Christmas 2010

Our Christmas...

Our first Christmas celebration started off on Monday, December 20 with a dinner at Olive Garden. We met my Grandpa and my Aunt Robin's family there. It was wonderful to spend time with them because we rarely see them!


We had our little family Christmas on Christmas Eve morning. Olivia received just a few gifts from us but she was extremely excited about her baby stroller and apron. I thought the Elmo slippers would be a huge hit, but she doesn't like to wear them.


After Christmas Eve service in Champaign, we drove to Washington to my parents' house. We didn't get to their house until 10:00p.m. and I felt horrible! I love going to their house for Christmas Eve. We always have little appetizers, watch a Christmas movie, and then my dad reads Twas The Night Before Christmas to us. We thought Olivia would sleep on the way to Washington, but she decided to talk/laugh the entire way up! So, she was exhausted by 10:00 and went right to bed after he read the story.


I was like a little kid on Christmas morning. For some reason I couldn't sleep and I woke up at 5:30a.m. on Christmas morning! I took a shower and got ready before everyone else woke up. After everyone else got up, we ate breakfast and then started opening presents. My favorite gift was a Northface coat that I can wear when I'm on playground duty. Olivia received many great gifts but the shopping cart/food and tea set were her favorite gifts.
My parents and sisters were supposed to come over on December 23 to make Christmas cookies with us. I ended up getting the flu and couldn't make cookies with them. They decided to come and watch Olivia for me that day. I made Jeremiah sanitize everything before he left for work and I stayed away from them. I did not want my family to catch the flu. On Christmas morning, my dad woke up with a horrible stomach ache and felt sick. He started opening gifts with us and then went into his bedroom to sleep the rest of the day. I felt horrible! My dad LOVES Christmas. He starts talking about Christmas right after Thanskgiving and can't wait for the day to come. So, obviously, I felt like I ruined Christmas. It was still fun to hang out with my sisters and mom, but it wasn't the same without my dad. Since we didn't make cookies on the 23, we decided to make them on Christmas. Olivia had a blast rolling the dough and cutting cookies with us. All of us girls (and Jeremiah iced a few too) decorated the cookies while Olivia slept. After she woke up, we headed to Decatur for our next family Christmas.


Jeremiah's entire family was at his parents' house when we got there. It is always crazy because there are so many people, but we enjoy being with everyone! We started opening presents right away and Olivia decided to cuddle up with Uncle John and Aunt Kate. She sat with them the entire (2 hours) that we opened gifts! She loved watching everyone open gifts. Olivia received her Little Mermaid dolls and a cute bear. After opening gifts we played games and ate food the rest of the evening.






The next day we woke up and went to Jeremiah's parents' church. After that we had lunch and then just played all day long. Olivia absolutely adores her cousins and especially Gabe. I love that she is old enough to play with her cousins. It's always fun hanging with Jeremiah's entire family. We don't do it often enough.

I am so thankful that we are able to be with our families around Christmas. They are all such wonderful blessings to us!

"Hey Guy...."

I haven't written a post in a LONG time and so many wonderful things/events/holidays have happened since my last post. However, I'm not going to write about any of those right now. The past many 21 months I have just treasured being a mommy to my sweet girl. I am trying to savor the little moments with my family and not let life pass by too quickly. Here is a moment that I don't want to forget.
Jeremiah knows that my favorite Disney movie is The Little Mermaid so he bought it for Olivia for Christmas. We rarely let her watch movies/TV, but the week before Christmas we let her watch part of the movie. The next night we let her watch the other part of the movie and both nights she could not take her eyes off of the TV. Everytime Eric came on the screen Olivia would scream, "Guy!" Jeremiah told her that his name is Eric and she started saying his name. We've talked about this movie and the mermaid quite a few times over the holidays because she received three Little Mermaid dolls for Christmas.
Fast forward to tonight and dinner with our little family at Za's. Our friends Erik and Jamie brought their family and some friends to Za's for dinner. We were already eating when they came into the restaurant. Jeremiah said, "Hi Erik" and they sat down close to us. A few minutes later Olivia started yelling, "Hey Guy! Hey Guy!" Olivia never calls anyone "guy" so I thought this was kind of strange at first. Then we realized that she remembered the guy from the movie and his name was Eric. We told Erik about this and everyone started laughing. Jeremiah asked Olivia to tell them what a mermaid says but she wouldn't do it. A few minutes later she yelled, "Hey Guy. Aah-a-aah(you know the song that Ariel sings)." Olivia thought she was pretty funny and started laughing/dancing in her seat. This was just an adorable moment that I don't want to forget.
I'm so thankful that I get to spend another 4 days with Olivia before I go back to work! :)

