Casqueiros On the Go

New Blog!

2011-11-29T22:16:00.001-08:00

I want to announce that all posts from November on will be on our new blog:

http://casqueirofamily.blogspot.com/

I apologize for the inconvenience of switching what you read, but This blog has become less about solely Olivia and more about our little family as we grow and learn together. so I wanted the URL to be a little more appropriate for that.

Just to make it more confusing, I still plan on continuing my snail-paced catch up on this blog, so ideally you will see new posts on both. I just got the wedding pictures all together, so I have a lot to catch up on, and would really like to post about Olivia's 1st Christmas before she experiences her 2nd :).

Anyway, I am working on my first picture post for the new blog right now with some November pictures, and I love you all!

Birthday Party!

2011-10-28T20:56:00.000-07:00

Olivia's Big Day ended with a "party", also known as Mom and Dad, lots of presents, and Skype :/. Not exactly the first birthday party that I had in mind, but it worked just fine. We were able to skype with Aunt Jenaye first, then Grandma Terece and Auntie Em. While talking to them, we opened a box from them, which included the toy that Olivia is playing with below. It's Sesame Street character toys, complete with Oscar's garbage truck! She loves it :). The M&M's she is standing on were also in the box. At least she found a good use for them! The box was a fun combination of toys, clothes, and stuff for mom and dad (fun new towels for a guest bathroom will hopefully eventually have and a 2 month membership to a gym for my birthday, YAY!).

Our plan was to skype on two different computers with two different families, but one computer was acting up that evening, so we ended up saying goodbye to my family and calling the Casqueiros. Here is a picture of Olivia talking to her Auntie Ashley.

The Casqueiros sent this OSU Pillow Pet (which she wrestles with at night before falling asleep usually half on the pillow, half squished up against the side of the bed), and some super cute clothes and new books. She loves the embroidery on the pillow pet most right now, I always find her scratching at his mouth and nose :).

Olivia's favorite gift was the dollar she received from Great Grandma and Grandpa Romrell. It was her first cash gift ever (although she did get some fun gift cards!), and she played with that dollar until I made her put it down to open the next gift.

She had many fun gifts and cards from our wonderful family. Mom and dad got her her first doll and The Lion King movie. She wasn't as interested in the gifts as we were, but that's to be expected, and she had some practice for Christmas in a few months.

We chose to do cake last, for the simple reason that we knew she would head straight from the high chair to the tub. I made her a little cake of her own, and here is a few pictures of her birthday cake experience :).

Here's the clean little munchkin after her bath. Alex took the tough job of bathing the birthday girl, and I took the kitchen floor. You will all be proud to know that there was cake and/or frosting on 20 of the 18" tiles that cover the dining room...The video of her flinging cake was no joke. This picture also looks exactly like a pic of Auntie Ashley that I tried to find, but I failed...

Overall, I'll say that my 23rd birthday is my favorite so far, and I anticipate that I will love every birthday that I get to share with my sweet daughter. Alex and I relaxed in the evening, which completed my day :). Olivia officially moved from baby to toddler (I think, I may be wrong but she's toddling everywhere, so it counts in my book!) and I would call her birthday week the first week that we felt settled in our new home. It was a good week.

Party Sneak Peek

2011-10-28T18:22:00.000-07:00

I'm still unsure if I can put video and pictures in the same blog post, so I'm posting the video of cake action first :). I'll admit that I always assumed I'd have a "dig right in" kind of cake eating child, so this was an experience that I wasn't expecting, and it makes me glad that it will always be my birthday when cleanup of birthday cake is needing done :).

Birthday: Part 1

2011-10-28T16:02:00.000-07:00

We started our birthday early, because we wanted to get as much fun in before naptime as possible :)

Here are Olivia and I, the two birthday girls, on our way to the Fresno Zoo.

Olivia is SO excited to see the animals :)

First she tried her hand at the life of the turtle...she didn't like moving slow, so she quickly moved onto other things.

Olivia's hand is slightly smaller than that of a gorilla

Feeding the giraffes. Olivia liked it, right up until the giraffe's tongue touched her hand. Then she was over it :)

A petting zoo! Just the thing I hope DOESN'T exist in our local zoo. I sacrificed my cleanliness to go in and get some up close pictures, then did some major sanitizing before moving on.

We attempted a few impromptu pictures, but Olivia was interested in all the animals, and didn't feel like smiling for the camera...I can't really blame her, it was a fun little zoo.

And a family picture! This was the first time we asked someone to take it for us, and boy am I glad! It turned out really well, if I do say so myself :)

Three hours and our first non-nap morning later we headed home from a great family trip to the zoo. Olivia had a good time, but is a lot more watchful and less smiley lately, so I'll just assume she had as much fun as we did. It was fun to go somewhere and let Olivia walk to where she wanted to go, instead of just pushing her in the stroller.

Olivia took a power nap on the way home, then we played for a while in the afternoon at home. I still had to put the finishing touches on her birthday cake and get ready for the "party", pictures to come!

Some Stats

2011-10-28T09:07:00.000-07:00

Well as usual, I made promises about blogging that I didn't keep. Time just goes way too fast when a certain somebody is asleep, and I never seem to be able to get everything done!

I have a few stats and such to go with Olivia's birthday post that I want to post before I forget.

Heigth: 30.25" (80%)
Weight: 20 lb 0 oz (17%)

New skills:

This seems silly I know, but Olivia is getting quite adept at obeying when she wants to. She is only using her plug (pacifier) when in bed and the car (if we are driving during a naptime). Every time she is getting out of bed or the car, all we have to say is "plug" and she will take it out of her mouth and throw it violently, then look at us with her best innocent smile :). Her obedience, however, only goes so far. No matter what I say, I can't keep her out of the fridge, pantry, or from pulling books (that I worked SO hard to organize by type and height) off the bookshelf. She is always smiling, and knows that I am telling her not to do it, but she's a sneaky little one.

Walking is now her primary mode of transportation, and she just recently has figured out how to stand up with no assistance. She toddles around most everywhere, usually following mom or dad wherever they go

She is still babbling, and doesn't really have any words that she uses regularly. Sometimes she will say "ma ma ma" or "da da da", and will copy us when we say "all done"or "woof woof". That being said, she talks all the time now, which is very different from her first 10 months, which she spent pretty silent, just taking everything in. Apparently now she knows that she is an expert on her surroundings, and wants to tell us all about them :).

Overall she is a sweetheart who wants us to know that she is in charge. She is loving the time she gets to spend with other kids at the gym childcare center, and is enjoying the freedom that walking allows. I am really enjoying getting to know this crazy mischievous little girl. I learn new things about parenting (primarily new doors and cupboards that need locks) every day.

Olivia's First Birthday!!

2011-10-28T00:30:00.000-07:00

Olivia turned one on Friday, October 28, 2011. We had a wonderful day (I will post about that tomorrow or Tuesday), but I wanted to do a quick trip through memory lane over the last year. It's amazing all the things that have changed in our lives, and all the wonderful experiences that Alex and I wouldn't have had without this sweet addition to our lives. I am forever changed, and wouldn't trade one moment of it.

So here goes...

One day old:

Our beautiful girl. I never imagined that I would share a birthday with my child, it was the absolute best birthday gift ever. Our serene, beautiful daughter was wonderful from the moment she was born. I was actually concerned because I thought babies were supposed to cry after they were born, but Olivia was just watchful and observant. She stayed that way most of the night, before falling asleep and sleeping most of the day. I'm always amazed by how little she has cried in her first year. We are very blessed.

1 Month: (November 28)
She looks very serious here, which was common in her first month. The last picture is on the way home from our photo shoot, right after her first blowout diaper. Unfortunately we weren't able to get a picture because it was in the photo studio (where they don't allow cameras), all over their infant support pillow :) I think she looks like a little boxer in her blanket.

2 Months: (December 28)
Introducing the smiley baby that we see all the time now. Her little face thinned out a lot this month, and she began to have that "kid" look

At about 5 weeks Olivia started to smile, and smiled for about the next six months straight

3 Months: (January 28)
The bonus picture in this one is the first time we put her in the Jenny Jump Up. She had the time of her life, but it just looked SO awkward we waited a few months before putting her in it again.

4 Months: (February 28)
During her fourth month, Olivia made her first TV appearance! We also went to Disneyland, which meant that before her 4-month birthday, Olivia had been in 5 states! (Oregon, Washington, Idaho, California, Utah)

Olivia also learned to roll over this month. I'm pretty sure she was just biding her time, because as soon as se rolled over the first time, she would roll over all the time, and just laugh :)

5 Months: (March 28) Yes, we are sideways and I'm not fixing it :)

6 Months: (April 28)
Olivia loved to stand as soon as she figured out that she could. She wasn't able to pull herself up just yet, but if someone stood her up next to something, she would grab on and hold tight with white knuckles. She also learned to sit on her own this month! This gave her a new freedom, and she suddenly became much less happy on our laps. She wanted to sit by herself all the time!

7 Months: (May 28)
This is the beginning of the "lack of photoshoots" every month. Olivia's sweet personality continued to grow in leaps and bounds, which led to her refusing to sit and smile for pictures anymore. She is always on the move, so we take what we can get :) She made her first crawling steps right at the end of the month, one day before her 7 month birthday.

8 Months: (June 28)
And we have an official crawler on our hands! We said goodbye for now to Alex this month as he moved down to Fresno for his new job. As soon as he was gone, Olivia knew she was no longer outnumbered, and decided to become totally mobile and adventurous :)

9 Months: (July 28) The stank face :)
This was taken at Twin Lakes, when I refused to give her the rest of my ice cream. I learned my lesson, and the next time I got an ice cream cone I left her with Grandma :). We spent most of August in Idaho with the Grovers, which was a huge relief for me, because for some reason being outnumbered 5:3 in the kid:adult ratio seems much easier than 1:1. We had a blast, Olivia experienced her first water park, and really enjoyed playing with her cousins. She had much more freedom in this kid-friendly house, where she was allowed to just crawl around following whoever she wanted.

10 Months: (August 28)
And a successful kneeboarding trip! In all honestly, she did get on a kneeboard at Twin Lakes in July, but as soon as the kneeboard hit the water she started screaming. This trip was much more successful, she loved the water, and swam with me for a little bit after sitting on the kneeboard for a while.

We also enjoyed the state fair this month! We went twice, once with each side of the family. It was a blast, and isn't she wearing a cute bow!

11 Month:
This was quite a busy month for our family, we got married! Pictures of that will come soon, and since I don't want to spoil it, I have included a picture of her sucking on a honeysuckle! She really enjoyed it, but it might just be because her grandpa gave her a plant to eat and I didn't stop him!

Olivia also learned to walk this month. She still reserves her walking mostly for at home, but she is getting more confident each day.

12 Months!
Last Friday Olivia turned 1. She is quite a character now, always exploring, climbing, and proving to her mother that I am no longer in charge! Here are her birthday pictures (actual pictures from her birthday to come later this week)

The last one is very special to me. This is her wedding dress, and the quilt that my Grandma Grahyl made for Alex and I for our wedding. She is also demonstrating her standing-on-her own skills!

And some Halloween pictures. I consider this a major accomplishment because this is the first hat she has worn successfully! The cutest little duckling I've ever seen :)

And that concludes Olivia's first year. We move on to toddler-hood, and although I miss rocking my baby in my arms, I look forward to all the new adventures we will have this year. I'm glad the first year has the most changes, because I feel like we barely had a day between each major new skill and accomplisment.

I hope you all have enjoyed this trip down memory lane as much as I have!

Birthday week!

2011-10-27T16:40:00.000-07:00

The week of Olivia's 1st birthday was very busy. We did official birthday pictures at JC Penney, had a lunch date, went to a couple parks, and were just busy in general. This being said, I didn't get a single picture of any of that. I did get some pictures of Olivia adventures and new experiences.

The first is her first spaghetti! Making this meal reminded me of a childhood story. Growing up, we all learned that when we were eating spaghetti, to minimize mess we would take our shirts off and eat topless :). I'm sure this ended by the age of 8 or 9, but it was an automatic response to coming to the table. My mom learned why this may not be a good thing to teach when we had houseguests over who were very concerned as to why 3 little girls, age 2,4, and 6, all took off their shirts as we came to the table for dinner :).

Alex and I decided a bib would probably do the trick, and gave Olivia a serving of spaghetti, salad, and garlic bread. She loved it!

She couldn't get enough of that yummy out-of-a-can sauce, and licked her plate for the first time :)

This is a habit of O's. She wipes her hands on her hair...YUCK!! It happens almost every meal, and the ponytail usually gets the worst of it. I have learned that hair bows come out before the meal :). I think it may just be a trick because she loves bathtime, and nasty hair ensures a bath that night.

The next morning I let Olivia play in my room while I got dressed, and I came out of the closet to this :). Chapter 12 is further than I got in that classic novel, good job O!

And last but not least, Thursday afternoon I started the first birthday cake that I have ever made. This of course meant that O got her first beater :)

Look at that tongue action...

And the chocolate drool :). She was actually less messy than I thought she would be, because she licked her hands and tried her best to get all the chocolate that she could. Into the bath we go!

And the cake making...
Please note that I realize this is not very good. I'm not sure I will be attempting a stacked cake for a while, shape cakes are more my thing (hopefully). However, I worked for hours on it, so I thought I would show what came from my efforts.

I decorated O's little cake second, and that made me realize that I should have done it first because I had NO idea what I was getting into with piping. It's for the creative...I don't fall into that category :)

Some more October

2011-10-23T09:40:00.000-07:00

As far as I can tell, this is going to by the last of my weekly posts. I'd love to get caught up enough to post by event or day or something. I know that I take way too many pictures, but it's hard not to when Olivia is doing new adventurous things each day. I love my job :)

The first story comes with two possible plot lines. The first being Olivia's fight against the California heat. She has never experienced this part of the year before, but it's against every grain in my body to wear shorts every day instead of jeans and a sweatshirt.

The other plot, which I find a lot more likely, is the 'C'mon mom, get out of here, I'm getting something to eat'

I love this next one because what she's really doing is asking for help (with her grunt language), because the fridge door keeps bumping her in the bum every time she turns around. The only way to prevent getting smashed is to keep pushing the door away, and sometimes her hand-eye coordination isn't that fast. Don't worry, I laughed a little, took a picture, and when she got louder I helped her out of the fridge.

In case you haven't heard, Olivia is training for the olympic sport of 'giving my mom a heart attack'. I wish I had a better picture, because when I actually came into the room, Olivia had climbed on top of her bumper (by squeezing her foot between the slats), and was bouncing up and down laughing and dancing, dangling 3 feet above the ground. I didn't want to encourage the behavior, so I didn't try to reproduce the accomplishment, but you can trust me that it was plenty scary.

I'm not entirely sure why O isn't dressed in any of these pictures. I had a stomach bug over these couple days, so maybe I just didn't notice, but I couldn't help but capture this cute moment when Olivia discovered Alex's belly button. He is extremely ticklish, and his laughing only egged her on. She would smack his belly, dig her finger into is belly button, then stand up laughing hysterically. I was so glad to encourage this!

Like I said, last Wednesday and Thursday I was very sick, and stayed in bed most of the time. Alex was awesome, and completely took over running the house. THANK YOU to his boss for allowing him to stay home!

While we make breakfast Olivia usually gets to watch a cartoon. She has a habit of walking up to the TV and standing WAY too close to watch it, so Alex thought of this invention to keep her seated. He made her her own couch! She loved it, and sat by herself the whole time he made breakfast.

Later that day (Thursday), I kindly asked Alex to take Olivia and run some errands because I wasn't feeling very good at all, and would love a quiet house. I got her dressed, and he took her out for over 2 hours :). I don't know everything they did, but I also didn't care at the time, because I got a good nap in, which was exactly what I needed. They also brought home my favorite treat, Jamba Juice! Olivia loves JJ too, and is getting good enough at using a straw that we are willing to share with her.

I took this picture the next day because I though it was amazing that a girl with literally dozens of toys a foot away is playing in the toolbox with Daddy's tools. There is some pretty scary stuff in there, so I didn't let her play with it, but I had to take a couple pictures while she didn't know I was there.

