First birthday

Olivia turned one year old last week!

Garrett wasn't around for her actual birthday so we celebrated a few days early by doing a fun little "photo shoot" in the back yard.  I will have to share some outtakes in another post because there are some good ones!  That little tutu she is wearing was a recent yard sale find by my friend.  She only has boys but she bought it for Olivia because she just couldn't resist.  Apparently an old woman was selling a bunch of her daughter's hand made clothes from 60 years ago or something. So, I guess you could say it's "vintage"... it's also too small and is being held together by a very large safety pin in the back! ;)

Here's a little "behind the scenes" photo.  I bought those large flowers at Michaels almost a year ago.  They were in the "as is" section because they had been opened or the box was ripped or something.  Anyway they were only $5 instead of $20 and I knew I could use them for something.


We also gave Olivia a slice of cake and she was not shy about eating it up!  She loved it.

We feel SO lucky and blessed to have Olivia in our family.  She adds so much to our family.  She is happy and easygoing and just such a joy to be around.  She loves her sisters and is definitely a Daddy's girl.  When Garrett comes home from work, she can't get to him fast enough!  Once, I was standing holding her when he walked into the room and she practically jumped out of my arms so she could crawl over to him.  We love it.

I also love the sound of her little hands pattering around the house.  She's not walking yet but she's such a fast crawler and her hands make a little smacking sound on the wood floors that is so cute.  I can always hear where she is or where she is headed.

She is not shy about letting us know when she wants something.  She yells if she's not getting what she wants right now, so needless to say she usually gets it.  Both Abbie and Ellie practically wait on her hand and foot.

Olivia loves to eat.  She eats pretty much everything but seems to especially love cheese, avocados, bread, broccoli, yogurt, and peas.  I really don't think there's anything she won't eat yet at this point.

She sleeps in her crib for naps during the day (still two, thankfully!) but at night she sleeps in her pack & play in the playroom (the crib is in the girls' room).

Olivia loves our almost-daily walks around the neighborhood.  She will sit happily in her stroller for over an hour as long as we are moving along.

I can't believe it was a whole year ago that she was just a tiny dark haired beauty:

And now she's a beautiful blonde almost-toddler!

Happy Birthday, little Olivia.  We love you!!

Artwork

Abbie loves to do artwork and she is really good at it..  She gets many compliments from her teachers about it and I am also really impressed with her ability and creativity.

The other day I came across this picture she drew.  I love that she has started adding commentary to her work:

Ursula: No marrying the prins!
Ariel: I will
Ursula: No!
Ariel: Yes
Ariel: Sinking..
Ursula: haha

Interviews

Garrett spent a little bit of time traveling in September, interviewing for fellowship positions.  I won't get into all of that in this post (I'll write one soon), but the interview process is OVER and he received (and accepted) an offer at a fantastic program.  Like, really really good.  It's the program we sent an application to "because it's one of the best programs out there", not because we actually expected him to get an interview, let alone an offer.  I'm really proud of him.

Anyway... he left us one afternoon to drive to an interview several states away, and Abbie was pretty sad, so she made him a card.

Another project

I was recently commissioned to repair a couple of 30-year-old baby quilts.  They were falling apart and the old batting was matted and bunched up inside. I cut little slits in the back and pulled out all the old batting, then just treated them like quilt tops.  I sandwiched them with new batting and a new back, then hand quilted over all the old hand quilting so that it showed up on the new back. I also put on a new binding, and there were some parts that needed small repairs so I did that too.  It was a lot of work, but really enjoyable because I just did it in the evenings while I watched a show or talked with Garrett, or while I was at book club or whatever.  I love projects that are portable like that, and I loved seeing how well they turned out.  They were as good as new!  I just finished them a few days ago and brought them over to the owner and she was so happy.  Her kids were actually in town also so they got to see them while I was there and it was so rewarding to see their reactions.  They all loved them.  The owner even told me that she wants me to make some quilts for her! I would love that.  I've been saving up for a new sewing machine and this job easily gave me the remainder of the money I have been needing.  Now I just need to pull the trigger and buy it!