Sleepy Head

My darling girl has not always been a wonderful sleeper. For the first 8 1/2 months of her life, she woke up at least 1 or 2 (and sometimes many more than that) times a night. For awhile now, she has been sleeping about 12 hours straight. It's amazing. I need my sleep. If you know me, you know that's true. :) For the past three nights, Olivia has started rubbing her eyes around bedtime. When I ask her if she is tired she says, "Yah..nigh, nigh." Then she proceeds to grab her duck and her baby. After that she either starts walking to her room or reaches for us to pick her up. We take her into her room, give her a few sips of milk, and then she says, "Nigh, nigh" and we lay her down. We don't hear another peep from her until the morning. The other night she wasn't feeling very well. I thought I would get some snuggle time and I started to rock Olivia. She looked up at me and said, "No..nigh, nigh." I hope this bedtime routine continues! The first few months were rough, but sticking to our routine/consistency definitely paid off! I love that my daughter asks to go to bed and I hope (and pray) that she will always be like this.:) If she is anything like me, she will continue to ask to go to bed-haha!
On another note, she started saying, "Of you" this summer. When I say, "I love you" that is her response. It may be the most precious thing I've ever heard.
Ah...the joys of being a mommy will never end. I adore her and am so lucky to be her mommy.:)

Happiness

My heart is content and I'm feeling the best I've felt in months. Praise God-what an awesome feeling! I don't know the last time I've felt so at peace and truly happy.
First off all, I have been taking care of myself. Throughout the past many months, I haven't worried about me. I have worried about my husband (although he may not agree..hehe), my daughter, my students, my family, and the list just goes on. I know many moms feel this way, but I needed to do something about it. As some of you know, I was pretty depressed last summer/beginning of the school year, and I wanted this summer to be different. I've started running/walking every morning before Olivia wakes up. I even woke up at 5:30 this morning before Jeremiah left for church to go out and run (We'll see how long this lasts..ha!). I've found that working out first thing really puts me in a great mood for the day. During these runs/walks, I've been connecting with God. It feels amazing to start my day off with quiet time. In addition, I've been trying to eat healthier. It's working right now, but again, we'll see how long it lasts. I've already started craving Mountain Dew and it's been one week.:)
After making these changes, I can tell a difference in my attitude. I actually feel like I'm being a good mom and wife for once! I LOVE taking care of my family. I wake up every day excited to be with my baby girl! It's been so fun being with her this week. I can honestly say that this week has been one of the happiest weeks of my life. Nothing special happened. I just hung out with my girlie all week. I am trying to savor every minute of my Livi time because I know summer will go by quickly.
Also, I've been keeping our house clean and cooking. It may seem silly to you, but these are great achievements for me!:) In the evenings I don't feel as tired and Jeremiah and I have been able to spend more time together. I'm finally getting back to my old self.

We sang a song by Chris Tomlin at church this morning and I almost started crying. This is one of my favorite songs. I know that the reason I'm feeling so content and happy is because of my relationship with God. So, I guess right now I'm just singing his praise. How many of you feel content with your life? If you don't, what can you do to achieve this goal? I know it's easy for me to say right now because I have the summer off. I understand that I probably won't always feel this way, but it is an AMAZING feeling right now!

"How Can I Keep From Singing"
There is an endless song
Echoes in my soul
I hear the music ring

And though the storms may come
I am holding on
To the rock I cling

How can I keep from singing Your praise
How can I ever say enough
How amazing is Your love
How can I keep from shouting Your name
I know I am loved by the King
And it makes my heart want to sing

I will lift my eyes
In the darkest night
For I know my Savior lives

And I will walk with You
Knowing You'll see me through
And sing the songs You give

I can sing in the troubled times
Sing when I win
I can sing when I lose my step
And fall down again
I can sing 'cause You pick me up
Sing 'cause You're there
I can sing 'cause You hear me, Lord
When I call to You in prayer
I can sing with my last breath
Sing for I know
That I'll sing with the angels
And the saints around the throne

It's almost summer!!!

