6 Months Old!

It's hard to believe that today Little O is 6 months old.  Where does the time go?!?

Being her mom is the best, hardest most amazing thing I've ever done in my life.

What little Livy is up to as of today:
Eats solid foods twice a day in addition to about 5 bottles.
She LOVES bananas and sweet potatoes.  She goes nuts for those.  She tolerates anything green after you try giving it to her once or twice. 
She sleeps between 10-11 hours at night. And lately she must know it's the weekend because she's been sleeping past 9 on Saturdays.  I'll take it!
She take between 2-4 naps a day. They usually only last about an hour.
She can roll over from tummy to back and back to tummy.  But mostly from tummy to back.  She hates tummy time!
She LOVES football.  Seriously.  She is definitely her mom and dad's girl:)
She loves people.  She doesn't get fussy when new people want to hold her.  She loves the attention.
She got her ears pierced when grammie was here last month.
She loves her Tinkerbell that papa got her for Christmas.  And she likes watching Tinkerbell on Netflix while "Helping" mommy work!
She helps mommy around the house by being a good girl either playing on the floor, or in her new activity center.
She's sitting up for about half a second.
She loves talking to aunties, cousins and most of all her grammie on the phone.
She's had a few play dates with Mimi.  She loves her Mimi!

Some of the things Jeff said he loves about her:
She's calm
Loves her squeals
Loves seeing her face when he gets her up in the morning or from naps.  She kicks her legs real fast and gets real excited.
She's a good eater.
Learns fast. 
He loves it when people at the store comment on how cute she is.
So good to take to work.

Mommy and Daddy and anybody else who knows you, LOVES YOU SO MUCH!
We're so grateful you came into our lives.  You have given it so much more meaning.

P.S. Please don't hate me for the fashion choices I made for you when you were defenseless.  Trust me, everyone thinks you're adorable:)

Love, Mom

Grandma!!!!!!!!!!!

My mom came to visit at the beginning of December.   She was here for almost a WHOLE glorious week. 
We savored EVERY minute of it.

We shopped, cooked, watched TV, Liv got lots and lots of grammie cuddles, played games,

(notice who has to hold the poor little baby while she gets "poked")

talked, saw Christmas Lights, got ears pierced (Liv not me or my mom), made Christmas goodies........(and most importantly my mom got to witness our HORRID neighbors moving.  No more pit bulls!!!!!).

"If you think I'm ever letting go of her, you're CRAZY!" Said Little O.

 Chichasha Lights.  Next time I hope we're not in front of annoying hazard lights guy!

Homemade Toffee

There is something about this picture that is so tender.  It makes me tear up every time I see it.  My mom is just so amazing and special.  There's nothing she loves more than her family.

I treasure these visits with my mom. My mom said she was worried that Olivia would look at her and cry when she first saw her. Ummmm, I can officially say Olivia is OBSESSED with her grammie. I don't think she let go of her the whole time she was here. And she couldn't take her eyes off of her. It was almost like she was saying, "I remember you from when I was born, why did you leave me with these two?????? I don't think she'll ever have to worry about any of her grand kids not remembering her. They all simply ADORE her.
Thanks for taking time out your busy life mom to come see us on the prairie. We're counting down the days until we get to see you again!
We LOVE you!!!!!!!!!
P.S. Now if only some aunties would come visit...Ahem!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

We had another great Christmas and New Year's here on the prairie.  While it was hard missing out on being with my family in Utah, I'm lucky to have Jeff and Liv and Jeff's family here to celebrate with.  We had such a great couple weeks with extra days off work and responsibilities.

Christmas Eve we went to dinner at Zio's with Jeff's family and Lana's brother's family (tradition).  We skipped out on the movie this year.  We didn't think Little O would appreciate it....and people in the theater wouldn't appreciate us for bringing her:)

Christmas morning Olivia opened her presents from Santa.  She is SO cute.  I think she mostly just liked ripping the paper!

Then the rest of the day was spent at the Hale's opening gifts, eating, playing games, and Jeff taking Olivia "sledding" with stiff objections from mama:)

It was a really great day.  I can't wait until Olivia gets older and understands how truly MAGICAL Christmas is.  I'm SO grateful to celebrate the birth of our Savior.  Because of him I get to be with my family Forever!

 

New Year's Eve outfit.  From grandma and grandpa Slade.  We HAD to represent:)

Olivia LOVES her Hale cousins.  Miss Haley is such a big helper with her.  And Olivia loves her!

On New Year's Eve we again went to the Hale's and ate appetizers and played games, then celebrated "midnight" with the East Coast.  I think if we had waited any longer Liv would have not made it.

