Tis the Season

Ok, I'm the worlds worst blogger. Here is a new post to appease all of you who have been bugging me about getting a new one up.

I put the Christmas tree up the day after Thanksgiving, but it wasn't until tonight that I got around to decorating it. Dallas was working late again so I didn't have his help, but Olivia did decide to "help." It took about twice as long to decorate the tree this year, but it was a lot more fun!

She immediately found the candy canes and wasn't really concerned that they still had wrappers on them. She had her candy cane in her hand the rest of the night and I can't believe I'm posting this, but I even think the dog got a few licks of her candy cane, yuck!

Last night was our ward Christmas party. I was fun to catch up with people in the ward that I never get to talk to because I'm in YW rather than Relief Society. It had been a crazy day so I thought about bagging the party because Dallas wouldn't be able to go, but I really wanted a picture of Livi on Santa's lap. She has no idea what Christmas is, but since its her first I had to have a picture of her on Santa's lap. Unfortunately I couldn't get her to look at the camera.

Dallas and I have our shopping pretty much done and we've tried not to go overboard on stuff for Olivia (especially since she will be more attracted to the paper and bows than the toys), but its been hard. We've resolved that if we are tempted to buy her more things for Christmas that we will buy two of whatever it is we want to buy and donate the second item to those in need. Hopefully that will keep us from buying too much and if not, at least we will be helping families that are having a hard time providing a Christmas for their kids.

Well there it is, a new blog post. I wish all our friends and family a happy holiday season!

Vegas Baby!

Ok, my stupid tag has been up way too long. I've been wanting to do a post about our Vegas trip last weekend since Tuesday, but I've been without a computer all week.

Playing with Dryden. I can tell we are going to have to have many talks about sharing!

Last weekend we took a road trip to Vegas. Our good friends Rory and Harmony Preece and their kiddos live in Carlsbad, New Mexico, but were in Vegas for a few days last week. Since Vegas is a much closer drive than Carlsbad we decided to hit the road and go hang out with them for the weekend.

We had such a fun trip. I was worried about how Olivia would be on such a long drive, but she did great! She did better in the car than I did - Dallas' refusal to drive over 75 mph made me want to cry!

Watching the Dolphins at the Mirage Hotel in Vegas.

We didn't really do anything besides sit around and visit, it was good to catch up with everybody. The weather was wonderful too. We were able to go to the "zoo" at the Mirage hotel the first day and sit out at the pool the second day. Vegas is a lot different when travelling with a baby. I didn't even put a quarter in the slot machines. I am kinda bummed that I didn't make it to Sephora, but its probably for the best with the holidays fast approaching.

Watching the dolphins with daddy. There was a cute 9 week old baby dolphin!

I also got a great new cookie recipe from Rory's mom so come to my house for some tasty cookies. Thanks for a fun weekend Preece family!

TAG

Ok, I've been tagged a bunch of times by a bunch of people so I'm finally getting around to posting my answers. Sorry if you get bored reading so much about me.

8 Favorite TV Shows
1. 30 Rock
2. The Office
3. 24 (except last season, I'm hoping the new season is good)
4. Project Runway
5. Grey's Anatomy
6. Seinfeld
7. Curb Your Enthusiasm
8. Good Things Utah (I know its kinda lame, but I get quite a few good recipes from this show)

8 Things I did yesterday
1. Changed the clocks for daylight savings time.
2. Gave Olivia a bath.
3. Went to church
4. Cleaned up all the mud the dogs tracked in because it had been raining all night and day. Major pain in the butt.
5. Attended my cousin Kadee's 21st birthday dinner. Happy Birthday Kadee!
6. Ate lots of leftover Halloween candy
7. Did two loads of laundry.
8. Thought about blogging, but decided against it.

8 Things I look forward to
1. The election being over. Go Obama!
2. Going to Vegas this weekend.
3. Olivia's first Christmas.
4. Getting my hair done in a few weeks (I have way too many gray hairs)
5. Adopting another baby.
6. Beating Dallas when we play board games.
7. Going to Cancun in March.
8. Not having to buy formula anymore!!!!!!!

8 Favorite Restaurants
1. Ruth's Chris
2. Maddox
3. PF Changs
4. Red Rock
5. Hires
6. The Pie
7. Mikado for Sushi
8. Five Guys

8 Things on my wish list
1. Tickets to the Coldplay concert this month.
2. A finished basement.
3. A king size bed - I like to spread out and am unable to do so on our queen.
4. Enough money to go on a really elaborate vacation each year.
5. To be a size 2.
6. A personal chef.
7. A creative knack. I would love to be able to decorate and do cute crafts.
8. More patience.