In just 8 days I will be off for the summer!! I CAN'T WAIT! Don't get me wrong, I will miss my 3rd grade kiddos. I've grown to absolutely adore this class and I'll be sad to say goodbye to them on June 3. However, I am giddy just thinking about being off with Olivia this summer. I can't wait to spend every day with her.
This morning I took Olivia on a walk. We felt the warm breeze on us and it reminded me of summertime. It reminded me of all the fun things Olivia and I are going to do this summer. Oh, I just can't wait! Can you tell I'm excited!? Ha!:)
This picture was taken before our walk this morning.

We just have to laugh about it....

The past two weeks have been kind of annoying and stressful for Jeremiah and me. Now, let me start by saying that I KNOW we are very blessed to have a healthy (for the most part) little girl. I know that we could have it much worse and for that, I feel very blessed.
The week after Olivia's first birthday, we started to notice a small pimple on her cheek. We thought nothing of it until it started to become bright red. A few years ago, Jeremiah had a staff infection that started out looking just like the pimple on Olivia's cheek. We decided to take Olivia to see the doctor on call at Carle. The doctor said, "Well, it could be staph. But..I think it's probably a bug bite or a pimple." I was so ticked. I knew it was staph because I had seen Jeremiah's arm a few years ago. That night we went home and put the cream on that the doctor prescribed. The next morning she woke up with a half swollen eye. It was red, puffy, and it looked pretty bad. Now, the pimple/infection had spread from her cheek (it was right by her eye) to her eye. Jeremiah took her to see our pediatrician and right away she said it was staff. She gave Olivia some "heavy duty meds." because she didn't want the infection to spread into her eye and hurt her eyesight. We started giving her the medication and then two days later she felt better. We were able to take her back to Kelly's house since she wasn't contagious after 24 hours of being on the meds. The pimple hadn't completely gone away but it was starting to shrink.
Two days later, Olivia woke up with a fever. I stayed home from school and took care of her. She was pretty miserable that day. Olivia has never been a cuddle bug and she was. It was actually kind of nice.:) For the first time, I let her watch Sesame Street and she loved it. I was so bummed though because we were having a joint birthday party the next day with Ava and Grace. I wanted Olivia to be able to go to her birthday party. The next day she woke up a little cranky, but she didn't have a fever. We decided to take her to the party and she was cranky the entire time.
The next day she woke up with a fever and a rash on her body. I called and the nurse said it was probably just an allergic reaction to her staff infection meds. I knew something wasn't right but I thought I should go along with what the nurse said. Olivia was again miserable throughout the entire day and very clingy. The next day she woke up with a bright red rash covering her entire body(including her face!). She kept scratching and crying because she was in such discomfort. Jeremiah took her to the doctor again and this time Olivia was diagnosed with roseola. I know this is a common virus, but it's hard to watch your tiny little girl feel so miserable. She would just start screaming because she itched so bad and couldn't make it feel better. We had to give Olivia an oatmeal bath, benadryl, and do a few other things to try to make her feel better.
After the rash cleared up, Olivia was back to her normal happy self for about 4 days. This past week, I picked Olivia up from Kelly's house on Wednesday and noticed that she had a little red pimple on the EXACT same spot that she had the staph infection before. We decided to just watch the bump. On Friday, Jeremiah worked from home and took Olivia back to the doctor. The doctor said that Olivia has another staph infection! This time we think we caught it super early, so they gave us cream to put on it. The doctor doesn't know why it came back.
In addition to these minor sicknesses we've been dealing with, we now have a new problem to worry about. Olivia has had a blocked tear duct since she was born. I've never been worried about it until recently. It looks like Olivia is constantly crying out of her right eye. When Jeremiah took Olivia in for her 2nd staph infection, I had him ask our doctor about the blocked tear duct. Doctor S. said that she was glad we said something because the duct should be working by now. Dr. S. said that if a baby still has this problem when he/she is 12 months it is a problem. Dr. S. said that we will need to take Olivia to an eye specialist. We will talk to this doctor about having a surgery done to unblock Olivia's tear duct. Dr. S. said it's a small surgery but they will put Olivia under for it. They need her to be perfectly still when they unblock the duct. Dr. S. said if we don't do the surgery, Olivia may have problems with her eye/eyesight for the rest of her life. So, Jeremiah and I are going to meet with this specialist in May. I REALLY don't want my baby girl to have surgery or be put under!! I'm really going to have to give this up to God! I'm such a worrier and I have already started to worry about this. I assume we'll be able to wait to have the surgery until June (when I'm done with school). Jeremiah said Dr. S. said we needed to have the surgery done by the time she was a certain age (he can't remember the age) or she would always have problems with her eye.
Okay, I'm done with my annoying/stressful week post! Olivia has been sick many times over the past year. It seems like she can't catch a break!

