5 months

Miss Olive is quite the active baby-always rolling, rolling, rolling. She has also started doing modified push-ups, rocking herself back and forth and flopping on the ground attempting to propel herself forward-just like Owie did at that age! She also inches herself forward with her strong legs and manages to turn herself around as well. I imagine she is going to keep us on our toes as she gets closer to mobility!

Aside from her active lifestyle, Olive also enjoys playing with her toys & sitting in the exersaucer (although she gets frustrated with both and tends to need a change of scenery after 10 minutes), playing with her feet, putting EVERYTHING in her mouth, pulling Owie's hair (which he thinks is hilarious until it starts to hurt ;), sucking on the bottom of a cold glass of water & gumming our faces ;). These days, she's a fussy Mcfusserson...not as happy-go-lucky as before. We think the personality change is due to teething coupled with her strong-headed, independent streak. This girl wants things her way! For instance, when she wants held, you have to be standing up...this drives us crazy! And, unfortunately, our nights of 8 hour straight sleeping with her snoozing happily in her bassinet have come to a screeching halt. Now that she doesn't like being swaddled, she automaticall turns over on her belly and screams. And it takes SO long to calm her down. I've been holding her in bed at nights to get some sleep, but recently we've been working on transitioning her to her crib in the nursery. We've made a little progress, but still have a long way to go. She continues to flip herself over, but is starting to be ok with belly sleeping. Yesterday she put herself to sleep for a nap in her crib with no crying and slept for 3 hours. Small victories! Roby and I can't wait until she sleeps through the night in her crib. We keep reminding ourselves that it's a phase and will get better, but it's hard to look forward through bleary eyes. ;)

Despite those few challenges, Olive continues to be a joy and we *love* her laughing fits (she has at least one a day...now if only adults could be like that!). We eagerly watch each new personality trait and her likes/dislikes emerge. We get such a kick out of watching Owen and Olive's personalities bloom!

Seeing double

L-Owen R-Olive

Bingo Christmas Party

This year, Aimee hosted our second annual girl's bingo Christmas bash at her abode. We think even the hubbies had as much fun as we did catching up over good food and drinks! The kids certainly had a wonderful time chasing each other through the house and playing reindeer games. ;)

The challenge every year: getting all the kids and mamas in the shot!

Olive and Meredith all matchy-matchy

Bad Olive!

*Thankful*

This year just our little family celebrated Thanksgiving together. We had SO much fun during Roby's extended days off. At first we considered not making a huge meal, then thought, "why not?" Instead of cooking a giant bird, we tried out a Giada recipe from the Food Network for a spice rubbed 5-pound turkey breast-delish! It proved a little hectic getting all the cooking done with the kidlets in tow, so we ended up eating at 9:00 at night. chuckle. The rest of the week we relaxed by playing our Wii (even Owen is getting pretty good!), watching movies, taking drives, & enjoying Owen and Olive!