Olivia's First Christmas

As promised, here is Olivia opening one of her gifts Christmas morning.

FYI-I'm telling the creepy centipede to shut up, not the family.

And Another Notable Birthday

That's right folks, Christmas is not only a

day to celebrate the birthday of "The Man Upstairs."

We must not forget that it is also the birthday of one of

our favorite Irishmen. The ever-inebriated and unintelligible

Shane McGowan has defied medical mystery once again. He

celebrates his 50th birthday today. We'll drink to that!

Uh oh...

Ok , the video I promised is not good so we'll have to wait until tomorrow morning for decent video of Olivia opening gifts. For now you'll have to settle for her doing some diamond shopping.

Bruiser

We apparently have a tomboy on our hands. Liv got a bump at daycare today but took it like a champ. I was walking around the bookstore with her this afternoon (semi black eye and all) when another dad said to me, "you know she's missing a shoe, right?" My reply was "yes I know, I'm a bad father." Maybe a little too deadpan, I forget that some people don't know when I'm joking.

In front of the Christmas tree with her new reindeer friend.

Here she is biting my nose. This is a lot more painful than it looks.

Dad-get out of my shot!

We're working on some action shots of Nina pulling a sled with Olivia riding shotgun for Christmas. So far Nina's not taking to the antlers very well.

Elf Yourself

Thanks to Libby the Henry 3 have officially been "elfed."

Check it: http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1470941384

Exciting Weekend

We had THREE holiday parties this Saturday. Thanks to Grand-Mom
coming to babysit, we were able to attend two of the parties.
Thanks (again) to Grand-Mom, we went out Friday night as well.
Fortunately, we had a really good time Friday night. Alas, we missed one of our
Saturday parties because it was a bruncheon and we decided to sleep in.

We went to Whitney and Bryan's party first. They have a
gorgeous new home which was filled with people and tasty eats.
Can you believe this girl just had her second baby?! And she
still finds time to work and entertain. Fun times.

Next we went to Stacey and Chris' for a holiday/graduation
party that turned into an engagement party. Stacey had zero idea
what was in store for her. Fortunately I was filled in on the details just
in time to get some fantastic photos.

Item #1: Clueless about what's about to go down...

Item #2: The big proposal

Item#3: So excited! Did she say "yes?" Of course she did,
once she got her bearings.

All the while, Olivia partied in the comfort of her own
home while Grand-Mom entertained.

Thanks to Uncle TJ for Olivia's monster stuffed
hippo. She loves to wrestle the hippo!

"When are Mommy and Daddy coming home?"

Thanks again to Grand-Mom for all of her help. She
deserves an award!

And finally, we are just now getting a taste of winter
weather. It has been in the 30's today and the
10-day forecast is looking chilly. So, it's finally
beginning to look a little like Christmas. Woo hoo.

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like...

MIAMI!!! It was 78 degrees here today and there are trees that are trying to bloom. It is supposed to be in the 70's all week! Nothing like watching your neighbors hang Christmas decorations in shorts and t-shirts. It is usually in the 40's/50's this time of year (ahem, we grew up in the north, we realize this isn't cold to many of you).

We went to see "A Christmas Carol" at the Alliance Saturday night and walked around downtown in short sleeves...at night!

Although the tropical weather has made it very difficult for us to get in "Christmas mode," we are not complaining. We'll take balmy weather over ice storms any day (just preferably not 2 weeks before Christmas!).

Winter Wardrobe

Do you like Olivia's outfit? She sure had fun wearing
her mittens and hat. It's the first time she's tried them on.
We figured she should at least get to try on some
winter garb since it's December.

Did I mention that it's 71 degrees here?!?!?!

9 Months and Doot Doot Neet Doot

Today Olivia had her 9 month checkup. Here are
her stats: 29 inches long=95th %ile
AND 20.7 lbs=75th %ile

Here are some photos of her playing with one of
the objects that inspired her to crawl. As you can see,
crawling toward a water bottle is VERY exciting.

In addition, her newest phrase is: "Deet Doot Neet
Doot." If anyone can offer us a translation, we'd
greatly appreciate it.


Our other babies are not as excited about the
whole crawling phenomenon. We are much more adept
at translating their language than we are at babytalk.

