Happy Birthday Ladybug

Well, here we are with a one year old. Boy does the time fly by fast. We are so excited that Olivia is a Halloween baby where we get to celebrate her birthday and Halloween. Last Saturday we had a really fun party for Olivia at her grandparents house in Smithfield. All of her family from dad's side came to celebrate with us, it was so much fun to have so many people there to show how much she is loved. She also had her friends Jackson and Easton came to party too. Daddy and I decorated a Ladybug cake that we had hoped she would just rip into, but she was a little hesitant to play with the cake. We had some sugar cookies that everyone got to decorate. Overall, Olivia had a blast and absolutely loves all of her new toys that she got for her Birthday.
On her birthday, Frankie took the day off which allowed us to spend time together as a family. Because it was such a nice day we took a little outing to the temple grounds and got some fun pictures.

It's Fall

Well here we are in the middle of the fall season. The leaves are changing colors and falling off of the trees. I love to see just how beautiful nature can be with all of her colors. Because of the upcoming holiday, Halloween, we as a family participated in our annual pumpkin carving. Frankie is very much a person who likes to tell a story with his pumpkin so we tried to find some fun carvings that went right along with us as a family. I'm sure that you'll be able to figure out the story from the pictures.

Even though Olivia didn't get to do any of the actual carving, she sure did have a fun time exploring the end results.

I love getting to stay home with our little girl, especially now that she is at such a critical learning stage in her life. She is so close to walking and is getting into everything. She loves our cats, Millie and Winston, and has even attempted to say their names a few times. Of course we have to monitor with the cats because she can get really, really physical with them and hurt them which then causes them to lash out at her. Winston is willing to put up with a lot more discomfort than Millie, but even he has reached his limit. But we have been having some success with teaching her how to be soft and to use one finger with the cats.

This past weekend we were able to go and visit with Frankie's family in Sandy. On Saturday we took a little drive to the property that his parents own in the Okur Mountains. We had a little picnic, did some crafts and went for a four wheel ride. Olivia had so much fun on the ride that she fell asleep.

Olivia's Birthday is just a week away and we are holding a birthday party for her this Saturday at her grandparents house in Smithfield. I'm excited to give her her presents so she can have some fun new toys to play with. Some of her toys are becoming to boring for her, so she finds new ways to play with them. Her old kick and play bouncer chair has now become a rocking horse for her. She loves to just climb on it and bounce and rock away. It is just so funny to watch her with it.

Learning and Growing

It is just so crazy to think that at the end of this month our little baby girl will be turning one and entering the toddler stage. Olivia has just brought so much joy and laughter into our home. An update on our family; Frankie finished classes in August and is now done with his Bachelor degree. Because he is now able to work full time, I was able to quit one of my jobs and work on being a stay at home mom. Even though I really enjoyed working at LaBeau's for the past 5 1/2 years, it is nice to get to stay home with my little munchkin.

Olivia is learning and growing so fast. At her 9 month check up she was in the 84th percentile for her weight and height. Who would have thought that little Frankie and me would have such a big girl. Olivia learned how to crawl on the 4th of July and hasn't stopped moving since. We are trying to get her to learn how to walk, but she just loves crawling too much. This past month she has learned how to climb onto things, mainly our love sac. She is a fearless little devil and has to be watched all of the time. She also loves making messes, especially when I am doing laundry. When she sees a basket with something in it, she just has to pull everything out of it because the basket needs to be empty apparently. She has also recently discovered that she loves to stand up and push things around the floor. We probably should buy her a push toy, but she enjoys pushing our cooler around so much, why bother with the expense right now.