These are a few of our favorite things

Life around here has been changing! 

I finally feel good enough to get off the couch, 

remind me next time I get baby hungry that morning sickness is seriously not fun

the weather is finally cooling down enough to walk out of the house, 

 and I'm trying to keep up with my baby who turned into a toddler overnight!

 I just wanted to document a few of our favorite things right now.

BOOKS
Olivia loves reading books! She loves being read to or just plopping down and reading by herself for a few minutes. I love watching her flip through the pages like she knows what she's doing. 

SMOOTHIES

side note: I think my love of smoothies came when I lived with my college roommate Dana who made awesome smoothies everyday. She told me once that smoothies should be served in beautiful cups. I don't have any cool fancy smoothie cups like she did, but I always use my bright green Hawaiian print ones and hope I'm not disgracing the beautiful cup rule.

So, Olivia and I shared a smoothie everyday for a while in these fantastic green cups. It was one of the only things that sounded good to me when I had morning sickness these last 10 weeks and she was not about to let a brightly colored cup and a yummy smoothie be had by mom only.

BATHROOMS
Olivia loves playing in the bathroom. Since she knows she isn't supposed to play in there, she tells herself "no, no, no, no, no" over and over as she walks closer and closer...
and then goes in to play anyways.
At least she knows the rule right? One day she might decide to follow it.

One of my 'favorite' things about Olivia playing in the bathroom involves her not machine washable stuffed animals.You see, she loves her stuffed animals and she takes good care of them. In fact, there have been a few times when she has decided they needed baths just like her.

 And what? 

There is an always-filled, just-their-size bath tub in the bathroom? 

excellent.

SNUGGLES 
This girl LOVES to snuggle with mom. If she is really tired or sad, she'll snuggle dad too, but we snuggle before every nap and bedtime and when we watch shows on TV.

JUST BEING SILLY

 Olivia cracks me up. She went through a few weeks of eating her meals with one foot up on her high chair. Doesn't look comfortable to me, but whatever floats your boat darling.

THE LIBRARY 
We recently discovered how fun the walking trail is behind the library. There is a waterfall, a pond, a park, and there are always tons of these Canadian Geese for her to chase around. They are probably about as big as Olivia, so it makes me a little nervous, but dad was with us this trip and told me he'd keep her safe :)

STUFFED ANIMALS
This is how Olivia sleeps every night. She loves her stuffed animals and needs two to snuggle with. It usually doesn't matter which two, although she really prefers that pig these days, but she needs one in each arm.

FLOWERS 
Now that it is cooling off in the evenings, after dinner Clint and I sometimes take Olivia out to the backyard to play. We have a pretty steep hill making up half of the yard, and she huffs and puffs and stumbles up and down that hill over and over again. She is one determined little girl who does not mind a challenge.

One night Clint taught her to pick the flowers in the lawn and she gave me this one. It about melted my heart. I brought it inside and saved it. 

She hasn't stopped picking flowers since. We go on walks in the mornings and she can't pass by a flower without picking off the little head and smelling it and insisting I smell too. Hopefully the neighbors don't mind us taking care of their dandelion problems. ;)

I sure love this sweet, thoughtful, silly, wonderful girl! Being a mom can be a hard job, but she helps make it so much easier for me. I can't wait to see her be a big sister in March!