August/September

In August, Nate's sister Halley came for a quick visit before flying home to Pennsylvania.  Olivia really loved having her around to play with.  She especially loved trying to eat Halley's coloring book.

Until she noticed the camera, then she wanted to eat that instead.  Silly girl.

Nate gets so excited when Allred Orchard is selling peaches.  We get at least one box every summer.  Olivia was especially happy to partake in peach season this year and she had 2 peaches every single day.  She gladly would have eaten more but I stopped her at 2 a day.

Look at that smile.  I just want to squish her all day long!  Nate probably would if he were home with her all day...

These are from Labor Day - Nate just thought she looked so cute so he kept taking pictures of her. 

Later that day we got j dawgs and went for a walk around the temple.  It was a gorgeous day!

I have no idea what day this is from....  But Nate and Olivia are just too cute together!

Nate's youngest sibling and only brother, Kyle came out for a couple days before heading up to his first semester at BYU-I.  Olivia could not get enough of Kyle.  She though he was SO FUNNY.  And it really came in handy when I needed to get things done and Kyle could keep her entertained.  These pictures almost capture how excited she was to have him around.

Playing Catch Up

Ok I know I have been offensively horrible about updating the blog since we cancelled the internet!  I can't decide now if it's better to try and fill the void of lapsed time or just start over from current time... Maybe some of both. First things first, I feel it's very important to make a note that Olivia's surgery went great! (I know, that was more than 3 months ago... :/ sorry!)

So my last real update on Olivia's growth was that she could roll over... in one direction. She can now roll both ways, crawl, climb up things, and most importantly, WALK! I will do another post soon about all her 11 month excitement, don't you worry one little bit!

I'm sure that most people are keeping up with us via Facebook and instagram but that's still no excuse for my terrible blogging habits. Please enjoy these random adorable photos now:

These two are from a day at aunt Julie's pool. After swimming I took her swim diaper off bit apparently forgot to bring a dry one out. So Olivia spent a little time in the nude.

She is very independent and prefers to feed herself whole fruit. She would rather take bites herself than be fed small pieces. It's pretty funny.

These were our 4th of July pancakes. She loved them and was just being the silliest little girl that day!

This is a small glimpse into what it's like trying to fold laundry here. She's either standing on piles to get into more stuff, or she's grabbing things from the pile and throwing them...

One night we got take out. Turns out the styrofoam was more desirable that the food inside it.

Olivia LOVES straws! We finally got her a sippy cup with a straw in it and now she drinks all the time!

And lastly, Olivia tormenting Nate while he tries to sleep. These two are just so darn cute together! Olivia loves Nate and Nate loves Olivia. And I love them. The end. 

Olivia's Surgery

I am a little bit premature in my posting of this blog, but when you have internet access, you take advantage!  I am currently sitting in the waiting room at the hospital while my little tiny baby is off somewhere being put under anesthesia.  I'm sure everything will go splendidly and that there is absolutely nothing to be worried about, but of course it's nerve-wracking to leave your child in the hands of someone you barely know holding a scalpel.

From what I am told, her recovery should be very easy.  Depending on whether or not Dr Shmelzer (yes, his name is Dr Shmelzer, you read it correctly) has to place a pin to correct her thumb positioning, she may or may not even need bandaging.  Without a pin, he will just stitch her up and put some glue over the top to make it waterproof.  If he does have to pin it, he'll bandage her whole hand so she doesn't chew on it. Her pain level is supposed to be pretty low though.  They will give her pain medication for today but by tomorrow he said he'll be surprised if she even needs Tylenol.

And that is all the information that I have for now.  Now we wait....  Surgery will be about an hour.  In the meantime, enjoy some pictures of Olivia from pre-op:

This was the face she made when we told her she was having surgery today...

 And this was the face she made when I told her she could have juice today!

All dressed in her ginormous surgery outfit

 I love this girl

Rolling Over

Olivia is 4 1/2 months old now, can you believe that? Anyways, she had rolled over once last Sunday but neither me or Nate were lucky enough to witness it. Then she tried about a hundred times over the last week and finally did it a few times yesterday but it seemed to make her pretty cranky. Today, she's apparently a master at it! Every time I put her on her tummy today, she rolls right over and then has a huge smile on her face when she gets over. It's the cutest thing!

