Sweet face of baby contest and Florida vacation

Olivia's sweet 1 year old face was the poster child for a photographer's blog recently. Laura Brett who is an amazing photographer that recently relocated to Atlanta and is doing a cute baby contest used a photo she took of Olivia in the blog entry. I'm so proud of my cute kid!!

We also went to Sarasota, Florida for a few days to visit my parents who are down there for 2 weeks this past weekend. We all had a great time! Olivia went on a cruise and we saw dolphins. We fed flamingos and herons. We had her strapped in her car seat for 2 11 hour drives and very few short stops. She did so great with very few mini melt downs. Her naps were also completely off schedule and her bedtime as pushed back every night. And in all the chaos she really was a little trooper. She did love the beach very much and we couldn't keep her out of the sand. Every time she walked out of our condo she would take off directly to the beach to get in that sand.

Snow, snow and more snow

We have had 3 snow storms now in the past 3 weeks. I used to love getting snowed in and missing work. But, lately it has been way too often and way too much snow for our neck of the woods. It was beautiful and Olivia loved it all! Even if the first snow she couldn't walk in it since it was 10 inches deep.

Happy New Year!

Wow! 2010 has arrived. Still can't believe it.

This year I am going to try to work on my photography skills and improve them each day by taking a new photo every day in the new year. 365 days and I will take 365 photos (at least). Here is what I got today and yesterday of Olivia playing. She was so excited to get outside for the first time in days since its been freezing here this week.

Its been so long...

I can't believe how long its been since I've updated here. Alot has happened since August. Olivia turned 1 on September 13th. She is walking now and into everything! I also had her picture made for her one year birthday. Here is a link to the photographer's blog with a few of the shots. And the some more of them. I drove 3 hours to meet this amazing photographer cause I saw her photos online and thought she was one of the best I had seen that specialized in babies. I think she did a fantastic job and I couldn't have asked for more.

Olivia had her 1st birthday party on her big day, the 13th and it turned out just right! The weather was perfect and we had it by the lake, the same place we had our wedding rehearsal dinner almost 2 years before.

Almost One!

My little girl will be 11 months old tomorrow. She is crawling like crazy very quickly, pulling up on everything and cruising up and down the furniture. Her word of choice these days is Mama and she says it repeatedly to me and for me all day. It is so sweet! She waves, gives kisses to everyone including the dog (who kisses her back!) She loves storytime at night with her Daddy who reads her several books before bed in her room every night. We also roll a ball back and forth with her.

Here are some of my favorite random photos of the past 6 weeks.

Olivia's 1st vacation

We went on vacation the first week of June to Florida. Everyone had such a great time.

It wasn't as relaxing as vacations used to be and we were in pretty early every night, but nonetheless, I had an awesome time!

Olivia went on her first airplane flight and loved looking out the window and squealing really loud and embarrassing mommy! This was her first time at the beach, she put sand in her mouth in the first couple of seconds we were there.

Getting older

Well, me and Olivia are getting older. I turned 30 on May 22nd and Olivia is almost 9 months old. Where has this past year gone??

Olivia is now sleeping in her crib, one night she even went 8 hours in a row! She is VERY close to crawling, she gets on her hands and knees but isn't sure what to do next. She took swim lessons and loved every minute of being in the water. She now says, "Mama" and I think she knows the name belongs to me. She says it repeatedly when she wants me to hold her or get her out of whatever she is in.

I got a new camera for my birthday and I have taken about 1,000 new photos of Olivia. Here are some of the highlights from the past few weeks.