Thursday, December 27, 2007

Christmas Morning for Baby Olivia

Olivia spent her first Christmas Morning at her own house, she woke up in her own bed and spent the morning opening presents with her YaYa and GaGa Worden. She was a real trooper at the beginning, trying to open her own presents, watching everything and everyone, and then it was time for an afternoon nap, she was exhausted and slept awful, poor
thing.



We all enjoyed each others company and shared Christmas Dinner at our house, a tradition we hope to continue for years to come.

Brad and Leigh put Olivia down for the night at 7pm, Christmas 2007 flew by, but next year will be even better, she will be walking around and hopefully will be able to thank everyone for their presents, but it probably won't be until the following year that she will know what is going on, its so exciting.


Brad has taken the rest of the year off to spend time with his family before Leigh heads back to work on January 7th, so they are going to spend as much time together as possible, but of course time away from the office for Brad also means time on the trails. We had planned on going to visit Greg, Angie and Ford Butner in Wilmington for a few days, but Greg has been sick with a Staph Infection (super contagious) so we are no longer going. New Years Eve will be spent at Brian and Molly's house for a little get together, and hopefully a quiet dinner with April, Addison and Megs (before she leaves on Jan 1st), and Olivia will be having a sleep over with YaYa and GaGa - exciting.

Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Olivia's Pictures Are In....


We wanted to share with all of you Olivia's Professional 3.5 Month Pictures, they put all of the images on a disk and set the pictures to the song In My Daughter's Eyes, and of course Leigh was crying her eyes out, Brad even got a little teary eyed (he might not admit it though).


She will go back to Heather House again at 6-7 Months, once she is really sitting up well on her own and have another session, we can't wait to see how they come out.

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Jolly Ol' Saint Nick...

Last night Brad, Leigh and YaYa took Olivia to see Santa Claus at the Chesterfield Town Center, Leigh was devasted when she realized she forgot to change her into her Christmas Outfit, so notice she is dressed in a purple number, good one Leigh! Olivia was such a good girl, nothing but smiles for Santa Claus, she even gave him a raspberry, her new favorite thing to do. Leigh and Brad are hoping Santa brings them a video camera so that they can capture this on flim, its by far one of the funniest things she has done to date.

Daycare is going well, last week Olivia was there until 3:30pm and this week she is there until at least 4:00, today Brad is going to pick her up as Leigh is sick and doens't want to infect the rest of the little ones. Don't feel too bad for Leigh though, she isn't the only one with the sniffles, poor Liv has been coughing and sounds congested as well, and by the sound of Brad snoring last night he is next on the sniffles list.
We had Olivia's Christmas Pictures/4-Month Pictures taken at JC Penny's, the good news is that it was a very cheap trip, the bad news is the reason it was so cheap is that we only liked this one pose (see above), they aren't digital yet and that makes it a little tough to capture an infant, but notice she is sitting up so well on her own. She loves to sit up, and most of the time remains upright for quite a while, rarely does she topple over to the side, most of the time she falls forward a little too far and can't correct herself and gets frustrated.
We are looking forward to our trip to Bassett, we will arrive on Friday and come back to Richmond on Monday morning for Christmas Eve here in Richmond at YaYa and GaGa's House.

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Time to Party...tacky style






Well December 3rd marked a sad, but unavoidable day in history for the Turner Family....Olivia started daycare at Miss Donna's. Leigh got up and got her ready, but Brad dropped her off, there was no way Leigh was going to have the will power to actually leave her there. Leigh was there as the clock struck 12 noon to pick her up, and while it was a rough morning for Leigh, we are happy to report that Olivia came home her jovial self and has been that way every day since. This week she is staying through her afternoon nap, Leigh picks her up around 3:30pm. Leigh has kept busy taking Riley to the vet and the groomer, helping her parents settle in and decorate for Christmas and of course prepare for the 2nd Annual Tacky Sweater party which was held this past weekend.




As you can tell by the pictures, fun was had by all, Brian, Molly, Brad and Christina came through BIG with homemade "outfits", not only were they adorable, but they also showed off the range of creativity Molly and Christina bring to their new business Got Me In Stitches (http://www.gotmeinstitches.com/), a monogramming/embroidery business. Justin enjoyed wearing the decorations, while poor Olivia barely made it to the beginning of the party before she had to leave and have a sleep over at YaYa and GaGa's house. But notice, the little darling did have a Tacky Sweater outfit of her own. We are all looking forward to the Holiday Season, Brad is hoping to take 2 weeks off to spend some time at home with his family, while we are also looking forward to a mini-vacation to Wilmington, NC to visit Baby Ford, Greg and Angie Butner just after Christmas. Then its back to Richmond for New Years, hopefully we will have some QT with Megs before the big move to Columbus, GA.










































Sunday, December 2, 2007

Baby Santa...



