Bug Antennae

Yesterday I put pig tails in Livvy's hair for the first time. They were so cute. She wasn't quite as sure about them. She didn't quite care why I was holding her head still, she just knew that she didn't like it much. Anyway here are a couple of pictures.



There were only half pigtails so they looked like bug antennae to me. :) PS - She was very excited about that box. I wonder why I even buy her real toys, she would do just as well with trash. Silly Girl!

But I'm not tired...

Olivia has recently started crying when I lay her down for bed. She will sit herself up and cry and cry. So I started sitting her in her crib and leaving her lamp on (if it's dark outside) and letting her play with her stuffed animals for a while till she falls asleep. This works really well, except sometimes she doesn't realize she is tired and falls asleep sitting up. I have walked in on some funny positions the last few days.

When I leave her she puts her face up to the bars and cries for me to come back. (She wasn't very upset in this picture because she knew I wasn't leaving while I was taking a picture.)


Here she fell asleep sitting up and her head sort of slouched into her lap. It's a good thing she is bendy!

Yeah for December!

It's been a pretty busy weekend for us. On Saturday it snowed all day! Aunt Jessi and Uncle AJ came over and we played all day long. But first, a couple funny pictures.



I really like manicotti (stuffed shells.) That and macaroni and cheese are my favorite big girl foods right now.




On Friday we had to walk down the street to drop off some papers. It was really cold so we had to get all bundled up. Mommy put some mittens on my hands and I just wasn't sure about them. I thought it was a game. But I look super cute in my mittens and hat. Thanks special grandma Jill!


At bath time on Friday night my hair looked like Medusa, so we thought we would share a couple pictures of that too.


On Saturday night Aunt Jessi and Uncle AJ went with us to the Festival of Trees. For those of you who are not 'Bridges' - My cousin Lindsay's (and Jason) little baby boy, Gavin, passed away last month. He was 3 months old. His short little life was filled with many physical trials. However, he brought so much peace and love to anyone near him. His Bailey relatives decorated and donated a tree for this years Festival of Trees. Here are a few pictures of it.













Here are a couple of the trees we liked the best or thought were the most creative. We only made it about 1/3 of the way through. Olivia got tired and grouchy.













And finally, we decorated out tree yesterday. Here is a picture of it.

Thanksgiving

Yes, I know I am still being a big blogging slacker. What can you do? First, for Halloween we carved a Livvy pumpkin. Here is a picture of them together. (Note the one tooth in each.)


For Thanksgiving this year we met my parents in Las Vegas. Since we will be going to Dallas for Christmas, we thought it would be fun to see them. We all stayed at my grandparents house and butted in on my aunts Thanksgiving festivities. It was a super fun day. We played Thanksgiving BINGO and then went fishing for prizes. Olivia was feeling sick so I did spend a good portion of the weekend cleaning up explosions. My aunt heated up her pool and so we did get to go swimming. It was FREEZING outside, but nice and warm in the pool.



On Friday night we had a big game night with cousins and my aunt. Olivia enjoyed playing games too. Then on Saturday morning Marcus and I got to have a boys vs. girls rematch of Ten Thousand with my grandparents. The boys slaughtered us, again. The drive back home went ok, but Olivia needed to play with the camera case for a while to stay entertained.



Notice the second tooth! Two big girl teeth now!

Fall Leaves

On Thursday Olivia and I headed over to University Hospital to see her cranial/facial specialist about her head. He said that it was looking very good, and that her torticollis is getting better. Then we decided to take the tunnel/bridge over to Primary Children's Hospital to visit Lindsay, Cindy, and Gavin. I love visiting Gavin. He is so adorable, and keeping up with adorableness, was dressed like a pumpkin when we visited. I was able to talk to Lindsay for a while and Gavin just slept. Gavin, like Olivia, knows that being so cute is hard work, and sometimes needs a long rest. Olivia played to the waiting room with Aunt Cindy. Aunt Cindy must be lots of fun, because my super tired baby was having the time of her life when I came out to get her. Anyway, the leaves where being raked on our way out to the car (from the apartment) so we thought we would take a couple fall pictures.














