Happy Holidays!

     For our first Christmas down south my Mum and Moe came down to spend it with us!  We were all very excited but sad that Aunty Mags couldn't make it...We had an action packed few days and visited Opryland hotel, did lot's of shopping, and relaxed!  It was so relaxing to have my Mom here, I really don't think I even changed a diaper the entire time she was here!  Papa Moe was pretty surprised at my large appetite, since I could eat him and Steve under the table ( I blame it on the baby!!)  Santa was very good to Olivia this year, she had so many presents from Santa and Mimi and Papa Moe that we had to open in two separate heats in the morning. Olivia got a mini-trampoline which she hasn't gotten off of in days! She is exhausted from it the jumping, I will try and upload a video of her, very cute!  You forget how fun Christmas is when you have a little one in the house.  It takes the stress out of the holidays and reminded us to be thankful of all the great family we have in our lives. Liv was so excited about Santa coming, and we left out cookies and read The Night Before Christmas on Daddy's lap!  It's so fun to start new traditions and carry old ones on to Olivia :)

Mimi and Liv during bath time!

Christmas Eve

Liv's first time baking apple pie with Mimi!

christmas morning!

Tn first snowfall on Christmas in 37 years!

Manny helping Mimi pull Liv in the sled

Opryland Christmas tree...HUGE!

Moe looking like a stick next to preggers here!

Liv was a little scared on the train ride!

Notice Liv holding on for dear life....it went about 2 mph!

Boat ride inside Opryland, very fun!

Cookie decorating!

    Right before the holiday we headed over to our friend Chloe's house for some holiday cookie decorating.  I knew what to expect before we went over and had Olivia eat a fruit salad for breakfast to try and offset the large amount of sugar I knew she would be consuming!! The girls had a blast and was fun to catch up with the other mom's :)

the girls ready to bake!

Olivia did really well with the rolling pin, until she started slamming it on the table!

deep in thought about the cookie cutting situation

the girls posing for a picture :)

notice each cookie half-eaten...

there is cookie's underneath the sprinkles I swear!

Gingerbread houses!

A few days ago, we had to of our new friend's over to make gingerbread houses.  I know everyone is thinking whoa...we know Paige's cooking skills.....don't worry everyone this was a pre-made gingerbread house where all you have to do is decorate it.  In my head I had this image of Liv perfectly decorating a Martha Stewart house, it didn't come out exactly like that though! More of the candy went into Liv's belly than on the house, which was the same with the other two little girls and perhaps why by 10:30 the three of them were doing laps around our house!! Here are a few pictures, enjoy :)

sugar-high dazed stare

gingerbread in action

she was licking the frosting off the gingerbread house at this point..

lot's of energy to burn off!

Manny helping out (of course)

final product only a mother could love

Olivia and her Daddy!

I am not sure whether or not I have mentioned this or not yet, but Liv is now obsessed with her Dad!  She cries every morning when he leaves for work, screams his name when she wakes up from nap, and he literally cannot put her down for a solid 45 min. from the second he walks in the door. Some mother's may feel jealous that their child is picking favorites, but I am welcoming the break by resting my now swollen pregnant kankle's, or eating a large amount of ice-cream... Liv follow's Steve wherever he goes, and if she cannot follow (in the garage for example) be ready for a full blown screaming fit!

Fixing the vacuum....

Bath time with Daddy!

I loved this picture, had to put it on the blog!

cooking with Daddy!

twins!

WIlderness class and snow....ohh joy!!!!!

Reasons why I hate Wilderness class

1.  It involves a full 30 minutes of singing songs about things like mud, squirrels, and the woods
2. Some weeks, the teacher brings in live animals of what we are learning about....one word...bats..
3. Olivia won't even sit next to me in class anymore...the teenage years have already surfaced!
4. The assortment of live spiders,snakes, and owls out front is nightmare worthy, and of course Liv wants spend 20 min. after class looking at them
5. From the minute we enter, I start timing out how long until I can stop at Panera on the way home.....

Liv looking at all the lovely reptiles!

Again loving the reptiles..

some sort of freak stuffed squirrel that Olivia cats a kitty cat and insists on meowing when she sees it

Sitting across from me in class..... fabulous..

 It recentley snowed in Smyrna, and you would have thought the whole world had blown up.With less than  1/8 of an inch on the ground, schools were closed, mail wasn't delivered and every business was closed.  Of course we went out and played in the snow, however after about 15 minutes of pulling Olivia, and my coat not zipping up because of my stomach, it was time to call it quits!!

relaxing on her sled!

after 2 minutes outside Manny was ready to head in...

Liv then wanted to pull the sled across the yard and.....

sit in the sled and scream "momma" until I pulled her back!

Like mother like daughter!

