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...