On Saturday (22nd) our little family packed a picnic lunch and went to Fresno State to walk around campus. I had heard that they had a pretty arboretum to walk through, and we had a fun time exploring and touching all the flowers. They have some pretty cool statues that Olivia liked, but her favorite thing by far was the fountain. It had some sort of soapy substance in it, which made it all the more fun to play in!

Sunday we decided to go to a pumpkin patch. I had purchased a groupon for a corn maze that I read was right off of 99, which I though was the freeway 5 minutes from us to the west. There is a freeway 5 minutes west, 2 minutes east, 10 minutes south, and 30 minutes west from us. Turns out I had my freeways mixed up, and 99 is actually the 30 minutes west one, so we had a little bit of a drive.

We took some pictures right after the corn maze, and you can tell we are all a little pink from the sun, None of us were really sunburnt, but silly Oregonion Lacey brough jackets to the corn maze instead of sunscreen, and it turned out to be a 90+ degree day! We let Olivia walk around in the pumpkins for a little bit, but in order to get a non-monstrous sized one, we would have to walk out into the patch, and we were all too hot to do that, so we ended up just heading home. The corn maze was really fun, but it made me miss the overcast, rainy pumpkin-picking at Twedt's Farm that I had growing up.

The last picture is one of my favorites :) I love these two!

Sneak Peak: Corn Maze

2011-10-23T02:37:00.000-07:00

Sunday afternoon we went to a corn maze/ pumpkin patch...here's a little sneak peak!

Crazy Adventures our second week

2011-10-16T21:56:00.000-07:00

Well I devoted the first week of living in Fresno to unpacking and organizing, as well as getting Olivia on a routine that would give me two solid naptimes again. Those two missions semi-completed, I decided to hit the ground running our second week. To get things started right, we had bath time Sunday night...LOVE this picture of my two best people :)

Monday after Olivia's first nap (around noon), we grabbed a quick snack and headed to the park. It is only two blocks away according to the map on my phone, so I thought it would be a quick stroll. Half an hour later (in California heat, mind you) we arrived at the park. We played for a little bit, got a few pictures, then I heard the grunts that are typical of Olivia doing some business...now that's not a problem at all, I had a blanket I could lay on the ground and plenty of wipes. Problem is, I didn't have a single diaper. I took a peek, and knew that this diaper was not going to last a half hour walk home, so I had to call Alex and have him rescue us :) We did have a lot of fun, and we got to see plenty of bumpy sidewalks :), so I'll call that a semi-successful outing. And I haven't left the house without a diaper since.

Monday afternoon I received my first taste of my crazy daughter the climber. I just thought this was cute, and took a picture to show her adventurous spirit. Hindsight is 20-20, and now I wished I had moved everything that could be climbed on out of the house, because there have since been many adventures...

Tuesday morning we headed out early to the library for infant story time. I trusted the GPS in my phone, and 1/2 an hour later we arrived at the library, about a ten minute drive from our house. Luckily they have toddler time right after infant time, so we still got to hear some stories, and Olivia still had the opportunity to get in the personal space of some kids :). When we got home, after a nap, we went on a little walk to check the mail, and I let Olivia push the stroller. She's getting very good at walking, so now I just walk in front of the stroller to give encouragement, and she gets all the independence she wants. I wish I had a better picture, but it seems every time I pull out the camera she swerves into a car or bush or person, so this is the best I've gotten so far.

We didn't have anything on the schedule on Wednesday, so we went to Riverpark shopping center, one of the 3 big malls within ten minutes of us (not to mention the hundred other shopping centers, on almost every corner). When we got back from our shopping adventure, I was prepping dinner a little bit, and Olivia was strangely quiet, so I went into the living room to find this:

Now that's a guilty face if I've ever seen one :). I have no idea where she stashed that cracker, we never give her ritz unless she's in her high chair (too messy), but sometime she stole it and stashed it under the recliner I guess.

Thursday we made our way to a different library for infant storytime, but this was at a much larger library, and it was story and music time, so we enjoyed it a lot more. Since the Woodward Park library is a little bit further away, we just go to both libraries most weeks. It gives us two outings that are social, educational, and free, so I'm all for it.

My favorite adventure of the week was Olivia climbing on her rocking horse by herself. She was so proud of herself, and sat on there longer than she ever has before. She's not quite strong enough to make it rock yet, but she loves to play with the mane. Thanks Janet!

Of course Olivia couldn't have lasted the whole day without giving me at least one heart attack, so here we come to the next picture. In the afternoon I was working in the kitchen, Olivia was playing in the living room, and all was good in the house. I ran to the bathroom real quick, and came back to this sight. The cooler was under the chair, and she apparently pulled it out and used it to climb onto the chair and start dancing in about a minute. Oh baby...

And we will end this week with her favorite mess to make (and also one that I don't mind so much). She does this at least once a day - or as many times as I clean it up. I have tried to clean it up with her, but that only makes her close enough to start taking them down again...lose lose for me. So for now she helps me clean up her toys and books, and I leave the DVDs until she goes to sleep. In a few weeks we'll work on it, or get a DVD shelf that closes, but for now I just get this sight every day :)

And that's a week of adventures from the Casqueiro house. Every day I get someting new, which is one of the things I love about staying home with Olivia.

Our first week

2011-10-09T21:48:00.000-07:00

So our week started out pretty good...I organized my shoes, do you see a problem?

You got it! There is a hole on my shoe rack...must mean a shopping trip is in my near future :). The shoe organization happened on Tuesday, and here is my cute Olivia picture from that day, O is enjoying her newfound freedom in our apartment, there isn't doors to shut between each room, and there is as many of her as there is of me most days :).

And on Wednesday morning, I checked my room and made sure she was safe while I ran to the bathroom really quick. I didn't see any outlets or potential danger-zones, so off I went. And I came back to this very cute and very guilty face :).

Now I was a little disturbed that all of my shoe organization (by color) had gone to waste, but I could also tell that she was having her first fashion dilemma. Olivia has always loved shoes. Mostly she likes to eat them, but in this case she was carefully examining each shoe before scattering them on the ground. First she went for the sensible flats,

but was quickly distracted by the cute polka dot heels. Are they worth it? I think yes :).

After some careful deliberation and a quick pro-con chart, she had taken all the shoes she liked and scattered them around the closet, and was ready to make her next mess.

That afternoon, I was trying to make dinner (a feat I've learned is very hard while Olivia is awake), and I needed a distraction tool. I've always thought I would be the mom who had an educational activity for her kids to complete instead of plopping them in front of the TV, but with a young toddler with a 2 minute attention span, the Disney movie is a wonderful invention. Olivia stood, talking to Rapunzel from Tangled for about 20 minutes, which gave me plenty of time to finish what I was doing in the kitchen, and didn't create any more messes. A success in my book!

On Friday (October 7th), I got a package in the mail that I knew was my wedding present from Alex, but I didn't know what it was and could hardly wait the 5 hours until he got home so I could open it. When he finally got home, I got to open the box and pulled out this lovely frame with a spot for a wedding picture and our vows below. I LOVE it, and I have the best husband ever :)

Alex had a couple home games in a row the weekends after we moved, so Olivia and I had a lot of time to get things organized and cleaned as we unpacked. It also gave Olivia a lot of time to think of new games! This next picture is of a game that occupied her time for about half an hour one Saturday morning. She just barreled into this little stacking block, eventually with enough leverage to push it across the floor, causing her to fall to the ground. She would then laugh, look up to make sure I wasn't looking (if I was she would whine like she was hurt), and go again. It was very funny to watch :)

Olivia has always loved football. When she was a newborn it was the only thing that she would watch on TV, and it continues to be her favorite, though Jake and the Neverland Pirates and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse are closing in (we watch cartoons before breakfast most mornings). I know that I should be concerned about her being so close to the screen, and for all you worried grownups, I always take the picture then go grab her and bring her back to the couch; I just think it's funny that she prefers to be two inches away.

This football game, however, was a little different for Olivia. She is starting to notice people on the TV and phone, mostly because she sees pictures of her relatives on Mommy's phone a lot. I'm pretty sure that she saw these big, strong men playing football, and it encouraged her to 'get her swoll on', so she can be big and strong someday...

Last I'm just throwing in a quick daddy daughter picture from our first real day as a family. Alex had Sunday off, and this is how we started the day :)

The rest of our new place

2011-10-06T21:15:00.000-07:00

Alright all, here's the rest of our house pictures for those who are interested, then I'll get back to the cute baby pictures for the rest of you :)

So we're starting out with the dining room. Alex and I have learned that we have the maximum amount of stuff that will fit in an apartment (well we have some stuff and Olivia has TONS of stuff...), so our dining room is a little storage, a little office, a little craft room, and a little dining room. This angle is from the recliner in the living room.. We are looking at our dining room table (to match the red/black kitchen we will finish someday ;) ), with a stack of photo frames that will soon become our picture wall (wall above the table). We are waiting for Olivia's 1st birthday pictures and all of our wedding pictures, then will arrange it eventually :). Also, the white table (Thanks Gary!) is our desk/craft table. The desktop computer that is in our near future, and my bow making stuff will be on that table.

Now we travel to the kitchen. You can see Alex working at putting locks on the cupboard (suddenly completely necessary...), and the typical apartment kitchen. The nice thing about this apartment is the bar/kitchen counter area right in the front of the kitchen, is a nice place for the junk/mail piles :) and eventually decorations.

And the stove area, complete with about a month's worth of taco soup leftovers...at least it freezes! We miss the friends and family in Oregon that we would normally share this with :(

I don't really know why I'm including this picture. All it shows is that the dishes are NEVER done, there's always snack messes and bibs and everything left. However, in our defense, everything in this picture except the bib in the sink is clean and drying :)

And we're traveling to the room where the magic happens ;). The beautiful quilt courtesy of my wonderful Grandma, who made it for as a wedding gift. Our room is where the boxes will never be empty. For some reason I brought the box of guest room stuff (quilt, decorations) with us, and we just have more stuff than storage. But maybe we will find something to decorate the walls with. Can somebody be my personal decorator? This is definitely not my strong point.

As far as bathrooms go, we have a half bath in our room, and the full bath is in the hallway. It's sad for us to downgrade from two bathrooms, but we are glad to have a place, and have settled in very well.

This is the part where I say how glad we are to be in Fresno, and how we are loving it. However, it's been a pretty hard move for me, and I think the stress is spreading to Alex and Olivia. I really miss Oregon, but mostly I miss seeing people that I know. That said, it's so great to have my little family all together, and to be settled into some sort of a routine. This summer was INSANE, and I don't plan on repeating anything like it for a long, long time.

There are some things about Fresno that are awesome, so I'm making a list to share with you :)

1. Garage saling - it still is going strong, and the deals are great! Both weekends that I went out I went to 15+ sales, and took advantage of some great deal (my proudest being a new, wrapped in plastic Cranium game for $2). In Oregon there is about 4 garage sales with baby clothes in the entire Corvallis area, which means driving ten minutes in between each sale. Also, the prices in OR are about $2 per piece of clothing ($1 if you are lucky), and here it's .25-.50 per piece.

2. Library infant times - Olivia and I both love these story times, and we library hop throughout the week, so far we have gone to two different libraries each week. She gets to play with other babies, and we get to sing songs and learn new rhymes

3. Shopping - need I say more? Oregon shopping is dismal at best, nonexistent if you are being honest. I live within five minutes of everything shopping-wise I would ever need, and a 3 story Forever 21 is about a block from Alex's work. :) My bank account may not thank me later, but it has been fun to explore all the shopping centers around my house.

4. Going to a corn maze tomorrow, in shorts and tanks...I know I will miss the rain and clean-ness, but right now not needing sweaters all the time is great :)

And that's all for now...not because that's all that is good here, but because Alex just got home from his volleyball game, and it's time to write some thank yous (they never go away...)

Finished House Pictures

2011-10-05T22:48:00.000-07:00

Alright family and friends, here is the moment you've been waiting for :) Our house post unpacking, and some organization. The actual degree of organization in our house changes every moment because Olivia has become a climber and a HUGE mess maker since we have moved down here. I try to catch up, but I'm sitting in our living room right now with all the DVDs on the ground (none of the toys mind you), and the tupperware from the kitchen cupboards spread across the kitchen and dining room floor...oh well you can't win them all!

Anyway, so here's Olivia's room...as you come in the door:

from behind the rocking chair:

I'm super proud of this kids bookshelf. I started collecting children's books when Olivia was born, and this is just the beginning :) The current count is 174, but it grows every week when I garage sale. I just love children's books and hope to share a love a reading with my children.

And the living room. This is from the front door. Please note the wonderful rug that we recently bought, I love it :)

The wall decal, courtesy of Target:

from behind the recliner, please notice ESPN on the TV, you can guess who put that on! (I joke, but Olivia and I are SO happy to be with Alex again, and to set up our first house as an officially married family :) )

Looking at the coat closet (right next to the front door. You can see part of the kitchen, but most importantly, that little decal says 'Family' and will have extended family pictures from the wedding underneath it

Still to come: kitchen, dining room, and master bedroom

California: Before Pics

2011-10-04T22:45:00.000-07:00

Yes I know I'm totally skipping three months. Similar to Christmas 2010 (still not blogged), I just get overwhelmed when I get behind and my computer tends to give up on me loading too many pictures with not enough brainpower to connect them with stories. For that reason I'm skipping to the move in a vain effort to catch up with the blog, then (and after some around-the-house projects) I will start catching up on the summer that my brain has already forgotten most of. As a special note, I will interject some wedding posts whenever I get pictures from the photographer and am able to sort through pics from 6 different sources (THANKS to Ashley, Amber, Candy, Danielle, Carrie, and Destination Photobooth!!) (If you are someone not on that list that has pictures from the wedding, I would really like them, please comment on this or email me or something, I promise to make the transfer of photos as painless as possible)

That being said, I'll go back 2 weeks to my move to California. I totally punked out and took the easy trip - a direct flight from Portland to Fresno - and allowed my wonderful in-laws to drive the moving truck. I figure they are stuck with me now, so ... thanks! Anyway, I had a lot of extra time in the Portland Airport, due mostly to the fact that I always assume I need 2.5 hours to get to my gate, and that's just not true. That presented me with the challenge of entertaining Olivia while dragging around a carry-on, diaper bag, stroller, and Olivia. She has flown lots before, and has always done awesome, but the last time we flew she was 4 months old and she just slept. This trip was a little different. There was way too many fun things to see and do in the airport, so I finally just let her push her own stroller and I followed with a guiding-steering hand. This worked well to pass an hour, and after a quick bottle (that I thought would precede a nap...I was wrong), we were ready to board.

Here is Olivia having the time of her life pushing her stroller. I wish I had a better picture, but I found it was extremely challenging to have even the two seconds necessary to take a picture when she was running around as fast as she could, and running into things and people in the process.

Olivia did fairly well on the airplane. I don't know how parents with more than one child do it, and I will no longer judge parents who let their children roam the aisle during the flight. That being said, she spent a lot of time flirting with the people around us and did take about a twenty minute nap. It was a very long 2.5 hour flight on a prop plane, but we made it and I had to keep reminding myself that it was much better than the drive would have been.

Alex picked us up at the airport, and we had a nice evening getting reunited as a family. I was glad to do the reuniting process for the last time after a whirlwind summer. Mary and Gary had arrived already, and we stayed in the same hotel, so they were able to watch Olivia and Alex and I went out on a mini-date. It was very nice, and helped me be physically and mentally prepared for moving the next day.

Saturday was the first Fresno State football game that Alex worked, which meant that he left the hotel at 9 AM and got back home around 11:30 PM. I signed the lease (which Alex had already done) at 11, so around noon we got the truck to our new place and started unloading. Now I've moved myself quite a few times, but I've always just had my stuff (which all fit in one bedroom), and had my dad move the furniture. This time was a little different. My parents would arrive the next day, and Alex would be home then, but Saturday was just Mary, Gary, Olivia, and me to unload the truck. That was hard work. Luckily we had a lot of help from Olivia, who helped carry quite a few loads (pictured below :) )

Now here are the "before" pictures from our apartment. This is after everything is moved in but nothing unpacked. Here is the living room:

Dining Room:

Kitchen:

sorry for the sideways picture, my picasa isn't agreeing with my windows file folders today...

