reporting to you live from Alabama...

Olivia is once again a 'traveling girl', but this time was by car rather than by plane! We are in the south - even more so than when we are in Charleston. We are in Montgomery, Alabama where the temperatures are hot and the humidity is even greater! However, I am handling it much easier than the wives that I have spoken with that have traveled here from the north or the west. We are here for a month while Andy attends Squadron Officer School. I have never attended a TDY with Andy before; I believe I am one of the few wives who has never experienced Altus, OK (thankfully!). However, with me still being on maternity leave, Olivia and I decided to come along and take in the experience. Lucky for us, this program loves it when wives and families come along so there are lots of activities for us to participate in and we have already begun to make friends with other families from across the world.

Andy & Olivia get some quality rocking time in thanks to Cracker Barrel somewhere in Georgia. Can you see where Olivia gets her brow line?! She gives me this same wrinkled eyebrow look many many times each day! haha.

Olivia has taken to our new accommodations, which (in its entirety ) is roughly the size of our master bedroom at home. We have a kitchenette, a room with a bed, a sofa, and a desk, and a walk through closet that leads to the bathroom. Luckily, her pack and play fits perfectly on one side of the closet (by about an inch) so she has her own "bedroom". We bought a tension rod and a curtain and hung it in the door so that it stays dark in "her room" when needed. This saves me from having to have the lights off and curtains drawn all day long for her frequent naps.



We traveled through North Carolina on our way here to drop off Vegas at Andy's parents. It was a great detour because we got to spend time with them as well as introduce Olivia to some special people from Andy's past.

Andy shows Olivia off to Mrs. Ingle - she wanted to keep her for the entire evening!!

Dennis & Susan spent some special time with Olivia, and Olivia even left a special surprise on Susan's pants! oops.....good thing she has lots of grand kids and wasn't startled by the incident!

Andy's godparents, Bob & Joyce, were thrilled by our surprise visit on our way out of town!

With nothing pressing on my agenda, Olivia and I have been able to start each day with a long walk to help me lose my baby weight. And, from the look on her face in this picture, I think she likes to exercise too!! It is never too young to start a healthy habit ;)

I followed the trail down this road hoping there would be a special reward waiting at the end, but I wasn't so lucky! darn.

Olivia continues to GROW and change quickly. She is smiling more and more and has begun to make some babbling noises as her vocal development kicks in. She still likes to suck her fingers, loves bath time, likes to be snuggled and swaddled in tight, and eats like a champ! Her head control is quite impressive as she can support it herself for longer amounts of time. She continues on her 2 1/2 to 3 hour routine through the day of eating, playtime, and then nap time and is a much happier baby when she gets enough sleep. However, nap time has been a bit of a challenge lately, but we are working through it. We do continue to have success with her nighttime ritual and sleeping - she goes to bed around 7:30 or 8:00 (after her bath and a feed) and then I give her a "dream feed" around 10:30 before I go to bed (she is still sleeping, but I wake her just enough to initiate the suck reflex and she eats), she sleeps about 5 1/2 hours from that feed before awaking to eat, and then sleeps until we wake at 7:00am to start our routine all over again. And, for anyone interested, we are still in full bottle crisis mode around here. Any suggestions are welcomed....I go back to work in early September and really do not want to leave every 3 hours to go nurse her!!

a smiling girl...

Olivia Grace has started smiling in response to my voice! This is a small one, but the best one I could capture on photo. Her biggest smiles come during bath time, which she LOVES!!

I will try and catch one of those tonight!

is this really our yard?!?

Our landscaping project is complete and we are so excited! We have waited a long time for this project and finally decided to take the plunge so that we could enjoy it some before moving! We added a stone patio (think relaxing on a summer evening with a beer and food smelling yummy on the grill!! yay!), a fence, a magnolia tree, a weeping willow tree, 3 crate myrtles, and flowering plant beds everywhere!! We should have color all year round and the landscaper promised me that everything was low maintenance! If you have been to our yard before, you will be shocked at the transformation. Trust me!

new friends, new skills, and a bottle crisis...

Olivia met Grace, Grant, and Molly Paige!

They were all interested in the Dora book while Olivia was only interested in sleeping! I am sure they will all be fast friends as we spend a lot of time with their parents.

This week, Olivia discovered the animals and mirror above her on her swing. She loves to watch the animals move about and admire herself in the mirror!

She has also discovered her hands! She has been sucking on her fingers since week one, but she now put her fists up to her mouth and sucks away when feeding time just isn't coming soon enough! She is tolerant of tummy time and can hold her head up for longer periods every day. However, I think her legs are the strongest part of her body as she is a master at kicking them and pushing them into your body as you are holding her. When she has on a nightgown it always ends up around her knees because she never stops kicking and raising her legs.

She has also started tracking objects from side to side and looks around to identify where noises and voices are coming from. It is amazing the changes she makes each day!