Now I want to end my post on a high note and write about a few of the darling things Olivia does these days.:)
*Olivia says, "Cack-er" when she wants a cracker or cheerio. She will constantly repeat it until she is given one.
*She puts her hands up (looks like she is saying I don't know) and says, "Done" or "All done."
*Olivia can say the sounds that these animals make: Cow, horse, sheep, dog, chicken, duck, cat, and monkey. Sometimes she can make the elephant sound. She also has started making the kissing sound and fish lips.
*In addition to saying our names, she sometimes says, "Gaga" when she sees a picture of my mom or dad.
*One of the highlights of my day is when we wake Olivia up in the morning. Jeremiah and I both go in every morning when we hear her wake up. Every morning she smiles when she sees us and then she dives onto her mattress. We always start laughing and then she stands up and dives to the other side. She is trying to hide and play a game with us. By the time we pick her up, she is giggling.
*Olivia picks up her little phone and mimicks us saying, "Hello."
*Olivia has been walking since the middle of March. Now, she is trying to run. It's very cute!
*Everywhere we go, Olivia waves and blows kisses to people. She is very friendly.

Olivia is such a funny girl. She keeps us moving and laughing all day long. Even when she is sick, she tries to make us laugh. How can we be annoyed/stressed out when we have this precious little girl trying to make us laugh? We can't. It's as simple as that. God is good and we have been so very blessed!

Happy 1st Birthday, Olivia!

Jeremiah knew that I wanted to take a picture of Olivia at 1:40a.m. on March 29. This was the time she was born. I told him that I didn't want to wake her up but I thought it would be neat to have this picture. I decided that I wasn't going to get up. At 1:39a.m., I heard Jeremiah get up out of bed and go into Olivia's room. He is so wonderful!! Jeremiah went in and took a picture for me. He's just so thoughtful and sweet to get up in the morning just to take this picture that I wanted!:)

March 29, 2009 at 1:40a.m.

March 29, 2010 at 1:40a.m.

March 28, 2010

I took a ton of pictures over Olivia's birthday weekend. I thought it would be fun to compare what I was doing last year on March 28 (day I went to the hospital) and what we were doing this year on March 28. I've decided to only post a few today. :) So, here it goes...

9:00a.m.
March 28, 2009-Jeremiah and I just got back from working out. I decided to call the doctor's office to see if we should come in.
March 28, 2010-Olivia was being absolutely adorable. It looks like she is giving me attitude here, but she was actually being precious! This was taken right before she got in the tub.

1:00p.m.
March 28, 2009-We were at the hospital and had just been moved into our own room. We were waiting for the doctor to come in so we could chat about putting me on pitocin.
March 28, 2010-Olivia was so happy to be eating at Dos Reales! She ate like a champ.

4:30p.m.
March 28, 2009-The pitocin was starting to kick in and I was having horrible contractions.
March 28, 2010-We were playing with Olivia. She LOVES her farm animals and says all of their sounds.

1st Birthday Party

On March 27, 2009 I went to my last doctor's appointment and my water broke that night.

On March 27, 2010 we celebrated Olivia's first birthday with our family. We had a fabulous time! Olivia enjoyed her birthday lunch and LOVED eating her cake. This was the first time she had eaten cake (or anything sweet). I can tell that she is going to be like me and have a sweet tooth. Here are a few. I smile every time I look at these pictures. It was so fun to watch her devour the cake!
She started out touching the cake with just one finger.

