Picasso, Van Gogh, Monet maybe???

The other day Olivia quietly got out her markers and paper and sat down to draw. This is one her favorite pastimes! She really loves to color, draw, practice writing, etc... If it involves markers, paper, glitter glue, or stickers, she's there! Anyway, I had no idea what she was doing until she came to me in the kitchen and said, "Mommy, look, I drew a picture of you!" I know it's not the most flattering portait, but I am very proud of my little artist! She has drawn "people" before, but not really to this degreee of detail. I know most of you are thinking, "detail", c'mon, this looks pretty simple. But I think for her age, she shows real potential! :) It is definitely something I'll always treasure!

Skippin' Rope

Olivia's favorite new game with her daddy is to play with his new jump rope! I think she uses it more than he does! :) They play this new game at least once a week and one day she woke-up from her nap saying, "Daddy, come get me, I'm ready to play jump rope"! Below are pictures from one of their latest "games", forgive the lack of clothing! And I wonder why she has a runny nose!

Christmas in Houston

The day after Christmas we headed down to Houston to share Christmas with Denny's family! I am so ashamed that I don't have not one photo of our trip down there! Olivia had called Bumpa and Gigi on the way and asked them if we could open gifts as soon as we arrived. Of course, like all good grandparents, they said okay! So we literally walked in the door and were opening gifts within 5 minutes! I didn't even have time to locate my camera in our pile that had just been brought in from the car! :) But Olivia was once again spoiled and we all had a great time!!!! We made our visit to Grandma Grace and Grandpa Al's house to say hello and so Grandma Grace could fix Olivia's lovey. Olivia was dying to help her and I'm sure she was an excellent help! She is really getting domesticated, something her future husband will one day love, I hope! :)

Olivia also had a swim in the spa again with Bumpa, and Daddy this time.

And on our last night there (a real photo op missed!) we went to the horse races! It was too cute! Olivia had so much fun, we let her bet on every race! Unfortunately she had an eye for the horses with literally the worst odds in the house and most of her ponies came in last! One time she actually said, "Look Mommy, there's my horse, he's at the end of the race!" She was so excited you would have thought her horse had beaten the others by a mile! She had different ways of picking her horses. Sometimes she picked them by color (purple her favorite!), other times it was the number, or the name! Her favorite horse was Blueberry Cat! He was one of the last place ponies! She always knew the number of the horse and would cheer for it as they rounded the track, and looked for it as they crossed the finish line! It really was a good time! Thank you Bumpa and Gigi for a great visit!!!! I just hate that I have no pictures to show for it!!!

Merry Christmas!

I just have a few pics from Christmas Day! I had the video camera rolling all morning, but didn't get many actual pictures! I don't know that Olivia knew what to think when she came down the stairs and saw everything Santa had left her. It was all stuff she had desperately wanted, but she didn't show much excitement. She must get that from me! :) But she played with everything literally ALL day, so I know she loved it all, despite her lack of enthusiasm!

Here are a few pictures of her opening her stocking!

A slinky!!!
Looking for more goods!

Getting Ready For SANTA!!!!!

We have a tradition of opening one gift on Christmas Eve night, and that gift is always new pajamas. I hope Olivia will enjoy it as much as I did growing up!













This year she got a set of Strawberry Shortcake Christmas PJs!



















Daddy was low on pajamas himself, so I decided to go ahead and surprise him with a gift as well!














I just love this picture of the two of them!!!













After PJs, it was on to more exciting stuff...

This is the first year Olivia has really understood Santa, so needless to say she was beyond excited about his impending visit!! We got plates full of food for both Santa and his reindeer! Of course, Santa got cookies, and milk, and we made sure we had 9 carrots for each of his reindeer!

Olivia counting to make sure we had 9 carrots.


















Placing the milk and cookies... and carrots out!

Christmas Eve with Nana's Family

This year for Christmas with Nana's family we hosted dinner! We had Nana, my mom, Aunt Shar, Frankie, Bradley and his girlfriend, Shelly, and Madison! Since I love to entertain I really enjoyed it! We had quite a spread too! Turkey and dressing, ham, and all the things that go along with it! My mom brought over at least half a dozen of different desserts. We had a separate table (that was full) just for all the desserts. I wish I would have gotten a picture! As it goes, after dinner we headed to the tree for our 2nd Christmas of the season!

It seemed to be a Barbie Christmas for Olivia this year! She got a Barbie airplane, several Barbie dolls, including the Barbie Island Princess movie, dress-up, and the Princess and Prince!

Here she is with Ken and his main squeeze!

Another favorite, High School Musical dolls, Troy and Gabriella
Opening Ponyville Fashions Boutique, she'd been eying this gift for weeks!
Playing Ponyville with Nana

Christmas at Mimi's

On Sunday, the 23rd, we went down to Mimi's house to celebrate our family's Christmas with Ed, Mel and Chad and the kids, and Liz and Bryan and Presley! As always, it was a lot of fun and the kids had a great time playing together. Well, at least the girls! They tend to stick together!

Liv and Presley playing

All of Mimi's great-grandkids

Peyton opening Guitar Hero, making Denny jealous!

Grandma's House

I know it has been a LONG time since I have posted anything! We have been so busy with the holidays I just haven't had a chance to get on-line and upload all of our pictures! So get ready to be inundated with details of our Christmas holiday! :)

The Saturday before Christmas we all went over to my mom's new place to help her trim her tree. We enjoyed dinner together and then Olivia had a blast putting the ornaments on the tree!




Daddy helping Olivia reach the top of the tree.


Grandma and Olivia