Today my baby is 2!

Two years ago today was without a doubt one of the best days of my entire life.

For our beautiful baby girl Olivia Alexandra was born.

See here and here to read about the day she was born.

I always dreamed of what my babies would look like, how they would act, what they would like, what they would be good at ect.

And she is the epitome of those dreams and so so much more.

She is absolutely perfect in every way.

 I am so grateful to Heavenly Father for trusting me to be her mother.

She is a precious gift that I will treasure always.

 Happy 2nd birthday my sweet girl!

I love you sooooo much!

The apartment tour.

 After living here for over a month now I finally got a round to taking some pictures of our cute apartment.

I apologize for the bad lighting and poor quality of the pictures. #1: My camera isn't that nice and #2: I am not a photographer.

But you get the idea. 

I of course have lots of things I want to add. Such as more pillows on the couch and on our bed, and curtains in all the rooms. So hopefully that will happen in the near future!

 The view right when you walk in the front door.

 Looking to your right as you walk in.

 I really love my couch covers and the 4 pillows I have so far.

The desk is a bit messy but don't worry it is clean now!

Entering the kitchen area.

The laundry closet.

 The bathroom.

 The view as you walk in to Olivia's room.

 See what I'm talking about with the curtains?

The blankets are a bit ugly so I better get sewing!

 The view when you walk into our bedroom.

Well that's it for the tour.

So far we are loving our new place! 

Birthday plans.

We're getting super excited around here for little girl's birthday.

I can't believe she'll be 2!

I've already decorated a bit to help her get excited.

And it's worked so far. Every time we say are you excited for your birthday she points to her birthday banner with a huge smile on her face.

Her birthday is on Sunday but we'll mostly celebrate it on Saturday since Grandpa Antone will be in town.

We have plans of going to the Portland zoo, singing happy birthday, eating cake and icecream, decorating with lots of balloons, opening presents, and just enjoying every second with our perfect two year old Olivia.

Stay tuned for her actual birthday fun post:)

Our weekend.

We had a lovely weekend.

It started off with Michael coming home from school to take us on walk.

We headed off in the direction we usually go but noticed up ahead that there were 2 rather large scary dogs so we opted to go another direction. Well as we headed in that direction we saw another dog. Thankfully this one was smaller.  So after a moments hesitation, I realized that if needs be (like if it was attacking one of us) I could kick that little dog right out of the way, so we continued on. It was so fun walking through the neighborhoods and talking about what houses we liked, what houses houses we didn't, what we want our future home to look like, and where we want to live and such.

I love talking about stuff like that with Michael. It's fun to dream and plan for the years to come.

We stopped at the playground because Olivia loves them. Michael loves them too. He told me that when he was little he liked to pretend that he lived in a fort (the playground) which was surrounded by lava. Of course meaning that he had to leap around and swing across things so as not to fall in the lava. He told me he still thinks of them that way.

Upon arriving back home I made a delicious homemade mushroom soup served with French bread.

We bathed our little Olivia who was exhausted and put her right in bed.

I made apple crisp and of course ate mine with cream all while cuddling and watching The Proposal with my boy.

That show definitely never gets old.

Olivia learned a few new things this weekend that I wanted to quickly jot down before I forget.

She now says watermelon- "va va ma ma" and when you ask her what her name is she will say, "yiya". When she farts she will look up at you with a smile and say "farp." (Haha I wonder where she learned that from:) She learned how to read her first book and thinks that every number is two. (I will get it on video.)

She's absolutely adorable.

On Saturday we woke up and Michael of course watched some of the Tour Championship and then headed off to school to study.

When he got home we decided to drive over to another park by Willamette University and play there for a while.

On the way, we stopped at a little yogurt place called Froyo. I've been really missing my Tutti Frutti but did not have high expectations for this place. When I walked in and saw that they had fresh peach, sweet coconut, and pomegranate raspberry flavors I literally let out a little shriek. Sure enough they tasted just as good to me as the Tutti Frutti flavors. I'm in heaven now and will be a regular customer.

The park was huge and we forgot the stroller so we spent most of the time chasing Olivia all over the place. We kept hoping that she would just run straight on the path but of course she has her own agenda and preferred to venture to both the right and left of the path to look for the "nuts" (squirrels).

They had a cute little playground that had a fake rock cow. She would not go anywhere near it. I think she thought it was real. She loved going down the slide all by herself and honestly could not have been happier.

