Sunday Funday

We continued Olivia's birthday celebration Sunday with some family time. Oh, how I love having my family visit! It was a nice morning, so I decided that it was the perfect time to bust out O's new kiddie pool.

She was definitely a fan.




Of course, the pool is MUCH better when you have someone to share it with.


We also took the boat out for the first time this summer.



O's current favorite thing is to crawl in between things in tiny spaces. Troublemaker.


Monkeying around in the back yard. (Thanks Anfuso's for the fabulous outfit :)

Olivia is ONE!!!

I can't believe that our baby girl turned one year old this past weekend. People tell you that the first year will fly, and while there were days in the beginning that seemed to drag on forever, I can honestly say that I cannot believe how quickly her first year passed us by. Olivia has enriched our lives in countless ways. She is our little bundle of joy, and brings us so much happiness every single day. It's been an amazing journey so far, and I know that it will just keep getting better :).

For her first birthday, we decided to have a backyard bash with our closest family and friends. We lucked out with a gorgeous day spent with our favorite people! I feel so fortunate that O has so many wonderful people who love her so deeply.

My very favorite pic of our adorable birthday girl.

My sister-in-law Erin is the BEST photographer!

The details...


Some fun pictures of the day...



















O with 'Aunt' Tami & 'Uncle' Guy... these two helped us build our amazing house and we just adore them!


I was so excited for Olivia's birthday cake. I make a layer cake (from scratch) and figured that she'd dive right into it. Instead, the poor thing was absolutely petrified of it.


Of course, the whole cake debacle is captured on film so that we'll be able to use it against her forever.


Happy birthday peanut! We love you so much.

After my actual birthday was pretty much a bust (sick kid, pouring rain, Doug had a final), my lovely husband kept promising that my "birthday weekend" would make up for it... and wow, did he ever come through! He definitely wins the husband of the year award.

The weekend began with three of my best girlfriends & their husbands appearing on Friday. I thought that was my birthday surprise, but then Saturday he continued on to surprise me with a fabulous birthday bash, complete with a visit from my parents and catered by my favorite place ever, Veraci Pizza. Needless to say, it was a fantastic weekend, and I feel so blessed to have such wonderful family and friends. Thanks to all who traveled from near and far to celebrate with me. 30 has been pretty great so far!

Here are a few fun pics from the party and the rest of the weekend...

I've had one of those days. You know, the kind where you're ready to crash as soon as the kiddo is in bed. O has her worst cold ever and is horribly crabby (major tears every time I try to put her down) and to top it all off she's been puking like crazy. On me. All over her crib. On the new couch. Couple that with a runny nose and hacking cough and it's all pretty nasty. Poor thing, I wish that I could help her! And then to top it all off my new turquoise scarf somehow ended up in the light laundry load and dyed ALL of my white t-shirts/tank tops/favorite sweater/Olivia's onesies a nasty shade of pale blue. Ugh.

On the up side, I made these totally awesome rhubarb muffins, and after eating one (okay, a few) of them things seem much better! Why rhubarb? Well, I got talked into buying rhubarb at our local farm stand earlier this week, and when I got home I realized that I had no idea what to do with it. So rhubarb muffins it was!



Rhubarb Muffins: (from Simply in Season)
1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup yogurt
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup oil
1 egg, beaten
2 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups rhubarb, diced
1/4 cup sugar
1 Tbs butter (melted)
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp flour

1. Combine flour through salt thoroughly.
2. In a separate bowl, combine yogurt through vanilla. Stir in dry ingredients just until moistened.
3. Stir in rhubarb. Fill greased muffin tins two-thirds full.
4. Combine sugar, butter, cinnamon, and flour together and sprinkle on top of muffins.
5. Bake at 375F in a preheated oven for 20 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool on wire racks.

Yum.

Because a blog post isn't really a blog post without Olivia in it, here's a shot of her showing off her brand new sandbox. Lucky girl got a new play set and a sandbox for her first birthday!

Blueberries, Standing and Scooting

A mish-mash of things to post. None of them connect, but part of doing this blog is that I'm going to use a lot of it to make some sort of baby book, so I feel like if I don't post these things I won't remember them all :).

We have a berry monster on our hands. Specifically, a blueberry monster. We're having visions of Violet Beauregarde over here. Olivia has developed an obsession with them over the last week, and basically refuses to eat much of anything else. She'll pick at whatever I put on her tray, but as soon as the berries come out they're the only thing that she'll eat. Guess it could be worse, right? (Although I don't even want to tell you what all of this berry eating is doing to her diapers. Gross.)


On a more pleasant note, O is getting stronger at holding herself upright! She still needs to be supported by something, but it's fun to see her up on her feet.

I cannot believe that she's getting so big. 3 weeks to go until her first birthday!

Doug captured this video of Olivia doing what we call her "circle scoot". We like it a lot.


P.S. A non Olivia-related item (shocker, I know). Mom, these are for you :). For anyone who's curious, these are pictures of our Dogwood tree in full bloom. So gorgeous.

Real Men Wear Bjorn's

I'm not sure why, but pretty much everything about this picture makes me laugh.

Two Years & Mother's Day

Two years ago, I married my very best friend.

Happy anniversary, Doug!
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As for the rest of the weekend...

Saturday we went to an M's game. It was the perfect spring baseball weekend - we're finally getting amazing weather! Olivia loves M's games - lots of noise and people to look at!


Sunday Doug made me breakfast for Mother's Day :)

Yes, I know that this isn't the best picture but I wanted to document breakfast.



Then I spent Sunday afternoon working in my garden. Yes, I officially feel like a suburban housewife now that I spend my weekends "working in the garden". Anyhoo, I discovered what happens when I turn my back to Olivia for longer than 10 seconds.

Mmm...dirt...

Took a few photos before heading over to Perry family dinner.
Me and my girl on my first official Mother's Day!


I am pretty convinced that there's nothing cuter than a dad and his daughter.


She's getting so big!