Punta Mita 3.11

Well, we're back from Spring Break in Mexico and we had an absolute BLAST!

Olivia loved every second of the trip - pool, beach, cousins, swimming, sand, extended family, food all day long! She's at a funny stage of going "shy" when the camera comes out, so I unfortunately don't have all that many great photos of her. But prepare yourself for a long post anyway, because I took a billion photos and had a hard time whittling down which ones to post.

This is the totally awesome infinity pool right on the beach. We spent almost every morning here :).






This is the face she makes when she's swimming. Pure joy!




We also spent some time at the beach. Olivia decided that she is, once again, petrified of the ocean, but she loved playing in the sand.


There was also a lazy river at the resort, so you know we hit that up a few times!


The hubs, getting his float on.


One of the best parts about the resort? (I mean besides the pools, the beach, and the lazy river?) Snacks. Every hour, brought to you in your lounge chair. This might have been O's very favorite thing!


One happy kiddo.


O's favorite game: throwing stuff in the pool. Then yelling "ugh oh!" and trying to wiggle her way into the pool to rescue whatever she threw.


Uncle Kevin came along as well. Olivia absolutely adores him!

(Yes, she insisted on bringing her "pretties" along. I almost made it out the door without them but she spotted them and it was all over.)

Waving goodbye to the sun with grandma.


Greg, Erin, Carson and Quin came along as well, and Olivia LOVED having her cousins around. She was always following them everywhere, trying to keep up with the big kids.

The 3 kiddos. Chaos.


Pausing for a Curious George break.


I honestly have no idea what's going on here, but they were so cute all crouched down together!


These two are definitely going to be double trouble once Olivia starts talking more! Olivia totally idolizes Quin.






Carson, ready for some pool action.


Boo!


My adorable niece snuggling up with her favorite guy - grandpa.


Greg and Erin. Miss you guys!


Carson turned 4 while we were in Mexico and we got him a rocket launcher.
I'm pretty sure it was a hit!




A few obligatory family photos from our last evening in Punta Mita.




Until next time...


Thank you, Wayne and Chris, for such an amazing trip! Words will never be able to express our appreciation... We are so blessed to have such an amazing family!

3.16.11

As you may have guessed from my lack of posting over the past week, all of my germ prevention did absolutely nothing to prevent me from catching the flu from Doug. Ugh. I'm just coming back to life, next year I'll definitely be getting a flu shot!

Anyhoo, I organized a St. Patrick's day cupcake decorating event at Cupcake Royale for our playgroup. It was totally chaotic (25 toddlers plus moms and other little babies, mixed with cupcakes, frosting, and sprinkles) but the kids had a blast! And the best part? We got to make a huge mess and someone else cleaned it up... I love events like that :)







(sneaking spare cupcakes off of the tray)


On a totally different note, since the whole 'using the potty incident' a few weeks ago, O has been pretty insistent on hanging out on it a couple times a day. However, the closest that she's come to using it again is peeing on the ground next to it. Awesome.

I'm pretty sure that part of the reason she's so interested in the potty is because she gets to be naked (she actually insists on being completely undressed while she hangs out on there). And then once she's done she runs away and parades her naked self all over the house.


And when I tell her it's time to put her diaper back on this is what she does. I'm so glad she's already learned to ignore me... just a taste of things to come I'm sure!


Hope everyone is having a good week!
We're leaving on Saturday for some of this goodness, I can't wait!!!

3.7.11

Poor Doug has the flu :(. BAD. As in hasn't really moved since Saturday and is still sequestered in the bedroom bad. I feel so awful for him, I'm praying that he wakes up feeling a bit better tomorrow! Note to self: make sure we both get flu shots next year. And a huge sigh of relief that O got two of them!

I've been trying to keep Olivia downstairs most of the day because a) I'm pretty sure that Doug doesn't want to hear her yelling while he's trying to sleep and b) I'm (selfishly) trying to avoid meeting the same fate as him. So, while I am compulsively hand washing and sanitizing anything that came within a five foot radius of him, O has been exploring the kitchen and has made the best discovery ever: the salad spinner.

It spins.


It carries.


It's a hat.


Oh, pardon me. It's two hats!


Thank goodness she has a good imagination.

And the accessorizing continues.
Fashion maven or fashion victim?


On another note, we had a BIG milestone moment this evening. Those of you without toddlers can probably stop reading now.

A while back, we got her a potty, but haven't done any "training" with it. The only potty-related thing we've done is read "Lily's Potty" at bedtime - it's one of her favorites, I highly recommend it! Anyhoo, tonight she was in the bath and looked at me and frantically said "potty, potty". So I got her out an plunked her down on it soaking wet, and sure enough, well, she pooped. And the look of pride on her face was priceless! And I cheered like she'd just won the Nobel Peace Prize! I never thought I'd get so excited about poop. You know that you're really a mom when...

P.S.
Need a good laugh? Click here.

Wednesday Ramblings

I'm tired of looking at the same post from last week (as I'm sure you all are, too) but don't have much to report. So here are some random ramblings...

I went to Target this week and bought nothing. Absolutely nothing. It's a miracle! And I'm pretty sure that I deserve some sort of award for this behavior. Perhaps another trip to Target?

I'm trying my hardest to stop biting my nails. I've promised myself one of the new shellac manicures if I go for two weeks... I'm very intrigued by these and need some sort of reward system for myself. I've made it for four days now, still going strong!

I'm going to my first pilates reformer session on Friday and I am SO excited! I'm hoping that it helps my back (which is in constant agony from carrying around a chunk-a-monk toddler whose name will go unmentioned), and getting into better shape would be pretty amazing, too. (Doug rocks for getting me a couple private lessons for Christmas :)

I never realized that crayons could cause so many issues. There have been many time-outs in the past few days due to improper crayon usage. It's a good thing that Olivia is very cute because she can definitely be quite a little buggar! I think that she has unfortunately inherited my stubborn streak.

And now, on to the photo portion of this post...

Bedhead. So cute on toddlers. Not so cute on adults.


There is nothing more precious than a girl and her first BFF girlfriend.






Bubbles totally rock.


I'm pretty sure that we need a dog.


That's all I've got for now. Hope everyone is having a great week!

Oh, and happy Dr. Seuss day!

Snow Day!

Olivia was insistent on going outside the moment she saw the snow this morning - what a difference from our last snow experience!

Here's a few shots from our pre-breakfast playtime...

2.24.11

Pretty darn excited to wake up and see this today, I can't wait until Olivia wakes up so I can take her out to play!



(Yes, I know that you readers outside of CA are thinking "so what?" but it's a big deal when it snows in Seattle :)