Springtime

Spring has sprung, with the exception of the storm this weekend. Last weekend we celebrated Olivia's first Easter! It was a lot of fun and she looked SOOOO cute in her Easter dress! She got lots of fun new clothes, pajamas, dresses, sandals, bubbles, toys, puffs, a new swimsuit, sunglasses, headbands, books, and her first pair of Toms!

 

basket from the Christophersons

Basket from Mom and Dad

 

Basket from Grandma Carrie

  

  

 Basket from Grandma Christy and Grandpa Aaron

 cute Toms!

 silly girl in her Easter Jams

We also celebrated my Birthday on the 9th. I share a birthday with our friend Tecey so we went to dinner at TGI Fridays the weekend before with some friends for mine. Then on Monday we went to dinner at Mcgrath's for his. We've never been there before and I was sooo excited because I LOVE seafood! So we got started with this crab artichoke dip that was sooo good and halfway through the dip I found a SCREW in the dish! Yep a short, fat, self tapping screw baked right into our dip. I mostly just wanted to laugh because something like that never happens to me haha. We called over the manager and I tried to be serious and mad but it took everything out of me to not laugh. He was very nice and they paid for our meal, brought us a new dip, and gave us a gift card for next time. I still can't believe I got screwed at Mcgraths on my birthday :)

A few weeks ago Mckell and I took Liv and Gavin to the zoo! It was Olivia's first time and she seemed to really enjoy it! At first she kind of didn't know what to think until we saw the giraffes. They were really close and she just started going crazy! she also really liked the monkeys and gorillas. And she loved the train! I can't wait to take her back when they finish the polar bear exhibit!

This last weekend I went to the What a woman wants Expo with my sister Jess and friend Kerri. I really wanted to bring Liv for all of the cute little girl boutiques, however Matt insisted she stay home in case there were any "nut jobs" there...he must have had a sixth sense :D It was pretty fun though, I got a bunch of free stuff, some cute jewelery and a free microdermabrasion treatment. We also did some much needed spring cleaning to our apartment this weekend. The complex we live in is remodeling all of their buildings and of course they decide to start with ours. Its definitely been an annoying/dirty process. We got all new windows to enjoy the beautiful view of scaffolding, plywood and sheets that surrounds us. Thank goodness they are almost done and it actually looks pretty good. Since we brought Olivia home from the hospital, we haven't had full access of our bedroom. Her bassinet and pack and play were right next to our bed until she started sleeping in her crib. Just in time for them to start construction and we had to move everything away from the walls and windows. Now that that is done we finally got to move everything back and I forgot how much extra space is in our room. Now we have so much extra room for activities! I keep telling Matt that the bassinet and pack and play will look really good in here with a new baby in it. He just laughs... We'll see :) Happy Spring!

just because

So my 23rd birthday is next week and to celebrate I thought it would be fun to do a post of 23 silly/random facts about myself. Yep that's right a whole post not about my baby Liv. This is gonna be tough but here we go.
 1-Matt and I met in our high school ceramics class- the class that neither of us signed up for. Ever.
2-I have been 4'10" tall since 6th grade. Then when I got pregnant I grew to 5'
3-My feet also grew two sizes from a 5 to a 7
4-My hair started going grey when I turned 20
5-I have not had a hamburger/cheeseburger in 10 years!
6-Up until last year this was true for all red meat. But when I was pregnant I had all these cravings for steak so like any pregnant woman, I caved duh. Now I have steak about once a month.
7-My mom was adopted so technically... we could be related.
8-When I was in grade school, I thought my dad was black. All of us (me and my sisters) did. He worked outside and was always REALLLY tan lol
9-Speaking of my dad, he is Native American. His great grandmother was a Cherokee Indian Princess. Take that!
10-I took dance for 13 years. Ballet was my main squeeze.
11-I was in a commercial for child immunizations when I was 5ish. I had to lick a lollipop.
12-My first traffic violation was received at the age of 17. My citation? Oh just driving in the HOV lane without a passenger. Oooops.
13-I wanted to start my own band in junior high and call it "the plastic straws" unfortunately I'm not very musically gifted NOT AT ALL
14-My Dad is from Georgia and sometimes, especially when I talk to other people with accents, I have a little southern accent slip out, ya'll
15-I think Conan O'Brien is sexy
16-I have always wanted to drive a yellow car
17-When I was a kid, I had a collection of "abc" gum. I wanted to be on that show figure it out. My dad kept it to show all my boyfriends. Matt thinks its the funniest things ever.
18-I pick at and chew on everything!
19-I used to tell the Missionaries that we were Jewish. I don't think they believed me.
20-I am almost positive Robyn stole all of her dance moves for her video "call your girlfriend" from me!
21-I was a straight "A" student all through school. I learned real good I did.
22-I'm becoming slightly obsessed with Karmin
23-I asked Matt "what's a silly/random fact about me I can put for this blog?" He said "the way you tell jokes. Your humor" So........ I guess I'll turn that into people generally think I'm funnier then I think I am. Yep.