We had a quiet weekend, but we have a big week ahead of us. After a weekend of Football, visits with friends and quality time with Daddy, Olivia is quietly preparing for her first day of daycare tomorrow. Brad will drop her off around 7:30am at Donna's and Leigh will pick her up a little after 12 noon, she will be doing half-days for a week and then next week she will stay until 3pm and the following week she will be there the whole day for a few days before we head to Bassett for the "Christmas" weekend.

Friday Night Olivia had quality time at home with Brad while Leigh went to celebrate Megs engagement with April and Megs. Saturday Leigh and Olivia spent the afternoon drinking wine (Leigh, not Olivia) with Lindsay, one of Leigh's good friends from college who just recently bought a new house with her husband Karl, its gorgeous and Leigh had a fabulous time catching up with Lindsay while Olivia napped on Lindsay's couch, what a good baby girl. Today was spent watching the sad Redskins game and then we went to dinner at YaYa and GaGa Worden's house, its so nice having them close for the winter months. You can tell by the photo to the left, Olivia is now rolling over more often, she still isn't consistent, but she is working on it.

Sunday, November 25, 2007

Liv's First Thanksgiving

Olivia's 1st Thanksgiving was spent in Bassett, Virginia with the Turner Family. The greatest thing about Thanksgiving is being able to spend time with family, and when you go to Bassett you get family in full force, there were close to 30 guests all piled into Brad's parents house.

It was a bitter sweet Thanksgiving, the first with Sweet Olivia but the first without Cousin Ricky, we all remembered him throughout the day and prayed for his family as they enter the first Holiday season without him.

Olivia was able to spend the day with all three of her Great Grandmother's (Martin, Turner and Hoskin), pictured above is GG Martin and GG Hoskin. Olivia calls them "GiGi Martin, GiGi Hoskin, etc.

Olivia was finally feeling more like herself after a horrible reaction to her shots. She had her 4 month shots on Monday and was finally starting to smile again on Thursday, Leigh was VERY worried about her and talked to the Advise Nurse at Chippenham Pediatrics numerous times during the week, 102 fever freaked Leigh out and the fact that her usually happy baby was no longer a happy baby scared her to death, Leigh lost more sleep worry about Olivia than she did in the newborn days. After all the horror stories Leigh had read about what shots can do to babies she is more than relieved to have her darling little girl back. We have decided though that Olivia will be taking her 6 month shots in several doses, not all at once, the reaction just isn't worth it.

Leigh spent the weekend decorating for Christmas, the tree is up, the Christmas Village is up and the stockings are hung by the TV with care. Our goal for the rest of the weekend is to take our Christmas Card pictures so we can get them printed in the next week or so. Olivia has her formal Christmas pictures taken tomorrow, but due to a few MAJOR scratches on her face, they may be postponed. We hope everyone had a wonderful, healthy, happy Thanksgiving.

Monday, November 19, 2007

Survey says....

Miss Olivia weighed in at 16 pounds 8 oz, which is still in the 97% and measured 25.25 inches in length, which is the 90%. Brad and Leigh both thought that she was longer than 25 inches, they had measured her a few times and had seen at least 26 inches, but I guess the professionals know what they are doing. Dr. Seliskar was impressed with Olivia's strength, her ability to stand for an extended period of time and her neck strength. Brad was impressed that Leigh only cried for about 10 minutes this time instead of a full 30 after the shots were adminstered. Olivia screamed while Leigh cried, go figure.

Brad and Leigh had a wonderful night away, Leigh took Brad to the Virginia Crossings Resort, but not without a quick but delicious stop at the James River Winery. They spent Saturday night at the Crossings and headed back to Olivia and Riley after a yummy brunch on Sunday morning. For those of you in the Richmond area, the resort was beautiful and a great place for a quick getaway. Brad and Leigh were thankful that Grammie and PawPaw Turner were able to come up and stay with Olivia, they knew she was in great hands and didn't worry a bit (well not too much). For the record, Leigh only called home twice to check on her, impressive huh?

YaYa and GaGa Worden arrive today for the winter, everyone is very excited about their "new home". Olivia bought them flowers and a "Turkey" cake to welcome them to their new home, she even displayed them in the kitchen for them to see as soon as they walked in the house - what a thoughtful little girl she is.

