Election Day

We started the day early today and went to the polls at 7:15. There were very few people there, so we didn't have to wait. Olivia didn't want to leave and kept saying, "I want to vote some more.". If only we could! ;)  (I later realized that she thought we would be boating, instead of voting.  She was upset that she didn't get to sit in the boat..)

After preschool and a nap, we went to the playground for a little while. It was about 40 degrees, but it's the first time we've seen the sun in weeks, so we took advantage of it.


I hope you all enjoyed the day and exercised your right to vote!!


(Sorry for the poor picture quality... they were taken with my phone.)

Trick or Treat

As I mentioned before, we didn't get to trick-or-treat until Sunday due to the storm and damage left because of it.  Our neighborhood doesn't have any kids, so we went to Julia's house (Olivia's friend, whose grandmother lives in our neighborhood).  Their street went all out, which is apparently pretty common here.  A lot of them had fires going in their front yards, Julia included.  We brought along marshmallows and roasted those when the girls finished trick-or-treating.  It was cold, but she had SO MUCH FUN!!!  After every house, she would take out the piece of candy and ask me what it was and if she could have it.  I'd tell her that she could have some when we finished and she'd say, "Okay".... until the next house and the next, etc. :)

Here are some pictures from the night:

Every piece of candy she's eaten from her basket is her "favorite in the whole world"!  Hahaha!

Reading

Olivia loves "reading."  Every night, she wants to read whatever book I just read to her. She has several books memorized, but I never think to record her. I finally did this week.  It's not her best reading, but you get the idea...

"Why I Love My Daddy"

Toddler Bed!!

Well, the time has come... As of tonight, Olivia is no longer in a crib. I planned to keep her in the crib as log as possible since she was so content in there. However, she showed me today at nap that she was no longer content. I was talking to my brother on the phone (when she was "napping"). I heard a noise and told Glen, "That sounds like Olivia knocking on her bedroom door. Surely, it's actually the wall she's knocking on.". I went up to check and she had taken off her pajamas, climbed out of the crib, and was knocking on her door saying, "Mommy, I don't want to take a nap." Hmmmm. I put her back in the crib and told her no climbing out. I said that she didn't have to sleep, but she had to rest. By the time I got downstairs and checked the video monitor, she had climbed out again. (Yes, she minds well.) ;) I did the same thing a second time, but I opened the door after a couple of seconds. She already had her foot over the side of the crib! That's when I decided she needed to come out.

So, long story short, we made several trips to several different stores to get what we needed and I spent the afternoon converting her crib to a toddler bed. (Jon is out of town.)


I've been dreading this day because I had a bad feeling that she wouldn't stay in bed. Well, so far, she has proved me wrong. She wanted to sleep with her Pooh bear and 3 books, so I let her. I heard her "reading" a book, and then she was fast asleep in 10 minutes. I'd like to think this trend will continue, but it's probably because she didn't nap today and she's exhausted!


Wish us luck!

Preschool Halloween Party

Olivia's preschool was closed on Tuesday due to the storm damage, so they had their Halloween party today. I have pictures from the actual party on another camera, which I can't find the cord for. Here are a couple before and after:

Ready for the party:

With the other Tinkerbell, Lily:

With Connor:

With Zack:

Leaving with a BIG bag of treats:

Grandma and Grandpa Gilge Visit

Jon's parents came for a visit last week.  They arrived Thursday night, just as we were getting home from Boo at the Zoo, and they stayed until Tuesday.  Unfortunately, the weather didn't cooperate, so we didn't do much.  Here are a few highlights... And, don't miss the Olivia and Grandpa video duet at the end!

Grandma painting Olivia's toes:

With Grandpa and Grandma after church:

 Fun with Grandpa:

Playing the guitar with Grandpa:

 Being silly at the nature center:

We had a wonderful visit and wished the weather had cooperated more.  We're looking forward to seeing them again at Christmastime.

Halloween 2012

I'm pretty sure we have been celebrating Halloween since the first of October and it isn't over yet!  Trick or Treating in our area was postponed due to the storms and power outages, so we will trick-or-treat on Sunday.

The festivities began with a little baking.  Mom sent Olivia a pumpkin pan, so she was excited to make a pumpkin cake:

The week after that was spent making Olivia's costume.  I asked her a while back what she wanted to be for Halloween.  I figured she would have no idea, and I'd get to pick something really cute.  Wellllll, that wasn't exactly the case.  She immediately said she wanted to be a chicken and she hasn't backed down once.. Even after my attempts to show her every costume in Target, TJ Maxx, and online.  So, I set off to find a cute chicken costume and decided homemade was the way to go. (Did I mention that I don't know how to sew?!?)  So, Jon (begrudgingly) offered to help.  To say that it was a bit of a pain and time consuming would be an understatement.  But, once I got the hang of it, I was glad we decided to do it.  Here we are in action:

We were pretty proud of our work. That is, until we tried to put it on her the next morning. She was so excited and loved it... Until it wouldn't fit over her head. Oops!  After a few alterations, it was ready to go and she LOVED it! 


Ready for her first Halloween party:

Enjoying one of her treats with Daddy (She wouldn't even take off her costume to eat!):

Our next Halloween festivity was Boo at the Zoo.  We didn't take many pictures there because it got dark pretty soon after it started, but here are a few:

With Cinderella:

And, finally, we went trick-or-treating at the mall earlier this week:

I think it's safe to say that we got plenty of wear out of her costume this year.  I'm sure I'll have more to post after this weekend.  I hope you enjoyed Halloween as much as we did!!!