldn't ever get it very smooth. This baby was made up of SIX layers of cake, each filled with whipped cream cheese frosting and sliced strawberries. My wonderful friend Bethany showed up at 11pm the night before and helped me decorate the cake and work on lots of other last-minute details. What a saint!!

Here's the spread of food-- All round, in polka-dot fashion!

For the kids, we had round peanut butter and jelly sandwiches:

And for the adults, we had chicken salad sandwiches:

Watermelon balls:

Big cheeto balls (which brought me right back to my childhood! I always begged my mom to buy them and she never would. Now, after spending two hours scrubbing Cheeto gunk from my light colored carpet, I TOTALLY understand why! But the orange matched my color-scheme...What can I say?!)

We also served grapes, carrot chips and dip, and per Olivia's request, Ritz crackers!

Instead of dealing with cups and various drinks, I just made paper-wrapped mini water bottles. They were so cute and little!

My mom asked what they could give Olivia as a gift, and I told her that she "needed" either a trampoline or a kids' table and chair set. :-) She laughed at me and said, "ummm...let's go with the table and chairs." She let me pick out one that we liked, and Olivia has LOVED it so far. It was SO nice to have a cute little place for the kids to eat at the party.

The activities I had planned sort of flopped. I quickly learned that it's nearly impossible to get 11 kids between the ages of 1 and 4 to cooperate and play games. For journaling sake, I'll list the activities anyway. As the kids arrived, they got to make "polka dot" necklaces....aka fruit loops strung on a piece of yarn.

After eating lunch, we went outside to enjoy bubbles from our bubble machine. Sadly, it was so breezy that the bubbles were popping before they could even come out of the machine. It provided a few minutes of fun for Olivia, at least!

The next activity was a "polka dot toss." I bought 15 beach balls and we were going to play a few games using them....Tossing them around and letting them bounce around inside of a huge parachute. Sadly, the humidity was so unbearable, that we opted against those games. Instead, everyone just played with our backyard toys.

Finally, we came inside to cool off and played "musical polka dots."

Lastly, we opened gifts. Olivia loved all of her fun, new toys which have entertained her all week! Grant and I gave her a new baby doll, along with a new doll stroller, crib, high chair, and baby swing. She has been in ABSOLUTE HEAVEN!

For the last month, we have been practicing singing the birthday song and pretending to blow out candles. Olivia had become a PRO, but for some reason, she screamed when it was the real thing. A little overwhelming, I suppose. She wouldn't even blow out the candle!!!

She LOVED eating the cake though!

Brookie and Livvy enjoying their cake and crazy straws together:

Olivia is SUCH a little mommy. She is so concerned about babies and always wants to take care of them. Luckily Crystal and Neil are nice enough to let Olivia act like little Henry's surrogate mother! ;-)

For favors, I made these cake pops. A little time-intensive, but they were YUMMY and so cute!

I keep telling Olivia that we had the "circle party" for HER because she's such a special, sweet little girl. I was worried that she didn't have a fun day, but since she's been talking about her party non-stop since Saturday, I think it was a day for her to remember. That's what it's all about, right? We really love this little girl SO SO much!

2-Year-Old Photos

Last week, my amazing photographer friend, Natalie, let me come shoot some photos of Olivia while she took pictures of her own daughter. I'd been wanting some 2-year-old pictures taken of Liv, so it worked out perfectly!

I'm still trying to adjust to the fact that Olivia is SUCH a big girl now!!

I had to include a typical 2-year-old-post-tantrum-scowl.

BFF

"Brooke" is a very common word at our house. Olivia talks about her every hour....If not more. We LOVE LOVE LOVE her.

Last month, we were lucky enough to watch her for 5 days while her parents went to Florida. And after ridiculous numbers of attempts over the last year, I was FINALLY able to get a photo where both girls were actually smiling and facing the same direction. WOO HOO!!!
When I pull this dress out for Liv to wear, without fail, she exclaims, "BROOKIE!" -- Because she knows they have matching dresses.

I really think these girls are going to be college roommates one day. :) A mom can dream, right?

And it certainly doesn't hurt that we love her parents too!

(This photo was taken when we took the girls to the Sea World water park a few weeks ago.)

Lazy Summer Nights

(Yep...It's official. I'm totally in need of a pedicure. )

There's nothing like hangin' out as a family after a busy day of hard work. Olivia and I both jump for joy when Grant finishes work each day. It means I get a break, and we all can do something fun together.

That "something fun" almost always involves water....or at least being outside.