Olivia's bedroom:

please note the Victoria's Secret bag is Olivia's birthday present from her Casqueiro grandparents...I knew they were crazy but I'm a little anxious to see what they got her! :) Mary assured me - after I asked as tactfully as I could - that it was a reuse of the bag, and it happened to be the one that fit. I'm still a little concerned, but we will see in a couple weeks.

Where the magic happens (still debating if I should change this title...deciding to leave it for now), Master Bedroom:

The 1/2 bath in the Master Bedroom (toilet beyond second door):

My first walk-in closet to myself (I did have one growing up in the Blodgett house, but never at the same time as I had my own room). It's very big, big enough for Olivia's mattress to fit comfortably in there (for her Saturday naps) even after some boxes were packed in.

Full bath in the hallway:

The washer and dryer are actually in our enclosed patio, which is kinda like another room. I was weirded out by this at first, but once you see how it is set up and enclosed, it really is fine. No one can see into the patio area, and it prevents the dryer from making the apartment an oven all the time.

This apartment is about thirty feet from a basketball/tennis/foursquare/hopscotch area, and about 60 feet from a pool and hot tub area, The area is great, and the community seems very nice and orderly. So far we haven't had any trouble with noise, and are loving the new place. The only thing missing is all of our family and friends :).

We just finished hanging all of our decorations (at least the ones that we have), so after pictures will be posted soon.

Moving Weekend

2011-10-03T14:59:00.000-07:00

I already mentioned that we had wonderful help for our move down to California. On Sunday, my parents arrived (from loading Emily's stuff into the truck in Davis), and we were able to spend the day finishing the house and relaxing a little. By the end of the day I really had very little to do to finish unpacking, and everything we needed done was done. It was by far the easiest move I have ever made in that respect. Sunday evening the whole group went out to The Doghouse Grill, the best place to eat in Fresno. It was very fun, and all the dads were glad to get their football fix in (our apartment didn't have cable set up yet).

Here is Olivia enjoying her own hamburger :). I should have shared with her, the burgers were absolutely HUGE! Needless to say there was a pile of discarded hamburger pieces on the ground, but she enjoyed herself thoroughly.

Sadly, Monday morning we had to say goodbye to all the grandparents. Mary and Gary were flying out, and my parents were leaving to drive back to Davis to pick up Emily, then back home.

This picture represents a fond memory for me when I had grandparents who helped change diapers all the time :) Thank you! and I miss you.

Monday night I made my first official dinner in the new place! All of you experienced wives and mothers will surely point out that this is frozen pizza and a 3-ingredient salad, but to me it was a masterpiece. I'm still getting the hang of cooking, cleaning, and chasing Olivia all at the same time :)

Back to the grind

2011-09-21T08:45:00.001-07:00

Alright...I'm sorry about lack of posts, bit I have had the craziest two months of my life. I'm currently recovering from the extraction of four impacted wisdom teeth, and am all hopped up on percoset, so if this doesn't make sense please disregard :). That being said, I feel awful about not posting pictures of Olivia for almost three months, so here's a cute one from last week that shows her new skills, climbing and mess making. She is also a beginning walker, and loves the independence that she gets from being mobile.
Please note also that I'm posting from my phone ( yay technology) so I don't know what my rate of successfulness will be.
I love you all, and I have a goal of two posts per day until the move. You should hear more soon!!

Some more notes:

2011-08-13T20:37:00.000-07:00

Well, it's time for some more notes from our time in Boise so I don't forget

#1: Olivia took her first big tumble! This was not funny in the least, but is a milestone, and is COMPLETELY a result of her "I can do it myself attitude." While we were all sitting in the living room for Family Night (August 8th), Olivia was crawling around getting into things, nothing crazy just the normal bookshelves and magazine racks. She loves to play the piano, and is always standing up to it, just barely reaching her hands to the keyboard, and playing a few notes ever so gently. This time though, she was walking from the low notes to the high notes, by walking along the piano bench. She's pretty sturdy on her feet, and doesn't really use her balancing object very much, but this time she must have pulled on it too hard because it came tumbling over her, crashed onto her belly and flipped over, landing with the seat part on her forehead and the legs the other direction, away from her head. It was so scary, because I was right there, watching, and couldn't do anything. She did scream for a minute, but quickly calmed down and only had a minor bump on her forehead to prove it (picture to come). She was a champ, and I'm sure this will be the first of many bumps and bruises that come as a result of her independent attitude.

#2: Olivia got her third tooth today! She already has two little teeth on the bottom that are coming in nicely, but I felt the first one on top today! This is a new concept for me, because I didn't get my first tooth until well aftre my first birthday, but I'm glad my daughter didn't inherit my weird teeth genes.

We are having a wonderful time in Boise, I'm enjoying every minute of it. It's so fun to see Olivia play with her older and younger cousins, and I absolutely love having sister time! Eventually I'll get back home and post some pictures and stories from the last two months of our life, but for right now I'm going to get back to the cleaning and organizing that has to happen while little O is asleep, because as soon as she wakes up she'll undo my work :)

For my memory...

2011-08-04T19:43:00.000-07:00

... and your entertainment :)

First, I apologize for being absent. Life since Vegas has been absolutely crazy, and I'm currently in Boise (will be there until the 20th) so hopefully I'll catch up sometime between then and the big move. However, I didn't want to forget this joyous occasion :)

Today Olivia made her first big, disastrous mess! Amber and I had a date at Coldstone (yummm...) and had just finished getting our ice cream when I realized that Olivia was hungry, so I made her a bottle. I had just started giving it to her when she spit it out and reached for the ice cream. After calmly explaining that ice cream was a mom treat and her milk was melted ice cream anyway (working on my mom explanations :) ), I gave her the bottle again. Olivia is much busier now than she was even a few weeks ago, and after about half a second she had spit out the bottle and grabbed my spoon out of my mouth to suck on it. I was laughing until she threw the spoon on the ground - was that really necessary?

I needed to get a new spoon, so I stood up, grabbed Olivia and bottle, and headed to the counter. Just as I was asking the cashier for another spoon, Olivia threw her bottle to the ground in frustration. The bottle proceeded to crack on the bottom, spilling milk all over the floor, splashing it up the counter, and pouring out the entire 6 oz.

I have a strong feeling this won't be my last post of this nature, but wanted to record it carefully because it is her first big mess, and I was unable to get a picture, mostly due to embarrassment :).

Boat Pictures :)

2011-07-31T15:54:00.000-07:00

I absolutely love boat pictures. Stringy hair blowing everywhere in the wind, shivering wet bodies wrapped in towels, and squinty eyes trying to see the skier. Here is my post dedicated to boat pictures from this year's Twin Lakes.

I should also point out that whiel Olivia didn't love her life jacket by any means, she did tolerate it just fine, and loved being in the boat. So many things to see and do, not to mention the wind. She was in heaven.

Twin Lakes: Day 1

2011-07-24T16:25:00.000-07:00

I know this blog is completely jumbled and almost incoherent in its order and organization. I'm not going to lie, that really bothers me. I like things organized and easy to understand. However, this blog is serving as my brain and my brain this summer has been in neurotic seizing mode trying to get everything done. So I will catch up on the blog, then go back and organize it to my heart's content.

Somewhere in my jumble of flash drives and computers and hard drives I have pictures from between Las Vegas and Twin Lakes. This time included packing and moving, as well as Alex leaving for Fresno. After Alex left Olivia and I were staying at my parents', and we had quite an exciting and stressful month leading up to Twin Lakes. Eventually I will find them and post what I can remember. For now, we start with Twin Lakes.

To start the craziness of taking a baby to Twin Lakes by myself, Olivia and I had some transportation hiccups. I was uncomfortable driving by myself with her because I knew that I would end up stopping every half hour for something, and wasn't sure that I could actually pull it off. Also, my mom was in Utah and unable to come, and my dad had work things come up, so I was the only person from my family going from Oregon. That said, I can't say Thank you enough to my Grandma and Grandpa, who offered Olivia and I space in their truck on the way up to the lake. I was looking at flying, trying to get a ride the last two hours, and the trouble of getting enough stuff for a month into our checked luggage...it was a mess. Thank you G&G!!

Here is Olivia, wiped out on the drive...

After half the drive on Friday (7/22), we drove the rest of the way Saturday morning, with a stop for lunch at Edna's. After eating, we got ice cream cones on the way out, and I thought it was quite fitting for Olivia to get her first cone from Edna's :). Needless to say, she enjoyed it :)

That's all the pictures I took on Saturday. We had a busy after noon of unpacking and organizing, getting ourselves set up for a week of fun and relaxing :). I'm not going to lie, this year was a little weird with a lot of people missing, and Saturday was even more so because our cabin was practically empty.

On Sunday before church Olivia got to meet her (2nd) cousin Jesse. What a cutie! I hadn't met him yet either, and he was so much fun! He helped to teach Olivia to use her voice :), as he's not scared to share his opinions about this world with those around him.

I had a hard adjustment without Alex this summer. It was just me and Olivia all the time, and that's exhausting no matter how cute and fun the baby is! It was such a relief to me to have others around for Olivia to play with, and all of her cousins were excited to play with her too, which made for a lot of fun. Here is Caleb and Olivia practicing her walking skills!

Olivia absolutely LOVED the cabin at Twin Lakes. I think it was partly the freedom of having so much space and so many opportunities for mess making, but she also enjoyed all the new things she saw. One of these new discoveries was the ceiling fan. Alex's parents have a couple fans in their house, and Olivia loves them too, but she was enamored with this one. All Sunday morning and afternoon she would just sit and watch it, which is a major accomplishment. Olivia doesn't just sit for anything; she is always moving and exploring. Anyway, here is Olivia staring at the fan instead of eating :)

At church Sunday morning, everyone does introductions of their family. In recent years, the baton has passed from the grandparent generation to the parent generation, mostly because the number of grandchildren has increased exponentially :). Since the Dale Romrell family (which I am part of) went first this year, and my mom is the "wisest" of her siblings, she was up first. Unfortunately for me, neither my mom nor dad was present this year. Also, we were missing Amber & family (to arrive Sunday afternoon), Bryan and family (had a 3 day old baby), Emily, Tasha (to arrive with Amber)& Ben, and Jenaye. This left me to introduce all 18 members of my family. I felt a lot of pressure, but was told I did my mom proud in remembering all names, spouses, and reasons that they were mising.

Sunday afternoon is the only day that the entire family eats dinner together. We always have a blast, and it's a great start to the week (and a good way to pass a LONG afternoon of no water play...). Amber & fam also arrived during dinner, with Tasha in tow, so it had added "fun-ness" for me this year.

Here's another picture of some great cousins! Lily and Mica were amazing help during dinner and throughout the week with Olivia and all the babies. Here they are holding Olivia and Teag so Amber and I can act like kids and play (or maybe scarf down some dinner...I can't remember :) ).

However, Mica and Lily rarely smile, and I really wanted to get a picture of them helping. I called in some reinforcements to get smiles .... In fact, this next picture is Tasha, Tim, and Zach doing their best smile-getting moves :) They did get the smiles, they were just from all the grownups and Mica and Lily, not from the babies that they were trying to please.

And the Last picture from Sunday afternoon is olivia enjoying her first piece of watermelon. She did enjoy it, and so did the white sweater I was wearing. Overall a fun day, and totally exhausting. At this point I was getting used to being tired, but each day Olivia got more mobile and I missed Alex more and more.

The rest of vegas

2011-06-23T20:02:00.000-07:00

For some reason, about 90% of my pictures from Vegas were taken the first day. That is not to say that I didn't have fun the rest of the time. In fact, I had a blast re-exploring the parts of Vegas that I have seen before, and just relaxing by the pool (until it was too hot) then wandering the air conditioned casinos and shops the rest of the time. This first picture is from the Bellagio. I absolutely love the gardens in here, they might be my favorite part of the Strip.

We stayed at the Monte Carlo, and somehow Alex and I got the best view by far. Here is the view out our window at night.

Throughout the week we learned that Alex and I should not gamble, and that Gary and Andy should :). We also went to an AMAZING show (O) and had a wonderful time. I've got to say that this, the first of my Casqueiro vacations, makes me very excited for more in the future. Definitely a different style of vacationing than Johnson/Romrell (pack as many people and activities into as short a time as possible), but I love them both.

Much thanks to my parents for keeping Olivia for us. It was hard to be away for so long, but we Skyped with her, and she did great. She missed us a lot less than we missed her, and it was good to have a vacation.

P.S. yes I know this is a pretty weak post for today, but I'm just getting back into it, so give me some time :)

Vegas baby! - Part 1

2011-06-20T10:09:00.000-07:00

On June 20th Alex and I went on a lovely Casqueiro vacation...to Las Vegas! It was such a blast, and it would take a hundred pictures to show everything, but here's just a few.

The first is the group picture from the arrival. Alex and I decided to stay home one extra day to be with Olivia, and then we left her with Gma Terece and Gpa Turkey Buzzard for the week (note: we've solved our Gpa Gary issue...we now have Gpa Gary Casqueiro and Gpa Turkey Buzzard Johnson). In this picture, everyone is standing in front of the stretch Escalade that took them to the hotel Cas-Dashian style :)

When we arrived the next day, I was thrilled to see this wonderful piece of memorabilia from my favorite show in the Flamingo. Although I wouldn't have picked Donny to win, I got to see the famous mirror-ball trophy in person!...OK not the hugest deal, but I enjoyed it!

Alex and I are not photogenic. I might as well get it out there, because I don't see it changing anytime soon. I'm so glad Olivia is making up for us with her cuteness, but this next few pictures just demonstrates how unloved we are by the camera.

Ali and I recreating the "awkward pose" from earlier...

Sunday night we went to Margaritaville for dinner, so fun! This is the closest to a group picture we got. Shirley is missing from this one, but the drunk boat captain on stilts was kind enough to take this for us. Happy belated 21-er Andy and Ashley!

After dinner we headed to downtown Las Vegas for the light show that they put on, and Alex decided to get his drink on :) - in fairness, one of these is my non-alcoholic version, and Alex only had 2 or 3 drinks the entire trip, but I like this double-fisting-it representation of the week

The Golden Nugget hotel downtown has the coolest pool in Vegas. Maybe not true, I've only actually seen 4 or 5, but this waterslide goes through a shark tank...on my bucket list for sure!

As a draw for tourists, downton Vegas has a huge light show that goes on every hour inthe evening. We watched a full show and parts of another, and it was really cool to see. The lights go on above all the casinos, and the show is set to music.

That's all from day 1! More to come soon I hope!

P.S. Thank you Ali and Gene for your pictures, helps me fill in some of the holes in my picture taking!

P.P.S. In case you're wondering about my lack of blogging, I don't mean to imply that we're not doing anything! Alex is down in Fresno, and has started his job, I'm in Philomath with Olivia at my parents' house, trying my best to keep her out of all the fun "toys" she finds...computer cords, phone books, the piano, and every piece of garbage that's invisible to the adult eye. I would like to say our life will settle down soon, but that would be a lie. Livvy and I are headed to Keizer for a long weekend tomorrow, the will be home for 3 days before leaving for Twin Lakes. After TL we will head directly to Boise to spend 3 weeks with Amber and her family, then home for about a month before the wedding, then down to Fresno to be reunited with Alex (can't wait!!)...My summer in a nutshell for those of you who were wondering!

A Week in the Life

2011-06-13T17:56:00.000-07:00

Lately it seems like our life has just gotten more and more exciting. Each week is full of adventures and new discoveries. As we get ready for Alex's move to Fresno (July 7), mine and Olivia's move to my parents' temporarily (July 12), our wedding (September 17) and then Olivia and my move to Fresno (sometime after that :)) I have lists going through my head constantly. Add to that a few family vacations and fun little outings and every day seems like it's bursting at the seams. I don't know how Olivia finds time in our hectic schedule to learn everything, but Alex and I are constantly surprised by the new things she learns and does. The second week in June was a good representation of our life these days, so here's a few pictures from that week.

Monday started out fairly slow, except for the fact that Olivia was especially clingy. This isn't typical, but every few days she seems to have at least a few hours where she needs her mommy, and I can't say that I mind terribly. Overall she's an extremely indepedent kid, so I take advantage of the little snuggly time that I get. In the evening we noticed that she had a little bit of eye gunk, and her last nap was disrupted by a few bouts of coughing. That was my first warning sign, but little colds and coughs are fairly common, we don't try especially hard to keep Olivia away from normal germs. We did go swimming in the afternoon at te pool in our apartment complex, and it was fun to see Olivia get acclamated to the water. She's always hesitant at first, but after about 15 minutes she was splashing tons, and she especially enjoyed being thrown into the air and coming down into the water, making her feet splash her daddy. Have I mentioned lately what a great dad Alex is?

