Olivia Layne - 51 Weeks

 

I had to post all of these pictures to show you how hard it is to get ONE good one! ;)

What?! Only a week until your birthday? Impossible!!!!!!!!!!!! I am in awe of you my little one. You are just a bundle of joy, really. I love watching your little mind work and it works a lot these days. You have taken steps while you are supported by furniture or people and you have climbed the stairs! You haven't said any words yet, but you say lots of your own words. You do say mamamamamamamama, but I'm not sure you're actually saying my name just yet. It is so cool to see you pick up on something new or concentrate on something for several minutes at a time. You are a smartie! You know where your hair and nose are, where mama's hair is. You know to point the remote at the TV and put the phone near your head. You can give your baby a bottle. You can find things and know the names of most of your toys. You like to put things inside of things, like your bath toys into your bath cup or your toys into your big toy truck. You also love o shake things and you are learning how cool it is when things make noise when you bang them. You are eating more, too, but I need to find more table foods you will enjoy and can feed yourself otherwise you go crazy in your high chair and want OUT OUT OUT. Last night you enjoyed salmon and cheese with grapes. Yummy :) You truly are the cutest baby girl in the history of the universe, which is a nice cherry on top to your adorable personality and smarts ;) 

Electric Safari

Here is something we might have to make a new tradition! It was only in the 20s and FREEZING but Olivia did great in her snowsuit and seemed to like the lights and animals :) What fun!

A day of silence in memory and celebration of the precious lives lost at Sandy Hook

Tomorrow: a day of silence

I have copied and pasted the following and will participate in the day of silence tomorrow. This is a perfect response for me, because I truly have no words for the tragedy the people of Sandy Hook have been dealt. My tears have flown freely this past several days and that is without letting my heart and mind fully acknowledge what happened in CT for fear I may break and never be the same. My first thought is that everyone should just be silent. How dare we pretend to know what to say or how to help a mother or father whose child was just violently taken from them? Prayer and words of comfort can't be helpful, can they? For some, I suppose they can be, but for now, I will continue to offer my silence with a greater community.

(begin copied text)



On Tuesday, December 18th, there will be a blogger day of silence. We will post the button and that's it. Please try to not post anything else that day if possible.

We are also raising money that will go to an organization in the memory of this tragedy. The organization is called The Newtown Family Youth and Family Services. Here is the official description of the support service we are donating to:


"Newtown Youth and Family Services, Inc. is a licensed, non-profit, mental health clinic and youth services bureau dedicated to helping children and families achieve their highest potential. NYFS provides programs, services, activities, counseling, support groups and education throughout the Greater Newtown area.


ANY DONATIONS MADE TO NEWTOWN YOUTH AND FAMILY SERVICES WILL BE DONATED DIRECTLY TO THOSE EFFECTED BY THE SANDY HOOK ELEMENTARY SCHOOL SHOOTING."


Please visit THIS PAGE to make your donation.

We can't imagine how they must be feeling, especially this close to the holidays. We would love for you to spread the word on your own blog, Facebook, Twitter, etc. Let's make a difference and use blogging in a positive way. Thank you in advance for participating.


Love,

The Blog World


p.s. If you would like to, copy-paste and repost any part of this, please do. Share on.

orange rolls and scrambled eggs (or: Christmas Traditions)

