These are a few of my favorite things.....

• Watching It's a Wonderful Life on t.v.
• Going to the Nutcracker and to dinner at the 1913 Room
• Decorating the house for the holidays
• SHOPPING for the perfect present!
• Reading Christmas books to Olivia
• Baking cookies
• Wrapping all those presents!
• Wearing Christmas socks
• Christmas Eve with ALL my family!
• Christmas day - waking up in my own house!
• Watching others open gifts
• Having Christmas dinner
• Going to the Amway for a $12 Christmas drink! Yup $12!!!
• Listening to Christmas music non-stop!
• Fires in the fireplace
• THE FOOD!! Need I say more??
• The "Christmas" spirit!
• Friends!! Especially Santa's Sister!!
• 24 hours of a Christmas Story beginning Christmas Eve
• The movie ELF! How great!!
• ....and starting new traditions with MY famil

Olivia and Mommy on Christmas Day!

 

The Holidays! This is what Christmas looked like in the Ontiveros' house! 

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....And More Pictures!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS

..a few special pictures from today!

The tree and all the presents.....

Santa Livvy Lou!

Olivia and her very own - Olivia Clarie Cabbage Patch Doll!

Tired from opening all those presents!!

Home for the Holidays...
taken the night of our holiday party...and some of Livers playing!

...Busy Life!

Yes, it has been several weeks since I last posted! What can I say....things have been CRAZY around here! Between the holidays, work and Little Livvy things are super busy! All is well in the Ontiveros house. The house has been decorated for Christmas since before Thanksgiving! The holiday baking is nearly complete and the shopping almost done!
Olivia is doing really well too! She is smiling a ton and talking to herself. She has just discovered her hands. She is super happy and a joy to be around. We are really excited that Santa will be making a stop at our house this year...Olivia wants a rocking horse and a Cabbage Patch Doll named Olivia...which is NOT been easy for Santa to find. Santa told me that he had to call the Cabbage Patch factory and order an Olivia Claire doll. He hopes to have it here on Christmas...even though she won't remember ...mommy and daddy will!
Tonight is Jose's work holiday party which I always look forward to attending - we always have a great time! And...tomorrow I am SO excited! My favorite holiday tradition...going to see the Nutcracker! I can hardly wait!!
Well, I just got home from work - a meeting out of town and the drive made me sleepy...my mom has Livers right now - so I may for the first time in forever squeeze in an afternoon nap!

............He had a broad face and a little round belly,

That shook, when he laughed, like a bowlful of jelly.

Happy Birthday Jose!
My lovely hubby turns the big 35 today! And, a very happy birthday to him!
Here are some of my favorite things about Jose!
He is a hard worker
He is a WONDERFUL father
He is a WONDERFUL Husband
He's a great cook
He's a good listener
He is kind to others
He loves our dogs
He picks up dog poop
He is a child at heart
He LOVES golf
He takes care of us
He is fun to shop with
....there are a million things that I love about him - but those are a just a few!
Happy Birthday - we love you!

More pictures from Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!
Yesterday was Olivia's very first thanksgiving and she sure had a great time! It was the first time that Jose and I got to do Thanksgiving - so we were pretty excited about it. Everything was wonderful - from the Turkey to the stuffing - and everything in between. Here is a picture of us - taken after dinner.
Olivia is almost over her cold - I would say she is about 95% back to her old self. She is sleeping much better -but she does have a horrible cough!
Around the Ontiveros house we are getting ready for Christmas - the house is now decorated, lights are going up on the outside trees today! We're feeling the Christmas spirit around here - and getting ready for our big holiday party next weekend. We did one last year and everyone had a great time - so we are doing it again! Can't beat good food, good wine and the $20 gift exchange!