Tuesday morning when O woke up she was just sad, and I could see why when I picked her up and saw that her eyes were lined with redness and the gunk had almost kept them shut. That paired with a low grade fever and continued coughing, and I was fairly certain we were experiencing our first case of pink eye. We wisked her off to the doctor, and my suspicions were confirmed. We did get to find out that she was 15 lb 8 oz, and the doctor was amazed to learn how good she was getting at walking (with hand-holding of course).

After leaving the doctor, we had to drop off the prescription and wait 20 minutes for it to be filled, so I decided to take that opportunity to have our first mommy-and-me date. We went across the street to Yogurt Extreme and shared a treat that we both enjoy! I think I've created a monster because Olivia LOVES to share grown-up food and won't stop asking until the food is completely gone, even if it's something she doesn't really like (soda - yes I let her have a few sips... and lemon slices). In this case, she had fun at the yogurt counter where I chose some things to add to our vanilla yogurt, and was only slightly impatient while I buckled her in. W had fun on our first date, and I'm looking forward to future haircuts, pedicures, and shopping trips, as well as the occasional treat of course!

Wednesday we found out two things about Olivia. 1. She loves eye drops. Most kids fight drops at least by squirming, if not screaming and flailing (like at least one of Olivia cousins :) ). Olivia, however, lays perfectly still, open eyes, waiting for the drop. After the first one she squints hard, wrinkles her nose, and laughs! Then she opens her eyes and waits for the next one. Alex and I were cracking up as we gave her her first doses of antibiotics. I have to imagine that the eye drops she was given are different from the eye-burning, terrible ones I remember from my childhood (did I mention that I was definitely a squirmer?)

The second thing we learned about Olivia is how much she loves the mirror. I've posted other videos and pictures in the past about her mirror adventures, but they've always been with us because our only mirrors are on the wall pretty high. Recently we bought a mirror to put in the car so we can see her face and talk to her while she's in a rear-facing carseat. We got it out of the plastic on Monday, and let her play with it for a few minutes. She rolled right over to it, smiled at herself, and then proceeded to give herself kisses :) (NOTE: video missing...my computer won't upload videos to Blogger at the moment). I captured this picture, and an adorable video that I will add at some point in the near future.

Thursday was a big day for Alex, as he had 2 interviews. He's been interviewing for athletic ticket office positions for just about a year, and has been in the top two or three considered in multiple cases, but was still looking for a job. In the meantime, he was working at Michaels Craft Store, which was not ideal (I won't lie, I enjoyed the employee discount). On Thursday Alex interviewed with Fresno State and Middle Tennessee State. We were very optimistic, but also nervous, because the soft deadline of our wedding is soft approaching, and we were unsure what we would do job-wise after that.

Thursday for Olivia was also an adventure, as we tried a new snack technique. I personally don't suggest this technique to ANYONE, but for some reason I thought it would be smart to just strip Olivia down to her diaper, put her on a changing pad (lovely gift from Rick and Shirley - THANK YOU) and let her have her snack, a couple graham crackers and some apple in a teether. This was not a successful venture. The mess was unbelievable, and we ended up just throwing her into the bath, because we had no idea how else she was going to get clean. I took a few pictures to remember this technique, and now we put her in her high chair with a bib, like most responsible parents I know :).

Friday was a HUGE day for our family! Alex got a call in the afternoon offering him the position at Fresno State, which he starts on July 11. Needless to say, we had an impromptu dance party (which only Olivia and I participated in). I don't have any pictures, but I can't say how proud of him I am, and how excited I am that he has a job that is exactly what he wants, and a fairly close distance to family in Oregon. We'll have adjustments to make, as we have our first holidays without family and aren't able to just head up to see people whenever we want, but I know this will strengthen our little family, and will make us appreciate the awesome families we have even more.

On Saturday, Gary, Mary, and Ashley came down to help Andy move back home for the summer, so we were able to enjoy some time with them and go out for lunch. Olivia loves to see her Casqueiro family, and especially enjoys when we go out because she gets to try new foods! This time we were at Baja Fresh, so she got to try lime (not-so-much), guacamole (unsure at first, but then she seemed to like it), and ranch (a favorite, of course).

On Sunday afternoons we usually head to Philomath for dinner with the Johnson family. It's usually just dinner and maybe a game, and we try to get back before Olivia's bedtime, so we're not there all that long. This particular Sunday, however, was a major milestone for a certain 7-month-old, as she crawled for the first time! It was short, a short trip crawling until she got close enough to what she wanted that she could dive into a faceplant for it, but it was a definite crawl, and we got a little repeat performance to make sure it was real! I took about a hundred pictures trying to get an action shot, but Olivia's always a little camera shy with her new skills, so this one was the best I got.

Whew! That was a whirlwind week. It's pretty typical for us lately, and although I won't document every day in quite this magnitude, I assure you that every week is just as busy with trips and discoveries and accomplishments. I love my life (total cheese I know, but also true) and am enjoying every minute of the scurrying that has become motherhood.

Closing with an adorable picture of Olivia's 2nd ponytail (if you look closely you can see the hair coming out the top :) )

June!

2011-06-05T14:06:00.000-07:00

We spent the first weekend in June (yes I'm blogging in the current month now :) almost caught up!) in Keizer with the fam, and we were lucky enough to get to watch one of Tyler's teeball games! I totally miss kids sporting events, and can't wait until we get to experience them ourselves in a few years. It was a blast to cheer on these little boys as they honed their skills! Olivia wasn't entirely focused on the baseball, but was enjoying the sun, and got to ride Toby again, so that was fun!

She also spent a good amount of time demonstrating her new skill of walking! Totally unbalanced, and she's not very close to walking on her own, but she loves to stand up, and any time you grab her hands she will use them to pull herself up and go wherever she wants! She hasn't figured out crawling yet, but she's getting close and is definitely more mobile each day.

After teeball we ran a few errands, and ended up at Gary and Mary's for some relaxing time before heading home. At Target I picked up some hair ties to try a ponytail in Olivia's hair, and this was a little unsuccessful (I wasn't as willing to let her scream at her Grandparents' house as I am at ours...) but it was still super cute and I love the curl that her hair does!

She never really fell in love with the ponytail, but she stopped whining after a few minutes, and tolerated it until it just started falling out. Next time we will use a comb and hair spray to get it to last longer.
This is my favorite part of ponytails...the resulting mohawk when it's pulled out. I don't know if this is typical, but Olivia's hair will stay in a mohawk until it's washed or combed while wet. I should care more I guess, but I don't so I just let it stay until her next bath :)

Although hers isn't natural, I like to think that Olivia's taking after her cousin Teag, who has had a mohawk since he was born :)

We enjoyed a nice relaxing weekend in Keizer, and then went home to continue our craziness as I finished my last finals and assignments before summer!

May Happenings

2011-05-30T22:42:00.000-07:00

Before I write about May, I have exciting news! Alex got a job at Fresno State University for the next school year, so we are moving down to Fresno! There's sad things about it (being so far away from family and friends) but we are both very excited that he was able to get into the field that he wants to be in after a long job search. The next picture shows the reason that I am so excited for him...

Yes, that's Alex asleep midway through checking his email one day after work. At his last job he often worked starting at five, and once a week he worked from 3AM til 10AM, which was especially hard because when he got home I'd be ready with a list of to-dos and activities for the day. It will be hard for him to be away all day every day, but great to have a normal schedule that's consistent. Alex will move down the first week in July, and I'll stay up here to finish wedding planning and move down in September after we get married.

Anyway, on to May! I'm cheating for this post because I'm trying desperately to get caught up on the blog before Monday when we leave for a vacation in VEGAS :) so I'm throwing all of this out there, making this a horribly long post...

We've been having a lot of food introducing Olivia to new foods. She turned seven months old at the end of May, so that whole month was full of trying new drinks, and a few things like crackers that she was able to gum. One of the first things she had was water out of a straw, and I was so impressed that a few days later I wanted to see if she could do a repeat performance with Orange Julius. She did get some, and I got some drool added to my drink, so I guess we both benefited :). She's alwas surprised when she gets something from the straw, I think because she's just chewing and sucking like she does with every toy.

The month of May was full of many nights of invitation preparation. On the 8th all of my girl-friends got together to help me assemble them, so that week Alex an I had a lot of cutting and scoring to get ready for the assembly party. Alex was great and never complained once, even though I insisted that he measure everything and make it perfect :) The invitations have since been mailed, and what a relief!

May 8th was my first Mother's Day. It was amazing! Started off with Alex (like every day actually) getting up with Olivia at 7 so I could get one more hour of sleep...I claim that it's to make up for the 5 o'clock feeding, but it's really great to get that hour, it makes the world of difference. I woke up to the smell of pancakes and was surprised with breakfast in bed! I shared a little with Olivia, and I apologize for my face in this picture, but I always pick the best one of Olivia because she's so much cuter than me anyway!

Alex (or Olivia I guess :) ) got me a jogging stroller and a workout DVD that I've been wanting, and I was so thrilled because a jogging stroller is a splurge that I've really wanted for a while, but have a hard time commiting to spend the money for. He shopped around and ended up getting a great one on Craigslist!

Later that day we went to my parent's house for Mother's Day dinner (the Casqueiros were having a horrible time in Hawaii that week :) ) Olivia's favorite thing about going to my parents' is playing with the kitty. Her Grandpa Gary ...or one of them...always takes her out, and it's really fun to watch her reach for the cat and test her patience for having her fur pulled.

We tried to take some 4 generation pictures while our grandparents were over, and our camera only decided to save one side, it was having battery issues. But it just reminds me how lucky Olivia is to have 6 great grandparents that she knows and that have been able to meet her. I love my grandparents and know that there's no better people for Olivia to remember and try to be like as she grows up.

On May 12th we took Olivia swimming for the first time at Osborn Aquatic Center! As with most new experiences, she took it in stride, but was very quiet and mostly was content to watch the other kids splash and play. Towards the end she started really having fun, and was fine with getting water in her face and eyes, but hadn't quite mastered the art of splashing :).

Another new skill during her seventh month is standing! She doesn't pull herself up yet, but loves to stand up and see the world from a new angle! Coincidentally, she also loves to fall, and while I'm rushing over to help she's usually laying on the ground laughing. This picture is the first time that she truly stood up by herself on the side of the couch.

And later that day she demonstrated how NOT hard standing is when she was in her crib holding herself steady with one hand and playing with her wocket with the other. That's how rolling, sitting and standing have all been, she acts like it's no big deal and she could have done it months ago she just didn't have a reason to show us!

I don't really know why I took this picture, but when it's big I just love looking at her eyes. She has the most beautiful clear blue eyes (thanks Grandma Mary and Grandpa Gary J!), and as someone with brown eyes who always wanted blue, I now know what I was jealous of for so many years!

On the 22nd the Casqueiros came down to visit and they brought Olivia some big-girl toys they were storing at their house when she was too little. Let me just tell you, she had a blast. She's still a little small for her rocking horse and walker, but she loves sitting on them, and I'm sure she'll be rocking away soon!

I just threw this picture in because I LOVE these pjs! They're gray and white polka dot with a cow hat :) SO cute! They were a gift, and it just reminds me how amazing all of our friends and family have been. We'll be pulling out gifted clothes and toys for the next year as Olivia grows, and we know that so many people are here that love Olivia and are so helpful to us. We have more babysitting offers that I know what to do with, and really enjoy seeing our friends and family as often as we can. THANK YOU ALL!!

In the middle of May some of the Casqueiro women went on a shopping trip to Portland, and Olivia and I had a blast! I personally am not a shopper, and usually don't enjoy shopping all that much, but it's very fun with my new family :) (Don't worry old family, it's fun with you too, you just all moved away from me...so I've replaced you in the shopping department :) ) I didn't take any pictures of the group or the spoils, but Olivia did have her first soda on this trip, so I documented that!

and trying lemon :) not the first time, and I know if I were a nice mom I would stop giving it to her, but I love her face, and her determined attitude to eat it even if it's not at all enjoyable.

Another thing Olivia has discovered this month is the window. She's always been enamored with the trees and birds and everything else that moves outside, but her newfound mobility allows her the freedom to roll right up to the window and/or screen and get closer to outside than every before! On this particular occasion she rolled across the entire living room to get there and watch the tractor that was mowing the field behind our apartment :).

On May 28th Olivia turned 7 months old! I tried my hardes to get some good pictures to document the occasion, and following is a few of my attempts. We were having an off day with the photo shoot, but Olivia is truly beautiful no matter what awkward moments we happen to capture ...

On May 29th Alex and I had our first night without Olivia. We decided to do a trial run because the third week in June we will be in Las Vegas and will be leaving her with my parents, so we left her at my parents' for one night to practice (My mom has asked a few times, but the practice was definitely for me and not her :) She has a childcare resume longer than I can imagine, and we all turned out relatively normal) So we went over there for dinner on Sunday, brought WAY more things than she could ever need - including a one-page sheet of instructions about her daily routine - and left to enjoy our night away! We went to the movies and had a very relaxing night. I have to admit that one night away was easy for me! I thought it would be really hard and I would wake up worried about her, but I totally trust my parents and we really did enjoy our night out. Thank you mom and dad!

So that takes us to Memorial Day. We went out to Grandma and Grandpa Romrell's for dinner, and it was so fun to watch Olivia and Matthew play together! They've been together before, but as they both get older (he's 11 months now) and learn to play and push and steal pacifiers, they become even more fun to watch.

Here's a few pictures from the evening of the two of them together :) First, Olivia enjoying her first corn on the cob

And Matthew with his lime (he ate about 5 of them throughout the evening :) )

some minor strangulation as Matthew tries to get Olivia's plug (I didn't capture her with his, but she was found twice with it, so this moment was deserved)

And that just about does it! I managed to complete a month's worth of posts in about an hour! Just a couple more to go to reach my goal of being caught up before Vegas (only 3 days!)

Engagement Pics

2011-05-01T12:03:00.000-07:00

On May 1st we went out with Alex's cousin Danielle to take our engagement pictures. She was totally amazing, and knew all the right poses to try, while also indulging me in my weird ideas...We took couple shots, family shots, and some of just Olivia (guess which category were the easiest to get good ones :) ), and we were out photo-ing for about 4 hours (maybe more I can't remember). Here are a few good ones and some not-so-good ones, but I want to stress that the good far outweighed the bad, and you can see that it was subject error on the weird shots...I'm not the most photogenic person...

and lunch at Mongolian Grill...one of Olivia's first lemons...

sorry about the last one...HORRIBLE picture but something about it just feels like Alex and I :)

Anyway, THANK YOU so much Danielle, you are awesome and your photography skills cannot beat!

Moms Weekend

2011-04-30T18:38:00.000-07:00

April 30th was Mom's weekend, and Alex and I still got to be involved even though neither one of us is at OSU :). Mary came down for the weekend, and we had a very fun time. Here's Olivia doing her morning workout to prepare for the vigorous activities we would complete throughout the day...

Picture out of order: This is Olivia's first fortune cookie! I personally think fortune cookies are the best part about Oriental food. That's not to say that I don't like that food, I just really love fortune cookies, and have been known to steal 2 or 3 every time I go. I was excited to let Olivia knaw down on one, and she did great! Some minor hacking and choking, but we've since learned that choking is a normal part of kids learning to eat people food, so it's all good!

The spring football game was that afternoon, and Gary came down for the festivities! I can't say the football was amazing, but it was great to see it after 5 long months, and I can't wait for football season this fall! Here's a not-so-great family pic...but it works! Just FYI, I'm wearing my Moby wrap...the best invention EVER for women carrying a baby. It just feels like you're pregnant again, but you can take it off!

After walking through the street fair on campus, we were all parched and decided to meet Gene, Ali, and Max for a drink. Olivia had her first straw-drinking experience here, and coincidentally her first bar experience! It was the daytime, so minors are allowed, but we went to Clod's, so it's technically a bar (also my first bar experience...). Just in case you're wondering, this is water :)

After drinks we went and chilled out at Andy's house until an awesome comedy show that night. I was really impressed with the caliber of comedians that OSU can pull in!

