Still Alive

Wow! It has been FOREVER since I have blogged! Well, at least I have had a good reason. For the readers that might not know, we are moving! We found out shortly after Macy's birthday that Curt would be getting a promotion. Yay! However, that also meant moving from Illinois to South Carolina. The last few months have been a whirlwind of finishing house projects, selling our old house, house hunting in SC and moving out.

Right now we are in a three-week transition period. Our old house has been sold and we are waiting until the end of the month to close on the new house. It's not ideal, but we are very grateful for family that is willing to take us in. :)

If I have internet access, I would really love to start blogging regularly again, starting while we are on the road. I think it will be required of my me by our families since we will be living so far apart.

If you have stuck around during my absence, Thanks! I'll see you again soon!

Pardon our Progress...

As you might have noticed, Olivia's Observations is taking on a new appearance. If this is the first post that you come upon, then I am probably not finished sprucing this place up yet. Don't hold that against me, I have a very limited amount of time during naps and in between everything else that I like to accomplish during naptime. My goal is to have a snazzy new blog and Part 2 of Christmas finished before Friday morning. Is this realistic? I don't know, probably not. We are going out of town for the weekend so there is always extra laundry and packing to get done as well. Doesn't my life know I have a blog to keep going?! Hope your day is going as well as mine, I have had lots of baby and boy hugs and kisses today. And, seriously, it doesn't get any better than that.

Christmas (finally) - Part 1

Okay so I am finally going to get around to posting about our wonderful Christmas. To be honest, it feels like it was so long ago that I was contemplating just skipping it, but I really do want to have a record of it and I know my mom would be really disappointed. :)

There is so much stuff to talk about and post pictures of, so I am going to break it down into 3 posts. Here is part 1:

As usual, our Christmas holiday season kicked off the day after we arrived back at home from our Thanksgiving travels. The day was full of decorating for me and lots of oohing and aahing from Colby. When Curt got home from work that evening, we inhaled our dinner and set out to find the perfect tree - and we did! The next day I used blood, sweat and tears to get the tree decorated. (I HATE putting the lights on the tree!) Here is a peek at some of the decorations.

Colby "helping" Curt water our brand new tree

Tree decorating is dirty work!

These are two very special ornaments given to me by my great Aunt Joan.
They were Colby's favorite!

My failed attempts at taking a pic for our Christmas cards.

Our next holiday activity was a Polar Express event at Wildlife Prairie Park. We thought the kids were going to get to ride a train, but it was more like a stage set. A little disappointing, but they still had a good time. The highlight of the night was a visit from Santa.

The following evening was our second annual Holiday Feast. For this party I break out the Christmas dinnerware and my Nana's red glasses and we have a "formal" dinner with some friends to celebrate the season. I love hosting this party! However, this is the one time of the year that I really wish we had a bigger house. Eleven months out of the year it is perfect for us, but on this night we cram in as many people as we can. Unfortunately we don't get to invite some people that we really wish could come. Maybe we'll have to start hosting two dinners so that we can have them all over. This year there were 10 adults and 5 kids and we were packed in. I even had to add a card table to the end of the dining room table. Classy, I know.

The table and the FEAST!

The kids' table in the kitchen

The friends!!!

Amid all of this, I took on the sewing and crafting challenge of my life. I had started making our family stockings last year, but they needed to be finished. I also decided that it would be really great to make most of our gifts. I was happy with the results, but exhausted in the end. If I do that again, I will need to start in August instead of the second week of December! I ended up making Christmas pajamas for my kids, stitcheries for my mom and mother-in-law, an embroidered pillow for my grandma, pajamas for my cousin's daughters and Polly Puppy for our newest niece. Here are some pics of my labor.

Our family stockings

My kids' Christmas pajamas

Pajamas for my cousin's daughters

Polly Puppy for Grace

I forgot to take pictures of the stitcheries for our moms and the pillow for my grandma. Here is a picture of my mom opening her gift on Christmas morning. (I am sure she will appreciate me posting this!)

Okay, that is the end of Part 1. If you have actually read through this whole thing, thanks. You are a trooper. I promise to be back in a couple of days with part 2.

"A Bushel and a Peck" - A Duet

Okay, so I have about 10 posts worth of Christmas and holiday stuff to post about, but that will have to wait for another day. (hopefully Friday) Today I am introducing the newest kids musical group. That right, my babies singing together. So here for your listening pleasure is their version of "A Bushel and a Peck." I guess that's what it is called anyway. My Nana used to sing it to me when I was little and now Colby loves it too.

