The Best Year of my Life

Happy Birthday to my Princess Olivia who is 1 yr old today!!!!

A Letter to my beautiful daughter~~~

To my dearest Princess Olivia--

Words cannot even describe my love for you. From the moment I knew I was going to have a baby, I loved you more than anything or anyone in the world.

Over the past year, I have watched you grow from a cuddly little baby to a walking independent toddler with a mind of her own. It is amazing to watch you explore the world, whether it be at a park, the grocery store or in our very home.

I feel so privileged to have been able to stay at home with you for the last year and watch you take your first belly roll, first words, and first steps. I will never forget those memories for the rest of my life, nor will I forget the countless hours spent cuddling with you in bed, on the couch, or in the bath.

While I am very sad today that a whole year has passed already, and I feel that it has passed way to fast, I am also very proud, and happy to watch you grow up happy, and healthy. Your smile is contagious, as is your laugh also. I can't help but to crack a smile, or even let a little giggle slip when you are being mischievous and throwing your banana on the floor in protest, or when you pull EVERY single book off of the bookshelf just to see how I will react.

I look forward to every year that I get to stay on this earth and be "Olivia's Mommy". While I must admit that I can wait to see what the future holds for you, I also am excited to see where you will go on life, because I know that you will go far, and be happy, successful, and always very very, very loved.

Love forever,

Your Mommy

xoxoxoxoxoxo

I'M BACK!!!!

Sorry blogger friends for being away so long-

but alas, my computer is fixed!!!

Now seeing as how it is almost 11:00 pm my time, I am quite tired. I just wanted to let everyone know that I will slowly be getting my blog back into the blogosphere this week, along with sewing Olivia's bday dress, getting her party ready, cleaning the house, fixing the holes in the yard (thank you big black dog), weeding the garden, baking bday cake, oh my god! I am not even halfway through my to do list of stuff to do this week.

On the bright side of things, my Mom and brother will be here this coming Friday for the bday party, and then we are going to see the movie "Eat, Pray, Love"!!!!!!!!!!

We are also leaving Big Sky Country for the great state of Wyoming in September to be closer to our families!!! YEA!!

But, I am pretty sure stressing about moving, Olivia's 1st bday party, money, new jobs, new place to live, getting my $2,000 car problem fixed before moving, uggh! Yea, I am pretty sure I am getting an ulcer- not really, but I do feel sick from stressing so much!

I am just going to take it one day at a time, and have a blast planning my princess's 1st bday party. I can't wait to show everyone pictures!

Birthday to do list among other things on my mind

My darling Olivia (who is not so darling at the moment due to a persistant tooth trying to poke through) is going to be 1 yr old on Aug. 11th. I am trying my best to make it an awesome birthday party on limited funds so, I have gone searching in blogland and here is what I have found:



great idea! My hubby has a ton of butcher paper since he runs a meat dept!


How darling is this???



Love these invitations, so beautifully homemade and organic looking




what great decor is this!

All of these fantastic party ideas came from the wonderful, talented Cottage Mama

I am doing a sesame street theme while still keeping the party cute and girly. I am doing fabric invites that are all going to be different from very cute $0.99 fat quarters from Joann's and I am hanging a sign that is going to say

This birthday party was brought to you by the number 1 and the letter's O-L-I-V-I-A

Just like on sesame street!

I am going to order a cupcake tray with one small cake on top for the bday girl, and I am in the process of making her a birthday dress.

I also love these ideas for birthdays:



I love this, and I knew those empty formula can would come in handy.

These ones are made by Sumo over at Sumo's Sweet Stuff but it originated at Fireflies and Jellybeans.



How awesome are these bday favors, pretty cheap too with a dollar store trip and a little DIY.

For more bday awesomeness, check out The Girl Creative's link up

Now, I must say that I am feeling inspired and ready to work!!!

But alas, I have some family news that I am quite excited about and just have to share. After a recent family vacay back home, the Hubba Wubba and I have decided that we HAVE to move closer to our families. I am so homesick, and I want nothing more than to be able to raise our daughter close to her 3 sets of grandparents!

So instead of living a whopping 10 hours away from our family we will soon be uprooting our family about 2 hours away from our parents. I must say that I am quite excited about this which is making all the more homesick and ready to just pack up and go. I can't wait to be able to have weekend visits with our family, and holidays together, and no more teary good byes because we can see them whenever we have a few spare hours in the day :)

Don't get me wrong, I love where we live but family is truly the most important thing to us and what's the point of living that far away from the thing that means the most to you if you don't have too??

Wish us luck, because we are about to write a whole new chapter in our lives!!!

by the way, I am open to birthday party ideas, and links if you know of any good ones.

