New Olivia Videos

Here's a couple new videos for your viewing pleasure. The first is of Olivia dancing her own special "turn in circles dance". The second is Olivia's reaction to a part in Baby Dolittle (one of the many Baby Einsteins available). Enjoy!

Amanda's Birthday

Yes, Amanda turns another year older today. It's amazing to think it's been a year since we were up in Tulsa for Laurie and Damon's baby shower and had a little birthday surprise for Amanda at P.F. Changs. This year is going to be quite a bit more laid back with a day of rest for Amanda then an early dinner at Tacos Garcia. She wants to have an "Amanda Day" sometime soon with a trip to the hair salon and a massage...which in my opinion should have happened several more times prior to now, but with Amanda's workload pretty heavy right now and my freaky schedule, it makes it more difficult for it to transpire. But it will happen soon.

Anyway, an update on Olivia...and everything is going along really well. As the videos have shown, Olivia is walking very well now and getting into just about everything imaginable. Keeping up with her and her seemingly endless energy supply is a daunting task, but it's also very fun. She is saying quite a few more words...some she'll say a lot (like "shoe") and others come and go. Last night, Amanda and I were getting her ready for bed and we were playing around the love seat. Olivia came out from behind the love seat and Amanda said, "There she is!" and Olivia repeated that phrase perfectly with the exact same tone and inflection! Amanda and I just looked at each other with our mouths wide open. That was the first time she even tried to say something like that and it came out crystal clear. Go figure. Olivia has four teeth completely in with her two front teeth almost all the way in. She's got several swelled spots on her gums where more teeth are about to poke through...especially farther back. She's had her rough days when it comes to teething, but overall it's gone about as well as can be expected.

I've posted quite a few videos in the past couple months, but I haven't posted any pictures recently. Sorry about that. So, here are a bunch of pictures from the past couple months...a kind of "best of" from June and July. Enjoy!

Having fun with bathtub foam!

Just relaxing and pondering life on the love seat

Doing her best "Hannibal the Cannibal" impression...okay, it's really ketchup.

My two favorite girls

Dressed in yellow

At the waterpark

Olivia's messy hair

Olivia and Logan

Looking cute (and rather big-bellied) outside

Trying on dad's shoes

Focused and playing hard at the Discovery Center

If you play hard, you sleep hard

On the Prowl...Again

Olivia is on the prowl again. This time you get to see her as she randomly goes from one thing to another and one room to another. It gives you an idea of what it's like trying to keep up with her and the attempt to clean up after her.

Trying to Talk

Olivia has gotten the walking part down decently well and now she's working on saying a few more words.

Olivia on the Prowl

Hide your Tupperware and your toilet paper...here comes Olivia!! Listen for the attempt at saying "bye bye".

A New Walking Video

Here's another video of Olivia walking today. The whole "getting up from a fall and start walking again" thing happened for the first time in this video. She's picking it up quick! It's amazing and so much fun to watch her learn how to walk!

It's Official...

Olivia is now walking!! Here are the videos to prove it:


Now that Olivia is mobile on two feet, will y'all please do us a favor and say a little prayer for us! It seems she's gaining confidence by the second and it won't be long before she'll be walking all over the house. We'll just do our best to keep up!

Olivia's World

She laughs, she cries, and thankfully she doesn't hurl. Enjoy!

14 Months Old!

Olivia turns 14 months old tomorrow...so I thought I would put up some recent pictures. We're still waiting on her to take off and walk on her own, but she hasn't quite done it yet. Otherwise, she's "talking" more (she's gotten to the "uh-oh" phase) and we're just having a lot of fun with her. Without further ado, here are the pictures:

A Couple Videos

Okay...I know I've been slacking on the blog recently and I'm really sorry about that. But, for those who know me know I've been busy busy busy. Three storm chases from late March through early May and 14 tornadoes seen so far. It's been one of those severe weather seasons. So, I've decided to post a couple videos of Olivia on here. She's doing very well...teething and almost walking. We are truly blessed to have such a wonderful little girl. Enjoy the videos!

"Professional" Pics

We took Olivia to Sears for her one-year pictures. This time, I got the CD of all the pics. We ordered a few sheets of pics to pass out to friends and family, but there were so many good pictures, I didn't want them to go to waste. So, here are a few of my favorites. Enjoy and have a very Happy Easter!

Olivia Turns One!

Can you believe it? A year has already come and gone and little Olivia is not so little any more. To think about all the things that have happened, all the milestones that have been reached, all the fun we've had, all the sleepless nights we've had to endure, and all the love we've shared...it's truly been an incredible and amazing year! A huge "thank you" goes out to all of our friends and family who have done so much over the past year. We are so very blessed to have such a wonderful support group around us.

We celebrated Olivia's birthday last weekend with nice little party. Olivia made a nice mess of her birthday cake (pictures below) and she got some great gifts! Amanda and I made sure to celebrate the fact that we survived the first year of Olivia's life as well. So the party wasn't just for Olivia! Damon, Laurie, and baby Elisabeth also made the trip down from Tulsa making the birthday celebration that much more special.

As for Olivia herself, outside of a couple minor colds, she has been a healthy and happy little girl. She's right on the cusp of being able to walk...she will "walk" from one piece of furniture to the other, provided they're close enough together that she can immediately let go of one and grab the other. She, like all other babies, has her own language too. She says dada and mama quite a bit, but also babbles on about God knows what and it is so cute.

Here are some pictures from this past week and weekend. There will be plenty more to come as Olivia goes through her second year with us! Enjoy!

