one, two, three...

Olivia took her first steps this weekend!  I was so happy to share that moment with Joe and not hear about it after I get home from work. We also got to share it with Joe's mom and sister.

On Saturday we went to Sea World with one of Audrey's best friends Amelie.  I don't know what Audrey was more excited about; Shamu or seeing Amelie. 

On Sunday we were relaxing with Joe's family before the drive back to LA and Olivia got bold and stepped away from daddy.  She also did it again when we stopped at my parents house on the drive home.  That is 3 and counting.  Wow she is now on the move.

 
Joe is in San Francisco tonight and when I turned around earlier I found that Olivia had pushed the chair up to the TV and was standing on the CHAIR!!!  WHAT!!!! But yes, I did take a picture before I got her down.  As I am typing Olivia is finishing off her dinner of cheese ravioli with pesto that was served with zuccini and carrots.  Her appitizer included blue berries and ripe heirloom tomatoes. YUM!
She is amazing and I love to watch her grow and develop these behaviors even if they are annoying!

let the summer time fun begin

It looks like summer is now here. Traffic is much lighter and I love it.  We have also been enjoying many summer favorites.  Olivia has discovered the joy of eating watermelon.  Joe shot these when I was at work.

I plan on framing these!

This weekend included a few new experiences for Olivia.  Watermelon and fish.  We took the girls down to the Long Beach Aquarium on Sunday to look at the fish and the sea otters.

 

This picture makes me laugh since they both have their eyes closed.

Looking at the reef sharks

Olivia was very excited.

Audrey was a very good big sister telling Olivia all about the fish.

 Having fun looking into the tanks.

SO much fun no one wanted to leave.

 New experiences....

Later at home, sitting in a big girl chair using her left hand!  

We had a great weekend!

Family Trip to St. Louis

Last weekend I too a few days off and the 4 of us boarded a plane to  St. Louis, Missouri.  We were headed to Joe's home state so see my brother Brian get married.  It was a very eventful weekend, one that I will not be forgetting soon.  Brian and Angela had a beautiful wedding and everyone had a wonderful time.  Well everyone expect for Olivia....

insert picture of mt very ill daughter here...(She looked terrible)

Olivia developed a double ear infection along with a double eye infection that was complemented with a fever of 104.7 and an event of vomiting all over mom on the way to the urgent care facility.

Audrey has never been this ill and Joe and I were very concerned. We took Olivia to the Urgent care a mile or away from our hotel. The staff was very nice and the doctor was awesome, if she lived in our city I would switch providers!  After the doctor examined Olivia she wanted to admit her to the hospital,  I almost died!  I did not travel from Los Angeles to visit the hospital in St. Louis and not see my brother get married.  As I mother I would not be albe to leave Audrey or Olivia in the hospital to attend a wedding, sorry Brian...

The doctor and I decided on another plan that allowed Olivia to be treated as an outpatient.  Over the next few days Olivia's progress began to improve and she was able to attend all the festivities. And to our surprise she was well enough to fly home on Sunday as we had planned.

Audrey was a great sport during this trip.  We were never albe to make it to the zoo that we had promised her.  But my mother did watch Olivia Saturday morning, we were able to take Audrey to visit Grant's Farm.

She got to pet several baby goats, and she touched a snake.  If you ask her about it she will tell you that petting the snake was not very good. 

  She rode the merry-go -round before we want home to get ready for Uncle Brian's wedding.

 Audrey was a very good little girls last weekend.  And she looked beautiful in her flower girl dress.  At the wedding she walked down the aisle with me and went to daddy for her promised lolly-pop.  During dinner she fed her new found friends goat and kitty- kat chicken tenders.

 After dinner she had a lovely evening of dancing and providing the entertainment.  

 

We had a wonderful night and are very pleased that Angela is now part of our family!

Life in the fast lane!

The past few weeks have flown by.  I am so busy at work trying to catch up from the mess I inherited there.  Joe has been my life saver the last week taking care of the girls at night and putting them to bed.  I also started getting sad realizing how much I miss when I am working.  Olivia is learning how to stand up on her own, and looks like she will be walking soon.  She has developed quite a likeing to being held all of the time.  She likes to nod her head in agreement with you and wave her finger back when she is mad.  Olivia also loves to wipe her face with a baby wipe when dinner is finished.  She has quite the appetite lately and eats almost everything. 

Audrey on the other hand is still as picky as ever.  We went shopping together today for the first time with out a stroller.  We had fun just the 2 of us girls.  We both had lipstick applied at the make-up counter.  She picked out a pink sun hat, pink hello kitty shirt and a plastic butterfly back pack today as her "present".  Audrey got her first boo-boo the other day at school. Her friend Reese pushed her on the playground and she skinned her elbow pretty badly.  But I was happy to hear that Audrey is starting to stand up for herself and not getting pushed around at school.  I am spending the weekend getting ready for our trip to St. Louis for my brothers wedding.  Audrey is very excited and plans to show Aunt Angela the jaguar at the St. Loius zoo.

 Audrey had her first "real" haircut a few weeks ago.  I took her to my hair salon and Ester cut her hair.  Audrey was very excited to go to the beauty salon, just like Fancy Nancy and Jewel in the book Fancy Nancy and the Posh Puppy. 

