New Pics of Olivia

Olivia was happy when I got home from work today and I hoped to get picture of her smile, but to no avail. At seven weeks old I am sad to report that she no longer fits into any of her newborn outfits; however, her newborn shoes still fit. Scott got on the scale with her the other morning and she is between 11-12 pounds. She has started to coo when you talk to her and she is very smiley. Her hair is coming in really curly and it makes her existing hair stand even straighter. Can she possibly get cuter everyday? I think so.

Me at 32

Picture taken by my amazingly talented friend Annie.

32 years ago today at 8:00 p.m. I came into this world. 32 is not a significant birthday year, but I have a feeling that this year will be one of the best yet. At 32- I am a wife, a mother, a daughter, a sister, a granddaughter, a friend, a teacher, a career woman, an aunt, and a godmother. Each of these roles shape who I am. At 32- I am happy with my life and how it has turned out so far. At 32- I am truly blessed!

Back to reality

Today at church I found myself doing it again... justifying to someone why I went back to work. After the conversation (and the many that I have had before) I find I am a little miffed with myself- I shouldn't feel obligated to justify my reasons to anyone or feel guilty that we have made this decision. I would love to stay home with Olivia, but for right now that is not a reality. So for myself only I have decided to list the reasons and I vow to not have that conversation again:

• We really would like to adopt again in the next year or so. Adoption is very expensive. By the time Olivia's adoption is final, it will cost us almost $30,000. There would be no way that we do could do it again in the near future just on Scott's salary.
  
• I want Livy to have some of the things that I didn't have has a kid. My dad worked very hard as a contractor and we never wanted for anything that was really important...but with seven kids there was not a lot of money left over after paying for the necessities of life. I want Livy to be able to take dance (or gymnastics , or soccer, or piano, or whatever she wants to do) and I want to take her Disneyland and Sea World and lots of other places too.
  
• Working has become part of who I am. I have had a job since I was about 15. If you do the math that is just shy of 17 years. Before that time I babysat a lot and was making a lot of my own money from the time I was 12. The time I had off when Livy was born has been the longest period of time that I have been off in 17 years.
  
• I am good at what I do. There are not many things that I can truly say that I like about myself, but two of them are that I am a very hard worker and I am good at my job. I have come a long way since working at McDonald's and although there have been many many people that have helped me a long the way, I feel good about the fact that I am where I am today because of my work ethic.
  
• Olivia is being well taken care of by two of my friends. I know that she is loved and taken care of at their homes. That being said when I get home at night Olivia and Scott are my focus. I am still working out how to balance everything (how do I fit in the gym, scrapbooking, cardmaking and all of the other things that I love and also find time to do all of the things that need to be done...cleaning the house, laundry, yard work, ect?), but both Olivia and Scott know that I love them very much and that is the most important thing.

On another note...My two brothers came to visit this weekend. My baby brother Jason just got home from a mission in Mexico and it was great to see him. My other brother Matt and his wife Cindy just found out they are have a little girl in July. With the addition of Taylor in July there will be four little granddaughters in the family.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Brittany and I found some cute St. Patrick's Day dresses for the girls while we were in Cincinnati. Tonight we tried to take some pictures of them in their matching outfits, but again Olivia would have nothing to do with it. This is one of my favorites- I love Emma's face as she is taking Livy's pacifier. Brittany made the bows (isn't she amazing!).

My baby is chunking up- I think it makes her even cuter. This week she has really started to smile, but I haven't been able to capture it on camera yet.

For the past couple of years I have wanted to have a green dinner to celebrate St. Patrick's day, but lacked the follow through. This year I finally did it- we had two of our favorite neighbors over and green penne pasta, green alfredo sauce, green breadsticks, broccoli, green salad, and green cool-aid. For dessert we had keylime bars, which were of course green. It was a lot of fun!

Our Trip to Cincinnati

Last week Olivia and I went to visit my sister, Becky, and niece,Sophie, who live in Cincinnati, Ohio this last week with my mom, sister, Brittany, and niece, Emma. Becky's poor husband, Pat, was out numbered 7:1. We had a great time...

Sophie turned 3 on March 1, so we had a little birthday party for her the first night we were there.

Sophie and Olivia.

Cart and Buggie in Amish Country.

All the girls (Livy is in the stroller) on the Purple People Bridge in Ohio. We started in Kentucky and walked across the river to Ohio. It was such a nice day on Saturday, but very windy.

We thought it would be fun to get pictures with the three granddaughters in matching outfits. This picture shows how Livy felt about the idea.

I was able to get one cute picture of Olivia before she got angry and wanted nothing to do with pictures...isn't she sweet?

One Month Old

Our little Livy is one month old today. Love this girl!

A Model in the Making

My friend Annie has a friend that teaches a photography class. For last weeks class the students were being shown how to take pictures of infants and families and were in need of an infant model. These are some pics from the photo shoot- I think she is definitely a model in the making.