Back in FL

I've neglected the family blog all summer long! Sorry! It might be a challenge for me to get back in the habit, but here goes.

Olive turned 2 over the summer. I posted a little about her party on Lella Boutique here, but here are some more pictures of the little stinker.

 

We totally lucked out with this photo. She doesn't dance around like this, it was just a wonderful surprise to see her holding her skirt and pointing her stubby little toe.

This next little outfit really makes me want to start making her clothes.  I love all the colorful layers.  And that necklace! It belongs to the photographer, I think she said it was from J Crew Kids.

Here is a little bit about Olive lately:

• She loves singing (no big surprise there given her gene pool).  Her latest favorites include songs from "Annie," "I Am a Child of God," and (kill me) "Call Me Maybe."  It's a cute age since she is learning new words every day.
• She is coming along in her decorum! She is pretty good at saying "please," and "thank you welcome" although sometimes she will add, "sucka!" to the end (Thanks, Dad!) Since she started watching "Annie" a few weeks ago, she also looooves saying "goodness" over and over again. If nudged a little, she will say a prayer before she goes to bed.  It usually sounds like this, "Heh lee father, day, mom dad olive, sleep, (muffled) amen."
• Kevin was putting her to bed the other night and was reading her a storyand accidentally pressed Tickle-Me Elmo.  It started laughing, so Kevin said, "Be quiet, Elmo!" Olive joined in and started yelling, "Elmo, SHUT UP! STOP IT!"
• She is much more effectionate than she has ever been.  Lots of kisses (I love the scrunchy little fish face she makes) and good hugs.

We are all very happy to be home and in our own beds. It's been really humid--even more to us since we've been in such a dry climate all summer. We were supposed to have a hurricane, then it was downgraded to a tropical storm.  We were told to be prepared for power outages and lots of wind and rain.  What we ended up with was barely a sprinkle.  Talk about anti-climactic.  Still, I am very grateful for the lack of excitement!

Kevin is busy with classes and just found out that the film short he wrote for the Stetson Arts Society (an organization he started) was accepted into the Fordham Forum on the Law Film Festival in NYC.  We are crossing our fingers he can attend in October since he loves NY so much and would love to be there for it. Here's the film short "Public Nuisance," in case you haven't seen it.

I'm busy as usual and should have a Christmas stocking pattern ready to be released at the end of this week! 

I'm 20 weeks along now so hopefully I can get into the doc soon for the gender ultrasound.  We've got names picked out and are ready to go! Not to mention, I am dying to make this baby a quilt and crib bumpers! I'm feeling pretty good--though I just discovered that I am lactose intolerant since arriving in FL.  What a horrible thing.  I can't help but wonder if it has something to do about coming across the country since there was no problem in Utah.  Oh well.  There's always lactaid.

Well, that's all I can think of! 

Living in Utah!

Well, we finally made it to Utah last week! I can't even begin to say how nice it is to be in cooler weather.  Actually, it was a bit chilly over the weekend and rained Friday morning.  Olive (who wants to go outside about six times per hour) has been enjoying having a nice backyard, thanks to Grandpa Gourley.

 

 

She wasn't very friendly towards people at first, but all Grandpa had to do was take her outside and let her help water the flowers.  Don't know how Grandpa would get his watering done without her!

We are so glad to be back with lots of family around. We had a really nice, stress-free week but Kevin begins his internship tomorrow so he will start to be busy for the next bit.

Happy! Happy! Joy! Joy!

Olive is such a happy girl.  We do enjoy her.

On Friday, a few of us church primary leaders decided to go to Busch Gardens with the babies. It was a total blast.  We hung out in Sesame Street land all morning and also played in the kid splash area.  Olive was in heaven! I think some of the pictures say it all, and the video is even better!

We are moving to Utah for the summer in 1-1/2 weeks and I feel like I have soooooo much to do before we leave.  I was really glad to give Olive a nice fun day before we are trapped in a car for four straight days!

Cookie Monster Copycat

For some reason, Olive has been such a messy eater.  She takes fistfuls of food and just throws them at her mouth.  I finally realized that she is just doing what she has been taught from her idol, Cookie Monster.