I was also very excited to share this special experience with her.  Audrey froze up when we showed her the shampoo washing station, so we skipped it.  But other than the shampoo scare Audrey had a fantastic haircut.  She chatted with Ester about her favorite colors and animals.  Audrey warmed up enough before we left to give Ester a jaguar roar.

Ester gave Audrey a layered look and trimmed her bangs.  She looked absolutely beautiful, darling!

Olivia has turned into a toddler!  No more bottles and she now sits at the table in a booster chair.  It is amazing to me how much she had changed since I have returned to work.  I pulled out some of Joe's baby pictures the other day and discovered that the resemblance is amazing.  WOW!  My mother in law, Kathie keeps telling me that she looks like my brother and father.  But I think she is 100% her daddy, but with a cute feminine touch!

Messy food pictures can be gross, but Olivia's hair in this picture is just too funny not to post.

The Ward family loves to picnic!  My first mothers day was spent in the ER with a sick little girl.  When we returned home after our unexpected trip Joe set up our picnic in our family room on the carpet.  We dinned on cheese, fruit, caviar and champagne.  Last year as a new mother of 2, we went to Griffith park and set up a picnic near the carousel.  It was perfect.  Last Sunday was another wonderful mothers day.  It was a bit brisk, but we still went out and tried a new park in Scholl Canyon.  It was a bit more hectic with 2 girls on the go.  But I still had a wonderful, special day with my family.  When we got home and clean up Audre decided to re-create our trip on the kitchen floor.

a fork, knife and a pair of shoes

Yes...my little girl, my baby has decided that she needs to eat with a spoon and a fork. She really loves feeding herself with utencils.  This happened over the past week and she is very good at it surprisingly.  But with that said by no means is she a clean and tidy eater.

Although this picture shows the spoon in her right hand, she tends to favor her left.

Lately Audrey has been walking around the house wearing my shoes.  She has been doing it for months and it has always been pretty funny unless she fell and hurt herself.  The other evening Joe snapped this photo while I was out with a friend. Audrey helped herself into my bedroom and slipped on a camisole top.  Joe found her trying to open the front door to find me.  Pretty cute!

The best thing of the past month by far is Audrey's huge milestone...saying good-bye to diapers!  Yes, she finally did it!  All it took was a huge bribe from mommy and daddy.  Here Audrey is posing with her new kitchen while trying on her flower girl dress for my brothers wedding.  She reminds me of a 50's housewife! 

Olivia turns 1!!!

Life has been whizzing by now that I have returned to work.  But we still have been having fun!  Olivia turned 1 on April 14th, weighing in at 21.5 pounds, and 29" long. She is in the 50% percentile for weight, height and head circuference.  She has developed a spit fire attitude lately.  It is probably a defensive mechanism against her sister who's new past time is beating her sister.

 Watch out Audrey, Olivia is getting ready to retaliate!

The weekend before Olivia's birthday, we celebrated birthdays with 2 of our good friends.  These photos were taken at MY GYM where Avery celebrated her second birthday.

Olivia loved the ball pit!

Olivia turned 1 on Wednesday April 14th.  Since mom and dad had to work, she went to school and celebrated with her teachers and friends.  Teacher Violet threw a birthday party for her, and dad bought pizza in to share.  Olivia had a party with balloons, party hats and presents.  Teacher Violet took lots of photos, but I don't have any on my computer to share.  Here Olivia is modeling her new sunglasses that go with a matching purple out fit that was gifted to her at school.

 And big sister needs to try the glasses on too!

Olivia is loving her new day care.  She gets very excited when we drop her off each morning and has made many friends there.  She has been there for a month now and she has not once cried when we drop her off.  This makes my life so much easier!

Here she is chilling on her new bean bag chair.  Getting ready for the big party weekend.

I think I went a wee bit overboard with Olivia's birthday cake, but it was worth it!!

Olivia is posing with Grandma Romo

 Daddy is walking Olivia around so she can greet everyone

She gets a snuggle from Grandma Kathie

Surprise!  She is playing in the climber. She loves that thing lately, but not to worry she is still to small to climb up and go down the speedy slide.

Time for cake!

Blowing out the candle

 The big cake was quickly replaced with a small smasher cake for Olivia to eat all by herself. It took her 5 minutes before she began to dig in.  All of the other kids were testing their patience. 

Yummy!

Audrey still waiting for her cake!

Don't you touch my cake!!!

After a bath and clean pajamas.  Olivia declares her birthday a huge success!

Easter Weekend 2010

We drove down to San Diego this weekend to celebrate Easter with the Ward family.  We all had a wonderful time and celebrated Easter morning with a lovely brunch at Joe's Aunt's home. 

Saturday morning we went to the San Diego zoo.  We are members and thought it would be a great way to spend the day.  The weather was perfect!

 Near the elephant exhibit Audrey wanted to pose with mommy and Olivia.  This is one of the best pictures I have with my girls.

The girls had a wonderful time!

Olivia was being super cute for the camera!

The elephants were out and about!  There were several that we got to see up close.

Audrey and Olivia had a chance to pose as bugs.

Olivia had her first goat petting experience.  Audrey was excited to share the moment too!

Mama lion was chilling up close.

We has so much fun at the zoo  :)