Good-bye 2009...

We had a wonderful Christmas and are ready for the new year! 2009 was great for us in many ways, and we are going into 2010 with high expectations. I remember this time last year knowing that 2009 would bring many great things for us, and God didnt disappoint! (He never does!) As we continue to learn to keep the Lord in the center of our lives, the blessings continue to come to our family. We can't wait to see how far we will have come by this time next year!

Oliver had a BLAST with Christmas this year. I didn't really expect him to get into it as much as he did, but he was ripping through presents like crazy and super-excited with all that was going on. I know next year will be even better. We are so blessed!!

Oliver's Visit With Santa

I'll have to upload the picture later, but let's just say he wanted nothing to do with him!!! LOL We went to see Santa at our church today and Oliver was not happy! Poor little guy, I have to admit it was funny though.

Jay had to work today, and my parents both came to Fort Wayne to do some Christmas shopping so Oliver and I met them for lunch. Then we went to Von Maur and picked up Oliver's new pediped flex shoes, they are awesome! He seems to grow out of shoes rather quickly but I get at least one good pair for each size he goes through. He had a good pair of Nikes that I really liked but those are too small, so these little brown shoes are adorable on him. By that time Jay was off work so he met us at Jefferson Pointe. Mom had already gone through the racks at Von Maur and picked out more stuff for Oliver :) Then she and Dad went to get a few things and Jay and I went to Childrens Place and got some stuff for Oliver. Mom walked by and saw us in line so they stopped back in and while we were waiting she picked out more things for Oliver. Haha, it cracks me up, she is such a wonderful grandmother and loves to buy him things. We then got some chocolates at DeBrands, I went and picked up Brent and Taylor's Christmas gifts (yay Jess! :) ) and by that time Oliver had fallen asleep so we just headed home. I still need to go back and go to the cake store sometime next week to get a few last minute things for the wedding cake I'm doing next weekend. I'm SO nervous about it!! I know it'll go great but I just want it to be perfect.

Ok, will upload pics later but am going to go put away some of Oliver's new things :)

MIRACLE!!

God is SO GOOD all the time!!!!!

We went to Oliver's foot dr for a check-up today. It has been two months since the dr said Oliver didnt need to wear his braces at night, and today was a check-up to make sure he didnt need to start wearing any brace at night.

The appt went FABULOUSLY! The dr didnt even say anything about a brace and said his feet look fantastic. We go back in 6 months and if things are still looking good (and we have no doubt that they will) that could be his last appt.

Many, many babies born with clubfoot wear braces and have therapy until they are 3 or 4 years old. God has given us a miracle with Oliver.

Oliver was having fun playing peek-a-boo at the end of the exam table :)

We are so, so blessed.

Thankfulness

Catching up on Today's Thankfulness list...I have this posted on our fridge.

Friday, Nov. 13th: Today I am thankful for the relationship I have with my mother. She is my best friend and I appreciate her even more now that I am a mother.

Sat, Nov. 14th: Today I am thankful for SUNSHINE!! Winters can get very dreary in Indiana but today was beautiful.

Sun, Nov. 15th: Today I am thankful for a wonderful church family that I can trust to watch Oliver in the nursery while Jay and I worship. It has taken me awhile to feel comfortable leaving him but I know that there are wonderful, caring people to watch him. Today I helped in the nursery (along with 2 other girls) and with 12 little lambs, I appreciate those helpers even more!!

Mon, Nov. 16th: Today I am thankful for my husband and the help he gives me with our loving yet stubborn little boy!!

Tues, Nov. 17th: Today I am thankful that Jay has a job to go to everyday. Its easy to get down about the job he has and think of everything we wish we had but don't, but if we stop and are STILL...we realize how thankful we are that he has a job to go to. Many people would trade us places in a heartbeat!

My Little Monkey

Oliver is getting bigger by the day, and is getting into anything and everything!! Today he was playing in his room while I got dressed. I went into his room to find him standing on the edge of a basket so he could see the kids playing outside.

And then when we came downstairs he figured out how to climb up onto the end tables! He is just now tall enough to pull himself up onto them from the floor without the help of any toys to boost himself up. Oh boy~

Oliver Loves Boxes!

So the boxes from Global Sugar Art came today with supplies for Jenni's wedding cake. Oliver woke up from his nap to see 2 big boxes and was so excited! I only got the one opened up while he was awake today because he used the bucket of fondant to sit on and the other box as his table :) he even took a book and sat at his "table" and read it.

Every day until Thanksgiving (and maybe even beyond that) I'm going to write one thing I'm thankful for and make it different everyday. Today I am thankful for a husband who shares my belief that me staying at home with our little guy is worth the sacrifices we have to make.

Still here!

Wow, its been a LONG time since I've posted. i dont know if anyone even still checks! I'd like to try to keep up on this again.

Oliver is getting SO BIG! He is really walking a lot now. We are so blessed with how wonderful his feet look. He is 14 months now and on the go constantly. I feel like once his eyes open in the morning its just GO GO GO! I love it but ohhh its exhausting.

Here's a recent picture of Mr. Oliver. He was helping me make our friend Kirsten's birthday cake. Cake decorating has become a recent hobby of mine and one that I will probably start a new blog about. :)

Lazy Saturday

Its a beautiful day here. My mom is here today visiting and will stay the night. I love having her here. Jay is out golfing, and Oliver is asleep upstairs with my mom. So I'm taking a litte bit to play on the internet!

