Kevin's Mobile Uploads

Kevin is TERRIBLE at taking pictures off of his phone...so I finally did it today.  But before I show them to you, here's a video of Olive's "scooching."  I'm not really sure it can be classified as crawling, but she can get where she needs to.

Olive is being serenaded here by the lovely guitar player and singer at Mazzaro's.  (It's a lovely Italian market that we adore.)  When you walk into this place, you smell fresh pepperoni and other spicy meats.  There is a sandwich counter that is always packed with people but really worth the wait.  Then there's fresh pasta, pizzas, and just about any Italian ingredient you could think of.  Kevin is partial to their bacon strips dipped in chocolate (though it doesn't sound too "Italian" to me).  This was the day and place where we were told by two different sets of grandparents that Olive was way cuter than their grandkids.  (Ouch!  She's cute, but you don't need to compliment her at the expense of your poor grandchildren.)

The next picture is just classic!  Kevin and I went to Target while we were in St. George at Christmas time and had fun chasing a bird around the children's department.

 This is "Mother Olive."  Isn't she charming?

 Olive is incognito.  I think my profile looks a lot like my mom's in this picture.  (I think my mom used to have bangs like this too.)

 Santa Claus brought me a pasta maker for Christmas.  Here we are, breaking it in by making homemade chicken noodle soup.

 Here we are on our way from the parking lot to the entrance of Busch Gardens.  Olive's expression kind of reminds me of the cross-eyed kid in "Dennis the Menace."  "Uh, uh, an apple."

And that's it for now!  I feel a little bad there are no pictures of Dad.  We will remedy that soon.

Brock Patrick Gourley

Um that's right...another new nephew to blog about!  My sister-in-law, Clare, was induced last Wednesday and gave birth to this little sweetie.  It was perfect timing (fortunately and unfortunately for Clint) since Clint just had his appendix removed the weekend before and was told he couldn't return to work for a little over a week. (Eeek to appendix removal...we're just glad it hadn't burst yet and that he's doing better.)  Isn't that just the sweetest picture?!

Carson Gregory Gourley

It was a really exciting week for my brother, Tom, and his family.  His wife, Carly, went in for a C-section on Wednesday and gave birth to a beautiful baby boy.  They decided to name him Carson.  Do you think big brother Jace is excited?  Talk about a gorgeous baby.  And so far, I hear he is a pretty chill baby.

My other sister-in-law, Clare, is due any time now.  We all are wishing her good luck and a smooth delivery!

Crawling...Almost!

Olive turned 8 months old last week and is doing really well!  She is such a joy in our lives.  She currently weighs 18 lbs. 11 oz. and is 27 1/4" long.  We went to the cardiologist last week and apparently her heart murmur is still there, though very small.  The small hole is supposed to close on its own, and even though hers hasn't, there is absolutely no need to worry about it.

I think she will be crawling very soon and is figuring it out, little-by-little.  Here is a little video of her "attempts."

Busch Gardens

Kevin and I got our tax return a month ago and put almost every penny towards paying off credit cards.  YAY!  We did, however, use a small portion for Busch Gardens annual passes.  For us locals, the price is the same as going once. No brainer!   

We finally went Friday afternoon for a couple of hours.  Olive got to see alligators, turtles, chimpanzees, gorillas, and elephants.

And Kevin and I took turns going on a couple of rides.  We really liked the Sheikra roller coaster.

 I am looking forward to going again soon before it gets much more humid!  (It's been 80 degrees lately.)

Oh and this morning Kevin went to the ER with a nasty kidney stone.  He didn't know what it was at the time, but luckily it passed after a couple of hours.  Once the nurse told us it was going to be a couple of hours, Kevin sent me and Olive home.  The dummy was supposed to call us to pick him up but he didn't want to wake Olive up again and walked several miles home instead.  Hopefully he can get some sleep and feel better.

Quilting Overload

So.....I finished five quilts this week.  But before you think I am SuperWoman, I should probably point out that 4 out of the 5 quilt-tops were already put together before this week.  You see, I often begin a project and move on before it's finished...

Here is my boy-version of the zig zag quilt!  This is the only one that I can boast  I started AND finished this week.

Kevin said that if he were a baby, this would be the quilt he would want.  Wahoo for husband approval!

A close-up of the sailboat quilt...I wasn't happy with most of the pictures I took of it.

Teddy Bear Family Tree using Marcus Fabrics...also a bad picture

Butterfly Quilt using Michael Miller fabrics.  I am so in love with gray right now!

And my favorite...my other butterfly quilt.  I love the Barbie colors!  These are Marcus Fabrics.

Hope you like them!  Most of them will be on Etsy soon (if not already).

Sleeping Beauty

Kevin thought it was creepy that I took a picture of Olive sleeping.  I thought it necessary to document her sleeping--her memory book calls for it.   As you can see, Olive is a blankie girl.  I usually find her clinging to it like this.  Her sleeping has had some interruption because of teething.  But let's not talk about that.

Did I mention that we are great parents?  Oh, by the way, Olive got injured twice on Tuesday.  Once in the morning, and once in the afternoon.  In the morning, Kevin slung his heavy backpack over one shoulder and went to push her high chair from the kitchen into the dining room.  The backpack slipped off and hit her in the face.  She cried, and Dad felt like a horrible father all day.  (He is very good at punishing himself.)  Her face was a little red at first.  We were afraid it was going to bruise.  I was having visions of not leaving the house for a week to avoid people seeing her.  But nothing. 

Then, I set her down to play with her [cute] Ikea veggies, much like the picture below.  Take special note of the white wicker basket in the picture.  I turned around for a second to get the grocery list together, and all of the sudden I hear a painful cry.  Somehow, she had maneuvered to the basket (she doesn't crawl) and scratched her forehead with it.  She had a little Harry Potter cut for a couple of days, though it's healing quite nicely.  And I will know to keep her away from wicker baskets!

