Ready for the beach

We are going to Destin and Olivia is ready. She keeps telling me she wants to go to the beach. Please pray that "Dean" won't hit Florida while we are there. I still remember that 14 hour drive from Beaumont to Longview when we evacutated for"Rita". I don't ever want to go through that again.

More cute pictures!!

Buddha Belly Girl!!!

Taking an Elmo bubble bath!!

Sitting in Daddy's closet!!

Cute Pics!!

What's that??? & other Olivia funnies

What's that??? What's that??? What's that???

What's that is now Olivia's favorite words. I must say she is driving me a bit crazy with all of the questions. I will read her a book and she asks "What's that?" on every page. We will be watching PBS or Disney and she asks "What's that?"

Now on to the funny things she says. Last Sunday, Peter ran into the den laughing about something Olivia said.

Olivia got into his closet while he was putting his clothes away. He turns out all of lights and all of a sudden he hears, "Turn light on Daddy!" Peter just stands there for a second and she says again, "Turn light on Daddy!" So he turns the light on and then he hears, "Thank you!" He goes over to the closet and opens the door and she tells him to close the door back.

Later that afternoon, I cook us dinner so I tell Olivia to go tell Daddy that it is time to eat. So she runs off to find daddy. Peter comes into the kitchen and starts "beating" on me and saying, "Time eat, time eat, time eat." He told me that was what Olivia did when she found him. She started "beating" on him and saying, "Time eat time eat time eat".

Now here are a couple of things that will melt you heart. The week of Memorial Day she stayed with my Mom and Dad while Peter and I went to his conference. Mom was putting Olivia's stuff in the room she was going to be sleeping in and saw a picture of me and said, "Mommy!" That night while Olivia was sleeping in her little cot and my in the bed she(mom) heard Olivia whimpering and a strange noise. She looked down and saw that Olivia had taken my picture to bed and she was hitting her head on it while she was asleep. My heart melted when my mom told me that. Also the first time I talked to her on the phone that week the first thing Olivia said to me was "Hold me." She is such a sweet little girl. She tells Peter and I she loves us all the time and quite a few times without either one of us saying it first. Yesterday morning when I picked her up out of bed and walked down the stairs she patted my back and said "I yuv you mommy." Life doesn't getting any better than that!!

Brooke

Olivia at Mo & Poppy's house

Olivia's 2 year checkup

Olivia had her 2 year check up today. She is 32 1/2 inches tall; weighs 25 lbs and her head is 18 1/4 inches. She is in the 25% in weight for American kids and is in the 50% in height for American kids. The nurse also said she has a petite head. I always thought she had a big head. She is doing great!!! She has made all of her 24 month milestones and then some.

Olivia turns "2"

Olivia turned 2 yesterday and we had a little family party for her. My parents, my brother and his family and Peter's sister were here to celebrate Olivia's birthday. We had hamburgers, chips and cake. I ordered a Sesame Street cake on Friday and went to the party store and bought Elmo plates and hats. Then on Saturday I get a call from Randalls and they don't have anymore Sesame Street characters for the cake so I had to get a Mickey Mouse cake. Oh well. The cake was delicious and Olivia had a fun time!

Birthday Girl

Olivia's first major boo-boo!!

Yesterday Olivia scared the daylights out of me. I was in my closet getting clothes together to wash and all of a sudden I hear a loud cry. I run out of my closet and I find Olivia on her hands and knees at the base of the stairs. She didn't fall down the stairs but what I can tell she must of fell against the wooden base of the stairs. I was really afraid to look at her because I thought she would be bloody or her eyeball hanging out but none of that happened. She just has a nice egg on the corner of her eye. I put "dog dog" (a little ice pack) on her eye but she just screamed louder. It really upset me because it made me think what would I have done if she was bleeding badly. Would I have put her in the car and taken her to the emergency room or called an ambulance? I pray I never have to make that decision.

Brooke

The CheeseMeister

Everytime I want to take a picture of Olivia she will "cheese" me. She smiles real big and closes her eyes and says "cheese". I have tried to teach her to smile real big but to keep her eyes open. Here are just a few of my favorite "cheese" pictures. Enjoy!

Brooke

Birthday Party and Other Miscellaneous Info

I love cupcakes!!!

The Los Nino's Girls

Red Couch - 5/15/06

Red Couch - 6/2/07

Today we went to Brianna's (Olivia's orphanage mate)2nd birthday party and had a great time. Peter and I really don't get to see her interact with other children that much but today we had about 3 hours to watch her play with other children. She definitely sticks up for herself. If someone tries to take a toy she says, "NO!!!" and pulls the toy away but in the same respect she does try to take toys from other kids. She will play with other children but she tends to go off by herself and play. There was another little girl there that did the same thing. I wonder if it is just being an only child thing.

