Grumble, grumble..

Don't you just hate it when you get all the way back to work or home and the drink you ordered is the wrong one?

I ordered a Diet Pepsi today for lunch ( I know, I know.. caffeine..but I really "wanted" it..)... and didn't try it until I was back at the office. They gave me "regular" Pepsi..

blah.

I have been trying to sip it.. but to no avail.. it is just too sweet. I think it's God trying to tell me I should not have been drinking a Diet Pepsi to begin with, so off I go to re-fill my sippy cup with water....which is what I should have been drinking to begin with.


*sigh*

Attention Blog Stalkers!!!

Did that get your attention? I recently ( a couple of months ago) put a counter on my blog site so that I could see how many hits/visits I was getting. Boy was I shocked to find out how many people, be them random, friends, friends-of-friends, etc. visit our site! Please, please, PLEASE leave a comment letting me know who you are... I love meeting and talking with new people. I will admit that I am totally guilty of doing the same thing sometimes, so I promise to comment on other people's pages too... :-)

Oh, and...

HAPPY "V" DAY! Even if it means you give your loved ones 2 kisses instead of one..then it means something. I don't really buy into the whole "Hallmarky" aspect of Valentines day but everyone loves a little extra "love", don't ya think?!

xoxoxo
Melissa

Father-Daughter Dance!

Last Saturday night Chad took Olivia to her first Father-Daughter Valentine's Dance. It was held at Bel Air Presbyterian church from 6-9 pm ( although they only stayed until about 7:30 pm or so...). Chad said that she really had a fun time... they danced to some swing music, visited the arts n' craft table, and had some refreshments ( fruit and punch). The beautiful blue dress she is wearing was made by my sister-in-law's mother ( Thank-you Linden!), and it actually matched her cousin Hadley's dress. It's so hard to believe that she is already old enough to do these things... how time flies. xoxoxo

Don't tell my midwife...

Oi! I just ate half a bag of Trader Joe's chocolate covered pretzels. The baby made me do it... yeah, a likely story.

The baby is kicking like crazy whenever I am sitting or resting. Chad is able to feel him/her moving now which is soooo cool. When I ask Olivia where the baby is she lifts my shirt and pats my tummy. I have decided not to ask her that question in public anymore... :-)

Olivia's new word for the week is "icky". Except she says is more like "ee-ee". Yesterday she saw the dog going poop and said "Dog-a pooh ee-ee no-no". I think the no-no at the end was because I told her last week "no touch" when we were out in the backyard and she saw a pile of poop.

Yeah, that's the exciting news in our house right now....Trader Joes Chocolate pretzels and dog poop. Fabulous!!

I will post some great pics soon of Olivia and Chad at the Bel Air Presbyterian Church Father/Daughter dance. So fun!

xoxo
melissa

18 week portrait

We had our 18 week ultrasound yesterday and the baby put on quite a show.... "its'" favorite position seemed to be with its' arm thrown back touching its' forhead. So cute... :-) It took a while for the technician to get all the pics she needed cuz the baby was wiggling around so much and was quite comfortable curled up in a little ball ...after I got up and moved around a bit, it seemed to unfurl and give us a better view.. so funny! This pic is a profile with the arm back up over the head...the ribcage extends out to the right and up cuz its' legs were actually curled up above it..... crazy baby!! Enjoy!

A Messy Lesson!

Olivia has been practicing the last few months to use her spoon in the "proper" way. Today for lunch I gave her some homemade tomato-basil soup and she absolutely had a blast dipping her toast and "using" her spoon. Enjoy!

Rainy Day Fun

We don't get many rainy days in So. California but when we do , BOY does it come down! It poured all day today and since it was Chad's day home with Olivia he decided to pull down some new toys that we had saved from her birthday in September. Her favorite was this school shaped "tent". I have never heard her so happy. She pulled her blankets and stuffed animals into and kept trying to coax Cassie to come in..( she did walk in and out a couple of times, much to Olivia's delight!). Anyway, it is a great toy and will also be fun to play with out in the yard when it is dry out! Even Da-Da went inside to play!!

