A Couple Cool Outings

There's a lot to update on this blog entry. We've had a couple opportunities to do some really fun stuff with Olivia (and others) over the past couple weeks with a bunch of new pictures to show as well! First, the weekend after the 4th of July, we met up with Damon, Laurie, and Elisabeth (our friends from Tulsa) in Oklahoma City to catch up, see how the kids are growing up, and also take a trek down to Norman to check out the old college campus. It's been 10 years since I've seen all the expansions and upgrades to the campus and it's just amazing to see all they've done to that place. The campus is as gorgeous as ever...it just has several more buildings and several more have been added to. Here's a few pictures from our time on the OU campus.

Olivia and Amanda at one of the fountains on campus

Me, Damon, and the girls in front of the Sooner Schooner

The group walking in front of the OU library

After touring the campus, we continued our walk down memory lane by going up to downtown OKC to have dinner and one our favorite restaurants. From there we walked to the "river walk" area and had Olivia feed Cheerios to some ducks and snap a few more pictures. After that, it was back to the hotel and probably the highlight of the trip from Olivia's viewpoint...fun in the pool!

Ducks, ducks, and more ducks!

Olivia and Elisabeth

Amanda and Olivia in the pool

All the girls in the pool

Olivia going for a ride with dada

Smile!

The soggy McIntosh family photo

The next day (Sunday), we had plans for the six of us to go to the OKC zoo. Well, Elisabeth did her best to disrupt those plans by not sleeping well at all Saturday night. So, Damon and Laurie decided to pack it in and head to Tulsa. Amanda, Olivia, and I pressed on and went on over to the zoo. Olivia had a good time wearing herself out and checking out the available animal displays (I really wouldn't recommend going to the OKC zoo for quite some time to come. They're in a big renovating phase right now and won't be done until 2011. That means there's a reduced number of animals out for display...no elephants either!). Still, Olivia enjoyed calling out the animals as she saw them.

My attempt at an "artistic" picture of Olivia in the butterfly garden

Olivia and dada checking out a bird exhibit

Ooooooohh...lion cubs are cool!

Olivia looking at a cat exhibit (but the tigers were nowhere to be seen)

Olivia and mama looking at the coyotes

Our second outing was much closer to home. This past weekend, we went to Wonderland Park here in Amarillo. It's an amusement park with roller coasters, water rides, and kiddie rides. The three of us went thinking Amanda and I could take Olivia on some of the "slightly bigger" rides, but she is still too small for them. So, we decided to just let Olivia have all the fun on this trip to the amusement park. We started her off with a ride on the mini train around the park...which despite the look in the picture, she really liked. Next was a ride on the carousel. She really enjoyed her time on the horse...so much so that we rode it two times in a row. As we were getting ready to leave, there was a kiddie boat ride that Olivia wanted to go on ("A boat! A boat!" she said). We were reluctant to put her on it because you couldn't ride with her and there weren't any sort of restraints on the ride. Well, we finally decided to let her have a go at it and she had a blast! After the boats, it was a similar ride with cars. Then it was over to the kiddie helicopter ride...but Amanda rode with her on that one. All in all, Olivia had a really good time once she got comfortable with being on the rides.

Olivia riding the train for the first time!

Olivia and mama on the carousel

Olivia and dada "horsing around" before riding the carousel

Enjoying the ride

Olivia riding a ride by herself for the first time!

Olivia taking the pink Mustang for a ride

Olivia and mama riding the helicopter ride

A couple of side notes...I want to wish my Grandpa Swiatowy a happy 97th birthday on Wednesday (the 23rd). 97!!! That's incredible! Also, a big congratulations goes out to our friends Amber and Randal Dovel on the birth of their second child, Ian, on Monday. I leave you with a few other "miscellaneous" pictures from the past couple weeks.

Olivia smiling in a big, inflatable bouncy

Smile!

Here fishy, fishy, fishy!

New Camera!

It's time to show off the new camera! First, though, a BIG "thank you" goes to Grandpa Jim and Grandma Sylvia in Albuquerque for the camera. Seems Grandpa Jim didn't fancy the camera after working with it for a little while...so we are the lucky recipients of the purchase gone awry. After toying around with it, I got it to take (what I feel to be) some pretty darn good pictures. Judge for yourself!

Another big "thank you" goes out to Carla and Billy Dunham. Their son, Chip, lived across the street from us when we were in Amarillo the first time around...and we were invited by Chip, Carla, and Billy to go up to Fritch, Texas for a 4th of July celebration. We had a lot of fun and we definitely plan on going back up there for a mini vacation sometime soon. Here are some pictures from the festivities...using the new camera, of course!

