Fall Fun

We've been able to get out and enjoy a few nice days lately. Andrew loves running and jumping around the playground. Olivia is quite the daredevil and tries to climb all of the slides and of course the stairs. This means I have to keep a very close eye since she has no sense of safety or danger! I'll be doing a lot of close chasing at playgrounds with her in the coming year!

Pumpkin Chunkin'

The weather was perfect last Sunday for a little fall party out at the shop/our future home. Carl got the pumpkin cannon he built a few years ago out and we launched some pumpkins far out into the field...I think they measured the pumpkins about 1850 feet. Good, clean, country fun!

Several families from Andrew's preschool class were able to join us, as well as a number of our other friends. The food everyone brought to share was great and we all enjoyed some s'mores too! All of the kids loved getting dirty in the dirt mound near the house. Andrew even took off his shoes to get in a mud puddle. I made Carl take care of cleaning him up :)

We look forward to having more gatherings like this once our house is finished sometime next year...we hope!

Peek-a-boo!

A little Sunday fun :)

Olivia's Birthday Party

We celebrated Olivia's first birthday yesterday with family and a few close friends. It was a fun, somewhat low key party which was great because Olivia made it most of the way through before she became overstimulated and ready for a nap. It was a special treat having my BFF, Claire, here for the party, even though its a six hour drive between our houses. Andrew had a great time playing with everyone, especially his grandpas. Carl grilled delicious sandwiches for everyone. Olivia participated in present opening a little, pulling clothes out of boxes and bags, and chewing on tags and wrapping paper and bows. She has a whole new wardrobe for the winter thanks to everyone at the party! Carl and I gave her a butterfly rocker which is a big hit with both Olivia and Andrew. Luckily, it can hold up to 80 pounds!

It's hard to believe that Olivia will be a year tomorrow and that a year ago today I was having contractions, but not sure if anything would happen for another week or so. Little did I know Olivia would make an early debut! Now I can hardly remember what life was like before she was here. We're so proud of Olivia and are excited to continue watching as she grows from baby into a little girl.

First Word

Olivia loves babbling and making all kinds of noises. She says, "ma ma" and "da da", among other things, but it can be hard to tell if she's actually referring to us. Well, a couple of days ago, I think she said her "official" first word. Carl was getting home from work and the dogs were going crazy, as usual. Olivia walked over by the door and extended her arm to point and clearly said, "da da". I'm pretty sure his heart melted when I told him what she had done before he came in. She seemed to say it with meaning toward Carl again last night. I think we have a Daddy's little girl on our hands :)

Dinner Helper

The extra cute and funny day

Today was one of those days where the kids were just oozing cuteness and comedy. Andrew recited numerous "quotes of the day" and Olivia was being silly. I already can't remember everything that I thought was especially noteworthy today and there are a few things I wanted to make sure I don't forget.
1. Andrew standing in front of the open fridge and pulling out cans of pop. "I'm picking out wines at the grocery."
2. Olivia discovered she can make funny fart sounds while I'm feeding her if she presses into me. She thought it was so funny as she did this repeatedly then looked up at me and giggled.
3. Andrew singing "Severus Snape, Severus Snape" over and over after seeing some Harry Potter puppet show parody on "My Tube".
4. Andrew hugging me before bedtime and saying we were having a cuddle and then rocking and singing, "go to sleep, Mommy. Go to sleep, Mommy". What a perfect end to the night :)