What Olivia's been up to...

Well, Olivia stays quite busy these days. She loves to open our cabinets while I am cooking or cleaning in the kitchen. I have this philosophy that when you have a child it is required that a mess be made,in order to actually get something accomplished. Then at the end of a long day of making all sorts of messes, Olivia enjoys unwinding on her Dora the Explorer sofa with some popcorn. It's a tough job but somebody has to do it...

PARTY!!!!

Today we had Olivia's first birthday party. We had some of our wonderful friends come to celebrate her birthday. Olivia was dolled up in her princess outfit and she had so much fun with all of the kids. In addition to the 10 children we had about 12 adults. It was pretty much 2 hours of pure chaos and Olivia loved every minute of it! She got some great toys which some of her older friends had to show her how to open. Part of the time she just looked in awe. We had cheese pizza and cheese puffs for the kids (Olivia's favorites- she ate 2 pieces of pizza). We also had strawberry punch. For the adults we made a big pot of soup, had french bread, chips and salsa and of course- beer (to make the chaos more bearable). Drake and I made Olivia a homemade cake which she enjoyed and then had a sugar high. She has had more sugar this week then in her whole life combined! All in all it was a great party and we are so thankful to our friends for making it a special day.

First birthday bonanza

The days surrounding Olivia's birthday have been exciting! On her actual birthday we had a pancake breakfast and Daddy went in to work late, then we played with cousin Tatum all day and then that night after dinner Olivia had some of a brownie that Daddy brought home for her. She got it everywhere! Olivia also got presents from here grandparents- a musical shopping cart and clothes and another toy from Grandma and Grandpa and from Nana and Papa she got a box full of goodies- an outfit, DVD, and books! Olivia has had fun playing with her new things. She actually climbed right into the shopping cart, which isn't suprising- Olivia loves to climb. She will climb anything-the dishwasher,the sofa, shelves.... She also loves books. She sits down and pulls out her board books and flips through the pages and babbles. She also constantly brings the books to me to read to her.

Happy Birthday to our Angel

To our darling angel on her first birthday,
Olivia you have brought more joy, sunlight, purpose, love, inspiration, magic, peace, laughter and meaning than we ever could have imagined. We remember your birth as though it was yesterday. When you entered the world and were put on Mommy's chest the joy we felt brought us to tears. It was instant love. This past year has been amazing. You are such a happy, joyful girl. Your name means "bringer of peace" and that is true of you. You have brought peace to our lives. Our wish and prayer for you is that you always keep your joy, your love for people and your love for adventure. Those are qualities you already possess and we pray you always do. We would do anything for you and we will always love you and support you no matter what. There is nothing you could ever do or be that would change our love for you. Thank you for being the best little baby we could have ever asked for. We can't wait for all the years to come. We will love you forever, Happy birthday Olivia.

Mommy and Daddy

Trip to the Nature Center

A few weeks ago we took Olivia to the Nature Center here in Asheville. It is such a great place with tons of nature trails, boardwalks and best of all... animals! They have bears, deer, Bobcats, foxes, birds, reptiles etc. Olivia loves animals so we thought we would take her. A bonus is that by signing up for a yearly pass, we can get into hundreds of zoos in all different states for free. Anyway, Olivia had fun although at times she was more interested in just walking around and not so much some of the animals, since she is getting so good at walking now. She has been at it since 10 1/2 months old and loves to find new places to show off her walking skills. They even had a petting area with goats and sheep that she could pet. I, of course was nervous she would get bitten or catch some disease, however, I pushed those mommy fears down inside and let her have fun. I did cover her hands in sanitizer the minute we left the petting area.

Trip to the Coast

A few weekends ago, our friends Brittain and Pat got married in Southport, NC at a beautiful beach wedding. We made a weekend of it and met Gandma and Grandpa Hayes there for the weekend. They hosted us at their condo rental and babysat Olivia for us while we went to the wedding. We almost didn't make it as Olivia had her first ever bout with the stomach flu only 2 days before our trip. She was quite sick but bounced back pretty quickly. We decided to try and make the trip as we knew it would be our last trip to the beach this summer. She did great and we had so much fun. The weather was a little cool but we had ice cream, walked around the adorable downtown, walked on the beach and along the waterfront. Thanks for a great time Mom and Dad!

The Many Faces of Olivia

Not much to say other than "isn't she cute?" I love this girl so much. She is adorable day and night, even when she is crying and throwing a fit (which by the way just started a few weeks ago)

Hello World!

Olivia loves the outside so much that she spends some of her time inside standing on the sofa and looking out at the street. She even yells to the neighbors and is always delighted when they yell Hi to her. I often move the sofa cushion out of the way so she get right to the window. And yes those are pens in her hand. She is obsessed with them she always seems to find them around the house. I am going to have to bemore careful soon becuase it won't be long before she can get the lids off. She is truly Drakes daughter as she shares his love of pens!

Fun Outside

Olivia loves to play outside. She could spend all day outside. She cries when we take her in and cries if she wants to go out and we wont take her at that moment. She likes the front yard where her swing is. In the backyard she spends a lot of time pushing her two push toys up and down the walkway. She also likes to play in the now empty swimming pool. On this particular day she was putting leaves and grass in and out of the little "trunk" in the push toy. At one point she thought she would taste the leaf. Silly girl....