We all (including the Worden's) will be spending Thanksgiving in Bassett with the Turner family, we will head down in the morning on Thursday and will be back Thursday night. Great Grams Sandra will be joining us in Bassett and then will follow us back to Richmond for a few days, we are looking forward to her visit, look for some great pictures of the "generations" of "Hoskin" women...




Friday, November 16, 2007

Happy 30th Birthday Daddy



Olivia is ALMOST 4 months old, the big day is on Sunday, we can't believe 4 months have already come and gone - where does the time go? Speaking of time, Brad hit the big 3-0 on Thursday, we celebrated by going to lunch with ladies from his office during the day and then joined our friends Brian, Molly, Insley and Megs for dinner at Chammps, where Brad enjoyed $2.00 Highballs - what a cheap date he was.

Olivia has hit a mini-milestone - she now rolls over from her stomach to her back, but only in one direction and of course just like Riley never on command. Brad has yet to catch her in the act, Leigh is hoping to catch it on camera one of these days.

Brad's Parents arrive this afternoon for a weekend of celebration and quality time with Olivia. Brad doesn't know it yet, but Leigh has planned a surprise for him this weekend and don't worry, there is no risk of this post ruining it since he probably doesn't even know the blog's URL. Check back to get an update about the surprise...

Sunday, November 11, 2007

Wahooooooo....

So first things first...

1) William Stratford Butner, "Ford" was born at 4:26am on November 10th, his proud parents Greg and Angie are both doing well, bless her heart, after 32 hours of labor Ford was finally born via C-Section. Greg and Angie are our friends from Wilmington, NC, this is their first little one. Ford weighed in at 8 lbs 8 oz and was 21 inches long. Olivia can't wait to meet her new friend, we are planning a visit in late Decemeber/Early January.
2) Megs and Tim are engaged - he proposed in Georgia over the weekend, at the beautiful Calloway Gardens, she is on cloud nine and we couldn't be happier for her.


Now on to the Turner Family News...nothing nearly as exciting or life changing as the above events, but as Brad prepares to kiss his 20's goodbye on November 15th, we kicked off the week long birthday celebration with a Surprise Dinner Party Saturday Night. Brad went "hunting" with Reese, Ryan and Brayden for the afternoon (Reese did a great job keeping him out of the house), Leigh ran around like a crazy person preparing dinner for 20+ people while she kept Olivia alive and fed. Leigh was amazed that she actually pulled off the surprise, Brad was shocked and speechless for a few minutes.

YaYa Worden flew back to Northfield on Satuday, but while we miss her, we are looking forward to her return, she will be back (with GaGa) the Tuesday before Thanksgiving and will be here until late March. Leigh was VERY thankful to have her Mom here for the week, Olivia had her moments and Leigh was so grateful to have her Mom here to help, not only with Olivia, but also Riley - he was a royal pain in the rear the entire week Brad was gone.

Brad's Parents are coming for the weekend to celebrate his 30th Birthday, we are looking forward to their visit.

Leigh is counting down the days as she prepares Olivia and herself for the first day at daycare, Olivia will be joining her good friend Zack at Miss Donna's on December 3rd. Brad is going to be in charge of dropping Olivia off, Leigh is fairly certain she wouldn't be able to handle it as she generally cries the entire way to work when she has to drop Riley off at Doggie Day Care.

Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Liv the Lobster



Halloween 2007 - Olivia is 3.5 months old so of course Leigh and Brad picked out her costume, they went with a Lobster and they can officially say - no regrets, she was the cutest Lobster they had ever seen.

We got her dressed around 4pm, she had a photo session outside with friends Zack Koehler and Kaylee Rogers, but after about an hour her outfit was soaked with drool and she quickly changed into her "Boo" Sleep Sack.

Zack was an adorable little Elephant and Kaylee was a cute little Ladybug, costumes have really come a long way since we were "young ones". We are already planning Olivia's outfit for Halloween 2008, we figure at almost 3, which will be Halloween 2009 she will get to pick her own costume, but next year we will still have control - there are so many options.


YaYa Worden arrived this afternoon, Olivia is so excited that her YaYa was able to share her first Halloween with her, while she won't remember it, we have the pictures to share with her in a few years. We got TONS of Trick or Treaters - and always do, Riley did very well this year and didn't even attempt to eat any of the little kids.

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Bassett, the ER and a shower...a full weekend.