She's also ridiculously close to being able to roll from back to front. She just needs a bit more practice getting that leg over. I just can't believe how fast she's growing! I feel like as soon as she hit 4 months, she just started taking off with milestones!

This is a test....

So Nate and I decided that it's silly for us to pay SO much every month just for internet! So in an effort to be more frugal, we cancelled it. I can still check Facebook and upload pictures on instagram with my phone but I can't really do blog posts which is a bummer! So this test is to see if I can do this post from my phone. So far it's working... let's try a picture:

Please comment and let me know if there are any issues reading this or if the layout goes weird. Thanks!

2 Months

This post is really really late...  I tried so hard to remember to get some cute pictures of Olivia on her 2 month birthday but it just didn't happen, then I tried to remember to do it when we got back to Utah after Christmas but I just had so much going on with unpacking and getting doctor things taken care of that it just completely slipped my mind.

Nate did take this one picture of her on the 26th during her morning nap

Olivia is just the sweetest baby in the whole world!  She really hasn't been too fussy of a baby and I love that.  She just had her 2 month Doctor visit last week and she's looking great!

New Stats:
Weight - 10 lbs, 6 oz (still the 16th percentile)
Length - 22 in (15th percentile, 10th last time)
Head - 15 in (33rd percentile, huge jump! 6th last time)

She also got a whole bunch of immunizations at this visit too!  She got Hepatitis B, Polio, Pneumococcal Disease, DTaP, Rotavirus, and Hib.  Poor thing got 3 shots and one oral.  She handled them like a trooper though.  She cried when she got poked but after some snuggles she was ok.  We got her some Tylenol like the nurse said and she slept most of the day.  She did seem pretty needy for a couple days though.  She wanted more snuggles than usual and ate less but more frequently.

She has also become a very curious baby, she is always wanting to stand up and see everything around her.  She loves to play with her Daddy in the mornings after breakfast, very smiley and babbles a lot.  Yesterday she discovered her reflection in the mirror.  She sat there smiling and talking to herself, it was so cute!  She started wearing all 0-3 month size, some things are still huge on her though.  She finally outgrew all of her preemie clothes but the newborn size onesies still fit her the best.  She can do a full upper body push up during tummy time now, sometimes she even pushes up so much that her hips go up too.  She is so strong!  Love, love, LOVES taking baths!  It doesn't matter what kind of mood she's in before, she is always happy in the bath, kicking and splashing.

I just can't believe how much she is already growing up and it's only been 2 months!  Bring on the next month!

Christmas Vacation

This year we drove out to California to spend Christmas with my family.  My parents rented a beach house at Half Moon Bay so that we could all be together.  It was nice to be so close to the beach and it was also nice to have everyone under the same roof.  With such a large family and everyone being married and having kids and stuff, everyone being in the same place can be pretty rare.

The drive out there went pretty smoothly, except for the parts where the speed limit was only 30mph, those were pretty slow parts.  But, we got to drive across the Golden Gate Bridge for our first time!

Our first day there was Christmas Eve.  That morning we went to the beach, Olivia snuggled up with Nate the whole time, she loves him.

When we first got there, we were walking around on a pier watching people fishing and catching crabs.

Then we went to see the Mavericks.  It was a beautiful sight!

Of course, the next day was Christmas.  We only managed to take one picture of Christmas Day and it was right after Olivia ate a nice big lunch and fell asleep so she was drooling milk

After everyone else left (except Neil and Ashley), we went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium.  Everyone else went before we got there.  Apparently we didn't get very many pictures of it, but it was really fun.  Nate took this awesome picture of some jellyfish.  I want to make it the computer background, it's so mesmerizing!

Outside, looking at the bay

Of course we had to get lunch at the fish hopper, it's tradition!  Or so we're told.  Either way, the food was absolutely amazing.

The next day (our last full day), we went to the Jelly Belly Factory.  We weren't allowed to take any pictures during the tour so we just got these 2 right before we went in with our Jelly Belly hats on.

They told us that Olivia had to wear one too.... So she did!

We had a very nice relaxing Christmas break.  Thanks for having us, Mom!