Olivia Eight Month Update

Olivia Eight Month Highlights

1. Olivia loves reading books and listening to audiobooks. Right now, her favorite book is called, "Colors". It was given to Olivia by Dr. Bagnell at her six month check up. We read it multiple times a day!

2. Olivia ate Chick-fil-a chicken, ice cream, and waffle fries for the very first time. It was not all in one sitting, but she is learning to eat food on her own. I always have to remind her to "chew and swallow", because she gets too much food in her mouth at one time.

3. While Michelle was visiting us, she was trying to teach Olivia her ABC's. Michelle also decided to work on some phonics with Olivia as well. Olivia's favorite song is called, Phonics Song 2 on YouTube. Olivia can watch is over and over again. As a result, we all have it memorized after just two weeks of listening to this song!

4. Olivia is learning to turn the pages when we read books. Her first instinct is to put books in her mouth. On a regular basis, I have to remind her that we do not eat books. However, it is exciting to watch her learn how to do something new and be able to turn the pages all by herself!

5. Olivia now eats Cheerios and she loves them! She is so independent and gets very excited when she gets to feed herself.

6. Olivia loves playing with blocks. Either Jon or myself, build her tall towers which she loves to knock down to the ground.

7. Olivia is ticklish! She is ticklish under her arms, on her hip, and on her belly. It's so hard to keep myself from tickling her all the time, because I love to hear her laugh.

8. Please pray for us and Olivia. Pray that God will get a hold of her heart at an early age. Pray that we will be wise as we raise her in the fear of the Lord.

Michelle's Visit in Pictures

We were so thankful that Michelle was able to come and visit us! Here are some of my favorite pictures from her time with us!

Olivia Seven Month Update

I am "late" getting this blog post out too, but I hope you enjoy it anyway. I think that I say this every month, but I cannot believe that Olivia is already seven months old! Where has the time gone? Olivia has grown and changed so much in such a short period of time. Here are some of the fun highlights that took place this past month.

Olivia's Seven Month Highlights

1. Olivia is officially crawling, pulling herself up, and walking along the couch or anything else she can reach. I wasn't ready for her to do all of these things so quickly, but there is nothing stopping this girl. When Olivia sets her mind on something she can do it! It's amazing to watch her learn how to do things.



2. Olivia got her second tooth!

3. Olivia went on her first airplane ride with Daddy!! It was so much fun for Jon to be able to share his love and passion for flying with Olivia. Please click the link, to read more about Olivia's First Airplane Ride.


4. Olivia is eating all different kinds of baby food. She loves fruit, but hates all kinds of vegetables! Her favorite snack are the Gerber Graduates Lil' Crunchies, Mild Cheddar.

5. Olivia is Ms. Independent and likes to do things on her own. Olivia wants to feed herself, put her pacifier in her mouth, stand, walk, crawl, eat, and more all by herself! Don't get me wrong she wants to know that we are there watching, but she wants to do it herself.

6. Olivia rode in a shopping cart for the first time. I completely forgot to bring in the shopping cart cover, so she was trying to eat the basket the entire time that we were at Walmart. On top of that, random woman told Olivia that I need to get her a shopping cart cover! I tried to explain that I already had one, but I don't think she believed me!

7. We had our first family getaway over Easter weekend! It was a relaxing and fun time away from home. We stayed with our friend's at their family's lake house! Olivia did great and even took quick dip in the hot tub for the very first time, which she loved!

 

Please continue to pray for Olivia and that she would learn to love Jesus and give her life to Him!

Easter 2013 in Pictures

I know that I am a little late getting Easter pictures posted, but that just goes to show you the kind of week I had. Life is busy and only seems to be getting busier! So, while Olivia is napping, I am going to use a few moments of my peace and quiet to post new pictures on our blog!

Olivia's Easter Goody Bag

Olivia is such a happy girl!

She looked beautiful in her Easter dress!

Daddy and Olivia were matching (not intentionally). Our girl was only interested in chewing on the Easter eggs.

Both of us were dressed up for Sunday morning!

Olivia just showing off her dress again, because it is so cute!

At this point, Olivia was done taking pictures and she let us know it!

Thankfully, I was able to get one last (good) shot of Olivia and Daddy.

I hope that you all had a wonderful Easter weekend!!

"He is not here, for he had risen, as he said." - Matthew 28:6

Olivia is Crawling

Olivia has been inch worm and army crawling around the house for over a month. At first she did not go very far, but gradually she has become more adventurous and now likes to explore our apartment and everything in it! Honestly, I didn't know if Olivia would ever officially "crawl", because she can already move around the house so quickly!

I'm excited to share with you that on Sunday, March 10, 2013, in the church nursery Olivia officially crawled!!

