Olivia visiting Santa Claus

Pat and I took Olivia to visit Santa Claus at the mall. We had to stand in line for about 10 minutes and she did real well doing that. She waved at Santa and he would wave back, and she waved again at him a few more times. She had a funny expression-didn't know who exactly this big man in a red suit was. We really thought it may work for her to sit on his lap being it really didn't frighten her to see him so close and the 2 kids ahead of us did such a good job. But, no such luck. She screamed I think before her cute little red dress touched his lap. I think she was on there maybe 30 seconds-long enough for the gal to only get 3 pictures taken. But, we never laughed so hard (sorry Olivia-it was at your expense) at how cute the picture turned out! Afterwards we took her to the carousel and she sat on the horse for about as long as she sat on Santa's lap and then Pat had to hold her the rest of the ride. She even threw her Santa hat off right away-I guess she's not too happy with him!

Havin fun!

Olivia's buddy Brayden came over today to play while his dad Chris and Pat are watching football. They have so much fun and play so well together. Here they're in Olivia's favorite place-the empty book shelf . And then the car rides-they laughed and pushed each other into about every piece of furniture and box in the living room!

Day at the Park

Yesterday we took Olivia to the park to feed the ducks and play. It was such a nice day-we had to take advantage of it before we move to the "tundra". I don't think we'll be able to go to the park in just sweaters on December 12th again. She had so much fun. Her favorite was the tornado slide-she even went down by herself. I of course was a little nervous-but she had no fear doing it and absolutely loved it!

No fear

Here's a few pictures of our little Dare Devil. She seems to have no fear of anything and is actually pretty good at it-no bumps or bruises (yet) from falling. The first few pix Olivia is standing on her zebra toy-something she does quite often while watching TV. She also loves to climb on our moving boxes/totes and stand up on them. We have a baby gate blocking the kitchen from the living room that we also use for the dogs and Olivia is bound and determined to climb over it. She can get both feet off the ground and hang on it-pictures to come when she does!

The bottom picture is just a picture of her crib. In the front you can see where the hinges and bar goes across for folding the crib down to be used with infants. Up until last Friday, it looked like this. Friday night we caught her with both feet on this hinged bar ready to climb over! And not a worry in the world (for her). However it scared the crap out of us! Now we have it turned around so the front is now against the wall and the very tall side with no bars across is in front. Makes it hard to get her in and out when we need to, but until she's ready for her big girl bed, I guess this is what we have to do. Obviously the manufacturers weren't thinking of this when they made the crib.

Legos & Bookshelves

Here's just a few pictures from today. Olivia doesn't quite understand why there's bookshelves, dressers, and boxes in the living room, but she is loving it! She's also just rediscovered her legos and stacks them on everything. She even pouted last night when we were going to take them away from her right before putting her in her crib, so we just let her sleep with 3 of them. This morning, we could hear clanking and clicking coming from her monitor, and sure enough-she woke up and immediately started to play with them. I'm thinking she'll be needing a bucket of them from Santa.

Happy (late) Thanksgiving!

I know it's a little late, and doesn't even seem like Thanksgiving was just last week with Christmas around the corner, but just wanted to say Happy (late) Thanksgiving to everyone. I haven't posted anything for awhile-we've been so busy finishing up at the office, and getting our moving plans going. We spent Thanksgiving with our good friends the Klines, and had a wonderful meal. Olivia especially loved the black olives and cranberries. We also had Mike take some family pictures at the park by our house-hoping for one good last one with the mountains. But, little Miss Independent wanted nothing to do with it. We'll try again maybe this weekend, but here's a few of the 30ish that were taken.

Olivia's First "Salon" Haircut

Last Saturday, we took Olivia to get her first bang cut at a salon. The lady we normally went to couldn't fit us in, so we had Miss Personality do it. Olivia really didn't want to sit in the chair too bad, and the lady really didn't care too much that she didn't. After giving her our keys to play with, she did pretty good-Olivia that is. I think I did a much better job cutting her hair than the "professional". Hopefully we'll have much better luck in New Ulm finding a stylist!

Thanks Grandma and Grandpa Driscoll!

Thank you Grandma and Grandpa Driscoll for the preparation gifts for Minnesota! Olivia got a pair of CUTE pink snowboots that'll look great with the snowsuit from A & U Michaela & Andy (an early x-mas gift I got a sneak peek at), a Minnesota book of ABC's-she even did her version of her fish face when she saw the fish on the front, and Phase 10 cards for Pat and I. Thanks Grandma & Grandpa!! We love you and can't wait to see you soon! (The pix were taken right before her nap so she's looking a little out of it-combined with not liking to smile for the camera!)

Olivia loves her Daddy's hats!

Olivia picked up on how to wear a baseball hat-it's the cutest thing! She won't smile for a picture unless she's in front of the mirror-and that's only when she wants to! The pix below is a little distorted because she's in the mirror, but thought her expression was priceless!

Pat was proud that Olivia had on his "Give Blood Play Rugby" hat.

She has tons of toys, but prefers to play with her nebulizer tubing and the swiffer mop in the background -she's got a cold this week :(

Olivia throwing her gang signs with her Dad.

Heather & Scott visit

Last weekend, my best friend from high school, Heather, came to visit us. She and her boyfriend, Scott flew in from NY and spent a great weekend together. We hiked a little at the Bandelier National Monument and quit a little early due to rain. On Saturday we took the tram up to the crest, where there was a beautiful snow fall. Little did Heather know, Scott was proposing to her on top of the mountain!! Congratulations Heather and Scott! Pat and I had so much fun being there with the big news and to help celebrate.

Our big news!

Last weekend Pat, Olivia, and I flew into Minneapolis for Pat's job interviews....yes-we are finally moving home!! There were a couple places in Mpls that had offered Pat a job, but he also interviewed in New Ulm, MN. We fell in love with New Ulm and felt it was just the perfect fit for us. As much as we love Mpls and have lots of friends & family there, we just felt that N.U. was our fit. The population is just over 13,000 and has a nice state park there (Flandreau State Park ). It's about 90 miles southwest of Mpls, 2 hours from Algona, 2.5 hours from Sioux Falls, and 5.5 hours from Gettysburg. That last one is a bummer, but it sure beats 20 hours and know we'll be out to see Grandma and Grandpa quite often! We're definitely going to miss our friends, and the weather, and the mountains here, but when it comes to family, we really want to be back home and have Olivia growing up with her Grandparents, Aunts & Uncles, and all the cousins. And maybe someday Pat and I can take a real vacation-we've loved visiting SD and IA, but we can't wait to have the time to go somewhere else! So-the following pictures are at Pat's sister-Molly's house. We got to spend time with so much family and my friend Holli & her fam-it was great to see everybody & can't wait until it's permanent!