Sick Baby

Olivia has her first virus - poor baby! I feel so bad for her. It started a few evenings ago - a runny nose. The runny nose turned into a horrible cough and lets not forget the horrid projectile vomiting. Yes - Wednesday night it happened. Picture this - around 9pm I was feeding Olivia her last bottle and once she finished I burped her. So, here the two of us are sitting on the couch cuddling (mind you Jose is working in Grant) and all the sudden - Olivia makes the MOST AWFUL noise and then she begins spewing EVERYWHERE!!! It was all over me and I mean ALL over me - it was on both of the dogs faces and completely on the couch! I didn't know what to do! Where to begin?? If you have never seen a child projectile - it was scary/comical - all in one! So, I took Olivia into the kitchen and put her in her car seat - and I stripped my pj's off. Now if you have not been to my house before I have very large windows in my living room and I have to run past these windows - up the stairs to get a change of clothes! So, here I am in NOTHING but underwear (no bra) running upstairs hands placed in strategic places - to get on another pair of pj's. Olivia is screaming, I am half naked, my dogs have spew on them, and I don't know what the heck to do! I did manage to pull myslef together and get myself dressed and Olivia cleaned up. I was SO happy to see Jose home from work! (The dogs managed to clean the couch for me - gross huh??)
Olivia does in fact have some sort of virus that she got from me last week. I had a horrible sore throat last week! She is on two different meds now and should be feeling better within the next 24 hours. Jose took her to the Dr. yesterday and I took her again today - because she kept getting worse - not to mention that she has projectiled several times since the first! Having a sick baby is NO fun...Jose and I are "down" about it too. We just feel so bad for her. I am hoping that she will being to feel better tomorrow night and by next week she will be back to her old smiling self. I miss all the smiles!
We are decorating the house for Christmas this weekend! We are having Thanksgiving dinner at our house this year and we have a holiday party for family on the 2nd - so we thought it would be nice to have the holiday look for a few extra weeks this year!
We hope you have a great weekend!

How time flies.....

Well, I have survived my first full week back at work! After getting use to being at home for 10 weeks - it was an adjustment, to say the least, to head back to work. Not only did I miss Olivia like crazy - but getting adjusted to a new morning schedule was a bit difficult. Should we feed her first and then take showers? Should we shower first and then feed her? Should we feed her in the shower?? She seems to really LOVE her daycare - which is great. They do fun things with the kids - tummy time - stories - all that. When I picked her up on Thursday - her teachers told me that she is a very "sensitive" baby. I asked them what they meant by that and they told me that when the other babies cried or fussed - Olivia would get rather nervous and start to cry as well. How sweet!
These pictures - taken today - shows Olivia doing one of her favorite things - sitting in her swing. She LOVES this. The swing has a mobile with a dome-shaped mirror - so she can look at herself and she just smiles and smiles! It is truly one of the cutest things I have ever seen!

I love these pictures....taken on Sunday morning before Olivia's baptism. She has this complete devilsh look on her face -

our little prankster!

First Family Photo!

Yes - here it is our first official family photo! This was taken yesterday at Liv's baptism at St. Alphonsus - the same church that Jose and I were married in. It was a lovely day and we were able to Celebrate with several family and close friends. My cousin Sara and her husband Chris are Liv's godparents.
When Father Turk poured the water on her head - she didn't make a sound. She was very well behaved! It was a great day! I got very emotional at church - a combination of going back to work, being overjoyed by having Liv in our lives and sad that Eric and my dad were not there.
Today was my first day back to work - and I survived!! I love my job and am excited about new projects - to be honest it kind of felt good to get back into the swing of things!

A Smile to kick off your weekend...have a good one!

After a hard night of trick or treating.....the bumble bee was beat!

Happy Halloween!!

I think I'm Gonna.....

Smile for you....

Breast Cancer Awareness Month..
In this day and age, most of us have known someone who has had breast cancer. My mom was diagnosed about 2 1/2 years ago and after several months of surgeries and treatments - she is now cancer free! The group of women in this photo are survivors...strong, intellegent and brave...all who have beat this disease. Please remember to give yourself a monthly exam and early detection is your best way to FIGHT!

Little Livvy....
Little Livvy-Lou (that's what I call her) is going to be two months old tomorrow! I can't believe how fast time has gone by! She has her two-month Doctor appointment tomorrow - it'll be nice to see how much she weighs and how long she is. She is finally sleeping through the night! YEAH! She is doing great..her last bottle is at 10pm and she sleeps until 6 or 7..just depends on the day I guess. And..just last week she started smiling...nothing is better than that huge smile from your baby. It makes my heart melt! Today she was smiling up a storm and I tried to capture it with my camera..I didn't do the greatest job..but at least in these you can see that her eyes are bright!

The Love of my Life....Olivia Claire

Daddy's Little Girl

Jose is, shall we say, smitten with his little girl. At the ripe age of nearly 8 weeks - she has got this guy wrapped around her finger. It is something to see...a normally tough guy melting like butter when he looks at his daughter. HI BABY - is how he greats her when he gets home from work...but in a very high pitched voice. I have discovered that he really likes giving Olivia her bath. Tonight when we were bathing her - well Jose was giving her the bath - and I was sitting on the toilet watching - he was talking to her in a calm voice and for the first time she did not scream during bath time. He also likes dressing her. Tonight he picked out her Jedi-Knight outfit...that's his name for her white side-snap onesie and white leggings. She does look cute - and Jose thinks that she looks the most beautiful in all white. On Sunday moring I took Bryan the Dog for a walk around Reeds Lake and when I got home Jose and Olivia dressed for the day....an interesting choice of clothing...but he was proud of his selections and thought she looked adorable. I didn't have the heart to change her in matching clothes.

