Sleepy Baby!

Olivia's favorite thing to do... sleep.

Smiley Girl!

I don't care what anybody says... Olivia smiles. It is not gas!

A Christmas Tradition

I am not sure when it exactly started but every year on the day after Christmas, the Koli family gets together to eat leftovers and pop some Christmas Crackers. What are Crackers, you ask? To be honest... I am not quite sure but every year we "pop" these festive favors open to see what goodies are inside. There is always a toy, a joke and our favorite part... a hat. Well... Olivia slept through all of the loud popping but she had her very own Cracker which daddy opened for her. I of course had to get a family picture with our hats. As you can imagine, Olivia's hat was a few sizes too big!

Christmas with the Koli's!

On Christmas Eve we ventured to Grand Rapids to spend Christmas with the Koli's. Although Olivia slept through all of Christmas she was spolied rotten with lots of presents and attention from Grandma and Grandpa, Auntie Jen, Uncle Joel and of course big cousins Anna and Simon.

The family!

Grandma with her grandkids.

Auntie Jen and Olivia

Mommy and Livy Lu (yes, we are wearing matching pajamas)!

Big cousin Anna and Olivia.

A vist with Santa

Yep... it is true. I dragged my week and a half old daughter out in the cold to see Santa and Mrs Clause. She slept through the whole experience.

Christmas with the Ballard Family!

On Saturday, December 22nd we celebrated the holidays with the Ballard clan. Olivia was able to meet all of her aunts and uncles and all of her 12 cousins.

Grandma and Grandpa Ballard

The kiddos!

Christmas Baby!

This is what mommy does while daddy is sleeping.

The perfect present for under the Christmas Tree!

The perfect stocking stuffer!

Christmas Family Picture!

This was quite the battle to get the perfect family picture that mommy was happy with.

Mommy and Daddy

Cuddles from Daddy!

Kisses from Mommy!

The Many Faces of Livy Lu!

All cute and kinda smiley face!

Grumpy and unamused with all the pictures face!

Sleepy face!

Kissy lips face!

Really mom... stop taking pictures and let me sleep face!

Pampering time!

Since Olivia had so much hair when she was born she was desperate for a good hair washing upon arriving home. So... here are a few pics of her first papmering time with mommy. She loved every minute of it! She is all girl!

Laying back and relaxing!

Drying off!

The Arrival of Ballard #3

Well... everyone has been bugging me to start a blog and I figured with the arrival of Miss Olivia Grace it would be a good time to start. So with that said...

Olivia Grace made her way into this world on December 14, 2007 at 7:13 a.m. After about 30 hours of labor and 50 minutes of pushing I was able to literally pull our daughter out and welcome her with lots of love and kisses. The labor experience was nothing that I can describe. By the grace of God (and a bit of a stubborn streak) I labored "all naturally." While sometimes I think I am crazy for doing it that way, I wouldn't change a thing. Olivia was born weighing 7 pounds and 7 ounces and measuring 21 inches long. She has long fingers, a full head of dark brown hair (compliments of mommy) and her daddy's eyes. She is perfect in every way.

We had lots of visitors at the birthing center who couldn't wait to love on Livy Lu (Olivia's nickname). Karen's parents and sister were in the birthing room when Olivia was born, Grandma and Grandpa Ballard (Ryan's parents), Joel (Karen'n brother-in-law), Anna and Simon (niece and nephew), Kathy and Dan (Ryan's sister and brother-in-law) and Brittany, Lincoln, Erica and Eric (friends from church).

The First Family Photo!

True Colors!

Showing off Mommy's hair and Daddy's eyes!

Dressed in pink and ready to go home!