Day 27

November 27th, Thanksgiving: I am thankful for the life that I have been given.

I am thankful for my loving family who has been supportive of every decision that I have made.
I am thankful for my husband who works hard to provide for his family and puts up with my ridiculousness.
I am thankful for owing two cars with no car payments.
I am thankful for my kitties who love to snuggle when I have a bad day.
I am thankful for everyone who has played a part in helping get to where I am today; I could not have done it without all of you!
I am thankful for my college education.
I am thankful for my beautiful daughter who is the joy in my life.

There are so many other things to list; too many things for one day.

Watching the parade

Tummy time on moms legs! Yes, those are my knees and not boobs.

"Give me that binky mom!"

So, I did not take any photos of food this year. I spent the morning with Olivia watching the parade, packing, and napping. Ben came over to have dinner with us and to watch the game. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday but it feels less and less like Thanksgiving every year. :/ It was also VERY warm in Spokane. I am pretty sure that the news said 55 degrees in Spokane!

I am realizing that it is okay and normal for parents to act ridiculous to get their babies to laugh and do other things. Who has seen The Princess Bride? Who knows the line, "Hello! My name is Inigo Montoya! You killed my father! Prepare to die!". Well, I have kept the syllable count (for the most part) but changed the words to get Olivia to start laughing; it goes like this:

Hello! Your name is Olivia Mae! You are my daughter! Prepare for KISSES!

I sound goofy saying it but it is all worth it to see her start to smile and then giggle! She has no idea what I am saying but because I say it the exact same way every time, she knows what is coming at the end of it.... KISSES! Sometimes on the cheek, sometimes on the lips, sometimes on the forehead, and sometimes on the feet. I just love it. XOXO

Snuggles with uncle Ben!

Oooo! Look at that mouth!

Posing again! This time she kept her hand still!

Workin on her smirk

I know, there are a lot of photos that are similar. But I just like them all and she has a little different look depending on the angle.

We were able to Skype with my family who were at my Grandma's (my dad's mom) house. We are headed to the west side tomorrow to see them! SO EXCITED!

Family photo

Getting ready for the game!

Watching the game. Look at that stare!

So many things to be thankful for today. And what a great way to end the day; with a SEAHAWK WIN! Beautiful. What are you thankful for today? I hope that you all had a blessed day!

Day 26

November 26th: I am thankful for giggles!

Guess who dressed baby girl today!?! :D I love you Michael.

Sorry for the short, random blog last night. I ended up falling asleep while typing and when I woke up, I just hit post without even reading over anything.

We had to take the Subaru in to the shop this morning and it was ready to go this evening! Yay! Very thankful because another shop told us that they would not be able to even look at it until Friday morning (we called on Monday to set up the appointment). Thank you so very much to my brother Jon for driving Olivia and I up to the shop to get it this evening!


I started to get some giggles out of Pumpkin! I puffed up my cheeks with air and as I had her laying on the ground, I took her hands, pushed on my cheeks and let the air out. She had the beginnings of giggles! I wish that I had the camera going; we will try again tomorrow. Progress is being made and it make me proud as a mama and a teacher. <3

She has started to grab anything and everything that is near her hands; including but not limited to, new toys, my hair, my lips, and my shirt while she nurses. 

Olivia has also started to suck in her bottom lip A LOT. She sucks so hard that sometimes when I finally get her to let go, it almost looks like it is turning purple. Not sure where she gets it from. Maybe it is that she is so used to having her binky to suck on so when she doesn't have it, she has to get creative.

I cannot get over how expressive she can be with those eyebrows! Some days I have to look at her from different angles just to find them, but she already knows how to work them :D

So we are working on these midday naps. I was finally able to get her to lay down and fall asleep around 4pm. She does little cat naps throughout the day but I want her to REALLY nap. It is a work in progress.

Now that Pumpkin is in bed, here is a picture of the pumpkin pie we got from Costco today! Thanksgiving may arrive now. YUMMY!

I just need to share that as I am sitting her typing, Troy has been snuggling on my lap and I stopped typing for a minute to think about the day and I can hear that he has a nose whistle. HAHA! Such a cute kitty. I am waiting for Mike to get home. It is going to be a short turn around for him as he has to be back at work at 6am tomorrow. :( Poor guy. But Olivia and I are grateful that he has a job and that he continues to go even though he does not enjoy it. Speaking of him, he is just walking in the door. Bedtime!

Have a blessed and wonderful Thanksgiving everyone!

Day 25

November 25th: I am thankful for my friends.

6am and wishing Megan good luck on her test!

Geez does this little lady gave a strong grip! I was holding her up to my shoulder with her arms out and around my neck. Before I knew what was going on, I feel a stinging in my neck and realized that Olivia has her death grip on the skin of neck! It hurt so bad. :/ If I did not mention it the other day, she has also started to grab my hair. Looks like I will continue to wear my bun!

I had an interview that I needed to conduct this evening. I check with several people to see if they could babysit Olivia for me so that I could get it done. Taylor ended up being that person! I am so grateful. Especially because Pumpkin was screaming by the time Taylor got there. I handed her off as I got a bottle. Olivia puked on Taylor and finally calmed down enough to eat. Not long after I left heard from Taylor that she tried to give Olivia a bath but that she ended up puking pretty much the whole bottle that she drank and kept crying. 