Crafting Away...

If you have been following my crafty blog, you know I have been busy.  In addition to the blog madness, I have also been going crazy on Olive's room.  Last week, I showed you her bird mobile.  Here is a little baby bird stitchery I made for her, along with its "parents."  This baby bird stitchery is a new item on my Etsy account.

Olive has been helping me with the quilting.  She really wanted the safety pins in this one.  On second thought, maybe we should get that away from you...

We think she will start teething soon.  She was unusually slobbery and grumpy at church.  Despite her lack of chompers, she has been enjoying Cheerios lately.  She gums them until they are mush. 

Thanks to our neighbors (who we love to swap babysitting with), Kevin and I went on a Valentine's date.  We went to see "Tangled" (finally) but missed the first half hour. (UNBELIEVABLE!!!)  We left 45 minutes early to go to Tampa and it took us 75 minutes because of accidents.  Grrrr!  The traffic lights are unbelievable in this state too.  You can seriously be sitting at a light for ten minutes before it turns green. 

Anyway, what we saw of the movie was really cute.  Afterwards, we went to dinner at a place called the Toasted Pheasant.  Mmmmmm.  We had a little taste of lobster mac n cheese for an appetizer. Kevin got steak with a pesto aioli and fries, and I had a beef crepe.  It was taaaaasty.  Mine came with a shredded crab tomato bisque with caviar on top.  I had never had caviar before. It was like pop rocks.  Kind of. I am still dreaming of that soup.

And the car battery died after church.  So that's what I get to do tomorrow.

Happy Chinese New Year!

Here we are, at a Chinese New Year's Party held at the school last week.  Since Kevin is the historian for the Asian Law Society Association, we attend lots of parties with free food. Wahoo!)  Not only was there a variety of delicious food, there was also ping pong, yoga, karaoke, and a "demonstration" from one of the martial arts schools.  I have to note that nobody wanted to do karaoke after Kevin sang.  Big surprise.  The martial arts "demonstration" was the most hilarious thing I have ever seen.  First of all, they had walking canes for sale.  I know, it sounds crazy, right?  Their reasoning was based on the fact that you cannot carry any real weapons on campus, at the courthouse, etc.   So this tough guy showed some really intense moves using a walking cane and his thick Brooklyn accent.  All in all, I was not convinced.  You will not see me walking around with a cane.  But it sure was entertaining!

Ummmm...Olive is seven months old!  I finally got around to making her the mobile I had been wanting to!  When I was preggers, I saw this beautiful mobile in a baby magazine that was basically a white branch with little white birds hanging from it.  At the time, I didn't really see a point in getting too crazy with the decorating because of the impending move across the country.  Also, we live in a rental house so you can't get too crazy.

A month ago, I was walking in my yard and stumbled upon a perfect branch.  It was just sitting there, waiting for me to pluck it from the ground.  So I primed it, painted it, and made some fabric birds from the remaining quilt scraps I have from Olive's quilt.  Ta da! (Sorry about the horrid picture quality.  Not only does her room have horrid lighting, it was a gloomy day too.)  Anyway, I will probably take a better picture later and will probably do the tutorial on my crafty blog.

Talking Tom

So there is this funny app on Kevin's droid phone called "Talking Tom." (I'm sure it's on the iphone and ipod touch too.)  You can speak into the phone and he will repeat back what you said--but at a much higher pitch.  Olive loves this.  Kevin will sing into it and she will just kick those legs as it sings back to her in its funny little voice.

Well, she finally figured out that it will copy what she does.  She really goes to town.  What a silly girl.

Ah, to sleep again.

We went to Olive's six-month appointment on Monday.  She's looking good; she falls into the 75-90% for her age in weight and height.  My most pressing question for the doctor was regarding her sleeping habits.  (When she was one-month old, she was sleeping ten hours every night without any feedings.  She kept this lovely habit up until about four-months old.  Then she started waking up in the middle of the night.  THEN we went on vacation and it turned into several times a night.  EEK!  I was wondering how I could get back to the lovely ten-hour nights!)

The doctor's first question was what I was doing when she woke up in the middle of the night.  I told him I was feeding her.  Even as I was saying it, I knew it was the problem.  He said that we have basically taught her that she can't go to sleep or go back to sleep unless she's fed.  I have totally known this (since we usually have to feed her into the coma).  But I was avoiding it, I guess.  After all, she won't take a pacifier, doesn't suck on her thumb--nothing to self-pacify.  I told him that we have tried to let her scream it out a couple of times, but after 15 minutes she is usually in a rage and sometimes spits up and chokes.  I have had to sit her up a couple of times and whack her on the back.  He said she needs to concentrate on something to help get herself to sleep.  A mobile, a night light, a shadow on the wall, something.  And of course, check on her if she spits up and chokes, but other than that, tough it out.  

I decided to give her a blankie and Pooh bear since she likes to chew on her blankets.  We also put some soft classical music on.

Monday: screamed an hour before nap, an hour before bed, an hour in the middle of the night.  Good grief!

Tuesday: screamed forty-five minutes before naptime, an hour before bed, didn't wake up in the middle of the night.  YES!!

Wednesday: repeat.

Thursday: repeat, except she woke up at 5:30 a.m. instead of her normal 7:00 a.m.  :(

Friday: repeat, but he screaming times are getting shorter.

Saturday: fussed five minutes before nap, 10 minutes before bed.

So that's where we're at.  I don't think I have as hard of a time letting her cry as some people do (Kevin), mostly because I'm glad I don't have to jog around the house anymore.  Wish us luck for an even better week!

It's up!

I finally got my craft website up!  Check it out!

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