Happy Birthday Kyle

We celebrated Kyle's 16 birthday on Saturday, January 26. Grandpa and Grandma Manning came over for nice dinner and visit and of course, Olivia was happy to see them, play and tell them "up-um", which by the way works every time.

Steve and I will celebrate our 5th wedding anniversary this year and it is hard to believe how fast the time goes by. It seems like just yesterday that I met this family and became a part of it. Now, Kyle is in high school and driving and Jenny is almost as tall as me while we could already share shoes since we wear the same size!

Little Olivia has completed us by brining all of our families together......Grandparents, cousins, aunts, etc. She has connected all of us forever.
I bet when Kyle and Jenny met me for the first time they never imagined they would ever have a little sister someday but now none of us can remember what life was like without her. She is growing and changing so much everyday.

Olivia is starting to say a few more words now. "Elmo" comes out very clear and on Saturday she said "Papa" a couple times referring to Grandpa. She likes to go shopping but it doesn't take long before she wants to go "home"......"home". If she can't or doesn't want to say something she just says "da-da" or "ga-ga". She cannot (or will not) say Kyle or Jenny yet even though we work on that all the time. This really frustrates Jenny but I'm sure it will come soon.

I am beginning to read up on potty training just to prepare myself but I think that is way off yet. She won't be 2 years until June. Hopefully by then we will be much closer to completing that milestone. For now, we continue to learn more everyday with playing, reading and watching Baby Einstein.

Then & Now...

This picture was taken on "Gotcha Day", May 14, 2007. Scroll down to see us today. Olivia, my Mom and I all travelled about an hour down to Alan and Marilyn's house on Monday to get Olivia and Eleanor together again. It had been quite a few months since we had seen them last time. At that time Eleanor was just beginning to walk. Yesterday both girls were running around the house having a great time together.
They are both so cute and got along great. They both shared Eleanor's toys and by the time we had to leave they were playing "peek-a-boo" together in the living room.
The big news is that Marilyn is 9 months pregnant!!
She found out in November that she was about 6 months pregnant with a baby boy. She is due on January 30th so little Eleanor could have a baby brother any day now. This was a big surprise to Alan and Marilyn but they will all make a wonderful family.
The girls were 11 months old on Gotcha day and are 1 1/2 now. They are so much alike in so many ways but so different in so many ways too. Olivia is about 1 lb. heavier but stands a few inches above Eleanor. Olivia was walking before Eleanor but Eleanor seems to be saying more words.
When we were getting ready to leave, Olivia and Eleanor were giving each other hugs and it was sooo cute, of course by that time I unfortunately had all the cameras packed away for our trip home.
Both girls have great personalities, are healthy, happy and very smart. They both just seem to go with the flow with whatever we are doing.
We had a great lunch with Marilyn and Eleanor and wish we had more time to spend with them but the girls, and Marilyn, were needing naps so we had to call it a day after a few hours of visiting and playing.

We hope to get together with them again very soon and get to meet the newest member of their family....Eleanor's little brother!!

Just Goofing Around

Dad is tired when he gets home after a long day at work but that is when Olivia is just getting geared up for some serious playtime. She lets out the funniest squeal/scream when he comes in the door from work and that makes him feel good. She seems to save up all of her energy for playing after dinner is over, when we all want to wind down for the day she is just raring to go.

Olivia and Jenny have a lot of fun together. Olivia is getting more rambunctious and playful everyday so there is more Jenny can do with her and they really have a good time.

Between 8:30 - 9:00 pm Olivia is finally settling down and is ready for night-night. She always goes down for the night or nap times without any problem. We have maintained a routine everyday which really seems to work well for all of us.


All this wild playtime really helps her sleep soundly through the night and she usually doesn't get up before 7:30 or 8:00 in the morning. It is such a blessing that I can stay home with her and she can sleep as long as she wants and only get up when she is ready.


She has more fun with us and we have more fun with her everyday.

GO PACK GO !

How about those Packers! What a great weekend of football. This family does not like winter so we are usually hibernating as much as possible until Spring and the sun comes back so it was nice to have the playoff games to watch this weekend. It is always more exciting when the Packers do so well. I'm not sure how, but somehow, somewhere Olivia learned how to point and yell her babble at the TV. Can't imagine where she gets that from??

She went in for her 18 month checkup and immunizations today. She is perfectly healthy and growing normally. I don't have a lot of faith in the accuracy of measuring her weight and length though. This time they tell me she only went from 22 lbs. since her last checkup to 22 lbs., 12 oz. but she grew 3 inches??? Oh well, even though I think they are off there, she is growing normally and continues to be very healthy in every way.

We are looking forward to some good games this weekend and hopefully the Packers will make it to the Super Bowl. Keep your fingers crossed!!

More Pictures I Couldn't Resist

Before Christmas came, whenever Olivia was smiling she would stop as soon as I would bring out any kind of camera. Now, ever since Christmas,
she has really learned how to "ham it up" and actually smile and pose for pictures. Then, since we usually use the digital camera, she immediately has to run over to see how her picture turned out. Here she is posing on Uncle Bob and Aunt Cindie's fireplace.

For Christmas she did get her own fake camera and, of course, cell phone so she can play with them instead of always trying to get her hands on the real ones.

Yes, Uncle Bob has a bear rug that Olivia liked to look at but was not to sure about touching it. I was lucky to get this picture though with her pretty close to it. They are both showing off their mouth's full of teeth.

Here she is with one of her cousins, Alex. She had everyone holding her this day and they all seemed to enjoy it as much as she did.

Pictures from the Pitz Christmas

We celebrated Christmas with the Pitz side on Sunday, December 30.
We were at Bob (Steve's Brother) and Cindie's beautiful house and had a wonderful time.
Again we ate way too much food and spent the day catching up with family that we don't get to see very often.

Most of the family there had not seen Olivia since Kyle's confirmation party in August, when she was still running around in her walker.

I thought she would be a little shy at first since she has not seen these people for a long time and probably wouldn't remember a lot of them. I was wrong, when she sees a crowd, she immediately starts working it. She finds the people she figures will most surely pick her up with just one "up-um" request. Of course, everyone falls for it every time and she gets carried around as much as she wants to.

She will go by anyone and insist they look at the new toys she just opened. The hardest part was keeping her from the open staircase but otherwise she was very comfortable strolling around visiting all day and we all had a really great time.

Thanks for everything Bob and Cindie!!

More Christmas Pictures

Here are more pictures from Christmas Day. Check back in a day or two for pictures from the Pitz family Christmas get-together which happened this past Sunday, December 30.
Happy New Year everyone!!
Olivia is the youngest member of the Manning side so she was promoted to the gift hand-er-out-er. She loved it and also had the big job of throwing all the paper into the garbage bag. She slept really well that night.












Olivia really likes "Elmo" right now so she got an Elmo chair from Aunt's Nancy and Lynn, a life-size Elmo from Grandma Manning, Elmo slippers from sister Jenny and a little Elmo for her bed came from Santa Claus. She loves all of them.