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.