Coloring Easter Eggs!

Get that camera out of here!

Strong woman!

Coloring Eggs for Easter!

This past Thursday evening Aunt Jen had Olivia and I over to color Easter eggs. She was interested in it, but I think Jennifer and I had more fun than she did. Olivia did color a few and put stickers on them for us. We stripped her down for the job, since it can be a messy task. She found other ways to entertain herself in the process like all of aunt Jen's cool toys and lifting weights. Look out American Gladiators!

She then announced she had to go poopy. She was making such a ruckus in the bathroom we had to snap pictures. She was not happy at us for getting the camera out. I can't say that I blame her. She'll hate me even more in about 14 years for the photos. She was screaming "No, don't take my picture!" Jennifer even got it on video. She has marinara sauce all over her face too if anyone is wondering what's on her face.

Good Friday was not so good to us. I have been stressing over Andy becoming self employed this year and tax season. We have been setting aside a decent amount for when the big day came. I've been preparing for the worst, but hoping for the best and that maybe we'd have money left over. Well on Friday we met with the accountant and nothing is finalized, but all I can say is "OUCH!" Good thing our cruise is already paid for or we'd be cancelling. So we are going to go and enjoy ourselves on our cruise and worry about Uncle Sam when we return.

We are all ready for Easter. Aunt Joan and Scott came up and treated Elizabeth's family and ours out to lunch at Fantail today. It was so good to see them and catch up. It's nice having Joan so close, but we still don't manage to see enough of each other. It's reassuring knowing she's so nearby if we do need her though. After lunch we went shopping. Andy even bought a new suit today! I know a big shocker, but it's true, he did. We head out for our cruise in less than 2 weeks now and he wanted a suit for the formal night, and his old suit has gotten enough wear. He cleans up nice when he needs to. Don't worry I'll get pictures of him in it to post. Next weekend we head to Minnesota. It's a busy time for us now, but thankfully some enjoyable and relaxing times are ahead. Life should slow down after all of the fun then too.

Scared for the Last Time

While I was working on the computer tonight, Olivia was slithering around in the dark in the room next to me. She was being all too quiet so I asked, "What are you up to Squirt?" She replied with a whine, and then said, "You scare me mommy!" I said, "Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you." She then hollered, "You scared me for the last time!" It was too cute. I then had to go find her and she hid from me in the pillows on the couch.

I just love the random things that come out of her mouth. One of her new lines is "Glad to meet you." She has to shake your hand as she says this.

For those of you who don't know I am a Days of our Lives fan. Olivia gets the pleasure of watching it with me from time to time. As a family we watch The Biggest Loser every Tuesday night. When this was on one night Olivia started screaming, "Mommy, she's from your show!" She was referring to the host Alison Sweeney on Biggest Loser who plays Sami Brady on Days of our Lives. I was so surprised to see her make that connection. Andy had on American Idol a few weeks ago and one of the singers sang the song "Hallelujah." Olivia right away said "This is my song, this is on Shrek!" She was correct, it is a song on Shrek and she was so excited to hear it. She seems to make a lot of connections these days, so we really need to watch what we say around her. We rented the movie A Night at the Museum a week ago and after watching one time Olivia dubbed it the Dinosaur movie and knew almost all the characters names. We also had to all take turns pretending to be characters in the movie and act out scenes. It is now her new favorite movie and was quite sad when we had to return it to the video store. Who knows, maybe the Easter Bunny will slip it in her basket.

Just a few random pictures I took that I liked.

Ready for Bed!

Tears, Potty Training, and Swimming!

More photos and updates! I had to snap this picture of Olivia just throwing herself on the floor and crying in hysterics for being told "no" a few weeks ago. This is only one picture in a series of many, but you can see best from this one how worked up she got herself. She is so pathetic and cute at the same time. I am definitely getting my payback for my childhood now!

Olivia has been doing well with potty training since last summer, but we hadn't really focused real hard on it yet. So over Midwinter break, Olivia and I had four straight days together where we just potty trained. She took to it very well, until the first accident where she just cried because she did not like being wet. She immediately demanded a bath, to which I obliged. She then wanted a diaper back on. To prevent any loss in our efforts thus far, daddy and I took Olivia shopping to pick out some big girl underwear herself. She had fun debating through the many animated characters available these days, and decided on Elmo. She now wants to wear Elmo daily. She has been doing great since, with very few accidents!

