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!)

Play Dates

Olivia is acquiring a social life now. We had started getting together with Emma and her little brother Cody and Mom Joanna on Wednesday's a couple months ago. Then a playgroup started up at our church/school. Of course, they also scheduled their play days on Wednesdays. We all started going to this right before the holidays and it turned out to be a lot of fun. Both Olivia and Emma really seem to enjoy going to the school, meeting and playing with other kids and all the toys. Joanna and I both really felt the girls needed some socializing with other kids to learn sharing and getting along. They are both doing great and we enjoy visiting with the other mothers and the director of the playgroup too. It goes from 9:30 to 11:00 every Wednesday so it works out perfect for getting home for lunch and nap and Olivia is looking forward to it each week.
We also altered our days of just us getting together so on Monday's we will be switching off going to each others house so the girls get an extra day to play together. This week it was at our house and I think we can see a difference in the girls each time they get together. It has been really good for them. Since this has been such a difficult winter it is nice to have these activities when you don't spend any time outside. I'll try to get some pictures from the school playgroup and post them also. I have also set aside one morning each week for Olivia and I to bake something in the kitchen together. She loves to help and is very neat about everything so it is pretty fun. Last week we made a coffee cake and this week I think will be chocolate chip cookies (or tooties). I'll get some pictures of that too!

(Tea party with the tea set Santa brought for her.....thanks for the extra chair aunt Lynn--told you we would use it!!)

Happy New Year 2009!!

Happy New Year!!

We stayed home on New Year's Eve but spent the first day of 2009 at Aunt Lynn and Uncle Jody's house.

One more big party of the season. Olivia once again had a great time partying with everyone and came home exhausted again so it was a good way to start the year.

Now we can look forward to the days slowly getting longer and springtime in the future when we can come out of hibernation again.

Thanks Lynn for a great time at your house.

I've included these cute pictures from Christmas Day just for my record.

This was Olivia's favorite gift from Santa....her guitar.

Each year I am giving her ornaments to remember what she was into during the year. Tis year she really learned to like "The Wizard of OZ" movie, or as she puts is "Wiza Bops". So she got a Wiza Bops ornament for 2008.

We all wish everyone a happy, healthy and blessed 2009!!