Picture Dump Friday

 I have a few more posts about some of the educational things we've been working on, but most of my pictures over the few weeks I skipped out on blogging were just a little of this and a little of that.  So here is a picture dump for you!

Cooking

Yep, that happened! :)

We got her this like new easel from the kids buy/sell page for $10!  She is in love with it.  However, she prefers to stand under it like a tent?! :)

She wanted her ABC quilt on her--Michael took it to the next level and tucked her in as tight as he could.  You can see how amused she was by this. ;)

She has decided that her doll stroller is a good place to take a seat.  We keep telling her she's too big for it, but she finds it the "perfect spot" sometimes. :)

Her love of accessories has spread into the area of shoes.  She loves to wear her shoes AND my shoes.  She's shockingly good at walking in heals. :)

We went to a wedding last weekend.  Olivia (and a few other kids) were dancing on the dance floor while people were eating hor d'oeuvres.  We didn't make it until the actual dancing, but she was a trooper and had fun.

This picture CRACKS me up!  We met up with friends to go to the kids dollar movie.

It was Olivia's first movie in a theater, so I was trying to document the moment.  The first picture has her finger up her nose and this is the other picture.  When the movie started she yelled, "What's happening?!?" She makes me laugh.  She enjoyed it though, and we made it the full 90 minutes!

Singing about Veggie Tales!

From a few weeks ago....  She learned how to do the tuba sound at the end from Miss Laurie. :)

Better Late than Never?

Yes, Memorial Day was two and a half weeks ago, but here is my post! :)

We had a lazy morning of hanging out around the house and playing.

Michael and Olivia did some coloring

Although, by the time I took the picture, Olivia was already done and was just watching.  She'd go over and color a thing or two and then move on.  She usually colors in her high chair and works at it for a while.  If we let her sit at her table, she has too much freedom and just flutters from thing to thing.

Ok, you cannot tell me she isn't just the cutest thing you ever saw!?!?! :)

By the afternoon we were itching to get out of the house.  We didn't really need anything, so we just meandered Target, ate yummy $2 tacos at Tin Star and then headed to a local park.

This park doesn't have play equipment for the kids, but we figured Olivia would love to run and also see the statues of the longhorns and horses.

Whenever we're at the park at a play date or just walking around a store and we DON'T want her to run, she thinks it is a fun time to play chase.  When we purposely take her somewhere and say "Run!" she stands there like we are crazy. Hmm....

Taking it all in!

We put her up on one of the longhorns.  She wasn't too sure about being up that high.

She had a much better time checking out the horses.

and chasing the ducks

and finding crap treasures on the ground!

We walked around the path, watched some ducks swim in the stream, ran through the grass, and stopped to pet a passing dog.

Then we made one last stop up by the longhorn and horses.  This time we tried putting her on one that wasn't so high off the ground.

Overall it was a low-key fun day spent with our little family.

The Little Gym

We are still going strong with our Little Gym classes (thanks to Grandma!).  Olivia loves it.  She loves Miss Christi.  She loves having the freedom to run.  She loves all of the fun toys and supplies we use.  We love that it helps her socialize while working on motor skills, balance, and core strength!

I don't always take my camera or my phone in with me.  I'm usually busy helping Olivia perform the tasks she's suppose to be doing.  But here are a few that I have taken over the past month or so.

Using a pool noodle as part of the warm up

Waiting for the air track to fill up

"exploring"...  She's always observing!

Mommy's Helper

Yes, these pictures are over a month old, but still worth sharing. :)

Olivia went through a stage where she would be playing just fine and the minute I walked in the kitchen, she would need me.  So I decided to let her help me.

One day we made some oatmeal bake thing. This was her first attempt at helping.  It had it's challenging moments (for me), but she did pretty good.

She kept asking me over and over if she could help me make something.  So later in that week we made some cookies.

Watching the blender go...

We tried multiple attempts at getting a picture together.  She wasn't interested.

As a reward for all of her hard work, we let her indulge in her first ever chocolate chip cookie.  She was a fan! :)

Hello!

Yes!  We are all still alive.  I didn't mean to take a 3 1/2 week blog break.  It just sort of happened.  I guess writing about our week just wore me out. ;)  So since I've been checked on by multiple friends and family members, I figured I'd jump on here and give an update.

• Life got busy when I ended up with 4 Thirty-One parties in the span of 2 weeks.  3 of those were done on Facebook.  That is a really fun way to party.  It's also really easy after you do the prep work.  However, the prep work took me many nights to pull off.  I did a lot of research, came up with a script that I liked, found pictures to use, and had to make videos to go with it.  That made that two week time period even more busy.  The good news is.... I MET MY GOAL!  I am super excited about that!  I am already all registered for conference.  My hotel room is reserved and my flight is booked.  I would have wanted to go anyway, but I really wanted to go this year because it's the 10 year anniversary of 31 so it's suppose to be all that more great.  They say that if you attend the conference, you will increase your business by 40%.  I'm hoping and praying that is true!

• Things wrapped up with MOPS.  We had a good last meeting and then things were set in motion to start planning next year.  I've already attended one steering meeting and gotten to meet some of the moms I will be working with.  I really love the ladies in our MOPS group.  They are all so genuine, nice and giving of themselves!  We also had a family fun night. This was an event to register early and invite perspective moms.  We have to cap our group out at 130 because of childcare and as of the Family Fun night we already had 91 registered.  It's going to be a great year!  We also had a MOPS play date last week, and we have a moms night out tonight.  Joining MOPS was one of the best decisions I have made!  We are going on a leadership retreat in a few weekends from now and I am looking forward to it. (EDIT: As of this morning we only have 16 spaces left. Wow!)

