16 Month Olivia

Olivia just turned 16 months old and I am LOVING this age!!! She is full of spunk and just so fun to be around! She is into everything and wants to try everything the big kids do. Today she even helped me carry in grocery bags! She continues to love Gracie but can also hold her own now when Grace is bugging her. She loves to dance, her favorite being the chicken dance. She loves showing off and being the center of attention. During the day I will hear, "mama, mama, mama, mama", over and over again till I look at her. When I finally pay attentions she will start dancing or singing or standing on her head...then grins ear to ear. She loves animals and can spot them out anywhere including commercials. She is a picky eater but loves to feed herself. We have many shirtless dinners. She loves loves loves brushing her teeth. Every morning she comes into my bathroom and repeats the word teeth until I give her the toothbrush. We are still struggling with ear infections. We are on our fourth round of antibiotics in two months. I am ready to outgrow them!

Copa, our one year old lab, loves water! It made me smile to watch her play, drink, fight and lay in the sprinkler!

What will tonight bring?

Every night before I go to bed I go in and check on the girls, retuck them in and give them a kiss. Lately it has become a must that I check on Grace. Undoubtedly she has taken after her mother and has a hard time sleeping well until everybody is home. (Chad is still reffing three nights a week which gets him home pretty late.) One night this week I found her bed empty! After a second of fear I saw her asleep in the floor beside her bed. She made herself a nice little pallet...

Another night this week I put her down at nine. Just before eleven I went to check in on her and she was just laying in the bed wide awake!

And then one night she came in my room about midnight. I asked her what was wrong and she told me she was scared. She then told me their were monsters in her room. So I went in a sprayed the monsters aways then she went fast to sleep.

Summer Fun!

Backyard Pool

Watermelon

Chad working on making us a new island in the front yard!

Sprinkler

Happy Father's Day ~ Day at the Lake

I want to wish my number one man a Happy Daddy's Day! I am so blessed to have such an amazing guy to love, care and mentor Grace and Olivia. Not a day passes by that I wonder how much love he has for his girls. I love how excited they both get in the afternoon as they hear Chad drive up from work. Olivia just started saying, "My Dada". And it just melts my heart. Thanks honey for being such a great dad!

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Yesterday was spent at Lake Oconee celebrating Father's Day at Maw Maw and Paw Paw's. We were excited about spending a hot day in the water. Heather and Drew (some friends) also came over and spent a few hours with us. It was fun having someone go out on the boat with us and just hang out. I was proud of myself for jumping off a 15 foot rock into the lake as Grace watched. Olivia slept half the day away and Grace was a trooper hanging out with the big people. We had a first...Grace fell asleep standing up on the boat leaning against her daddy. So sweet!

Grace LOVED the waverunner.

Vacation Bible Camp

Our church just finished VBC for 2009. It was a great week. Grace attended as a participant for the first year and had a good time. She had a great leader and talked about "camp" all day. Chad and I both served each night.

Our youth group kids ROCK! They stepped up and were the best volunteers.

Grace at games. The cute girl on the left is Brandie, her crew leader.

Olivia was in the nursery each night and enjoyed playing with all the kids. She loved flirting with everyone. In the picture below she is with one of our amazing volunteers, Gensis.

At first Grace did not want to get up front to sing the preschool song...but after bribing her with the water slide she stood up front. She didn't sing but she bounced up and down and clapped.

Chad was the host of the opening program each night and did a great job!

The last night we had a water slide. Before the night even begun both girls were playing on it minus the water.

But after it got dark and all 140 kids had a turn on the slide, Grace and I enjoyed the water slide with the youth kids. Grace loved it and was so proud of herself for keeping up with the teenagers.

15 month doctors appointment

I took Olivia to her 15 month doctors appointment on Monday. She is developing great and growing like a weed. She weighed in at 23.6 lbs in the 60th percentile and 31 1/4 inches tall in the 75th percentile. Olivia also had her MMR shot. She did not like the nurse who gave her the shot. She actually spit at her. But she only cried for about 30 seconds and then waved good-bye to everybody.

Hilton Head Island

We just got back from a week vacation at Hilton Head Island with my family.  I should clarify that...me and the girls just got back.  Since Chad has been blessed with a new job, one of the drawbacks is having a work a year before he gets vacation time.  But with my families help we made it the whole week with just a few tears.  Grace was defiantly homesick for daddy and it seemed to be worse in the evening.  She spent the last three nights sleeping in my bedroom.  

The beach was awesome and the girls did GREAT!  I was a little nervous about Olivia but she was awesome.  She slept wonderful (in a dark closet with a sound machine), ate good and played hard.  Grace also did well.  Her and Hudson had a few toddler moments but I truly believed they love each others company.  In fact tonight as I told Grace about her big day at church tomorrow and how she would see all her friends, she asked me if Huddy would be there.  Too sweet!  I took over 500 pictures so I had to narrow down how many downloads I put on here.  Enjoy a glimpse into our vacation!

These first few pictures of the girls in their sundresses turned out darling!

My sweet boy Hudson!  

My favorite picture of all four cousins!!!!!!!

Maw Maw bought all four matching outfits and they turned out SO cute.  We got asked many times on the trip if Hudson and Grace were twins.  They do look a lot alike and act just like brother and sister.

The family...Aunt KK (my sister), Paw Paw, Hudson, Tyler, Me, Olivia, Maw Maw, Grace and Uncle Eric

My favorite time of the day was going to the beach.  The girls were really good and their was not to much they could get into.  Both were very apprehensive of the water so I wasn't afraid of them going into the ocean.  When Olivia got tired she would go climb into a chair under the umbrella and watch everything going on.  So EASY!

The pictures are out of order....on the last day Grace decided that she liked the ocean and wanted to go in and surf on a board.  I think it had a little to do with Paw Paw being so patient with her all week and watching older kids playing in the waves.

Grace and Olivia both have the best little personalities.  I love watching them goof off.  And Olivia loves copying the older kids!

Sisterly Love

Both of the kids were amused with the boogie board.  They loved being pulled around on the sand.  If Olivia fell off she would get mad and start crying chasing after the board to get back on.  Oh she makes me laugh.

Carrie, Dad, and Me

This child is a NUT!  She would lay down in the sand and lick the sandy water!  And she liked it!!!

In this picture Olivia is riding the castle.  Giddy Up!

Olivia loved the fact that she could just freely walk around.  I can only count on one hand the times I had to chase her down the whole week.  It was usually because she found someone elses sand toys more interesting then ours.

All the kids LOVE Maw Maw...she was defiantly a toy they fought over.

"Who me eating sand?  You must be mistaken!"

Sweet boy Tyler eats EVERYTHING he can get his hands on!

Grace and Olivia both loved playing in the sand.  The mess did not seem to bother them a bit.  I was so glad to have a pool at the house so we could wash away most the sand!  

Hudson and his lawnmower...or motorcycle as he calls it.  

This boy can run and run and run and run.

Olivia wanted water wings just like everybody else.  She did so good with them...when she let go of my arm. (she continues to be a mommy's girl)  I had to give her a paci because she would lick up the water!  My CRazY girl!

Paw Paw was such a trooper with all the kids.  He played hard with them...for at least an hour a day...right Paw Paw ;).  His patience really showed as he helped chase behind Olivia going to the stairs for the one hundreth time of the day, to reffing Hudson and Grace, listening to Olivia scream her high pitch squeal, to taking the kids for walks to wear off energy, to reading books.  

Maw Maw gave Grace and I a free afternoon for a mother/daughter date.  I took her to see the new movie Up.  She did wonderful and it was so nice to just spend one on one time with her.  Thanks Maw Maw for that precious time.