We’d like you to meet…

Our sweet little Olivia!  She turned three weeks old yesterday.  The time has flown by, and yet it also feels like we’ve been a family of three for much longer than just three weeks.  She is the sweetest little baby girl, and Thomas and I feel so blessed.

Olivia Marie Dearden was born on Thursday, January 12, 2012 at 5:02 in the morning.  She was 7lbs, 9oz and 20in long.

She came happy, alert, and ready to grow!  She has astounded all the nurses at the pediatricians office both times she has weighed in – she is already close to 10 pounds and has almost grown 2 inches!  Baby girl loves her milk, and apparently mom makes ice cream :)

She is a very verbal little baby (even the pediatrician noticed it) and makes all kinds of coos and grunts and noises when she’s awake, nursing, asleep or waking up... So pretty much all the time :) We think we might have a talkative one on our hands!

We love you, Olivia!  It’s been a wonderful three weeks!

The Waiting Game

Well can you believe it?  2011 is almost history!  My mental checklist/countdown to baby is running out!

• Thomas’ Birthday
• Thanksgiving
• Katie’s Birthday
• Thomas finishes semester
• Christmas
• New Year’s
• 3rd Anniversary
• BABY TIME!!

I’m glad that I’ve had a lot going on to keep my mind occupied.. but now it feels like all we are doing is waiting.

But waiting has been fun, so far :)  It’s just Thomas, me, and the baby bump hanging out.  We’ve been nesting and going out on little dates. 

On Thursday (39 week mark) the weather was beautiful, so we went out to Brown County State Park and spent some time hiking amongst the barren trees.  It was incredibly beautiful in it’s own, golden, wintery way. 

I felt pretty accomplished after lugging my belly around on those trails for a couple of hours :)  But it felt SO GOOD to be out in the woods again.  It’s that crazy obsession with trees again, I guess!  I love it.

We’ve done some exploring and found some cute shops here and there, we’ve been watching movies, playing games, cooking, and went out to lunch.  I sure do love being the two of us, but we are pretty excited to be three!

Okay, baby.. You’ve done A LOT of growing.. Now come see what it’s like on the outside!  We can’t wait to meet you!

Showered

So Mom Dearden and lovely friend Erica teamed up to throw baby girl and me a baby shower last week.  It was so much fun!  I wish we would have gotten a picture of the table of food Mom Dearden made, because it was amazing.  So here are the lovely ladies who came to shower us.  Thanks so much, guys, your support means so much.

And then here’s me and some of the loot :) and me and Mom Dearden (and baby, of course..).

I go through and re-fold the clothes now and then whenever I need a pick-me-up :)  Nothing cures pregnancy mood swings like some tiny little sleepers and cute baby socks.

(P.S. Thomas thinks it’s funny when I sometimes inadvertently refer to myself as “we”.  Hehe.  That’s what you get when you have a 24-7 companion attached to you.)

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So things are going well over here at the Dearden home.  Thomas is earning mega points by attending the wonderfully awkward birthing classes with me.  Two and a half hours long.  On Saturdays.  For two months straight.  I know, right? What a trooper.

SO yeah.  Here’s a wonderfully cliché side-belly-pose for posterity from last week.  We’re just over 32 weeks along now.  I’m starting to feel huge.  Crazy to think how fast time has flown/will fly!

October Mischief

So you might be wondering what a little pregnant lady like me does all day while Thomas is at school.

I make mischief.

The kind with fabric, paint, puff balls, and a hot glue gun.

Some of the mischief recently has been Halloween-themed.  I made a bunch of little spiders and it’s been fun molding their little legs and “hiding” them all around the house.

You’ll see them peeping over our picture frames and hanging from the vases.  I feel like they all look a little different, depending on how their eyes are positioned, how their legs are bent, and what angle they are hanging at.  They each have their own little personalities!  They make me happy.

Another little project was these fun pumpkins.  I think most of their charm is drawn from the fact that they have real pumpkin stems. You just can’t beat those crazy, naturally-twisted stems!

 

And then I made this for our door.  I can’t take credit for the center ghost (the cutest part of it all); it was inherited from Mom Dearden.  So thanks, Mom Dearden!  But I had fun doing some painting and putting it all together.

I had a partner in crime for this one.  This little guy has been sitting on our porch for a few weeks.  We carved him at a get-together with some friends.  I should have taken a picture of him earlier, here you can see that he’s all black inside and his top teeth are curled in.. He’s actually going to spend the rest of the Halloween season in the dumpster.  But we have enjoyed him thoroughly!