• I've talked on here many times about how I am on some Facebook buy/sell/swap type of pages.  It's basically like going to a virtual garage sale.  Well one of the kid pages that I liked to visit was having some drama with a bad admin.  I sat back and watched.  I had a friend that was affected by all the drama, but I didn't think it was my battle to fight.  Long story short, I made a very respectful comment about a situation and it got deleted.  So I went to the "good" admin and just wrote a message saying enough was enough.  One thing led to another and message after message back and forth... and she deleted the bad admin and 4 days later I was the new admin.  After the bad admin got deleted, people were coming out of the woodwork saying she was mean to them or banned their friend, etc.  It was CRAZY!  It's all good now, though.  It is a group of 4300 people, so that keeps me busy in my spare time.  I enjoy it though.  I was upfront with her about my time commitment.  My daughter and family come first.  I help out when I'm available, but don't stress out when I'm not.  The other admin is really sweet and we seem to have a lot in common.  Our families are actually meeting for dinner this weekend.  So a bad situation turned good and I may have made a new friend!

• We were gearing up to be on the hunt for a house and then we found out that just wasn't going to happen.  Since our condo hasn't been rented for over 2 years, and we took a big loss on it the first year (sitting empty for so many months and the flood), they are offering us a VERY small loan.  To the point where it wouldn't even be worth it.  So that bummed us out, but we're trying to believe that there is a reason for all of this.  So our plan is to hopefully find a house to rent come August.  Either way, we are NOT staying in our current place.  It was a last minute emergency decision to move in here.  The apartment itself isn't too bad, but the street noise is awful.  So we'll be looking for a house in a few months.  Just under different terms.  Out renter's lease is up in August too, so hopefully she will be re-upping.  She's been a really good renter!

• Michael's job is going well.  I'm not sure if I mentioned it here or not, but he got placed back under his first boss.  He really likes her, so this wasn't a bad thing at all.  He also got moved from a cubicle into an office.  He does share it with another guy, because their work sort of goes hand in hand.  He likes the guy and having the office... for the most part.  A lot of people are coming in and out all day long to talk to the other guy, so he does sort of miss the quiet of his corner cubicle.  But it's still a good thing!

• Olivia is doing well.  She's growing like crazy.  Mainly, her feet are growing like crazy.  We bought her a pair of size 7 sandals the day or two before Easter.  The sandals were big on her feet with plenty of room.  Her toes are now hanging off the edge.  It's insane.  So in 2 months we have now moved to size 8's.  I am hoping that these can at least get us through the summer, but I'm doubtful.  We wear sandals down here until late September/early October.  The rest of her seems to be staying close to the same.  She's still wearing all of her 24 month/2T summer clothes.

That's really about all.  I have pictures and posts to write all the way back from late April.  I will try to get on that soon!  I can't believe Olivia will be 2 in less than a month!  We are gearing up for a BUSY June!

A Week In the Life--Saturday and Sunday

We had a whirlwind of a weekend.  That is not usually the case.  There are a lot of times that we don't even leave the house, but we were on the go this weekend.

It started out slow on Saturday morning

Riding

Flying

and stringing.

We had a birthday party that we needed to attend, so we started getting ready.

Michael had to run to work (long story), so that spun things into a whirlwind of crazy.

When he got back we ate lunch on the run and made the 50 minute trek to attend our "Ohio friends" birthday party.  It was at a splash park.

It was pretty cold on Saturday.  The high was only 70.  I packed Olivia a suit just in case it ended up feeling hotter than I was expecting (that happens to me a lot her in TX), but I was fully intending on skipping the water fun.  However, when we got to the party Olivia really wanted to get in and Michael really wanted her to get in.  So I gave in and changed her clothes.

We got there a little late, which is why it doesn't look like many kids are in the water.  A lot of them were already trying to warm up.  Olivia kept saying it was "cold water", but then she'd run right back in.  Our friend John kept saying she was "so brave" and "fearless".  That isn't her norm.  She's usually pretty cautious.

She lasted about 10 minutes.  She had fun, but then it was time to have cake and dry off.

We let her have a few bites of our cake AND let her enjoy her first ever Capri Sun.  Watch out! :)

There was a pond at the park and she liked going down and looking at the ducks.

 After the party we headed over to our friends house and visited for a few hours.  Since it's sort of a long drive we like to make it worth it.

The party was right in the middle of nap time, so it was Olivia's first time trying to skip a nap.  She did great, but as soon as we got in the car to head home, she was out.  Unfortunately for her, mommy and boppa were starving, so we stopped for dinner after about 20 minutes of driving.  She was super crabby at first, but then did fine.

We just played with her when we got home.

After she went to bed, I worked on some Thirty-One stuff and Michael watched a movie.  I know it seems like I do a lot of 31 stuff.  I actually don't.  There are some weeks where I do absolutely nothing.  But I have 3 to 4 virtual parties coming up on Facebook.  I've never done one of those before, so I had to do all the prep work--writing the script, finding the pictures, setting up the events.  Hopefully it will all pay off! :)

I don't have any pictures from Sunday.

We went to church in the morning.

We spent all of nap time making videos for my virtual parties.

We played with Olivia in the afternoon.

We headed out for some cheap dinner and drove around looking at different areas to see if we'd like to live there.  We have a few months left before our lease is up and we are trying to figure out what our next option is.

Our evening was much of the same.  We both went to bed exhausted.  Needless to say, Olivia and I are having a lazy day today!  We may still be in our pajamas....   :)