So many changes

It's nearly 11pm at night and my daughter is delerious with energy. So while she is working that out of her system, I'm attempting to catch up a little here. I will warn you though, it's a bit of like "the 12 days of Christmas," where the list goes on and on. 

We've finally had a successful streak of using formula. She was doing so week with it a while ago until the incident where she threw up the entire 6 oz all at once. Her lips were locked closed after that. If we had been able to get the bottle past those lips then her tounge was in the way. And her final defense against the formula- to spit it back out as her head furiously shook from side to side. So we stopped using it, again. Until one magical evening a couple of weeks later, we attempted with soy formula and she decided it was ok. Since then, we have been on a roll and she usually takes it with great joy. 

I personally prefer soy milk. So I was secretly happy she was following in her mommys steps. Until I realized the main ingredient in soy formula is corn syrup. Lame. I'm not totally against it, but I'm not exactly thrilled either. Especially when the regular cow milk formula contains milk as the main ingredient. So I tested a bottle of this regular formula (we originally were using the "for supplementation" kind), and she liked all 4 ounces of it. It also stayed down. So we are headed to

Costco tomorrow to purchase a very large version of it since we are almost down to the last of our supply. 

Next.... She totally was able to take a few walking steps with this on her own. She makes us so proud. We are buying her one for Christmas :)

Reading time with dad... It always melts my heart. He has had more time at home lately. Mostly in a "work from home" kind of way. But she has become his little buddy. These two are nearly inseperable until nap time. (That's my speciality.)

We babysat our friend Duke. He is such a cutie. The first 15 minutes were not his favorite, but after he calmed down he had a great time and Olivia enjoyed him so much. We are excited he will be in Okinawa with us! 

This little girl ends up in our bed more than I would like to admit. Never at first though. It always happens in the wee hours of the morning. I'm slightly embarrassed to say that occasionally neither Steven or I can remember who brought her in. 

Currently, we are completely moved out of our apartment. These were my packing partners .

Just kidding. Anyone who knows Steven, knows he worked his hind tail off.

On one hand I'm kinda feeling sentimental. On the other, it's so nice to be making the steps towards our next place. We are currently staying with our friends who also have a little girl. They are enjoying themselves so much. Talk about double trouble. Actually, they are really good girls and there hasn't been a difficult moment because of there being two babies. Ok, knock on wood now.

Being down to one car has its moments. Like when you need to take your husband into work and you need to drive him but you're not sure if he is going to be there for 30 minutes or 5 hours- because work won't give him a timeline. So today we stopped at the exchange for a little while just in case it was a short check in. We shopped for bows. I can't even begin to tell you how patient she was. I won't go as far as to say she liked it, but she did allow me to try them on her. 

She also has a new carseat. She's happy, we are happy. It also totally beats lugging the infant seat around. 

Happy Thanksgiving

I have to start off with saying...I'm grateful for this wonderful life. It's far from perfect at times, but I wouldn't want to trade it with another person for anything.

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving as well! This year, we made our way up to Maryland to spend it with Steven's cousin, Adam, and his family. Another couple from church came as well as Adam's best friend from high school along with his family. So all in all, 8 adults, 2 kids ages 1 and older as well as 3 babies. It had it's loud moments, but it was so relaxed and they were so much fun. I'm truly grateful we had the chance to spend time with them. I also made my first veggie turkey. It was so easy to make! Trust me, if I can make this, YOU can make this.

Olivia enjoyed all of the new toys that Benson and Calvin had. One of which was a walker that she attempted to walk behind. I might have to break down and purchase one after seeing her many attempts to walk with it. She also enjoyed those jumbo lego blocks. Mostly as a toy to suck on, but still.

We have been staying busy lately too. Did I mention the movers come next week? Yikes! I have a lot of cleaning out left to do. Time to turn on the show "Hoarders" in the background while I clean. I find a lot of motivation in that show. 

Anyhow, we had a baby shower for our friend Susie earlier this week. She's having a girl! So we did a baby shower in pink and green. In retrospect, I kinda of recreated Olivia's room of pink in green into a baby shower. So clearly, that is what I like.

The great part about setting it up in the community room- super easy to decorate and easy clean up. I'm bummed we wont meet the little angel when she comes because we will have already moved. But it was still fun to have all the ladies over and to play shower games. 

Here are some other fun pictures of our growing girl. 

Happy girl in the mornings!

The look on her face when she sees a Christmas tree for the first time- priceless!!

We helped them decorate the tree in the back at the Washington DC Temple. 

Selfies

Is it crazy my daughter is already taking selfies? I'm not too worried about her vanity because I'm pretty sure they were lucky shots.

The temperature has also dropped. So I thought that we needed to get her some real shoes to keep her feet a little warmer. These boots are so cute. I love them. They stay on pretty well for the most part. Cross your fingers that they don't end up in our "one shoe left" pile.

She is growing so fast. She has cut her first two teeth and can drink out of a regular straw. I love it. 

Halloween and the Birthday Ball

It was such a fun week!

Steven had Monday off because they worked the Marine Corps Marathon the day before. Then they had Friday off to celebrate the 238th Marine Corps Birthday. Which is not actually for another couple of weeks, but his unit was celebrating early. It was hands down, one of the more fun balls that we have gone too.  I'm a sucker for the ceremony part of it. The detail does such a great job!

