Olivia's Favorite Things

Since we're getting ready to ring in the New Year, I thought we'd do a countdown of Olivia's favorite things of 2008.


10. Singing songs (especially The Itsy Bitsy Spider, she tries to do the gestures)
9. Reading stories (Her current fav, "Brown Bear Brown Bear What Do You See?)
8. Elmo everything
7. Mandarin Oranges
6. Jacks Big Music Show
5. Going to the park
4. Chick Fi La chicken strips (no nuggets for her!)
3. Shoes!
2. Animals. She starting to make animal sounds :)
1. Mimicking her mom in everything she does. "Helping" me in the kitchen, pretending to talk on her phone, and now getting into my makeup drawer. Uh-oh.

Merry Christmas 2008

This Christmas it was our turn to stay in Texas, and I'm kind of glad we did. With all of the cold weather and snow up north, traveling would have been a pain. Luis's parents came up for a visit on Christmas Eve. We(I) cooked dinner and we attempted to go to Christmas Eve mass but we had a flat tire. We ended up going to the bilingual service Christmas day. That was interesting.
Olivia was not too happy about wearing her Christmas dress at first. She had a huge fit while I was dressing her, and when we were finished she tried to get Luis to put on her tennis shoes instead of her black dress shoes. What's happening to my girlie girl?
It was so nice to have Olivia wake up at home on Christmas morning. I don't know who was more excited Luis and I, or Olivia. At first she wasn't sure about the presents, but once she opened the first one she was all about it. The only problem was she didn't want to stop at the wrapping paper. She wanted the toys opened and out of the boxes ready for playing!
Grandma and Grandpa left on Friday and I could tell by Olivia's face how sad she was to see them go. Hopefully we'll make another trip down to Brownsville soon.

Olivia's first snow (in Texas)

I apologize for neglecting our blog lately. It's just the time of year.....
This Texas weather certainly has been strange. We had snow a few weeks ago, and now it's looking like it will be 77 degrees for Christmas (yuck!). It's been flucauating so much I'm just hoping Olivia doesn't end up getting sick. We had to take Olivia outside to check out the snow, and of course, the person most impressed by it was...Luis.
I've been baking lots of Christmas cookies this year, and thank God most of them have been given away! Olivia was my taste tester.
Last Sunday in church we sat closer to the front and near the choir. Olivia clapped and said "yay" after every song. Everyone around us laughed. Maybe she'll be in the choir one day!

Counting down to Christmas

Olivia and I count down the days with her Christmas calendar every morning, and the time is sure flying by. This weekend was packed with holiday activities. On Thursday afternoon we went to an ornament decorating playdate. Even though Olivia got more paint in her mouth than on the ornament, I know I'll still be putting it up on the tree every year.
Friday night we met some friends at the Pearland Christmas Tree lighting. Olivia saw Santa and got to watch all of the kids ice skate and play in the snow. (Don't ask me where they find snow down here!) The chilly weather did make it feel a little more like Christmas for me.
Saturday morning we took Olivia for her pictures with Santa. Everything was ok while we waited in line. I tried to keep her from watching some of the other kids freaking out on Santa's lap. She did great until I sat her on his lap. Most of the pictures taken were of her looking down, or trying to squirm out of his lap. At least in this one she is looking at the camera. Poor Olivia!

Thanksgiving Weekend 2008

We drove down to Brownsville Thursday morning to spend Thanksgiving with Grandma and Grandpa. Oops! We forgot all of Olivia's toys. (we left at 6am) She still managed to have lots of fun, of course.
Luis's cousin hosted a Thanksgiving lunch for us, and we had a great time. Olivia loved exploring his house, and his beautiful backyard.
Friday morning Luis and I went to Walmart at 5am to do some Christmas shopping. They had some great deals on a few toys for Olivia, but we didn't get any of them. The store was a mob scene, and apparently people waited all night to buy the darn graco baby doll furniture set that we wanted! We ended up going to Target and bought some things there. I wasn't going home empty handed after getting up at 5am!
We drove home Saturda so that Luis could put up our Christmas lights on Sunday. It was so windy, and he spent half the day up on our roof putting up the lights. Olivia says thanks dad!!! The lights look great, but Olivia is afraid of the little blow up Frosty the Snowman on our lawn. I'm afraid to see what she'll do when she meets Santa!

Happy Thanksgiving

With so much to be thankful for.....we couldn't ask for anything more.

On the Road Again

We had a wedding to attend in Detroit two weekends ago (Congrats Danielle & Kevin!), and we decided to celebrate Thankgiving a little early while we were there. Luis had to return early for work, but Olivia and I stayed for the week. As usual it was a whirlwind of visiting everyone. We had a great time. The weather there puts me in the mood for the holidays. Olivia got to play in a little snow. I'm not sure that she liked it. She kept trying to get me to wipe if off of her gloves. We did some shopping and visited the Bronners Christmas store. Olivia loved that. She didn't even seem too phased by all the life-sized santas.

Happy Halloween!!

Olivia had a jam packed Halloween weekend. Friday I took her to the Houston Children's Museum Halloween Party and we met her dad for lunch so Luis could see her in her costume. (He had to work late last night.) Then, in the evening we met our friends Brooke and Aidan and went trick or treating at the new outdoor mall in town. It was a lot more fun than I expected. They had a band playing and lots of stores passed out candy. Olivia wasn't too interested at first, but once she saw all the treats that people were putting in her bucket, she couldn't keep her hands out of it!
Saturday we went to one of the city parks for a Trick or Treat Trail. The city decided to have the event on Saturday, as to not interfere with the High school football game. (God forbid!) We had a great time. We saw a few friends from our playgroup and even saw Olivia's pediatrician dressed as a scarecrow. (Hope she didn't see all of that candy!)

Hair dilemma solved?

For the time being these tiny rubberbands are going to have to work. Check out Olivia's do.

Sleepless nights

Last week Olivia woke up during the night two days in a row. She stayed up for hours! I think she's trying to tell me that I'm not allowed to go out anymore with the girls. Luis tells me this is how I look in the morning.

Pumpkin Picking

Today we took Olivia to a local church's "pumpkin patch" to pick out her very first pumpkin! So much fun!

Jump!

Olivia and I took our first trip to a local bounce house. It was lots of fun for her and lots of good exercise for me.