Avery at Age 4

Today our littlest beauty turns 4...it is hard to imagine that 4 years have passed.  She has changed so much in the short 4 years we have loved her...from a acid-refluxing having infant, to a fast moving crawler, to a bad sleeper, to a worse sleeper, to a toddler who won't stay in her bed, to a sassy, attitude slinging 4 year old, to a quick witted, likely to get the last word little beauty.  When her head snuggles onto your chest at night and she takes that last sigh before falling asleep...all is right with the world. (But heaven help us, if she wakes up when I try and slink out of her room...then it feels like the earth has fallen off its axis).

1. What is your favorite color? Pink & Purple

2. What is your favorite toy? Monkey & Lambie

3. What is your favorite fruit? Apple Sauce & Strawberries & Grapes

4. What is your favorite TV show? "All kinds of kid shows" and "Doc McStuffins"

5. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? Sandwiches

6. What is your favorite outfit? A dress

7. What is your favorite game? Break the Ice

8. What is your favorite snack? "Candy"

9. What is your favorite animal? Giraffes, Monkeys, Lions and Elephants

10. What is your favorite song? "Toes" by Zac Brown aka "Toes in the Water, Ass in the Sand"

11. What is your favorite book? Barbie Books

12. Who is your best friend? Zack, Jules & Campbell

13. What is your favorite cereal? Lucky Charms & Bird Cereal (Fruit Loops)

14. What is your favorite thing to do outside? Play with my Jeep and my new bike

15. What is your favorite drink? "Mela-nade" - aka Lemonade

16. What is your favorite holiday? Christmas & Halloween

17. What do you like to take to bed with you at night? Monkey & Lambie

18. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? Donuts

19. What do you want for dinner on your birthday? Candy

20. What do you want to be when you grow up? "A nurse" - I think we might need to work on her bedside manner.

Catch Up via Photos

I thought it would be easier to do a quick post to catch everyone up on the things that have been happening in our lives without going into crazy detail on each and every development.

Olivia is a toothless wonder - she lost all 4 front teeth in 4 weeks - and believe it or not, it has impacted her ability to speak clearly, so I constantly find myself saying "What did you say?" AND she got a major haircut...not really on purpose, but we are going to make the best of it, and frankly, I think she is as cute as a button, so I dig it.

We've had a few snow "showers" and the girls have loved every minute of it - catching snow flakes on their tongues, trying to make a snow man, getting in a snowball fight, you name it, they loved it.

This guy doesn't love the snow - but when we are outside playing he generally does enjoy trying to eat the snowman while running around in circles...

Thanks to my In-Laws for delivering one of my Christmas Wish List wants...I now have a strategy to decrease the dark circles under my eyes, and at the same time I am going to tackle my "Olivia Marks" as I affectionately like to call them...

We met one of Avery's friends and her Mom at Chick-Fil-A on MLK Day and ended up not only spending some QT with the Chick-Fil-A cow, but Cinderella was there as well...a huge hit with the girls.

We had a great visit at the Dentist - the Dentist is her Kryptonite, she doesn't move while in the chair, she listens like her life depends on it and she is just an all around angel. And then of course despite the fit she throws while brushing her teeth at home, she gets a great "rating" from the dentist.

Olivia survived the x-rays like a champ, and despite her face plant while getting on the bus last Thursday, our Dentist said she didn't do any additional damage, he said it was perfect timing given she doesn't have any front teeth.

AND last but not least, yesterday was an amazing catalog day: Pottery Barn Kids, PB Teen AND Vineyard Vines...like my girl Belinda Carlisle said "Heaven is a place on Earth"

Funk...Skunk...Trunk

We've been working on rhyming here, Avery has been trying out her own version of rhyming and we are all trying to help her...

Avery: "Hey Mom...I can rhyme....Blue and Kite"
Me: "Well honey, I think we have a few things to work on..."

But a few other things:

1) I really AM in a bit of a FUNK....hard to explain, can't even nail down the root cause for myself, if I can figure it out in the near future, I will be happy to share.

2) The NFL Bad Lipreading Video makes me laugh and one of my favorite clips is "SKUNK"

3) I am still working on reducing the amount of junk in both my house and my TRUNK...neither project is going all that well, but I am making some progressing, I reduce the junk, then more comes, and then I have to work on getting rid of that junk too...its a cycle.

4) I saw a funeral procession today and realized that I cannot witness one without crying - I cry sympathetic tears for all the people who have lost a loved one, I cry happy tears that all those people loved that one person so much, how amazing it must have been to feel so loved, and then God forbid that there isn't a long string of cars and then I cry sad tears that this poor soul wasn't loved like they should have been.  I am a mess.

5) I can't believe Private Practice is OVER - I wasn't prepared for the series finale to happen in January, I figured they would have a full season and end it in May.  I adore Jake (Benjamin Bratt), what a great husband he is to Addison

6) While I am still on topic TV shows...I am madly in love with Nashville and Scandal.

I hope to have something witty and clever, or artsy and crafty to share with you soon, I promise I haven't forgotten about the blogging world, but I am, please see #1 above.

Olivia at 5.5 Years Old

January 18th marks Olivia's Half Birthday - and she had a special night planned.  Her Daisy Troop had a Daddy/Daughter Date Night planned and they had dinner and went bowling as a troop - from the sounds of it, she had a blast.  The last 6 months of Olivia's life have been filled with firsts:

- First day of Kindergarten
- Lost her first tooth, heck, she actually lost 4
- First time she sat on Santa's lap without tears
- and I am sure there are several more...

