way up yonder above the moon , a jay-bird lived in a silver spoon

My sister-in-law decided she needed some inspiration for a painting idea

she has...so yesterday we put Angela on the trampoline and I snapped away.

Needless to say, it was fun. And for never doing something like this,

I'm pretty happy with how they turned out! Good job, Angela!

i will ever praise You

Yesterday was quite an eventful day...it went a little something like this:

50 degree weather all day (in Florida!)

Maren's dedication at church.

Cookout at Tim & Elizabeth's.

Celebrating Daniel's FIFTEENTH(!) birthday.

Geocaching.

Fire pits.

Smores.

Loads of family fun.

I couldn't be happier if I tried.

ring the bells

Yes, yes, I know that these are late! But here they are...a few shots

of the cousins at Christmas...some cousins are missing, sorry Jenn!

I didn't take to many pictures because I was trying to enjoy my day

rather than worrying over getting the "perfect" shot.

Not to mention my family likes to get up at the crack of dawn (thanks

to Daniel & Rebekah!) to open all the presents...needless to say, I was

barely awake :)

Standing on her very own!

Mom & dad will probably kill me for this but it's to good not to post. haha...sums up the day!

Olive in her Christmas Eve attire.

"may she who gave you birth rejoice!"

It is officially 2010 now and I am going to do what most of you in my blog

roll have already done...I'm going to post on the biggest thing that happened to

me in the last year.

My family of two became a family of three.

In one year's time I went from

being a simple housewife...to a housewife, mother, protecter, nourisher,

provider, chef, laundry machine, nurse, stylist, & night owl....and many other

things in between. I'm sure the list will continue to grow as Olivia grows.

I certainly would have it no other way! The past year has taught me to love

in ways I never knew and to have patience that I didn't know existed.

It has also allowed me to witness one of the most precious things I have

ever witnessed...my husband becoming a father.

I will forever give thanks to God for giving us the opportunity to raise this

little girl and call her our own.

I will end this by saying, 2009 just might have been the best year I will

ever have, because it's the year that I grew into the person that I always

desired to be: a mom.

she is joy.

Believe it or not, I actually did manage to get a few Christmas pictures!

I will post those in my next blog...for now, I have a few from the past

week or two that I wanted to put up.

So, here they are.

My growing & beautiful Livi.

Enjoy.

This cat is the first thing she has ever clung on to with such excitement....

it doesn't have a name, it is simply "cat" and she will ask for it, and point at it, and

when you put it in her arms she will squeeze it so hard with the biggest grin on her face.

These are from her first trip to play at the park yesterday...as you can see,

she enjoyed herself!

a glass can only spill what it contains

I've always known this to be true, but yesterday I was reminded that there are still good

people in this world. Olivia and I were having a great afternoon enjoying the GORGEOUS

weather at the park when I randomly decided that we should take a trip to the mall so I could

find a new jacket. Needless to say, it was packed, the stores were picked clean, and I didn't find

one so we made our way to the parking lot to leave. Well, I made it about 5 or so minutes down

the road when I realized I no longer had my phone....my IPHONE, the phone that I had to beg

and convince my husband to let me get, the phone that I have only had for a few short months,

the phone that has endless amounts of priceless pictures on it (like the one above from yesterday

at the park!)....I pulled over on the side of the road and searched my car up and down thinking,

"there is no way my phone fell out of the stroller and I didn't hear it! NO WAY!" After realizing

it wasn't in the car I quickly made my way back to the mall and retraced my steps trying to find it.

I asked security, I asked the people in the last store that I had it in...no one had turned it in!

I know this may sound stupid but my stomach was literally sick...I felt like I was going to puke....

I knew Zac would not be happy and there would be no way I could convince him to let me spend

money on another one! As I made my way home I just kept praying, "oh God, please just remind

me it's only a possession! There are more important things in life!" And He did...I was calm. I

would hate to have to explain to my husband that I lost it, and hate losing all my pictures...but

I had tons of real pictures on my real camera, I could use my old phone again...it would be fine.

Don't get me wrong, I was still upset...but I was definitely reminded that it wasn't the most

important thing to me.

Well people, I get inside and there is a message on my machine and it's my mom telling me

to call her because a woman found my phone and she wanted to get it back to me! How

sweet it is!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I could not believe it! Not only did she save it from being smashed

into pieces (she found it in the parking lot!), but she actually cared enough to get it back to

me....I wanted to hug her.

The lesson I learned in all of this: God is good, people are still good, and losing my iphone

would suck bad (mostly because I know I would never live it down!), but it wouldn't be the

end of the world.

just keep me awhile

I fear I have a drama queen. She's happy, she's sad, she's laughing, she's crying....

she's throwing a tantrum....then sees a cat walk by and starts talking.

OH MY.

Just to give you a little picture of what I'm talking about I'll explain what happened

a few days ago....Olivia was on my bedroom floor, doing her usual thing of trying to play

with outlets and pull on cords and get into other random things she knows she is not

supposed to touch....well, me, just trying to save her life, said a very stern, "NO, NO." and

what does my dear, darling daughter do? She makes THIS very lovely face....

I know, pretty, right?

While she was in the midst of her little fit she crawled away from me, headed to the mirror

that is leaned against my wall, planted her little booty in front of the mirror, and just

stared at herself bawling....! It was like she was telling her reflection all about what

a horrible, mean mother she has. I couldn't help but start laughing.

Thank you Olivia, with you around, there is never a dull moment!

joy that she will carry to the door

My 11 month old. It is getting increasingly harder to get pictures of

her because she is just so darn BUSY these days. The world is new to her

now that she is crawling & cruising and there is nothing she doesn't want

her little chubby hands on. I am keeping her from choking, falling, pulling

things onto her head, and going up the stairs

ALL DAY LONG.

To say I am one tired mama would be an understatement. I am exhausted.

Not to mention this super busy time of year. I am enjoying it but it is going

by so quickly I can't even keep up. I just realized last night that Christmas

is NEXT WEEK PEOPLE! Thank God I have most of my shopping done. We

are planning to take Olivia light looking this Saturday and I can't wait.

Anyway, yes, she is 11 months old now...this month she has gotten quite fast

around the house, started cruising along the window sill (her favorite place),

eating more and more different kinds of food (we discovered she likes olives

of all things! how strange is that?), and she is jabbering and dancing constantly.

She will be one in a month and I am planning a little birthday gathering for her.

I have a feeling her birthday will always sneak up on me since it is in January.

I can't wait to watch her dive into her cake. Of course, as cautious as she is about

things it may take a bit of coaxing to get her to even touch it! haha...we shall see :)

its rays the night illuming

Our tree is finally up! It's not to tall, not to short.

It fits perfectly in our little home.

And check out this face looking all sweet and innocent! Don't let

her fool you, she is all over this tree. I feel like my entire day is just

on constant repeat of telling her no and pulling her away.

I am, however, so excited for her to have her first Christmas!

She is completely enthralled with all the lights everywhere.

I so love watching her take it all in.

Halle, Halle, Halleluiah

This might sound a bit strange, but for some reason when I look at these particular pictures

I can see the "big girl" face in my daughter. Almost like a glimpse of what she is going to look

like when she's older. You know what I mean? She is quickly losing her baby features. It makes

me sad & happy at the same time.

Oh, and she's up! This is the sweetness that greets me when she awakes now. She rarely cries

for me to come get her now. She just yells for me and when I go in, there she is, standing tall,

and happy as can be.

I am loving life!