I really had a great weekend, and it was fun to just hang out on campus and feel like a college student again!

6 month pictures

2011-04-29T18:54:00.000-07:00

Warning: this post contains pictures that I did not pay for. I did pay for the first ones, and will delete these after people have looked at them, but I couldn't resist posting all of the wonderful pics that we got! If you feel that this is wrong please feel free to skip this post... :)

The day before Olivia's 6 month birthday we went to Sears to get some professional photos taken. I know that I take pretty good pictures, but I am still sold on getting professional ones every 6 months or so because of the difference in quality. The shoot was successful, which is a HUGE understatement, and all of these pictures were taken in less than half an hour. Olivia was totally hamming it up, just turning and smiling every time we put her in a new pose. Alex and I were sitting on either side of her on drool duty, which was an important job because we had to be fast in order for her outfits to stay dry!

Anyway, here goes! First, the pictures that we couldn't resist buying some of. Let me know if you want a wallet...we have a few left over!

Now the copyrighted pics...

We took some family photos, but Alex and I weren't planning on taking any, so my hair isn't done and they didn't turn out super great

And the pics of Olivia... she did so great! We really didn't have to do any pose twice, I can't tell you how easy this was! MUCH more successful than her 1 month pics :)

Standing with any sort of balance was very new, but we did it anyway, and she made it look easy!

Outfit change! These pictures are courtesy of Niki and her wonderful bow and tutu mix! Olivia was having a great time playing with the tutu, we had a hard time getting her to let go :)

Outfit change #2! This was the photographer's idea (I'm not super big on naked pictures) but I'm so glad we went along with it because they turned out great! At this point Olivia was pretty hungry, but she did her job and posed for 4 quick pictures before she could get dressed and fed again.

And that's a wrap for the illegal pictures! I hope you enjoy them as much as I do, everytime I look at Olivia or these pictures I can't believe how half of that came from me! :) She is so beautiful, I just really enjoy looking at her and watching her grow.

1/2 Birthday

2011-04-28T11:21:00.000-07:00

On April 28th, Olivia turned sic months old! She learned many new skills during her sixth month, and grew quite a lot!

Stats: Height - 26.25" (70th percentile)
Weight - 14 lb 15 oz (30th percentile)
Head Circumfrence - 42.5 cm (53rd percentile)

While at the doctor, she also got her six month shots, and I was very glad to have Alex there. Olivia does really well, but the speed of the shots varies a lot depending on the nurse, so it was hard for me to see her suffer for longer than other times. Our pediatrician (whom we LOVE, ask me about him if you want the best ped. in Corvallis) also said to let loose with the solids, and said she should be eating two servings of vegetables, one of fruit, and one of meat every day, along with the rice cereal we were already giving her. This has been kind of exciting, and despite the solid food poop (sorry if that's TMI), we enjoy giving Olivia three meals a day that consist of more than milk and cereal.

The only two foods that Olivia's not thrilled about are green beans and green peas. Quite frankly, I don't blame her because the baby food version of these foods are overcooked and smell nasty (I haven't ventured into tasting most of the foods...) so we steer clear of them. Don't get me wrong, she'll be eating them when it's real vegetables, but I'm giving her a pass on the baby food version.

We have a few pictures to show the milestones that Olivia reached during april:

first is the ability to pull things where she wants them. This seems simple, but Olivia's really doing a lot better with her hand control, and this skill was demonstrated one afternoon during nap-time. I put her down awake, as I've been trying to do more and more, so I just laid her down and put the pink blanket over her. I could see as I left that she had kicked the pink blanket almost off, but I always let her whine and squirm for a few minutes before I go back in to soothe and recover. She only whined for a minute or so, then she was silent, and when I went back in to put the blanket back on, this is what I saw:

The brown blanket had been above her head, waiting to get washed. Yes, I know you're not supposed to have too many things in the bed, but I let that one slip :). I thought it was so cute that she solved her own blanket problem so she could go to sleep!

Next skill: SITTING on her own!! This was such a surprise, because Olivia just started rolling over a few days before she turned 5 months. However, rolling was WAY too easy when she started doing it, and she's strong enough to do whatever she wants. Anyway, in the middle of April, she started sitting up by herself, and within a week was leaning to pick up things without falling over! She rarely falls, but when she does I always jump up to help before realizing that she fell on purpose and is laying on the ground laughing :). She's a daredevil, that's for sure. She has a few bumps and bruises from her different adventures, but she's loving the freedom that sitting by herself has provided.

Oh and the cans are from a recent workout...I was doing an aerobics workout with weights, and the TV instructor said to find a can that was quite a bit lighter than your weight so that the different arms had different weights (long story...). Olivia was jealous of the toys that I got to use, so I got her a couple of her own! She was a little possessive of those refried beans and corn, I think she'll be a Mexican food junkie like her dad when she gets bigger.

And an update on the diva-ness from last month...still exists! Olivia loves to play with mommy's shoes, clothes, and mostly sunglasses. I think she looks quite dashing! And not cross-eyed, that's just the look because the glasses are a touch too big :)

Olivia loves her cousins. The Easter post showed her with Tyler and Aiden, Nick, Danielle, Ruby, and Hallie, but she loves them all. I feel so lucky to have so many cousins, both kids and adults, that look after and play with Olivia. I hope that she knows all of her cousins on both sides and continues to play with them forever! (Oh and I'm SO excited for the baby group on my side,

Olivia will have such fun playing with Matthew, Teagen, Amelia, Baby Meacham, and Baby Johnson...WHEW that's quite a group!)

This picture is of a cousin bonding moment with Max (the FIRST cousin to hold her) and Olivia. I missed the moment, but thanks to Danielle for capturing it for me!

Olivia also got to meet her friend Gracie Dibble this month! They don't know it yet, but they will grow up to be best friends, as Grace's mom Ashley and I are quite sure :). Olivia was just enamored with this new baby, and I'm so excited to let them play more this summer!

Official six month photos still to come!

April happenings

2011-04-27T11:24:00.000-07:00

April began with a bang as Olivia and I went with my parents to the NCAA Regional Gymnastics meet at OSU. Olivia was much more interested in the band than the gymnastics, but it was very fun and It was fun watching her interest in the band and the two babies (much smaller than she ever was :) ) sitting near us.

Gma Johnson, Gpa Johnson, and Olivia all watching the band

The next weekend (4/8) our little family packed up and headed up to Keizer for the weekend. Here's a couple pictures from that night. First, they let Olivia look at some pictures of herself, and this picture doesn't show, but she was super excited...not sure if it was the potential to eat the phone or looking at her picture, but excited none-the-less.

I'm not sure how the conversation went here, but we were trying to figure out what Olivia would look like with a full head of hair, and so the toupee of Danielle's hair came into play :)

The next morning I had my most wonderful garage-saling experience EVER! The Blanchet School in Salem has a twice-yearly Babies and Bumps sale, which is the entire gym filled with different families selling clothes from maternity through childrens. TONS of baby clothes, and all at garage sale prices! I spent a bit of money, but got awesome clothes for Olivia, and found quite a few books as well!

The next weekend was in Keizer as well. We realized after April that we had gone up almost every weekend for two months, but we got a lot done, and it was GREAT to see the Salem family so much! Anyway, over the 16th and that weekend Rick and Shirley were up, so we had a Casqueiro get-together to celebrate! It was the first time Rick and Shirley met Olivia, and my lame camera-ness failed to take any pictures! I'm hoping that someone else got some...but we did get some great cousin pictures of Tyler and Aiden playing with Olivia. They are great cousins, and they are so sweet to play with her, even though all she wants to do is eat their toys!

Olivia also wanted to show off her newly developed sitting skills for everyone! Olivia started sitting up by herself on the 9th, and by the 15th was really sturdy. She showed that, like rolling, she waited until it was easy peasy to show her new skill to us.

Successfully eating her first people food! Technically she's had bites of other foods, but this was the first food she ate that wasn't placed in her mouth. She knawed on that orange for a good five mintes, thoroughly soaking herself and Nick in orangy-spit :)

Update news...I have been missing for about a month while I finished up school, but plan to get caught up before going to Vegas on the 20th!

Easter (times 2)

2011-04-26T22:26:00.000-07:00

Most holidays at our house get repeated. We have a lot of family pretty close, and we are lucky enough to have families that love to hang out together, so we do a lot of driving between Keizer and Philomath, enjoying all holidays to the max!

Easter was no different, and we started it Saturday morning decorating eggs at my parents' house. This was the first year that we didn't hunt for eggs, but there was no kids to find them, and it's just not the same with all grown-ups! It's important to note also that the 4.5 dozen eggs shown here is the smalles number I ever remember making, good job MOM!

I wanted Olivia to help with the decorating, so I gave her an egg and a crayon...needless to say she enjoyed the egg more than the crayon :). For the record, the egg was not peeled, and we were keeping a very good watch on her!

After eggs, I wanted to take some pictures of Olivia with my mom's beautiful tulips, so we went outside to the deceivingly cool spring weather. I just have such a beautiful daughter I couldn't help but post quite a few pictures...every one I took was great!

The next morning we headed to Keizer for Easter with Alex's family! In the morning we headed to Jim and Kathy's, and were wonderfully surprised by this adorable adirondack chair for Olivia and a super cute little bunny from Jim and Kathy, as well as these bunny ears from Danielle...Thank you! She was having a blast sitting all by herself, and loves her chair. I love the bunny ears, they are just so cute!

Olivia loves her aunt Ashley and uncle Andy :)

Super ladylike position :)

It was really fun watchin Ruby and Olivia playing, here is Debi "introducing" them :) It's really interesting to me that babies can sniff out other kids, and that they like them so much better than other people!

Peek-a-boo! It was one-handed, because Ruby wanted to see Olivia's face the whole time...

Grandpa Gary on baby duty! Olivia's favorite game is to take every toy that's around her and throw it, so she's always glad to have Grandpa around to give them back to her!

Ruby wasn't all that thrilled about Olivia's drooling all over, so partway through the afternoon she put herself on drool duty, and spent about 15 minutes with the burp cloth on hand, mopping up Olivia every time she was about to leak.

Story time! I couldn't resist this picture perfect moment between Aunt Wesley and Ruby!

Hallie caught this moment :) Olivia's all smiles hanging out with her family, and thoroughly enjoys the extra attention she gets!

Needless to say, we had a great Easter, and can't wait to see family again soon! This concluded our marathon of going to Keizer almost every weekend, and was just 4 days before Olivia was officially 6 months old!

Preview: next post we'll look at all the new skills Olivia developed during her sixth month!

5 months!

2011-03-28T22:07:00.000-07:00

Warning: this post is full of not-so-cute pictures. Don't get me wrong, Olivia is the most beautiful little girl I know, and she is no less cute in her 5th month than any other time. However, I was not so good at capturing her cuteness on her 5th birthday. This one's on me ;)

A couple days before Oliva turned 5 months, I was able to show a whole bunch of family and friends my wedding dress. I had a blast, and was so glad to share the experience with the people I love. I won't show any pictures, because I'm not showing Alex the dress early, but I did capture a picture of Tyler and Aiden with Olivia. Her two cousins are so sweet to play with her even though she can't play like they want yet. I'm very excited for her to grow up playing with these fun cousins!

And...the 5 month pictures. Olivia really didn't want to make it to 5 months without rolling over consistently, but she was sassy and waited til the very last day before rolling over and over and over...proving that she was plenty strong. During her 5th month she also really has been working on her grasping technique, and her rolling over was instigated by a toy just out of reach :).

I don't have her height/weight from this month, but she's growing like a weed! Already in 6 month clothes (since just after 4 months), and her feet aren't fitting in any of her socks anymore.

Olivia started eating real food this month, and so far has loved everything. Green beans didn't go over so well, but she tries everything and is a great eater. So far we have been mixing fruits and some vegetables with rice cereal, and interchanging milk with food for the daily meals. This new schedule has really helped her sleeping! (and her mom's sleeping)

So here's the 5 month pictures. Her outfit was my splurge for the month. I've always loved sailor outfits, and I found this super cute sailor dress on sale. Even though her drawers are busting at the seams, We came hom with a new outfit, and I don't regret it :)

The great smiles are because of her dad making funny noises :)

I also included a couple pictures of O interacting with us throughout the night. She's become quite enamored with faces, and although she's still working at grabbing what she means to grab, she always finds mouths pretty well :) And the picture with her daddy speaks for itself!

The last pictures are the funny ones. I'm sure in about 12 years I'll get in trouble for including these pictures, but They really show the funny side of Olivia's personality.

This hat is so adorable, the pictures truly don't do it justice. This was officially the first accessory that Olivia had to find clothes to match (but honestly, how many times have you done that? For me...lots) :) It was a gift from Rick and Shirley, and I love going on walks and going outside where we have an excuse to put it on, even though I'm sure it will fit better in the fall. Alex says right now it looks a little like a helmet, but I just think it's the cutest helmet I've ever seen!

Casqueiro Get-Together (#1)

2011-03-25T23:15:00.000-07:00

During the month of March and early April, our family spent a lot of time in Salem. In fact, 6 or 7 weekends in a row we at least made an appearance at the Casqueiro house, and most of those we spent a night. It was a lot of driving, but totally worth it. I love spending time with family, and am so excited for the Casqueiros to be officially family later this year.

On March 25th, Andy and Danielle planned a Casqueiro pizza party during spring break, because we really haven't spent a lot of time together recently. A few weeks later we got together again, but that's another day and a whole new post I'm sure. Here's a few pictures from that weekend (I say few but I've been uploading them for 20 minutes so hunker down and get ready :) )

This is what I came downstairs to Saturday morning. It's so awesome to have family who is so anxious to play with Olivia that they will do it even in the early morning when I'd rather be sleeping!

Olivia loves her Casqueiro family, and I loved this picture of Mary playing some rendition of Peek-a-boo...

Tasha this one's for you...we stopped that potential habit in a hurry, but I did catch Olivia sucking her 3rd and 4th fingers just like her Aunt Tashie :)

This picture should have been taken at a better angle, but it's Olivia sitting up on the super high ledge at Gary and Mary's house...Thanks Alex!

Now comes all the pictures with different people at Jim and Kathy's that night...I apologize that some are sidewards (yes I know that's not a word...it's a Johnson word) but I'm just slightly lazy and will fix them when I get caught up with the posts...

Michelle...

Janet...

Janet and the boys... I love this picture!

This should have been at the end, but there was a huge beer pong tournament the next day, so some last minute practices took place during the evening (never having played beer pong I thought all the rules were very interesting!). I'll have to try someday with lemonade or water or something :)

After we had hung out for a little while, we sent Andy and Max to get just a few pizzas to get us through :)...I missed the next part, but Max had all his pockets full or parmesean cheese and red pepper packets.

Olivia with Uncle Jimmy - he had a funny animal noise that she absolutely loved. I want to say turkey, but some Casqueiro please correct me if I'm wrong! It didn't matter where she was looking, as soon as he started that noise she'd turn and start laughing :)

First "ride" on an animal! Thanks Toby for being so patient...

Danielle and Todd... it's been really fun to learn what Livy (we're trying out the nickname...what do you think?) likes and dislikes...in this case you can see 3 likes: 1: Danielle...need I say more? 2: Todd, and actually men in general. She's kind of a flirt most of the time, including (and the funniest situation) at the doctors :) 3. Beer bottles. This was her first experience with a beer bottle, and hearing Todd blow into it was fun, but in the next few weeks she learned a little more, and we'll go into that later!

Ali...

Later on in the evening, we were all hanging out playing and talking (if I remember right most of the men were in the other room with the big TV and the women were in here with the kids...) and we were able to get some cute cousin pictures.

We got Grandma Janet with all the kids earlier, and I just realized that we got Grandma Mary with all the kids here... :) just makes me smile because I love family (actually going through all these pictures is making me miss my own siblings and cousins...why can't you live closer so we can have pizza nights?)

Uncle Andy...

Oh! I almost forgot this mini photo shoot. Mini photo shoots happen at least once a week, but this one was especially cute. Niki made Olivia a super cute tutu and bow in our wedding colors, and she gave it to us at this party. It was too cute not to try it on, and once the outfit goes on, so do all the cameras, so we decided to have a little photo shoot.