The bottle crisis is still in full swing despite the peaceful scenario that this picture portrays (it was taken pre-meltdown). Olivia does not like any bottle/nipple combination we present to her! She screams, cries, and pushes the nipple out with force. Andy has been very patient with her and tries diligently each day and has gotten her to take 1 oz on two different occasions. I, to my frustration, cannot help because it is widely known that a baby will have even more reason to refuse a bottle if the mother is nearby (because the baby can sense and smell her presence). We desperately want/need her to accept the bottle (filled with breast milk, of course) so that I can have some time away from her and to prepare her for my return to work. Also, Andy and I would LOVE a night out to ourselves, but that is hard to do when your baby won't drink out of a bottle! However, we are confident that she will eventually take to it......she just has to!!

Come on......Do you really think a face this cute would cause her mommy & daddy any more stress?!?!

Happy Weekend!! Andy is flying today and I am preparing the house for a little cook-out we are having to celebrate our newly landscaped yard! More to come on that......

making faces...

NOT ME Monday...

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

Baby Girl is snoozing in her swing and I lack the motivation to load her up and go for our daily walk, so for now I am sitting on the couch with my feet up and decided that I would confess some of the things that I did not do in the last week.......it is always best to start a Monday off with something lighthearted and fun anyway, right?!

I did not eat ice cream in some form every single day last week, and I certainly did not justify it by quoting Olivia's pediatrician when he told me that breastfeeding mothers need about 500 extra calories a day.

It was certainly not me who asked my mother/father/sister/anyone who was around to change Olivia's diaper while in Indiana when I was perfectly capable of handling it myself!

I did not sanitize my daughter from head to toe with baby wipes (more times that I can count) while toting her about in the airport because of my huge fear of compromising her young immune system.

It was definitely not me who took a meal that a gracious church member had made out of the freezer, unthawed and cooked it, and then not correct my husband when he praised ME for making it......haha.

I did not drink milk directly from the carton.

It was not me who purposely avoided watching any of the Michael Jackson memorial service.

I did not cry every single time Andy called me while on my trip to Indiana.....darn hormones!

I am definitely not wishing the swing would magically change Baby Girl's cry to a state of blissful sleep so that I could sit here on my computer just a little bit longer......

traveling girls...

Olivia and I traveled to Indiana this past week. It was a sudden trip that Andy & I thought was a good idea when he got word that he was going on a trip overseas. I had been wanting to go to Indiana in this time frame anyhow (because Cathy's family was going to be there from Oklahoma), but I was hesitant to plan it with Olivia being so little. However, when we heard that Andy was going to be gone, we thought it was a perfect plan for me to go ahead and visit up there. The plan seemed perfect for a few hours and I booked my ticket. But, in true military fashion, the plan fell apart and Andy was pulled from the trip and I was committed to going even though he was going to be here at home the entire time. In my warped postpartum mind (imagine tearing up at any moment), the plan was only an option if he was going to be gone because the thought of leaving him here and us traveling was very unsettling to me.

However, Andy convinced me that the trip was worth it no matter what the circumstances were, and Olivia and I packed up and got on the airplane at the crack of dawn Sunday morning. I had a great time being with my family, which I knew I would, and I was able to be present for Brady's burial which was very special. Olivia traveled like a champ and slept through all 4 flights (it is impossible to get to Indy without a layover...grrrrr.) She had a few moments, but I was always able to calm her and get her to sleep by putting her in my sling. I got many comments about traveling alone across the country with a 3 week old, but I feel good that I was able to tackle that challenge. Life must go on even if you do have a newborn! (but I was SOOOO excited to get back to Charleston and see Andy waiting for us at the airport!!)

Olivia, Drew, & Jordan in their matching outfits. Drew's was too small and we couldn't get it snapped, but we put it on him anyhow! He has already started having to do things just to make the girls happy....=)Papa and his grandchildren show off their Purdue gear! Boiler Up!

Aunt Kelly loves on her newest nieces and nephew (baby order...Drew, Olivia, Jordan)

Olivia & Jordan hang out on a lazy morning.

Yet again, we subject the babies to matching clothing!!

On Monday we celebrated the life of Brady Thomas and buried his ashes next to Grandma & Grandpa Jordan. It was a service of many emotions, but mostly I felt sadness as I reflected on the short life he lived and how great it would be if he were still here with us. However, I believe Brady gave life to Jordan and Drew and we can celebrate that. I think of him daily and can still remember his baptism and passing like it was yesterday. It is hard to believe that something so small (1 lb 11 0z) could leave such a footprint in my heart, but he did.

Everyone was together at Mom & Dad's except Andy, and we missed him terribly! Getting everyone home at the same time is difficult in our family because we have 2 military lifestyles to try and plan around. However, we make the most of any time we do get together and are usually making plans for the "next time" before that visit is even over! We captured this picture in Mom & Dad's front yard the day of Brady's burial. I am still trying to figure out how to photoshop Andy into the picture!!