Now I tag: Halley, Chelsea, Jen, Carlee, Harmony, Melissa, Liv, and Angie.


Well here are 7 weird facts about me:

1. Ok, I think I have mild OCD. All the light switches that share a plate have to be all lined up in the same direction before I leave the house or go to bed at night. Am I explaining that right? There is one plate where it just won't work and I'm ok with it so I'm not totally crazy right?

2. All my DVDs are alphabetized.

3. I have to paint my toenails before any trip I go on or before any major event. If I don't it totally drives me crazy. I don't know why I do this and I think I'm crazy, but along with doing laundry and packing to get ready to go on a trip I have to paint my toenails. The really weird thing is that I've started painting Olivia's too! We are going to Vegas this weekend and painting our toes is on my to do list. I know, its really strange.

4. I have to do all the dishes, pick up all the stuff lying around and put everything away before going to bed each night.

5. I get scared really easily. I hate watching scary movies because I get way too irrationally freaked out! When I'm walking to my car at night or I'm home alone or I'm the only one in a public restroom (don't ask, it is associated with a scary movie) those scary things come to mind and I can't stop thinking about them.

6. In tune with my OCD behavior, I love lists and schedules and organization. Having a to do list when I'm really busy is so helpful and I if I'm busy I can't even function unless my house or desk is perfectly organized.

7. I listen to talk radio more than music. How boring is that, but for some reason I listen to ksl and npr all the time and I hardly ever listen to music.

Temple Day

We feel so loved. Last Saturday we were sealed to Olivia in the Bountiful Temple and on Sunday Dallas blessed her. It was such a fun and busy weekend. I was so exhausted from the weekend that I'm finally caught up on everything and have some time to blog.

It was so nice of everyone to come to support us on our big day, we are so lucky to have such wonderful friends and family and it was so special to be at the temple with everyone. The temple process was pretty similar to getting married, but without having to get ready to look so fancy and of course there was a baby there.

I wasn't too emotional, but I did tear up when they brought Olivia into the room and I saw how beautiful she looked. I loved the little dress I bought for her. It was so neat to be in the temple with her. She was a really good kid during the sealing, she made some happy squealing sounds, but overall was really good.

I felt kinda funny leaving the temple in our white clothes for some pictures, but it will be nice to have those pictures to show Olivia when she's older. Thanks to everyone who came to support us, we feel so very loved.

The blessing on Sunday went really well, I think Dallas was a little intimidated that the entire stake presidency was there attending our ward that day. He did a great job and I'm so glad he holds the priesthood and bring those blessings into our family. Olivia was silent during her blessing too! I couldn't believe we lucked out, both the sealing time and blessing were right during naptime so I was prepared for some crankiness. We are so lucky to have such a happy baby.

Dallas and I tried to count after everyone had left our house on Sunday and we figured we had about 42 people crammed in our house. Sorry we had you crammed in there everyone! I wish we had our basement finished and could spread out a little more.

We are so glad to have our family be made "official" and we thank everyone who has helped us become so. Hopefully we'll be going through this process again soon!

Things were so crazy on Sunday that I forgot to take pictures of Olivia in her blessing dress. This is a picture from after I had changed her into normal clothes and was trying to get her to take a nap with Ryan.

Halloween Costumes

Yesterday our friends the Thatcher's hosted a great Halloween party. I personally think my costume is the best, but Dallas wasn't a fan. Thanks for a fun night Thatcher Family!

Court Date

Yesterday Olivia officially became ours!! I wasn't sure what to expect, but everything seemed pretty standard and went pretty smoothly. Olivia was so loud during the whole thing. She wasn't sad, but she was squealing, and laughing and shouting. Our case was third on the docket and I was worried that the judge would stop the first two proceedings to ask me to try and keep her quiet.

Our hearing only lasted about 15 minutes. I was really surprised because the judge didn't ask us a single thing about Olivia and how we feel about her. He asked Dallas to describe his feelings for me and vice versa. There was an adoption before ours so I'd heard him ask this question of the other couple, so I thought I was prepared to answer it, but when it was my turn to talk about my feelings for Dallas I was nervous and choked up so I kinda just mumbled something sweet and short. The whole proceeding was recorded and they will give us a DVD of our hearing.

I'm so glad Olivia is officially ours. People kept asking us if we were excited for court, its nice that it is done and that everything is squared away, but she has been 100% part of our family since day one and nothing can ever change that. Thanks to everyone to came to court with us to support us and a special thank you to Bruce Richards for representing us pro bono, we couldn't have done this without you!