So there you go.  Some Happy Halloween spirit for you.

Sometime, I’ll have to show you some of the baby-themed mischief I have been up to :)

Catch-Up Post

Hello, blog world!

What is it about summer that makes me so bad at blogging?  It’s kind of ridiculous.

But we are here, and we are alive, and we are well.  We had a lovely summer.  Some of the highlights of our summer involved exploring some of the many State Parks that we have here.  We had a lot of fun hiking through the limestone canyon at McCormick Creek State Park,

with our friends at Turkey Run State Park,

and around a little lake at Brown County State Park.

Another summer highlight was when Thomas participated in the Warrior Dash in August.  It was a crazy, five-mile obstacle race, complete with fire and a barbed-wire-covered mud pit at the end.  It was a lot of fun to watch :) and Thomas did really well! I’m thinking that maybe I should bring out my warrior side and try it next year? 

The reason I didn’t do it this year?

BAM! This is at 26 weeks.  We’re having a little girl! She should be here around January 5, 2012, and we are so excited :)

I saw this silhouette the other week, and had to do a double-take.  We don’t have any full-length mirrors in the house, and so seeing my baby belly like this really surprised me.  It’s so wonderful being able to feel her move and wiggle and squirm and twist inside me.  Thomas was able to feel her move the other night for the first time, so that was special.

So things are going well here.  We are getting excited about Fall.  I’m not sure how long it will take me to get used to seeing so many trees EVERYWHERE. Whenever we go out for a drive or to a State Park, or even just walk around some old neighborhood, Thomas laughs at me because I am SO FASCINATED with all the TREES. I really love it.  And it has been all the more magical as the trees have started donning their Autumn apparel.  We have some beautiful fall colors all around us, and the weather is getting that lovely, crisp feel.  We moved, and so I had to say goodbye to that beautiful pink tree outside of our old apartment, but was so tickled to find that the huge tree outside our new place turns a brilliant yellow in the Fall.  It has made me so happy.

Unfortunately, it has dropped so many leaves already.  But they are the crispiest, most satisfying crunch-through-the-leaves type of leaves.

We have been enjoying the fall trees in other ways, too! A couple weekends ago, we went to Anderson Orchard and did some apple picking.  It was a really fun outing, and we came back with a half bushel of delicious apples of all different kinds.

 

So far, we made some apple butter and the most delicious apple pie that my friend Allison introduced to us.  We still have a lot left to continue our fun fall baking!

Well, there you go.  A big catch-up post. Here’s to an awesome Fall!

Mother’s Day

Happy Mother’s Day!  We have had a beautiful couple of days after a LOT of rain.  Okay, here’s a side note… :)

We were driving down to Louisville to visit the Temple, and on the way, we saw that all the fields had turned to lakes.  It was crazy, the water came right up to the road in some places and completely covered some of the side roads that lead to people’s houses.  We saw canoes just laying by the road – and on the way back, what we saw confirmed our suspicions: the people had to park their cars by the side of the road and then canoe to their homes!  What an adventure…

And so Thomas gave me the spoiled treatment (as the mother-to-be of his future children, of course :) – I was telling him that I have gotten Mother’s day treats since I was a Laurel, and he thought there was something wrong with that).  We went outside and he grilled me a delicious, summery meal.

And then afterwards, we went on a hike to check out our own little lake that we like to visit.  It has swelled significantly since our Autumn trips!

 

I love Mother’s day.  It’s wonderful to take some time and really reflect on all that our moms do for us.  Thomas and I are so blessed to have been sent to two extraordinary women and loving mothers.  I often think back and marvel at how they dealt with us.. all that they sacrificed for us.. but they never gave up and still continue to be a major part of our lives.  I don’t know what we would do without them!

What wonderful examples as to what I would like to become one day.  Thank you both for that.

Happy Spring!

We had a wonderful Easter weekend.  And even got together with some friends to make egg art.  I call it egg art because Thomas can get so creative!  I love it.

  

I mean seriously.  Look at that.  All dye.  And tape.  That’s it.  I’m such a proud wifey :)

Too bad we’re gonna have to eat it!  Most of his little egg friends are already gonners.. made into Thomas’ first ever egg sandwich.  Seriously though, HOW did he ever make it through all Easters in his life without ONE egg sandwich?  One of life’s mysteries.

  

We are enjoying our spring weather and the many blossoms it brings.  These tulips from Mom Dearden’s garden graced our table last week.

  

Happy Spring!