Welcome Home Aunt Anne!!

In December, we welcomed my sister, Anne, home from Afghanistan. Anne is in the Army National Guard and was deployed to Kandahar, Afganistan in May of 2009. She was supposed to be there for about a year, however her unit was called home in December. We are thrilled to have her back with us! 8 months is a long time for anyone, but she couldn't wait to come over and see how much her favorite (ok...only) niece had grown while she was gone. The best part about this visit was the fact that Olivia acted like Anne never left in the first place. She went right up to her when she came over and of course dragged her to her toy room to play!

Anne and Olivia along with her camel which was a gift from Afghanistan. The hat the camel is wearing is an army hat with "Kandahar Afghanistan" on the front, her name embroidered on the side, and her name in Arabic embroidered on the other side. Liv loves it!!

Liv playing dress up.

Anne and Liv reading one of her favorite books.

Olivia just had to put on the new sweatshirt that Anne bought her!

Time for dinner!

We're thrilled you're home Anne! Welcome back!!!!

Giving Thanks...Visitors from North Carolina!

Just before Thanksgiving, Chris's dad and stepmom came up from North Carolina to visit us for a couple of days. The day they arrived, we made our own big Thanksgiving dinner complete with turkey and mashed potatoes. The next day, we wanted to show them the sights of West Michigan. Well what sights we could considering it was November, it was cold, and they were calling for rain! We started out in downtown Grand Rapids with breakfast at the Omlette Shoppe. During breakfast, they asked about where they may be able to buy signs for their cottage on the lake. One place came to mind...Holland! So we headed to the lakeshore. We had a great time walking around the shops, but I don't think Phil and Debbie bought anything for their cottage.

Phil, Olivia, and Debbie

Olivia stopping to check out one of the many Christmas trees decorating downtown Holland.

Liv just couldn't resist climbing up into this bed with all of those stuffed animals laying there. Phil and Debbie couldn't resist buying her the black bear that she kept cuddling with!

Chris, Olivia, and Phil.

A tuckered out Olivia.

We did drive Phil and Debbie down to Holland State Park so they could see Lake Michigan. We didn't get out for a walk for 2 reasons. 1. Liv was sleeping. 2. It was too darn cold! We drove along Lake Shore Drive up to Grand Haven and along the coast there. Trying to show them the sights. We had dinner in Allendale at Peppinos, and gave them the nickle tour of GVSU (where Chris went to school). It felt cheesy to us, but they said they had a great time. We sure hope they will head back this way when the weather is warmer and we can do more outdoor activities! No matter what, we had a great couple of days with them here.

First Playdate at Play World

In November, Olivia and I met up with one of our friends and her little girl for a play date at Play World. Play World is a large indoor play area for kids. They have arcade games, an inflateable slide, maze, and bounce house, 2 separate climbing areas with various ball pits and slides, kiddie cars, and every Little Tykes play house that was ever created. The girls had a great time, and Olivia enjoyed most everything....

Oliva (in the pink car) and Rachel (in the red car) had a great time just driving around.

Then they explored many of the climbing structures and play houses. Olivia really seemed to enjoy playing in this one!

The big ball pit was a favorite. There were 2 others the girls played in (designed more for younger kids like them), but this was the best because it was bigger and had more balls!

Even though they didn't play any arcade games, Rachel and Olivia really enjoyed climbing in and out of the cars (you know, the ones that cost money to make them go).

The slide wasn't a favorite. I had finally convinced Olivia to climb around like Rachel was, but then she got scared when she couldn't see me any more. I pointed out how she could go down the slide to get to me, but she wasn't crazy about that either!

The bounce house, however, quickly became a favorite!

We really had a great time at Play World, but I'm hoping the more often I can take her the more likely she will be to go off and explore on her own. Right now, I would say she is not the adventurous type!

