O-L-I-V-I-A-A-A-A

Today is her day, she has waited and waited and waited for it to finally be her day!! She celebrated in her Preschool class this morning and Abby and I decorated the house to surprise her when she got home! She is grinning from ear to ear and I am so glad that we finally get to celebrate all that she means to us and how happy we are that she is part of our family!

Things we Love about Olivia:

-That she now knows how to spell and write O-l-i-v-i-a all by herself
-Because she now knows how it is spelled she will only go by her full name (although she will always be my sweet Liv)
-She LOVE to pick out her clothes and make sure it all matches
-She loves to have her hair done, even though all she gets to pick right now is a "Clip" for her short hair
-She sings ALL the time
-She talks with a lisp, she can't pronounce a "G" or "CK" sound, and really it is very cute
-Her favorite show on TV is the new OLIVIA on Nick (from the books we also love, naturally!)
-She is independent- always has been
-She loves her baby doll's, there are several, and they are all named Ali-When Lily comes over and I am putting her down for a nap by bouncing her, she wraps up her doll and walks around behind me, then lays her down in the dolly bed
-She has the biggest brownest eyes that are so expressive-When she is sad she puckers out her lower lip and drops the biggest crocodile tears you have ever seen
-She is a pack rat, always creating piles of things that "go together" and stashing them around the house
-Her favorite meal right now is a grilled cheese sandwich with bean and bacon soup
-She got a new 2wheeler bike with training wheels for her birthday and wouldn't take a nap until she had ridden it around the loop like Abby
-She will do ANYTHING for chocolate!

We love you Olivia and I hope this day is all you have imagined for months that it would be!!

The goings on

Life just keeps going and going doesn't it?

We had a good Valentines day, made even better because I had forgotten that the elementary school in our neighborhood was having a fund raiser back in January selling holiday cookie kits. I had purchased one and then completely forgotten- what a pleasant surprise to have it delivered to our door and we had a great afternoon activity without all the work, we just assembled them!
Now, how about an update on us all!

Abby is doing very well in school, she is really picking up the reading and enjoying it, I am very proud! She had a great Valentines day party on Thursday in her class because they had no school on Friday as well as Monday- so yes I am ready to send her back today, that was a long time of being cooped up in winter weather!! She lost another tooth last night and I am really beginning to think that she will no longer be able to chew her food, we may have to go to an all liquid diet for her! Although she has taken to telling me every night at dinner "Mom, this dinner is SOOOO delicious!" I really appreciate the praise because usually she is the only one that thinks so!!!

Liv is loving her preschool- she comes home everyday telling me "guess what I made today" and then launches into the song they learned during singing time. A few weeks ago she began singing "The sun will come out tomorrow" and I realized that she had never seen the movie Annie, so we checked it out at the library and now she walks around singing about what a hard knocked life she has in an orphanage!! She can hardly wait for it to finally be her birthday next week and asks me about every other minute if it is her day yet! She still spends every waking minute in some type of dress-up outfit, we go to the store in them, we go to the library in them, and she changes them about every other minute as well!!

Eva is turning into such a clown! All she wants to do is make everyone laugh and think she is funny. She had developed a little silly run in which she kicks her feet out in front of her and kind of shuffle hops in and out of the room while pulling a funny face- she must get this behavior from the Davis side!!!! She has taken to only eating about one meal a day- and that would be breakfast because all she wants is "chocolate balls" (Reece's peanut butter cereal!). Then at lunch she pushes the plate away and says "I NOT want it" and at dinner she pushes the plate away and says "I NOT want it". Can a child live on "chocolate balls" alone? I guess she is out to prove one can!!!

As for Paul and I, after our lovely weekend getaway last week, this weekend we have embarked on project playroom!! Yes the one we have been talking about doing for nearly two years. I am very excited. Paul wired in some new lighting and we were off on our digging adventure to remove all the gravel and level the floor to start the framing- except a home project wouldn't be a home project with out hitting an unforeseen snag right! Yes, the builders pretty much decided that this part of the crawl space was the perfect place to dump the unused concrete in several blobs!! So project halted until the weekend when we begin the adventure of jacking out the concrete- now that should be fun!!! Paul did look at me shovel in hand, dust mask on his face and said "you know, I feel like your Grandpa Griffiths right now!" HA HA HA!! For those of you who don't know, he dug out his own basement to add on to his house. I just grinned at him and said "yes, and if my 80 year old grandpa can do it, we can do it!!"

Update on Death, and CRAFTS!

Just so you all know, and can stop worrying about me, (as I know you all have been!), I am feeling much much better now. Last week was a doosie and I was heard many times telling Paul that I really did think I would in fact die from this long tortuous death that is an upper respiratory infection! But after several days of the meds not working it was switched up to a much more potent variety and miracle of all miracles not 24 hours later I was doing much better and have been ever since. Because of this amazing recovery from the depths of hell my weekend getaway with Paul for our Anniversary is not canceled and with the generous help from my wonderful parents for taking the girls we will have a whole weekend KID FREE and I can't tell you how happy this makes me!!!!!

