She Did It... FINALLY!

Olivia has been VERY resistant in transitioning from the bottle to the sippy cup. She is almost a year and it is time to retire the bottle. Aside from her outgrowing her bottle... she has also found a new game... throw the bottle as far as you can. Needless to say the mess of a bottle leaking all over the place was getting to be a bit much for this pregnant mommy to handle.

So a little over a week ago I decided to bite the bullet and give her a sippy cup. I filled it with formula and handed it to her first thing when she woke up expecting her to be hungry and ready to eat... nope. She was hungry... however she did not like this akward and heavy sippy cup I had handed her. After screaming and throwing the new sippy cup across the room I put her in her high chair for breakfast. That poor girl devoured nearly an entire box of cheerios in two days by herself!

My cool and collect facade started to fade by the end of day two so when I woke up the morning of day three Ryan and I made a trip to Target to get a different style of sippy cup because my sanity just couldnt take it anymore. We bought a new sippy cup with a soft tip and no handles... which was also significantly lighter than the others we had bought her.

SUCCESS!!! She was hesitant at first but now... she doesnt even want her bottle... just her big girl sippy cup!


Its moments like these that make the tough times worth it...

Dani

Fathers Day... A Little Bit Late...

Ryan worked, once again, on Fathers Day. Kind of a bummer that on his first official fathers day he spent it with a bunch of dudes at work on his least favorite shift. So we had to wait till his weekend rolled around to celebrate HIS fathers day.

We woke up, after sleeping in of course!

I made him his favorite breakfast... sourdough french toast with sausage... sorry no bacon we were out.

We then went to the Automobile Museum in Saratoga Spa State Park...

THE Ferrari...
Ryan is jealous that he didnt think of this! Look at her... she is a natural!

He just HAD to try out the virtual race track... boys and their toys haha.

Ryan and Olivia in front of all of the "pretties" as Ry likes to put it.

Ryan and Olivia with the Auto Museum Race Horse

After wards... we strolled the park... visited a few of the springs... headed home and tucked in the LivieBug in bed.

Once Olivia was in bed and asleep... it was movie and cuddle time!

Although it was a laid back day... Ryan wouldnt have wanted it any other way after his previous work week.

Happy Fathers Day Ryan!!! You are the best husband and father a girl could ask for!! :)

Dani

Out To Visit Palmyra

What a wonderful family experience this trip was. I had everything going against me enjoying my time there... Long drive, pregnant and uncomfortable, sick with a head cold, sleeping over night in a hotel, traveling with a 10 month old... it really should have been a total flop BUT it was a lot of fun and I seemed to have just enough energy to push through the rest of the day.

Ryan's Mom and little brother flew out to see a few of the church's historical sites and so we decided to make the drive out there to see them. Ryan's mom was more than happy to watch Olivia while Ryan and I spent some time in the temple. Our time in the temple was much anticipated and much needed... both Ryan and I left feeling so refreshed and our tolerance levels for surviving out in the world so much higher.

After the temple we visited a few of the sites in Palmyra, like the Grandin Press, Hill Cumorah Visitors Center and the Whitmer Farm. We had been to Palmyra a handful of times before so we decided to visit the places we didnt on our last trip.

Here are the pictures from our trip:

Daddy packing up the LivieBug

Our first stop after arriving to Rochester was to see Grandma Trish!

Dropping off Olivia with Grandma Trish and Jared at the Hill Cumorah Visitors Center

After our temple session Ryan just HAD to have a picture of his "cute pregnant wife"...

Our little Family with BOTH of our girls in the picture!

I let Olivia pick a pansy and this is on the only picture of her where she is NOT eating the flower...

Arent the cute?! The proud Papa and his happy little girl!

Taking a break to get some ice cream...

ICE CREAM COMA!!!

The whole darn gang!!!

Resting for a bit at the David Whitmer Farm

LivieBug mesmerized by her Grandma Trish...

The David Whitmer Home... our last stop before we headed home!!!

Dani

10 Months Old

Olivia is getting so BIG!!!

This last month has been a BIG growth month for Olivia in very many ways. She is nearly 20lbs. has two full teeth in with two new ones coming in at full speed! She has been getting more gutsy with trying to walk by standing on her own unsupported more often and more firmly. She has been signing for milk and has even traded her bottle in for her big girl sippy cup, but not without lots and lots of resistance.

Olivia has also become more aware of her surroundings, as if she isnt extremely already. She has also begun to play and interact with her toys and using her imagination. Aside from becoming more playful and using her imagination she has also become more cuddly... and no one cuddles with her quiet like her mommy.

My little LivieBug is getting so big so fast!

Dani

Playing Catch Up...