Oliver was 9 months on Tuesday! Gosh, its soooo hard to believe. On Thursday we got his pics taken at Portrait Innovations. I wasn't as happy with those as I was with his 6 month pictures. The photographer just didn't seem as quick with taking pictures, meaning she kept trying to get him to look a certain place and wouldn't take a picture until he was doing what she wanted, even though sometimes he would have the cutest look on his face or whatever. Oh well, we still ended up getting 7 different poses, out of 106 pics they took!

Its such a change to look at his 6 month pictures and then his 9 months. He has grown so much and has gotten a LOT more hair! Its curly and crazy and I love it!

Oliver still doesn't have an interest in crawling. All he wants to do is stand! He has had his legs straight pretty much his entire life until a month ago when Dr. C said he only needed his braces at night. Last weekend he started taking steps when he was holding onto our hands. I can't wait to see him walk. Thank you to everyone who has made positive comments about Oliver standing. We have truly been blessed and every day we thank God for taking such good care of our baby! It is because of Him that Oliver is thriving.

Sunny Days

It has been absolutely gorgeous here the past couple of days. Yesterday Kirsten and I took the boys for a walk. She has a son, David, who is 10 mos older than Oliver. She is due anyday now with a baby girl, so we are walking as much as possible!! She and I both ended up sunburned...maybe we should do as good of a job protecting our own skin as we do on our babies! We took a realllllly long walk, and about a mile from home Oliver decided he had had ENOUGH of the stroller and wanted out. I tried to even walk beside it and talk to him, but nope. He had some big tears, so after 2 hours of walking, I picked him up and carried him and pushed the stroller another mile home. Oh my, it was probably quite the site! I meant to throw my Beco in the basket of the stroller in case this happened but forgot. I learned my lesson! :)

Oliver loves being outside, and I can't wait for all the fun things this summer. Jay will be off work until July 21 so we're going to make the most of this first summer we have together as a family of 3. :)

I will add a picture later when I'm on a computer that has recent pics.

MIA

wow, so its been over 3 months since I've blogged. Now its almost summertime, and because of the GM layoff, Jay will be home until July 21. So hopefully I can update some more about Oliver.

He is getting sooooo big! In fact, my little pumpkin is letting me know its time for some breakfast. :-) But here are some recent pictures.

And finally, today!

Finally, I'm caught up with my pictures!!!

Today was a pretty laid back day. Oliver slept a lot, which was good, because he's been fighting it lately and he didnt nap much yesterday.

Here he was after sitting up for awhile on the couch. This is a perfect, "Ok Mom, I can't do this anymore!" picture :o)

Baby Pilot Tuesday

This outfit was my nephew, Liam's, and its just too cute! (Just like everything else of his...my SIL is amazing at dressing her kids, they are always adorable!!!)

Pretty Feet Monday

Monday Jay took a vacation day from work...it was so nice. Its the first time he has ever had vacation days, and we both just needed him to be home for a night.

Oliver is obsessed with his feet. its too cute!! He doesnt pay much attention to them when he has his braces on, but he goes nuts when we take them off. His feet look so great! And he can sit up for brief periods of time by himself when his braces are off. He's still not very steady, but he's getting there. I think it'll be longer before he can sit up with his braces on. They go so far up his legs that they kind of interfere with his sitting.

Cereal!!! Sunday, 2/1

Sunday Oliver got his first bite of baby cereal. It was so cute!! He was very interested in the spoon and food, but would make terrible faces when he got a taste of it! He did so well. We have done cereal once a day every day since then and its going great!!

I'm glad we waited awhile to start cereal. He doesnt fight it, and already gets excited when he sees me stirring it up. He only eats a tiny bit at a time, but thats ok, I'm just getting him used to a spoon and practicing eating. He wasnt satisfied with just a bottle anymore, and he was already eating 32 oz most days, so it was time to start something new. And its actually been pretty fun!! I think we were both finally ready for it.

Saturday, 1/31

Saturday, Kirsten and I went shopping. It was so fun! I found stuff for Oliver, and she bought stuff for her baby girl, Gracie Mae, who is due in June.

When we got back to their house I was showing her some of my different baby carriers. I had Oliver's braces off, so i put him in my polkadot papoose baby sling to see how he fits in it now. He was so happy just sitting up in there! It was so cute!!

Another one-Jan 30

Another sleepy baby picture...thats

actually my baby blanket above his head.

Sleepy Baby-Thurs. Jan 29

Oliver doing what he loves to do most...sleep!

!

Wednesday, Jan. 28

I needed comfy pants

for him and grabbed these

6-9 month ones real quick...haha, you

cant really tell but they went

past his feet by a LOT and were

almost falling off his waist!!

January 27th picture

Got milk???

and I'm Back

Sorry for being MIA lately. My laptop is being crap, but thankfully my FIL is letting us borrow his for the time being. I hate being without a laptop! But you all know how I love pictures, so I'm going to do a post for each day since last week with that day's picture on it.

We are all doing well. Oliver's growing and growing and growing. He wore a 6-9 month one-piece outfit today. It was fisher-price and all the others from them run small too, so I wasnt surprised. He's outgrowing 3-6 onesies and the length on 3-6 pants are finally fitting well, and not covering his feet! Some 6 month stuff fits, and the rest will fit very soon. My baby is getting B-I-G!!