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 : )

4 Months Old

Olivia went in for her 4 month check up yesterday and I thought I'd post her stats for the grandparents and anyone else who might be interested.

Weight: 13lbs. 4 oz. (29th percentile)

Height: 24 inches long (26th percentile)

Head Size: 15 3/4 inches (16th percentile)

Probably kind of boring for most readers of the blog, but its good for me to write it down so that when the social worker comes for our final post placement visit in a few weeks I can check the blog and rattle of the stats for her. Only two more months until we finalize the adoption!

Wearing Daddy's Hat!

Morning at the Park

For those of you who don't know, there are two other brown babies in our ward. Both are boys and just slightly older than Olivia. Last Friday we took our babies to the park and I couldn't help taking a bunch of pictures. Eli (in the green) is 9 months and Carter (in the overalls) is almost 7 months. Olivia can't sit up on her own yet so it was kind of difficult to pose them, not nearly as difficult as it will be once they are mobile I'm sure. They are too cute. I love that we have such great neighbors.

Carter was sealed and blessed this past weekend. His grandpa took a couple pictures of the kids after the blessing so hopefully his mom will email them to me so that I can share them with everyone.

I thought this one was cute because Eli has his hand on her tummy.

I'm sure a few years from now we will move away from this ward, but I hope that we can always stay close with these two families. They are great friends for us to have.

4th of July

What a fun holiday our little family had. We kicked off the long weekend by catching Wall E with my family at the drive in. I loved it and thought it was such a cute little movie and I think Dallas fell asleep. Friday morning we packed up and headed to the cabin at Bear Lake for the rest of the weekend. Bear Lake was crazy busy, but on Saturday we were able to claim a spot on the beach and hang out for the day. Olivia hated the cold water on her toes, but she was enthralled by the waves breaking on the shore. There are quite a few pictures of our little beach bum, but I couldn't help myself - just be thankful I didn't post the pictures of me in my swimming suit.

Sunday came too quickly and it was time to go home and back to work. Hopefully we can make it up there a few more times this summer!

This photo isn't from the 4th, but Grandma and Grandpa Hamblin gave Olivia her first pair of Converse and we just had to show everybody how cute she looks in them.

Photo Packet #4

Today I mailed Photo Packet #4 to Olivia's birthmom and I thought I'd share some of our favorite photos from the past month with you. Happy 4th!

Father's Day Nap

On the train at Dairy Keen in Heber City

Thanks for the outfit Rory & Harmony

Primary Election Day

Sunday Nap

Playing with Carson Thatcher

Mmmmm...

I've been at my current job for almost five years now and each year I attend a national conference in Washington DC. I love DC, the energy and dynamic of the city is truly captivating and I would live there if I could (I just need to figure out that whole humidity thing.) Anyway, each time I am back there I have a list of places to swing by in my free time. This list includes a few historical things that I have not yet seen, but is mainly comprised of places that I love that don't exist in Utah - mainly Sephora (my absolute fave makeup store) and Five Guys Burgers.

Well, I am happy to announce that Five Guys Burgers now exists in Utah. I along with a select few of my cool co-workers (there are only a few that are cool) made the trek to Fort Union during lunch today to grab a taste of burger heaven. Now, no offense to you loyal Hires and Crown Burger fans, but Five Guys has them beat and I know I will take some crap for this, but I rank it higher than In n' Out Burger; maybe that's because in the East Coast vs. West Coast battle I side with the East Coast every time, but the two joints are pretty similar.

Anyway, everybody needs to check it out and let me know what they think. I know that for us Northern Utah folks anything past downtown Salt Lake might as well be Provo, but I promise that its worth the drive.

