Olivia is 1!

Yesterday was Olivia's first birthday. I can't believe it's already been a year. Yesterday we took the girls to get their 1 year and 5 year pictures taken. They turned out wonderful. The girls did great. We had to sit and wait for about 30 min and they just played and smiled as we waited. Once it was our turn, we were in and out. They cooperated beautifully. I was pretty excited how well the tutu outfits came out as well. I made them myself!!

After pictures we took Olivia out to lunch for her birthday. We went to Chilis because they have the best chocolate molten cake ever. Olivia almost slept through her birthday lunch but managed to wake up in time for cake. It was a good time.

Her real birthday party will be in October at our annual pumpkin carving party along with McKenzie's birthday party. I figure I'll combine them for as long as they will let me.

Memorial Day Weekend

Olivia got her helmet this weekend. Although we are glad to get this therapy started, we are already ready for it to be over. We requested a very cute pink cheetah print helmet for her but it came as regular cheetah print which was disappointing. Oh well. We are amazed at how common the helmet therapy is. We are stopped everywhere we go by someone who wants to tell us how cute she is and tell their story of someone they know going through helmet therapy. We have found that these "designer" helmets offered now are very new. Everyone has thought we drew the design on Olivia's helmet. The summer months are going to be tough with Olivia. Her helmet is basically made of styrofoam on the inside and holds in the heat that would escape through her head. The biggest concern is making sure Olivia doesn't overheat. During the next few months, Olivia will have to stay indoors in the A/C or have other accommodations that keep her cool. She already has a pretty good heat rash across her forehead from the weekend that we have to watch.

This weekend, the girls and I were able to relax most of the weekend. On Saturday, we hung out at my mom's house by the pool. I got Olivia a little baby pool with a canopy to keep her shaded from the sun. She had so much fun splashing around in her little pool. Her cousin Alexa found the baby pool to be just as fun as the big pool!

After spending time at the pool at my mom's house again on Sunday, we drove out to Bob and Jane's house on the lake for a BBQ. McKenzie had fun playing in the lake. I honestly don't know how though. That water was freezing. I stuck my foot in and was done with that!

We got to spend some time with our niece, Finley. I was so excited to have some time with her. Usually when we see her it is with other family as well so I don't usually get to spend a lot of time with her. We took a boat ride together and she came up and sat on my lap and fell asleep. It was adorable. She also shared with me her favorite collection of rocks.

Luckily, there was a nice breeze out at the lake and I was able to keep Olivia outside with us. She enjoys the scenery at the lake and watching the water. Here she spent a little time with Grandpa Don.

On Memorial day, we headed out to the lake in Fremont with my dad and is new boat. McKenzie and Alexa were excited to play with one another again. McKenzie is going through a weird stage right now where she's scared to go fast in the boat. Last year there were no problems. The only thing I can think of is that it stems back from when we went to Okaboji last year and Bobby took her on an upside down ride. Ever since then, shes been scared of everything!

Alexa had fun burying herself in the sand.

What a Weekend!

We had a very fun, but very exhausting weekend this weekend. After ice skating on Saturday morning, we drove out to Bob and Jane's to let my dad test his new boat out on the lake. I think he was in heaven with this new boat! It's much faster and nicer than his last one and I can tell he can't wait for it to get nice out again.

Olivia on the boat.

My dad helping McKenzie drive the boat.

After the boat ride, we had to get McKenzie ready for her gymnastics open house. Here's a picture of her all ready to go.

About halfway through the gymnastics recital, I could tell something was wrong with McKenzie. She had hit her head on a bar and then later gotten a stomach ache. I could tell by her facial expressions that she wasn't feeling good. This photo was at the end when they were all given their metals. McKenzie wanted out of there but she kept going until the end.

At this point she was ready to go. She was crying about her stomach hurting and refused to take a picture.

After gymnastics, we let McKenzie cool off a bit before heading off to her dance rehearsal. After some ice tea she was feeling fine and was able to dance. She had a blast this year. She made friends with the girls in her class and no tears (except for when I got glitter eye shadow in her eye). Here's a photo of her after her recital on Sunday with her flowers and trophy. She was so excited to get a trophy. She came home and I found her in her room, standing on her dresser taking other things off her shelves to make room for that trophy.

She was very excited yet as you can see by this picture, she was also very exhausted.

Olivia had a cute dress that matched the color of McKenzie's and I wanted a photo of them together, but Olivia fell asleep right before the end of the show.

Friday, when I picked up the girls from daycare, Olivia's teacher said that Olivia refused to take a nap. I got her home and had her sitting at the table while I made dinner. I gave her a graham cracker and when I turned around, she was falling asleep while she was eating.