Pumpkins

On Thursday Olivia and I went to pick out some pumpkins for Halloween. I grabbed my camera at the last minute and I'm glad I did, I love how these pictures turned out. Halley might have to make a couple of Halloween scrapbook pages because we still need to take pictures of her in her costume. I couldn't get Olivia to stop trying to eat the straw, silly girl. She actually didn't care too much about the pumpkins, but did love the dirt in the wagon.

And speaking of pumpkins, Liv is working very hard on her Jack O' Lantern smile. I blogged about her first tooth about a week a half and ago and tonight I noticed that the one right next to it is coming in too! It's still too early to get a good picture of the toothy smile, but by Halloween she should have the cutest dang Jack O' Lantern smile around!

Livi makes us so happy!

Olivia's Saturday morning. We love her to pieces!

Livi's Dad

First Tooth and Other Firsts

I've been meaning to blog some updates on Olivia's recent developments, and now that I've put it off for a few weeks there are quite a few of them. Sorry, I don't really have any pics to accompany this post.

The newest update with Olivia is the arrival of her first tooth. I feel like a pretty neglectful mom because it wasn't until she grabbed my finger and put it in her mouth tonight and I felt the rough edges of a tooth poking through that I even knew she was teething. She really is such a good baby so I haven't even noticed any unusual fussiness and she hasn't yet had a fever so I guess there wasn't really a way to tell other than the excessive drooling that has been occurring for the past month. This tooth is one of the front bottom ones; it isn't out enough to capture a picture yet, but hopefully we'll get one soon. I was putting ice cubes in her mesh feeder thing tonight and letting her chew on that - she was totally loving it.

Another recent development is the constant "da da da da da da" she squeals out daily. I'm trying to get her to switch over to the "ma ma ma ma", but so far no such luck. I don't know if this counts as her first word because its more of a sound than a word and she doesn't associate "da da" with Dallas. Thoughts?

Liv's 6 month appointment was on the 17th and that kid really is growing like a weed (cliche, I know). She weighs in at 16 pounds 9 ounces and is 26 inches long. Both stats put her in the fiftieth percentile for length and weight. She's always been in the twentieth to twenty-fifth percentile so she's caught up quite a bit. Look out Dryden here she comes ; ) Olivia has been sleeping through the night since about three months, but for the past month or so she's been waking up around four in the morning for a bottle. I'm attributing this to a growth spurt that requires extra food and will be over with in the very near future, but its so annoying because it feels like regression into newborn territory which wasn't very enjoyable. Anyone else encounter this? Am I an idiot for hoping that this will end soon?

And lastly, an appropriate new nickname for Livi is "scooter". She can scoot backwards like a champ and she can go around in circles. As soon as she grasps the concept of putting one hand in front of the other to go forward, there will be no stopping her. We'll have to baby proof the house before you know it.

Congratulations!

Congratulations to two of my best gal pals. My old college roommate Jen Bullock welcomed a baby boy last week and one of my best girlfriends from high school Nicole Johnson had her little girl today! Congratulations ladies, I'm so lucky to have friends like you in my life.

Samuel David Bullock

8lbs. 12oz.

Congratulations Matt & Jen!

Emery Ann Johnson

7lbs. 5 oz.

Congratulations Mark, Nicole & Abbi!

Also, congratulations to the Hunter family and the arrival of Cormack. We haven't seen pictures of this little guy yet, but if he's anything like his sister and brother I'm sure he's a cutie. We are so happy he's out of the NICU and home with you guys!

Recent Adventures

What a busy month September has been. My handsome hubby celebrated his 28th birthday on the 11th - he has so much gray hair he could pass for 35 ; ) As part of the Hamblin family tradition we have to go to the State Fair sometime during the week of his birthday. I have to admit that I'm not the biggest fan of the State Fair, but I was looking forward to taking Olivia and I think it will only become more and more fun to go as she gets older and can enjoy it. And even though it sounds totally white trash I was going to try a bite of the fried peanut butter and jelly sandwich, but we never did see the booth that sold it. Grandpa Hamblin bought Livi a sword that lights up and she absolutely loves it, she might be the only six month old girl with a sword. Thanks Grandpa! As you can tell from the photos Livi wasn't a fan of the sheep, but she did seem to like the cows. I'm sure next year will be quite the adventure.

Last weekend we went to Snowbird and Oktober Fest with our good friends the Thatcher's. This is my absolute favorite time of year and Snowbird is the perfect place to go to enjoy the pretty fall colors and fresh cool air! We arrived on Saturday and ate at a fabulous Mexican join at the resort and then Sunday we hit the Oktober Fest party. Oktober Fest always has great booths, cool German music, great German food and a ton of things for little and big kids to do. Obviously we really got a kick out of putting our faces in the cutouts of the German people, but the kids didn't really seem to like it to much.