I'm so grateful my mom taught me how to quilt.  She helped me make my first quilt when I was in high school and of course I still have it!  Quilts are such treasures.

An "up close" shot of the process:

More "lately"

The girls were playing school a few weeks ago.  "I hate homework!", says Ellie.  Haha.

Out for a walk

I made myself a little needlebook:

 Ellie, emailing Grandpa:

There is a wonderful season here in our city called "Lovebug season" (I just made up that name but it's a real thing).  It lasts for about 2 weeks and it happens once in the Fall and once in the Spring.  The lovebugs come out and it's SO disgusting.  Sometimes you have to wave your arms around as you walk so they don't fly into your face and your mouth.  They cover your car, they come in your house, they are everywhere.  So gross.  They seem especially bad at the pool, which is where this picture was taken:

Me & Tinkerbell

One night, Ellie disappeared into the bathroom for a while and I heard the water running for a long time.  I finally told her to come out and she did, her hair wet and slicked back.  "I was doing science," she said. Haha.

Some days when we are leaving for school, Ellie goes out and stands in front of the garage door and waits for me to take her picture, as if it's the first day of school again.  I think she genuinely thinks I need to take her picture every day before school, since I did it the first two days of school.

Another breakfast that Garrett brought home after work... it was game day in The Swamp!

Ellie's backpack was full of big crunchy brown leaves one day after school.  I guess they went on a nature walk at school and she somehow smuggled most of her leaves home.

Another "before school" shot:

The playground at Ellie's school has sand... which is the bane of my existence!  Every day she comes home covered in sand.  I asked her about it and she said that she tells her friends to bury her in the sand during recess, so that she can be a mermaid.  So, I'm guessing they bury her from the waist down so she can make it into a tail.  What a mess!  She loves it though.

One of the workouts we did last week at the park.  10 moves, 10 rounds.  Really hard!

Olivia:

Now this is what I call a great dinner:

Lately

Olivia loves to help me with my quilts...

Someday I will have a real sewing room!

When Garrett was on nights he brought us breakfast on Saturday mornings on his way home

Sisters:

Olivia loves her peas:

Still loving the pool:

Olivia riding in her "coach":

I made a bunch of little tote bags for the girls to bring as presents to birthday parties.  They are the perfect size for church:

The girls wanted to learn how to stitch so we've been working on that lately:

Out for a walk:

This is where you can find me every Monday & Wednesday night - in a friend's driveway working out.  A girl in our ward puts together a circuit training workout for us and it is so hard.  I LOVE it. It's always so different and we are always dripping in sweat by the end, but it's so much fun.  We've added a third workout each week at the park while the kids play. It is awesome.

Abbie's school did a "Fun Run" fundraiser a few weeks ago.  People pledged money for how many laps each child could run.  I don't really know how long the kids ran, but Abbie did 25 laps (out of 30 max - 30 would have been 2 miles!).  I was so impressed and she had a great time.  I really liked this fundraiser, which says a lot since I normally hate them.  I hope they do this one every year.

Afternoon at the farm

A couple of Saturdays ago, the girls and I met up with some friends at a little local farm and learned about what life was like in the 1800s.  The farm itself is an authentic working farm, and the homestead consists of 18 buildings like the farmhouse (with original furnishings), a kitchen outbuilding, general store, post office, etc.  The people who work there perform daily chores like raising crops and tending the livestock. It was really neat to visit and see how things were.

They most likely didn't have pink sequinned hats back then, but I decided to be a good mom and let Abbie wear it out in public.... first time (and last) time for everything, right?

This man was telling us about how they would wrangle up wild cows in this area, which were then shipped to Cuba.  Interesting.. he was also showing us how they branded cows.

Another cow wrangler:

This guy was teaching us how they made whiskey.  Learning life skills, here!

The chickens were so pretty:

We also spent some time listening to fun music from this little back porch band:

The kids danced and learned some new songs, including "Here we go 'round the Mulberry bush".

It was a fun afternoon, but really hot, of course!  I love living in a place where we can drive such a short distance (15 minutes or so) and be at a farm with such neat history.  We will have to go back sometime when Garrett can join us!