A Fun Filled Week!!

Olivia @ Nora's Birthday Party
Having fun with the balloon that ended up in the trees.

Olivia and Lauren as Curious George

Princess Olivia

Daddy and his little princess!

Olivia and Zoe at the FCC Christmas Party

Daddy, Olympic Mascot, Mommy & Olivia @ the FCC Christmas party.

Olivia and Santa Claus

Olivia and Santa in 2007
Olivia and Santa in 2006

It is amazing the difference a year makes.

Olivia got her picture taken with Santa Claus this past Wednesday at church but I could only order pictures and not receive a cd of the pictures so we had to go shopping so we stopped by Santa and got a picture taken and bought the cd. She did so good both times. I talked up Santa in a very positive light and she went straight to him with no problem. Peter and I were so proud of our baby girl.

Oops! She did it again!!

Last night Olivia locked me out of the house... again! The first time was some time last year and I wrote about it on our website. This time was much worse. I walked out to the garage to put another trash bag in Olivia's diaper pail. I was going to take Olivia with me but the pail is right outside the door so I didn't. Once I finished putting the trash bag in I turned to open the door and it was locked. The minute I said Olivia she started crying. She knew what she did. The more I tried to get her to open the door the more she cried and screamed. My imagination ran a little wild because for a minute I thought someone was in the house doing something to her which was not the case. Peter was not at home and I don't know his cell phone or work phone by memory because the numbers are in my cell phone . I actually thought about running to the church but I didn't want to leave Olivia alone that long and it would be futile to go to one of the neighbors house since I didn't know Peter's phone numbers and the church office was closed. I tried to get into the backyard because there are windows in the back and she would be able to see me and open the door to the patio but the padlocks on the gates were locked. Go figure. I get back to the back door and Olivia is screaming at the top of her lungs. I am so upset by this point I am about to cry. I try to get her to open the door again and she finally succeeded. Thank God!!! After I got in I picked her up and she cried on my shoulder for a minute and then she got down and started playing. I'm glad she could forget about it that easy because Mommy's heart was still racing.

This morning I asked her if she locked Mommy out of the house last night and she said, "Yes." and then I asked her if she was going to go that again and she said, "No." Good answer!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Daddy, Olivia & Mommy
Mommy & Olivia
Keaton, Natalie, Jason & Davis
MeMaw & PawPaw
Daddy, Olivia & Mommy
Rapper's Olivia YoYo and PawPawPaw

Pappasito's

This past Saturday we met my mom, dad, brother, s-i-l and nephews at Pappasito's for lunch. The last time we had all gotten together was at Olivia's birthday in June. It was great to see everybody.

Jared, Justin, Olivia & Joel
Joel & Olivia
Poppy, Olivia & Mo

Mayan Ranch!

Brianna & Olivia

Olivia & Lily

We went to the Mayan Ranch with our adoption agency this past weekend and had a great time! There were about 7 or 8 families from our adoption agency plus several members of the family that started the agency. The families that attended had Chinese; Vietnamese; Guatemalen and Russian children and the oldest was around 10 years old and the youngest 10 months. Olivia found a friend (Lily) the day we got there and they had a lot of fun. Lily is 3 years old and is from China and she has a sister, Jasmine, that is 5 years old and is also from China. The girls ran around and played until they pooped out. Brianna and her family got to the ranch late that night so we didn't see them until breakfast the next morning. The girls got to ride two ponies; go on hayrides and just have a great time.

I went horse riding while Olivia and Peter took a nap on Saturday. Peter and I also go to sit on a steer named "Oreo". To get to our breakfast and dinners we all piled on a flatbed with hay on it and rode to eat. There were people visiting the ranch from many different countries. I couldn't believe that people would travel such a long way to go to a dude ranch in Bandera TX. There were families from Norway; Denmark; England and other countries but I never got a chance to ask where they were from. It was defininitly a melting pot of people especially when you add all of our kids. I would go back but as long as Olivia had someone to play with.

Brooke

Cute pictures!!

We are going to the Mayan Dude Ranch this weekend for the annual Los Nino's (our adoption agency) get together. We are excited. Brianna and her family will be there as well. Check out their website http://www.mayanranch.com/

Our little monkey!!

Gymnastics

Olivia started gymnastics about 5 weeks ago and loves it. Everytime we get in the car she asks if we are going to "nastics". Enjoy the pictures.

Houston Zoo

We went to the Houston Zoo this morning and had a great time. Olivia really enjoyed seeing all of the animals. She was a little timid at first and then she realized there was either glass or a fence in between her and the animals. So from then on she would put her hands on the glass and tried to climb the fences. I think her favorites were the elephants, giraffes and monkeys. We had to leave the giraffes as soon as the "daddy" giraffe started getting frisky with the "mommy" giraffe. I think she is a little young to witness the mating rituals of the giraffes. We stayed at the zoo for about 2 hours and she did great walking just about the entire time. She is getting to be very independent and always wants to do things herself. Hopefully the weather will be getting cooler so we can start doing fun things on the weekends.

Pictures!!

Too cute!

Me & Mommy at the pool!!

I want you!!

Getting ready for the pool!!

I like the beach!

I'm a princess!

Diva in training!

Strike a pose!

First day of school!

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!!