 I was shocked she stayed up until 11:00......There's just something about being at Mimi's that makes those kids want to stay up:)

The next day I think we literally spent about 99% of it lounging in bed watching TV and taking naps.  Liv was a champ and took around 7 hours worth of naps.  I think she was worn out from the Holiday's!

I'm looking forward to the New Year.  I have lots to look forward to and be thankful for.

Milk

Taken a few months ago...                                                 

Taken today after a diaper mishap.....

 

 

 Milk.  It does a body good.

Am I a terrible mom that I can't stop laughing at the 2nd picture?  She looks like the Michelin Man!

Thankful

More than ever before I have SO much to be thankful for.
I'm thankful for my husband.  He's kind and sweet and BEYOND patient with me.  He can fix anything.  He fixes all my crafts that I start. He helps me cook and clean when I feel overwhelmed. He tickles my back every night.    He's an AMAZING father. He's a great provider.  He's my confidant, my best friend, he's my EVERYTHING.




I'm thankful for my beautiful daughter.  If I had known at 20 that having to wait 13 more years to be her mom would result in her, I wouldn't have been so impatient.  She was worth the wait.  Her smile undoes me.  Knowing that at times I'm all she needs completes me.

I'm thankful for my parents.
I'm thankful for my sisters/best friends.
I'm thankful for my brothers.
I'm thankful for great in-laws.
I'm thankful for friends both near and far.
I'm thankful for the gospel.
I'm thankful for my warm cozy house.
I'm thankful for my job that allows me to keep O with me.
I'm thankful for our car that still starts up every morning and allows us to get out of debt little by little by not making a car payment.
I'm thankful I live in America.

I'm just thankful.

Working Girl

When I first found out I was pregnant I was worried about what we would do about the loss of income when I would have the baby.  I've always know that when I finally became a mother I didn't want anyone else taking care of Olivia.  It was really important for Jeff and myself that we were the ones taking care of her.  I knew that that would mean a lot of sacrifices.  But I knew it would be worth it.

 When I told my boss that I was pregnant he right away said that I could bring the baby to work with me and that they would be flexibly with my hours.  It felt good that they wanted me to stay so much that they were willing to work with me.
On the other hand I'll be honest that I would rather be at home taking care of Olivia and my home and Jeff full time.  But we're working really hard to get out of debt (I'm now done to 1 credit card from 8 when we got married) so that I can stay at home full-time.
But at least I get to take little O to work with me and I'm the one taking care of her.    And she sure does make the work day go by faster.  When you divide your hours into every 2 there's a feeding, diaper change, playing and trying to get to sleep, it zips by!!
On Friday's I have Med clinic so Jeff usually takes her to work with him.  We've been extremely blessed we have flexible work situations so we can do this!

She is SUCH a trooper.  And everyone at both offices falls in love with her the minute they see her. 

She will pretty much fall asleep anywhere!  Thank goodness for the bassinet loan from auntie Kelli:)
And you'll notice we're training her to earn her keep early:)
She LOVES daddy's new office space!

It's FALL!!!!

Even though we hit digits in the 90's this week, the Oklahoma Hale's are officially decorated for fall! 


I think it was around September 1st (or possibly sooner) that Livy and I pulled out the Halloween tub from the garage and starting putting our decorations up. 
I introduced her to all our witch friends.  She loves them!



On my birthday Jeff took me Halloween shopping and we showed Livy a witch and she would laugh and smile, it was so cute.  We showed her a ghost and no reaction....This girl takes after her mama!

Last Friday started out as a horrible one.  I had to work about 9 hours and Jeff took care of little O.  It was my first time away from her for so long.  It was horrible! (this is a picture of the little stinker after she pooped her pants at papa's and daddy's office.  I couldn't stop laughing, she looks like she's ticked off at being in only a diaper, but don't worry she's still wearing her bracelet).

  But it ended up great because her daddy took us out to dinner and on the way home we found this:

It's the cutest little pumpkin patch place here in Edmond.  Jeff said they have been there for years.  I was literally squealing with delight.  We got there the first day they opened. 

We loaded up our wagon with pumpkins and mums (and a little baby).  We also got a bale of hay and a cornstalk for our front porch.

Little O even got her own pumpkin for free!

The best part about this place is that we didn't have our checkbook on us and they just gave us an invoice and told us we could send them a check!  I love small town places like this.  They've earned our business for years to come.

And for the first time I wasn't sad to not be in Boston for the fall.  Sure I miss it, but this is my home and look at the fun things we get to do right in our own little town! 

I'm glad we're making memories for our little family to look back on in years to come.

Here's a picture (taken through my car window) of our front porch.  I love this time of year!