A few favorites.

Love this picture.

Love the boots and this pose.

Finally here is a picture of the outside of our house!  Olivia is walking up the steps, because she wouldn't sit for me to take the pictures. on the

FFD

Today we celebrated our second Forever Family Day!!  We can't believe it's only been two years since we first held our sweet baby girl in our arms.  It seems like she has been with us forever.  Olivia loves to hear the story about when we first saw her in Guatemala on Thanksgiving Day, November 22, 2007.  We love telling the story just as much as she loves hearing it.  We love to hear her say, "We are all together!!  We are a family!"  "Yes, Baby girl we are a family, forever!"

Then and......

Now

We love you Olivia Grace!!!

Sweet, girl!

This is Olivia's newest thing to stand with her arms folded like an adult. She won't tell me who taught her how to do this, but she thinks she is something else.  I wish the front of her shirt showed, it says "All you need is Love"  Beatles.  Her Daddy's a long time fan of The Beatles so, naturally he loves this outfit.  

More Random Pictures of Olivia

BFFs

Olivia's best friend Bella came home with us after school last week and Olivia was in seventh heaven!!!  She was so excited that Bella was coming over she couldn't wait to leave school.  As soon as I arrived to pick them up Olivia quickly cleaned up what she was doing and grabbed Bella by the hand and said "c'mon Bella you're coming to our house".  Hand in hand they walked to gather their stuff and out to the car.  They chatted and sang all the way home.  After Olivia showed Bella her new home they helped me mix the meatballs and picked wagon wheels as their preferred pasta.  They had so much fun together, Olivia didn't want Bella to leave.  I reminded her that even though she wants a sister we can't keep Bella......"Why, Momma?"

Anyway we are looking forward to having Bella over again in the near future it was a lot of fun to watch the two of them together. 

Helping to mix the meatballs.

Ready to eat!! 

Squeaky Clean and still giggling!!

Bed time.......not really.....more like play, jump on the bed, hide under the covers, giggle, giggle, giggle and giggle!!  Before they knew it Bella's Daddy was here to pick her up, she wasn't excited about leaving at first but knowing that she could come back again made it a little easier!

Belated Halloween pictures.

Olivia was Ariel from The Little Mermaid, however she wouldn't wear her wig so on the outside she just looked like a Mermaid but to her she was Ariel.  She had a blast trick or treating with my neices and loved the fact that people would give you candy if you said the right thing. 

After school on the 30th.  They had a party. 

Her googly glasses that she got at her party.  How cute is this picture!!

Daddy looks cute too......I love the new goatee!!

Madison in her Mom's old elf costume from when she was little and Morgan as a vampire. 

Morgan and her friends.

Madison taking Olivia door to door.

Aunt Debbie, Grammie, Aunt Paige, Morgan, Madison and their NaNa. 

Elmo and the chicken, AKA Thadeus and Maggie.

Maddie playing a dead Elf in front of her house to scare the trick or treaters. 

The front of their house was all decked out.  This is blurry but you get the idea.  It was pretty spooky which is why the girls wanted to scare the kids. 

"Momma, she's dead!!"  No she didn't really say that but yes Morgan was playing dead.

Pictures from our trip to Atlanta

Catching Up

I know it's been a while since I have posted, but I have been a little busy!!!  Moving and unpacking are all consuming, throw a 2 year old in the mix and it's even crazier.  We love our new house!!  We are still getting settled and because this house is so much bigger than our old house we don't have any furniture on the first floor.  Other than our kitchen table and the computer we put everything upstairs in the bedrooms and bonus room.  Now I have to find a dining room table and a living room set to complete the downstairs.  I don't know if I can get everything done by Christmas but I am going to try.  I have an idea what I want.  I do want to have the inside painted.  The builder did Sienna Sand through the entire house.  It looks nice but it is a little too yellow and doesn't go with the way I want to decorate.  We also have to move the tree that they planted in the front of the house (Bill has a lot to do LOL!).  It is some kind of maple and it will take over the entire house as it grows.  What were they thinking.  Here are a few pictures of the kitchen, eating area and living room.  Bill will doing some built in shelving around the fireplace.  Other than paint these rooms just need window treatments paint and decor.  My blinds are all up now but I haven't taken a picture yet.   

Olivia carrying her cousin's new skate board. 

She actually rode on it while we held her hands.  She loved it.

It would be nice if everyone would smile like Morgan and take a good picture once in a while. 

Olivia was sick the week before last.  She wanted to take a bath and I put her clothes on her, then she picked out and put on her socks and shoes (I'd cry too if my outfit looked that bad).  Really she was just crying because I went to get something and wasn't carrying her, she didn't feel good at all but wouldn't let me dry her hair, I just had to hold her and do nothing else.   

Olivia ended up in the emergency room during that night with croup.  She was having such a hard time breathing whenever she would lay down.  I tried the steam in the bathroom but that didn't help.  She wouldn't sleep sitting up with me, so as soon as she would lay down and fall asleep she would wake up barking and choking and gasping for air.  It was pretty scary for her and us.  So I decided that she needed to be seen.  Off to the ER we went at 1am.  They gave her a breathing treatment and some steroids.  She was better in about 3 days.  She was such a good patient.  She did her breathing treatment like a pro. 

 

Olivia loves to help me with whatever I am doing.  This day she dried all the dishes for me.  She did a great job!!!!

Olivia had a birthday party yesterday at the Museum of Life and Science in Durham.  The party included free admission to the museum, so we got to see the new dinosaur exhibit that just opened.  In this picture she was afraid to take her picture in front of the dinosaur.

Then she had a change of heart and decided it was safe to have her picture taken. 

So cute!!!!!! 

Oliva not the dinosaur.

We are headed to Atlanta on Thursday.  I have a conference Thursday and Friday and then we are taking Olivia to the Aquarium on Saturday.  I hope to have a lot of pictures to share with you. Olivia is very excited about going to the Aquarium.