And finally, after Oktober Fest we headed to the Zermatt Resort in Midway for a work conference I had to attend. We are running a little short on pictures this month so we decided to do a little photo shoot while up at Zermatt so we'd have some pics to send to Latoya. Liv is such a great sport for always letting up set her in random places and poses to get cute pics. As you can tell she will be the youngest chess prodigy ever and I don't know what she was seeing that made her make that face in the last picture, but I think its hilarious.

Livi's Favortie Things

Well, we didn't end up doing very much over Labor Day weekend so I thought I'd take a moment and post a list of Olivia's favortie things (in no particular order).

Daisy (the dog)

Drooling

Sleeping in the corner of her crib with a blankie over her face

Playing with grandparents

Putting anything in her mouth

Mommy & Daddy

Watching sports (I'm not kidding)

Grabbing people's faces and hair

Daisy (she really really loves Daisy so its worth mentioning twice)

Singing

Laughing

Riding in the stroller

Drinking out of a cup

Watching mommy put on makeup

Watching the ducks at the park

We love our baby girl!

End of Summer

Seeing as the Labor Day Holiday is the universally accepted date as the end of summer I figured I'd update our blog with some of the pictures from the summer. Our sixth anniversary was on August 16th, the weekend prior to that we took a trip to Newport Beach California to celebrate. Most of the pictures are from our trip. And on our actual anniversary we went to dinner and a Bee's game. Olivia was such a great baby during the Bee's game.

I can't believe how quickly the summer has gone by. I'm not too sad to see it go, Fall is my absolute favorite season. Maybe its because I love politics and that always seems to heat up in the fall, but I do love the cooler weather, the changing colors and Halloween.







I hope all you fellow bloggers have a safe and happy Labor Day holiday. I'm not quite sure what our plans will include, but I'll probably blog about it next week - until then.

Solid Foods

Yesterday Olivia turned 5 months old so we thought we'd try a first attempt at "solid" food. We started off with a bowl of rice cereal mixed with some formula. Despite the pictures I do think she actually swallowed some and I think she did like it.

New Orleans

The Swamp before the major rainstorm

They feed the aligators marshmallows to get them to come up to the boat

For some reason I haven't felt that motivated to update my blog lately. Maybe summer is really starting to sink in and I'm starting to feel very lazy, but hopefully my laziness will pass and I will dutifully fulfill my blogging obligations. Halley (my sis) usually busts my butt if more than a week goes by and I don't do an update. Like she has any room to talk!

Anyway, two weeks ago I was in New Orleans for work. New Orleans is a place I'd always thought might be a cool place to visit, but now having been there I'm not going to make it a priority to go back.

Before going I was dreading the humidity, Dallas was actually pretty sick of me whining about it. I had reason to dread it, that place is sticky. But as I discovered, there are other reasons to hate humidity rather than just feeling gross all the time - cockroaches! Our first night there we were at a very upscale restaurant and the maître d' expertly crushed and cleared a giant cockroach from the floor. He was such a pro that it was obvious that this scenario was a very common occurrence there. Maybe for some of you cockroaches aren't that big of deal, but we don't get cockroaches in northern Utah so I'm not used to having to deal with these disgusting creatures. New Orleans also has a lot of rats. I lost count of how many rats I saw running around the streets and courtyards of various properties.

We did quite a few things while in New Orleans, we went on an air boat tour of the swamp and saw alligators, we took a tour of the haunted locations in the French Quarter, we checked out Bourbon Street (as much as you can while retaining membership in the church), we took a tour of Oak Alley (a southern plantation where Gone With The Wind was filmed) and went to the House of Blues all while melting in the humid climate.

The swamp tour was my favorite activity, it was surprisingly beautiful and our guide was one of those kinda crazy backwoods Bayou guys so it was very authentic. There was a hurricane hitting the Houston area (six hours away from New Orleans) while we were on the swamp so our tour was cut short by the downpour that hit while we were out on the boat. Unfortunately everything was soaked, including my camera and it is currently not working. I did manage to get some pictures off the memory card and I will try to post those soon.

It was hard to leave Dallas and Olivia for the week, but it was nice to go for a week without spit up on my clothes. I was so happy to see them when I landed in Salt Lake.

We are headed to Newport Beach this weekend and I'm still trying to figure out how the whole traveling experience works with a baby so wish us luck.

This gator would have made a great purse : )