Halloween is fun again!

This so called scary Halloween holiday has not interested me for some time. However, now that I have a child who can get excited about things like silly costumes and candy I am again a believer. Olive was a BEE this year. As expected I had so much fun thinking about making her costume far in advance but then actually doing it the day of trunk-or-treat. This was a digression from last year when I started sewing the night before. (Note: Our ward party was Friday so technically I was done with it 2 days before the real deal.)


Friday was a practice run. Olive not only was tired and a little grumpy but she looked it with the droopy antenna I made too long and flimsy. She kept staring at the yellow balls out of the corner of her eye wondering why she had to wear them.

Droopy antenna bee

Dad was a beekeeper I agreed to be one with him if he found them cheap but I backed out on the deal. He wasn't happy so I'll have to make it up to him next year.


Sunday she was even less excited to wear the "bee shirt", but once we forced her to put it on and got to Liams house she quickly learned the fringe benefits from her costume. She very softly said trick or treat at each door, answered "ya" when asked if she was in fact a Bee, and said many "tay toos" when given handfuls of candy per door. Generous as it is, what are people thinking giving a 2 year old handfuls of candy? :)






Notice the improved antennae design, but the Halloween bucket oversight (that was her Easter bucket).

Ollie the BEE and Charlie Chaplin

Let me just mention that Liam is Olives dearest little friend. They get so excited when they see each other and they both assume the other will be at any fun outing and are sad otherwise. They make words up together and...the evolution of her name from his little mouth is to die for. From Olvie and now Ollie. We love you Miam (Liam).

crate and barrel ends the spice war

Ever since Chas and I got married we have not been able to agree on a spice rack/spice drawer/spice jar/or any spice storage solution. We just knew that we needed some way to rid us of the spice chaos that existed in our cupboards. The problem came to a head as lately we've been getting into middle-eastern/Indian cooking and a recent trip to the local halal grocer doubled our spice inventory. So on top of the mish-mash of Costco and other bottle sizes, we had bags of seeds and powders floating around our kitchen (no skimpy bottles of spice for them, they sell spices by the pound!). After I shot down Chas' spinning spice rack again and a lengthy web research session, we came up with this cool solution: Buy stubby jars that fit inside our drawers and print our own labels. Behold...

this is our baby

We recently took some very belated 18 month pictures of Olive . Lately she has blossomed into this toddler that we are overjoyed with and always surprised by. The things she does mostly make us laugh but as I think about them now they water my eyes just a little. She needs to put the brakes on and remain a baby just a little longer. Here are the highlights of the shoot.

Merry Christmas...Early Graduation

A few days ago Chas was grumbling about his adviser at school. A snobby man with Dr. in front of his name who tries to wage his authority over struggling students wanting them to do everything with his stamp of approval. As Chas was fulfilling his school plan at the request of Dr. Annoyingface, a light bulb began to slowly glow brighter and brighter as he realized there was a way he could graduate a whole semester earlier than anticipated.

Elated at the possibility of coming home after work to play with Olive instead of 4 more months of school (and ashamed at the curt manner in which he addressed the now Dr. Helpfulface) Chas left the authority ridden mans office with his tale between his legs without informing him he had actually helped him discover this fantastic news.

So come December, Chas will have completed his Master's Program and family dinner and tag-team bedtime stories will be reinstated. We plan to live within 5 minutes of his new work location even if that means moving to Ft. Meade in Maryland. Right now nothing sounds better than Dada coming home after the end of a long 8-hour day, not 12-14 hour day.

Chas has a way of making my life better by his absent-minded omissions... often related to graduation dates in fact. Before we courted and got engaged Chas was just my friend from school who was graduating the semester I was away on Study Abroad in Spain. I was a little bummed that he would not be returning in the fall to join in our HI fun. However, because of my husbands lack of planning he didn't graduate, had to stay an extra semester and the rest is history. So now the infamous graduation evader once again blesses my life. Thanks love. I'm so glad it worked out this way!