Olivia with a balloon

Outside being protected from the strong Texas sun

Mama and Olivia

Olivia's attempt at getting a drink

Sitting on the edge of the inflatable pool

Olivia and dada with a sparkler

Olivia playing with dada's sunglasses

Olivia in da hood :-)

Pic Update

Here's a fresh batch of pictures from the past couple of weeks...

Father's Day 2008

Finally! Things have settled down at least for a little while. We've got ourselves situated about as well as we can be for the time being...just waiting on our house to sell up in Kalamazoo. Everything else is carrying on at reasonable pace with no major developments taking place in the past month and a half.

First off, a big Happy Father's Day to all you dads out there! I sent my dad and grandpa Father's Day cards with some fresh pictures of Olivia. Dad was happy to get some updated pictures, but I was also informed by him that I have been derelict in my duties in keeping the blog updated with pictures and videos. He is 100% correct and my apologies go out to our friends and family members who use this blog to keep up to date on Olivia's growth and what's going on in our world. So, I will be renewing my efforts to update this blog more frequently with pictures and videos. In the future, if you don't see an update in a while, kindly drop me a line and remind me to get back in gear.

As for Olivia, she's talking so much more. Her favorite question is "What's that?" My best approximation would be she asks the question at least 100 times a day. That's fine by us...she's learning and even though she may not understand it all, she's making an effort to grasp the basics. Teri and Carl (Amanda's mom and step dad) got Olivia one of those battery-operated Jeeps for her to drive around in the backyard. She's still trying to figure it out, but she really likes it. You'll see a video of her driving it around for the first time posted below. One big difference you'll see very quickly is that Amanda decided to get Olivia's hair cut. Sandy (the girl who cuts my hair) took about 3.5 to 4 inches off bringing Olivia's hair back up to just above her shoulders. She definitely doesn't look like a baby anymore...she looks much more like a little girl. Okay, without further ado, here's some fresh pictures and videos of Olivia.

Before the first big haircut

After the haircut

Eating some cheese and strawberries

Happy Father's Day!!

Such a cute face!

What a pretty smile!

Olivia-zilla!! (At the Discovery Center)

As promised, here are a couple videos as well...

Moving Sooner

Well, things have changed again...and the change involves moving up our relocation time. Instead of moving down to Amarillo in mid to late May, we should be down there by the first weekend of May. If you want to know the details of why this happened, email me and I'll give you all the details. We look forward to being back where we truly feel like we're home.

Here We Go...Again

There's a lot to talk about in the Swiatowy household. Besides the obvious that Olivia has turned 2, I have plenty more to say. After a long and brutal winter, Amanda and I have decided that we simply don't belong up here. So for the health and well-being of my family, Amanda, Olivia, and I are moving back to Amarillo in late May. I won't get into the details too much, but if you know anything about the TV business, contracts are part of being on-air...and I had to fight tooth and nail to get out of mine. It was a struggle, but I feel it's worth it in the end. We are going back to a part of the country we really liked. It's warmer, sunnier, the people are friendlier, and to us it feels more like home than any other place we've been. Once we get settled *again*, I'll make sure everyone gets our new contact information.

As for Olivia...she is so much fun to be around. She is a source of happiness and humor every single day. She loves being outside and pointing to animals (dogs, cats, ducks [geese], etc.) and she's saying some colors as well (a lot of things are yellow...and she says lellow). Here are a few pictures from her birthday party and a video from a week ago or so.

Birthday money is awesome!

So cute with her blue balloon.

Birthday cake is good!

Mr. Potato Head is still a kid favorite.

The family picture - March 29, 2008

Pics, Pics, and More Pics

I've been very neglectful of this blog...and for that, I apologize. With moving, (STILL) trying to get settled into our house, and an incredibly active winter up here, there just hasn't been much time to tend to this site. So, here's a quick update on Olivia. She's talking a lot better. She says some really cute things like, "Oops! Sorry!" and "Okay Dora TV?" when she wants to watch Dora. We're getting to the point that there's a power struggle when we take her out to the store (or anyplace else in public, for that matter). But Amanda is working on getting her in more social occasions and interactions and educating her on proper behavior when out in public. It's a work in progress. Here are some pics from the last couple months...

Olivia in the Snow

We have found Olivia loves to be out in the snow. This was toward the end of a rather long stint out in the snow. I'll post more videos of her out in the snow when the conditions are decent. And before anyone starts yelling at us for not having gloves on her, she doesn't like wearing them right now...but she is starting to understand the concept that mittens on your hands actually helps keep them warm...so she is starting to warm up to the idea (please excuse the pun).

