my sweet little family: October 2009

Liv's birthday, and halloween too!

8:15 PM

Little Miss Olivia had a wonderful birthday. Who knew turning 3 lasted 3 weeks long? She has had birthday celebrations for 3 weekends now!

Below is Olivia on her actual birthday, October 24th, opening gifts from Mommy, Daddy, and Avery.

Being the sibling that doesn't get to open anything was a hard pill to swallow for Avery.

Since she had a real cake the week before, she had a grilled cheese cake this time! She DID get to have the birthday song sung to her, and blow out candles again though...

A delivery came this last week from Aunt Rachelle, Uncle DJ, and Cousin Noah! Liv (and Avery) LOVED it, and have played with it numerous times since she opened up! Thank you!!!

Here is what happens when Mommy says, "smile for me, okay?"

This time I did ask for a funny face! I think they delivered on that one!

This was our first year participating in Halloween. Avery asked us after last year if we could try it this year, so we did. Liv got to be Ariel, and Avery was Madeline.

We went Trick or Treating downtown earlier in the day....total waste of time.....

The girls looked cute and had fun, but not the adults....

We went out again tonight into our neighborhood and that was lots of fun! I think we must have a really great neighborhood for trick or treating!

Nana Dianne got her yesterday, so we have been having a lot of fun with her! Our Nanas and Bapas live too far away from us, and we just wish they would all retire and move here to live closer to us! :) :)

We went and got professional photos taken today of the girls, and I am itching to show them off here. Let's just say that if you think my girls' eyes look good in the photos that I take, just wait till you see what the wonderful photographer was able to capture....

Happy 3rd Birthday Olivia!

7:04 AM

Sweet, sweet Olivia...spunky, stubborn, sensitive, shy, and sweet little Livie...

Today you are 3. Your daddy and I look at you and marvel at how blessed we are that you are ours.
You have brought so much love, energy and laughter into our family, and we just adore to pieces.

You have so many sweet sensitive moments that make us want to just scoop you up and give you hugs and kisses, and then you have so many spunky moments where you are so darn funny that we just can't laugh enough!
You are so spirited, and we are so blessed to have you Livie...

Happy, happy birthday to our beautiful blue eyed girl...

a gift 'fo me?'

10:23 AM

Liv got a package in the mail the other day from Uncle Jon and Aunt Holly!
When she saw it, she said "Fo me?" She LOVES to get mail!

She took her time opening it up, and had squeals of joy when she saw......

a.....

Cinderella outfit and crown!!! Liv screeched "Ah-sella", which means Cinderella...

Don't you think it goes great with her eyes? Aunt Holly thought so!

She has been wearing the outfit and taking the singing Princess card around with her and dancing....

Thanks Uncle Jon and Aunt Holly! She LOVES it!

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In other news, Avery has been wanting alone time from Liv I guess.
She made this sign for her door, and I thought it was really funny!!!

christmas cards

11:33 PM

I'm loving the colors of my new Christmas Card Collection for 2009.

{if interested, contact me @ jennisajoy(at)gmail(dot)com}

{these are just a few...more listed here}

qualified

9:16 PM

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Today I went to a meeting with the school district to discuss whether or not Olivia will qualify to have speech/language service. Liv has had a speech teacher come to our home for the past 9 months, and with her turning 3, those services end and she gets turned over to the school district.

After going through about 2 hours of tests (on 3 different occasions), Liv was found to still need speech therapy. She has good imitative speech, but her spontaneous speech and articulation are very intelligible.

So, starting next week, Liv will go to the new school in town and see the most awesome speech teacher two times a week.

We are so pleased with the progress that Olivia has made and we look forward to seeing how she grows and develops with her new teacher!!!

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school conferences....

11:07 PM

hubby and i went and met with Mrs. L on Monday night for 1st quarter conferences for Avery! We were so fortunate that Mrs. L had some cancelled conferences after us, so we got to chat with her for a long time!

We are, of course, so proud of sweet Avery. She is reading at the level of a 3rd grader, 9 months into the school year (wouldn't that be considered at the end of 3rd grade???) She is behaving herself, is kind to her classmates, is very focused on her school work, and is just overall a "gifted" student. She got the highest grades that they are giving for 1st quarter also!

We are so proud of her, and hope she keeps it up!

Fall skirts...

4:18 PM

The girls received these beautiful skirts from a blog client of mine {The Sassy Ruffle}, but the weather has been soooo cold here that we haven't been able to get a little photo shoot done with them yet! It was about 55 degrees here today, so we decided to layer up and take some photos at the park in town! Enjoy!

Livie is turning 3!

8:16 PM

Liv turns 3 on the 24th, so the celebrations with the out of town grandparents has begun! Nana Judy and Bapa Ron (and the 3 puppies) came down today for the weekend to celebrate with us!

My blue eyed beauty!

Liv was so patient opening her gifts....

Big sister Avery and Nana Judy helped her read her card!

Sweet baby Liv and Phoebe!

We sang to her, and she had the cutest little grin...

ahhhh.....love this photo of my sweet girl!

i love her expressions!

We finished out the day with dinner at our favorite restaurant, and right now, we're laughing hysterically at Nana Judy, and watching our local football team on Tv. Lots of fun going on here!

swap!

4:07 PM

As I mention often, I LOVE to swap services! I saw a blog with 2 sisters who turn trash and mismatched stuff into beautiful decor! We got in touch with each other, and a trade was birthed!

Here is what I did for them: (without the orange background, of course!)

And today, here is what arrived at my home from them!!!

I am so excited to find places for all these fun things! :) Thanks Whitney and Ashley

[Liv loved jumping on the packing paper and listening to it pop!!!]

because i don't have much going on here to entertain you.....

10:44 AM

introducing the....Placenta Teddy Bear

A crafty alternative for those who don’t necessarily want to eat their baby’s placenta, but want to pay their respects to the life sustaining organ by turning it into a one-of-a-kind teddy bear.

no....this is not a joke....

i refuse...

5:56 PM

to believe that winter is here....

it snowed here on Friday night and into Saturday, just hours after the leaves fell off our tree...

i am going to enjoy fall....even if there is snow on the ground...

it's raining men leaves

7:40 PM

We woke up this morning to a yard FULL of leaves! I think fall literally threw up in our yard.

Instead of complaining about the fact that we actually have to somehow pick all of these up, the girls and I decided to take advantage and have some fun!!! (Let daddy worry about picking them up!)

It was about 45-50 degrees here today, so we had to bundle up in our fall coats!

I don't know why jumping in the leaves is such a fun thing to do, but they were very excited!

my toothless beauty....i told her she looks like a jack-o-lantern!

I think this was Liv's first real experience with the whole 'jumping in leaves' thing...

she could have stayed out there for hours!

sweet Liv is turning 3 later this month...man, how time flies...

sometimes they really do get along....

and down-right just love each other...

i can't wait to see how this relationship develops

Piper loved chasing the girls around (and the mailman, and the neighbors too...thus the chain) (also, Thursday was the 1 year anniversary of us getting this puppy!!!)

Avery and Liv were "leaf scientists". Avery is studying leaves at school, so she was very interested in doing some scientific outside work.

we threw leaves at each other, chased each other around, laughed...fun afternoon on a non-school day!