Standing tall...with a little support

Sound asleep

Olivia and Elisabeth

Such a precious picture!

Aloha!

There's the birthday girl!

Happy Birthday to you!

Yay!

Mmmmm....Tasty frosting!

Yummy cake!

Aaaahhhhh dadadada mamamama

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Have a happy and safe St. Patrick's Day!! Thanks Grandpa Warren for the cute St. Patrick's Day onesie!

A Full Update

It's been a while since I've done a full update on Olivia...and since she'll be turning 11 months old this Wednesday, I thought now would be a good time to update y'all on her. Overall, Olivia is just a happy, healthy girl! She had what turned out to be a rotavirus a few weeks ago and we just replenished her fluids slowly and gave her little bits to eat. A note to all you parents out there, if you're baby is throwing up and the doctor suggests you give them half Gatorade-half water to help keep them hydrated, grape Gatorade (which actually has more of a blue color than purple) is not the best selection. If the grape Gatorade happens to come back up and isn't cleaned up quickly, it can stain carpet pretty good. Since then, she has been healthy.

A couple weeks ago, Amanda, Olivia, and I got the chance to go back up to Red River, New Mexico for a station-sponsored weekend of fun. We had the 5, 6, and 10 newscasts from up there and I got the chance to show Olivia during the 5 and 6. Whenever we're out and about, lots of people will come up to us and tell us how much they like seeing her on TV whether it's pictures or just her. I show pictures of her around the 29th of every month. Once she turns one, I'll probably back off to once every other month. It's fun though because I do get the chance to show Olivia off.

As you would expect by 11 months of age, Olivia is quite mobile. She has a little "power crawl" that she sometimes does and it gets her from point A to point B pretty quickly...almost too quick at times, so we put up a gate between the front room and the kitchen. It does great keeping her in the front room and out of the kitchen (and away from the dog food), that is when we actually latch the gate. If either Amanda or I forget to latch the gate, Olivia makes a bee line for it, throws the gate open, and she's over by the dog dishes before you know it. We think that Olivia sees the dog food as oversized Cheerios. Maybe she just likes the taste. Who knows.

She also is trying to maneuver a little more while she's standing. She'll stand at the coffee table then work her way up and down the table using a kind of hand crossover, foot step method. My guess is the start of walking is not too much further away.

Olivia is also doing quite a bit of "talking" as well. Besides the usual squeals, she also likes to say long sequences of "da da da da da da da da" and "ma ma ma ma ma ma ma". Occasionally, she'll do just two of each ( "dada" or "mama") and Amanda and I will repeat it back to her while pointing at ourselves, but it hasn't quite stuck yet.

Overall, Olivia has been a very good girl and we've really been enjoying playing with her, taking her places, and just loving on her. Not a day goes by that she doesn't do something that makes Amanda and me smile and laugh. She's such a joy to have in our lives. Here are some recent pictures of Olivia. The first couple pictures are just for you, Mariah. I wanted you to see what Olivia looks like when Amanda decides not to do Olivia's hair. Enjoy!

Olivia right after waking up from a nap

Holy hair, Batman!

Olivia loves to look at the baby in the mirror

Carrying Olivia around like a sack of potatoes!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Olivia wanted to wish everyone a Happy Valentine's Day!!


Thanks to Grandma Pauline Smith for the cute onesie!

Congrats Indy!

Congratulations to the Indianapolis Colts for their victory in Super Bowl XLI!!
Thanks to my sister, Jennifer, for bringing the Colts shirt down here for Olivia.

Virus

Poor Olivia...she's sick. According to the doctor, she's got a virus that's been going around. She threw up several times Thursday and she had a fever of 102 Thursday night. On Friday, her fever went down, but she was still nauseous and lethargic all day. This morning (Saturday), she went back to throwing up a couple times. We're giving her a half-Gatorade-half-water mixture to help replenish her fluids and only feeding her plain oatmeal and toast in very small increments. If she's not better by Monday, we'll take her back to the doctor. Here's a picture of our sick little girl:

Trip to Red River

After a long stretch of working 6-day weeks, dealing with several bouts of winter weather, and training the newest member of our weather team, it was finally time for Amanda, Olivia, and me to go on a mini vacation. The nice thing about living in Amarillo is its relatively-close proximity to the mountains of northern New Mexico. Taos is the name of a town in northern New Mexico that most people have heard of, but there is a small town farther up into the mountains that may be lesser know but is just perfect for a little get-away like this. The town you see above is called Red River and it was where we called home for three days. We stayed at the Lazy Miner Lodge...which is managed by my boss's parents, so they gave us a great deal and set us up in a room that had a well-stocked kitchenette. That was crucial for taking care of Olivia while we were there. Shortly after arriving, Olivia crawled out of the room, headed right for the first snow pile she could find, and decided to taste snow for the first time.Richard (my boss's dad) also feeds a small group of deer that come by the lodge, so Olivia got the chance to see some of the deer up close and personal.

The ski lodge had day care, so we put Olivia in with the other kids while Amanda and I got some quality snowboarding and skiing time in (I just went snowboarding, Amanda did a little of both). Here are some pictures of the fun and relaxation culminating with a nice, new family picture with the wonderful winter scene as a backdrop.

Amanda in action!

Me on my board

Such a beautiful scene (on the ski lift)

Self-taken family photo (look at Olivia's bottom teeth!)

Peek-a-boo!

Olivia bundled up!

A great family picture!