Olivia & Co.

Ok, I suck. I don't know where the last 3 weeks have gone! Nothing new to report... That's why I haven't posted I guess. I will say, I love the snow, but I may have wished for it a little too hard! It's beautiful, I just hate driving in it. And it's made my last minute Christmas shopping trips that much more stressful. Especially since I didn't even start shopping until yesterday! Ah! Hopefully it settles down tomorrow so I can finish. Another thing I'm loving right now is all the Christmas treats! I have had such a sweet tooth with this pregnancy and my mom has been good enough to make me some delicious fudge and shortbread. Yum! We've also been making sugar cookies and homemade cinnamon rolls. Mmmm. 

Anyway, I just remembered a few important things that have happened that have kept us so busy! This is why the post is titled Pregnancy Brain. I'm losing brain cells by the hour and can't keep anything straight! So I apologize if I'm all over the place!

So we've been trying to buy a house and we found the one we wanted a few weeks ago. We put in our offer and got accepted. So we went under contract and started doing all the stuff you're supposed to do like appraisal and inspection and found out about 10 days before we were supposed to close that the house had been a meth house. Our inspector had tested it earlier this year and tested it again and it came back positive. Needless to say, we were pretty mad! Obviously we got out of the contract and are not buying the house. Luckily, the next day when we were looking at other houses online, we came across a house we loved before but was too expensive. They had dropped the price dramatically so we immediately put in an offer. We are so happy that they accepted our offer, and we are getting an amazing deal. So I guess it was supposed to be this way so we could get the house we really wanted. The bad thing is we might be living with the in-laws for a bit between moving out of our rental and moving into the house. Hopefully it won't be more than a week or two, but it will be worth it when we're in our house :)

I am also sorry to report that I don't really have any recent pictures yet. I am frustrated with myself, I will get to it soon! I know I will definately have some after Christmas though, so I will try to be quick about posting those. 

Well I hope everyone is have a wonderful Christmas season, and is driving carefully in this blizzard!

Merry Christmas!!!!

Well, not really. It has actually been really nice having such warm weather in November, but now that it's December I'm getting into the Christmas mood and longing for a little bit of snow. It just doesn't feel like Christmas time without the snow, or even the cold weather! I'll be hoping for a white Christmas! :) And I am itching to put up our Christmas tree and decorate, but we are trying to buy a house right now and we'll probably be moving sometime right before Christmas. So I might not have a Christmas tree up in the new house until right before the big day. Like maybe the day before. It is really depressing. Oh well... A new house will be a wonderful Christmas present! We feel very fortunate that we're able to buy a house right now, with so many people losing theirs. I know we have a lot to be thankful for, even if I don't get to have my Christmas tree up all through December :)
Olivia and I have been listening to Christmas music the last few weeks though, so that is getting us in the spirit of the season. Her favorite song so far is Little Drummer Boy. She sings the "pa rum pum pum pums" as loud as she can! Oh, and if anyone hasn't heard the SheDaisy Christmas album, you must buy it immediately. It is so good and unique, I can't get enough. I have had my copy for like 7 years now and I haven't been able to find it this year so I had to buy a new one. It is definately worth the $12! Go buy it!
Anyway, we spent Thanksgiving in Arizona at JJ's grandma's house. We had a great time, we mostly hung around her house and relaxed! We were really boring actually. But it was nice to get away and not worry about anything for a week :) We drove the whole way home on Saturday, about 11 hours. It was a long drive but Olivia watched movies and slept the whole time. She did great, I was so happy the she didn't complain at all. It is nice to be home, but now I have to start packing up the house and cleaning in preparation for the move. I'm praying we'll be moved in by Christmas, but nothing is even finalized yet and there a few things we're going to have to get for the house before we can move in. I wish I could just fast-forward the next few weeks and have it all be done! It will be worth it in the end :)
Last thing, I know I said I'd post pictures of the trip, but we really didn't do anything and I didn't really take pictures of anything. I'm the worst, I always have my camera but I always forget to take pictures! I'll see whats on my camera and try to post something. Sorry this was so long, it's been a while since I posted anything. I hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving and is feeling the Christmas spirit! :)

I think I have told pretty much everyone at this point, but... I am pregnant! :) And since I haven't posted anything in over a week I thought I should think of something to write. I am only about 7 weeks, so I have a long ways to go! I have been pretty sick the last couple weeks, and I think Olivia is starting to get annoyed with me. I am no fun these days. And I can't lay down for more than a few minutes without falling asleep. So almost everyday I end up taking a nap with Liv and not getting anything done around the house. Or I fall asleep on the couch while Olivia is playing or watching a show and she's left to entertain herself for 20 minutes... or 40. I'm horrible.