Thanks!!

Grounded for being a bad blogger!!

Yep, that's right, I am grounding myself to stick to my blogging. I have been a very bad blogger and completely MIA. I am so sorry!!! Truly I am, but on the bright side of things I have A LOT to catch up on.


Alright, first things first. Let's rewind about 2 weeks ago, it was a beautiful sunny day and I was positive that summer was finally here. I was outside taking pictures of our beautiful blossoming garden and perennials. Actually, I was taking the pictures specifically to put on the blog (whoops!)
So before we get to the bad news, allow me to show you around my beautiful vegetable and flower garden.






Beautiful right????



Well, here is what it looks like the next day!!!






As you can see from the flooding, tree leaf confetti, damaged garden, and massive golf ball size hail- we had quite a storm. A tornado touched down 1 1/2 miles away from us, and the pics of the house across the street was our neighbors place who ended up having their yard flooded under 3-4 ft of water. (Thank God their pug dog was inside during the storm because they were not home when it happened)

Not only did this happen once but then on Father's Day another storm of the same magnitude came through. That is 2 storms in one week. ( The second storm is the same one that went through Billings, Mt with a major tornado)

Luckily no one was hurt but it was still pretty devastating.




In other news in our household-

Olivia is full on running and walking and talking- she will be 11 months old on the 11th of July!
This age is so much fun and I really want it to slow down!

My mother gave me my first sewing machine and I am sewing up a storm trying to make Olivia a dress for her 1st b-day party (fingers crossed and knocking on wood that I am doing it right)

We have also decided after a recent trip back home that we NEED to move closer home. Olivia is our first and only child and she is also the first grandchild on both sides of the family, we really hate being this far away and so we have decided to move to Lander, Wy before winter hits this year. It is about 2 hrs away from our family where as in Mt we are currently 9-10 hrs away. I have never really gotten that experience of being able to send Olivia with her grandparents or having my mom help me when I need advice or just want to visit with her about being a new mom. We have done everything on our own for the last 2yrs which has been challenging but it has also given us a sense of independence. Lander is just far enough away to have the best of both worlds and we are really looking forward to everything the future has to hold.


HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!!!

I hope everyone has safe travels, safe BBQ's, and safe firework explosions!!!!

I like change

I have always seen change as a good thing, which you would be able to tell if you saw how often I rotated my toenail and hair colors. Well, not so much anymore since I am busy chasing around a mischievous 9 month old but back in the day, my hair was pretty freaking awesome. I am thinking of going super blonde this time but I am undecided, but that is not the reason I am on the subject of change. (sorry I got sidetracked)

The hubba wubba is applying for a better position within the company he works for and it would be located right where we came from, the place we grew up and call home, the place that houses our daughter's 3 sets of grandparents, the place that we met and fell in love, the place we love to camp, hunt, and fish- so on and so forth, I think you get the point. It would be a pay raise, and I could go back to the college that I love so much and finally finish my degree. So, I am seriously hoping he gets this job so I can finally have some family and babysitters (aka- the grandparents). I like change, and I think this would be a good change so keep your fingers crossed!!!!

Olivia is also changing so much, she almost (gasp!!) 10 months old and is starting to stand on her own and trying to walk. Lately she points at everything she wants and tries to say "kitty cat", "cheese", and mama and dada. I can't believe she is almost 1 yr old, time flies when they are so young. There are a few instances that typically occur in life that remind me that no matter how many times someone tells you, you will never understand until you are there. This is one of those instances, my parent's always used to tell me how it seemed like just yesterday that they were bringing me home from the hospital- I used to blow them off like "whatever, I am ___yrs old, I am almost an adult."


Now, I know what they mean. I look back and it feels like yesterday that I was just making mud pies, or it was just yesterday that I got a car, or it was just yesterday that I graduated highschool even though I'm pretty sure it was light yrs ago. I am doing my best to document every moment of it I can and to never forget her childhood, and yes I will tell her on every single birthday that it feels like just yesterday I held her in my arms and hugged, kissed, and smelled every crevice of her little newborn body. She will understand someday when it's her turn, but until then she will just tell me "whatever".


Tomorrow is weigh in time at weight watchers and I am a little nervous although I think I have been doing good. I must give a big shout out to the hubba wubba for his cooperation with my newly adapted eating and drinking habits, he has been so supportive and has been cooking so healthy (yes, he cook and I don't). Dear Hubba wubba, you must be warned that I will be mad if you lose more weight than I do in the process- so keep on snacking at work and stop pretending like you are trying to eat healthy like me- you have been warned!!!
I will update tomorrow if my efforts on Weight Watchers have been rewarded.