Papa's Visit!!!

We were so lucky to have Papa come and visit this past weekend. Drakes' Dad spent 5 days with us and we had so much fun. We wish that her Nana and Aunt Isabella could have come to but it just wasn't possible this time...hopefully next time Papa can sneak them into his suitcase:) Olivia loved having him here, he was always available to read to her, carry her, and get her treats like ice cream! She can actually say Papa, which is pretty cool. She doesn't know how to say anyone else's name other than Daddy, Mum, and Hayla (alla), so that was great that she could say Papa. We had to take a trip to the zoo because Olivia is so much fun when she is looking at animals. She laughs, giggles, babbles and points at everything. We also went to some parks, the petting farm, Mt Evans and took a trip on the light rail to downtown for dinner one night. The trip to mt Evans left Papa and me a little queasy-the air is really thin at 14,000 ft in elevation. Drake was fine though, he actually rode his bike up Mt. Evans the weekend before! Thank you for making the effort to come all the way out here and visit us Papa and thanks for parting with him for a few days Nana and Aunt Isabella- We love you!

Our trip to the Zoo!




Olivia is smiling and saying cheese but she couldn't bring herself to stop looking at the bears



The petting farm


Up on Mt. Evans- Over 14,000 ft in elevation!



Our trip downtown...yes Olivia's sunglasses are on upside down- for some reason she prefers them that way.



Sharing some corn on the cob with Papa-wearing the bathing suit he brought for her


This is often what Olivia looks like when she "smiles" and says "cheese" for the camera



Reading!... I think this was Papa and Olivia's favorite thing to do!

Lots of Fun Things!

This will be another big post. We couldn't find our camera for a week so I couldn't upload any pictures until I found it. We had pictures of a lot of fun things that we have been doing. We took another trip to the Zoo with Olivia. It just never gets old. She loves the animals so much it is like a new experience every time.




Another fun thing is that I gave been trying to take Liv to some new parks. We go to our local park nearly every day, it is only a few blocks away. However, it does get a little boring (more for me than Liv) so I have been taking her to some new places. This park was great because it had a few playground areas and then it had a petting farm and a train raide around the whole park. It was only $1 for the train and $1 for the petting farm-what a deal! So we had a good time and Liv loved being up close and personal to the animals. I have to say I always felt a little bad for the animals at the zoo (not being in the wild) but these petting farm animals have it much worse. They get followe around by masses of little kids and cornered against the fences but they are very gentle. They do get unlimited amounts of hay so they seem to be kept happy with that. Olivia just kept laughing an dgiggling the whole time. She was in heaven! We will definately have ot take her back.






Our other big adventure was when we went to Breckenridge for the day. We went to pick up my birthday present from Drake- A new Bike!!! He found a great deal on ebay so we drove there to get it and to see the town. It was really cold because of the higher elevation but it was fun. We just walked around the town and grabbed some lunch. It is a really cool town and we would like to go back and explore some more.





This is how Olivia says "cheese" for the camera now she always closes her eyes...


Isn't my bike great? I wonder when Olivia will let me ride it...

Grandma and Grandpa Visit!!!

We were so happy to have my Mom and Dad come and spend some time with us. It gets a little lonely out here and it felt so good to have people here who love us and who we love. Olivia loved having her grandparents here, there was lots of attention and always someone to play with! We did lots of sightseeing and went on some great hikes. Olivia has been loving our hikes, she sits in the pack behind Drake and has so much fun she will stay in there for up to a couple of hours quite happily.. Sometimes she will even take a nap in there. On one of our hikes with Mom and Dad we actually saw a wild coyote. We also went to the childrens museum which is such a great place. It was Oliva's first time there and she had a lot of fun. We ended up buying a membership so we can go anytime we want. Thanks for coming out here Mom and Dad we love you!