Well it was an interesting weekend to say the least. It started off a little slow on Friday morning, the weather wasn't "working with us", we had to pick up the Yukon at the dealership and didn't end up getting out of town until 11am - much later than we had hoped, and about 6 hours after Olivia got up. We did however surprise Grammie at her office, she took Olivia around and introduced her to all her work friends and even tried to weigh her on their postal scale, but it didn't work - we think she broke it - ha!

Brad was finally starting to feel better and was able to even enjoy the yummy food at Olivia's Church Baby Shower - the ladies at Fort Trial are so generous and caring, Olivia received a ton of nice stuff, even a pack of size 6 diapers (we didn't even know they made size 6 diapers).

It looks like Brad over did it with the yummy shower food, he landed himself in the ER on Sunday, he was dehydrated and spent a few hours hooked to an IV - good news, he is feeling MUCH better now. Being that Brad frequents the ER, he now has high standards and was less than impressed with the ER at Martinsville Memorial Hospital.

We had great plans to stop at Chesterfield Berry Farm on the way home from Bassett on Sunday, but since we didn't drive back to Richmond until Monday, that threw our Pumpkin Picking Plans right out the window, we feel like terrible parents, we haven't even gotten our daughter her first pumpkin yet - that's what happens when you travel a lot in October.

We are looking forward to YaYa's visit, she arrives tomorrow and will stay for over a week while Brad is out of town. Also, Leigh has committed to a new role at Capital One and will be going back to work on January 7th, she is excited about the opportunity, as she will be working with a lot of the same people, however she is nervous about leaving Olivia, but she knows its for the best, plus, Olivia will be almost 6 months old, she will be ready to hang out with some other kids.

Check back for Olivia's Halloween Pictures...










Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Go Red Sox...

What an amazing time to be a New England sports fan, we are all very excited about not only how the Pats are playing these days, but that the Celtics have a much stronger team this year, the Bruins aren't terrible and last but certainely not least, the Red Sox are in the World Series, again. The world is a great place to be right now...Olivia's favorite player is Jacoby Ellsbury, she thought it was a safe bet to go with the youngest guy on the team, she thought that increased her odds of a date in a few years...

Leigh and Liv had a wonderful trip to Massachusetts, the flight was a dream, everyone on JetBlue was beyond helpful and Olivia was an angel, she didn't make a peep the entire flight, and while we are talking about flights we should mention that the trip back to Richmond today was great as well, Liv entertained a few fellow passengers with her giggles, such a charmer she is.
Olivia was able to spend some quality time with her Great-Grandmother Sandra, as she was visiting for the week as well. She also spent a day with her Terrific Aunt Martha (she isn't a fan of the title "great aunt", so we have re-titled her Terrific Aunt". Lots of quality family time for Olivia, she loved every second of it.

Leigh kept Olivia very busy while they were in Northfield, tons of people to visit, most of which were meeting Olivia for the first time, she was such a trooper, every day was filled with new faces and new places and she only had one rough day, little did we know at the time, but she was coming down with a cold, and yes folks, both Leigh and Liv are now sick. Listening to a 3 month old try and breathe through the congestion is heartbreaking at times.

And of course what would a trip to Northfield be without a trip to the Carter's Outlet in VT, that place is baby-clothes heaven on Earth, of course Ya-Ya spoiled her to death, she is going to be the best dressed kid around.

One of our favorite days included a visit to the Pumpkin People Patch with Beth and her little ones Austin (6) and Sofia (2.5). The rain cut our afternoon short, but it was still great to see the kids together.
Liv also met her future husband while in Northfield, Jayden Harrington, they went out to lunch on Thursday and then he came over for a playdate on Friday afternoon before Leigh left for the Celtics game with Adam, Kear, Justin, Jon and Kori.
Brad has been sick with a "Virus" since Saturday morning, we are all very thankful that Olivia was not here to catch whatever it is he is passing around - he still isn't feeling well and its been 5 days. We are still planning on heading to Bassett Friday morning despite our illnesses, we are looking forward to a quick stop at Chesterfield Berry Farm on the way, no time like the present to finally pick out our pumpkins, better late than never.

Ya-Ya Worden arrives on Halloween to stay for a week while Brad goes out of town for work, Brad was out of town at this very same conference last year when Leigh found out she was pregnant, she kept it a secret from Monday until Thursday night when he arrived home, she wanted to tell him in person - can you believe its already been a year? Time sure does fly.

