February...part 1

The first week of Febrary, Olivia and I packed up and headed to Oregon for a fun and family-filled vacation. We were sad to leave Alex behind, but he had to work and I wasn't passing up a $100 round trip ticket! Olivia was quite a help in packing, as you can see, but I wasn't smart and procrastinated packing until she was awake, so I just let her play in the suitcase and hoped she didn't take out anything crucial :).

Flight days are always a little funny for us, because we have to sit so much, but I also want Olivia to be in nice clothes, so this is the standard morning activity...pajama-clad walks and playing outside as much as we can handle.

We were in Oregon for 8 days, so we split the time and spent the first four with the Casqueiros, and the second four with the Johnsons. This worked out really well, and prevented a lot of driving back and forth between Salem and Corvallis. It was a little weird to call my mom to tell her that we landed in Portland and have to say 'I'll see you in a few days' though!

We had a blast staying busy throughout the week, and as usual, I was horrible about taking pictures. Here are a few from the park with Andy, Ashley, and Mary in Salem. We also went out to visit Great-grandparents in Silverton, and spent a day shopping in Woodburn. As usual, Olivia made out very well on the shopping trip :), baby clothes are just TOO cute! We also had a fun family get-together/pizza night where Olivia got to play with her cousins - Tyler and Aiden are so patient and slow down their playing enough to make her feel included every time we see them. Hopefuly she will be able to stay up to speed before too long!

On Saturday afternoon Andy drove us down to Philomath where I was surprised by the decor in my room! My dad and cousin Jared have been working very hard on the 'Wizard of Oz room', complete with a rainbow painted on the wall and full size cut-outs of some of the major characters. We had a lot of fun in our fairy tale for the week!

The girls (Emily, my mom, and I) had tickets to an a cappella concert in Eugene, so Olivia had her first non-family babysitting experience, which I understand to have been quite a fun night. My wonderful friend Bethany watched Olivia until my dad was able to pick her up, and he successfully put her to bed! Honestly, I wasn't at all surprised that Bethany and her mom Lisa were wonderful people to watch her, but my dad's bedtime was more of a surprise :). He is usually quite content to do the playing with grandchildren and leave the diapers and changing and bedtimes to grandma and the moms. He was a lifesaver, as we didn't get home until after 11, and I was very glad to have a sleeping baby.

The next morning we went to church with my parents. I was so glad to have an opportunity to put Olivia in this beautiful dress, and of course I took way too many pictures. All she wanted to do was play in the dirt, as any little lady would of course, but I still think a few pictures came out quite well :).

That evening, I was sitting on the couch, with Olivia playing behind me, when suddenly I hear her babbling away. I turned around and found her 'reading' this lego instruction book to the cat, who was sitting outside the door. It was the sweetest thing, but the video I got was a little too late.

We stayed busy during our time with my side of the family as well, with a trip through Corvallis to show Olivia off to a couple past employers, and most importantly, a trip to the Oregon Coast Aquarium. Major failure on my part to not take a SINGLE picture there, but it was a great time, and Olivia really liked exploring and finding all the animals. She was really into the touch pool, until she touched a sea urchin, then she wouldn't go near it again...I guess she learned fast about that one! If I'm remembering correctly, her favorie part was watching the penguins (alright some penguin relative that I have no idea what the name is). She would watch them waddle up, then duck down to watch under water to see them swimming...loved it.

We totally loved our whole trip, and are very sad that it will be four months (okay 2.5 now) until we get to see Oregon and our family again.

When we got home, I had a little help unloading and organizing my purse...at least with my little helper, I never get too much junk accumulated!

We also got a family cold. Sick little ones are very sad for me, I'm not looking forward to the days of having more than one little one sick, or too many to hold when they want held. Olivia is actually quite a trooper, and really enjoys that when she is sick she gets to watch TV and have her plug (what we call the pacifier) whenever she wants. Normally it stays in bed, and if she wants it, she has to either nap or go to bed. Here's a pic of my little sickies...

The last pics are just kind of weird. I'm not a pregnancy belly picture taker. I always think that I will be, but honestly I don't love taking pictures of myself, I'd rather take them of Olivia (can you tell?), so I don't have very many belly pics from either pregnancy this far. However, I always see cute pictures online and want to replicate them, so here is my 13 week (end of 1st trimester) picture, which shows that baby #2 is the size of a lemon :).

And of course my little goofball who chewed through the lemon peel and got quite a sour surprise!