Before I leave I thought I would let you in on a fun little find that Paul gave me as part of my Anniversary gift. Last week we were watching my favorite "Whatever Martha!" and they were mocking an episode about embellishing little girls jeans with gems and ribbons and lace and I said to my sweet husband "I really REALLY think that is cute and Abby would like to make those jeans!" So wouldn't you know, he found himself wondering around a local craft store looking for some gems that we could affix to little girl jeans in what would be a wonder of a crafty afternoon (how I would have loved to have seen him roaming those iles completely lost and out of his element, he does love me doesn't he!) and he came upon this fun little contraption: the KaJinkerHoly Crap I can't wait to make these fun things, BUT, I had a brain storm that it would be perfect for card making, and I just so happen to have been invited into a very elite card swapping group that meets quarterly and it was converging last night!!! So I put together this card to give out and I had a blast KaJinkering those cute buttons and plastic flowers to that fabulously glittered paper, after stitching the stems of course!!! My card paled in the face of those other ladies, I will have to step my game up next time, I just went pretty neutral with it being my first time and all!! But it was really fun to make with the Ka-Jinker (ok, so I just like saying that name, Ka-Jinker!!!)

I will post up the jeans and flip flops next week after I return from my weekend getaway!! Have a good one- I know I will!!!!!

This is forever

Today we celebrate all the good things, the bad things, the happy things and the joyous things! I still can't believe that it has been eight years, and then I remember all that we have done, been through and worked for together and I guess it really has been that amount of time!! When I look at our marriage from year to year some have been tough, some have been great, we have grown a lot through experiencing things together, working through problems together and finding out that we really are the perfect complement to each other. This last year was a good year, nothing too monumental happened but that is what I like about it and I hope for many more of the same to come!!
I Love you Paul- Thank you for telling me EVERYDAY for the last 8 years that I am beautiful (even when we both know at times I wasn't!!)and that you feel lucky to have me- I am lucky to have found you- Happy Anniversary!!

PS: Before you compliment me on the page- this is a modified quickpage by MistyCato- I took the easy road on this one!!!

Death be quick

I haven't died, I am here, barely at times, but here!! I have been a bit under the weather topping out yesterday into a sinus infection- no worries though my brother in law medded me up on antibiotics and now I just wait for the pressure in my tiny nasal passages to subside, wait, and wait...
On a brighter side I have been trying to scrap a page everyday this last week, I have fallen so behind it is scary! I was almost a year behind in Liv's book so she has had my full devotion! Thank you Audrey for the cool shadowing technique, I have put it to use on all my layouts and I love it!!
Here are a few- enjoy and hopefully next time I post I will be feeling much better (cross my fingers!).I am pretty proud of these next two, because I saw these layouts in a magazine and made my own templates for them!!

The good and bad of Vanity

Because Abby has the day off from School, Liv was done with hers at 11:30am, and I was up and at'em at 6:10am to get Abby to a Dentist appointment at 7:00am (I know, just kill me, it was dark and 10 degrees outside and Abby just kept saying "can I go back to bed?"), which during it was discovered that she truly is her father's clone and is missing the same permanent lower bicuspids!, I know it could be worse, she could be missing some of her front teeth like him also but now we are looking at more dental work in the future and it's not fun, so I decided today was the day for an all girl salon trip!
(I should have taken before pics, I didn't, so what can I do!!)

Abby has been telling me for quite a while that she wanted to cut her hair off at her chin- this gives me a heart attack because I LOVE her long hair, but the ends were getting straggly and something had to give. We compromised and cut it just past her shoulders- I do think it looks really cute on her and I can still do fun hair with it!!
Liv- I just LOVE having her hair chin length!!!! It just looks so darling with her sweet little face. This time we had them modernise her bob a bit with a little "A line" in the back. It looks so darling and dries perfectly into place- she has great hair!Eva- again, Eva is the anti-sister!! This was her first hair cut so I will cut her some slack but seriously, crying and screaming and had to have it cut on my lap. The other two just climbed up and grinned their first times! All I was doing was evening out the back because I am trying to grow out her front (that is REALLY slow!). In the end she got her lollipop and felt proud to stand with everyone and have a group picture. Hopefully next time she will be better about it!!

Fun day and cute hair all around, now I just need to get the time to have mine cut.....

I tell you...

Why is it that when you are out doing the monthly stock up shopping trip and just as you have filled your cart to the brim (and I do mean that it wouldn't hold another thing so you will be making another trip to get the last items!), and you have just settled your more than tired two year old into a tiny little spot in the front of the cart between the loaves of bread to get her to stop crying that you need to hold her because her legs are tired from walking 50 miles around the store, and you have been waiting in the longest lines ever because everyone was out doing the same stocking up that you are, and you finally reach the conveyor belt only to have your trooper of a three year old tell you very urgently "Mom, I need to go potty!" I tell you, this happens to me all the time, why she waits until just then to decide this, I don't know. I need to start saving myself some trauma and take a preventative stop before we get in the lines!! Needless to say, she was a trooper, danced up and down the ile while I worked magic getting everything back into that cart, held it all the way to the bathroom and- success, no accident! Yes, she earned herself a treat from the checkout- worth every penny!!!