My Little Table

A couple of weeks ago we found this table at Pottery Barn Kids and decided to buy it for Olivia's room. Normally I would not even think of buying anything there ( too expensive!) but it was the floor model and MUCH less than the normal cost. It matches the nursery perfectly and Olivia is absolutely delighted to have a little table her size. She loves to push the chairs in and out and put all her stuffed animal friends on top of it. Here are some pics of her enjoying it!

Almost 18 weeks....

Here's a pic of the "baby belly". It has definitely grown in the last week or so.... I actually had someone ask me how far along I was today.. so that's a good sign...:-)

Vegetable Baby!

Hurray! The "baby" is the size of a healthy avocado! I love the vegetable and fruit comparisons that "babycenter.com" gives. So funny....

I promise I'll post some new pics of Olivia soon...her favorite new pastime is saying "no, no, dog-a" and wagging her little finger at the dog. Hmmmmmm...maybe we need to stop discipling the dog in front of her.

That's all for now!

xoxox

Olivia-ease!

Olivia pretty much has words for everything now.. unfortunately we don't always know what they mean.. which is VERY frustrating for her. Usually I will just distract her with something else if I don't figure it out.. *sigh*. Anyway, here is a sampling of her "extensive" vocabulary.

bye-bye= ba-bye!

dog= dog-a!

mom= mama

dad= dada

cat= da!

blankie= ban-kee

elmo= elmo ( she has actually nailed that one)

all done= ah dun

no= NO!

milk= ma

bath= baa

K.C. ( her cousin)= ti-ti

Hadley ( her cousin)= Haaa

Aunti Jen= Jun

Uncle Keenan= Unca

Aunti Sarah= RaRa

Papa = aPa

Unfortunately she has no vocal name for her Grammy or Gamma yet...when I ask her to say those words she just laughs hysterically... hmmmmmmm.

Bye for now... :-)

Ramblings...

Well, this morning I had to put on a pair of maternity pants for work...*sigh*. I am only 15 weeks and already my pants don't fit. Thank-heavens for best friends though, cuz Jamie gave me a huge bag of maternity clothes to borrow .. :-) At least this might mean that I don't just look "fat" anymore... maybe I'm starting to look pregnant? My mom would be a good judge of this fact but too bad she lives 2 hours away and can't give me her honest opinon xoxo...

Olivia doesn't like to ride in the stroller anymore for our "usually" nightly walks with the dog. She likes to walk now.. which I think is so cute...but the walk usually takes us about double of what it normally would. We walk down our street and around the local elementary school.. about 1/2 mile or so...The other night just her, the dog, and I were walking and she turned to me and said "Ma-ma" and then looked at the dog and said "dog-a" and they kept saying those two words over and over again until she had made herself laugh. So funny...

By-the-way, the not riding in the stroller thing is great for nightly walks , not so great for trips to the mall, Target, etc... *arhhhggg*

Olivia and I took down the Christmas tree the other day and I was a bit worried as to how she would handle the ornaments as I took them off... amazingly she took each one that I gave her ( only the non-breakable ones) and placed them in the container. It was sooooo sweet ..until....she got a hold of the glass German Christmas pickle ornament and started running away from me with it in her mouth. ( Not my finest moment as a mom...). Fortunately, I was able to retrieve the Christmas pickle without harm to it or her... Whew!

I am no longer in the "Tater-Tot" only eating phase of my pregnancy. .. I have now moved on to Pick-Nix potato snacks-in-bed-while-watching-the NEW American Gladiators portion of my pregnancy.... so classy.

God-Bless my husband for not having a judging bone in his body....:-)

So long for now.. ;-)

Holidays 2007!

Well, it has been a LONG time since my last post but I assure it was not for lack of things going on in the Barber household. We had a very BUSY holiday season filled with family, traveling, and unfortunately some illness too.