*Update*

After watching this again tonight, I decided that I might need to add some translation for those of you who are not familiar with this song. Normally Colby speaks, and sings, very clearly but by the time I pulled out the camera he was starting to be sing silly.

I love you
a bushel and peck
and a hug around the neck
and barrel and a heap
and I'm talking in my sleep
about you
about you

That's Colby's version anyway. He leaves out a couple of repeats of the some of the phrases. Hope you enjoyed my musical babes!

Christmas Craziness

Things have been SO crazy around here! I had great plans for posting all of our Christmas decoration wonderfulness before we left for the holiday, but all of my decorating, celebrating, creating and baking have taken up all of my time. I just thought I would drop in to say "Merry Christmas!" We are leaving this morning for the homeland to spend the next week with our families. I promise to be around more often when we get back.

Have a safe and happy holiday!!!

Snow, Snow, Snow, Snow, Snow...

No, it isn't snowing and I am not obsessing over the cold white stuff. I am singing the song "Snow" from Irving Berlin's White Christmas!

I am a firm believer that the Christmas season does not begin until Friday after Thanksgiving. That is not because I am a scrooge. In fact, those few weeks between turkey day and Christmas morning are my absolute favorite time of the year!!!! I love the sights, the sounds, the activities and most of all the anticipation and the time spent with loved ones. There is just something so magical about it all.

So why am I going on and on about my favorite holiday when I am so strict about not starting the season yet...I bought "White Christmas" tonight! It is my favorite holiday movie by a long shot. The music is best, but so are the costumes and the cheesy dance routines (Choreography? please.) Anyway, I just love it all. I searched high and low last year and could not find the movie in any stores. Well tonight I just happened to see the new holiday movie display at Walmart and they had it! I wouldn't have bought this early, but they only had a couple of copies left. Apparently it is not just my favorite.

So now I am trying to wait patiently for Thanksgiving to come and go and I can forge full force into the most wonderful time of the year!

Another beautiful day!

Well, today was another gorgeous October day! It was completely sunny with temps in the mid 70s and a warm breeze! We couldn't have asked for more perfect weather!

We enjoyed a special treat today...lunch with Daddy and his co-workers. We met Curt, his boss and four of his group members at a local Italian restaurant and enjoyed lots of gushing over the cuteness of our kids and some really good pizza. Do you ever get tired of hearing other people tell you how adorable and perfect your children are?

We had some time to kill after lunch before my chiropractor appointment, so we took advantage of the fair weather and spent an hour at our favorite park. There was only one other family there and they had a little boy Colby's age and a baby girl close in age to Chloe. The boys had a good time playing together, but most of our time was spent doing Colby's favorite thing...swinging. I swear that boy would swing for hours if I was up for pushing him that long!

Then this evening our good friends, the Barr family, came over for dinner and hanging out. After dinner, the Dads went to a movie and us moms enjoyed some quiet time when the kids went to bed. I am so thankful to have such wonderful friends!

We are off to enjoy a weekend of spending time as a family. Curt has been gone a lot this week with work and school so we have all been missing Daddy terribly! Thank goodness for weekends at home...what could be better?!

Oh no....

I just realized today is the first day of October.

Normally I would be excited. I love the fall season. Beautiful leaves changing color, football games, crisp fall air, Halloween, my birthday. All things I love...usually.

The difference this year: I am turning 30.

I am not the type of person to get all hung up on silly things, especially a number. However, I have to admit that I am so not ready to be 30. And it is coming in 24 days whether I like it or not. My mom has always said that her 30's were her best decade. All of my older friends say it's not a big deal. My husband doesn't seem to mind. I just can't seem to believe them. I don't know what the deal is. Maybe it just seems like time is going too fast. I still feel young (not that thirty is actually old). Where did my twenties go? Wasn't I just in college? Have I really been married for over 6 years? I thought our wedding was just a few months ago. *Sigh*

At least I have these guys to make me appreciate where I am in the span of my life!

Okay, the mission: be on civil terms with "30" by the 25th. Can I do it? I guess I don't really have a choice.

Enough worrying for today. On a more fun birthday note...

HAPPY 2nd BIRTHDAY, LUKE!

Technical difficulties

I have so much to post about, but I can't find the cord to download the pics from my camera to my computer. That's what happens when I clean for company. The stuff that I normally leave out gets put away, then I can't find it.

So check back later today...hopefully I will have found it by then!