1. What is your favorite color? Red

2. What is your favorite toy? "My art box"

3. What is your favorite fruit? Raspberries

4. What is your favorite tv show? Shake It Up

5. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? A turkey sandwich with mayo

6. What is your favorite outfit? A dress

7. What is your favorite game? Twister

8. What is your favorite snack? Gushers

9. What is your favorite animal? "Otters - they are so cute"

10. What is your favorite song? Jingle Bells

11. What is your favorite book? Princess Books

12. Who is your best friend? Riley (the dog)

13. What is your favorite cereal? Lucky Charms

14. What is your favorite thing to do outside? Play in the Snow

15. What is your favorite drink? "Diet Coke", but she actually doesn't even like it, so I have no idea why she said that.

16. What is your favorite holiday? Christmas

17. What do you like to take to bed with you at night? My Big Dog

18. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? Donuts

19. What do you want for dinner on your birthday? Mexican Food

20. What do you want to be when you grow up? "A Mommy, but I don't want to have kids" (hmmmmmm, so I asked again), "I haven't decided yet"...and when I asked a third time her response was "A Dog"...appears as though we have some work to do.

 

Acts of Kindness

In honor of the children and adults who lost their lives in the Sandy Hook tragedy we are going to join the masses who are out there doing good, and making an impact.  I love reading the acts of kindness on Facebook and I figured this is the perfect time to give back and also show the girls another lesson in humanity.  I promise to update y'all on our acts.  I've read a few, things like, delivering hot chocolate to police officers that are on duty, or delivering cookies or donuts to teachers that just make me feel good, but then there are the ones like leaving a Target Gift Card in a cart for the next person to use it, or paying for the toys people have on layaway - those give me goosebumps.  I have some amazing co-workers and friends that are spreading the love all over the place and giving me lots of great ideas.

Act of Kindness #1 - Baked cookies for Olivia's teachers at Jacobs Road Elementary, and sent them to school with her yesterday.

First Tooth...is a Goner.

This beauty lost her first tooth yesterday, by way of her father yanking it out of her sassy little mouth. She was so excited and a little embarrassed by how excited we were for her.  Losing your first tooth is a milestone in a little girls life, we did the milestone appropriate singing and dancing and that might have been a little too much for her at 7:30am.

The Tooth Fairy came through with a whopping $2.00 and she was thrilled.  I put her tooth in a little jewelry box, and the Tooth Fairy snagged the tooth (I wasn't sure if the Tooth Fairy left the tooth behind or not) and left behind $2.00.  She came running into our room this morning to tell me all about it - that excitement is contagious!

Tonight we are going to celebrate as a family with dinner together and then we will all read Olivia's new book The Berenstain Bears & The Tooth Fairy. Avery did try and yank her own tooth out this morning because she too wanted someone to bring her money, but I told her that her time would come and to keep those chompers where they belong for a few more years.

Avery is home again today, the double ear infection fever was still bothering her yesterday so hopefully she is back at school tomorrow for their Christmas Party.  And despite some protests Olivia was back at school yesterday after a few doses of her meds, that sinus infection really knocked her out.

Meet the Engel Family...

What a beautiful family!  I can imagine their smiles aren't so bright tonight.  They are mourning the loss of their beautiful little girl Olivia, age 6, whose bright future was stripped by a mad man on December 14th while she sat in her classroom at Sandy Hook Elementary School. 

I've been speechless since the news broke mid-day on Friday. I haven't been able to articulate the emotions that I've been feeling over the last few days.  I go from angry, to devastated, to irrational, to terrified, to thankful, to guilty, to ashamed, to painfully sorry, the emotions are raw and never ending.

I fussed at our Olivia yesterday morning, sent her to her room and then broke into tears.  It feels so wrong to punish the beauties when I know the Engel family would give anything to have their precious Olivia back, yet reading about her and the amazing little girl she was, reminds me that I have work to do as a parent, along with providing endless love and support, I still have to help her along her way to growing into a beautiful, kind and compassionate young woman.

 



Olivia's family shared the following words about her via the Family Facebook Page.

 

Olivia Rose Engel loved school and she always did very well in math and reading. She was insightful for her age and had a great sense of humor. She laughed a lot and always lit up a room including the people around her. She was very creative and was always drawing and designing things. She was a tennis player and took art ...classes. She loved swimming and her ballet and hip-hop dance lessons. Olivia was involved with her Daisy Girl Scouts, enjoyed playing soccer and expressed passion in musical theater. She was a great big sister who was always very patient with her 3 year old brother, Brayden. Her favorite colors were purple and pink. Her favorite stuffed animal was a lamb. She was involved in her parish's CCD program and was learning her Rosary. Olivia always lead Grace at the dinner table each night. She was a grateful child who was always appreciative and never greedy. Her father said she was a 6 year old who had a lot to look forward to.

 

The horrific events of Friday stole the lives of far too many little humans, just starting off, ready to change the world and I can't imagine the pain and loss the town of Newtown is experiencing right now.  When I read the victims list my breath caught at the name Olivia, age 6.  And then I saw another list that gave the victims birth dates, and I yelled out loud...Olivia Engel and our Olivia share a birthday.   And then after reading more about her above, I am struck by how similar they were, many of the same interests, both with 3 year old siblings as well, and it just leaves me with a huge painful weight around my heart.

 

I can't bring their little girl back, I can't make their family whole again,  but I can be the best parent to my beauties.  I can continue to show them love, support, protect them when possible, and raise them to be kind, generous, compassionate souls who when other people read about them, they smile and wish they could give their parents a high-five for a job well done.  My heart is heavy for the families who lost a loved one and my prayers are going up to all of those impacted by this unspeakable event. 

 

If you would like to donate to the family, or follow their FB page, you can do so HERE.