Nina says: "Buzz off. I am trying to sleep. I thought
this baby 'staying here' thing was temporary..."

Sasha says: "That Deet Doot crap is killing my ears!"

Alas, Gretchen says: "I think it's time you take me
for a walk so I can hear all the neighbors talk about
how beautiful I am."

Batton Down The Hatches

Guess who decided it was time to crawl AND pull-up?!??!?!

Yeah, that's right, and it all started on Friday so that Mom and Dad
got to be the first to witness O's mobility. Time to babyproof.

She's a genius, I tell ya...

Christmas Photogs

And they say babies only want to play with the wrapping paper....
Ms. O gladly looked inside the "gift" box, grabbed the beads and
started acting like she was at Mardi Gras (with her top still on,
thank God!).

Can't wait to see how she handles her real Christmas gifts!

Counting Our Blessings

Thanks to Mia, Papou looks like a turkey!

Last weekend we had family in town to celebrate
an early Thanksgiving and Olivia's Christening. As
you can see, we had a wonderful time. We have
much to be thankful for this year...and most of
all, Olivia!

Zak, Liz, TJ and Mia. Everyone is smiling here
because Mia hasn't yet figured out how to work her
Hannah Montana doll. :)-

Family photo at the church.

The 'Rents and the God'Rents; Aunt Mimzi and Cousin Boomer.

Prepping for the big moment.

Celebrating with Mia and Papou at the afterparty.

Grand-Pop smiles in amazement as Grand-Mom
agrees to SMILE for the camera. :)

Thanks to everyone for coming to town to celebrate with us.
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Swingin' In C-Town

Today while Daddy was in Athens at the Auburn/Georgia
game we went to Auntie Liz and Uncle Zak's 'hood, Cabbagetown,
to check out their fancy, schmancy, park.

Olivia loved the swings. It was her first time in
the baby swing and she wasn't afraid at all. Can you
tell?

Our good friends Kelly and Luke joined us for
swinging fun. Luke is already a pro on the playground.

Swingin' with the Mamas. Luke was also "flossin'"
in his Adidas gear. Olivia is lucky to have a stylin'
younger boyfriend.

A great pic of Auntie and Uncle. Olivia was waayy
too occupied looking at Uncle Zak's blue shirt...we couldn't
get her to look at the camera!

Good Friends, Toddlers and Babies

Cameron, Olivia and Anna. It is impossible to get three
girls (ages two and under) to look at the camera at the same
time!

After taking care of all of our family obligations today, we
we ventured to our friend Whitney's house to meet
her new little bundle Preston.

We also said a preliminary goodbye to our dear friend
Allison and her children, Brady and Anna. The Watermeier
family will be moving to Australia before the end of the year.
We will miss them terribly!

Here we have the girls looking at the camera, but
Brady is looking elsewhere!

Auntie Allison encourages snooping. :)

Can you see baby Preston in the middle? At only
two weeks old he looks like a peanut compared
to the other young 'ins.

Cameron holds Olivia back. She kept calling her
"baby" and trying to make sure she sat back far enough
on the couch so that she didn't fall off. So cute!

Happy Halloween

The VanderMeers put on their annual "Delmartion
Party" for all of the Delmar neighbors in Grant Park.
Once again, all of the neighbor kids enjoyed Charlie
Brown and ET on the big screen.

Unfortunately our photos don't do justice to the Delmartion
Party. This year's party boasted a popcorn machine, a
smoke machine, candy and food galore AND a gorilla
(which we later discovered was Jon's Mom visiting
from Buffalo!). Oh, and I almost forgot to mention the
cop chopper that kept circling over us. Nothing like living in
the inner-city...

The adults enjoyed spiked cider and Sweet Water 420.

Do you like the creepy effect from the Halloween lights?

Instead of wearing the full lady bug suit, Olivia
opted for the "cat burglar with antennae" look.

Ah, the camera has been adjusted to compensate
for the lights. Olivia conveniently grabbed Chris
"the Verizon man's" beer.

And then she grabbed her Mom's beer. We decided
it was time for her to enjoy a bottle of her own...
a bottle of formula.

The host and his lovely neighbor.

The few stragglers (or should I say adults?) that hung
on after all the kids went home.

Happy Halloween!