We aren't quite sure what happened in this photo. We heard Olivia running, then a thud, and then the wailing. She quickly stopped crying and was calmed down and playing with me, when about 15 minutes later I noticed the blood across her eyelid. I nonchalantly tried to get Andy to look at it, but he mentioned blood. She had to then go look in a mirror and the tears started again. She cried the next day too, when she could no longer see her boo-boo. She has been very accident prone lately. A trait I am afraid she gets from me. Aunt Jennifer came over to play with Olivia one evening this past week and she was flipping her around. Well, Olivia lost her footing and didn't quite hit her landing and fell flat on her face. This in turn caused her first nose bleed. Blood was gushing everywhere, and tears were flowing almost as fast. We were trying to keep her to tip her head back, because it stopped bleeding when she did, but she kept tipping it forward and it would gush all over again. We eventually calmed her with a bath and some Cinderella temporary tattoos that Jennifer had brought for her.

Olivia has been spending a lot of time at the pool with daddy lately. Now that I am teaching the reading class after school Olivia heads to practice with daddy for the first bit. She usually stays for the whole practice one day a week. She has so much fun being with the big kids and swimming. She has even gone down the big water slide in the diving pool and gone under water. She was so proud when she did it and had to call and tell me about it. She just loves Melanie at the pool too. Melanie is so great with kids. She used to babysit for my sister and I when we were little and now Olivia gets to have her be a big part in her life too! It looks like she has inherited daddy's swimming gene!

The Camera is Back!

Well, it has been quite a while since we last entered a blog. We did get our camera back in early February, but we've been so busy to write anything. Olivia has been enjoying life as usual. She doesn't seem to mind all the cold and snow, but I know she will be excited when she can play in her playhouse in the backyard and go down her slide and swing again. She is still getting a lot of use from her sled she got last year for Christmas from Aunt Jen. She has also enjoyed learning some science lessons about static electricity, as you can see from the pictures of her with balloons stuck to the side of her head. Every time she gets a balloon now, she has to stick them to her head. With so many snow days and midwinter break Olivia and I have had some fun moments to hang out together and we even got Elizabeth and the boys to come over a few times. I just love the picture of Olivia and Titus riding the zebra together. They had so much fun together that day. They love hanging out together, but usually fight like brother and sister. They got along so well that particular day. Baby James is growing like a little Budha baby, as all of my sister's boys do. He started out the smallest of the four, but is quickly catching up. Last I heard he was over 16 pounds already and that was a couple weeks ago. Andy has been real busy with work, trying to finish up jobs on his own, plus work for his boss, and coach swimming. He moved in as the head coach for the Stingrays swimming program this year and he has truly enjoyed it, but it has kept him soooo busy. His swimmers just got back from state last weekend and did excellent! One swimmer got 1st in 2 events and many others took 2nd and 3rds. The last swim meet of the season is in Minnesota and Olivia and I are flying out with Andy for the trip. It's the last weekend in March and Olivia's god father Keith Morrisson's mother Mary moved out there about 1 year ago so we are going to go visit her while out there. When we return swimming will be officially over, and we'll be packing our bags again to leave for our Caribbean Cruise the following weekend! I have been teaching a reading class one hour a night after school Tuesdays - Thursdays, and I really am enjoying it. I also just started taking sign language classes on Thursday evenings and have been trying to hit the Doyle Center regularly. I've added so much to my schedule all at once that it is hard to keep up with the little things in life. I am loving it all, but am looking forward to when everything slows down again and we can relax on our cruise. Some sad news in the family as well. My cousin Brett MacNeill's wife Heidi did pass away. It's so sad to see someone once so full of life gone at 22 years of age leaving behind a loving husband and 3 month old son. Thankfully she was at a nursing home in her hometown, surrounded by family when it happened. My sister, baby James and I headed up with my dad and Patty to Alpena for the funeral on February 21st. The funeral was on the 22nd and I have never seen so many people attend a funeral. It was great to see the support system in place to help Brett and Heidi's family through this rough time. I was amazed at the strength that Brett and Heidi's parents showed through it all. Please keep them all in your prayers through this healing time.