This is a video of the little dance at the beginning of the gymnastics recital. It was very cute. Hard to video over other people's heads though. McKenzie is in the back, behind the girl in the leotard. She's wearing a gymnastics t-shirt and black shorts.

This is a video of McKenzie's dance rehearsal. McKenzie is the second from the left. For the first 30 seconds they forgot the dance and just fluffed their hair.

Spring

Finally, we are getting some nice spring days. I love the spring mornings when you wake up and the sun is shining and you can't wait to get outside. McKenzie is usually the first one out in the mornings in her pajamas. That kid would live in her pajamas if I would let her. Friday is pajama day at school and she's been talking about it for over a week now.

Olivia is growing up faster than we can believe. She's started eating "big girl foods" now and can't seem to get enough. She loves graham crackers and cheerios. She also loves bananas and applesauce. She's getting very close to crawling. She hates to be on her tummy but her physical therapist gave me a lecture that she needs more time on her tummy to strengthen her neck (so her head isn't tilted as below) so we'll be doing more of that and hopefully she'll get so mad she'll just get up and crawl. Her friends that she plays with while McKenzie does gymnastics both crawl and leave her behind so I'm thinking she'll catch on quick. She hates being left behind.

Our insurance company has FINALLY approved helmet therapy for Olivia. We've had her initial appointment and the scanning of her head. We've picked out the awesome pattern for the outside of the helmet (we didn't have much to pick from) and should be getting the helmet soon. As soon as we get it, she'll have to wear it almost 24/7 for 3 months. It won't hurt her, it might just be annoying from time to time but we wanted to give her the chance to get a perfectly round head like it was supposed to be. Unfortunately the torticollis she was diagnosed with caused "flat head" on one side. You can't really tell by looking at her straight on but if you saw the back of her head, you'd know what I was talking about. We have been battling with the insurance company for quite a while over this though. They don't want to pay for anything cosmetic but we won since this was caused by the torticollis. Otherwise we were going to have to decide if we wanted to pay for it out of pocket. It's not cheap!

The girls are becoming more and more "daddy's girls". I guess with him working so much, I've had to discipline more and so they seem to like him again. LOL One thing he's always been able to do is get these kids to sleep. Why won't they sleep when I hold them???

McKenzie was part of an ice skating/dance recital last weekend. It was very cute. Her group was Monsters Inc and she was very excited to get the chance to dress up as Sully or "Silly" when she pronounces it. She had a great time. As soon as they got out there, she was knocked over by another girl but she got up and finished it out. It was very cute!

After the recital we all got dressed up and headed off to my cousin Sara's wedding. It was a beautiful reception (unfortunately we missed the wedding due to the recital). The kids really enjoyed the candy table. I think my niece Alexa enjoyed it the most. At one point she had stuffed so much candy in her mouth that she couldn't even swallow.

Sara had a beautiful gown.

My sister Nicki had fun dancing with Olivia.

The next morning was mothers day. It was a very nice, relaxing day. We had stopped to get some mothers day cards and McKenzie had decided she wanted to get a card for both of her grandmas. She spent some time picking out just the right Hoops and Yoyo cards. Bobby about killed her dream when he told her that she couldn't get the ones she wanted because they weren't Mothers Day cards. Well after one look on her face he changed his mind. She was so proud to give her Grandma Jane a birthday card that sang at breakfast. She wrote Happy Mothers day inside and gave it to her the second she saw her that morning.

Next we went to my mom's house. McKenzie of course gave my mom her card as well but then soon took off with the card to show everyone else. Somehow that card came home with us because she liked it so much. She didn't want to let it go. We need to work on giving I think.

Happy Birthday

It's been a crazy couple of weeks for us. Last weekend was beautiful and we had a wonderful time playing outside in the backyard together. The girls play well together despite the difference in age. McKenzie is very sweet and gentle to Olivia. McKenzie had fun pushing Olivia in the swing last weekend. It was fun to watch them both laugh and play.

Last week Olivia was taken to the doctor for a fever. Although the fever was nothing, they did finally listen to me about how she turns her head to the right so much. I've always found it weird how she can turn her head to the right almost 180 degrees and learned very young how to roll over in order to always lay on her right. She can turn to the left but obviously favors the right. Turns out she has torticollis and plagiocephally. That means a muscle in her neck is tight which is causing her to turn to the right and it has caused her to always tilt her head. Because of this, we were not able to have her lay on different sides of her head and now she has a flat head. She has started physical therapy to help with her neck and she sees her doctor tomorrow to find out if they want to put her in a helmet to reshape her skull. She'll be the cutest baby ever to wear a helmet!

