Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving, 2008!!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving again this year. Everyone was able to make it to Grandma and Grandpa Manning's house for an early afternoon meal. There was so much good food and a lot of fun. It's so great to get together with everyone and Thanksgiving is a nice holiday to visit and relax without the commotion at Christmastime, although Christmas is always fun too just more hectic. I think Olivia will have so much fun at Christmas and we are really looking forward to it.

Olivia had a great time with all of her aunts, uncles and cousins. She is always shy for the first few minutes but warms up really fast and played-played-played. Since we ate early in the afternoon she missed her usual nap but kept going all day long.
She even got her usual second wind after dinner and ran around the house nonstop like she usually does at home. Poor Aunt Nancy had to keep running with her playing red-light, green-light. Olivia rarely recognizes a red light command. She did slow down to a walk for a few paces when Nancy tried to do a yell0w-light but then Olivia just squealed "faster, faster" and kept on running. It was hilarious to watch but exhausting for Nancy.
Olivia loves to see all of her cousins and they are all so good to her. She keeps going and going from one to the next and they all seem to enjoy playing with her.

There wasn't much luck this year with the deer hunting. Steve, Kyle and Jenny only brought home three small deer but it was Jenny's very first year for deer hunting and she did shoot her very first deer on Thanksgiving morning. Congratulations Jenny!!

Thanks Grandma and Grandpa from all of us for a great day again!

Eleanor!

We got together with Marilyn, Eleanor and Wesley again and this time they made the trip up to our house for the day. The girls were so cute together again. Eleanor is always happy and smiling, very friendly little girl. I think they remember each other pretty well because they warmed up and started playing together not long after they arrived. Olivia is still a couple inches taller than Eleanor and weighs a couple pounds more. They are so different in many ways but so much the same in more ways. Eleanor can say her ABC's and count to 10 just like Olivia and they both know the same songs. The difference is Olivia learns these things at home and Eleanor goes to day care and learns a lot of things. They do look a lot different though with Eleanor's black, very straight hair and Olivia's wavy brownish-blackish hair.

Grandma Manning came over to visit too and when we asked Eleanor a question she started off her answer exactly like Olivia with "Uumm" and then her answer. It was so funny. Both girls are so well behaved.
Usually each one sits in a high chair for meals but we had Wesley in Olivia's high chair for lunch and I tried the girls at Olivia's little table. They sat there so good, shoveling in the chicken nuggets, peas, bread and of course cheese. After they ate they both chose ice cream over cookies for dessert. I let the video recorder sit and run on them while they ate. They are going to love watching these videos when they are older. They are both so cute and funny. They are both very well mannered, neat and tidy, especially when eating.

After they filled their bellies to the top with ice cream there was more time for playing before we had to say goodbye again and they had to head for home for a much needed nap for everyone. We spent a little time watching what was videotaped and you can see it playing in the background of this picture.

It's always fun to get together with them and see how Eleanor and her baby brother Wes are growing and changing. We can't wait to see them again soon!

A New Friend

Or should I say new friends.... We reintroduced Olivia and Emma on Tuesday. Emma is almost 2 years old and lives not far from us. She also has a little brother Cody that is only about 3 months now. We are going to try to get the girls together once a week to help them learn how to share and get along with other kids. They did pretty well this first time at our house. Olivia never puts up much of a fight for toys and likes to hang back to see what is going to happen. Emma went through all her toys and was very excited with all the "new" stuff for her to play with. Olivia was much more interested in Cody though. She loved holding the baby and kept saying "so cute". He is a very good baby and smiled all the time so she really enjoyed that.

Emma and Cody's mom stays home with them also so we are anxious to get the girls out among other kids instead of just hanging with us all the time. Hopefully Olivia and Emma will become good friends as they are growing up.

Next week we will try to get to their house for a few hours of play, fight or whatever transpires.

Tomorrow, Wednesday, we get to play at our house again when Marilyn brings Eleanor and baby Wesley! Watch for more pictures from that play date.

More Partying.....More Sugar Highs

Olivia's cousin Chad was confirmed this past Sunday so that called for more partying. It was also trick-or-treating in their town so her cousins Michelle and Kaitlyn wanted to take her. It was a beautiful afternoon for it except for the occasional rain drop. Olivia had so much fun with the girls and they actually got her to say trick-or-treat and thank you at the doors rather than in between houses.

Later she had to go through all of her candy and get filled up on a sugar high with Aunt Nancy. That's when she really starts to show off. We all had a great time though and I think Olivia was asleep as soon as I covered her up in her bed that night. Thanks for a great time Aunt Lynn!!

Check out that smile, do you think she loves playing with her cousins??

More Halloween Parties

Olivia is getting a lot of use out of her costume this year. Our neighbors, a couple houses up the street from us, had a Halloween party on Saturday night. The invitation said costumes were "mandatory". So we figured since they were going through the trouble of throwing a party we would make the effort to dress up.
Steve and I rented our costumes and Jenny put hers together herself. Of course, Olivia is used to getting her kitty costume on.
The party was fun, they had a big play room just for the kids with toys and they even had a pinata. Olivia knew all about that from the adoption picnic a couple months ago and she kept pointing to herself and saying "you hit, you hit". She did get a couple good swings in but a bigger girl finally broke it. She also knew there was candy to be had when it broke (as if she needs more candy). The hosts also had gift bags put together for all the kids. We had a really nice time and it was fun to see all the different costumes.

Happy Halloween Birthday Aunt Lynn!

Aunt Lynn's 29th (??) birthday was on Friday and she and Aunt Nancy both were off of work, the kids were out of school so we all decided to go celebrate by meeting for breakfast. Since it was also Halloween I figured Olivia should get as much use out of her costume as possible. The waitresses were all dressed up too so that kept her attention for a while.
We had a really nice time and visited for about two hours. Olivia kind of quietly sang part of the happy birthday song for her Aunt Lynn.

On the way home we had to stop in and check on Aunt Nancy's kittens again. They are now 6 weeks old, so cute and getting more playful.


Hope you had a great Halloween Birthday Lynn!!