Crazy 8's

Olivia is now 8 months old, and one crazy 8 month old at that! She is so busy and into everything! So naturally it has taken me 3 days to try and finish this post. I love everything about her, she is getting so big way too fast! I can't believe in just 4 months we will be celebrating her first birthday! At 8 months she:

• wears 12 to 18 month clothes!
• in size 4 diapers
• eating stage 3 baby foods
• loves her puffs, yogurt and bananas
• down to 2 bottles a day-that she holds by herself
• sleeps in her crib every night! (this is more of an accomplishment for mom)
• not really into crawling
  
• pulls her self up-usually when nobody is watching of course
• is the biggest chatterbox!
• Says Dada, Mama, Baba(bottle), Gama(grandma), hi, uh-oh, and bye-bye
• loves playing outside
• loves swinging at the park
• loves reading books

motherhood=love

My entire life for as long as I can remember I've wanted to be a mom. As little one, I had about 15 baby dolls at one time and my entire day consisted of playing with/ taking care of them. They all had different feeding schedules, nap times, went to different schools, got special hair cuts by yours truly, and bed times. As I got a little older I discovered how fun and neat having two little sisters was. We always had so much fun together playing all sorts of games. I loved being the "mother figure" to them any chance I got. If we played house- I was the mom. If we played school-I was the teacher. Then as we got a little older, we were introduced to Barbies. But I didn't just play with my barbies, I lived to play barbies. I used to go into our kitchen and make all sorts of "casseroles" for my barbies to eat for dinner with whatever I could reach in the pantry. I also would find my mom's camera and use it to take "professional" family pictures of my barbies. I remember looking through some old photos at my parent's house not so long ago and finding like 50+ pictures of just my barbies randomly set up in these poses.

Now that I am a mommy, I realize my tactics are pretty much the same. My every waking moment revolves around Olivia's needs. From feeding, playtime, reading, baths, getting dressed(sometimes a few times a day), diaper changes, and bedtime. And like my barbies, I also take a million pictures of her everyday in all sorts of funny poses sometimes with silly signs that she only wants to eat. I lay in bed at night and think about what new things I can do with her the next day and the day after that. I live for this little girl. For that smile and giggle I wake up to every morning. For the shrieks every time I leave the room. I am her favorite person in the world and nothing compares to that feeling. I could not imagine my life any other way. Matt and I were just playing with Liv the other night and he turned to me and goes "can you imagine how empty our lives would be if we didn't have her?" I couldn't agree more! I am so grateful that I get to stay home and raise my little girl in our home the way we want her to grow up. It really tugs at my heart strings to see a lot of my close friends who don't have the option to stay home with their children and how much they struggle having to leave them every day for 8+ hours a day. Then I see people who have the privilege to stay at home with their kids and do nothing. Their kids are behind in development, always sick, they don't cook for their families, they don't even get out of the house with their kids. It makes me really sad. I am beyond obsessed with my child, with my family. I don't leave my child with a sitter every chance I get, I don't get my hair done at the salon every month, I don't have a fancy i phone or a droid, I don't wear true religion jeans, I don't go out of town for the weekend for mini vacations and leave my child with someone, I'm a full time mom. I don't need any kind of vacation from that because it is all I want to be doing. I'm afraid if I blink too long I will miss something. I love being a mom more then I can ever explain. I've waited my whole life to actually be a mommy and I never knew love could feel this way <3

lucky number 7

Well here we are, another month older and another update about our baby girl. Olivia is 7 months old today. 7 months ago today I met my baby girl for the first time. I remember her being this little, precious curled up tiny that would just cuddle on my chest. Now she runs the world hehe. She is so sweet and has the funniest personality. At 7 months, Olivia:

• wears 9 to 12 month clothes
• in size 4 diapers... we're gonna have to start potty training at one at the rate she's going
• sits up by herself
• tries to pull herself up
• is REALLY close to crawling
• shakes her booty ;)
• laughs all the time
• loves her baths
• has outgrown her infant carseat
• loves her walker
• is very impatient, just like her mom
• loves music
• still eating stage 2 baby foods 3 times a day
• down to 3 bottles a day
• still only 2 teeth
• says "baba" all day long. At first we thought she was saying "Bob", which is what her friend Gavin says all the time so we figured she picked it up from him. But now she forms her "bob's" together and says "baba" Its pretty cute:)

as of late

We've had a fun couple weekends this month. We celebrated the cutest boy in the world's first birthday! Mr. Gavin had his fun monster bash on the 4th and I was so lucky to be a part of it and help my most favorite friend Mckell with the party. I got to make his little monster cake and cupcakes. Gavin and Olivia were so cute together I love these babies so much! The party was so cute and fun Kell did such a great job!









Then this last weekend we celebrated my cousin Kylee's 6th birthday! Kylee wanted to go swimming for her birthday s we took Liv and She had soooooo much fun! She is such a water baby. I cannot wait for summer to take her swimming all the time! The swimming suit Liv is wearing was a gift from my baby shower, its a 12 month and 4th of July themed because Liv will be 12 months in July. This thing was skin tight on her and it was so funny trying to get her in it. Looks like we'll be getting a new swimming suit very soon.