Ode to shoes...and other Fowler happenings

Since my last post we have made some decisions... I am going to keep stying home with Liv. We feel it is the best thing for our family right now. I had interviewed for a full time job at my hospice where I do on call work and then a week later I told them I wanted to withdraw my name. Drake has long hard hours at work and for me to try to work full time would put such a strain on our family. It is a huge sacrifice financially but it is the right thing for us right now. I am going to start working toward my pre-requisites for nursing school. I am looking at an accelerated program that would allow me to transfer my bachelors degree to get a nursing degree in a year. But I have to get some science classes done first. It is hard for us to make plans right now as we don't know how long we will be in Denver. We have decided we just need to start making plans and be prepared they could change. We have to walk with faith and not sight because life is so topsy turvy right now, that is all we can do. We are so thankful we are healthy, happy and making ends meet. Olivia is amazing and in the next year or two we hope to add another little fowler, but not right now, unless we were pleasantly surprised :)

On to Olivia- she is changing so quickly now. She is adding words every day, she talks CONSTANTLY which I love. Not all of it makes sense yet but more and more every day does. She loves being outside. We spend much of our day outside and she loves looking at dogs, birds, squirrels, ducks and geese at the park. On our walks she stops at nearly every flower and stares and then sniffs in and out to "smell" the flower.

We did have a difficut adjustment to sandals for the summer believe it or not. She had this one pair of shoes we bought her in January and she has worn them all winter. One day I realized that they were way too small, her toes were curling at the end. I bought her a pair of sandals, thinking "no big deal we'll just move on to sandals and put these away." Well Olivia was having none of that. She wanted her shoes that she wears every day. I ended up buying multiple pairs of shoes trying to find some she liked. Every time we put on her shoes she would cry scream and try to get them off. It took weeks and a trip to Asheville before she got over it and started wearing them. Toddlers are SO particular it is just astounding!

THE Shoes


Playing with the new ones in her crib... A.K.A her "happy place" hoping it will cast them in a more positive light....




Shoe options...


I also had to post a few pics of Olivia's lunch time one day. She had a week where she was not feeling well (I think she was teething her molars)and she would not eat much. One day after 3 days of almost no eating I offered her every snack I had. She eventually ate a few raisins and a little yogurt before crying until I gave her warm milk and layed her down for her nap. Luckily she is back to normal again...

STILL busy.....

Ok, so I thought that after my last post life would calm down but there are still lots of happenings it seems like. First of which, Drake and Olivia went back to Asheville for the week! He had the opportunity to go back and work on a project there for work. I had some nights I was on call so I couldn't necessarily do that with Olivia because if I got called in in the night (which I did) I would have no one to stay with her. kevin and angela were kind enough to watch Liv during the day while Drake worked and she got to spend time with her cousins, which it sounds like she loved! When my parents found out Olivia was going to be a mere 12 hours away from them rather than 24 hours, they had to come see her. So my Mom switched around her work schedule so they could come for 3 days. It was quite the reunion and I was sad I missed it but I did enjoy my time alone. I got some tasks done that I often find difficult with Liv around. I also just enjoyed the ability to sleep in a little and do things in my own time. I took a lot of long 2 hour walks around the lakes at Wash Park, watched "chick flicks" and ate popcorn for dinner once or twice :)Anyway, it was nice but it wasn't as great as I thought it might be- I love Drake and Olivia so much that life is so empty without them around. don't get me wrong I definately enjoyed my "vacation" but I am also glad its over.

The other happening is that I have been considering going to work full time again. I have a possible opportunity at my hospice and I have been thinking about it. I know Olivia is ready for more social interaction and I think she would really enjoy some of the really nice child care places I found. We just aren't sure if full time is the way to go... BUT we feel like we need to get into a better position financially. I have been considering nursing school which would be a huge investment of time and money. So I spent a lot of time this past week looking at child care centers and really contemplating the right thing for our family. I always felt the best thing was to be with Liv all the time. When she was younger that was definately the right thing. Now, though, I think she also seems to want/need another environment to learn and grow, inaddition to home. Only time will tell what will happen. It is just so hard right now to make decisions. we feel as though wew don't know whats around the corner... will Drake get laid off? will they want us to relocate somewhere else?if I take the prerequisites for nursing school, will I get in? When will we try for another child? all these things are in our thoughts and we are ever the planners trying to figure out life.
Well that was a lot, but that is where we are at. On a lighter note, we got Olivia a little T-Ball set for outside and I have some pics of her trying it out. She is pretty funny with it because she likes to hold the bat from the end and push the ball off. Pretty cute!!!