Halloween Fun

We had such a fun Halloween weekend. The weekend started off with trick-or-treating at my mom's work, Gordon Food Service (GFS). Every year the different departments decorate their areas and set out bowls of candy. The employees and their families are then invited to go around the office trick-or-treating. For this indoor event, Olivia was an adorable ladybug. Unfortunately for me, my camera had died and I wasn't able to get any pictures. I have to get copies of the ones my mom took so I can share them with everyone! (Hint hint...wink wink mom!)

Olivia then went home with my mom because Chris and I had an adult Halloween party planned for later that night. What an awesome and fun break for us. So many of our friends showed up and all in costume. Although I think the scaries costumes we saw that night came from that mob of Michigan fans! It will take me weeks to get that sight out of my mind!!! Chris dressed up as...

Billy Mays!

On Saturday night we invited our friends Deb and Tim and their son Luke over to go trick-or-treating. Luke and Olivia were a little bride and groom! Deb and I took the kids around the neighborhood, and the guys manned the fire with our next door neighbors and passed out candy to the handful of kids that came around.

Luke and Olivia waiting to go trick-or-treating.

Getting their first candy from our neighbors across the street.

Olivia posing with the ghost at another neighbor's house.

Considering how cold and windy it was that night, the kids did really good. Finally Debbie and I had enough and brought the kids back to our house.

I think Luke's favorite part of the night was pulling Olivia in the wagon. We should have attached a bunch of cans to the back of the wagon along with a sign that said "Just Married"!

Singing Her Heart Out

This was just too cute not to share! Her microphone is an old phone charger and if you listen carefully you will pick up bits and pieces of the alphabet song. Olivia loves to sing and I am hoping that one day she will cantor with her dad at church.

What Happens When a Toddler Wakes Up Too Early

Well I guess Olivia's rough nights have finally caught up with her. Lately she has been waking up a couple of times in the middle of the night and often as early as 5:30-6:00 in the morning. I pray that this is only a phase and will soon pass. Earlier this week she barely finished her lunch before she started falling asleep at the table. At one point, she couldn't even get her last bite of food in her mouth before she began nodding off again. It was so funny and I hate to say it, it happened twice in a row.

Grand Rapids Children's Museum

Today, Olivia and I went with our friends to the Grand Rapids Children's Museum. What a wonderful way to spend the morning! We had never been there before and I had been dying to see what it was like, afterall I had heard so many great things about the museum. I definitely wasn't disappointed. There were so many things for the kids to do and you never felt rushed or that your child would be pushed out of the way. I couldn't decide on just a few pictures to share, so I picked a little bit of everything to show how much fun we had.

Luke and Olivia outside of the museum.

Exploring the grocery store.

Experimenting with the spinning disk table. The large grey disk infront of Olivia was spinning on its own. Kids had the opportunity to put smaller disks of varying sizes on the larger disk and watch them spin off. (I'm sure this is related to physics somehow, but Chris wasn't there to give us our lesson!!)

Olivia and Luke played in the Medivac Helicopter. There were buttons and switches galore! Best of all, no fighting over who would pursh what.

Olivia loved playing in the bubble water more than she liked trying to make the bubbles. I had fun making the bubbles!

Here Olivia is checking out one of the many funhouse type mirrors that the museum had.

This one is for you Uncle Larry!

With it being Fire Prevention Month, the kids visiting the museum had the chance to dress up in the type of clothes that firefighters use. There was also a "fire truck" for the kids to play in (turn on the siren, light up the lights, pretend to drive, steps to climb up and a slide to go down), a house that taught fire safety, and a firefighter puzzle.

This "tunnel" had mirrors on all three sides on the inside, so when you looked just right...

it created a kalidescope effect! Way cool!!

Luke and Olivia took some time to play with the train table.

I've never seen anything like this before. There were holes in the plexiglass where the kids could drop the balls into the frame. Then at the bottom, there is a handle for the kid to pull out that would drop all of the balls out. Olivia didn't figure that part out, but she loved all of the balls.

Here Olivia is "washing" her hands in the toddler size kitchen.

