Olivia is 4 months old!!!

Olivia really is a bundle of joy. She smiles non-stop... even when Kathryn is sitting on her head. I had her in her swing this evening while I was cooking dinner. I glanced over and she had rolled over, and was laying on her belly, in her swing! Needless to say, she looked less than comfortable, but didn't even make a sound (still not sure how she didn't fall out). As soon as she saw me, her face just lit up with the biggest grin.

Here are a few shots of her enjoying her Excersaucer. This is where she spends most of her day... Still not sure why, but for some odd reason, Kathryn feels compelled to sit on her, no matter where she is... Olivia LOVES it, so who am I to stand in her way!

Kathrynisms

If you point to her and ask her who she is, nine times out of ten she will say, "Elmo"

Her favorite things to do with Olivia are: "burpa" (burp her), Sit on her, or lay down beside her while she is having tummy time and put her arm around her.

When Olivia wakes up from her naps and Kathryn first sees her, she always says, "hi, Kate!". If you correct her and say, "No, it's 'hi, Olivia!'", she will still respond with, "hi, Kate!"

She says "no" alot. The only way to tell if she really means it is if she says it in a really high pitched voice.

If Olivia spits up and I am not in the room, she will come find me and say, "Uh oh, spi-up".

She LOVES to talk on the phone. And when I say phone, that means anything even close to the shape or color of a phone. Her "conversations" usually go something like this:

"O?" (hello)

"I" (hi)

"oh to tomi no, no bae " (not sure, yet)

"K. Right" (okay, alright)

"Bye"

If you say, "One", her face lights up and she responds: "twwwwooo, treeeeee!"

She likes to say prayers. alot. At various times throughout the day she will come over to me, say "pay", grab my hand, say some jibberish, then say "men". If I don't follow her lead, she will reach up to my head and push it down and say, "pay, es".

What sweet little girls the Lord has blessed us with...

Kathryn sporting her new Elmo slippers

After enjoying an ice cream sandwich, courtesty of Aunt Rosie

Two Words

GO COLTS!!!

Superbowl, HERE WE COME!!! Woohoo!!!

Little Livie

This is Olivia's new thing. Sucking her last two fingers and rubbing her ear. I think Claire has been a bad influence :o)

"Forget tummy time, Mom! I'm way too sleepy!"

No, she didn't really fall asleep, but almost!

These are the latest burp cloths I did. I just got these new patterns with some of my Christmas money. I thought they turned out so cute!

I never would have believed it

Baby Micah
Baby Olivia

From the minute Olivia was born I thought I was holding Brad. She was his spitten image! Brad even said when he would look at her he thought he was looking in the mirror. The only person who didn't think she looked like Brad was his mother. Well, I guess of all people, she would know, but I still didn't believe her... until Brad and I pulled out the baby pictures the other day. Pretty crazy. Although, that baby picture doesn't really look a thing like me. That's my consolation.

Frustration

Brad has been working late hours lately getting ready for year end. Last night when he called to say he was on his way home he asked if he could pick up something for supper. He is always good to ask this when he knows it has been a long day. I am always good to say no, but last night was an exception. Both of the girls have been sick, Kathryn with strep and Olivia with a cold, and it had been a really long day... so we agreed on Papa John's pizza - my favorite. I got online to get the specials and hurried to place the order so Brad could stop on his way home to pick it up.

There were two specials:

1. Large one topping and Garlic Parmesan Breadsticks for $11.99

2. Large five topping Perfect Pan for $12.99

We agreed on the large five topping. When I called, the guy speedily rambled something like, "would you like blah, blah, blah" as quickly as he could, and I readily responded with my order. He then proceeded to tell me they are out of the crust that makes that pizza, therefore that special is void until they get more in.

Okay.

I'll go with the other special.

Great.

"It will be ready in 15 minutes." Thirty-five minutes later I called Brad to see where he was. Still waiting for our order.

When he does finally get home this is what our "New- Garlic Parmesan Breadsticks" looked like:

Yes, I really did take a picture. I have every intention of sending this picture in to Papa John himself.

Christmas is over...

Time to get the laundry caught up, Christmas presents put away, and the kids back on schedule. Here is an overview of our holiday season...

Miss Kathryn Claus Miss Olivia Claus The Petty Family Christmas party was a huge success... (except for the fact that Olivia screamed almost the entire night) Fortunately, she didn't spoil it for the rest of us.
Gramma made Kathryn a Moses Basket for her baby dolls. When Gramma put a baby doll in it to show her how to use it, she looked for a second, pulled the baby doll out and climbed in!
Santa brought Olivia a Bumbo seat. She LOVES it!!! (and so does Mom!) Kathryn was a little overwhelmed with Tickle Me Elmo X-treme. She did, however, LOVE the box. The rest of us really couldn't stop laughing, and Brad "tickled" him all day.
We made huge strides with Pheobe ("Bee-Dee") over the weekend. Here she is feeding her Life cereal :).
For some unknown reason, whenever Claire is sitting on the floor, Kathryn feels compelled to sit in her lap :). Thankfully, Claire doesn't seem to mind. She just looks at her like she's crazy....
This is the real "Kathryn's Korner". She spends about 1/4 of her day here listening to her favorite One Voice Kid's CD.