And then she realized that cake is yummy, so....


she started using both hands.


And after eating a good amount of cake, she decided she was done. So, she started throwing cake off of her tray.
Here she is telling us that she's done.

Olivia with her grandparents

Opening presents

Birthday Party Decorations

As you know, I was off on spring break last week. When Olivia went down for her afternoon nap on Thursday and Friday, I worked on decorations for her party. It was fun to be crafty and I think the decorations turned out better than I imagined they would!

Cups and napkins

On Thursday night, my wonderful hubby helped me make a banner for Olivia. It has a picture from each month of her life on it. I know it wasn't something that Jeremiah was just dying to do, but I'm so thankful that he helped me create it. I love it!

We took these pictures at the party, but I need to take better pictures of the banner.

I've been planning Olivia's party for about a month. I wanted the theme to be "animals" because she loves playing with animals. I decided to do mostly zebra print and hot pink decorations. I didn't want to spend alot of money, but I did want to make a few decorations for the party. Anne was nice and offered to sew table runners (out of very cheap material) together for the tables. They looked awesome! Thank you, Anne!! Here are a few pictures of the tables decorated before the party started on Saturday.

I made this cake for Olivia. It looked a little dorky, but she loved eating it!

Grandpa's Girl

On Wednesday morning my dad had a meeting in Champaign. After his meeting he took Olivia and I out to lunch. Then we went and played at the park. Anyone in my family will tell you that Olivia just ADORES my dad. There is definitely a special bond between my dad and Olivia. The second Olivia sees my dad, she smiles and reaches for him. She doesn't want to be with Jeremiah, my mom, me, or anyone else. Olivia just wants my dad. If she's grumpy, I will just hand her off to my dad. She immediately perks up and starts showing off. I hope this bond continues to stay strong as Olivia grows up.

In just 5 days....

My baby will be ONE! I can't believe it. During this week last year, I was on spring break. I was cleaning our house and preparing for our little girl. This year I'm not spending my break cleaning or preparing for our new arrival. I'm preparing for Olivia's first birthday and spending time playing outside with her. We've thoroughly enjoyed the nice weather this week. Olivia and I went to the park yesterday. She loved swinging and feeling the breeze in her face. She loved it so much, that Jeremiah and I took her back last night. Here are some pictures of our happy girl and her first time swinging at the park.:)

Lovin' the park!


Doesn't she look so old!?


Hanging out with Daddy


Pure happiness....

*On a different note..Olivia has been walking alot lately. She still crawls, but would rather walk to get something. She is getting better everyday. It's fun to watch her walk around and explore new things. She has started standing up, looking up at the people in our picture frames, and talking to them. It's adorable!

Walk this way...

The past few days have been filled with true excitement for Jeremiah and me. Olivia has started taking steps!! On Sunday, Olivia stood up and took one step. She took the step and then dove to me. Usually, that is what she does. She will stand up and dive to one of us. On Wednesday, I was sitting down on the ground and stood Olivia up. This was the one time I wasn't trying to get her to walk to me. She looked at me, smiled, took TWO steps, and then dove to me. I've been trying to get her to repeat this for Jeremiah. He had only seen her take one step until last night. Last night, Jeremiah and I were sitting on the ground with her when she took two more steps. We started clapping and she had a huge smile on her face. Right after we stopped clapping, Olivia sat down and started clapping/smiling. She was proud of herself too.:)
Now, we understand that it may take a couple of weeks or even months for her to begin walking. However, we are just thrilled that she has started taking steps! I wonder if I will be as excited when she starts walking and getting into my drawers?:)

Oh, how I love snow days!

Olivia and I have spent the last two days....


Playing countless games of Peek-A-Boo...


Baking Valentine's Day cookies...


Playing dress up....


Being goofy....


Making new silly faces....


Playing with toys...


Laughing...


Being incredibly sweet....


and being crazy!

There's nothing else I would rather be doing and no one else I'd rather be spending my Snow Days with! We've had two delightful days. I can't wait for summer!!!!!:)