Easter

We had such a great Easter weekend! On Saturday, we found that there was a little Easter egg hunt over at the local rec center.  We were sure to be there early (to get one of the limited parking spaces) and Olive played on the playground for a few minutes.

 

Once the hunt started, Olive picked up lots of eggs, but looked a little bored about it.  Like she was picking up her toys or something.

She got a ton of eggs.  Then again, there wasn't much competition in her age group (0-2 years). Once she discovered candy in them, she was a lot happier!

When we got home, she played with that bucket of eggs all day!

I was crazy and decided to make her Easter dress the week before!  It turned out pretty cute, and I'm glad I did it.  It ended up being more expensive than if I had bought a dress, I think. I have more pictures of her in the dress on the other blog.

Olive's Haircut

Recently, I found myself constantly thinking about Olive's hair and how it was becoming a shaggy mullet. I decided that it might be okay for me to give a little trim.  After all, her hair seemed to be nothing but a million layers; surely my lack of training would hardly be noticed, right? This is what it looked like after I cut it.  I had this idea that if it flipped out, it would be sort of cute...

And then I found reasons to keep cutting.  Basically, my lack of skill was showing.  So what did I do?  Take her to a professional?  Um no, I figured I could keep trying! 

Then later that night, in the bath, I noticed several areas that were uneven. With Olive's back to me, I figured I could do a quick snip here and there to even it up even more.  Worst decision ever. It quickly became a "boy" haircut, according to Kevin. And it still looked uneven.  I was so sad.  No more cute pigtails. What had I done?!

Luckily, my sweet friend, Tiffany, agreed to come over and help fix it.  It's still obviously short, but at least it looks even! And then my nephew, Jace, decided to provide some consolation for me.

Luckily, hair grows.  And as Jace reminds us all, it could have been worse. 

Olive is sick today (we all got hit with hay fever) and so she is a leaky faucet. Hopefully she will feel better soon.  I hate having a sick child, though I am glad to say that she is still very pleasant.  She colored and played while we watched conference! (General Conference was especially good, wasn't it?)

Pat-a-Cake singing

Olive is such a cute little singer. She's at the age (just about 21 months) where the language really explodes. There are new words every day. It's great because what she can't communicate she has been better at helping us by showing us what she needs.

Anyway, this video is a couple of weeks old, but she is really good at singing Pat-a-Cake.  After I pull her out of the tub, I sit her on my lap and dry her with a towel.  While she's sitting there, she likes to take my hands and do the actions while she sings.  I love it!  Anyway, I got her to sing and do the actions while she was eating her lunch.  It's one of my favorite things to see her do.

Children at Play

Olive and her buddy, Evan, have been playing a couple of times a week. Here they are, having fun in the Florida room aka the rec room. I thought this was too good to not share.

"I Love You"

Olive is quite the little singer and it is awesome to see her vocabulary expand! She sings [most of] Pat-a-Cake, Winnie the Pooh, Elmo's World (and many other Sesame Street songs), and Skinamarinky Dinky Doo (sp?).  Here is a video of her singing it while she ate her lunch:

Little Fish

It has been really warm already, so we have hit the pool a few times. It's so fun now that Olive is more of a toddler.  We bought her this little flotation device and she has to keep her balance to stay afloat.  She learned how to do it really quickly, but didn't mind when she fell off-kilter. She loves the pool so much. She actually threw a huge tantrum when we had to leave. 

I took a little video on my phone.  It's so fun to see her laughing all the time.

Crazy Bedhead

I have extraordinarily bad beadhead in the morning, and it appears that I have passed this onto Olive.  Now that her hair is getting longer, it just keeps getting better and better.

On this particular occasion, she made me think of this:

Do you see the resemblance?

Olive's ABC Book

I just have to share this fun little project I have been working on all weekend. I took a little break from sewing and used up a Shutterfly coupon that was begging to be redeemed. Big thanks to Modern Parents Messy Kids for the clever little toddler book idea! I had such a good time putting it together for sweet Olive. Here's a preview:

   

I hope Olive enjoys it! My favorite page is U...what's yours?