Here's a couple new videos of Olivia trying to figure out what to do with the Christmas tree bulbs....

More Fun with Olivia

Here's a little video of Olivia having all sorts of fun in the kitchen and whispering sweet nothings to the camera. By the way, we finally found Olivia's original Halloween costume...it was in one of the boxes in the apartment. Go figure. Enjoy the video!

Chaos!

Holy cow! What a whirlwind the past month+ has been! We are currently living in an apartment on the southeast side of Kalamazoo and while it's okay for right now, we are really itching to get back into a house. Speaking of houses, our house in Amarillo has a buyer and assuming all goes well, the soon-to-be owners will close in late November. The date for closing down there is November 28th, but we're trying to get it moved up because we have found a house up here that we're all ready to move into! It's a brand new house in a new neighborhood on the west side of Kalamazoo in Oshtemo Township. It's a two-story, 1800 square foot house with an additional 900 square foot basement. All we need is the closing to go smoothly down in Amarillo and with any luck, we'll be moving into our new house in early December!

The move went pretty well with the opportunity for us to stay with our friends Damon and Laurie in Tulsa the first night and with my sister and brother-in-law in Indianapolis the third night. That was also the day that Olivia got to meet her cousins Clare and Conor for the first time. Most of the time was spent with Clare and Olivia interacting in one way or another. See below for some of the pictures.

Amanda and Olivia are doing well. All three of us caught a cold right after coming up here...and it's one of those nagging colds that just won't let go. Olivia got over it the fastest and I think I'm pretty much done with it too and for the first morning in the past couple of weeks, Amanda is starting to sound/feel better as well. No offense to any of you living in an apartment right now, but apartment life SUCKS!! Our apartment is right on the corner of the building next to the entrance. Combine that with this being a college town and plenty of college students live here...and we get people coming in and out of the apartment complex at all hours of the night. The door into the complex certainly doesn't help as it closes very loudly...and our bedroom is right next to the wall adjacent to that door. We can't get out of here fast enough! But through all of this, Olivia has really done well. She's been sleeping like a champ and continues to be a very happy and healthy baby. She really likes going on walks around the apartment grounds (we're nestled in the woods and there's lots of hiking trails all around the apartment complex). We drive by a lake near the apartment and she'll say duc-K (she always emphasizes the K) because there's a mean black swan that rather aggressively defends its territory along the lakeside. It is very pretty around here though. The fall color has been incredible and the weather has been quite cooperative for the most part...outside of the severe weather outbreak we had for my first day on air up here, but that's another story entirely.

Halloween was a bit of a problem though. When we moved from Amarillo, we had put Olivia's pink dragon costume in with the coats we were going to take with us to the apartment so we would have it handy when Halloween rolled around. Well, somewhere along the way, the costume got lost in the shuffle and we still have no idea where it is. So, we had to improvise and with some sunglasses, a summer hat, sweatpants, sweatshirt, and a towel, we made Olivia into a Winter Beach Babe. It ended up being okay though...we just went over to our new neighborhood and thought it would be the best way to meet our new neighbors and find out who lives in the neighborhood. Here are some pictures from the move and our first couple of weeks up here in Kalamazoo. Enjoy!

Olivia in the moving truck

Clare "putting on makeup" on Olivia

My new favorite picture! Cute cousins!

Amanda and Olivia in the apartment

Olivia enjoying her pumpkin

The improvised Halloween costume: our Winter Beach Babe!

We're Moving!

My sincere apologies for not updating the blog more recently, but things have been incredibly hectic in the Swiatowy household for the last several weeks culminating with the decision/announcement that Amanda, Olivia, and I are moving back to Michigan. I have accepted a weekend & morning meteorologist position at WWMT in Kalamazoo and I will begin working there October 17th...which means we have a ton of stuff to do in a very short period of time including pack up the house, attempt to sell the house in Amarillo, and find a place to live in Kalamazoo. Oy! We're just trying to keep our heads on straight through all of this, but it's going to be a very tumultuous time. Still, I wanted to post a few new pictures of Olivia since she is now a year and a half old. Olivia is at the point now where she likes to climb into her high chair on her own (and if you try to help her, she gets MAD). She also likes to move the chairs around and rearranges everything else you can possibly imagine. Several things have been "accidentally" thrown away because Olivia thinks the proper place for some things is the trash can. Enjoy the pictures and wish us luck as we move cross country...again!

Olivia and Amanda at the playground

Olivia and me at the playground

Getting ready to ride the slide!

Action shot!

Climbing into the highchair by herself

Success!!