Well we are finally moved into the parsonage but of course we are not unpacked yet. I hope to be unpacked totally within the next week. The house is great but it tends to be a little damp. It has a flat roof so when it rains the roof holds water and plus there a lot of windows in this house. We have to keep the air conditioning quite low or it starts to get humid in the house. Thank goodness we don't have to pay the electricity bill. If we did we wouldn't be living here. Olivia and I walked to the park the other day and had fun. The neighborhood is great and I can't wait to start walking. Of course the best thing about living here is that the church is about 3 minutes away and so is my work. We are very blessed to be able to live in this house.

Olivia is talking up a storm. The minute either Peter or I leave the room she is asking, "Where did Mommy go?" or "Where did Daddy go?" One of my favorites things she asks for is food. She will say, "I want a cookie" and then I will say no then it is, "I want a biter bisquit" and then I will say no then it is, "I want a cracker" and then "I want a bar". I say no so she will go down her list of request. The other day we were at the mall and there was a dinosaur exhibit and she starts pointing to it and saying, "Dinosaur, dinosaur". Peter and I just look at each other because we have never talked about dinosaurs or even showed her pictures. I am sure it is from school but she just amazes us with the things she says. She is a little sponge.

She knows her name. I will ask her and she will tell me, "O wiv ia" It is so cute. Peter and I have been getting her ready for her second birthday by asking how old she is and to show her age. She will say, "I two" and try to show her two fingers. She is getting pretty good at it.

That is it for now. Mommy is tired. I will post pictures from her little family birthday party next week.

Take care!!
Peter, Brooke & Olivia

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!!

Olivia and I went to my mother's yesterday to spend Mother's Day with her. We got there around 11:00 and then we were off to the mall. We went to eat at Jason's Deli where we ran into two people we knew from Emmaus and one of my sixth grade teachers, Mrs. Coburn from Central Jr High. Mrs. Coburn was my favorite teacher of all times. Mom, Olivia and I shopped for a little while and it is truly amazing because my mom bought me clothes and not Olivia. Trust me that doesn't happen very often. Once we were finished shopping we went to see my Grandma. She was in a great mood and everytime she sees Olivia it is for the first time. She always says, "I didn't know Brooke had a daughter." Olivia will sit with her and grandma likes to love on her.

We got home and Olivia started waiting for Poppy. Every so often she would look at the door and say, "Poppy." She loves Poppy because he takes her outside. He finally arrived and she was ready to get her shoes on and go outside. Once I lathered her with sunscreen (it was very hot and sunny) they went outside to look for the rabbits and deer. Mom and I decided to go to the grocery store and get some wine and cheese. We were probably gone for about 30 minutes and during the time we were gone Poppy and Olivia did a little yard work. By the time we got home Olivia had red cheeks and was sweating. We got into the house and the first thing she did was go for her water. She was pooped but had a great time.

This morning we went to church with Mo. Olivia sat in church with us and was pretty good during the songs but once the sermon started she got a little antsy so we had to go out for a little while. It was nice because after the service some of the men had cooked breakfast for the mothers.

We headed back to Houston after the service and waited for Daddy to get home. Once Daddy got home Olivia gave me a beautiful mother + daughter necklace. It has twin pendants and the top is mother of pearl with Chinese characters for mother and daughter and then underneath is the English translation. It is exactly what I wanted.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY MEMAW !!!!!

Tired and Thirsty

Great-Grandma I love your beads!!

Four Generations

Happy Gotcha Day!!

Gotcha Day - May 8, 2006

June 2006

July 2006

August 2006

September 2006

October 2006

November 2006

December 2006

January 2007

February 2007

March 2007

April 2007

May 8, 2007

One year ago today Peter and I met our precious Olivia. I remember going into the room and Nelson told us it would be a few minutes but as soon as he said it the girls came in with their nannies. The nannies sat down with them and I knew which one was Olivia. It wasn't hard to figure out since there were only two of them. They sat there a few minutes while Nelson took our info so the director knew we were the right people and then the nannies stood up and handed Olivia to me. She didn't cry and it surprised me that I didn't either. We had waited so long for this baby girl. I gave her a little toy and she was fine. She just kept looking at me. Poor Brianna cried the entire time.

The whole process only took about five minutes. We had to leave because another set of babies were coming in from a different orphanage. We saw them as we were leaving the building. On the way back to the hotel Olivia fell asleep. Once we got her back to the hotel we just sat her on the bed and just looked at her in "ah". We couldn't believe after waiting for so long we finally had our baby.