A year has come & gone......

It is hard to believe that our little miss Olivia Beth is a year old! What a fun year it has been! I have loads of pictures to share & I don't want to put it on a slide show, so hopefully y'all will enjoy the millions of pics! Hopefully they will be in chronological order!

These pictures are obviously right after she was born. The second one is of the Doctor who delivered Olivia. She just happens to be our neighbor across the street & also a close friend whom we all love & adore! Thanks Dr. Berryman for the special treatment! We love you!

*Her brothers have adored her since day one. Yes, I would find little action figures surrounding the poor girl every now & then. She didn't seem to mind, though!

*Grandpa Tom was able to visit & be here when she was blessed in July '07!
*Olivia has grown leaps & bounds this past year. She conquered eating food at a very EARLY age. She mastered the baby stuff & moved on to the real stuff by the time she was 6 months old. Some of you are probably in shock, but my kids like food & they are not fooled by the baby goo-they know at a very early age that what we are eating is way better than what they are eating!
*She didn't sleep through the night until she was at least 7 months old. Of coarse, once she finally did, she has slept through the night since then!
*She mastered crawling when she was 9 months old & then started walking when she was 11 1/2 months old.
*She loves baby dolls. She has several & can be found cuddling them & patting them on the back.
*She is already pretty girly & loves to hug daddy when he gets home from work. She has been a mommy's girl from the get go, but has done really well with others this past month.
*I have mentioned to Kiley several times these past few weeks that I just can't get enough of this girl!
*She has an amazing smile & beautiful blue eyes.
















*She loves the water!

*I love this girl!
*We can finally put her hair up in one little ponytail on the top of her head! She LOVES to pull it out, especially when she is tired.
*This picture is from last Sunday. I gave her an oreo on the way home from church & apparently she devoured it! That's my girl!
*I also have to add that since sleeping through the night, she has been an excellent sleeper/napper! This picture of her sleeping is how I find her a lot-her little bum up in the air. So cute!
*These last few pictures are from her birthday party. We didn't do anything big, just had a few friends over for pizza & birthday cake. Liv was sick that day. She had a temp of 102.8. So I had to drug her up so she could put on her party face. Didn't last long.....we sat her in her highchair to do the whole cake thing. She started to dig in right away & then before I could blow the candle out for her, she grabbed the flame with her little fingers! Luckily they were covered in chocolate frosting, but she did start bawling & then she pretty much was done for the night. It was still fun!





*Olivia & her birthday loot!

*It has been so fun to have a girl-she is so different from the boys already at this age. She is our little cuddle bug!
*She can only say a few words: mamma, dadda, Teagen, & hi.
*Happy Birthday Sweetheart!

Happy FIRST Birthday, Little miss Liv!

Yes, our baby is one year's old today! I have lots of pictures & stories to share, but it is late & time for me to head to bed. Tomorrow I will post the fun pictures from our little party tonight. I just wanted to do a quick post-a shout out to my baby girl!

You have dazzled us with your fiery personality since the day you arrived! You know you have us all wrapped around your cute little sausage fingers. We can't get enough of your adorable smile-gotta love the one snaggle tooth on top & two cute little teeth on the bottom! You have been a wonderful addition to our family! Happy Birthday Baby Girl! We love you!

"Cruising" right along!

Kiley & I spent a fabulous week in the Western Caribbean! We have been home now for two weeks & are ready for another vacation! Isn't that how it always goes? We missed our kids, but enjoyed the time away & the good friends we were with. My little sis, Ashely, came & stayed with the kids & my mom flew out midway through & helped her out. I think they had a great time & didn't miss us at all. I was really worried with leaving Liv, but she grew attached to Ashley & when we got home, she wouldn't come to me for over 2 hours! She cried & started shaking when she saw me. So sad! I didn't know if I should laugh or if I should cry! It took me blow drying my hair for her to finally realize that it was me & that I was home for good! She has been my little side kick ever since. Any how, back to the cruise....
I'll first start off with our port of calls (where we stopped) & the excursions we went on. The first was Cozumel. We went clear bottom kayaking & then snorkeling. I got terribly sick while we were snorkeling & my friend, Andrea also felt ill, so we hopped out & went & took a siesta on the beach! Our 2nd port of call was Roatan, Honduras. It was a blast! We went zip lining through the jungle. I nearly killed myself & one of the tour guides---I went way too fast down the one line they told us specifically how to stop on & I tried, but missed that we need to stop with 2 hands & I came in at full speed. Luckily, I wasn't hurt too bad, but I think he was in a lot of pain! We made sure we left him with a nice tip! After zip lining, we went to an amazing beach-the water was crystal clear & the sand was beautiful! Our 3rd port of call was Progresso. This was a very unique excursion. We drove inland for about 1 1/2 hours. Our tour guide really knew his history & so we learned a lot about the Mayan culture. When we got to our destination, we hopped on "trucs", which were little wooden wagons pulled by horses on a train track. We rode on those for a while & made it to the cenotes caves. We got to hike down into the caves & swim in the natural well water that the Mayans used to use as their drinking water. We went to two different caves. The 2nd one we had to climb down a latter straight down a hole. It was beautiful & definitely an experience we are glad we had!

I forgot to mention that the cruise line we were on was the Royal Caribbean. The ship was the Voyager of the Seas. It was AMAZING! It is the 3rd largest ship-so it was pretty big! We had just a regular stateroom-reminded me a lot of a cheap hotel room, but still very nice. There was a lot to do on the ship-ice skating, roller blading, mini golf, dancing, rock wall climbing, basketball, ping pong, arcade games, swimming, hot tubbin, & there was also an amaing work out facility! We did take advantage of the gym & enjoyed being able to look out & see nothing but ocean as we ran on the treadmills! We enjoyed dining in the nice dining room & had fun eating new things.

We did enjoy the entertainment, but now know what Simon Cowell means when he says, "That was like a cruise ship performance!" The iceskating performance was our fave! We did a little bit of country dancing & swing dancing. Lots of relaxing & reading books. We enjoyed being with good friends. Mafia was a nightly ritual (almost nightly), especially fun in the hot tub---we were all amazing liars! I did get a little motion sick the last 2 days! I took two dramamine & was OUT! We had to head back to our room & I crashed by 10pm! That was early for us! I tried to run on the treadmill the next day & had NO BALANCE what so ever! It was quite a funny sight! It is always nice to get away for awhile-thank you to those who took care of things at home so we could slip away for 7 days with no worries, thanks to great friends for inviting us to come along, & thanks to Kiley for working so hard so we could pay for this wonderful trip! Love ya Babe!