Now on to Olivia...she is now a master giggler, she really puts her voice behind her giggles these days. She has found her feet, she tugs on them and attemps to bring them closer to her face, but hasn't yet made the attempt to put them in her mouth, she has however found her thumb and become a champ of a thumb sucker, which we are hoping will save us a few trips to her room during the night when her pacifier falls out, or when she chooses to rip it out, she is working on putting it back in, sometimes it makes it, other times she wakes herself up.

We are all looking forward to our trip to Bassett, its been over a month since we have seen the Turner's and Olivia misses them to pieces.















Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Reach out and touch something...


Well Olivia has finally figured out what her hands are for, and no, we don't mean to JUST put in her mouth, she figured that part out a few weeks ago, now she actually reaches for toys and holds onto them, we have proof, see below. She also loves to grab onto her pacifier, pull it out of her mouth and throw it on the ground...we can already tell that trick is going to get old, next thing we know she is going to be doing that and saying "Uh Oh" at the same time.

And as you can tell by the photo above her head is getting much stronger. We had a great weekend here in Richmond, Friday night Leigh and Brad proved to themselves that eventhough they are now parents they are still fun. They hung out with neighbors and enjoyed a few cocktails until all hours of the morning, they had a great time, Olivia was asleep in Justin and Insley's room and didn't even wake up when we picked her up to transport her home to her crib. We also got our new car, a Yukon XL, Leigh is now studying for her CDL so that she can learn to park the "bus". We love it. The whole family spent Sunday at the Poor Farm Mountain Bike Race, it was a gorgeous day and we all enjoyed spending it outside, Brad especially enjoyed meeting a few pro's, I believe he may have even got an autograph or two...
And we should mention, Olivia is now sleeping in her crib, we would love to say that its going well, and the truth is, she does really like her crib, and does well going to sleep and taking naps, but she has forgotten how to sleep through the night, last night she was up at 12, 2:30 and 6, not fun. A few days a week she will have really rough nights and when they are back to back we wonder if we will ever get a "good" night of sleep again...
Leigh and Olivia are leaving for Massachusetts tomorrow and will spend a week with Leigh's Parents, they are very excited about their trip "home" and can't wait to show Olivia off to all our friends and family. YaYa and GaGa Worden are very excited for their visit and have already prepared the room with things to make Olivia feel comfortable. Leigh is a little nervous about the airport and all that comes along with traveling with a newborn, but it will be well worth it, and if Olivia screams the whole way, we will look on the bright side, its only an hour long flight.
Leigh and Olivia return on the 24th and the whole family will leave for Bassett mid-day on the 26th for a Baby Shower on Saturday at Fort Trial, back to back weekends with Grandparents, nothing better than that. Olivia is a very lucky girl.
One of Olivia's favorite past times is to follow Riley around the room...its adorable, we can't wait until she starts trying to pet him.

Monday, October 1, 2007

Olivia Hangs with Leigh's JMU Pals...


Heather made the trip down from DC last week to meet Miss Olivia, Olivia loved every second with her, as Heather is great at entertaining kids, it was so good to see her.


And we mentioned in our previous post, we went to breakfast and to visit Dana in Waynesboro where she now lives. Olivia had a great time watching their three dogs run around the house.


Giggles Goes On Vacation

What a great weekend...Thursday afternoon we packed up the car and headed to Massanutten for two nights, we stopped in Charlottesville to eat at one of our favorite places, Mellow Mushroom, it was well worth Leigh falling off the wagon (her diet) to enjoy a nice cold beer with the delicious pizza. Olivia slept the entire way to C'ville and even slept most of the way through dinner, of course she woke up just as the pizza was arriving, she was on her best behavior though. We arrived at Massanutten around 9pm, Leigh was furious we didn't arrive in time to watch Grey's Anatomy from the start, so she agreed to watch CSI and catch Grey's when she got home (DVR is a great thing). We had never been to Massanutten, I know, sad to say for a JMU Grad huh? Its HUGE, we had no idea the resort area was so spread out. Olivia slept great in her Pack N Play, but was a little annoyed with us by the time Friday evening rolled around, she had been in either the Baby Bjorn or her car seat carrier from 11am until about 5:30pm when we arrived back at our hotel after we spend the day around Harrisonburg and JMU.

Brad and Leigh are both huge fans of Dave's Taverna, and were more than thrilled to enjoy lunch on at Dave's Taverna Express, then on to Kline's Dairy Bar for Pumpkin Custard, heaven on earth. We then stopped by Shenandoah Bicycle Company so Brad could check it out, we found Olivia's first bike there, a little Trek Tricycle - it was absolutely adorable.

Saturday morning we got up bright and early and went to meet Dana and Rich for breakfast at Mrs. Rowe's in Staunton, another fabulous meal, and it was so great to see them. After breakfast we went to see their new house - very nice.