Part of the ceremony is for the oldest Marine present to eat some of the birthday cake and then to pass it to the youngest Marine present. I always enjoy the laughs when they tell how young the youngest Marine is. This year, he was a full decade younger than me and had enlisted only last year. It always brings great laughs to the room. Our speaker was funny and short. I actually enjoyed the DJ this year too. Usually they play a lot of music that is hard to dance to. Not this year, he was busting out the classics and mixing them with other fun new songs. Steven even stayed for more than his one slow dance song. Words can't explain how excited I was about that. My girlfriends and I were able to dance until our feet hurt. Which I am told I am now a lightweight officially. I didn't last that long. But it was still a lot of fun.

Olivia apparently wasn't horrible in the childcare center. But she wasn't star pupil either. We dropped her off while she was still asleep in her carseat. We were so excited she was asleep too. Until they told us that we had to pull her out. On top of that, we couldn't leave her favorite blanket because it's a hazard. Steven and I looked at each other and our jaws kind of dropped. Mostly because we knew the workers were going to be in for a long night. So we pulled her out. She started to wake up and although I wanted to sit there and say goodbye, I knew it wasn't the right call. So we passed her off as she was still rubbing her eyes to wake up and quickly exited. The word from a friend is that when they dropped off their kid, she was screaming and everyone could hear her. Oy vie. She was all smiles when we went to pick her up though. They said there was a lot of walking the halls and she was in an umbrella stroller being pushed around when we picked her up. The stinker wouldn't take a bottle, a sippy cup, or a food pouch while we were gone. So I felt guilty that she hadn't eaten in quite a few hours when we picked her up. She ate like a horse once we were home though. Unfortunately she enjoyed some new germs while she was there and now has the runny nose and cough. Poor kid. I've probably emotionally scarred my kid. Steven's optimistic she wont remember it though.

So that was last night. But earlier in the week, it was Halloween! Wednesday night we went to our church Halloween party. They call it a trunk-or-treat. After the dinner and activities, everyone goes out to the parking lot and trick or treats from their decorated trunks. It was so much fun!! Olivia won "best pre-nursery age costume." I'm one proud mama.

Dear world...

In 16 years...watch out for this one.

Comm School

Sometimes, people are just awesome! This is one of those times where someone was really nice and shared all of those photos that they had taken. Here are a few from Steven's field exercises.

All of the Marines at the school house worked the Marine Corps Marathon this past weekend. I wasn't able to find any pictures of him working. He was posted just past the 22.5 mile marker. I was actually a little surprised when he told me that instead if passing out water or drinks, they passed out donuts holes in a cup. Silly Marines. You have to love it.

cows 'n corn

Today we went with the youth group from our church to Cows 'N Corn. It was a lot of fun. I don't think either Steven or I expected to have as much fun as we did.

There were hay rides around the farm. One of the workers gave us a tour and explained all of the cow operations to us as well as the corn fields. We also made our own butter and ate the worlds best cookies and cream ice cream.

Olivia really enjoyed people watching but she was a tough crowd for smiles most of the time.

On the hay rides

On the cow train with Rachel. I think they were water barrels. How fun is that?

Playing with the cow puppet

In the corn maze

Whole group together

Clark's Farm USA

It's been a busy day around here. Steven gave his mastery brief yesterday. As a result, he only had a short day at work while everyone else finished theirs. He does not have the results yet but feels like he passed. 

So today we had some family fun. We went to the pediatrician. Olivia now weighs 14lbs 13oz and is 24 1/2 inches long. Which puts her in the 10% for height and 25% for weight. What can I say? we don't make them tall. All of the babies we know around here are younger but are the same height or bigger. We think she is just right though.

After nap time, we went to Clarks Farm here in Stafford.  It's a cute little farm that does pumpkins for Halloween and Christmas trees during Christmas time. We had so much fun here. They did have a play area with a bounce house and everything but you had to purchase tickets to that part. We passed that section. We went to the pumpkin picking area where they also sold all sorts of cute trinkets and fall treats like fresh pressed apple cider, homemade sodas and several flavors of pumpkin butter.  We purchased some unfiltered apple cider and now we are regretting not buying the larger jug. It is so delicious.

We also had some visitors today. Steven's cousin Adam and his family ended up coming over. They live up in Maryland but Adam had a work commitment down south in Williamsburg. They decided to bring the whole family down there since it's a great place for the family to visit. They used our house as a meeting point. So he drove up here and she drove down. We were able to visit for a little while. It was a lot of fun and Liz and I were able to start our preparations for black Friday shopping. 

learning to crawl....

I thought it would be fun to post some pictures of her learning to crawl and just being silly. She can scoot on her tummy pretty well and lunge once she is on all fours. It will probably be only another couple weeks before i'm chasing after her. I am pretty excited she is learning.

Other fun news, the Jetta is sold. A guy from North Carolina purchased it. Selling a car was a bit of a struggle and had its moments of frustration but i'm grateful for no more car payments. Besides that, Steven and I love to share everything. So sharing a car for the next 2 months should be extra fun, right? Especially when it's his turn to drive for carpool.