Blessings, baby, bumbo and bakliva (well actually spanikopita)

Baby Mine

Olivia still rules the roost at our house and has started to smile and babble a lot. I seriously can't get enough of her! When I was little I loved to play with dolls, and having a baby has really been like having a real live baby doll...that ALWAYS has to be played with, and changed and cuddled. BUT I absolutely love it! How could you stay no to that face.

Spanikopita

A few weeks ago Mama Jan took us to dinner at Aristo's. Delish greek food! I had my first experience with spanikopita and tried to recreate it. Olivia watched from the floor. She was probably laughing at the fact that I'm a dietitian and just added about a cup and a half of olive oil to this masterpiece to get the flaky crust action between the phyllo dough. Well better than spreading lard I guess. The layers came our perfectly gorgeous! It was so pretty I almost didn't want to eat it! It was quite tasty, but one 2"x2"piece was more than enough.

SO good!

Noodles and Grandma

A couple weeks later we went to have dinner with Grandma Larsen. She hasn't spent a lot of time with baby since she was sick with shingles when she was born. We thought she deserved some special great-grandma time with Olivia. We brought her dinner, but me being a last minute planner I didn't know what we were going to bring. I wanted to make some stroganoff, but we didn't have anything for it. It being a Sunday we couldn't go to the store, so we got creative. I made my own, from SCRATCH egg noodles, cut by hand, and then we had a Swedish meatballs seasoning mix, and ground beef. So we had a Swedish Stroganoff of sorts. It was also really really good!

Grandma loved to hold the baby so much that she wouldn't come to dinner.

Grandma said last time I visited that next time I needed to bring Adam. She had to make sure he loved her as much as she did. Now she knows he does. :) Thanks Grandma.

THANKSGIVING

Olivia got really sick over Thanksgiving with 1) diaper rash, 2) Yeast Infection, 3)Fever, 4)Stomach bug, 5)Sinus congestion. It started the day before Thanksgiving. Olivia had her two month check-up and what I thought was just a bad diaper rash turned out to be a diaper rash PLUS a yeast infection. During her visit she threw up twice so we opted to waited a couple weeks to give her her two month shots. Later that evening she felt pretty warm and of course every internet source and baby book tells you a fever in a little one needs immediate attention. We tried to give her some tylenol and that failed, and of course I was on edge all night. None of us really slept and though we were able to get her to take the tylenol later, the fever persisted until early Thanksgiving morning. Throughout this process we had contacted the on-call pediatrician to ask questions so when the fever didn't improve we felt justified in getting her into the ER to be seen. While there they suctioned her very clogged nose and also ran a couple tests to make sure it wasn't something serious. The test came back negative (gratefully), so we headed back home to just keep her comfortable and to try and get some rest ourselves.
Thanksgiving for us consisted of tuna melts and greasy hair as you can see below. All in all we're grateful for our health and our now recovered little one. She's successfully passed the first test of her adaptive immune system.

BUMBO

Lindsey said that she hates the name bumbo, but Olivia makes it look pretty cute. I have to agree. She doesn't like to be missing out on any of the action, and though she still can't keep her head up right all the time, she does pretty good. She loves to see everything going on around her. Even when we are holding her, she's not satisfied unless she's up and able to see everything.

I just love this picture.

And this one makes me laugh so hard. She looks like she's trying to say, "seriously mom, enough with the pictures already."

love those cute little bear booties from Genna. :) THANKS!

Grandpa can always make Olivia smile.

FLAGS and NEW SLEEPING QUARTERS

I've had this plan for a while, before Olivia was even born, to make these flags to make the storage system look a little more colorful in Olivia's room. They are finally done, and so easy to make! I love them. We also have set up a bed in Olivia's room. There are some nights that she has been eating every two hours and I just hate to stir Adam in the night so many times, so if it's one of those nights I crash here for a while. Thankfully I haven't had to use it a ton, but it's been nice to have it there when we need it. THANKS to Jan and John for letting us borrow the air mattress. Let us know when you need it, it's kinda becoming a permanent fixture for the time being....

This quilt is from Mom Brothers, She made it for my Graduation from High School, and it has been EVERYWHERE with me.

My favorite flag.

HOMEMADE SKIRT AND FAMILY PHOTO-SHOOT

So this isn't the best picture to show off the skirt that I made, but it will have to do for now. I made the skirt for Olivia a couple of weeks ago, and thought it would be fun to match. (Another one of my doll day fantasies...I always wanted a matching dress with my American Girl Dolls...well Olivia is an American girl, so I guess I finally got what I wanted...TO DONE!) yes, I said to done. ANYWAYS. The skirt I initially made to match Olivia's simple skirt (just gathered material on an elastic band) didn't really work for adult size. So I ended up making this one trying to copy one of Kenzie's skirts. (The ones her sisters wore for her wedding day.) Well it took a few tries but it turned out pretty good if I do say so myself.
We had to go to Ogden today, since I was called into work. So we made a day of it and did a little family photo shoot. Josh graciously took the photos for us.
WARNING, the following picture may be used for our Christmas pictures...if I actually get them printed. I always have the best intentions when I start these little projects, but then they fall apart down the line, i.e. the birth announcements that are still sitting in my top drawer waiting to be mailed...yeah. So just in case it doesn't happen, here is a sneak peek.

So there you have it. What we've been up to lately. :)