This just might be my favorite "mommy and me" photo so far. I was just changing her diaper, but thanks Danielle (or whoever had my camera if it wasn't D) for taking this shot. I love her hands and feet up against me :)

After the diaper change, pictures didn't go so well. Someday O will hate me for including all the embarassing pictures, but I love them almost as much as the smiling ones, so here goes :) First up, possessed baby (Alex says it should be called "one too many")

Next, "It's a bird! It's a plane!"

And that concludes our photo shoot. Here's what my better half was doing to help me out during all this! :) (JK I love you babe)

I tried to take advantage of Alex's nap to have him put O to sleep (it was well past her bedtime at this point) but she only succeeded in putting her dad to sleep, then we found her just hanging out waiting for something fun to happen.

And that concludes Friday night! I have some editing to do of pics before I post about the next morning...so we'll see how many weeks go by before I get that done!

March was a short month with lots of pictures...

2011-03-19T19:56:00.000-07:00

March was a very busy month. I should have written all of this when it happened, but since I didn't...I just have a whole bunch of cute pictures!

Here's Olivia with Aunt Jenaye before we went to a baby shower!

The next day (yes same bow but I just love it! - Thanks Kathy!) Alex's family came down for a visit, and Olivia had a fun time climbing all over them!

I really like these pictures of Olivia discovering the remote...As soon as she figured it out, it's been one of her favorite toys! I only let her play with it when the TV is off...she has a knack for finding the volume up, delete, and power off buttons!

This was an impromptu photo shoot (Alex loved it :) ) because Olivia got dressed for the first time in a few days, and I just couldn't get over how cute she was!

whew! she was pooped!

Alex and I decided to go on a date...alone! Olivia was really broken up about being left, as you can see by the picture...

This was the first time we'd left her (though we've left her lots since then), so I had to take a picture of us leaving to celebrate as well!

This next picture represents a multitude of times that I have heard Olivia whining in the backseat, ignored her (or reached back blindly with a pacifier), and finished my drive home. Often I open the backseat to find this, and realize that I should have paid better attention to her! My obsession with hair bows has caused some vision problems, but apparently if she's tired enough she's still able to go to sleep!

On March 19th, I went wedding dress shopping. Alex and his dad kept the baby, and Mary, Ashley, my grandma, my mom, and Jenaye went with me for 5 hours of trying on dress after dress. I can honestly say that they don't look alike, but I'm very grateful for the company I had and their dedication to helping me! I didn't think ahead, so we didn't take a group picture, but thanks to walls of mirrors, I was able to find a reflection of all the major players! I also included the best butt picture from that day (no it's not THE dress...no pics of that until after the wedding!)

That's all of March until the Spring Break Casqueiro Get-together! More to come later...

Disneyland day 3 and 4

2011-03-05T21:20:00.000-08:00

Here's the 3rd and 4th days we spent at Disneyland. I really can't say enough times how much fun I had. It was awesome to be with my entire family, and to realize what a big group we are! I'll brag a little and say I don't know any family as funny as mine, and we are just a weird bunch! On day three, we started the day in Disneyland, but we hadn't experienced California Adventure yet, so at 10 when it opened we ran over there. I also went at this point to rescue my phone that I had lost the day before. Disneyland has an awesome lost and found, and gave me my phone even though I couldn't tell them what brand it was :) (Just my quick kudos to them...)

But I'll start at the beginning. I'm a couple months behind writing this, so I'm going to try my best to document everything that I can remember. That morning we used our early morning pass, and most of the family went at 8 in the morning. Alex and I were not that ambitious, but did go at about 9, when the park was opening for real. We were feeling the lack of sleep at that point, so we just took our time getting everything together. However, when we got there we didn't waste any time, and left Olivia with my mom so we could go on Astroblasters. After I WHOOPED Alex at that video-game ride (I'll just throw in that I have played Alex in video games exactly 2 times, and have beat him both times! - the other was ncaa football...patting myself on the back) we came out to realize that the entire family had gone on to California Adventure without us! That was totally fine, but it was the first time Olivia spent any time with someone else ... nervous mommy moment! We had left her while going on other rides, but I don't count that.

So back to California Adventure. Our very first ride was Grizzly River Run, which was a blast, but meant that we all had wet feet, hair, and bodies in general for a better part of the day. Amber was smart and brought ponchos for all of us to wear, but some members of our family (Alex and Ben) had to prove their manliness, so they declined the offered ponchos and regretted it :). I'm not going to go into detail about every ride we did, but we had a very fun morning that included our first complete family picture in a very long time! (I don't have that picture and forgot to get it...oops!) Just after lunch, the most brave of our family members decided to ride the Tower of Terror. I'm included in this group, and surprised myself with my courageous spirit! However, I had a great time, and this is a pic of a pic that they try to sell you...I'm cheap! My favorite part of that picture - Kade NOT having a good time and half of our group trying to console him! He was a good sport, but is not quite the adventurous child that Maely is!

Sometime that afternoon we were all standing around and Teagen was having very thought-provoking dreams. I just love these pictures of my super cute nephew, and am so excited to see him and all of my siblings again this fall. What a cutie!

Our family took advantage of the fast pass to go on Soarin' Over California, and Alex and I took our turn hanging out with the kids that were too little to ride this ride. This included Elli, Teag, and Olivia, and everyone was great, but Elli got a little bored. She loved playing on Alex's phone, and I love her concentrated gaze in this picture (she was playing a balloon popping game - supposed to be a speed game but she had to make sure she picked all the right ones! :) )

Soarin' was my favorite ride in CA Adventure (Indiana Jones takes that award in Disneyland). It's such an awesome feeling to be flying, and is very realistic. I'm not super thrilled with heights, so this was a stretch for me, but well worth it.

I know I'm missing things, but the next thing I remember that afternoon was going through this adventure-beaver-camping area (forget the name) that had trails, and obstacle course for kids, and this little zipline that Maely and Kade went on. Alex waited in this netted area for about 20 minutes so they could see him while they went...he looked very lonely up there

Here's just a funny picture...I don't know why but I totally love it. Nobody looks real great, but I thnk it shows the emotions of that day...total exhaustion from Elli, exhuberance and excitement from dad, confusion about surroundings from Olivia, and total suaveness from Alex (jk...i don't know what that face is)

The last few pictures from this day were taken in Paradise Pier, right after my near-break-down-crying-in-public moment. I later learned that it was almost the same time as Amber's moment of the same style, but at the time I was just beyond words. No real reason, just a combination of things that created a very bad moment. But Alex had just the right words and rushed me to a ride where I was able to have a blast and forget the whole thing! We went to the ferris wheel, which is the tallest I've ever been on, and was awesome! First comes our last attempt at a family picture at Disneyland. We never really got a good one, but I give us an A for effort...better luck next time I suppose!

We were riding with Elli and my dad, and as we got higher, Elli got more and more nervous. She kept asking how long til we went down, and didn't actually say she was scared, but did have a nervous habit of twirling her hair. It got faster and faster as we got higher, and I just missed getting it on film, but here's a cute pic of it!

That was the end of my day three pictures. We had dinner at Paradise Pier and then waited for the World of Color Presentation. Anyone planning a trip to Disneyland, World of Color is worth the hour long wait and standing for another hour. It's worth whatever it takes, it's truly impressive. I was ready to go home by the time it started, but I'm so glad my mom pushed for everyone to see it!

That also concludes my experience at Disneyland. I got pretty sick that night, and wasn't able to go the next day. Alex and Olivia went for part of the day, and my parents were able to get their grandkids picture...I wasn't there to get a blanket or a hair bow for Olivia, but oh well...Alex was awesome to take her with him, I really don't know if I could have taken care of her, and was glad to let him take her for part of the day while I recovered enough to fly home the next day!

Disneyland Day 2

2011-03-03T22:27:00.000-08:00

Day 2 of Disneyland was the first day that my entire family was together. Coincidentally, we started out on the same ride that began our Disneyland adventure the day before! When we got there Amber and I were both needing to feed the babies, so we sent the rest of the family to wait in the line. Disneyland does this awesome thing called babysitter passes, so when Dan and Alex got to the front of the line, they got these passes so that Amber and I could each take someone with us and go up the exit to avoid the line! So we left the babies with the family that had already been on the ride and we had a 3 minute long double date!

Ya I apologize for the multitude of chins...I'm not the best at taking self pictures (teach me your ways Candy!!) and every time I end up looking either in pain or like one big chin.

After the Matterhorn, we went on the Storybook Land boat ride. I'll note here that all together, we had 12 adults and 5 kids...The normal capacity for the boats is 8-10, but we squeezed and squished and had some quality bonding time with 17 in one boat! I don't have pictures of a lot of these things, but my two wonderful sisters have posted many pictures that I have stolen for myself :) - Thanks! -

After Storybook Land, we stretched Amber's level of comfort as we all went on the Teacups. I'm not a huge fan of the spinning, fair-like ride, but I felt extremely brave when listening to Amber! She refused to go on, and kept Olivia and Teag, but the rest of us went on, grouped into 3 groups (no spinning, little spinning, and spin like you WANT to be losing your lunch)

Little spinning group one: Dad, Jenaye, Alex, and Kade

Little spinning group two: Ben, Elli, Dan, and Maely

Spin like mad: Bryan, Mom, and Tasha - note that this is taken before the ride actually begins...they looked a little silly but they made the best of their time one the ride :)

Not pictured - no spinning group: Candy, Emily, and I

Next up on the list was It's a Small World. For those of you unfamiliar with this ride, it is a 20 minute, VERY slow boat ride through several rooms that represent all the lands around the world. Also, to make this ride even better, It's a Small World plays on repeat the ENTIRE time...needless to say, not my favorite ride, and Alex refused to go on it at all, but I ended up going on it this second time with most of our family.

I tried to take pictures inside the ride, but flash is not allowed, and they just don't turn out. However, one funny story came from the fact that Elli was always looking for princesses in the different scenes. Ten or so princesses are in the lands where you would find them (Lilo in Hawaii, Jasmine in Asia, Cinderella, Snow White, Ariel, Jessie, etc.) Whoever was sitting next to Elli had the job of pointing them all out and helping her find them. This time Elli was sitting with my dad, and he didn't realize that if you didn't see a princess, you had to make one up. At one point, Elli was complaining that she couldn't see anyone, so I just pointed to a girl dancing and said "Ooh it's cinderella practicing for the ball!" My dad looked at me and said quietly, "no it's not! I don't see her"... I had to coach him a little, but by the end of the ride, he was making up his own princesses too :)

One thing I was amazed about was how many rides babies can go on. Olivia was constantly in a state of information overload as we went on many rides with loud music, bright lights, and swift turns. Here's another attempt at a family picture on the Alice in Wonderland bug ride.

Just for the record, I don't know any of the official names of rides, but I hope my descriptive titles are good enough!

These pictures don't represent half of what we did that day. We also hit up the tiki room, Pirates of the Caribbean, Thunder Mountain Railroad, and pretty much ran around all day long in Disneyland. We wanted to do as much as possible so we could go to California Adventure the next day!

That night at dinner, my mom had made reservations at a barbeque place in Frontierville for us to make dinner. They had live entertainment of a lady singing familiar country songs, and had all-you-can-eat barbeque, corn, beans, and other down home food. It was really good, and it was nice to have our whole big group able to sit by each other! The waiter brought around 1st time buttons, which was cool for me, as it gave us a little momento for Olivia's first visit to Disneyland!

I didn't want to forget the amazingness of smart phones at disneyland. Dan and Alex both got an app about Disneyland that included wait times, a ride history, and other cool information. This is Dan checking out what we should do next...

After dinner, mom had ordered a 50th birthday cake for my dad, which was this huge cake in the shape of Mickey's head. I don't have any pics, but it was delicious, and I'm envious of whoever got to take the leftovers with them! I think I can honestly say this was the most fun birthday party I've every been to! (and the only one that lasted an entire week :) )

While we were getting ready to go, the entertainment came out again, and I enjoyed how enamored Maely was with the beautiful lady who was singing. She just sat quietly and watched her sing her 3 or 4 songs...so cute.

A few minutes after this, the lady called all the kids up on stage to perform a song with her. Maely and Elli went, and they were a blast to watch. Maely was doing everything perfect, and Elli was behind the line of kids spinning and dancing, doing whatever she wanted :)

That night we went on the Nemo submarine, and Alex went with most of the family on Autotopia. After that, we were both worn out, so we decided to ride the monorail to the entrance of Disneyland and go back to the hotel for the night. However, we didn't find out until after we got on that the monorail goes from Tomorrowland to Downtown Disney and back. I thought there were other stops, and this made our walk back to the hotel about twice as long! However, I'm glad we did that because we were able to get the only souvenir I wanted from the trip, which was a set of ears with Olivia's name on them. I understand I might be a crazy mom because she can't wear them for a few years, but I just wanted them, and wouldn't be detered. We were able to go to the World of Disney store and get some Minnie ears embroidered for her. When we got back, Amber had the great idea of taking some super cute pictures with the ears on her bum, but that was easier said than done! Here is the good picture we got, followed by a collage of the not-so-good ones :) Olivia was just getting to the point of being a little mobile (not crawling by any means, just squirmy), so we had a fun time with her Minnie Mouse bow and ears!

That night we had a family game night, and before we went to bed Alex wanted to scare me enough to have nightmares, so this is what he had to show me...

The Happiest Place on Earth!

2011-03-01T22:28:00.000-08:00

Well, early on March 1st Alex Olivia and I began our trip from Eugene to LA on our way to Disneyland. We decided to meet Amber and her family one day before everyone else got there, so we were traveling by ourselves. After our first (very cramped, small plane) 45 minute flight...to Seattle (yes we went to Seattle on our way to LA), I decided that I wanted to take a family picture of Olivia because she was visiting her 4th state. The next two pictures show our two failed attempts at taking said family picture...

First, a nice picture of my neck and my neck and Olivia's head and Alex...not sure what to say about that face!

Next, a super close up picture...but we're all in it! Pretty much I have decided that we cannot take self portraits, and we will do the awkward asking of a stranger from here on out.

I was super proud of Olivia's summery outfit, which we could only get away with wearing in CA. It is way cuter than these pictures show, but I absolutely love it, so when we got to the hotel we had a mini photo shoot

Thanks Den and Melvin for this outfit! and I apologize to all for sideways pictures in this post...I'm just a little lazy and didn't realize how many were wrong.

After a very crazy shopping trip to Walmart for snacks and a full night's sleep, we got up in plenty of time to make the 10 AM opening of Disneyland! I can't really express how excited I was. I hadn't been since I was 12, and I always love spending time goofing off with my family!

Here's Maely's "excited" face right before we went in:

We rushed straight to the Matterhorn, which was a "big person" ride that even Elli could go on, so it was the perfect start to our trip. I initially stayed with the babies, then had my first experience with the babysitter pass (see day 2 for explanation)...it was awesome!

After the Matterhorn we decided to get the Princess Walk out of the way. This is a building that always has three princesses for the kids to talk to. The princesses rotate in and out, and you don't know which ones you will see, but there's always three, so it's a huge attraction. Because it's so popular, it has a LONG line. I don't know exactly how long the line was, but we waited over an hour to meet these princesses. Amber and Dan were gracious and said we should go on our own and do something, but we wanted to hang out, so we stood there with the rest of them.

Here's Alex with Olivia in the carrier, our best friend for this line. Honestly, we didn't use the pack much, because she was either sleeping or being held by an aunt or uncle or grandparent most of the time. But I loved these two pictures, first the good one, then one with matching faces :)

again sorry about not rotating this!

Waiting in line, we were trying to think of anything we could to keep the kids occupied. At one point, I told the kids they could each take a couple pictures with my camera. I thought I would just delete them, but I thought the world as kids see it was pretty cool, so here they go. First from Elli:

Elli again:

Kade:

Maely:

And, an hour later, the glorious moment arrives! Here is all the kids with Aurora, then Olivia meeting her first princess

I'm having a hard time remembering the course of events, and honestly most of the funny stories are in Amber's blog (let me know if you want that link), so I'll just explain the rest of the pictures...This next one is one of my favorites. I have a lot of favorites, but the picture of Teag and Olivia sleeping in their strollers just reminds me how great it is to have "friend cousins" and how much fun it will be to have these kids playing together (with soon-to-be baby Johnson) soon. Teag and Olivia both did very well the entire trip, and I was surprised at the lack of meltdowns from all the kids.

