Olivia playing outside

Here are just a few shots of Olivia playing outside today. She loves being outside, but it's hard when there's not too much space she can play in when we just have a rock yard. She loves to play with rocks and scrapes them against the cement, so I thought it would be fun to get her sidewalk chalk. She really didn't care for them and as you can see even tried to throw them away! Next was the swimming pool. Knowing she wouldn't swim long, I didn't put her suit on so she just had her swimmers and tshirt on. She has her pool toys-but again, doesn't like the toys and would rather play with the hose instead! She loves watching the water come out of it and being sprayed. It wasn't long when she wanted out of the pool to play with the drain spout. She is just too much fun and is keeping us busy!!

Olivia's first haircut

Olivia got her first haircut on Monday night. Actually it was just her bangs-she won't keep hair ties in her hair anymore and pulls them out, so it was time for a trim. And because it was just going to be her bangs, I thought-how hard can it be to do it myself? Well-it was. Good thing she's only a year old and doesn't know any better. She kind of looks like she has a half bowl cut or a slight mullet. Lesson learned!

Olivia Walking

As we figured, it wouldn't take long for Olivia to take off walking. She took her first couple steps before her 1st birthday and now she's walking all over the house. It's been so fun watching her little weeble wobble walk. She falls down, gets up, and takes off again. That's our girl!

Olivia playing in her new princess castle

This is Olivia's new ball pit. Pat and I "broke" her Dora one while we were having a ball fight with each other. We were using it as a shield and the next morning we woke up and found half of it deflated on the ground. Oops. Of course Toys r Us didn't have the same one to replace it, so we had to go with the (much bigger) Princess Castle one. It takes up quite a bit of the living room, but Olivia loves to play in it.

Happy 1st Birthday Olivia!!

Olivia is 1 years old!! Hard to believe the day has come. She got spoiled with her birthday and had 3 different birthday parties-back in July when we drove home we celebrated with both our families, and then had her birthday party here. For her birthday today Grandma and I took her to her 1 year pix at JcPenneys. You can view the pictures at the following website and put in 'Jodi Froehlich' for the customer name. https://www.smilesbywire.com/home.asp?AC=LTPP0696103826JCP. Olivia did such a great job at her pictures-especially considering we also did an outfit change. Afterwards Grandma took Olivia for a ride on the carousel at the mall. She wasn't quite sure what to think-but rode pretty well. For dinner, we celebrated at El Pinto-the best New Mexican restaurant in town. Olivia loves the sopapillas there!
In the past month, the biggest changes Olivia's gone through is that she is now walking. The most steps she's taken is about 6 and still prefers crawling-and gets anywhere in no time. She is completely done with baby food and loves people food-although she is getting a little pickier now. Some of her favorites from before aren't anymore. The dogs love it when she is eating in her high chair-as soon as she's done, it all goes to the floor, and they are right there! She still only has her 2 bottom teeth, and no sign of any others coming in! She's talking more and making more sounds. We can almost make out 'dog' when she's pointing at them. Olivia also loves to look at all the pictures on the wall and on the fridge. She's really starting to recognize family more now that we spent alot of time with everyone in July. We're excited to see the fun changes over the next year now!

Grandma and Olivia on the carousel.

Olivia and her new car. It has been the best purchase we've ever made!

Olivia diving in her ball pit.

We caught her in action walking!

Olivia loved all the flowers in the garden at El Pinto

Pat, Olivia, and I celebrating her 1 year birthday!

Grandma Driscoll, Olivia, and I outside of El Pinto

Olivia's walking!!

Olivia walked "officially" for the first time tonight-that Pat and I saw. She took 5 steps for Michaela on 7-24-09 and also for my mom but we didn't see it. So, we are officially claiming it to be on 8-3-09. In the following pictures we are trying to get her to walk again, but it's not working so much. She's a little stubborn. But, I'm sure it won't be long and we'll be running after her to keep up.

Helping her get started...

Trying to convince her to walk to some balls...

And again to the balls...

And again...

And now with the dog dish, b/c for some gross reason she likes to try and play with it...

But, she's stubborn...

And tired and gonna walk again when she's ready!

Olivia's Birthday Party in Albuquerque

We celebrated Olivia's birthday Sunday Aug. 2nd in Albquerque. Pat and I just got back late that morning from my birthday celebration. Extra Thanks to Grandma Driscoll in all that she did for Olivia's birthday party and in helping us get ready for it. She made Olivia a Princess birthday cake (her theme was a 1st Birthday Princess), princess cupcakes, cut out a cool watermelon fruit basket, and much more. Thank you so much! For Olivia's party, we had all our friends over for a bbq and also did a pinata for the kids. It was such a special day for Olivia and thanks to everyone that made it special for her.

Pat and I with the birthday girl.

Grandma Driscoll and Olivia with the birthday cake and cupcakes she made for Olivia. My mom had told me that my Grandma (her mom) had made my 1st cake also.

Pat and Olivia giving the pinata a good whack (for a 1 year old it wasn't bad!)

The three of us-I think Olivia is still trying to figure out what's going on with the whole stick and big pink thing is.

We all were singing Happy Birthday to Olivia here.

Surprisingly, she didn't get too messy! I guess she ate it like the Princess she is!

The Birthday Girl

Olivia and Jonas (our daycare, Stacy's son) in Olivia's new ball pit we got her. (Apparently it's not made for adults b/c Pat and I already popped it a few days after this, having a ball fight with it-looks like we'll be taking another trip to Toys r' Us to get a new one!)

Olivia and her Princess crown from Grandma eating her lunch.

Time for Birthday Ice Cream!

Opening all her presents. She is one spoiled little girl!

Pat and I also gave Olivia this car for her birthday. SHE LOVES IT! It was so fun seeing her reaction when we brought it in the house from the garage. The wheels came through the door, and she was off crawling like crazy to it. Now anytime she gets up from a nap or we get home somewhere, this is the first thing she goes to. She knows how to open the door, get in, shut the door, and gives us the cutest look to push her around in it. She even sits in it to watch t.v.-just like her own drive in movie theater. It is the best thing to watch her in it. I'll have to capture and post a video of her soon.

Olivia wrapped in her caterpillar from Aunt Michaela, Uncle Andy, and cousins Chloe and Kaden. She is having a ball with it! It has the whole alphabet going down both sides, so will be a good learning toy too. Thanks guys-everyone at the party loved it!!

Olivia's Party

Happy Birthday to Me

I had a great day celebrating my birthday. Pat brought me home a dozen red roses the night before and then had another huge beautiful bouquet delivered to me the morning of my birthday. My mom had flown down Thursday (July 30th) so it was extra special that I got to spend some of it with her. Pat and she had already done the planning that he had a surprise overnight stay for the two of us at Tamaya Resort outside of Albuquerque while Grandma and Olivia got to spend time with just the two of them for the night. I don't know who was more excited! Besides Pat's hospital stay-which really doesn't count-Pat and I have never gotten away for the night with just the two of us. First we all went to St. Claire's Winery for lunch and a tastefull glass of wine. Then Pat and I were off to the surprise. We had such a great getaway-the Tamaya Resort was amazing! Thanks Pat for being such an awesome husband! I had such a wonderful time!

Pat, Olivia, and I with my beautiful flowers.

Olivia and I celebrating with both our birthdays so close.

Grandma Driscoll and Olivia at the winery.

The view of some of the resort taken from our room.

Olivia helped Grandma do some laundry on their evening together. She loves to be around the dryer when laundry's being done.