Today we had our ward's Trek or Treat. Basically it is a Trunk or Treat, but inside. They had games, Olivia like the fishing game. We fished over a sheet and "caught" some fruit snacks! Then we went to the classroom and got candy. I had really wanted to dress her up as a bunny, because I always call her bunny (don't ask) but was having a hard time finding a bunny costume. So, last night I was at Walmart trying to figure out what to do, and my smart sister Jessi said "Why don't you just put bunny ears on her?" Well, duh. Or course. So I found a child size bunny ear and tail set. We put them on with some pink pants and shirt and voila! The cutest bunny ever. Her ears were just too big (they were on a headband) so we took one of her headband bows and put that over the ears to hold them on. So she became a bunny with a bow. It turned out really well. After Trek or Treating we took a couple more pictures in the leaves.

I've been waiting for this my whole life!

Finally after 6 months of waiting (so not quite her WHOLE 9 month life) Olivia finally had a tooth break though! It is her bottom middle left incisor. We are very excited here about this and to celebrate we thought we would share a couple pictures. Hopefully it doesn't take another 6 months for the next one to follow.



They are just barely out of the gums so you have to look kind of close.

Standing Up

Wow, I'm a huge blog slacker. I haven't posted in almost a month. It's not like I've been busy either. Oh well. I don't have anything exciting to post, so I will just post a couple of pictures of Olivia from yesterday after church.





PS - You can't really see her shoes in the picture, but I am in love with them. I will have to post a picture of them later.

Queen Tut-iliv-ios

Not much has happened this past week. This is just a few highlights of this past week.

Livvy started eatting Cheerios. This video is of the first day she started eatting them. Since then she has become quite the pro. She eats Cheerios, Gerber Puffs, and bread. She also tried rice once, but was a little concerned that it was so sticky.





A few days later she was eatting Cheerios again, and one slid out of her mouth and just stayed on her chin. That is why she is Queen Tut-iliv-ios. (It looks like an Egyptian beard.)




We also went to the swings and played for a little while. Olivia is starting to enjoy the swings much more. She has never been scared of them, but she does sometimes look at me like, "Is this supposed to be amusing mom?"




Today I decided it was cold enough (our house was like 65 degrees) to turn on the heater. I took all the vents off so I could clean them out and much sure they weren't pushing dust into our apartment. This is what I found...
.........................Before........................................After.........................

Clapping!

The other day Jessi and AJ were at my house. Jessi and I were playing with Olivia and her blocks. I guess Olivia was very proud of something she did, and she started clapping. For the first time. It was so cute. She had never clapped before, and she just did it. Here is a video of it.


Here are also just some cute pictures that we took that day.



This picture is of Aunt Jessi feeding her a bottle. She was being really silly and kept arching her back like she used to when she was little.




This one is of her going poopy on the potty. Sometimes when I am giving her a bath she decides that that is the best time to go poopy. Instead of letting her poop in the tub and having to clean it out and redraw the bath, I pick her up and set her on the potty so she just poops in there. She thinks it is pretty funny.



This is just a picture of her clapping. It just really captured her joy. (Blocks can be pretty "joyful!")
P.S. Grandpa Kirk - check out those John Deere socks!

Run Run Run

This video is special for Becca. However, I do know a couple Grandma's who might find it pretty cute as well.

Mays Family Cruise

Well, the anticipation of the last seven months is now at an end. This past week we went on our Caribbean cruise with my whole family. I think everyone is a little sad that it is over, however I believe we all had a blast. Here is a run down of the week...

Sat, Aug 25, Flying...
Jessi, AJ, Monica, Johnny, Marcus, Oliva, and I flew to San Juan via Atlanta. We flew all day long, but luckily the baby was very cooperative and played and slept on the planes. Once in San Juan we met my parents at the airport and went to a hotel for the night. My poor parents lost ALL their luggage, but I will let them share that story on their blog. Everyone except my parents went out to eat (at midnight) that night because we were starving. The official language of Peurto Rico is Spanish, so it made ordering a little tricky. Luckily everyone except Marcus and I knew some Spanish so we had translators.