Christmas. It really IS the most wonderful time of the year. Of course the older I get the faster the season comes and goes, but that’s another matter. A few bloggers I follow recently posted some of their Christmas traditions, which made me remember some of my favorite traditions of yore and helped get me excited about traditions I hope to have with our little family of four. (hey that rhymed!)
As kids my brother and I would always wake up at the crack of dawn (probably before the crack, actually) to find out what Santa had brought for us. We would rifle through our stockings and ooh and aah with excitement over the toys and goodies, and then we would go back to bed and IMpatiently wait for Mom and Dad to wake up. I don’t know how it started or how long ago, but we always had orange rolls with scrambled eggs for breakfast. Then of course was the waiting until the dishes are done and kitchen cleaned before we could open the gifts under the tree. A clever thing my mom came up with is printing out pages with family members names on them so that when we open a gift we can quickly write down who gave us what for future Thank You Note Reference  We always made and decorated sugar cookies for Santa. I’m pretty sure Santa will always leave a special letter for Olivia after he enjoys his cookies from now on. My grandma makes ornaments for my parents each year with the date and a picture from that year. Now we love to set them all out in order and look at them with fond memories and sometimes some good old fashioned teasing about funny mustaches or old-school glasses. (which are totally in style now, by-the-way). My mom does the same thing for my family now! I hope I can be so creative and generous for Cade and Olivia someday. I remember decorating the house and tree together, too, which is a special family activity. My parents have written a Christmas letter almost every year. One of my favorite things during the weeks leading up to Christmas is to receive cards and letters from family members and friends to see their beautiful faces and hear about their lives in the past year. I hope to send a family photo card each year, too. Or maybe in this age of technology I’ll just post it on the blog, but taking the picture is sure to be fun each year ;) We drove around many a neighborhood looking at lights. Olivia already loves Christmas lights so we’ve taken several bundled up walks around the block to check them all out.

Some traditions since Jeff and I got married have come to mean so much to me. I like to make a special Christmas date night for us with fun, special food. A little together time before Cade comes home for the holiday. That will look different now that we have Olivia, but maybe we can carry it on anyway. I still like to have the same breakfast if we are celebrating at home or with my parents. Santa Claus has started bringing a Christmas movie each year, which is so cool! I’d love to continue making cookies for Santa, but someday I think it would be magical to have a North Pole Party. I also love the idea of new Jammies on Christmas Eve, but since Olivia and I are the only ones who wear Jammies maybe socks or shirts like these  would work. We got an Advent House this year and Olivia likes to shut the little doors. She looks at the prizes briefly, but the doors are so much cooler. I think it would be fun to do a theme for the prizes each year, like things to make a gingerbread house or a doll house or tiny tree decorations. Emily has a neat tradition of the types of gifts they give as well as their wrapping paper. Each person has their own wrapping paper, but they don’t know which is whose until they find a scrap of it in their stockings on Christmas morning! They get something they want, something they need, and a surprise on Christmas morning as well as jammies and a book on Christmas Eve. I love this idea! I think it would be fun to open one family present on Christmas Eve that would be a game or movie tickets or something to DO together  I took Olivia to sit on Santa’s lap and think it will be just adorable to have a picture with him each year. I love to make a nice treat for our neighbors and the milk man. This year I made cookie dough, inspired by

Jami. Jeff’s family has the fun tradition of going snowshoeing and then to the hot springs! We will be with them this year and I wonder if we will try to make that work with Olivia and her baby cousin Asher?! I long to instill the spirit of giving in the kiddos, so I really want to find a unique, fun and special way to give to others. There is the soup kitchen idea, and packing boxes with toys for children in other countries. But I think it would be cool to do something even more tangible for people even closer to us. I’ll be brainstorming that one. Of course I think it would be awesome to have technology free days during the holiday. No video games, no computer, and if the TV is on its only showing a Christmas movie. I don’t imagine that will happen in our house, especially with a teenager, but hey, a girl can dream.

What are some of your favorite traditions? I love to hear about why YOU love Christmas!

Cheer!

Bundled up for a Christmas Lights walk!

She loves Uncle Scottie. She was so content she fell asleep on this walk :)

Nightly ritual of checking out the tree with Daddy

The season's first egg nog

cheers!

One of our new traditions-a Christmas countdown. Olivia loves shutting the little doors over and over again.

This is what she does with Monkey anytime she sees him. Mama, play with me :)

I don't have enough pictures of my sleeping angel. So precious.

Going outside to check things out.

Putting up the Christmas lights

Playing with Carmelita, who is the sweetest chickie!

Both in Daddy's lap. You could say they are sisters ;)

Neighbor/friend gifts. I got the cookie dough idea from Jami

And this is from last year. I've been borrowing my mom's camera and this picture was on it. I love my grandma!!!