For dinner we had fried egg BLTs with crispy oven baked potatoes.

Michael and I spent the evening switching between Men in Black and Jurassic Park.

Which made me so grateful that we don't live in a world full of aliens and dinosaurs.

Of course I will admit that at the part in Men in Black when they are in the mortuary and they open that guys head only to find a mini green alien, I did tell Michael that I wished I could have one as a pet.

It was so tiny and cute in an alien sort of way.

Sunday was a little more hectic with Michael spending some time doing homework and me trying to keep the house picked up and make dinner all while chasing Olivia.  Who seemed extra stir crazy.

I am pleased to announce that for dinner I baked my first ever salmon and it turned out amazing.

Since we don't have a grill, I've been trying to master the art of baking and broiling our meats.

While watching Cupcake Wars I made a few dozen pumpkin snickerdoodles. 

And after taking my first bite, decided that I would make some sort of pumpkin treat every week.

I'm honestly in love with anything and everything pumpkin.

I also was able to finish the book Heaven is Here by Stephanie Nielson.

It was so beautiful and reminded me of the importance of family and cherishing every second here on Earth.  Even the crazy busy mom moments.

Anyway now that I've rambled on forever, here are a few pictures.

 My apple crisp with cream,

 Me and Olivia enjoying every single bit of our frozen yogurt.

 Michael chasing a squirrel and Olivia watching.

 Trying to find it after dad chased it up the tree.

 She loved picking up every stick she saw.

 Mid-run.

 This cute boy was just a bit pooped after chasing Olivia all over the entire park.

 So excited!

Temporarily contained so that I can work a few minutes on dinner without the pantry being emptied and my walls being covered with sweet Olivia drawings.

I'm so grateful for beautiful fall walks, yummy food and yummy frozen yogurt. I'm grateful for inspiring books. But most of all I'm grateful for my cute family. I feel so blessed.

Little House on the Prairie.

I love this show more than words can say.

For as long as I can remember, every night at 6:00 pm I've sat down on the couch and literally soaked in the 45 minutes of wonderfulness and joy that this show brought me. I've even been known to run in place with my arms straight out making the motion of flying like Laura does during the song at the end of each episode!

I love Laura, I love how they make even the smallest of things seem to be just as beautiful as the big things, and I love that it makes me laugh and cry all at the same time.
Secretly, I kind of wish I lived in Walnut grove. I want to wear the same simple yet cute skirt and blouse with a dirty apron over it. I want to wear my hair in a messy bun and at nights gently take it out and brush out my curls. I want to knead fresh bread dough on my wooden table and make homemade pies for dessert on the weekends. I want to be a student in that little white church and then go on picnics by the river on Sundays. I want to walk all the way to Olson's mercantile with my bonnet and pouch purse to shop for fabric and of course snag a few handfuls of candy from the jars on my way out.  And I want to ride next to Michael in a wagon with our cute children sitting behind us on our way to a barn dance where we'll surely dance the night away.
Oh there's just so so much I love about the Ingall's lifestyle and I'm grateful I sort of get to live it through the many many episodes.

I'm sure I've seen each episode at least 20 times yet I still can't get enough. And even during the times that I didn't have a t.v, I still managed to watch them on YouTube.

To this day, I still sit down at 6:00 pm to watch my favorite show.

Michael of course was quickly introduced to it and I'm proud to say that he is becoming just as big a fan:)

Olivia too.

Her attention span isn't quite long enough to complete the show but I'm sure she will grow to love it just as much as I do.

So today, I'm grateful for Little house on the Prairie.

And I look forward to sitting down on the couch with my husband and children to watch it together for many years to come.

(Picture via.)

My blog.

When I first started the blog I thought that I should only post about "major events/outtings"  but after I had Olivia that changed and I began posting constantly about all of the cute things she does and says. And now after much thought I've decided that I want to post more about my thoughts, feelings, wishes and dreams. Just because I want to remember them. Remember everything that was going on in my life at that particular time.

Of course the majority of my posts will still be about Olivia.

Because she's our everything and it really doesn't get much cuter than her.

I've heard some people say that they don't like reading blogs where the writer makes it appear as though they have the "perfect" life. 

I can definitely understand that but at the same time I think that there are a lot of things in our lives that should be private and that shouldn't be shared with the world.

I mean if you have a public blog literally anyone can read it.