Today is my birthday. We got to get up at 5am this morning to get McKenzie to her second ice skating competition. She wasn't feeling real well on the way there but once we got there and she saw everyone, she perked up. She had a hard time though remembering her routine. It could have been the distraction from the entire family waving. She got out there and did her best and she loved having so many people there to watch her. She just lit up when she saw everyone watching her.

She got second place in the basic 1 event. Unfortunately it wasn't very fair. Her competition was in basic 3 so McKenzie didn't have a chance. She didn't care though. When I told her she got second, she asked, "what's second?" I told her that it means that you get to stand on the number 2 for pictures. She was so excited. She ran up there and stood proud while she was given her silver metal. I just love it! We are so proud of her for going out there! Thank you to everyone that came out to watch her. I can tell that it means the world to her.

McKenzie's First Ice Skating Competition

Olivia stole McKenzie's flowers

McKenzie waiting to see what she won

Grandpa Bob, McKenzie and Grandpa Randy (and the back of Olivia's head)

Our first place champion!

McKenzie was more excited about the flowers I think!

McKenzie had her very first ice skating competition this morning. She did wonderful. We were a little worried because when we first walked in and got her ice skates on, she seemed a bit overwhelmed by all of the people and she clung to my leg. When her name was called for her practice ice time, she looked at me and said, I don't want to go out there alone. Luckily her coach was right there and took her hand and lead her down to the ice. She did great during practice but I could tell she was a bit nervous.

Everything was going great until the event started. Her coach had her head out before the National Anthem was sang. She had to call McKenzie back off the ice and she is so sensitive and looked like she thought she was in trouble. I thought it was going to be over from there and she'd come off the side crying. She didn't though. I was very impressed. After the Anthem, they called her out. She went to the ice, took her stance and did her routine. It lasted a whole 30 seconds and she was done.

McKenzie won first place in the Snowplow Sam Compulsory event! Although, she didn't have anyone to compete against. The one other girl dropped out. They told me though that McKenzie cannot win by default. It's against the rules so she had to skate against the "books". I guess that means she had to skate against the standard and see where she would place. According to "the books" she took first place!

We are so proud of her. Not for winning, of course, but for putting in all that work and getting out there in front of everyone on her own and doing her routine. It was so fun to watch her. She's just so grown up now. She had a wonderful time and she's asked us to sign her up for the next competition on March 29th!!

Las Vegas/Scottsdale

Bobby and I under the famous Vegas sign

Bobby at the Hoover Dam

The scenery at Coconino National Forest in Sedona AZ

Heather, Ali, Jessie, Kari and Kristin

McKenzie and Olivia - my valentines!

Top row: Bobby, Kari, Finley, Heather, Brian

Bottom row: Olivia, Billy, Deb, McKenzie, Ali

We just got back from our family vacation. Although we are all exhausted and have a million things to get done by tomorrow, we very much enjoyed the time we had together.

Bobby and I left last Sunday for Las Vegas. It was so nice for the two of us to have some time together to get out and have some fun. I sat down at my first slot machine and won $5 on a nickel slot machine. I figured that was the extent of my luck so I cashed out. Bobby did enough losing for the both of us at black jack. Although Vegas is the place to go to gamble, we really didn't do a whole lot of gambling. We walked the strip and were approached by 15 time share people. We finally gave in and agreed to do a 90 min lunch presentation on a vacation package in exchange for Chris Angel tickets.

We saw Mystre at Treasure Island where we stayed. If you ask me how it was, I'll just stare at you dumbfounded. There really are no words to describe. The best one I can think of is "odd". Unfortunately we missed Chris Angel. Bobby was determined to get his latest tattoo while in Vegas and he finally found a place that could get him in at 5:30pm. What was supposed to take no more than 2 hours took 4 and we ended up missing the show. Being the huge dork I am, I stayed at the hotel and did homework that whole time so I was exhausted by the time he got back. We went out to dinner and called it a night that night.

We decided to rent a car and drive to Scottsdale where we were meeting up with Bobby's family. The drive was phenomenal. We took a detour and checked out the Hoover Dam. I'm sorry but yes, its a wonder how they did that but once you've seen it, you've seen it. I guess I'm just not all that into it. Bobby really enjoyed it and wanted to see it from every angle. I wasn't as excited about it and wanted to get on our way.

