Little Olivia

{3 Months Old}

December 7, 2012

{Love her face!}

-She chews on her hands like crazy! 

-She will sometimes sleep all the way through the night but then makes sure that we don't get too excited by waking up 4 times the next night haha.

-She has the cutest rolls on her legs.

-We discovered that dairy in large amounts (i.e. ice cream) and possibly chocolate upsets her tummy.  So basically the food that sustains me bugs her. 

-She has been smiling and talking to us!  What else can get better?!

-Olivia loves looking at bright toys and books.  And lately the TV has caught her attention.

-She is such a content little girl.  She is so, so sweet.

-She has never had a blowout yet!  I know, right?

-She does so well whenever we go anywhere.  She's a trooper.

-Honestly, I really think I got a perfect baby.  Or maybe I'm not as anxiety ridden as I was with Aubree haha.

She is our little lover bug- we are all so happy she is in our family!  Love you Livy baby!!



Aubree Lately

{December 12, 2012}
What she's been saying...

"I have to get my satchel."  (before she goes to bed she has to walk out to the family room for her satchel.. which is any random item she can find, usually a pillow from the couch.)
"You need to listen to me!" 
"Mom, I need to pump."  Ha
"One more show/cookie/book and that is all."
"How was your day Dad my day was great how was your day?" 
"I am so mad at you right now!"
"The tiger is getting me!!"
"Can I be like Giselle for a minute?"  (She throws all the couch pillows on the floor and pretends she is stuck in the mud).

I'm sure there is more.. I'll have to ask Matt if he can think of anything.  As you can tell, she is a little sassy :)

-She has been such a good big sister.  She adores Olivia and is sometimes a little rough but not on purpose.
-She loves to play pretend.  We are always playing with her dolls or animals and the very first thing we have to say is "Hi what's your name?" 
-We go to the Disney store in the mall at least once a week.  She could stay in there for hours.. and let's face it, so could I.  Santa might bring her some fun things from there :)
-She asks to play in the snow every day, even when there is no snow outside.
-She loves Doc Mcstuffins and pretends to be my doctor.  She gets random objects and basically jabs me with them and says "Oh mom, does that hurt?  I'm almost done.  Your doing so good."  Ha it's pretty cute, even though.
-We got her a goldfish and she was so excited!  She named him Fishy Fish.. but Fishy Fish died like 4 days later.  We told her he went to heaven and she told everyone her fish went to "leven." 
-Loves playing with her friends. 

We love you Aubree Grace- thank you for entertaining us and your sister!

{Feeding her baby.. she might kill me one day for this picture!}

{Playing with her bestie Emme}

Olivia at 2 Months

{November 2, 2012}

Gosh, this little girl is amazing!  She is such a good baby and pretty cute if I do say so myself.
Here are some things about Olivia at 2 months:

-She looks a lot like her dad
-She's in 0-3 and 3 month clothes
-Has such a cute cry.. I have been blessed with babies that cry cute.

{Oh hey Matt}

-Celebrated her 1st Halloween!  Her and Aubree were cupcakes.
-She has squishy cheeks and little rolls on her legs.  We consider this extremely chubby compared to
when Aubree was her age!
-She sometimes has a crazy rash on her forehead when she wakes up in the morning.  It's only been a few times so it's a little weird.. We have her 2 month check up on Thursday so we'll see what that's all about.
-Good sleeper and has a pretty consistent schedule, waking up 2 times a night.  The mornings are rough though.  She usually wakes up about 4 am, then 6 am and sometimes has a hard time going back to sleep.  When she does go back to sleep easily, Aubree obviously wakes up 30 minutes later.  Of course.
-She has smiled a few times at us, but usually has a scowl on her face!
-She loves being held and likes those stupid green binkies that do not stay in babies mouths.

Olivia is so much fun and such a joy to each of us.  We cannot get enough of her!

Mommy Style

Becoming a mom can take a toll on your wardrobe.  I am no fashion expert.. ok actually if I had a bajillion dollars I would be, who wouldn't?!  But being on a serious student budget, nursing a baby, and battling with a very serious fear of wasting a really cute outfit on a day in the house (or in high school when you have your favorite outift on and you realize that it's a B day.. which means you just wasted your awesome clothing choice because the boy you like is in your class on A day), can be frustrating. 

