Olivia is 18 months today!

Hard to believe that our little girl is already 18 months. When I just read what she was doing at one years old, just 6 months ago, it seems like she has matured by 3 years. She is really learning quick and doesn't miss a thing. She is our monkey see, monkey do girl. Some of her favorite things are the stairs-she doesn't miss an opportunity to go up or down them with us, and cell phones-she loves them and talks on & on. Pat just updated his blackberry, so she gets to play with the old one and she loves it. Olivia is already into the hair products, lotions, and makeup. She insists that she holds 3 or 4 of my things while she watches me get ready & then she tries to imitate me. Not sure if Dad's ready for that! She also loves her bathtime and brushing her teeth. All you have to do is mention the words and she's running for the bathroom. She even turns the bathwater on and tries to crawl over the tub dressed if you don't get in there fast enough. And speaking of teeth-she has 10 of them now (8 more than at 12 months). She has already bitten 2 little girls here that we just met and it makes me worried. I hope it's not the start of something. For toys, she is getting into her baby dolls more and acts like a cute little mother with them; her building blocks are her favorite-she spends alot of time building things; and she loves books-she's sitting still more and more to be read to. It's my favorite part of the evening! Along with getting a little older, she is starting to have little temper tantrums too-it's hard not to laugh when she gently places herself on the floor, being ever so careful not to hurt herself, and then throws a fit for attention. She still gets along with the dogs, but I'm afraid she probably learns from me too well-she chases them around pointing a finger at them saying "no, no, no". Just today, she has put two words together for the first time and says "no dogs". Just so she doesn't start using other words with it. Other words she says are mommy (and when she's tired, it's nanny), daddy, up, Coco (she won't say Abby anymore), dog, cheese, keys, Jesus, bbrrrr (something she learned since we moved to MN!), and she says no very very well. She also has alot of gibberish words that Pat and I can understand, but not sure if they're quite in the English lang. Sometimes she gets to rattling on and on it's almost like she's talking Chinese. It's so cute-wish we knew what she was thinking half the time!
So that is our Olivia-we thank God every day for her and are blessed to have her in so many ways. She continuously brings a smile to our face.

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Happy Birthday Pat! Today we celebrated by going out for lunch at Applebee's and then for dinner I made his favorite-enchiladas. Here Olivia is opening his card for him and Pat is sporting his new coat he got from us.

Olivia's pre- pre- pre- school

Olivia and I attended our first day of "school" yesterday. We are enrolled in a program here called Early Childhood Family Education (through the school system). It's for children from birth to kindergarten. They separate the children according to ages and for an hour we get to do different learning activities, singing, reading, etc. with them. Olivia had a good time-lots of running around & playing. We sat in a circle and sang some songs and we happened to be sitting next to one of the ladies running the program. The short time that Olivia would sit for it, she wanted to sit on the ladies lap! It was cute. For the program they also have them do one specific project each week and they take alot of pictures. At the end of the 9 weeks they put together a scrapbook for you to keep. It'll be a great keepsake through the next few years to build on. Yesterday we did her footprints with paint and she loved it-she wanted her feet to be brushed again with the paint after I got them cleaned up.
We have also gotten involved in a MOPS group, a playgroup, and are going to be going to the gym shortly where they have "open gym" for kids to go run & play 2x a week. Although I am still looking for a job daily, I am loving staying at home and meeting great moms & friends.

Grandma and Grandpa Froehlich Visit

We had visitors last weekend from Grandma and Grandpa Froehlich! We enjoyed having them and showing them around New Ulm. Kathee and I went to a few of the fun shops in town-for the size of it, New Ulm has some great shopping! We went to church Sat night and this time tried out the other Catholic church-St. Mary's. Olivia and Pat saw a whole 10 minutes of it. Olivia didn't have much of a nap and was quite vocal about it. But, there was a statue of Jesus in the hallway and Pat said his name to her once, and she remembered it. One more word to add to her vocabulary! She even said "ouwy" when she saw Jesus's hands. Afterwards, we went out to eat and had some good ole 1919 brewed root beer-brewed right here at the Schell's Brewery. Sunday we had some breakfast and then G & G left-although it was a quick trip, we had a great time!

Going to church

We went to our new church, Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, yesterday for the first time. We are always a little leary of how Olivia is going to act in a new place. She did pretty good-Pat only had to take her out twice. She was entertaining the people behind us though-they had 2 boys-b/w junior high & high school age. Olivia was quite the flirt with them-a few times she dropped a bookmark over the pew, they would pick it up and give it back; she tried crawling over the pew to them; she wanted them to hold her; she waved and waved and waved to them; and I wouldn't be surprised if she tried feeding them her marshmallows when we weren't looking. When church was over, the dad commented to us on how adorable Olivia is and how much his boys enjoyed her. He said they actually stayed awake for church for once and commented that they hoped we sat in front of them next week. I thought that was cute and told Pat that I'll have to put that on the blog-Olivia the entertainer, even in church. He was surprised I didn't pull out my camera and ask the boys for their picture with Olivia. But, I settled happily with a picture with her at home after church :)

Happy Golden (8th) Birthday Bella!!

(Just a side note-we've upgraded our internet, so I'm getting more on the blog than I was going to-and it's faster than the service we had in Abq :) )
Happy Birthday to my niece, Bella! She had her golden birthday on January 8th. To celebrate, we all went rollerskating in Sioux Falls and then went to Dan and Bella's and had some chili, opened gifts, and had some tasty birthday cake made by Bella and decorated by Grandma Driscoll. Again-it is so great to be moved back to share in these special days.

Grandpa with his hands full!
Heather and Fraya-Fraya did a great job for her first time!

Anna-cute as can be skating it up!

Dan and his Birthday Girl

Dan, Heather, and Bella

Justin and Jessica taking a break with the family.

Bella on the go!

Bella before blowing out her 8 candles-hard to believe she is 8 already!

Bella and her afghan I crocheted for her (long time in the making!)

Grandma Driscoll and Bella in her new outfit by G & G from Justice-Bella's favorite store in the mall.

Curious Georgia

We have a little monkey on our hands and Grandma Driscoll nailed it on the head and came up with Curious Georgia. The pajamas are only too fitting-she's got a couple pairs of them and they are absolutely adorable on her! There isn't anything she won't get into-at least once. She loves to venture up and down the stairs (with supervision of course), gets into cupboards, climbs into drawers to reach and pull things out of cupboards above her, climbs on the furniture, loves to pull things off the entertainment center-of course she says "no no" to herself b/c she knows she's not supposed to do it, and looks at you first and then with a devlish grin goes and then does it. She is keeping us busy as ever! But we're loving keeping up with our little monkey. Here in the pictures, she has her mittens on her feet-that was the thing for awhile (she won't wear socks).