The documents that my students filled out at my event on Saturday were on my laptop; no charger. Great! Thankfully Anna was coming over to visit and she has a Toshiba laptop also. She brought her charger for me to use! I am so thankful for my friends and for them bailing me out.

Yes, I spent almost 10 minutes trying to get a bugger out of her nose.

Beautiful blanket that Anna made!

Day 24

November 24th: I am thankful for a working car.

When I got in our Subaru today to take it to my work and to empty it out, the check engine light came on and the car was shaking. Very thankful that we were able to get a second car this past weekend so that we at least still have one running car. We are taking it in to the shop on Wednesday to see what is wrong with it. We are already planning on driving the Kia over the pass; not ideal but it is better than not going.

Olivia has been doing this thing where she sucks in her bottom lip and just holds it :) I tried to snag a picture of it but she is too fast! Maybe tomorrow. She really is a trooper as she travels with me everywhere. We do know that it is not good for her to be out all day and that there is a need to get her on a regular napping schedule. Hopefully we will get things figured out.

When I  was pregnant, I was told that pregnant women often get very nice healthy hair. And it became true for me! My hair stopped falling out, got thicker, and did have a little more of a shine. I also heard that once I started breastfeeding it would all stop. Well, two days ago I started to lose my hair again in clumps :'( Sad day! It was nice while it lasted. 

I didn't want to turn the light on to take a picture

I know it is dark, but if you hold it right, you can see baby girl sleeping.

As I was working today and reading applications, I noticed that some students had siblings who were about a year older or younger than they were. It made me think about our situation and in order to make that happen, we would have to get pregnant again right about now... NO THANK YOU! Yes, we do want more children but would prefer for Olivia to be out of diapers first.

It is crazy to think that Thanksgiving is already almost here! Maybe just a light dinner this year. I was 160lbs on December 16th, 2013 when I found out that I was pregnant. I am trying to get as close to that pre-pregnancy weight as I can before the one year mark. I am getting close! 

Off to sleep as i need to get up at 5 to read some more applications.

Days 20-23

I know that I am a several days behind but it has been a busy week for me with work. Yesterday I had a big event that I was putting on. I will try to not do four days worth of blogging but share some highlights, learnings, and of course pictures :D

Things I am thankful for:

1. I am thankful to continue to have friends send me baby related things whether it be recalls, research, or goofy little things. 

I will share with you all now!

So my coworker posted this on my Facebook and then a few other people tagged me in it:

She calls onsies "vests". But she explains why babies onsies are created with the little flaps on the shoulders. So cool! Mike said that he tried it yesterday and it worked. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrISmbf8LBM. Very helpful for all of you future moms and babysitters of little ones.

Olivia got to see her first snow on the 20th! We did not get much and it was melted within a day but it was there :) I cannot wait until we get to take her out in it.

Sassy little thing! Or just bored.

Practicing making bubbles

If you click on any of the links that I post, it should be this one. We are working towards this with Olivia! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlyUke5XFw4 Too funny!!


2. I am thankful for relaxing activities like Polka Dot Pottery. I needed some me time (well, Olivia went with me). 

I am going to make sure that Polka Dot Pottery becomes one of her favorite places! I really enjoy painting pottery. It is necessary to have activities that help you wind down. no pictures of the pottery until it is done though :) It was a long day and Olivia was out and about most of the day on Friday.

I am also thankful for Dutch Bros coffee! They had The. Best. Deal. on Friday. For every dollar that you put on a gift card, they matched it! Needless to day, we bought way too much on a Dutch Bros gift card. 

3. I am thankful for our new car!

At the dealership signing papers

2004 Kia Spectra

While I was running my event, Mike took Olivia and a friend to go look at a brown Volvo station wagon. It ended up not being as good of a car as they said it was, go figure. He dropped Olivia off at my event and went home. As my event was wrapping up, my friend told me that the dealership that her uncle works at had just received this car as a trade in. Mike met us at the dealership after my event. When I got there he was already test driving it. It may not be exactly what we were hoping for but we feel extremely blessed and fortunate to have gotten this car. It will make life a lot more easy, especially with the snow coming.

Mike says that she is doing the Soulja Boy dance that he did at our wedding. HAHA!

Enjoying her burp cloth

Working on that finger thing!

4. I am thankful for the teamwork that Mike and I have been able to have.

We are learning who is better at doing what and what chores and duties we can trade off. We thought that we were good at reading each others minds since we have been together since we were 16. There are a few things that we still need to learn. It has not been easy but we are coming together to get things done.

Tummy time didn't start off so well

Getting there!

I am learning how many rolls babies have! I found some gunk in her neck rolls this time. Next will probably be her leg rolls :)

Yes, she is glaring at by boob.

I am not sure if we are just wishful dreamers or if she may actually start doing it as an early bloomer but we often sit together and think about what it would be like if she either took of crawling or just stood up and started walking at her size! HAHA! How cute would that be?! We are excited for the milestones that are coming up but remember to enjoy the time now when she is not mobile. It would probably so cute but also very creepy because of how little she is. Mike thought that it looked like she was going to roll over today. We love our little Pumpkin. <3 <3