And I honestly don't want just random people to know about every single stupid arguement Michael and I get in to, or how frustrated I get sometimes with never having any time to myself because I spend the entire day entertaining and chasing  around my 2 year old.

And I definitely don't want everyone to know about every trial we've been through or are going through.

I guess I'm just more of a private person.

But let me just make it known that I am far from perfect, our little family has problems we are working through just like everyone else and there will be times that I may share some of those things.

We'll just have to see.

I really like to focus on all the positive things going on in our family because they are the things I want to remember.
My blog isn't "fake", we are a very happy family most of the time:)
And I've just chosen to focus on those happy times

Anyway enough ranting about my blog.

I'm just grateful that I have this blog to record all my most precious memories.

I'm sure our family will cherish it forever.

*Oh on a side note I do really appreciate some of those honest blogs. The blogs where people open up about their difficult trials. I feel like some of them are so inspired and are forsure helping others in similar situations. I love reading them. And who knows maybe one day I will be inspired to share some of the challenges we face but for now I hope that whoever reads this blog enjoys it for what it is.

"Sand."

Remember this post and how I was trying to be a cute mom and do cute things and Olivia did not like it at all?

(Speaking of which she still shakes her head and says "tas (colors) no" before every bath.

Needless to say, she is traumatized.

I mean you think she would have forgotten by now.

But despite my failure with the colorful bath I haven't given up.

This time I decided to make her some "sand" out of flour and oil.

I put it in a tupperware with some teaspoon scoopers and a little fish cup.

I am pleased to say that this activity went a lot better.

And she may have even enjoyed it a little too much!

She sat out on the porch scooping and flinging for 1 hour straight.

Which is a record.

Seriously this child has the attention span of 2 minutes.

Despite the rather large mess it made she had a blast laughing and scooping soft sand all while eating a sticky lollipop.

And I had a blast watching her play contently and really felt proud of myself for planning an activity that she actually liked.

I definitely foresee us pulling out the sand again but time is limited because we will never be playing with it inside!

*I found this idea and recipe in one of the Parents magazines up at my in-laws house.

Here it is:

4 cups of flour

1/2 cup oil

Mix it around with your fingers until the oil blends in with the flour.

Messy cute face.

This little girl turns two in just a few short weeks.

And I can definitely tell that we're coming up on those difficult twos everyone talks about:)

Just today while I was cleaning the kitchen she ran off. I thought she was just going to her room like she usually does so I kept cleaning. Well after about 2 minutes I decided to go check on her. She was not in her room but instead in the bathroom with the toilet scrubber brush flinging it around inside the toilet. And yes there was pee in there. I seriously about passed out. As I started to assess the situation I  found both mine and Olivia's toothbrushes covered in wet toilet paper. Yep she had used those in the toilet as well.

Bless her little heart, she was only trying to help clean but oh my gosh I was SO freaked out.

So I quickly put her in the bathtub and told her that after we cleaned her off she would have to sit in there for a long time while I cleaned up the mess. She then looked up at me with the sweetest face and said, "sorry a mommy, sorry." (I wish I could imitate how she says sorry because it is so cute. I will try and get it on video.)

Anyway how could I possibly stay mad after that.

I'm just glad that even when she's a stinker she somehow manages to always put a smile on my face.

Oh and I LOVE this picture.
She had a wonderful time licking the nutella off of the graham cracker and her fingers.
Feeding a toddler is most definitely a treat:)

New words and a song.

Olivia has become quite the talker.

She is learning new words everyday and is getting so good at telling us what she wants.

It's kind of sad watching her grow up so quickly but at the same time it is so sweet to watch her learn all of these new things.

Every single day this girl makes us smile.

And we are so grateful that she's ours forever.

In this video she shows off some of her new words.

In general we have noticed that with c words she makes the t sound instead and with the v sound she makes the b sound.

She loves to laugh like Lumpy. (He's from Winnie the Pooh's Heffalump movie)

She learned to put the words dirty bath together after she helped me clean the bathtub one day, and dirty water after we told her the water in the creek was dirty.

We LOVE how she says popcorn. 

We ask her to say it multiple times a day.
Her little "ummmm" face is to die for.
And I could go on but I'm sure you'll see it all in the video!

She loves to sing Popcorn popping on the apricot tree.
And is getting so good at saying some of the words and doing the actions.

But, please excuse my singing voice.

