On our way home we decided to take Olivia to see the Christmas lights display at a farm just outside of town. She was in awe! When Liv saw all the lights twinkling she looked up at us and said, “Stars?” It was so precious.
Luckily, I had taken the Friday after Thanksgiving off, which was a much needed day to relax and hang out with my sweetie-pie. Although….I’m not sure how much relaxing we actually did. Lol! I think we spent a good three hours dragging out all the boxes of Christmas decorations and deckin’ the halls before Daddy got home from work to help us put up the tree. Olivia had a blast looking through all of the ornaments and pretending the garland was her princess boa. Once we got everything done and plugged in the Christmas lights she looked around and said, “Is beautiful in here, Mama!”
That Saturday Steve and I booked a hotel room at The Marriott in Cedar Rapids. Since Liv has been cooped up a majority of the season, we wanted to take her out for a night. We knew we wouldn’t be able to go many places, so we thought a night away from home with swimming and pizza would do the trick! Sure enough, it did! We went swimming twice, jumped on the bed, ate candy and pizza, and stayed up late watching cartoons. A perfect night for Miss Livi-Pie! The next morning as we were leaving, Liv said, “We go to the amals (animals) house?” It’s funny the things she remembers…The last time we stayed at a hotel a few months back we went to the Zoo the next morning. We explained to her the animals were all inside for the winter and we’d go see them when it got warmer. She was ok with that, but as we were driving away from the hotel her little lip went out and she kept saying, “We be back!”
The next week we had our appointment with Melissa in IA City to pick up Liv’s brace. We hadn’t been there in almost two months and I know Olivia was more than excited to see Melissa. She spent a lot of time on her lap playing and showing off for her. I think she pretty much forgot I was even there! Since the last time we were in, Melissa and I both noticed Liv could do a lot of things she wasn’t able to do before. It’s nice to see she is still making progress even though we aren’t able to make it in as often. So far, things have been going well at home with the brace. Hopefully it will do the trick in turning her left arm inward a bit.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“The weather outside is frightful…” That song has sure been stuck in my head this past week! Don’t get me wrong, we have been ecstatic about all this snow, but the cold weather and ice that came along with it has almost been unbearable! But, before it did get this cold, we took advantage and made a few trips outside. Last weekend, before the snow hit, Steve was asking Olivia if she knew what snow was. She thought about it for a minute and said, “Show me some.” So, Steve got on the internet (thank goodness for that) and pulled up a few pictures of snow. The next day we got a couple of inches, which Olivia thought was so neat! Then the following two days we got another 11 inches, which I don’t think some people thought was too neat…We spent a lot of time looking out the window; watching the snow bury Santa in the front yard and Daddy with the snow blower having to dig us back out every few hours!
A few days after the blizzard passed, we made our way outside to dig around in the snow. We stomped around, tried to catch it in the air, and even built a baby snow man! I pretty much had to drag this kid back inside!
Last Friday night Gram came over and we had a girl’s night. We baked dozens upon dozens of cookies for Daddy’s birthday (which was Saturday) and after Liv went to bed mom and I watched, “The Proposal,” which was a great movie by the way!
On Saturday night Grandma and Grandpa Ron came over for a few hours while Steve and I went out for his birthday. We ate at Red Lobster (Steve’s favorite) and picked up a few things from Best Buy (also a favorite). Sunday morning Grandma and Grandpa Spencer played with Olivia while we went to church. When we picked her up they were watching “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.” Olivia was pretty upset about Rudolph getting teased. “He’s sad,” she kept saying, almost in tears herself…broke my heart! She has been extra sensitive here lately. I’m not sure what the deal is. We’ve been trying to reassure her and explain things to her in a way she can relate. She must just be like her Mama…Miss Sensitive!
Tomorrow Ellie and Heidi are coming up for a Play Date. It’s probably the last one we’ll have until after Christmas. Next week is going to be a busy, busy, busy week. Can you believe we have 4 Christmases (another great movie as well- lol!)? 5 actually…but one is this Friday, thank goodness. Liv has definitely been preparing herself for the big day. Sometimes she’ll shout out of no where, “Merry Christmas, erybody (everybody)!” She also knows the first verse of jingle bells, which she belts out quite often too! Liv is even expecting her first visit from Santa next week as well (shhhh, it’s a surprise!).
I probably won’t update again until after the Holidays. I hope you all have a happy and safe Christmas as well as a Blessed New Year. Please continue to keep us in your prayers.
Before I go, I want to share with you the pics I took for our Christmas card this year. It was so hard to decide which one!
Goodnight,
Kendra
Just wanted to let you know that enjoy following your blog and gave you a "tag" award on my blog! Stop by to check it out!
ReplyDelete