It's Christmas Time in the Noog!

We have lived in Chattanooga 9 days now and have already unpacked most of our stuff, hung pictures on the walls, and decorated for Christmas. Olivia started the decorating on the first day as soon as she found a box of ornaments she went into her room, shut the door and started hanging ornaments on her furniture and doors and setting up all the Santa Claus figures on her dresser.

We felt settled in enough by the second weekend to go get a tree. It is a beautiful tree and as I'm writing this I realized I haven't watered it since we got it so I better do that if I want it to stay beautiful. Olivia is pretty sure that the elfs on the tree move at night while she is asleep. They just might.

Today we got a big box full of wrapped presents from Nana so these are the first gifts to make it under the tree. Olivia placed them under the tree and layed looking at them for a while then she began hiding them behind the tree. She said she had to hide them so Santa Claus didn't see them and take them. I think she's watched The Grinch too many times. We assured her that he would not take them and that he would still leave her other presents and she placed them back in the front. I'm sure they will continue to move around for the next 2 weeks.

Speaking of next 2 weeks, my brother and his family are coming to visit us next week! Yay!!!! I am so happy to have them come. I haven't come up with a plan for us yet so I need to start some Google searches to find out some fun things to do in the area. Oh, I forgot to talk about the visit with Santa Claus.

SO, the weekend we moved from Griffin, GA, we unloaded the truck on Saturday then drove back to Griffin on Sunday so that we could clean the house and have a special visit with Santa, Mrs. Claus and Cindy Stansberry (the AMAZING photographer we met while in Griffin). Olivia got to visit with Santa and just seemed so comfortable with him, like they were old friends. She walked right up to him and stood between his legs with her arms around his belly hugging him and looking up at him talking. He made her giggle and blush and she just kept hugging him. Then she got to have a cupcake and hot cocoa with Mrs. Claus.

She told Santa that all she wants is a Peek a boo Puppy house and cardboard boxes. The wish for boxes has already come true of course so Santa just has to deliver on Peek a boo puppies!

Stream of Consciousness

So I was thinking the other day about how much I want to blog and why I don't acutally do it. The answer I came up with is that it takes me so long to write because I keep making changes and editing myself and then I get interrupted and have to save a draft but never get back to finishing it. SO I decided I should try to write blog posts using stream of consciousness form and then won't have to edit myself. If you notice that I end abruptly without wrapping up a post, it is because I have been interrupted. Hopefully, I will come back soon and maybe if I can remember what I was thinking about before i can finish up that thought, otherwise I will start a whole new idea.

I know, I know, I'm a bad blogger. I will never be able to be one of those who regularly participates in this blogging thing.
I've come to believe that 4 yrs old is going to be so much fun! 3 was defintely challenging at times, but I think she has really learned to handle her frustration better and I have learned to handle mine as well. Apparently, 2 people yelling doesn't help. Who knew? (hehe)

So I want to list a few of the things Olivia has said or done that I think are special.

We are swimming this summer at the Moose Lodge. Olivia pronounces is Moose Lobge which is hilarious. She took swim lessons and did really well but even though she knows how to do free style stroke, she chooses to swim "free style" and just rolls around and acts silly in the water. BUT, she is not drowning and is able to come up for air by herself so I'm not going to complain. It makes trips to the pool much easier that they were last year.

We went to the Georgia Aquarium last week with Nana and Papa Ken. It was lots of fun! Since then, her bedroom has become the "Book Aquarium" and we spend all day in there looking at fish eggs (marbles), touching rays and sharks, pretending to be pirates, reading books, and other things. Her closet is either an airplane, a boat or a train which takes people from Texas (pronounced Tescas) to the Aquarium and back. Yesterday it was a pirate ship that she and "big sister" were riding in that got stuck on some rocks and I had to "heave ho" for a long time to pull them off the rocks. Olivia was very encouraging and yelled "You're a very strong pirate Mommy!" which gave me the strength I needed to keep on pulling!

Big sister is a doll that looks like a girl, not a baby and Olivia has named her "Big Sister". To be clear, she is not Olivia's big sister, she is the big sister to the baby dolls. I am the voice of Big Sister. This is a game started by Papa Ken, who was the voice of Birthday Bear for the week he was here visiting. Olivia loves this game. She talks and talks to Big Sister and tells her all sorts of stories about what she has done. Things she hasn't even told me. And all the while they are talking, Olivia is looking Big Sister right in the eyes, never looking at me. It's as if Im not even there, until Big Sister says something ridiculous like, "I think your mommy needs to go clean the kitchen." Then Olivia looks at Big Sister skeptically, then to me and O asks "Did you say that or was it Big Sister?"

List of Oliviaese words:
Moose Lobge = Moose Lodge
Stattoos = tattoos (She said she wants a stattoo of a dump truck when she grows up; on her ankle like her Mommy)
Tescas = Texas

She often sings what she is doing which I love. And she is also quite a dancer. Both of these have become frequent since she started watching Backyardigans.
Her sense of humor is really developing and she is getting sarcasm. She is quick to point out when something is "ridiculous"!

She and her father are "Fixers". Olivia believes they can fix anything, "except broken trees", of course. I am sometimes able to fix things, but have not earned the title of Fixer apparently. Brian is great at getting to help him with projects and she LOVES it! I wish I sould figure out a way to make cleaning up more like fixing so that I could get some help in that department!

FATHER'S DAY FISHING!
Brian and Olivia went to Academy and bought O a Disney Princess Fishing pole. We went out on Lake Jackson Sunday evening. Olivia caught her first fish, no first 3 fish! She was so proud! But, 3 was enough and she was not interested in fishing much after that. Instead, she watched her little fish swim around in the live well. Her wonderful father was nice enough to keep them in there until we were done fishing.

To sum up, I am feeling very blessed and having a fantastic time with my little girl these days! I hope I can remember to get on here more often so that her greats are all written down.

Spring!

Spring in Griffin, GA is absolutely beautiful! Mostly we have had great weather, but there have been a few really bad storms with tornado (or as Olivia says, tomato) activity in the area. It's amazing to see how these huge trees have been blown over with the whole root sytem just lifted out of the ground! Olivia and I are spending a lot of time playing outside. We have a BEAUIFUL yard full of azaleas, camelias, tulips, Dogwood trees, and other beautiful plants. Olivia is becoming quit the bike rider. Today, she tried going really fast then lifting her feet off the peddles and spreading her legs wide and hollering "look at me Mommy!" What made it even better was that she had no pants on and was wearing her apron and baker's hat. We had a wonderful visit with Mama and Poppa this past week. Visited the zoo, planted flowers and tomatoes, ate fajitas! Dad was nice enough to bring lots of groceries from HEB, a much needed treat. As much as we like our home here, and have enjoyed our time, we are getting homesick for Texas. Of course we miss our family and friends, but we are starting to really miss the places and stuff in Texas now too. We talked about it tonight and had a long list of things we miss: HEB, breakfast tacos, Rosarios, bluebonnets, wildflowers, deer, live oaks, The Grist Mill, Gruene Hall, Floore's, our house, less expensive groceries, inexpensive utilities, Shiner beer, The Guadelupe, and the list goes on...

The Twinkle in His Eye