I am definitely not talented in that department:)

Well that is all for now. She has an extremely short attention span so I will work on getting more videos of her talking because it really is the cutest.

1 year down, 1 to go!

 Today marks one year since Winston left on his mission.

I can't believe it's been one year since this day.

A lot has happened, but every day that passes we are one day closer to seeing him.

And I can hardly wait.

Winston is doing so great and is absolutely loving his mission. It is so fun to see how he has changed and grown from a boy to man. Well probably not a man quite yet but he is definitely growing up:) He is currently serving as zone leader in Loganville, Georgia so he has been really busy but he says he loves every second of it. He is still quite the prankster so I can't help but feel a little bad for his companion:)

Anyway, we post his weekly emails on his blog so feel free to check it out.

winstonfarr.blogspot.com.

(It is private so if you want to view it give me your email address.)

We are so proud of Winston and his willingness to serve.

I'm so blessed to have him as my brother.

I love you Winston and can't wait for next year!

Labor Day weekend.

This year, we were lucky enough to spend Labor day weekend up in Yakima with the Mickelsons.

It's so nice to be just a short 4 hour drive away.

Olivia was in heaven with all the attention and Michael and I also had a blast spending time with everyone.
We took Olivia to feed the ducks, went to Yogurtland and the Dollar store, watched dvds of when Michael was in Young Mens and went on the 50 milers every summer (oh my gosh I could not get over how hot he was, of course he still is but I loved seeing him when he was younger).
 We also went miniature golfing, played cards, Michael got in some golfing, and luckily we had plenty of time to relax.
Olivia wanted to go see the "ruff" and the "meow" every five minutes. At first she was so scared of Buck (the dog) because he is kind of big but she still loved him and wanted to see him all the time.
She just didn't want him to get too close.
By the end of the trip, I think she warmed up to him.

The other news is....Olivia has officially figured out how to get out of the crib.
The last night we were there at about 11:30 pm we heard her crying in the other room so I got up and went in to give her her binky. And then quickly went back to bed. Well 30 minutes later I heard crying, so I went in again. This went on for quite sometime.  At first I thought she was sick but soon realized that all she wanted was to get up and play with everyone.
As you can imagine by two in the morning Michael and I were both exhausted and started to get frustrated.
Well a few minutes after we got in bed I heard her screaming again, so I got up and walked to her door. By the time I got there she had stopped crying, so I didn't go in but instead just sat on a chair right outside the door. (I was hoping that she had finally decided to go to sleep). Well all of a sudden I heard the door handle move up and down like someone was trying to open it. To say I was freaked out is an understatement.
I seriously sat there frozen in my chair. A minute later I heard some clanking sounds like someone was dropping money in a jar. By now I was really freaking out. I seriously thought there was a ghost in there. (Michael and I have been watching a few episodes of Paranormal Witness on the SIfy channel). So I got up and quickly ran to get Michael.
I woke him up and told him that I thought there was someone in her room and that he better come check. So with a little smirk on his cute face he got up and came to her door. We listened for a minute, at which point the door handle started moving again. And then the soft clanking sounds began. My heart was beating so fast I easily could have passed out. So Michael quickly opened the door and there Olivia stood with a jar of pennies in hand .
Apparently the "ghost" was her haha. We both stood there, completely shocked that our baby had climbed out of her crib. It obviously never even occurred to me that that was even a possibility. Michael gave me a little pat on the back and walked back to bed and I once again tried to get her back to sleep. Around 4:30 am she decided that she wasn't getting up to play so she fell asleep.
Looking back I have to say I can't believe I thought there was actually a ghost in her room. But I did, so no more ghost movies!
Oh and it is true she has not only learned how to climb out of the portable crib but out of her actual crib as well so we are working on getting that problem fixed.

I was terrible at taking pictures but managed to get a few on Saturday when we took Olivia to feed the ducks.

I love Olivia's facial expression in this one.

There were so many ducks I think she was a bit frightened.

Luckily she had "mama" there to help her.

Again, love her face.

So excited to see all the "duts."

Giving the "duts" some "ba"(bread).

Having the time of her life getting swung by "mama" and "cha cha" (Rachel).

Thank you Mickelsons for an amazing weekend!

Peach smoothie.

This little girl loves everything sweet and anything that has to do with being outside.

So one day we took a little walk up the street to a small shack and bought ourselves a peach smoothie.

It was a perfect day and it made me so grateful that I have my sweet Olivia to hang out with all day every day!