Longest sentance ever.  Sorry.

This is simply my opinion, but I think it's important to still feel cute and good about yourself after becoming a mom.  That doesn't mean you have to be someone elses version of pretty or feel like you have to spend hours on yourself.  But we don't have to turn into this....

Unless you want to and mom jeans make you feel pretty.  In that case, own it, girlfriend.  You rock those mom jeans!

I also think it's important not to be judgmental of how other people choose to dress after becoming a mom, or before for that matter.  Even if they want to wear said mom jeans, honestly, who cares?  On the other hand, I was at a playgroup about a year ago and one of the women there told me that she feels that putting on makeup means neglecting your children.  I'm not kidding, that is exactly what she said.  So that made me think, "ok, am I a bad mom because I spend a good 7 minutes putting my makeup on?"  Um, NO.  Either way, to each his own.  Your kids will survive whether you get ready or not.

For me, I knew I wouldn't be happy lounging in my pj's all day.  I put my makeup on, do my hair, and throw on a cute t-shirt and jeans.  T's are my favorite right now because nursing a baby with a flowy or bulky top on is not happening.  My style has become simple and functional, and easy to pull up and down if you know what I mean.

  Loving this shirt

If I'm leaving the house, I put on some boots or my Toms and earings.  Nothing too spectacular, but I feel good and comfortable.  I do have cute, flowy tops that are reserved for special occassions, like grocery shopping.  Just kidding sort of. 

The biggest thing I've learned is to reserve the money I do have for shopping for things I really want.  With Aubree, I bought a lot of really cheap things for myself that ended up not working or were too frilly or bulky.  My favorite stores right now are Shade and Gap.  However, JCrew is calling my name.  Darn you, JCrew with your beautiful, functional, overpriced sweaters.  Anyways, being a mom doesn't mean sacrificing your self image.  You just might have to re-define it! 

Lately I'm Loving...

-Country music... Hunter Hayes song "Wanted."  LOVE.  It's been years since I've listened to Country, reasons being Matt hates it.  I asked him to take me to Tim and Faith in Vegas this year and here is how our convo went:

Me- Will you pleeeeease take me to see Tim and Faith?!

Matt- Psh, take yourself.

Me- If you will recall Valentines Day 2009 I took you to a Monster Truck race... 

Matt- That's because the stuff I like is awesome so of course we went to that.

So guess who's been blasting Country around the house?  :)

-The Mortal Instraments Series.. still.  The 5th book became available at the library for me the day before I had Olivia.  It was destiny, you guys.  Read it, loved it, couldn't wait for the 6th and final book.. and then heard it is coming out in 2014.  I really couldn't think about it for about a week because I was so upset.  So, to pass the time I've been reading other fallen angel/tormented teenage love novels.  The Hush, Hush series is holding me over.   

-My chevron rings I bought for myself and McCall for our birthdays.  You can find them here.

-The Nike app.  Well, I haven't used it yet (still hasn't been 6 weeks since baby yet, people) but I've done it before once and it kicked my butt.  Promise I'm going to use it.

 

I've been thinking...

Blogging is hard.. ok it's not hard but the reason I started doing it is for scrapbooking purposes/to use Blurb and blogger doesn't recognize my sign in and won't let me change it.  Still mad... Whatever... Anyways, I used to make fun of blogs- and then, because it's me we are talking about here, I actually learned about what I made fun of and thought "Hm, for making fun of blogging I sure look at a lot of blogs."  So after setting aside my ignorance, I decided to start one and love that I can share a little of my life with my friends and family and be able to have a way to see what they are up to as well through their blogging.  And also find awesome blogs that have so many great tutorials, recipes, product info, fashion advice, great books etc. 

I'm not claiming to be an expert in any area in particular (could you see me taking self-portraits and writing fashion advice or posting my disasters crafts?  Please.), but instead of using my blog as strictly a scrapbook, I'm going to just write what I want, along with posting pics and little updates for my fam and friends.  Nothing too personal.  That's what my journal is for... but as much as I claim to be a private person, I'm so not.  Come up and ask me anything and I will most likely tell you what you want to know about me! I'm just careful when it comes to sharing my personal life with the entire world through the media.  Because I know the world cares about my life of cleaning projectile spit up from the little one and "accidents" from the Aubree Grace on both of my couches.. in the same day.  I digress.  Anyways, cheers to a new blog! 