We left on Dec.21st for Palm Springs to spend 5 days with Chad's mom, my mom and step-dad, and lots of other family. The first activity on the agenda was a trip to "The Living Desert" for a seasonal thing they do called "Wild Lights". They basically put up thousands of lights and Santa makes an appearance, there is hot cocoa to drink, and the best part are the wonderful model trains that are running all over. We met family and friends there to hang out and enjoy the cool, crisp , desert night air. Olivia and her friend Bryce really loved the trains. They stood by the fence for at least 1/2 an hour and clapped as the trains rolled by. Olivia was not as thrilled with Santa, but I really enjoyed the "candy" she got for saying hi to him... :-)




Christmas eve was spend at Chad's mom's house with homemade chili ( vegetarian... so yummy), eggnog, and christmas goodies. Olivia, Hadley, and K.C., all had matching polar bear pajamas to open for that night and we had a great time laying out cookies and milk for Santa.

Olivia woke up Christmas morning with 103 degree fever but was determined to open some gifts before a long morning nap. We all enjoyed a tasty breakfast of egg casserole and Cinnamon roll-ups and open presents like we were possessed. It was awesome! Olivia received a modest amount of gifts which included a favorite push-toy and a brand new wagon from her Gamma Ginny. It was a great day despite the illness. :-)






We drove back to L.A. the day after Christmas to meet up with my dad who stayed with us until New Year's Day! It was a great visit even though Olivia was very under the weather. We took a trip to IKEA, played at the park, took long walks, and ate lots of yummy food. Olivia is still asking for her "Grandpa"...so come back soon Dad!!! ha!

New Year's Eve was spent with our dear friends Jamie, Todd, and Rachel. We all noshed on heavy appetizers and after the babies were sound asleep , we watched the "Bourne Ultimatum"... it was awesome!! Unfortunately , we were in bed by midnight sound asleep.. we are just getting too old... j/k. The dog was nice enough to wake us up at midnight after she heard fireworks down the street...:-) Happy New Year!

That pretty much sums it up... it was a busy time and now I have Olivia's illness that she was so kind to pass on ... :-) *sigh* Hopefully there won't be as much of a lag between now and my next post....believe me the intention is always there to write... just not the time!! aghhh!!

Snuggly mornings..

I love the winter because we can use our heavy comforter on our bed and it makes everything so cozy... well, Olivia must think so too cuz her favorite new thing to do is to wake up in the morning and call us from her room, then we get her sippy cup of milk and she crawls into bed with us and snuggles until she finishes and we get up. The other morning she was apparently still very sleepy cuz after she finished her milk "all done!", she laid her head down on my chest and fell back fast asleep. Well, so did I ...Chad got up and said that we were both so asleep we didn't even hear him take our picture.... ahhhh... snuggly mornings. :-)

An early Christmas wish come true...

Olivia is going to be a big sister!!! We are due to have our second baby on
June 27th!

So far the pregnancy has been pretty easy.. some nausea but mostly I'm just exhausted. It's soooooo different being pregnant with the 2nd baby mainly cuz I'm chasing Olivia around all day long... no time for napping for mommy .. ahhhggh! I used to come home from work and just collapse on the couch when I was pregnant with olivia.. now I leave work, pick up Olivia, stop at the store, come home, make Olivia's dinner, give her a bath...and the list goes on. Luckily, I have a wonderful, thoughtful, sweet, and did I mention WONDERFUL husband who helps with all of that. I really don't know how single mommies do it... *sigh*

Anyway, we are thrilled and have already started preparing Olivia for her big sister duties. :-)

Hopefully I will get around to posting the first ultrasound pic in the next few days.....:-)

Trip To Wisconsin - Part one!

On Friday November 16, we flew to Wisconsin to hang with my dad for 8 days and celebrate Thanksgiving!! Hurray! We had a great time....needless to say we were a bit worried about how Olivia would do on the plane since she hasn't been on one since she started walking. I bought lots of new activities and snacks but she did so well that I only needed to pull out a couple of things... she was more interested in pulling the cap on and off my water bottle.. go figure? ha!!

