O at the Beach

Heather decided to try some pig tails on Olivia today. Her hair is just about long enough but I'm not sure how Olivia felt about it, as shown in the picture.

Later, while Heather was at school, Olivia and I decided to go to the beach. It was O's idea. We had a really good time and Olivia couldn't stop chatting. She got a little wet and sandy but had a great time. In case you missed it the first time around, this is the same beach (link here) just about 14 months ago.

Olivia checks out her footprints in the sand.


Olivia checks out the birds further down the beach.


Olivia looks like she can't wait to get a surfboard and ride the waves.


When we left to go home all that was left was her prints in the sand.

Swamped

Hi everyone. We are sorry for being so lax in posting new blogs. We have been swamped lately with Justin's new position at work and me starting school again. We are trying to juggle parenting as well as our other demanding commitments. As you can tell, we are struggling a bit in keeping up with the blog. O turned 13 months today. I can't even remember this time last year when she was just a month old. It seems like so long ago. She is such a big girl now-totally a toddler. She is exerting her independence every chance she gets and figuring out who she is and what she can get away with. She is also teething again; this time with the bigger teeth. This makes for an interesting person at times. I am sure those of you with kids can concur on that one.
Justin has started working in defense now and has to defend the good and the bad in the military. He likes it but was given some big cases right from the start. He is most certainly doing some on-the-job training. This means that he is coming home late and having to do some homework as well. Not an ideal situation but we are coping. As for me, I have jumped in to my fall semester at William and Mary. Of course, homework is coming in every week and I am trying to juggle being a stay-at-home mom with school twice a week. I have a child that has hit the needy stage so it has not been easy getting work done during the day. Ugh.
FYI-We are awaiting our next duty station assignment. We are due to leave Virginia Beach at the end of next summer. We will be going overseas and are hoping for Europe or Pearl Harbor. We will keep everyone posted as soon as we find out. It should be soon...

The Norfolk Botanical Gardens

The Norfolk Botanical Gardens has a children's water park that we took O to on Sunday. She just started walking in earnest and was thrilled to walk through the water fountains. I think she could have spent the entire day walking through the water, but eventually she grew too tired to walk. You can see we got there early and had almost the entire place to ourselves.


O hits the fountains.


O and her friend Ava wait for the fountain to shoot into the air.


O tries to figure out how the fountains work.



O shows off her new found walking skills.

1st Birthday

It's been a really long time since I posted and we had several good pictures to post - so here is a post from me. The first photos are from O's birthday parties in Illinois (yes, she had two) and she was obviously excited to get her first tastes of cake. Olivia had an Olivia themed party in Bloomington. Olivia, along with being my daughter's name, is also the name of a pig in a children's book. We aren't trying to make any kind of statement about Olivia (ours) by comparing her to Olivia (pig) but O is such a big fan that the theme seemed to fit perfectly. For those of you who don't know who Olivia the pig is, you can see her on the table with the cake and presents.


Very first tastes of birthday cake. She is a big fan. This was the maternal birthday party.


Very first time to open birthday presents. I think Heather was more excited, but O did love the paper and boxes.


Olivia themed party table complete with Olivia stuffed animal and cake at the paternal birthday party.


Hmmm, cake #2.


Olivia loved the colors of the wrapping and after her practice at her first party was ready to go with the pulling and tearing.


Olivia and Heather enjoying her first plane ride on the way back from Illinois. She hung in there really well and took a nice nap too!


Wheee, on the swing during the command picnic. We attended the picnic on O's actual birthday.

Back to School Surprise

This was waiting for me at 10:45 pm when I arrived home from school. No one was awake. Just a light on the flowers.

Nothing says it better than pink roses...

Except for a note from your husband and daughter left with them.

Sorry for the delay...

I'm sorry we have just sort of dropped off with our updates. We got back to Virginia Beach a couple of weeks back and we are just trying to get settled back in and find a new groove with each other. When your spouse is gone for 7 months, you tend to develop new routines without them that need to be adjusted once they are back. This includes all the daily routines for O that I know in and out because I created all of them:) O and Justin have been getting reacquainted and she seems totally ok with just the three of us (sorry Mama and Papa).

O has a mild double ear infection. She has had a fever all week and we had to go for our year check-up anyway, so that is when the doctor diagnosed her ears. I would like to first say that fevers suck. Royally. You feel so helpless when you can't control their sicknesses and can't make them feel better no matter how much you try and how many drugs you pump in their system. Second, fevers suck. One minute the fever is low, the next she is burning up. AHHHHHH!! Third, fevers suck. She has developed a rash on her torso-I'm assuming due to the, you guessed it, fever. Not to worry though. She has gotten some antibiotics and has already showed great improvement. I know many of you are laughing because this is the first of many ailments and, more specifically, ear infections for a child. I suppose I am lucky she got to the 12 month mark before she developed her first infection. The worst part is they could not give her the vaccinations she needed because she was sick so we have to go back in 2 weeks only for her to get poked 4 times and probably develop, say it with me now, a fever.

We will try to post pics from her 1st birthday parties in Illinois with both sides of the family and her super low-key birthday here. Sorry for the lazy posts.

Peace, Love, Happiness...
Heather

Visit with the Ramsey Clan

We were fortunate to see our great friends Chad and Monica and their son Braden while we were in Illinois. They stopped by Justin's parent's house for the afternoon so we could all catch up and O and Braden could play together. We had so much fun and can't wait to visit them in Vancouver!!
O and Braden look at a book together.


The boys and their children. Braden was mad because none of us would let him go upstairs. O is looking puzzled right now but soon will be doing the same things!


Monica and I with O on the upstairs landing.


Chad displaying his political beliefs:) Just kidding. Thought this picture was perfectly Chad.