Four Years and Counting!

Yesterday was our 4th Anniversary. It doesn’t seem like four whole years ago that we were gathered in my in-law’s back yard with all of our family and friends celebrating our new life together. The past year, especially, has flown by extremely fast.

We are so blessed to have this time together and we pray that God will grant us many more anniversaries to come.

We don’t have a lot of people around us who can babysit, so we celebrated as a family last evening. Thinking about it ahead of time, we were kind of happy to celebrate it with all three of us. Olivia is a huge part of our life now and she helped make this past year together extremely happy. Of course, there was also frustration, tiredness, and down times…but all-in-all, since our last anniversary in the hospital, Olivia has blessed us in so many ways. It was nice to go out to dinner with the three of us, celebrate her birthday and our anniversary, have her sit patiently in the high chair, eat her own kids’ meal, and only throw minimal amounts of food on the floor! So, we celebrated together not only because we had to, but because we wanted to!

May God grant us the love, patience, and understanding to get through many more years together. I love you, Christopher!

August 27, 2005 - Our Wedding Day - At the Reception

August 27, 2006 - On a Paddle Boat at Montauk, Long Island

August 27, 2007 - At the Eifel Tower in Paris, France

August 27, 2008 - Montefeiore Hospital in the Bronx, NY

August 27, 2008 - Home Sweet Home in Tuckahoe, NY

Happy 1st Birthday, Olivia!

The Birthday Girl!

Olivia is officially a one-year-old now! It doesn’t seem like that long ago that we brought her home from the hospital. She has changed so much and has completely developed her own personality.

The day we brought her home from the hospital...

One Year Old

We are so blessed to have her in our lives. Here are some pictures from her birthday celebrations.

Our pathetic attempt at a homemade birthday cake

Birthday Party at Church - attempting to eat cake

She begged for a fork instead of using her hands.

After finally sticking her hand in, she was amazed by the feeling of the sticky icing.

Making a mess...

Yummy!

Playing with her first birthday gift...musical maracas!

Opening a gift from Great Granny

Tearing paper off puzzles from Grandma Carol & Papaw Ray

Playing with her new Fridge Phonics

(Daddy spelled her name New York style)

Opening a gift from a lady at church

Playing with her gift from Mommy & Daddy

Eating cake again on her birthday - a little messier than she was at church

Notice the left piggy tail - she got icing in her hair and it made the piggy tail stand straight out!

She loved squeezing the icing in between her fingers over and over again!

This is the fastest we've ever seen her eat!

Happy 1st Birthday, Olivia Grace!

She's Accomplished A Lot!

Wow! It’s been over two months since I posted on here. In that time period we’ve had some ups and downs, traveled to see family and friends several times, and watched Olivia grow and develop immensely!

Olivia is pulling herself up on anything she can possibly find. She is growing taller too because she can now reach shelves that were once safely out of her reach! She stands up in the middle of the floor without holding on to anything and we can tell she desperately wants to walk, she just hasn’t figured that out quite yet. She pulls herself along objects and she does well walking if she’s holding on to our hands. She even feels comfortable doing it while holding on with one hand…I’m sure she’ll be walking before we know it! She likes to climb on things like sewing boxes, cardboard boxes…pretty much anything that represents a step. She also climbs inside of her exersaucer and sits there to play with toys.

Her hair is getting longer so I either put it in a ponytail, piggy tails, or a barrette every day. It’s really long on top and won’t stay out of her eyes. In the back, she still has a mess of little curls that are quite unruly and hard to put into a ponytail.

She loves feeding herself from a fork too. We put the food on the fork, give it to her, and she puts it in her mouth. She does really well with it and only flings food on the floor if she’s getting full.

It’s hard to believe that she will be one year old tomorrow. My, my how time flies! I promise I’ll post pictures on Thursday of her with her birthday celebration.

While we were traveling with family, Olivia experienced many new ‘firsts.’ She played on a big trampoline, met extended family members, went for a wagon ride, played in the sprinkler, climbed up one step, stood by herself, cruised along a coffee table (walking), went tubing, rode a jet ski, went down a water slide, slept on a houseboat, learned how to blow a kiss, and stayed the weekend alone with her Grandma Carol. She is such an easy-going baby and really enjoyed spending time with her cousins, aunts & uncles, and grandparents.

Here are some updated pictures……
(you can also look at more pictures at my Picasa site: http://picasaweb.google.com/cincychelle)

Chris' cousin, Diana took this picture - then several people took turns editing the colors.

This is Olivia playing in the sprinkler in Ohio.


My sister-in-law, Amy, took this great picture of Olivia when we visited them in Tennessee.


Olivia is doing 'so big' after finally making a mess in her early birthday cake.

She belongs in Hollywood!

She loved swimming in the lake - this was a very happy week for her!

This is her first day with a ponytail, and she just happened to be standing on her own as well.

This doesn't look like a very good picture - but she is blowing me a kiss!

I just thought this was a cute picture!

This is Olivia's first water slide ride into the lake....Daddy tries to 'pass' her to Grandpa, but Olivia goes flying through the air instead. Surprisingly, she didn't scream or throw a fit!