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.