Saturday Evening we had dinner at Cheeburger Cheeburger with Megs, Tim, April, Addison and Anna and then it was off to Justin and Insley's for a few drinks - so you can see it was a full weekend for Miss Olivia and she was a trooper through it all. Olivia even went to sleep right on schedule at Justin and Insley's and didn't make a peep when we transferred her to her own bed a few hours later. It's nice having a portable kid :)


And we should also mention that per the title of this post, Olivia can now laugh out loud, its adorable, her favorite place to practice is her changing table in her room, you lay her down and she just starts giggling away. Sometimes she really gets going and makes herself cough, its so cute.

Thursday, September 20, 2007

Two Months...and too many shots.

Oh it happened...Olivia got her first set of shots, five to be exact, three in one leg and two in the other, and she also had an oral dose, so make that six. Leigh has been preparing herself for this day since the day Olivia was born, but it still didn't help matters, as soon as the nurse walked in Leigh had her head in Brad's shoulder and the tears started coming fast and furious. We wish we could report that Olivia took it like a champ without a peep, but no such luck, she screamed her adorable little head off, took a quick nap in the car on the way home (with just Mommy, since Daddy had to go to work) and then continued to cry for almost an hour before she passed out for the afternoon. And we should mention that Leigh had stopped crying by the time Brad got home from work at 5pm, take note, her appointment was at 9:30am, it was a rough day for Leigh. Poor Olivia.... She got the typical fever that many babies do, she was restless all night and therefore Leigh didn't get a wink of sleep. Needless to say, we are not looking forward to the 4 month shots, however it will be down from five shots to four...phew.

So on to the exciting stuff, her stats:

Weight: 13 lbs 2 oz - 95%
Height: 24 inches - 95%
Head - 16 - 90%

She is a big healthy "little" girl, and according to Dr. Shook she is still "perfect". Leigh of course forgot to mention to Dr. Shook that Olivia has been spitting up more than normal, we are going to self diagnose with a mild case of Acid Reflux, and we do this with a great deal of experience with our group of friends who are going through it...






Other than the 2 Month Dr. Appointment, this has been a fairly quiet week, however tomorrow Leigh and Olivia are excited about their lunch date downtown with Lindsay and Leslie. The weekend should be fairly quiet with an unavoidable trip to Target and maybe a walk around the Short Pump Towncenter with Auntie Megs.


Next week the real fun begins, we are gearing up for our first weekend away from home since the early Spring, don't worry, Olivia is coming with us. We are heading to Massanutten for a weekend, Leigh can't wait to show Olivia good ol' JMU and of course make a trip to Dave's Taverna Express, delicious! Brad has been very busy at work preparing a couple of large bids, we are hoping they go well, Leigh keeps telling Olivia that all of Brad's hard work is going to pay off and she will get a "new pair of shoes". Liv just laughs at her.

We ordered Liv's Halloween Costume this week, its a surprise, so you will have to check back after Halloween to see how adorable she is going to be. We should also mention that YaYa Worden is coming on Halloween day to spend a week, Brad will be out of town for a week so Leigh is looking forward to the extra set of hands/help.

Sunday, September 16, 2007

The Wedding Weekend

Well it was a family filled weekend for Miss Olivia. The Jones Family arrived on Thursday night and couldn't wait to hold her, she loved the attention her cousins Leah and Ellie gave her. It was the first time the Jones Family had met Olivia, so her Auntie Shannon was very excited to get her in her arms for some quality cuddle time.

Grammie, PawPaw and Great Grandma Martin arrived Friday Afternoon and then were off to the rehersal dinner, it was dinner at home for the Turner and Jones families, Leigh was thrilled because Shannon offered to make dinner.

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

8 Weeks old...oh how things change...

Well the last few days with Miss Olivia have been quite different than the first 7.5 weeks, things she used to love, she now doesn't, however at least she has replaced them with new things, so that Leigh isn't constantly searching for new ways to soothe her. She loves sucking on her own hand, and remarkably so she can fit almost the entire fist in her mouth, she is only a mediocre fan of her pacifier, she does still enjoy tummy time, but her favorite position these days is sitting up on our laps so she can scan the room and check everything out. She loves to watch Riley move around the room, we can see not only her eyes follow him, but she actually moves her head around to follow him as he chases his toys and begs for attention.

