Belated Turkey Day

Things have been beyond busy for us lately, I am only now getting to post a few pics from Thanksgiving in Michigan. We really enjoyed getting away from the house for awhile after we worked on it night and day to get it ready to put on the market. We listed it the day before we left for thanksgiving. We would put Livie to bed around 8 and work on the house until 1 or 2 in the morning. We had so many friends who came to help with the many projects and we could not have done it without them. We completely gutted and remodeled our master bath, updated our other bathroom and the kitchen in 3 weeks. In addition to my part time job, Drakes job and parenting. Anyway, we are happy to be done with the projects around the house and have a good thanksgiving together.

You might want to sit down for this one....

So it has been a while since my last post and for good reason. About 2 1/2 weeks ago we found out that Drakes office was closing here in Asheville. We were prepared for this possibility as in the last year the office has gone from approximately 20 down to 5. We have been blessed each time there was a layoff that Drake has kept his job. It is truly a reflection on him as an employee. It has been so sad to see so many of our friends move away to look for work. We love Asheville and have had no intention or desire to leave. However, we were again blessed as Drake was offered a position at his compnay's headquarters in Denver, Colorado. We were prepared for a lay off but not a transfer, however we are grateful that we have a job as they are particularly hard to come by in Drakes profession right now.

So we have a short window of time to prepare our house to sell(great time to sell a house huh?), pack our things and leave the life we love here in Asheville to start over in Denver. We spend every free moment, painting, tiling, remodeling the bathroom, packing in order to get ready for this move. We are up till 2 in the morning working on the house and still doing our regular jobs as well as being parents to a very active 1 year old. Life is beyond crazy right now and Drake and I are beyond stressed. Luckily we have great parents who took a week to come and help, we have friends and family who are pitching in and helping. We have no idea right now how this will all play out. Drake has to be there the first week in December. He is coming back for Christmas and we are hoping against hope our house will be under contract and we can move after Christmas. This is where the miracle has to happen. The market is in the toilet and it is the holidays, the odds are not in our favor. However, we believe in a God much bigger than ourselves and one thing is for sure- He can sell our house. So we have to have faith. We can see how God has taken care of us in the past so we can only believe in that for the future.

Well thats it for now. Back to painting. But I must leave you with pics of Olivia. A few weeks ago we had a cold snap (40 degrees- yes we are true southerners now) and Olivia and her cousins went out to play. Olivia hated the cold. I put her in her usual sweater and she was frezzing so I added another coat and both hoods and she was still freezing. She normally loves being outside but she just stood there, very still and shaking. She evetually fell several times as she is not used to a coat and that was the end of outside time. What on earth are we going to do with this Southern Belle in Denver Colorado in the winter?!!!

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.