Anyway, we are leaving for Arizona tomorrow and will be gone for 10 days. We are very excited to visit JJ's grandma and have a vacation :) But before we can go we have to do all of our laundry and clean the house. I hate coming home from vacation to a messy house! So I'll probably be cleaning all day and putting Olivia to work with me! At least that will keep me awake... hopefully! But yeah, my point about being gone for 10 days was that I probably won't post anything while we're gone, so I will take pictures and post them when we get back :)

Ok, time to get cleaning! I hope you aren't completely bored after reading all of this!
Happy Thanksgiving everybody!

Ok, so potty training is not fun. Not fun at all. I read the book and it made it sound so easy. A few hours of intense training, and the hardest part would be over. However, for the training to be successful the child must be cooperative and engaged. I did everything it said to do, but Olivia is stubborn and just wanted to defy me. We both got so frustrated we eventually had a meltdown. Imagine both of us crying in the hallway, me begging her to sit on the potty. It sounds so pathetic! Ugh! Maybe she's just not ready. I'm sure it's scary for her, but my concern now is that I have scarred her with a bad potty training experience and therefore all future attempts will be doomed. Ok, I'm sure it's not that bad. But it will be tough no matter when we do it. I know she's learned a lot from the training, she knows exactly what to do on the rare occasion that she's willing to try. She just doesn't want to do any of it. I guess we'll have to wait a few days or even weeks and try again.
Anyway, another thing on my to do list is to get more pictures onto the computer. I'll try to do that in the next few days. They are mostly of Olivia of course, but who doesn't want to see more pictures of Olivia?!
Oh, and I just have to tell this cute story really quick. We went out to breakfast the other morning and we were telling the waiter our drink and food orders, and all of the sudden Olivia jumps in with her own order, "Yes, and a juice please! Apple juice. And pancakes. Mickey mouse pancakes! With fruit." We were laughing so hard! She was so proud of herself. What a big girl, she knows what she wants and isn't afraid to say it!
Well that's all for today I think. Liv got up right before 6 this morning. Nap time!

So right now I'm listening to Olivia watch the Doodlebops for like the 3rd time in a row this morning. I feel like a bad mother for giving into her addiction to this colorful childrens rock band. But she's dancing and singing and running around with them, so at least she's not sitting on the couch being lazy. I think that's a good rationalization.
Anyway, Olivia is doing this new thing where she always complains about something hurting in order to get out of going to bed, or getting dressed or putting her coat on. Her biggest complaint is, "My knee hurts!" Apparently her knee always hurts. Then we end up having this screaming wrestling match just to get her clothes on in the morning. Thankfully this doesn't happen everyday, but when it does it's exhausting. I guess my question is, does her knee really hurt? She says it so much I'm starting to feel guilty for not doing anything and assuming that it's just a stalling tactic. Who knows... hopefully she'll grow out of it soon.

Our next big hurdle is potty training. I'm not excited about it, but it beats the heck out of
changing diapers 5 times a day. My friend Julie recommended a book called Toilet Training in Less Than a Day. I ordered it online like 2 weeks ago and finally got it yesterday. So tomorrow it
begins. She is a smart girl, hopefully she picks it up quickly. My goal was to have her potty trained by the time we head to Arizona for Thanksgiving, in about 2 weeks. Wish me luck!

So I finally figured out how to do the blog thing! And now it's time to write my first post. Here's the issue - I am painfully boring and now that I've got a cute background and all of that, I'm realizing that I don't really have much substance to fill the rest of this space. But I'll do my best! I don't know that many people will read this, but for those of you that stumble upon it, I'll get more creative with my posts at some point. Although I always have something to say about Olivia, and she is very entertaining. I'm sure this will turn into her blog completely. All Olivia, all the time! As it should be.

She is getting so big, just turned 2! And I'm in awe of her everyday. She is smart as a whip and talks amazingly well. We were at Target the other day and I was basically having a conversation with her, and this woman shopping near me was shocked to see how well the little girl in my cart was talking. Now, I don't have any other children to compare her speech development to, so it's all normal to me, but I felt so proud of my little girl! I can't believe how fast the last 2 years have gone by, and I really miss having an infant. But it is so fun to be able to talk to her and have her talk back and to play with her. I often feel like I'm reliving some of my childhood when I play with her. Her imagination is just unbelievable, and I find myself getting easily lost in imaginary play every day. Whether we are looking for fairies under the bed or in the grass or playing "mommy" with her baby dolls, she's always thinking of something for us to do!

Ok, so I had a lot more to write than I had anticipated! Can't wait to keep updating, this might be easier than I thought it would be :) Hope you enjoyed it and I hope you return! G'night.