So ... probably close to a year ago I tried making corn dogs. Ryan really likes them so... being the good wife I am I tried tackling them from scratch. Well... Apparently deep frying was not a talent I was born with because I TOTALLY botched it. I tried again but this time I found a recipe idea for making them in a sandwich maker... easy enough... yeah try number two crashed and burned (literally).

Now I am not one to fail all that often in the cooking department so I soon grew to be mildly obsessed at conquering the battle of deliciously home made corn dogs.

Third try happened this June... I found a recipe on the food network that included a video, see this link for recipe and video.

Third time is a charm! Our corn dogs were a raging success and were so much fun to make. I would say they are some of the best corn dogs we have ever had!! Here is my proof of not totally botching my third attempt at corn dogs.

Deliciousness at its best!!!

Dani

The Little LivieBug

Our little LivieBug... Watching Her Grow!!!

Olivia is growing so fast and with her 1st birthday just around the corner I thought I would dedicate a post to just her and all of the fun things she has been doing lately.


Recently she has started to be more interactive with everyone... including Zoe. It is lots of fun to watch her play with Zoe... she shares her toys (which we promptly take away from Zoe) and plays fetch with Zoes own chew toys. Toys aside she loves to be around Zoe and flocks to her whenever she can... usually followed by petting her rigorously. Zoe is such a trooper too... she just sits there and takes it with this uncomfortable look on her face like "can i get up now?!".


Olivia is very much so a daddy's girl... she loves her mommy... but no one makes her smile and laugh like her daddy! Time with daddy is special to her and she could spend all day just playing and being tossed around by her daddy. Ryan takes such wonderful care of her and it is so neat to watch his eyes light up when he sees that big grin of hers.


Olivia has also become somewhat of a "ham" ... not in the food department, although she loves a wide variety of food, she has already started to pose for the camera... I know I know... starting her off young. The second she sees the camera this is the grin I get... aside from being incredibly photogenic she has some crazy out of control hair! Her hair is getting so long that we finally have to put it in a pony tail just to keep the hair out of her eyes.

Here she is with her hair in a pony tail before it is tamed... crazy hair she has!!!

Here She is with her hair "tamed" ... ok... I wet it and stuck it strait up to see if it would say... lol... and it for sure did!

Olivia is smart and quarky. She is constantly babbling and singing. Her newest noises are comparable to "monster" noises... they consist mostly of "grrrs", "rawrs", "grunts" and "growls". Aside from being a noisy little girl she has also taken a liking to books ... she will come sit on my lap and with book in hand and pat at it waiting for me to open it up and start reading.

She sure is lots of fun to have! What a blessing it is to see all of the hard work of being a mom rewarded by the heart warming hugs, slobbery kisses and strong desires she has to cuddle and be loved by no one else but me.

Olivias 10 month pictures are soon to be posted... along with a few more updates on our families whereabouts these last couple of weeks.

Dani

Memorial Day Camping...

On Memorial Day weekend Ryan was working so we went celebrated a few days before by going camping with our good friends Matt & Becky and their daughter Caitlyn.

Olivia did amazing and loved being out there so camping is on the agenda again hopefully soon before it is WAY to uncomfortable for this prego lady to be out there roughin it!

We chose the HOTTEST day to date... I think it even broke the previous record... it was nearly 100 out and that is saying a lot with the humidity. Yuk. Lucky for us our camp site was well shaded so easy to hide out of the sun.

The first night we had an amazing thunder and lightening storm roll over us... Olivia slept through the entire thing! I however didnt sleep real well because I was anticipating Olivia waking up to the thunder.

Night number two was no beuno for me... I ended up getting a massive migraine and it showed no signs of letting up so at around 2 am Ryan packed me, Olivia and Zoe up in the car and we headed home... luckily our friends booked a campsite that was less than 30 min from our house. Ryan stayed with me with me to make sure I was ok and headed back to the camp site early in the morning solo. Finished out his camping experience for the day then packed up all of our camp stuff and headed back home to check on me and the LivieBug.

Here are the pictures of our first family camping experience...

Olivias first time in a pool beating the heat!!

Ryan taking a small tickle break while getting Olivia ready for the day

Heading down to the lake

Hanging out next to the campfire waiting for dinner to be ready.
Olivia hanging out in her pack n play enjoying her hot dog!

Aaaand their out... Cant blame him since he had been up for well over 24hrs at this point. He was supposed to go in and change her and then lay her down for her nap... and this is how I found them. lol

All in all camping was a success. I had fun, Ryan had fun and most importantly Olivia had fun. My bug bite total was 15, Olivia lucked out with only one and Ryan... who knows how many he had.

Now we just need to figure out when we are going again!!

Dani