I got a text from my friend, Ashley, who was working on the nursery that morning. Ashley's text to me said, "Hey can you come to the nursery nothing serious at all so don't panic :) Hailey just wanted you to see something."

As soon as I got the text, I began to make my way to the nursery. This had never happened to me before, so automatically I started to think about all the things that could be wrong with Olivia. Was it a rash? Did Olivia have a bruise? What does Hailey need me to come see during church? Thankfully, the walk from my classroom to the nursery is not that long, because I was walking much more quickly than normal!

When I walked in Hailey and Ashley told me the good news about Olivia crawling! Ashley had sent me a text, because she wanted me to come see Olivia crawl for myself. Unfortunately, by the time I arrived Olivia was crying, because she was hungry. It was alright, because I needed to get back to church anyway.

On Monday, I got to see Olivia crawl and I'm happy to say that with each passing day she is crawling more and more! Olivia is so smart, driven, and independent. It is truly a joy to watch her accomplish these things even if I don't think I am ready for her to do them yet.

We want you to be able to enjoy this milestone in Olivia's life with us!! So, I made a video of Olivia crawling, for all of our family and friends that cannot be here.  

Learning to Stay in Love

A few weeks ago, my friend Janet, told me to listen to Andy Stanley's new Staying in Love podcast about marriage. With everything going on in my life over the last few weeks, I completely forgot about it! Thankfully, this past Sunday, Janet reminded me about this podcast series again. I sent myself a reminder to listen to them throughout the week. After listening to the first podcast, I was hooked! I could not stop, so I listened to the all four sessions twice in one day!

I wish that I could give you every session word for word, because they are so good! However, here are some of the highlights that meant so much to me that I even wrote them down in my Bible.

Part One
- the foundation for long-term love relationship is making love... a verb
- to stay in love you have to make love a verb

Part Two
- you must act like your spouse is more important than yourself
- to have relationship you must die to yourself and your needs/interests
- Jesus modeled this for us

Part Three
- your ability to stay in love depends on the condition of your heart more than your spouse's behavior
- your relationship is the overflow of what's in your heart
- what's in your heart will come out regardless of who's with you

Part Four
- expectation (gap) actions
- people who stay in love learn to assume the best and positively fill in the gap
- learn to create margins, be generous with explanation, hope for the best
- when you negatively fill in the gap, even when it's justified, you contribute to the demise of your love relationship

Overall, God used each of these parts to speak to me about different issues going on in my life and my marriage. The Lord used part four to convict me the most! God helped me to realize that for the last six years of my marriage, I have been negatively filling in the gap, between my expectations and Jon's actions. My own pride has been more important to me than making sure that Jon knows that I love him and believe the best about him!

I am going to memorize a few verses that Andy talked about throughout this series. I think this will help me during those times when I need to choose how I will fill in the gap. I know that Satan has used this to try and break apart my marriage, but now that I know about it (with God's help) I am ready to make these changes.

Why am I telling you all of this?

It is my hope and prayer that you can learn from my mistakes. Please take time to make your marriage a priority and listen to Andy Stanley's Staying in Love podcast series.

"It (love) always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres." 

- 1 Corinthians 13:7 (NIV)

Emails for Olivia

Our friends, Michael & Becky, created an email address for their daughter, Zoey. Throughout Zoey's life Michael & Becky have written emails to her about all kinds of things that she has done! It is their way to keep a record of milestones in Zoey's life and more.

Michael & Becky shared this idea with us long before we had Olivia. However, I have always LOVED this idea and kept it in the back of my mind as something Jon and I could do for our future children.

 

I'm excited to say that a few weeks ago, I finally created an email address just for Olivia!

Why did we choose an email address over a journal or notebook? 

Great question!

First of all, I am a woman who loves to journal. However, I barely have time to sit down and write in my own journal about my own life. Would I really have had time to sit down and write in Olivia's journal? I could have done a journal, but it would have taken a lot more time and effort on my part.

Second, and most importantly, I wanted to make a way for Jon to record his memories of Olivia too! We both have smart phones and it is easy for us to send emails to Olivia right from our phones. I also copy Jon on all the emails I send Olivia, so that he knows about what she has been up to throughout the day.

Finally, and I know it's morbid, but I can't help wondering about what if something happened to Jon or myself. I would want Olivia to have these emails and memories of her life with us, even if we were not there to tell her about it! Ms. Janet has got me thinking a lot about the legacy I will leave behind for the next generations and it's important to me to let Olivia know about how God is working in her life even now!

Over these last few weeks, it has been fun to send Olivia emails about anything and everything! As we have other children, we will be able to do the same thing with them too!

I'm telling you about this awesome idea, so that you will do this for your children too! I know that not everyone likes to write as much as I do, but it's important to consider what kind of legacy you want to leave behind!

"But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”  

- Joshua 24:14-16