Leigh is convinced she is going through a growth spurt, she was fussy on Tuesday, which isn't like her, and she ate every 2 hours, but now she is back to her normal happy self. She graces us with smiles as soon as we peer into her co-sleeper in the mornings. We can't tell you how great it feels to see her grin up at us, its a great way to start the day. She is still sleeping in her co-sleeper, we are expecting to move her to the crib or at least her own room sometime in the next month or so.

Olivia started sleeping through the night right at 6 weeks, so about two weeks ago, however some nights she is getting up at 4 or 5 to eat, but since she is going down at 9pm, its still a full night of sleep for her, and when she gets up at 4 or 5 to eat, she usually isn't up for the day until close to 9am, so Leigh is able to get up and shower before Liv even wakes her pretty face up.

Leigh had a "Girls Night" out on Saturday night with April, Megs and Courtney, they had a great time at Brio. Leigh is hoping to make it a re-occurring event. Speaking of "Girls Nights", Leigh is headed out with the Newby's Mill Girls (that's our neighborhood) tonight for dinner and drinks at The Boathouse, one of our favorite spots in Richmond, right on the water.

Leigh's parents were here for a few weeks while they closed on their house, it was GREAT having them five minutes away for a few weeks, it will be even better when they are here from Thanksgiving through March every year. We can't wait.

Brad's family, including Shannon and her family (that's his sister and our nieces) will be in town this weekend, staying with us for Alex's wedding. Leigh will be at home with Liv, Leah and Ellie on Saturday night, it will be a true test to see how many little ones Leigh can handle on her own.

Olivia goes back to Dr. Shook next week for her 2 month check up, the big one, the one with all the mean shots. Leigh is scared to death, so we are all hoping that Brad can make the appointment to hold Miss Olivia while Leigh waits outside with her ears plugged. We are taking bets on how much she weighs...Ya-Ya Worden is guessing 32 pounds...not quite yet :)
Leigh and Olivia have a play date tomorrow with Courtney, Isaac, April and Anna. And today Leigh and Olivia went to Capital One to visit all of Leigh's co-workers and deliver her broken computer to the savvy IT folks, lets hope they fix it SOON.
And for those of you that are worried about Riley abusing Olivia, don't worry, he didn't really roll over on her (picture above), she didn't even make a peep, she loves her big brother and its clear that the feelings are mutual.


Sunday, August 26, 2007

Our Little Model....


Olivia had her one month photo session on Friday - we couldn't have asked for a better mood, she was so well behaved, like a little angel.




We had a great time at Portrait Innovations, Ya-Ya and Gargaroo Worden came along for the ride and had a blast watching Olivia ham it up for the camera.


No one could believe she was there for her one month photo's, we are guessing it is because she is a little bigger than most one month olds.




After about an hour at the studio, she was a tired little girl, so the grown ups went out to lunch while Olivia took a much needed nap. Olivia then went home with her Daddy and spent the afternoon cuddling on the couch, while Leigh went shopping with her parents for house supplies, they close on Wednesday, so everyone is excited about the new house.

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

No sleep for these girls...

Well, we are exhausted to report that Olivia and Leigh are averaging about 90 minutes of sleep per night, last night Olivia, Riley and Leigh played from 2am-7am, not exactly Leigh's first choice of activities for those wee hours, but it could be worse, Olivia could have been screaming her face off the entire time, but we are blessed that even though she is a very "alert" child, she is usually very happy while she is awake. If anyone has any advice on how to get her to sleep longer than 90 minutes, please pass it along.

The Worden's arrive on Thursday, not a moment too soon, we are all very excited for their visit, they will be here until after Labor Day. They will close on their new house on August 29th and their furniture will arrive on the 30th. Riley can't wait to have a new home to dominate. The Worden's have offered to babysit on Saturday night so Brad and Leigh can go out for dinner without the little one, it will be their first time away from her since she was born - and for those of you that aren't keeping track like we are, she turned 1 month old on Saturday August 18th.


Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Olivia hits the town...and her Tummy.


Well its been a busy last few days for Olivia, she had lots of lunch plans last week, that we are all happy to report went very smoothly, Megs did however have to help Leigh put pepper on her Chicken Salad, its tough to grind pepper and hold Olivia at the same time.


Yesterday she hit a big milestone, Brad was sticking his tongue out at her and she started to immitate him and now will stick her tongue out if you stick yours out at her first - not a very charming milestone, but we are proud of every accomplishment at this stage.

She has been smiling a lot more lately, but we are still torn between whether its gas, or whether they are slowly becoming legit smiles, we are hoping for the later, but we still aren't sure, we will keep you posted.