As I said before, we had so much fun here and I can't wait to take Olivia back...soon. I love the fact that there are permanent exhibits that you can always count on, but the museum also changes many of the exhibits so there is something new to do there the next time you come. That fact alone has enticed me to purchase there family membership.

Vacuuming with Mommy

Olivia's favorite thing to do lately is whatever I am doing. She wants to help. Well, tonight I was vacuuming and Olivia decided once again she needed to help. At least she went and got her on vacuum versus trying to use mine with me. I thought it was so cute, that I asked Chris to video what she was doing. Enjoy!!

Play Doh!

We decided it was time for Olivia to try Play Doh! I wasn't sure how she would like it, but she really seemed to enjoy it. And the Play Doh never entered her mouth!

I sat with Olivia and played with her to model how to play with the Play Doh. Here she is watching me to figure out what to do.

Next, Olivia practiced smooshing the Play Doh. Another new word for her!

I love the look of concentration. She really wanted to roll her Play Doh the way I did, but just didn't understand how to do it. She also kept asking me to make her a ball. Her new favorite type of toy. It looks like Play Doh is a success and will me a sanity saver this winter.

Parish Picnic

Today our church had its annual Parish Picnic. There was food, music, games, and plenty of time to visit with friends. This year was tons of fun for Olivia. She was finally able to play the games and explore the sights. I had a great time just watching her!

Olivia actually sat still to get her face painted! I wasn't sure if she would, but was thrilled when she did.

Mom picked a heart for her cheek and she actually left it alone!

After Liv picke out a duck in the duck pond, she tried her luck at the clothespin drop. I'm sure the big kids had to stand up and drop the clothespins from a certain height, but toddlers got to drop the pins into the bowl anyway they wanted.

Next, Olivia "played" the bucket toss.

This game was a treasure hunt. White poker chips were buried in the sand and the kids had to search through the sand for them. Olivia didn't really understand that part; she enjoyed playing in the sand more! I guess it reminded her of her own sandbox.

The last game Olivia got to play was a bean bag toss game. She was really good at dropping the bean bags right into the holes!

I also took Olivia over to the kids who were making balloon creations. They made her a flower, which she is sniffing upside down.

From the moment we arrived at the picnic, Olivia wanted to jump in the inflatable bounce house. Finally, at the end of the day I told her she could go and jump for awhile. Boy was she excited! Once she crawled in, she was a little aprehensive to stand up and jump. Our friend's daughter was kind enough to take Liv by the hands and help her jump around. I think this was her favorite part of the day!

Olivia had a really busy afternoon. I was hoping being out in the sunshine and playing all afternoon would really wear her out because SOMEONE decided to wake up at 6 AM!! An hour earlier than normal!! We didn't go home until 2:30, and as I walked up our sidewalk this is what I discovered....

I guess my plan worked better than I thought!

John Ball Zoo Outing

Earlier this week, we took a trip to the zoo with Chris' sister and her family. John Ball Zoo isn't the most extravigant, but it is nice for a local trip. We had 3 girls under the age of 2 (technically AJ turned 2 in July...), and boy did they have fun!

Olivia posing for a picture in the aquarium. AJ didn't want to stand by her, so Liv was on her own.
The gang checking out the sea life. Uncle Vern, Aunt Jennie, Chris, AJ, and Olivia (Bella is in the backpack that Vern is wearing)

During the summer months, the zoo has sting rays for people to pet (which of course costs extra!) Initially, the girls were really intersted in trying to touch the sting rays.

But after their first encounter, they were more content just watching them swim around.

I just had to post this adorable picture of Bella.

Olivia and AJ get a break from their strollers to play cowgirl!

We all had a great time, but Olivia was the first to fall asleep. Quite honestly, I was surprised she lasted as long as she did!

Bella was next. And, yes, she is sleeping in the backpack!
AJ held out...she never fell asleep.
It was nice getting out with family and enjoying some quality time together.