This is what happens when...

... you let daddy and Olivia decorate cookies for Santa.

No words needed!

Seriously... this picture makes me laugh really hard!

Ho Ho Ho

Well... it is official! Olivia does not like that Santa man. She cried a little but mostly just kept looking at him and then looking at me then back at him!

A Year in Review

One Month

Two Months

Three Months

Four Months

Five Months

Six Months
Seven Months

Eight Months

Nine Months

Ten Months

Eleven Months
ONE Year Old

The Big Day!

Olivia's first birthday party was an amazing day. Our family all gathered (crammed) into our home to help us celebrate the joy that Olivia has brought to us this past year. Of course I had to have a theme... Winter ONEderland! Snowflakes hung from the ceiling and the Snowman Soup (hot chocolate) was fully stocked.

The invitation. Although I would like to take credit for this I am going to have to say that Auntie Jen may have helped a teeny tiny bit.

Grab your hat and mittens

It's time for winter fun.

Snowflakes, sledding and presents

Olivia's turning ONE!

Some of the yummy food!

Snowflake cupcakes

The Penguin Cupcakes

The alien snowman cookies

Chocolate covered snowballs

Olivia's special cake for her to destroy.

And destroy it she did...

All in all in was a wonderful day! We can hardly believe that our baby will be ONE tomorrow!

Christmas and One Year Pictures

I can not believe how big she is getting!

More fun with the Bologna's

One of our favorite things to do is hang out with our friends the Bologna's. Our gilrs are only three months apart and we love watching them discovering new things together. So once again we embarked on an adventure to Holiday Nights at Greenfield Village. It was freezing and Olivia had a melt down that may be the worst melt down she has ever had but we still managed to have some fun... although the picture taking was a bit less than usual. The Ballard's can harly wait for our next Ballard/Bologna adventure!

The girls all bundled up.

Group Shot!

Fascinated!

Olivia is fascinated by the Christmas lights. If our tree is not lit up she will stand by it and clap her hands until we plug it in then she says "oooo...".

No words needed!

This is the one...

This is the one I want daddy! It's perfect!

Build a Bear

Grandma decided that it would be great fun to take all the grandkids to Build a Bear the day after Thanksgiving to make a cuddly friend. It was quite an adventure! Olivia choose a cute monkey to take home with her.

Olivia helping stuff her monkey- she did not like that loud machine!

Adding the heart!
Giving her Monkey a bath!

Helping mommy make her monkey's birth certificate. We named him BANANAS!

Grandma and the kiddos and their new friends! This was take like 50!
Thanks Grandma!!!

Kissing Cousins!

Simon goes in for the kill and Olivia give the classic "you gotta be kidding me" look.

A New Way to Ride

Well.. the big change has happend. No more sweet little baby car seat. We have moved on to the big car seat... the big girl car seat. I admit I got a bit misty eyed while putting her in it this morning.

Even Princesses Have Bad Days

First Taste of Winter

Literally! Olivia had her first taste of fresh Michigan snow today. Of course she loved being outside even if it was snowy and cold. Looks like we are going to have a fun winter with our little snow bunny!

11 Months Old!

Wow!!! Eleven months old already! Look at how big our girl is getting. She is changing so much and learning so many new things it is hard to keep our eyes off of her. She has 4 little teeth that are cute as be, her first steps are only days away and she is slowly taking herself off of baby food. She is growing up into a toddler! She has a great sense of humor and loves to play games. The magnets on the fridge are the current obsession so we spend lots of time on the kitchen floor taking magnets off and putting them back on the fridge. She absolutely LOVES other kids and has so much fun going to school everyday. Only one more month until we have a ONE YEAR OLD on our hands. Happy 11 months sweetie pie! We love you!