Prepare to be overloaded with pictures...

Needless to say, I finally reloaded my photo software. I have so many great pictures back as far as Thanksgiving, but I will spare you all :). Here are a few more recent ones.

When Rosie and Claire stop by, it is always a much needed diversion. This day especially...

Claire learns to drive

Kathryn's new pastime

A friend's blog made me realize that I really needed to get some pictures of Olivia's sweet little smile. It is so contagious... even at 5 in the morning :)




Kathryn's very favorite thing in the world is to play with Olivia. I can already tell they will be best buds one day. Most of the time when I look over at the two of them, Kathryn looks like she is about to crush Olivia's head, but Olivia never cries! In fact, no one can make her stop crying faster than Kathryn! Too bad she's not old enough to babysit...
The only other news we have is that Kathryn is finally starting to get all of her teeth in. And when I say all, I mean all. She is working on seven right now. Needless to say, she has been a BEAR; but who can blame her? Perfect timing too with Christmas right around the corner :).

Merry Christmas

And here is our Christmas card :). Unfortunately, time crept up on me and I am not going to be able to get cards out this year... but here are Christmas pictures of our sweet little girls. Just a reminder... I haven't received very many emails with the contact info that I requested in my last post. Unfortunately, due to the hard drive crashing, I am missing most of your addresses and phone numbers. If you have my email address, please email this info to me ASAP. The only people exempt from this are those who go to church with us and family. I have hard copies of those. If you're wondering whether I mean you, YES, I do!!!

Lesson Learned.

One month, one plumbing leak (thank you), one crashed hard drive (thank you), and a few Thanksgiving pounds later, here is my very long overdue post. Unfortunately, we have not loaded the software for our camera yet, so I have no pictures to post. Let me assure you, though; much fun was had by all. I have never seen Kathryn enjoy herself as much as she did with all of her cousins. I hardly saw her the whole time we were home! Brad and I had a great time too, getting to catch up with family and old friends.

Since our hard drive was not backed up, we have really had a time getting back into the swing of things. (Yes, we both worked for Iron Mountain, "the leader in records and information management", and should have known better. Please, save the speech...) Unfortunately, we had all of our addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses stored on the computer. If you have our email address, could you please send us your information? If you emailed us around Thanksgiving time or a little before, there is a good chance we either didn't get the email, or didn't have a chance to respond before all was lost... Please be patient with us as we try to catch up!

Finally, as far as the Colts game Sunday, I sure hope you Titans fans aren't getting a big head over this. Let's be honest... you know we let you win ;o).

Hidden Treasures

I am always finding "hidden treasures" around the house now that I have a toddler. Anytime something is missing, I try to think like a 1 year old when searching for it; shoes in the trash can, hairbows in the guitar, money in the coke can box, etc. Unbeknownst to me, her latest discovery was the hole in my sewing machine case (where the handle pulls up when my machine is under it). I hardly ever cover my machine, since it is almost always in use, but I did move it to vacuum the other day. This was my discovery...

We've been looking for those crayons!!!

This is why she likes to go to Gramma's...

Kathryn's favorite thing to do while Mom cooks... I hope I never have a house with little to no counter space :)

Bibbity, Bobbity, Boo!

We had no plans of trick or treating, thus no plans for costuming, until Brad came home from work last week and told me they were having a little party for the kids at his office... So we scrounged around and came up with some little fairies... It was really fun to take the girls up to the office and have everyone ooh and ahh over them :o). His whole office was participating (15ish floors), so there were quite a few kids there, and some really cute costumes, and then, well... just some interesting ones.
Okay, so introducing, Katie Fairy...

And Olivia Fairy...

And this is how we were feeling by about 6:00... the "I Haven't Had My Supper or My Afternoon Nap Fairy"

Mommy and her biggest Fairy...

Silly me didn't get pictures before the party, so of course, every one was conked out by the time we got home and we got zero group shots... oh well. Next year.

Friends come to visit...

Kathryn's friend Shelby came to visit! The girls played so well together! It gave us some time to catch up with Jessica and Jeremy and made us wish they lived closer. Shelby was so sweet. She and Kathryn were constantly giving hugs and kisses (and many germs too, I'm sure :). Our neighbor friend was sick, but Adam came and brought Claire Bear (and an apple spice cake :o) so she could play for a little bit. What a great evening!