All the girls together

Here is a short video of all of the granddaughters together on Thanksgiving day with Grandma and PaPa! WARNING: It may be loud, as it usually is when they are all together!! I don't have sound on my computer so I don't know how loud the video is!!! But it will give you some idea as to how loud our Thanksgiving day was and God knows how thankful we all are to be blessed with such healthy, beautiful girls!!! But let us all remember to give thanks to God at all times, every day, not just now during the holiday season, for what we all have is precious!

Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. I Thessalonians 5:18

The day before our Thanksgiving dinner

So the holidays have begun, and are going by so fast! Where do the years go? Olivia is already two and it seems like only yesterday that I brought home such a teeny, tiny little baby! Although this Thanksgiving was a lot different than that first year. Olivia's first Thanksgiving we had to spend at home due to her being a preemie and having to be isolated her first few months home because it was RSV season, but that's another story altogether. This Thanksgiving however we went out to Grandma's house the day before to help Grandma cook, or so we thought! Now I asked Grandma when she first mentioned helping her cook exactly how much cooking she thought we would get done with Miss "bossy pants" Olivia there, she said it didn't matter, so we went to help! We showed up around 11:00 or so and all we managed to get accomplished that morning was the sucessful burning of chocolate chip cookies (Which Uncle Jerred whined about for hours, but still ate the cookies!) and some Mexican casserole cooked for lunch! Then Aunt Julie and Stacia made it, and we thought alright, we have some more help! Little did we know that Olivia had other plans for Aunt Julie!!! The moment she saw her, Olivia had Julie carrying her all over the place, pointing and telling her where to go. Then she decided that carrying her around all over had made her Aunt Julie tired so she made Julie lay down on the couch with her baby doll and everytime Julie would get up Olivia would come and drag her back over to the couch and point and tell her "Lay down!" We all of course lauged and thought this was very entertaining until Grandma and I realized that Julie finally took her serious and was over on the couch sleeping!!! So much for the help there!!! I did learn that Julie may not be the best baby sitter as when the two year old tells you to lay down and take a nap, she really does it!!!! (just kidding, we love you Aunt Julie!) Of course I'm sure it did wear her down playing as she hasn't had to do that is some time. As you can see from the picture Stacia is now 8, so it has been some time since Julie has had to keep up with a two year old!!!

Coloring!!!

Olivia loves to play with markers, she of course loves to mark on herself more than the coloring books, but what two-year old doesn't. The good thing is that I managed to find washable markers that are indeed washable, it comes off with a wet wipe. They don't require major scrubbing, at least they haven't so far!!! Thank goodness because she always ends up with marks all over her face and in her mouth!!!!!

Fall Leafs

I have always loved fall, especially when all the leafs fall off of the tree. I had to get Olivia involved in it this year. It took a little coaxing but after convincing her it was alright and getting her to help Daddy rake up some leaves, we finally managed to get her to play in them and she loved it!!! She had more fun throwing leaves on Momma (thanks to daddy showing her that fun game) than she did just playing in them.

First Nap in the Big Girl Bed!

This is Olivia taking her first nap in the Big Girl Toddler bed and as you can see even the babies have their very own bed! She got it thanks to the curtiosy of Shanna! The pillows were the greatest garage sale find ever for me, 10 cents each and I guess they are the most comfortable pillows she has ever had, she has to sleep with them every night. The blanket was made for me by Grandma, but guess who took it over! I've only got to use it once and that was only until she saw I had it and took it away. She loves the bed or at least to play in it anyways!!! The only reason she is in asleep in the bed here is because she went to sleep in my lap and I carried her in there and put her in her bed!!! Which by the way is not as easy as it used to be, now she still is small for her age but I remember carrying this teensy tiny baby that you barely felt like you were holding and now here she is a big Two Year old with her own Toddler bed. My how fast they grow up!!

A big kiss!!!!!

Here's a big kiss from Olivia to you!! Please excuse the messy face, just got done eating dinner!!!!

Olivia and NaNa

My grandmother, Grace (dad's mom), turned 94 this year! She absolutely adores Olivia and Olivia is very fond of NaNa. I think we have to take their picture together almost everytime we go down there. This one was taken shortly after Olivia turned 2. I just thought I would share this picture with you all. Not very many of us make it to see 94, most of do well to see half of that age now a days.