Christmas Eve

This year the Watson's hosted Christmas Eve at their home.  I think Lee may have started a tradition last year by making lasagnas for dinner, so, he did it again this year!  They were delicious!  The whole family was able to be there except for the NC Baileys, but we had a great time.  

Christmas Eve was also Olivia's 8 month birthday, so a little photo shoot was an order!

After the photo shoot, it was time for Olivia to eat her dinner!  This did not go over too well because there were SO many distractions.  All good ones though!

After Olivia enjoyed what she ate of her dinner, it was time for pajamas!  Our little Santa Baby stole the show!

Nana and Papa with Santa Olivia

Olivia with Aunt Helen

Sarah with Olivia

Cole being so sweet with Olivia

 Time for presents!

Bob's new weight bench

Cole opening his Woody doll!  He LOVED it

Cole and Jaci

Opening my Pandora bracelet from Danielle!

 What a great Christmas Eve!  It was a late night for Olivia but she was such a great sport and slept so well.  Stay tuned for the Christmas Day post!!!

The Big Man....

Saturday was the annual Children's Holiday Party at Noblis so Lee, Andrew, Olivia and I hopped in the car and headed into the office...on a Saturday!  It was worth it though.  It was a nice treat to have Andy, Maureen and Adam join us as well!  It was a great opportunity for Adam to visit with Santa too!  We got there right when the party started.  Our cafeteria was transformed into a Winter Wonderland....filled with Christmas cheer! 

Tons of gingerbread men, sugar cookies and other sugary treats were available for the taking along with plenty of coffee and hot chocolate complete with marshmallows!  All the kids were having a ball making crafts, getting their faces painted, and, of course, telling Santa what they want for Christmas! 

Adam is at the age where strangers don't really do anything for him, even if it's Old St. Nick himself!  Lee managed to snap a few pictures before he really wanted nothing to do with the situation.

Olivia isn't really worried with strangers at this point, so we didn't have an issue with her meeting Santa.  Although, she really didn't smile, Lee managed to get some good shots of her.  Santa said to me "Can I keep this one?"  To that, I said, politely, "no"!  It actually took him a while to give her back to me.  I felt bad because I felt we were holding up the line with all the other anxious kids waiting, but, hey, it was the first time she met him.  I'm not sure what she asked for but I'm sure it was something good!

There were some pretty neat paintings that you could stick your head through and take pictures, so we decided to give it a try.

 

We had a really fun time and Olivia was great the whole time!  She has been coughing a lot and has had a runny nose for a few days, so we were very proud of her for being so good!

Fun times!  Can't wait for next years' party!  Hopefully Olivia will be excited to see Santa, but something tells me we'll have a scared little girl on our hands.  We'll see!!!  Merry Christmas everybody!

BIG Weekend

This weekend was a "BIG" weekend for Olivia.  The reason I say it that way is because she is becoming such a big girl!!!  We changed her car seat, so now she's in a big girl car seat!  Mainly because mommy just couldn't carry the bucket up the stairs anymore!  Oh, and she's so tall, her feet were hanging off the end!  Her first ride in her new seat was on Saturday when we drove out to Fairfax for a birthday party for a friend's daughter. 

Side Note:  The party we attended was at the home of the owner of Merrifield Garden Center.  Needless to say, the home was absolutely gigantic and gorgeous.  Complete with 2 pool tables, a ping-pong table, an arcade, a theater with seating for 15, a gym (that was all in the lower level.  There were 3 more levels to go....we got a brief tour of the house but didn't come close to seeing all of it.  But I digress.....

Sunday morning, Olivia and I took a trip to Target!  After reading a lot of reviews on the shopping cart cover we got for her, apparently it doesn't fit well on Target shopping carts.  So, instead of fiddling with it, I decided to just take the BOB and put her in it facing forwards like a big kid!!

She had a great time!!  She kept looking up and back at me and giggling!  I can't believe how fast she's growing!!

Fun at School!

Today, Olivia's teacher, Miss Belissa, snapped a bunch of pictures of all the kids and emailed them to all the parents.  Here are a bunch of pics of our little princess enjoying her day at school!!!

Ok, carry on!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

I'm finally getting around to writing about our Thanksgiving weekend!  I'll start with the not-so-fun part of the week.  Last Monday, we came home from work and smelled the wonderful aroma of gas in our house....Awesome!  So, Lee called the gas company and I took Olivia over to Grandma and Grandpa's to feed her and hang out until we knew what was up.  Turns out, there was a leak in the furnace, and a possible leak in the hot water heater.....SO....they turned off the gas to those two appliances and put service calls in for both.  I put Olivia to bed and headed home to get our things to spend the night.  Lee stayed at the house that night.  We got up Tuesday morning and I dropped Olivia off at school and I went to work, same as usual!  When we got home from work Tuesday, it was rather chilly in the house, so we packed for the night and for the Wintergreen trip and we all went over to mom and dad's to spend the night.  We are very lucky to have mom and dad so close AND they are fully stocked up for an overnight with a baby!  Crib, tub, highchair, bottle warmer, bottle brush, exersaucer, etc. etc. etc......makes it so easy!!

Wednesday morning, we got up and Lee came home to pack up his stuff and take Farley to the vet where he would spend a few days while we went up to the mountain.  After dropping Farley off, he headed back to pick us up and we were on our way!  Wintergreen here we come!!  Last year was the first year since I was about 4 years old that I did not spend Thanksgiving on the mountain, so it was great to be back up there this year! 

It was a pretty easy drive with a little congestion in the Charlottesville area, but, all in all, uneventful!  Olivia was a great passenger with only 5 minutes of crying.  Perfect!  We got to the house and unpacked all the things we brought and settled in for the two day vacation!   We dressed Olivia in a new outfit with boots given to her from her BFF Vivien!  They were too small for Vivs, so Olivia benefited!

Ok, she's not happy, but she is stylish!

 The Thanksgiving festivities began when mom brought out our Thanksgiving gifts!  Yes, Thanksgiving gifts.  This was a tradition she started a few years back in order to give us ornaments and decorations we can enjoy for the whole holiday season!  I got a wonderful candle and ornament, but Olivia was spoiled with some Christmas PJs, Christmas socks and a wonderful recorded book, "Twas the Night Before Christmas", read by Grandpa and Grandma!  We have "read" it a few times and she is mesmerized by the voices of her grandparents.  She loves it!  Adam had gotten one read by Grandpa a while back and also received a Christmas one, "Frosty the Snowman", read by Grandpa and Grandma!  He LOVED it....particularly the "thumpity thump thump" part.  He listened to that a FEW times  :) 

Maureen and Andy prepared dinner Wednesday night.  Wonderful spaghetti and meatballs were enjoyed by all!  Adam even got in on that! 

Thanksgiving morning was typical....parade and all!  Maureen's favorite part of the day!  One difference this year was that Lee made the turkey!  He started brining it on Tuesday and it was good and ready to roast on Thursday morning.  So, he and mom were busy in the kitchen getting stuff ready to go in the oven while the kids were playing with Grandpa!

While Olivia was enjoying her lunch, the light was hitting her eyes just right, so Lee snapped a pic!

After lunch it was time to take the whole family up to the playground for some fun and pictures!  It was a little chilly out, so we didn't stay long, but we all had a blast!

The cold got to us all so we headed back to the house.  The smell of turkey was in the air!!  Almost time to eat!!

Adam is saying "Cheers" with his sippy cup!

 Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!  Now, on to CHRISTMAS!!!