It sure is cute though - a father with his baby.

Miss Olivia!
Olivia will be 7 weeks old this Saturday and she is doing great! I am loving being a mom more than I ever thought I would. It's amazing! I am also gearing myself up for heading back to work. I still have three weeks left before I head back - and don't get me wrong - I really love my job - but am I going to miss spending all this time with Olivia. It's going to be really hard for me and I am sure there will be many tears that first week back. But, like I said - I have a great job and knowing that what I do helps many children is very fulfilling.
Lisa is coming into town this week. She and I have been BFF's since 2nd grade and she lives in Minneapolis now - so she hasn't had a chance to meet Miss O yet. So, I am really excited to see her!
The picture above was taken by the greatest photographer EVER - Monica Gould. She does amazing photos of babies, children and pregnant women. You should check her out at www.monicagouldphotography.com - she took the photo of Olivia when she was just 10 days old. She does great work!

Olivia Update...
Olivia is now nearly 6 weeks old....she'll be 6 weeks this Saturday. I can't believe it...in some ways it seems like she was born just yesterday and in some ways I feel like we have always had her. She is doing really well...she likes going on outings - especially to the Baby Gap! Two days ago - it was gorgeous out - so we went for a walk around Reeds Lake and it was awesome. It felt good to get excercise and it was good for her to get some fresh air. Two nights ago she slept thru the night - which was AWESOME! Last night however was a different story...she hardly slept...but at least we are on the right track!
Here are a few pictures....

The Girls...

If you really look at this picture - it is hysterical!! Nora - (who you can barely see on the right) is wearing a Cinderella Dress over her clothes....Isabelle decided to keep her pants off after a trip to the bathroom ... and Marion has her jumper tucked into her tights...after a trip to the bathroom. They were all running around like this at Mary Ann's house last Friday at lunch..and it made me laugh and I had to snap a picture. I'm sure in about 2 years...Olivia will be wearing her dress over clothes tucked into jeans!

4 Weeks Old....

Time is flying...and we are loving every minute of it!

Girl Clothes
If you are the mom of a little girl - I am sure you understand the possible danger of clothes shopping for your daughter. I am a HUGE shopper anyway - but now that I have a little girl - shopping is like a drug addiction or something. I literally can't walk by the Baby Gap without stopping in and buying something. Olivia has some pretty cute outfits from Baby Gap. In fact I have bought her a couple pairs of jeans - which I will not tell you how much I spent - due to the fact that my hubby may read this and I enjoy being married to him very much. I use to hide my shopping purchases in the trunk of the car and bring them in when Jose had gone to work and now I am going to have to do the same thing with Olivia's clothes. Shhhh....don't tell!

Bath Time!
Olivia does not like to be undressed AT ALL...but she does LOVE getting a bath in the warm water...she also LOVES getting her hair washed!
Today was Olivia's first outing to have brunch... we headed to the omelet shop for some breakfast today and then off to Jose's favorite place - COSTCO! A very full day for our household!

Friday Lunches....

Friday lunches are spent at Mary Ann's house - I love being on maternity leave so I can enjoy Friday lunches! Usually on Friday's you can find all the females of our family at Mary Ann's - Sara, Marion, Nora, Isabelle, sometimes Sue, Sue Z, Michelle, Laurie...just depends on what's going on with everyone's work schedules. Olivia and I will be joining the girls for lunch every Friday until I have to go back to work...however Mary Ann will be watching Olivia on Friday's - so I will still be spending some Friday Lunches over there!

Olivia is three weeks old today - yesterday we went to the Doctor for her three week check up and she is doing GREAT! She weighs 7 lbs 7 ounces and is 20 inches long. She got her social security card in the mail today - so now she is a real official girl!

My Daughter....

I recently got an e-mail from a woman named Lesley who lives in Louisville and is a good friend to Eric...her e-mail talked about her relationship with her daughter...and the one thing that stuck out was when she said that when her daughter was born - it was "electric." And, that is the perfect word to describe how I feel about Olivia...electric. When I look into her eyes - I am so overcome with joy and happiness. I once heard someone say that babies are angels that choose their parents and if that's the case I am thrilled that this darling baby chose us.