We spent the first day relaxing and exploring my dad's house that he is renting from a friend. It is an old farmhouse and so cool... it sits on 2 acres and is very cozy. Olivia loved running from one room to another and especially playing with my dad's 14 years cat, Lucy. We spend some time outdoors playing in the piles of leaves even the temperature was about 35 degrees the first day we were there... she really enjoyed it!



On Sunday, Chad and I were two of the luckiest people on the planet as my dad had scored 2 tickets to the Green Bay Packer game!!! We got to get away and spend the whole day together and drive up to Green Bay to see the now 11-2 ( stupid Cowboys) Packer team play . It was AWESOME!!! Lambeau field is definitely all that is cracked up to be and then some.... but what made it the most fun were the fans... they were CRAZY!!! The man sitting behind me decided half way through the game that the hat that I was wearing was lucky ( the Packers were winning ) so he played with the tassel on top of my head the entire rest of the game.... hahahahaha! Luckily he was very nice ( probably due to about 8 beers) and was just in great spirit cuz his team was winning. The weather was beautiful ( by Wisconsin standards)... about 38 degrees , clear and sunny. We were bundled up and had brought in blankets so life was sweet... Oh, did I mention we sat on the 50 yard line? Unbelievable... Thanks to Todd ( my dad's friend ) for the AMAZING opportunity to see Green Bay play!!!!



More about the rest of the trip in my next post.... :-)

Halloween

So, after our trip to Disneyland we got home, rested for a day, then one by one started to come down with the stomach flu. Good times, I should say not... Chad is still in bed recovering after he finally came down with it today...blah. BUT, in between that time , Olivia had a good day and that happened to be Halloween. *sigh*.

So, we put on her goldfish costume and it was immediately met with tears and frustration. We quickly learned that a quick bribe ( a whole sippy cup of milk!), was enought to set her down the sidewalk to candy heaven. We honestly didn't think that she would be into the whole thing but she suprised us once again by marching up to each doorstep and grabbing at the candy like she was an old pro.

She lasted about 8 houses... then promptly sat down to examine her bootie.

We let her taste 4 m'm's and then the rest went to us. A good reward for suriving the whole ordeal. :-)

Happy Halloween!!!

First Trip to Disneyland!!

A week ago we took Olivia to Disneyland and California Adventure for the first time! We went with Keenan, Jen, Hadley, and K.C. and had a fabulous time. The first day we went to Disneyland. Olivia LOVED it. She went on all the rides ( well, except for the roller coasters..). She loved waving at the pirates on Pirates of the Caribbean and she really enjoyed Nemo's Submarine Voyage where she kept saying "Buba-Buba" for the bubbles floating past our little window. That night we all stayed at the Paradise Pier Hotel adjacent to the Disneyland Hotel and the next day we went to California Adventure ( unfortunately without K.C. who got sick that night.. poor Jen had to drive him home at 1 am in the morning... :0(. We all had a nice time and are hoping to do it again next year.. without any illnesses... :-)

Fall Fun!

Today, Jen and I took the kids to a farm in Moorepark to pick out some pumpkins. It was soooo much fun. The weather was perfect , about 70 degrees and breezy, the sun was shining, and we all got lots of fresh air. Olivia LOVED playing in the pumpkin patch. She patted the pumpkins, hugged the pumpkins, talked to the pumpkins, and sat on the pumpkins. We picked out three to bring home.. that we will eventually carve a couple days before Halloween. We all had a great time.







I also decorated the house for Halloween. I made some fun ghosts and hung spiderwebs all over. Olivia's new love is running outside to greet the "ghosties" whenever she has a chance. I think that she is learning to love Halloween as much as I do!


xoxoxoxo

Happy Birthday Cassie!

Today is our sweet dog Cassie's birthday! Well, we don't really know when her actual birthday is cuz we got her from the pound 7 years ago.. but at the time the vet thought she was about a year old sooooo.... we consider her birthday the day we brought her home. :-)

So she is 8 years old...

She is Olivia's best buddy, our protector, and a dear companion.

Happy Birthday dog!!

xoxoxoxo