Apple juice

yum yum, thank you mama!

slirp

Awll dooone mama

Olive is pretty good at just sucking these babies down. Every kind of juice is apple juice and the way she says it almost makes a tear come to my eye every time I hear it. Among many other words and phrases, these days Olive is a little jabber mouth. It is exciting to hear what she has on her mind and even better to have her follow directions.

cute little buddies

popsicle buddies

milk buddies

swimming buddies

It is so amazing that we get this cuteness on film, even with its occasional graininess. Think of all the things we don't get to record. Which brings me to my husband, whose goal is to have a child who grows up with a camera attached to its lapel for his/her entire life. The first person to have their entire life filmed. Don't worry future children, I of course am resisting this harebrained idea.

swimming is hard work

On the way home from swim lessons today Olive did not even last the 5 minute car ride that it is home. This is how I found her when I turned the car off. Apple hanging out of the mouth and all. Honestly there is nothing better than carrying a little limp baby with her head on my shoulder up to bed. 2.5 hours later, and she is still sleeping! Ahhh...

the run has come

Over Labor Day weekend Chas and I dropped Olive off at Mema and Papi's house and headed down to Virginia beach for the Rock and Roll Half Marathon. We got to rest up the day before, carb up the morning of and we set off around 7:25 over the starting line.

It was an amazing experience. It was incredible to see what your body could do and remember. We pushed ourselves and about 2 hours and 25 minutes later we crossed the finish line with lots of pride. I am so proud of Chas, it was his idea and he helped me along the way to train and really push ourselves to reach this goal. Here's a word from the wise though...do not train for a race in the middle of summer in Virginia while pushing a 18 month old. I would say we chose the absolute worst time to do this, but against all of those little obstacles we came and conquered and I'm so proud of us. Good job babe!

On the way home we got into a 4 car crash. Some truck driver (semi-truck) going too fast in the left lane couldn't stop when traffic quickly slowed down. He it the van behind us...


the van hit us and we hit the car in front of us.



BAM! No one was hurt, but we do have $13,000 dollars of damage to our car. Thank goodness for insurance. And please if you know any truck drivers, tell them to freaking slow down and stay in the right lane at all times. I hate when they are passing and weaving in and out of traffic. It seems to be a growing problem.

It's official

As a mother everyday you question whether you are doing a good job. Well, today it is official, I am not doing a good job. As Olive and I were walking home from the park this morning she was not buckled in the stroller (bad mom) , she was being goofy and playing around in there (should have put a stop to that or buckled her up at least...stupid... I didn't). When I stopped it was just enough of a little jerk to send her flying head first onto the concrete sidewalk.

Here is the damage...


I'm so sorry Olive baby! Mama will try to be better from now on.

Even though we don't see you often...

we still miss you and talk about you all the time!

Living in Virginia we get to see Mema and Papi a lot. We go down to the farm on the weekend, and sometimes go out to dinner during the week. This is so fun for Olive to get to be by her paternal grandparents, and we love them so much. Unfortunately we don't get to see Grandma Annie, Pop pop's, Yaya, GGma Orchard or Uncle Bob very often. We got to visit them a while ago and need to plan another visit soon. So to all of Olives' grandparents too far to see often we miss you, love you and try to tell Olive about you often.

Uncle Bob

Lovely Grandma Orchard

Grandma Annie

Splash Splash with Pop Pops

snowpocalypse 4 months overdue

I'm not sure if anyone heard but we had a little snow this past winter. It actually broke the record, becoming the most snow this area has seen...EVER. Chas reminded me more than once of my frustration only months before that we don't really get that much snow here.

I must say it was really amazing. The grocery stores were empty, Chas got to miss work, my mom was visiting and was snowed in with us and Olive got to experience something very new and strange. Unfortunately this is way overdue so my recollection of its awesomeness is a bit foggy. I suppose this will teach me not to blog. Maybe some pictures will fill in the gaps.