Sun, Aug 26, San Juan...
Everyone except my little family went to church in San Juan on Sunday morning. (You parents who have ever spent a day flying with church falling at 9am the next morning will understand why we didn't go.) The seven of them split up into two cabs (they opted not to walk 3 miles each way in a place they were not so familiar with.) My parents driver knew immediately what building they were talking about and told the other driver where to go. The other driver must have misunderstood because AJ, Jessi, Monica, and Johnny all ended up at a Baptist service. They did find their way to the LDS church, luckily I think it was just down the street. They all attended sacrament in Spanish and then came back to the hotel to get ready to board the boat.

Mon, Aug 27, At Sea...
Monday was a sea day, as we needed to travel to the south end of the Caribbean islands. AJ tackeled his main goal of trip that first day, ice skating on the boat. He was also very excited to find out that the people in charge of ice skating were mainly Russians. (For those of you that don't know, AJ served his mission in the Ukraine and speaks both Ukranian and Russian.) He confused the people there by speaking to them in Russian, but then they enjoyed talking to each other for a while. (Most of the emplyees on the boat speak English as a second language, and usually just enough to communicate. I think it was nice for them to have a conversation with someone that involved more than, "What size skates do you need?") Luckily my parents bags made it to the boat about 30 minutes prior to sailing, so they didn't have to wear the same thing all week long.


Tues, Aug 28, Barbados...
I know Tuesday was a highlight for me. My parents rented a Catamaran for just our family all Tuesday morning. It had a net in the front of the boat that you could sit on and the waves would lap up on you while sailing. (Unfortunately the water was very calm that day so there was very little sea spray.) They also took us snorkeling at two different sites. The first had some beautiful fish and a shipwreck. The second, turtles. Olivia obviously couldn't snorkel, however at the second site I strapped on a life vest and took the baby into the water just behind the boat. She loved it! I wish I had had my camera with me, but it wouldn't have lasted long in the water. She was smiling and splashing and thought that it was just amazing. Just like a huge bathtub! Also on Tuesday night we went to an ice show on the ship. Due to the fact that I didn't have a baby monitor and I didn't want to go across the ship to check on the baby every 15 minutes or so during the show I decided to take her along. It was amazing! First of all the rink was much smaller than what you normally see. They had professional skaters who did the show. It was accompanied by lights and music and Olivia watched the whole thing in amazement. During the show there was a trick where the one guy flips a girl over him and she lands behind him (all while moving of course.) She slipped on the trick, and we later found out that when she slipped she broke her wrist! Ouch. No one had any idea though, they skated through the rest of the show like nothing had happened.


Wed, Aug 29, St. Lucia...
On Wednesday we were supposed to have a girls day doing a 'Scenery, History, and Art' Tour. We were so excited, and then it was canceled. I guess not enough people were as excited as we were. So instead we all walked into town and went shopping for a while. After a bit I decided to take the baby back to the boat because it was so hot. AJ, Marcus, and my dad all took a taxi up to the George F. L. Charles Airport later that afternoon.













Thurs, Aug 30, Antigua...
On Thurday everyone except my mom, the baby and I went Kayaking. Monica and Johnny even won a race against all the other kayakers. They all said that the water was just beautiful. Afterwards, we all met up and went into town again. Here, Marcus and especially AJ found one of the 'trip goals.' A steel drum. We also got the baby a maraca. We decided they should all start a band together. We also tried another of everyones 'ship goals,' rock climbing. They had a big rock climbing wall on the top deck of the ship. It was a lot of fun.

Fri, Aug 31, St. Maarten/St. Martin...
On Friday everyone except the baby and I went and did a canopy tour. It was a series of bridges, ropes, and zip lines up in the canopy of the trees. I think that everyone loved it. Again after the canapy tour we all met up and went shopping.


Sat, Sept 1, St Thomas...
Saturday was the last day of the cruise and you could deffinately feel it in the air. Everyone was a little sad for it to be over. That morning my mom and dad went parasailing in the harbor. Daredevils! We went shopping again afterwards.

We spent most nights together playing games and sitting on my parents balcony overlooking the ocean. It was so much fun to be with everyone. Our wait and room staff were all excellent. Every night our stateroom attendant would make something out of towels for us. We also learned some words and phrases in Indonesian. Our waiter was from Bali and we enjoyed learning things about his country.

Sunday as we flew home everyone was just exhausted.