We decided to take the long way to Scottsdale and drive through Sedona, per the advice from our taxi driver. He told us it was beautiful and we just couldn't pass it up. Well, he was right. It was the most beautiful drive I have been on. We drove through Coconino National Forest and it was absolutely gorgeous. We wound up and down a mountain. It had just snowed the day before but the roads were clear and dry so it was great to see the scenery. The only bummer was that all of the scenic areas were closed due to the snow so there were not a lot of opportunities to stop for photos. I would love to go back there some day and stay in a resort in the forest.

In Scottsdale, it was cold, much like Las Vegas. McKenzie swam with Bobby one day and Finley got in with Heather and Brian for a bit but that was the extent of the swimming. We did go for some walks and visited the train park. We got together with Kristin and Jessie one night. We did some shopping and checked out a western themed dinner/entertainment deal one night as well. We were also invited to Bobby's uncle Billy's house. He and Deb had a nice pizza party for us. McKenzie decided we should have a dance off while we were there so we all gave it a shot. McKenzie said that Ali and Jane tied although we all think Bobby had the best dance moves. (You should have seen him shake his stuff!!)

We all made it home safe and sound. Although you should have seen us. We've decided until the kids can walk on their own, we are no longer traveling by plane by ourselves. On the way to the airport, McKenzie threw up on herself which was fun. Once we got to the rental car return we had to go through her suitcase and change her clothes. Then we had 4 suitcases, 4 carry-ons, 2 car seats and our coats which of course we were carrying along with puppy and blanky. From the shuttle to the airport, we had to carry all of these because there were no carts. Crossing the street, I think Bobby dropped a suitcase 4 times. Cars were stopped trying to go around him as he picked up on suitcase and dropped another. I couldn't help but laugh from the side of the street watching him. Once we got in and finally got everything checked, we almost had to run to our gate because they were already loading. You should have seen us in security. The guy running the machine had to help us because we had to unpack the diaper bag to show all the liquids, unpack the video camera (that we never used), unpack the lap top, you get the drift here. So as I'm trying to that, McKenzie is sitting in the middle of the walking area crying that her stomach hurts. I basically had to carry her through the metal detector. Then the nice security guard tried to make her feel better by giving her a sticker but instead I had to pick her up and run her to the garbage can so she could throw up again. They just looked at me like, okay, it's going to be one of those days. She was fine though after some 7up.

Now we're home. Even though we were together on vacation, I still feel like I wasn't able to spend a lot of time with the girls. I decided to keep them home today and we all played along with Alexa. I took the girls out for lunch and they just had all kinds of fun playing today. All in all, we've had a great week!!

Happy New Year!

Ice skating on the lake

Our Husker Babies

Happy new year

Milk and cookies for Santa (and carrots and ranch for the reindeer)

We had a terrific year! Bobby and I rang in the new year this year by going to a movie. We saw The Spirit. Really, it's a rental. We were two of seven people there. After the movie we headed back to ring in the new year with our girls. McKenzie was very into celebrating this year. She got horns and hats from Grandma Jane and couldn't wait for midnight to blow them. Unfortunately, she couldn't hang in there until midnight so Bobby told her it was midnight at 11:30 so she could blow her horn and get into bed. Oh well. I have to admit, she out did Olivia and me.


Christmas was great for us as well. Santa brought McKenzie TWO lightsabers and a magic wand. What a spoiled little girl. She was very certain that she remained on the nice list this year. Bobby and I were questionable on that. Although, she was concerned for a couple of her uncles. Christmas morning she told us that she was pretty sure uncle Don and uncle Gary were on the nice list and Santa had paid them a visit. To make sure she got her presents though she was very nice to Santa. She left him plenty of cookies and milk. she also left a whole bag of baby carrots for the reindeer and even a side of ranch for Rudolph. She told us Rudolph is the only one who likes ranch however.



Santa brought me a Nintendo Wii. I have played it once, as school and work have taken over my life. McKenzie has gotten a lot of play out of it though and has begun to understand how it all works. I'm actually impressed at how fast she has caught on to Mario Cart! She finally finished a race before the time ran up. She still comes in last place but we just tell her that she came in 12th rather than last. It seems to settle with her a little better.



Olivia seems to be teething. We have been getting some rather fussy moments with her lately. She'll cry out of nowhere just to remind us that it hurts. She pulls at her gums and goes to town on her fingers. I'm surprised her fingers aren't raw with how much she chews on them. All part of the growing process. She is still a very happy baby though and smiles and laughs all the time. She has started a new trick where she gurgles at herself and then laughs and then does it again over and over. It's hilarious to watch. If only we could all entertain ourselves that way!



We hope that 2009 brings you and your family peace and happiness. We are very excited to see what will come of this year.