Olivia started Tummy Time last week, we are happy to report she doesn't hate it, please don't confuse that with her loving it though, the jury is still out, but we are just thrilled she doesn't scream her little face off.
This week we have lunch plans with Molly that also include a mini-shopping trip to Leigh's new favorite baby clothing store - TJ Maxx, we hope to get together with Megs for lunch and Thursday may involve a play date with Carsyn Delph.
Brad is happy to report that he was able to attend a local Mountain Bike race on Sunday, one of his friends from DC was racing, and took second place. Brad is having major withdrawl from biking, he has only been twice since Olivia arrived but he has big plans to ride at least once this week and also on Saturday with Rob Ragsdale, who is coming down to meet Olivia.
Leigh is hoping to do something for herself in the next few days, maybe a Pedicure on Saturday morning before the boys head off for their big ride.


Sunday, August 5, 2007

Our naked noodle


Olivia had a very exciting little Saturday, we took a family trip to Target, purchased the important stuff - diapers and wine (how great is it that Target sells wine, and cubes of wine at that!) And then we had dinner with Justin and Insley at their place, Zack only tried to crawl into Liv's carseat a few times (with her in it), but other than that he was very gentle with her. She was on her best behavior at her first dinner party, she slept the entire time, including while we tried to wake her to feed her.
We are hoping for a few successful nights sleep this week as Brad heads back to work tomorrow, Leigh and Olivia have a very busy week planned, lunch with Capital One friends on Monday, a play date with Isaac Tan on Tuesday, a trip to Brad's office on Thursday to show off Liv and lunch with Megs and Dana on Friday. We will have to report back on how the week went, Leigh is a little nervous, hopefully it will all go smoothly.

Friday, August 3, 2007

Olivia Turns Two Weeks Old

August 1, 2007 - Olivia is now two weeks old. Its been an exciting two weeks for everyone. Riley is enjoying his lil' Sis, but every time we put her in the car seat, he gets a little too excited thinking we are "taking her back to where she came from" since the car seat is what she came home from the hospital in.

We have been fortunate enough to have Brad's parents here with us for the week to help not only with Olivia but help keep our house in order. Brad's Mom is heaven sent - she can calm Olivia when it seems impossible - boy are we going to miss her.

Today Liv went to visit Dr. Shook for her two week check up, Dr. Shook is amazing with her and makes us feel like great parents, she is always complimenting Olivia on how perfect she is and how we have done a great job with her so far, hence the reason we absolutely LOVE Dr. Shook. Leigh is already in a panic about her two month check up, that's the big one when Lil' Liv will get 5 shots - we are taking bets who will cry more, Leigh or Liv, our money is on Leigh.
Here are Olivia's two week stats:
Weight: 10 lbs 12 oz - 97%
Height: 21 3/4 inches - 95%
Head: 15 - 90%

So needless to say, Liv is a healthy "little" girl.

Brad & Leigh were able to enjoy a peaceful lunch at Chipotle after Olivia's Dr. Appointment, she slept the entire time, what a little angel.
Tonight we are going to join our friends at a surprise birthday party, Leigh can't wait to dress Olivia up, it will be her first "Party", Leigh has been talking to her about outfits all morning, and Leigh has also been talking about enjoying her first post-baby beer. The last sip of alcohol Leigh enjoyed was on November 4th, so its been a long long time, it should be interesting!!

Monday, July 30, 2007

Latest addition to Red Sox Nation


Its official, Red Sox Nation's latest addition is already one of their biggest fans. Olivia got all dressed up to watch the Red Sox pull it out in the 12th inning, its a shame that we had to stuff her into this adorable onesie just to take a picture, a big shout out to Kristen Schmidt for the appropriate present, its too bad we had a large and in charge child that could only get one wear out of it. We will be sure to save it for the next one, because its too cute.


Yesterday Brad, Leigh and Olivia took their first "for fun" trip in the car, they went to Bruster's to get Ice Cream, none for Miss Olivia of course, but Brad and Leigh sure did enjoy themselves, Olivia was as quiet as a mouse and slept the entire way there and back, we think she is starting to come to terms with her car seat.


This week Leigh is determined to get Olivia out and about and show her the great things in life, such as Target. Their hope is to get there today, but with that as a goal we are hoping to get there by Wednesday.

Its tough taking car rides without bringing Riley along, but when we go in Leigh's car there just isn't room, its scary to think that we thought we would have the first two children before trading the Acura, now it looks like we will be lucky to get through Olivia's first year with the TL, it just doesn't have as much room as we would like.