Here's a couple pictures from Tarzan's tree. First is our attempt at a family picture...not so great but it's something! We didn't get the picture in front of the castle or the Disneyland sign because I was sick the last day, so I was glad to have this one from earlier in the week!

I forget the name of this scene in Tarzan, but this was a really fun section with pots to bang and lots of interactive "camp"like things for kids to do. The kids had fun with this part, but forgot it as soon as they saw the climbing rope (sideways again :(

Next came the Jungle Cruise. This is actually one ride that I really remember from other trips to Disneyland. I didn't remember how not real everything looked, but it was enough for this girl to be amazed!

And that's the end of my day 1 pictures, and my last blog about Disneyland. The day after I got home I was already looking forward to my next trip. I know that Olivia won't remember it at all, but it was really fun, and we had fun watching her reactions to different things. Next up, March happenings!

Olivia's Fourth Month in summary

2011-02-28T23:47:00.000-08:00

Before we get into pictures, I'm still figuring out collages and other things, so some of these are quite pixalated...I'll figure it out and fix it eventually! On February 28th Olivia had her four-month birthday, and celebrated by going to the doctor to get shots and running errands with mom. I'll note that the next morning we flew to Anaheim to go to The Happiest Place on Earth! (blog coming soon) so we were quite busy. At her appointment, Olivia weighed 13 lb 10 oz, and was 25 inches tall. She's still right around 50th percentile, for everythnig, but was slightly taller, more like 70th percent. Now for the stories from this past month... Olivia's fourth month went by very fast. One of the coolest things we did was go through my mom's box of kid's clothes and find two of my outfits from when I was a baby. First is my coming home from the hospital outfit. This is also my favorite set of pictures today, she just has the cutest faces! This second set of pictures is from another outfit when I was a baby... Olivia had quite a few developments this month as well. The most fun for us to measure is that she is always sticking her hand in her mouth! She usually gets at least 4 fingers, and sometimes gets more than that! She's also started sticking other things in her mouth, and has growing control of her hands. She's just beginning to be able to grab something she's looking at, but she keeps working at it!

I've commented before about Olivia's habit of playing with her feet. I took a few minutes to photograph it this month.

Next is a few pictures before we went to a gymnastics meet of Olivia's beautiful and fun O&B tutu. We've enjoyed it already, and Olivia loves to grab the tule and try to eat it...I think that means she likes it!

Olivia discovered the phone this month! The progression of these pictures goes

1. ooh...nice

2. I can eat it!

3. Don't Look At Me That Way!!

4. I know how to use it, I was just testing you.

Olivia also got to meet her cousin Ruby this month when we had a Wellman side get-together. I didn't bring my camera, so I was very glad to have Alex's phone to take some cute pics! I love how sweet Ruby was being with the baby, and they were both enamored with eachother.

We also discovered a new personality trait this month...diva! Olivia pulls off the high-maintenance quite well in these next couple pictures. It makes me think she knows how spoiled she is and is already starting to take advantage! But seriously, I love her face in these pictures, and she was a real sport while Mom tried on all sorts of ridiculous things in preparation for our trip to Disneyland.

The last collage comes from her 4-month photo shoot. It didn't go especially well, but when I look back on the pictures I realize that it doesn't matter, I still got a lot of wonderful pictures! I love her faces, and I had to put in the spit-up picture in, and I'll note that it was the first picture taken. She spit up as soon as I pulled out the camera, which is pretty typical these days. She always seems to have some spit-up waiting for each new outfit and whenever I'm in a hurry! Oh, the joys of parenting!

Alex and I couldn't ask for a better and more sweet beginning to our parenting. Olivia is so wonderful, and I love each day learning with her. I hope to do her justice in parenting, and really appreciate the help from all of our families and friends with advice and love.

Coming up...Disneyland!

Valentine's Day

2011-02-14T16:58:00.000-08:00

I'm back! You didn't get away from my ramblings that easily :) As you'll be able to see over the next few days when I catch up, February and March were incredibly busy, and I'm just now getting the breathing time that I need to recover, let alone post about what has happened!

Valentine's Day 2011 was a great day. It started the night before, because Alex had to work all day on V-day. The night before, while I was working on homework (did I mention that I took 18 credits this term?!) he surprised me with a lovely dinner of lasagna, salad, and garlic bread. We had an at-home date and watched The Wedding Singer, which I had never seen before. I also want to point out our matching water bottles :) We are huge nerds...

You might also want to glance above at the dying flowers on the table... they were a surprise a few weeks before, and they stayed beautiful for a long time...just not that long!

The next morning we woke up late and I dressed Olivia up for her first Valentine's day!

She wasn't thrilled about the photo shoot, so that's the only pic I got without her pacifier (we call it a plug) in.

Olivia and I went on a shopping excursion in the mid-afternoon to get the needed ingredients for my Valentine's Day dinner. It was a pretty long trip, and it was pouring rain, so Olivia was quite tired when we got back!

I spent a whopping 2.5 HOURS in the kitchen (probably not that amazing, but I'm more of a 10 minute meal person, so it was a lot for me! after taking the time to make an Excel spreadsheet of the times that I needed to do each step. It was quite a chore to choreograph 3 meal parts and 2 desserts to be done at the right time!

The finished meal was apricot chicken, garlic lemon green beans, and roasted rosemary/thyme chicken. It was amazing, if I do say so myself! Also, the new flowers on the table were delivered to me, still in my pajamas, in the morning after Alex had left for work. It was very sweet, and showed his preparedness!

For dessert we had strawberry shortcake and proliferoles (I think that's how you spell it). The hard thing about dessert was that I decided to hand-make everything, which included the whipped cream! Alex and I don't have a mixer, so that meant half an hour of whipping....let's just say my left wrist is very strong now! The proliferoles were great, if you don't know about them, they're a pastry-like thing (super simple to make), split in half, stuffed with ice cream, and covered in melted chocolate...MMM...just talking about it is going to make me need them again!

That was Valentine's...can we do it again? I hope you all had as great of a day as I did!

Dedicated to my Love...

2011-02-14T08:35:00.000-08:00

Alright, I'll admit. I'm a total chick. I cry during sappy movies, occasionally (today) record a Lifetime movie just because I know it will have a girly ending, and I love romantic surprises. I'm not sure Alex knew exactly what he was getting into when we started dating, but I'm dedicating this early Valentine's Day blog post to the wonderful man I am so excited to marry this fall.

I would be lying if I said we have a fairytale romance. However, he treats me like a princess and often goes out of his way to make me feel special. Whether it be picking up flowers as a surprise or doing the night-time feeding just to let me sleep, Alex is always thinking of me and I love him more than I can say.

Our little family has had a whirlwind year. Alex and I were both attending Oregon State until he graduated in June. We spent the summer beating the heat and having a blast at many family get togethers. As is quite evident in the above picture, I grew in width most of last year until October 28th when our beautiful girl, Olivia Rylen, joined our family. Alex started his job and we learned about our job as parents, and just had an adventuresome fall. In November my little sister Tasha got married, so Olivia and I took our first trip to Utah over Thanksgiving. Alex couldn't go with us (work) and that was the first time I truly recognized all the things he does for me every day. Christmas was another big day, Olivia had her first Christmas (she slept the whole time ... ) and Alex asked me to marry him (OF COURSE I said YES!). Since then we have been enjoying the craziness of planning a wedding ... OK mostly I have been enjoying it and Alex has learned just to say he loves it and give me a courtesy glance at the computer whenever I have some new hairbrained idea (P.S. Thanks Dad for teaching me a word like hairbrained).

It's true that sometimes I feel like we're in too deep (haha get it?) with all the things we have going on. I'll admit that right now I'm sitting in a very unclean living room with dinner dishes still on the floor and an unfinished craft project on the table that will probably stay there for weeks. However, every time I feel stressed, I just have to think about the other things around me and I feel much better. For example, tonight Alex made that great dinner that's still on the floor, and he's sitting on the couch right now putting Olivia to bed. How could I not love every minute of this time?

Alex, I love you. You are the best dad and fiance I could ever ask for. I'm so excited to spend the rest of my life with you. Happy Valentine's Day babe :)

My smart little girl!

2011-02-12T14:20:00.000-08:00

Didn't want to forget this...

Olivia successfilly fed herself today! She just fiished her bottle, which she held up completely by herself! It's not the first time she's done that, but it is the first time she has pulled the bottle out halfway through, raised her head up, and burped by herself! I literalyy didn't help at all except by puttinh the bottle back into her mouth. She immediately grabbed it again and finished her meal!

New Hobby!

2011-02-12T12:03:00.001-08:00

Reasons this post doesn't make sense:
1. I'm not a hobby person. I have Olivia, school, wedding planning, teaching piano, and the house to keep me busy, so I've never really taken the time to develop a hobby.
2. I'm NOT a crafty person. I tried my hand at sewing in high school (2 prom dresses, a homecoming dress, a couple quilts), but am a total perfectionist, so I just stopped. Beyond that, I haven't ever even tried anything crafty
3. I'm not a creative person. Don't get me wrong, there's a lot of things that I am, but creative is not one. I love lists, organization, and getting things done efficiently

So imagine my surprise when about a week ago I found myself browsing on the internet looking for how-to's on making hair bows! There are a few reasons this does make sense:

1. I've recently become a hair bow addict. I know Olivia is beautiful with or without them, but I just think hair bows "make" an outfit. I also like hair bows because regardless of blanket color (pink) or clothes color (usually pink), it's inevitable to get the question "so how old is your little boy?" every time I go to the grocery store.
2. Hair bows are nonexistent in stores in the Corvallis/Albany/Salem area. I'm sure there's some boutique in Salem that sells them, but none in Corvallis.
3. When you do find a hair bow at a store, it's EXPENSIVE! I'm talking $12 for one hair bow on a headband. I paid that once (Olivia's home-from-the-hospital bow), but don't plan on ever paying that again, and I think other moms in the area should have a more reasonable option if they have a bow addiction like mine.
4. Once I start something, I get into it full bore. It's not uncommon for one idea to turn into my whole afternoon if I'm not careful. And since all of my ideas are great ones, I guess that's not so bad. :)

So here goes... I'm making hair bows! So far I've learned to make two different kinds of bows, as well as a great technique for silk flowers. I've also discovered that I'm crafty enough to make a hair bow wall hanger (the wooden "princess", once it's finished will have ribbon hanging from it so that bows can all hang neatly without getting smooshed)!

I realize that I'm not perfect, in fact these three bows are the first three I've ever made. Also, the colors aren't great (Michael's clearance ribbon doesn't have a ton of selection). But now I know I can make beautiful bows, and I'm planning on starting a little at-home business to justify my new hobby!

Long story short...here's the picture of my newest creations!

3 months...again!

2011-02-01T21:09:00.000-08:00

Caption: Aren't you dont writing about me being 3 months old yet?

In short, no. I just realized that I talked about Olivia's 3 month birthday without sharing any of the fun things she has just started doing recently!

First, her size. Holy Moley is she growing! She weighed in recently at 12 lb 8 oz, a whopping 4.5 lbs more than her birth weight! She's also grown 3 inches (is now 23.5"), and has a head circumfrence of 15.75" For those of you that heard last month, she measured at 24", but I'm going to safely assume that she hasn't shrunk, and one of the two measurements isn't quite accurate.

And now for the fun parts! I've gathered pictures to show her "firsts" over the last month

This is Olivia showing interest in toys. She started by swinging wildly at her toys and things that she likes, and by the end of January she was really using her hands quite well (usually demonstrated by shoving her entire left hand into her mouth :) ).

This is Olivia playing with her rattle! Yes, I'll admit that I put it in her hand, but she shook it around for a good 10 minutes before letting it go. And for those of you who are wondering, she didn't hit herself in the head, but I was watching carefully :).

Olivia's biggest hobby is watching TV. Turning the volume up and just standing in front of the TV with her is a great way to calm her down if she's fussy, and the closest she's ever come to rolling over was because we put her at an angle where she couldn't watch! I love this picture because at least 10 times a day, or pretty much whenever the TV is on, I catch her craning her neck all the way around to watch.

These are Olivia's soundproof ear muffs. We got them for her a while back, but she wasn't a fan of how huge they were. She's grown a lot, so we tried them on her again and she didn't mind wearing them at all! This allows us to go to as many OSU events as we want! Olivia has joined me and Grandma Terece at every gymnastics meet this winter, and the band is just a little too loud for her liking.

Olivia still enjoys sleeping with dad. These are my favorite pictures to take, I just love watching them sleep together, or Alex fall asleep when Olivia's wide awake still :).

Olivia's 3-month birthday present (ok it was just a good excuse to buy her a fun toy) was a "Jenny jump up" door jumper. I know she's a little small, as you can see by the fact that she's not quite strong enough to sit up and there's room for 5 of her in there, but I wanted to let her try it, and she absolutely loved it! After we cracked up for a few minutes watching her just smile and laugh at herself, we did add a blanket to give her a little more stability, but I just love the crazy faces she's making in these pictures!

New words: OK that's going a little far :) Olivia has started babbling a lot more lately though, and is especially loud when she's tired. She doesn't really cry (except when I'm too slow at feeding her when she's hungry), but she won't let you forget she's laying there, that's for sure! Having a baby who talks is new for Alex and I because for her first 2 1/2 months we rarely heard Olivia at all! It's kind of fun to hear her baby noises all the time, especially her laughs (which she gives to Dad much more often than to Mom).

During the last week of January, just before her 3-month mark, Olivia trained herself to eat every 4 hours. Before this she would often struggle even getting to 3 hours, but she made the 4 hour transition very easy! She also continues to sleep great, always for at least 6 hours at night, and often 8 or 9! I'm still occasionally guilty of waking her up when she goes more than 9 hours even though I know I don't have to :)

I think that's about it, Olivia is the most wonderful gift I could ever ask for, and makes every day wonderful. I'm so excited for every new thing she is learning each day :)

Boise and 3 months old!

2011-01-31T15:32:00.000-08:00

On January 23rd, Olivia and I flew to Boise to visit my sister Amber and her growing family! She had baby Teagen on the 25th, so I went to stay with her kids and play mom to four for a few days. WHEW! I had no idea the amount of cooking, feeding, clothing, running, consoling, counting, driving, buckling, and pretty much craziness that is involved with four kids! It was a blast though, and I'm so glad I was able to go.

Sunday night, right after we got to Amber's house, I set Olivia down for a second and came back to this!

No she didn't roll over completely, but it was so close and she was so enthusiastic about it that I honestly thought she might. I was glad she didn't because Alex wasn't there though.

Monday night the kids had a dance party, which is a super smart idea to get rid of energy, and absolutely hilarious...I have an awesome video that catches more detail, but I'm still new at this blogging thing, and I haven't figured out how to make my video editted and such to post it on here.

Kade was doing full-on roundoffs, it was awesome :)

Alex and my mom arrived on Wednesday, the 26th, and it was awesome to shower and rest a little (how do mom's of more than one EVER shower? I have no idea). Baby Teagen had to spend a week in the NICU, so I don't have any pictures of him, but he's an angel, and I'm so glad he's home with his whole family now!

Friday was Olivia's 3 month birthday!

We didn't do anything special ... but it was a good opportunity to take about a hundred pictures! I'm just going to put a few of them on here, but as you can tell, it started out rough and got better from there! I have to thank Alex, he's amazing at getting her to smile and be happy with me messing with her all the time (Olivia is a total Daddy's girl).

not super thrilled about getting her picture taken...

I love this picture. Olivia is so beautiful, I just can't get over it. She's an absolute angel.

still not thrilled, but she loves her monkey, so at least she's not flailing wildly anymore!

What is she staring so intently at you ask? ESPN...can I say daddy's girl any louder?

Olivia loved spending time with her cousins. I was a little more cautious (it's just so many little fingers!), but all her cousins were so loving and just wanted to play with her and hold her all the time. Elli was so cute, she would ask about once an hour if she could kiss the baby :)

What is this you ask? A half-smile...yes! Now we're getting somewhere!

Daddy came along and saved the day with some airplane rides!

