Post Thanksgiving

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!! This was our second Thanksgiving together but really our first real Thanksgiving together. Last year Thanksgiving was the day we arrived in Guatemala for our pick up trip, the day we held Olivia for the very first time. We ordered room service but there was no turkey dinner on the Westin room service menu so we had cheeseburgers and french fries and for dessert..........green pumpkin pie. Yup it's green. Tasted okay but it was green. We weren't there for the food anyway we were just happy to finally have Olivia forever in our arms.

This year we had the traditional feast with our entire family at my mother's house. It was awesome. Olivia has now been with us for every holiday. We couldn't be happier. We have so many things to be thankful for. We are thankful for our families, our friends, our jobs, our health and our happiness.

Olivia is totally Miss Independent, but for some reason when my niece Madi is around she loves for her to take care of her as though she can't do anything for herself. It's hysterical.

We are so thankful that Michael is healing well from his surgery.

After dinner rest and relaxation, you'll notice none of the women are sitting down. Although they did help before dinner so I can cut them some slack.

Speaking of Olivia and her independence. She is so independent lately that she wants to do everything herself (which is great unless you are pressed for time). She can do most things very well, dresses her self, put her shoes and socks on, can put her coat on, can zip zippers and is working on learning to button. She washes herself in the bathtub and is very thorough. She helps put her lotion on after her bath. The funniest thing is when she wants to put her own diaper on. She tries so hard to do it while lying down, that doesn't work so she finally stands up and puts it through her legs and asks me to fasten it. She is good at figuring out how to do things on her own, and when you try to help her or ask if she would like help she will tell you, "No Mommy, Viva do it". She loves to clean up and help with whatever anyone is doing. Along with her independence which is growing stronger every day so is her feisty personality and knows exactly what she does and does not want. I was nothing like her as a child so I am in amazement of her confidence and decisiveness at such a young age. She is almost 2 going on almost 22. Scary!!! We are trying to fine tune some of her feisty attitude which is a bit of a challenge, but no one said the terrible twos would be easy. I just hope that because she is starting before she turns 2 that we will finish before she turns 3. Please don't burst my bubble by reminding me that terrible 2s is not isolated to a 12 month period. I am fully aware that this could go on much longer but I am choosing to ignore it and am planning on it being over by November of 2009.

Making pizza.

Half sauce and pepperoni and the other half BBQ sauce and chicken.

Sampling the pepperoni.

Yup it's good.

Oh yeah, by the way Olivia has decided to start working on potty training. She asks to go on the potty all the time and has had a few successes. Yay!!!!

We went to Home Depot to get a Christmas tree on Saturday. Olivia had fun.

Then she got bored with me having to look at so many trees so she took the broom that was leaning up against the pillar and started sweeping the pine needles.

I love this picture.