      As I pulled into the drive-way today, I start to sing a common tune we always heard as kids..."home again home again jiggy jig jog." Who knows what this means or where it came from but I remember my mother saying it for years as a child as we pulled into our driveway. A few days ago when I am trying to put on make-up, (the first time in weeks!) and Liv wanders in and I let her sit and play with my make-up, I remember doing the same thing when I was a kid with the signature clinique green compact.  How about watching Entertainment tonight reading a people magazine...yup that's my idea of a great night and my husband commented last time my mom visited that we both do the same thing!  Why do I bring these memories up? Perhaps it's my raging pregnancy hormones or the fact that after 28 or so years I have come to the realization that................... I am exactly like my mother.  Some women go their entire lives denying this, fighting against it, but I can happily say that I am proud to identify with her.  My mother raised 3 (at times Justin and I were HORRIBLE) kids by herself, worked full time, and went back to school.  You would think that now, as she get's older she would slow down maybe not work as much, but nope she works more than she ever has, yet seems the happiest.  I remember her getting ready to go out as a kid, and we would dance around to oldies in the living room. This also happens to be my husband's tradition every night after bath with our daughter, and there dance party brings me instantly back....and as I sit down and open a people magazine, I realize that I am exactly who I want to be...just like her :)

Nashville Christmas Parade and Cookies!

This year for Christmas, we decided to get our Christmas cards done professionally. It was a very small price difference once we shopped around and ended up getting them done at JCPenny's.  I had this idea of how perfect Olivia was going to be, posing for hundred's of picture's and them telling me she should really be a child model star........I could't have been farther from reality. As I walked into the mall I had a feeling of dread come over me.  It started when we walked by the strollers that look like cars that you can rent for about $10 an hour. Olivia wanted to play in it in her nice christmas outfit, which was not happening on my watch! Fast forward ten minutes and I am dragging her off the mall ground (disgusting I know) as she is kicking me screaming Car!  We finally make it to our store and  I feel like I am going to pass out from carrying her and the baby in my belly.  We get into the studio and Olivia will not sit down. No amount of bribing with smarties is working, and Olivia is terrified of the super-energetic 15 year old taking the pictures.  The photographer has the idea to use props, which sounded like a great idea until I saw what she was talking about.....fake cookies. I knew this was going to end up in disaster and as soon as Olivia tried to take a bite and realized they were fake another break-down quickly followed. You can imagine how the rest of our session went, and the only pictures we got were Olivia smiling before she realized the cookies were fake, but I will take what I can get and hope you all enjoy our Christmas card!

Click on the link below to see the picture's from her session :)

https://viewimages.jcpportraits.com/sharealbum/sharealbumlist?rndId=AAMJAQVPW11ZVg==&uId=AAQEAgRAXQ==


On Friday night we headed to our very first Nashville Christmas Parade. It was so packed that Steve dropped us off and then found a spot about a mile away.  Liv immediately made friends with the kids sitting next to us and one of the little girls showed her that you wave at the floats, it was pretty cute! Steve and I thought that this was going to by your typical small town parade that we were used to back home, boy were we wrong. It resembled the Macy's day parade's with the quality music played by the college bands, the large blow up balloons that were at least 100 feet long, and the actual length of the parade had to be at least 2 or more hours.  After about 45 minutes we had decided to leave because it was getting so cold out and Liv was starting to nod off in her stroller. The next it started to snow and was a great surprise, it really felt like we were back in New England :) We also made cookies in the shape of gingerbread men and candy canes. Although as soon as she got a bite of the cookie dough, I am not sure how much actually got into the oven :)

Notice the beads Olivia had to have on during the parade :)

Hard at work!

Take a guess who made which cookies??

Saving...She's trying to look through the cookie cutters:)

Fall Florida Trip!

Over the holiday we packed up and headed down to Naples. The weather was very warm just about everyday, we really lucked out!  Part of our vacation we got to visit with Papa Billy and Grandma, which was a nice treat since they are Olivia's great-grandparent's on Steve's side of the family.  Instead of writing a lengthy description of our vacation, I thought I would post some of our picture's ( which we all know is the real reason everyone reads the blog :) Hope everyone enjoyed the holiday as much as we did, it will be our last turkey day with just one child! Also- Monday the 6th we find out if we are having a Boy or Girl!! (I am guessing boy)

Steve trying to teach Olivia to kick in the water

Papa rocking Liv to sleep...awwww

Pose #1

Pose #2

and...pose #3....can we say Diva??

Holiday Dress, she refused to walk in those shoes though!

Yes, that is my husband playing shuffleboard with the 80 plus shuffleboard club haha!

Olivia's first haircut

yes she is starring at herself in the mirror!

we took a day and got to visit our best friend Avery!

Olivia's best friend = Avery sharing her apples :)

new haircut and new bathing suit

sitting on the fake reindeer on 5th Ave with Yaya

is that the Hoff (david hasselhoff) behind the munchkin???Nope it's Papa!

This is what my heaven is going to look like...true happiness

Olivia was getting everyone to say "touchdown!"

Papa Moe came over for a visit :)

hmmmmm....these two looking a little too happy?

Olivia donated to the Salvation Army and she got to ring the bells!

Wanted to point out in the left corner of this picture why men should NOT wear speedo's!!