Alex tells me she's smiling in this picture because I finally took her bow off. I don't agree, but there may be something to it. I just can't help putting these huge outrageous bows on her all the time!

Saturday, the 29th, was Elli's 3rd birthday! We had a super fun princess party and just hung out as a family, it was very fun. After the party Maely asked if she could hold Olivia, and that started an impromptu photo shoot with the cousins (P.S. I can't believe I still don't have any pictures of Amber and Dan with Olivia...shoot!)

Looking back through these pictures, I'm not sure Olivia was having the best time, but she did absolutely love hanging out with her older cousins, she smiled and laughed more during that week than ever before!

Saturday was also the day before we had to come back home, and Alex really wanted me to try the Playstation Move before we left (I secretly know this was a ploy because he has a Playstation and wants one for himself). I LOVED it! I hate to admit this, but I especially likedthe gladiator duelling game... These next few pictures are from that night.

hmm...where does she get her ability to focus completely on the TV? I can't figure it out!

After we got to Portland, I wanted to stop at the Fabric Depot to look at fabric for bridesmaid dresses. It was totally worth it, I'm sold! I don't ever buy or need fabric, but this place was awesome! Anyway, we put Olivia in the backpack so she wouldn't have to stay in the car seat all day, and she loved it! We had never had her facing outward before, but she's big enough (barely) now, and she spent the whole time hamming it up for the other customers. We honestly had 3 or 4 people say they would hurt us and steal her...kinda awkward but I totally understand! She is such a cutie!

That was our whole trip...or at least what I have pictures of :) I have no idea when I'll get around to posting about Christmas (I have 400 pictures to sort through) but I wanted to get back on track. If you made it all the way through, you must really love us!

First Laugh

2011-01-02T16:53:00.000-08:00

This is Olivia's first laugh that we got on camera! We got this just after the first of the year, but she was laughing long before this. Alex and I aren't the best at getting video and pictures soon after a new skill develops...but here it is!

Faces

2010-12-07T16:35:00.000-08:00

Another video :) There's a bunch of these to come... this is just a short video showcasing many of the wonderful faces that Olivia was learning how to make! This was at about six weeks, on December 7, 2010.

First Smile

2010-12-01T09:10:00.000-08:00

Just a short clip of the first smile we caught on camera :). This is about a week after she actually smiled for the first time, but she had an amount of adoration for the camera that prevented her from doing anything except staring when anything electronic made an appearance :)

Tasha's Wedding/Thanksgiving

2010-11-30T17:20:00.000-08:00

Alright...here's my effort to get caught up on Olivia's first two months. At three weeks Olivia had her first plane trip when we went to my sister Tasha's wedding in Utah. Alex had to work that weekend, so I also had my first time on my own as a mom. It was quite the trip!

The trip started with a marathon all-nighter of packing and getting ready to go (babies need SO much stuff!), so by the time we were taking off from Portland I had been awake for over 24 hours, and it was only 6:30! It was a long day :) I couldn't have done it without Alex driving us up to the airport (after only 2 hours of sleep himself) and Jenaye flying with us. She helped me get through security and every step of the way with all my stuff!

The first picture is just showing what an angel Olivia is to fly with. She just sleeps, and doesn't seem to have any trouble with the elevation change!

We got to Utah on Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving and two days before Tasha's wedding. In the afternoon, we walked around Temple Square "meeting" all the missionaries (OK we were looking for my cousin Nikki, who was assigned there before she went to Poland0. We finally saw her and all the walking around and waiting was SO worth it! It was great to see her, and we really did have a nice chat. After we got back to my Aunt Dalita's we spent some time getting ready for Thanksgiving-for-60 the next afternoon. After we got started (but not even close to finished), we were able to go see Tasha's dress - absolutely beautiful! - and we met her in-laws. We then went back to Dalita's to keep cooking and catching up...all my sisters were there so it was a blast!

After a couple hours sleep (not nearly enough, but we were having too much fun), we woke up on Thanksgiving! I took a few first Thanksgiving pictures.

Caption: If you don't stop taking pictures of me I'll sock you...

Thanksgiving was so fun! Almost all of my mom's family was there and Olivia had a good time meeting all of her "cousins" (Amber's 4 kids are her only first cousins, but I have a hard time figuring out relationships, so everyone is a cousin). We also presented my Grandparents with their 50th anniversary present, a book of the whole family that Amber put together. It was amazing, and I've looked through it dozens of times since then.

Friday was Tasha's wedding. In the morning we went to the temple (yes I took Olivia to the temple in her sleeper...but wrapped in a beautiful blanket!) and saw Ben and Tash right after they were married, then we got ready for the reception. Somewhere in this timeline we had dipped about 1000 bananas in chocolate and nuts, but I'm really not sure when...the days all blur together (between Tuesday and Saturday I had a total of 15 hours of sleep...not enough for me!).

These are a couple getting ready pics, thanks Amber for letting me borrow a beautiful dress for Olivia to wear (the bloomers were adorably big). I just realized this, but Olivia had tight fists pretty solidly for the first 3 months of her life!

At the reception we tried to get some cousin pictures...it was a little bit of a struggle, but this one turned out pretty well! Elli's fascination with Olivia was so cute, she was just always around, smiling, talking, and playing with her. My favorite moment was when I was sitting in a chair holding Olivia, and Elli stood right next to me, just talking to her. At one point, Olivia and Elli locked eyes, and Elli's whole face lit up as she exclaimed "she just looked at me! Oh, she loves me!" From then on, she grabbed a chair, and moved it around to wherever Olivia was looking, and would put herself in the perfect spot so that Olivia was "looking" at her. As Olivia's eyes wandered, Elli just moved, never frustrated, as fast as she could to keep up with Olivia's gaze.

This is the only picture I have of my siblings holding Olivia. They all did, and it was so fun letting her meet them all! But like I've said before, I'm a horrible picture-taker, so I just have the one picture with Auntie Em :)

The next morning we headed back home. Again I had help in the airport from Emily, who was flying out at a similar time. I'm so grateful for all the help while I was in Utah, I truly couldn't have done it without my mom, sisters, aunts, grandma...pretty much everyone! I never realized how hard it is to travel with a baby, and I was struggling without Alex there to run my errands!

Lastly...just a feet picture from the day after we got back. I've struggled since she was born to get good feet pictures (I love baby feet), but they're always moving!

Next up, December! We're getting caught up, slowly but surely!

November Happenings

2010-11-22T16:47:00.000-08:00

A couple weeks early - we were in Utah for the actual holiday - Alex, Olivia and I celebrated Thanksgiving early with my Grandma Grahyl and some cousins on that side. It was an excellent meal, and we enjoyed letting my cousin Tiffani and her three kids, Victoria, Kaitlin, and Seth, meet Olivia. I especially loved how much Seth and Kaitlin loved her feet, and Tori was great at holding her in a non-kid style :)

On November 18th we hit Olivia's 3 week birthday! No party was planned (we didn't even get her dressed for the occasion) but we did get some cute pictures. In this first one it looks like she has the pacifier holding mastered...but she is faking you out. She loves to suck for a few seconds, then as soon as she knows mom is standing up trying to do something she spits it out as far away as she can get it (masterful plotting I think) :)

She wasn't especially thrilled about this photo shoot, but I like how long this picture makes her look.

Cute baby feet!

Awkward view...but it does make her feet look HUGE!

The next day, Alex got up early with the baby and let me sleep in, and when I came out a couple hours later this is what I saw (ESPN is on the TV...)

Dad had made a little pouch just big enough for the baby, but it kept her totally warm!

On the 21st, we took Olivia to her 2nd Beaver game (no pics of the first one :( ). She also got to wear this adorable had from Aunt Kathy for the first time! I am proud to annouce that Olivia loves Beaver events (ok she slept through both games)... and is excited for the rest of basketball and gymnastics this winter!

This doesn't conclude November, because 2 days after this Olivia had her first big trip when we went to Utah for my sister Tasha's wedding!

Oops! Forgot this one

2010-11-11T12:13:00.000-08:00

Oops! I forgot to post the pictures that we took on Olivia's 1 week birthday!

I love daddy daughter pictures :) They are all so precious

This is our daughter the gangster ...

Not a great picture, but this is the face I regularly see when Olivia and I are resting together...notice the slouching mouth!

At two weeks we gave Olivia her first bottle. It was breastmilk, and she did awesome, drinking the whole thing. This very important skill allowed us to be able to go out for more extended periods of time, including Olivia's first Beaver basketball game that night!

Olivia's First Week

2010-11-07T18:47:00.000-08:00

Olivia had a very eventful first week, but I wanted to point out this wonderful Moses basket we were given as a baby shower gift that Olivia slept in for her first month. It fit next to our bed and was great for those middle-of-the-night feedings! Also, it may seem like she is excessively bundled, but Alex and I like to sleep with the fan on, so this was a good way to keep her little hands and feet warm (she sleeps with her hands and feet stretched out as far as she can get)

Olivia had her first walk when she was 5 days old! We spent the majority of that week going back and forth to the doctor (slightly elevated bilirubin results lead to a heel prick every day :( I was sad to have her get poked so much), and I was still recovering, but we enjoyed a short walk and the first use of our stroller!

Just a little sampling of Olivia's grumpy face :) She really is a amazingly happy baby, but she often has a very serious look and this time was just too cute not to photograph...

Niki Shaffer came to visit us the next day, we were so happy she got over her cold! Other visitors that first week included Michael, Michelle, Janet, Tyler, and Aiden Rock.

During Niki's visit, Alex was lucky enough to experience the first leaky diaper! Not a full blow-out, but Olivia did leak a little onto the ottoman, and Alex and I learned our lesson about changing her on new furniture :)

That concludes her first week, coming up next are 1 week birthday pictures!

First Day Home!

2010-10-31T17:57:00.000-07:00

Olivia, Alex, and I stayed in Good Samaritan Hospital in Corvallis until about 6 on October 30th, because the doctors wanted to keep her close to 48 hours. We were very happy to go home and really appreciated Alex's family's help...They came to the hospital to help get things packed up, and then went to our apartment while we stopped at the pharmacy and cleaned up and did all the dishes! It was so nice to come home to a clean house when I left it so dirty!

Again, my lack of camera skills is evident in the lack of "coming home pictures, but here is Olivia the next morning, getting her first bit of sunlight...as you can tell she's not a huge fan :)

The beautiful blanket Olivia is laying on was made for her by her Great Grandma Wellman...we love it! She will treasure it forever.

The day after we got home also happened to be Halloween. Olivia had a super cute strawberry costume, and even though it drowned her, she was dressed up for all her visitors that afternoon.

You can't see it very well in this picture, but this was Olivia's first time in her favorite toy...her bouncer! This and her swing are immediate calmers when she is a little sad, and she loves being able to sit up enough to look around. I promise that she likes looking around, even if visitors for the first 3 weeks or so rarely saw eyes...she just settled down and fell asleep pretty much anytime someone was holding her.

Alex is modeling the hat for Olivia's costume while he takes a little power nap. He didn't have a very restful night the night before, as Olivia was getting used to her new home and didn't sleep very well.

Uncle Andy is looking on while Olivia naps...Andy visits quite often because he's going to OSU and lives pretty close. We always enjoy chatting and Olivia loves her uncle.

The afternoon of Halloween we had quite a few visitors, including Jim, Kathy, and Danielle Casqueiro (sorry no picture Danielle!), Andy Casqueiro, and Jenaye, Terece, and Grahyl Johnson

I can't say thank you enough to all the friends and family that have visited since Olivia has been born. From the many meals (thank you Johnsons, Casqueiros, Rocks, and Dibbles!) to the hours of chatting and catching up, it has just been awesome to see everyone and we love you all!

Trip Down Memory Lane

2010-10-29T08:39:00.000-07:00

I've been sorting and organizing my photos and videos ... what can I say, I have a lot of free time now!

I've decided just to post some of the highlights of Olivia's life so far. Eventually I'll put them where they go as far as date, but please enjoy :) I've been brought to happy proud tears quite a few times.

Birthday Party!

2010-10-28T13:48:00.000-07:00

On October 28, my 22nd birthday, I woke up feeling extremely uncomfortable, and knew that I was going to meet my daughter that day. My pain was too much to remember to document the labor part of the day, but to make a long story short, we went to the doctor, and were sent home because I wasn't making fast enough progress (was completely effaced, but only dilated to 2 cm).

Alex had scheduled a phone interview for that morning, so after we got back home, he sat with me for a while, then went into the living room to do his interview. I was in extreme pain, and couldn't really concentrate on anything except not screaming and interrupting his phone call. After the interview was complete, I told Alex we were going back to the doctor, even though the doc had said to wait 4 hours or so. However, when we went back in (about 11:30 AM), I had dilated to 5 cm, so the doctor realized how fast labor was going and sent us to the hospital.

Once at the hospital, I got an epidural, which immediately made labor quite enjoyable, and I was able to be excited for the arrival of my sweet little girl. After another 8 hours of labor and 2.5 hours of pushing, Alex and I were able to greet Olivia Rylen Casqueiro. She was born at 10:05 PM, weighed 8 lb, and was 20.5" long.

She was quiet and sweet from the moment she was born (I was actually worried because I couldn't hear her cry, but the nurses ensured me she looked great and was a healthy baby). She also enjoyed the increased space that her new space allowed, as shown by the picture below. She still refuses to be swaddled, and is most comfortable sprawled out, taking up as much room as her little arms and legs can.

I am so happy to share my birthday with Olivia, and was completely enamored with this beautiful girl from the very beginning

Olivia's footprints, take 2, The first attempt showed only 2 toes on the right foot, so they threw that one out and tried again.

After a couple hours of cuddling and meeting our new little girl, Alex and I gave her up to the nurse for her first bath while we got ready to move into our postpartum room.

The next morning, after a few hours of sleep, Alex held Olivia for a bit while we got ready to meet grandparents and other relatives! Unfortunately, I was still getting used to using my camera, and didn't take any pictures of her meeting family for the first time. Visitors included Grandma Terece and Grandpa Gary, Aunt Jenaye, Grandma Mary and Grandpa Gary (yes she has 2 grandpa Garys :) ), Aunt Ashley and Uncle Andy, Great Grandma and Grandpa Romrell, Great Aunt Kathy, Great Uncle Evan and Aunt Charitie, Cousins Max, Danielle and Tiffani, and family friends Hanna, Ashley, and Paul.

Whew! That was a fingerful - kinda like a mouthful except typed - of visitors! I apologize if I forgot anyone, Olivia is a very loved little girl, and she had a lot of loved ones come to meet her during her first few days of life.

Daddy and daughter recovering from a very exciting day meeting family:

I love this last picture of Alex and Olivia. It's not-quite-candid...neither Alex nor I would have been comfortable falling asleep holding her at that point, but Olivia really did fall asleep on her daddy's chest, and it was totally adorable.

Finished Nursery

2010-10-27T11:22:00.000-07:00

2 days before Olivia was born we finished the walls of her nursery (I guess you could call this "nesting"... or just procrastinating - your choice!). I had very elaborate plans for her walls, and wanted to stick with my pink/brown theme while still making it personal, so here's what we ended up with:

Many kudos to Alex, who thought I was going a little overboard for our non-crafty selves, but helped me tone it down enough that we could finish it, and stayed up late 2 nights in a row to finish it with me.

Beaver Clothes!

2010-10-15T20:49:00.000-07:00

I'm currently trying to figure out how pictures work on this blog. Right now i'll just say that I feel completely inept at all this blogging stuff, but I'm working on it.

Olivia has so many wonderful people who love her and bought her many, many gifts even before she was born. Everything from a Moses basket for her to sleep in to all of her clothes, diapers, wipes, toys... the list just goes on and on. I can't say thank you enough to all the friends and family that have given us so many wonderful things, but THANK YOU! Also, I couldn't take pictures to fully describe the multitude of her belongings (definitely more things than I even own :) , but there is a special group of gifts that I did take pictures of...

These special gifts range in size from birth 2T, and she will get plenty of use out of them. However, there was no good way to store them, so Olivia ended up having an entire OSU drawer in her dresser, and that doesn't even fit everything. Also, all of the outfits in these pictures are laying on an absolutely beautiful blanket that is super soft and orange on one side, black on the other. Perfect for accompanying us to all the Beaver events!