Baby Olive

It's about time I share some pictures of our newest little friend...Miss Olive.  Her Mom, Julia, had to go back to work yesterday so I thought the least I could do would be to provide her with something to stare at for a few hours while she avoids diving into her never-ending string of emails.  I'm a giver like that.

So here is Miss Olive.  Olive is a couple of months old now.  She was really past the point of trying to perform "newborn" pictures but we gave it our all anyway.  I've been around Olive quite a few times now and about 95% of the time she is sleeping.  Not on this day, on this day she was ready to PAAAAAARTAY!  I waited her out to get a few of those peaceful sleeping baby shots though, and I'm glad I did.  She looks so sweet you just want to steal her right out of the picture and cuddle her for hours.  Best part of it is, I'm her neighbor so I actually do get to pick her up and snuggle her often.  Makes me happy, I think it makes Olive happy and it makes my boys happy because then I don't make them snuggle me.  Win...Win...Win.  Welcome Baby Olive, we love you dearly.

Magic House

So this year I decided it was a good idea to become a member of the Magic House.  And now it seems my sole purpose in life is to make sure said membership was worth the money.  I'm happy to report that as of this blogpost, we have gotten our money's worth!  I'll spare you a blogpost every time we go, but on this particular day I did bring my camera so you get to see some magic in action.  The Magic House is starting to be a little more challenging these days.  Nolan is past some of the areas that are focused on littler kids so we have to do some splitting up at points in order to make both kids happy.  Bennett loves it all, but likes to keep moving.  Nolan tends to be more of a lingerer trying to figure every last detail out.  I send Chad with Nolan most of the time, he's kind of a lingerer and I'm kind of a lets keep it moving kind of girl.  For now, everyone is happy.  I mean who wouldn't be in a place like this...

 

Christmas in KC

The weekend after Christmas we packed it up and headed to Kansas City to celebrate Christmas with my parents and my brother and his family.  I know it breaks my Mom's heart a little that we all aren't together on actual Christmas day but personally I like this situation a little better because we get to enjoy 3 days together instead of just a couple of hours while we try to split our time equally between families.  Sorry Mom but it's true.  Anyway, splitting up the holiday also gave me time to realize that my "first" Christmas looks like I wasn't there at all.  Not one picture with me in it.  SOOO, you can imagine what I made everyone do while in KC right?  You betcha, I made them go outside in the freezing cold and take a few pictures.  One day (a long time from now) when the boys are flipping through pictures I'm sure they will be happy to see that I was actually at our Christmas celebrations.  Not a bunch of pictures to see here, but a few I will treasure for years to come.

  

Christmas Miracle Year 2

Anyone who knows me knows that I'm a LITTLE crazy about pictures. This bugs my husband (and kids) just a LITTLE.  But it seems every once in a while both my husband and my kids will throw me a bone and participate in pictures as long as the event takes approximately 2 minutes or less.  Lucky for me for the past two years some random person has decorated a lonely tree in a field right down the street from our house.  This year they did not decorate said tree until like a day or two before Christmas, I was getting worried I might need to be the "random" person that decorated it this year!  And don't think for a second I won't do it myself if next year it is not decorated.  Anyway, the tree was decorated and I "warned" Chad as we were leaving on Christmas day for dinner that we were going to stop at the tree and get a picture.  No protesting allowed, it was happening.  And it did.  And the boys cooperated for my 2 minutes of glory.  And I love the result.  Christmas miracles do happen.