Another Visit With Eleanor!

The girls are 2 years, 8 months old now and we were able to get together again on Thursday.

Grandma M, Olivia and I met Marilyn, Eleanor and Wesley (just turned 1 year) at Marilyn's parents home. It is kind of central for us and a lot easier for me to drive to rather than going down into the "big city" where Marilyn lives. Their home is very nice, warm, comfortable and you can't find nicer people. Eleanor's grandparents welcomed us into their home and we all had a great day.
The girls are a lot alike with their growing and learning and maturity. Olivia still stands an inch or two taller than Eleanor. Neither of them are very interested in using a potty chair, they talk the same and seem to be developing at the same rate. Both are very well mannered, polite, try to share like 2 year olds and the best part is when you can catch them babbling back and forth to each other in a toddler language only they can understand.

They colored together, played with stickers, puzzles, sewing and just general running around. They always seem to recognize each other and warm up fast even though we only get together every 3 or 4 months.

We had a great lunch and had a wonderful time visiting. Thanks again to Eleanor's grandparents for letting us invade their home. We hope to get together again very soon.

Happy Valentines Day 2009

Happy Valentines Day 2009.

We were busy all weekend with basketball tournaments and soccer games but Steve and I did manage to go out to dinner alone on Friday night, thanks to Grandma Manning coming over to take care of Olivia. Olivia gave Grandma a good workout again and is always anxious to see us go when Grandma gets here. She knows she has Grandma wrapped around her finger.

She is posing with her Valentine card from Aunt Lynn, Uncle Jody, Scott, Chad and Kate but we had to borrow the flowers from Jenny. Jenny got them from some of her friends at school. Olivia left an answering machine message for Aunt Lynn saying "Thank You" for the valentine card. We're wondering if you understood any part of her message?? She can talk very clearly when she wants to but on the phone she gets shy and not real clear.


Valentines Day is just one more holiday closer to SPRING!!

Early Spring? We Wish....

They said it was going to be 60 degrees on Tuesday! It was nice outside but the wind was still pretty chilly in the morning. We were desperate to get out of the house though so we took Blazer for a walk and pretended it was springtime.

The sun felt good and we all enjoyed it.


Olivia even pulled out her bike and rode around for a little while. She is still trying to get the hang of it and does the best when going down the hill of the driveway. She can reach the pedals now but needs some work on pedaling and steering at the same time. We will keep working on that.

We will take a nice sunny day whenever we can get it.

THINK SPRING!!

Fun Playgroup Pictures

Various pictures from our Wednesday playgroup...

Olivia really looks forward to this each week and I think it is fun too. It's a good way for her to learn how to play with other kids, share and get along. She does really well...she listens, plays well and is polite. She has never thrown a tantrum or cried over not getting along or not getting her way.... yet.

It's fun because she gets to try new things I either wouldn't think of doing with her or wouldn't want to bother with the mess at home like playing in flour or stringing beads on pipe cleaners, etc.

We all take a few minutes for snack time about half way through the playday. She is learning to protect her own snack from someone grabbing hers.

One day there were so many kids we spent the second half of the time in the gym with a parachute. Olivia LOVED that and just had a ball. When the parachute was put away she and a group of kids just kept running back and forth across the gym until they couldn't anymore. They would line up at one end and say "weady, set, GO! and then run to the other end. As Olivia was running past me she would yell, "Momma! see...I wun fast!!" and laugh and laugh.

What a great way to get a bunch of kids to take a good afternoon nap!

What A SUPER Bowl!!

What a great way to end a very busy weekend with the Steeler's winning the Super Bowl. It was such an exciting game right to the end.

Our busy weekend had started already on Thursday with parent's night for Kyle's wrestling. Then Friday began a basketball tournament for Jenny which continued through the day Saturday while at the same time a wrestling tournament went on all day Saturday also so we were running between schools trying to catch as much as we could.
Then Sunday was an hour drive to Jenny's indoor soccer game and we got home with enough time to get settled in before the Super Bowl started.
Obviously course we were all cheering for the Steelers but Olivia had other ideas. She pulled out all the stops trying to keep the focus and attention on her. She brought out all the toys she could from her room and kept spreading things out all over the floor. She also tried to bring all the noisy toys out to play with those. We were persistent with her though and told her we all for once just going to watch the game and she would not be the center of attention for a couple hours. She finally settled for having her picture taken with the "Terrible Towel". That made her feel more included and she also likes to have the towel tucked into her shirt like a cape and she can run around the room like a super hero.
After a few busy days and late nights today we can get finally get back into our regular routine and she can get all the attention once again.....(until American Idol is back on of course).

Happy 17th Birthday Kyle

Kyle turned 17 today and we had a nice dinner for him Sunday night. Unfortunately, Grandma and Grandpa Manning couldn't make this dinner this time. Grandma came down with the flu over the weekend and had to take a rain check. Olivia didn't know they had been planning on coming so she didn't know the difference anyway.

Kyle's choice for his birthday dinner was bacon wrapped tenderloins with baked potatoes and salad. Olivia can never think about eating a dinner when she knows there is chocolate cake with ice cream coming up. She also had to help blow out the candles of course.

It all turned out really good but does a teenager appreciate anything these days?? Pretty hard to tell. Oh well, guess we've got to face the fact that we have a lot of "teenage" years ahead of us. I'm guessing anyone out there with teenagers knows what I'm talking about.

Happy Birthday Grandpa!

Grandpa Manning's birthday is TODAY! But with so many things going on these days we celebrated yesterday. Olivia and I took a nice lunch over to Grandma and Grandpa's house (before the football games started). We also took cupcakes which Olivia helped me bake and frost the day before. She really loves to help me bake in the kitchen and it is fun for me too.
Although lunch was very good, Olivia didn't eat much because all she had on her mind were the cupcakes and blowing out the candles. Even though it was "Papa's" birthday she had to have her own candle to blow out too.
We had a really nice time and Olivia, as always, had a lot of fun. I think she has more energy every day. She is talking so much now too and can be so funny. We hope you enjoyed your lunch Grandma and Grandpa and had as much fun as we did!

Happy Birthday Grandpa!!

(GO STEELERS GO!)