Girls Camp

Those of you who know me well know that I am not a camper. I'm all for spending time in the great outdoors, but I'm never excited to give up the comforts of home such as my comfy bed, flushing toilet and hot shower. So a few months ago when we were discussing the subject of Girls Camp at our YW leader meeting I was not the first to volunteer, but after realizing that two of our leaders would have newborns and our president would be hugely pregnant it was kind of looking like I needed to step up. And after hearing that camp would be at the new Heber Valley Girls Camp with flushing toilets and showers I figured I could make it happen. So last Monday at 7:00 am we met at the stake center and headed up for Heber Valley.

That morning I was kind of in freak out mode because I was really sad about leaving Olivia for the week; feeling like she would forget who I was by the time I came home on Friday. I knew she'd be fine with Dallas (she's a total Daddy's girl and loves him the best anyway) but I felt like I was putting too much of a burden on him by asking him to be a single parent for a week. And few days prior to leaving I had been battling a summer cold (I really hate those)

Well, the Heber Valley camp is gorgeous and the church has set up an incredible facility up there. Our Young Women are great girls and I really appreciate them for being nice girls. They are not all about drama and actually treat each other nicely. On Monday and Tuesday there were only two leaders up there - myself and the camp director with twenty girls so the two of us were spread pretty thin. I'm thinking that because of that my summer cold turned on me with a vengeance. By Wednesday morning had an earache in each ear, a sore throat and terrible congestion. The girls said I was the loudest snorer up there : ) Luckily two other leaders were coming up on Wednesday so I was able to pack up and go home. I went to the doc that afternoon and found out I had strep throat.

I'm very sad I had to leave camp I was really looking forward to some of the activities that were going on up there, but I was glad to be home with Dallas and Olivia with modern medicine working its magic on my system. Luckily neither of them got sick, I'm sure that was my blessing for serving at camp for those couple of days. I'm a whimpy sick person - I just want to go to bed for a week until I feel better and taking care of baby when sick is not fun, but taking care of a sick baby while sick would be absolute torture. Props to all you mom's out there who have had to do it.

Sorry, no pictures with this post. I wanted to take pictures of my girls on the challenge course at Heber Valley to post, but I had to go home before the challege course.

Father's Day

Dallas, Steve & Olivia Hamblin

Happy Father's Day to all the Dads out there. Olivia's gifts to her daddy included a blue ipod shuffle for him to use at the gym with the engraving "Happy Father's Day Daddy! Love, Olivia" on the back, some new gym shoes and the Tiger Woods 08 xbox game. Dallas is such a great father that I wish we could have done more for him. We are both very lucky to have him!

Our weekend started off by working on my Dad's Father's Day gift. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures, but we took down the old basketball hoop at my folks house and got everything ready for the fancy new hoop that will go up once the cement dries (all eleven bags of it!) That project was fun, but did take up most of our Saturday. The neatest part was that we were all able to put our handprint in the wet cement, even Olivia. Thanks to Halley, Aaron and Ryan for working on this project with us, it would have been too hard for any of us to do it by ourselves.

Sunday was spent making the rounds to different family gatherings. Thanks for having us over Carlee and Jen, the food was great at both houses. We love your new basement Zaugg's - don't be surprised if Dallas moves in next week. I hope all of you were able to have fabulous weekends as well.

Father's Day 2008

Farmington Pond

This past Saturday we decided to get some sun and accompany Halley & Aaron (my sis & her hubby) to Farmington Pond. I had been stuck inside all day cleaning so when they called to see if we wanted to go it sounded like the perfect excuse to get outside and enjoy the sunshine.

Aaron wanted to do some fishing and it was "Free Fish Day" where you didn't need a license to fish. Fortunately for the fish Aaron didn't catch anything - something my brother Ryan would have told him before going out : ) We only ended up staying about and hour because we didn't get there until late in the afternoon and once the sun started to go down it started to get cold.

Halley & Aaron

Olivia was a great baby during our fishing outing. She just sat in the stroller and watched the trees the whole time. She got to stay up way past her bedtime that night, but it didn't seem to throw off her schedule too much.

Camp Chairs - What a great invention!

Thanks Halley and Aaron for getting us out of the house!