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!!

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.