MTC

Well, my bro is officially a missionary.  I couldn't even begin to explain how happy we all are and how proud we are of Taylor.  He is an amazing example to me of overcoming hardships and believing that you are meant for better than what you might feel you deserve.  Taylor will be amazing.  When we dropped him off at the MTC, he was so content and chill.  Poor 19 year old boys were bawling and then there's Tay... "Peace out fam, see you in 2 years."  EXACTLY how he needed to feel and deserved to feel!  We will miss him so much but are so happy and excited for him!

Love you Tay Tay!!

{Matt couldn't leave work so we ran by really fast for them to say goodbye..

Please don't mind Matt's gayish pose.}

{Proud parents}

{McCall made sure to quote a scene from the movie, Hot Rod, very loudly

to ensure complete embarrassment for Tay as he walked off

with the other missionaries}

{I'm a jerk for taking this picture of my parents bawling in the car...

but it was so cute and funny.  They held it in as long as they could!}

2 weeks old!

{2 Weeks Old}

September 21, 2012

{Olivia's 2 week stats}

7 lbs 15 oz- 50%

21 inches long- 80%

Some things about our baby at 2 weeks old:

-Healthy as can be.. thanks for freaking me out the whole 9 months, Specialists.

I shouldn't be bitter, but seriously...

-Great nurser from the start.  Hallelujah!!

-Sleeps all the time

-Sleeps in her crib

-Very patient with her older sister kissing on her constantly

-Poops A LOT

-Very content

-Likes to be swaddled but without her arms tucked in

-Does great in her carseat

-Gets fussy around 5 p.m. for a couple of hours

-Wears size 1 diapers

This little girl has added so much happiness to our family.

We love you Olivia.. so, so much!

Thank you for being such a wonderful baby!!

Life with 2

Our first couple of weeks with Olivia went so well.. and have continued to be great.  Aubree has adjusted better than I could have imagined.  The first little while we were butting heads a little.  Like I've said before, she did amazing with Olivia and didn't act jealous when I was holding her or feeding her, but it came out in other ways.  I had to remind myself that I was the adult in the situation and to try to be more patient with her.  Now I feel like we are settled and stabilized and we are doing awesome... I am so blessed and so happy to have two darling and healthy girls and a husband who has been a total gem-  Matt has been so amazing I can't even begin to describe how grateful I am for his patience and how well he has handled juggling Aubree and Olivia.  Oh, and putting up with me too.  I will keep this one around :)
Having my mom around the first week was SO nice.  We only had one fight!  Which was totally and completely my fault.. I blame hormones.  I told her she was doing too much for me and it was overwhelming me, like her constantly cleaning my house and dishes and helping me in the middle of the nights with the girls.  I'm awesome, right?  Again, hormones.. right?

Some things we had been up to our first 2 weeks...

{Going to the park with Grammy

Once again, HUGE THANK YOU to my amazing mother!!}

{Lots of sister time}

{Lots of trying to keep Aubree entertained.. thanks to Mad for building forts

and my cute neighbor friend for the Rapunzel braid idea}

Jen and Juli came up for a weekend and we LOVED having them here.  Jenny made it very clear that I was only allowed to feed the baby and everything else was her job... I love her!!  We had a blast with them-- we got ice cream, went to the Riverwood's for their outdoor market, watched movies and hung out. 

They were so helpful and so fun to be around.  Thanks girls- we love you!





Some of Olivia's Visitors

{My mom's sister, Becky and my uncle Alan.

I adore my aunt Beck; I always used to ask my mom

if I was her daughter because we are so similar!}

{Aunt McCall}

{Aunt Madison}

{Grandma Great Winona}

{Meme and Aunt Jenny}



Other visitors included the cute Zanders and my best friend, Shelly and her

darling baby Julia.  I'm so mad I didn't get pictures! 

Everyone that came brought Olivia and Aubree presents-- we have the best

family and friends!  Thank you guys!!

First Bath

I was prepared for some serious screaming from Olivia for her first bath.. cute little baby didn't make a peep!  Aubree completely freaked during her first bath!  The only thing Olivia didn't like was having lotion rubbed on her, but other than that, she did great. 

{Clean and snuggly and warm and adorable}