Our Christmas 2008

First of all, I hope everyone reading this had a magical Christmas yesterday with your families!

This year was our very first McDonald Christmas of our own...well in a place of our own since we were living with my parents last year. Olivia started off the morning right by waking at a lovely 5:45 a.m. Good thing too because I was waking up every half hour since 3 a.m. anyway...I couldn't sleep! I felt like a little kid! Here are a few photos of our Christmas morning and Olivia's 2nd Christmas morning of her life!

Don't mind Denny's grizzly bear beard!

Kissing her new baby.

INKERBELT!!!!!!!!!
That's what she calls her.

Taking a cookie break. After she opened up her Santa presents we headed over to Ama and Papa's for more presents, mimosas, and eggs benedict!

Olivia's first tricycle! So cute with streamers on the handlebars and everything.

Thank you Ama and Papa for all of the presents!

Look closely to see Dennis' Christmas present to me... Taryn, you might be the first to notice!

DENNIS SHAVED!!

Aunt Weeeeeee!

Just trying to teach her how to ride.

MERRY DAY-AFTER-CHRISTMAS EVERYONE! WE LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!!

- Love, The McDonald Family

Tree Trimming

This year Olivia got to go tree shopping for TWO Christmas trees! What a lucky little girl! Last week, Dennis and I took her to Holloways which was tons of fun. I had never been there before and didn't realize the pre-cut trees were propped up in water troughs. I saw a sign that said something like, "Watch out for the water troughs" and the next thing I remember Olivia's entire foot was in one. She had water up to her ankle. At least now I know for next time!

This past weekend, our whole crazy family (minus Uncle Matt) went to Avila Valley Barn to pick out my parents' tree. While we were there, we saw a nice tree but it was missing a top...it was sort of just flat on the top instead of pointy. Well, don't ask me why but for some reason we thought it would be a good idea to get that tree. I think we thought we could cover it up with my mom's angel tree topper. We brought it home and then realized (with help from my brother) that our tree is sort of sad looking without a top. hahahahaha. We're nuts. Here are some pictures from that experience.

Olivia loved handing me ornaments to put on the tree. She took her job very seriously.

My mom made tiramasu. Olivia is in heaven in the picture below.

Don't be jealous of this next picture. Dennis and I were getting romantic with the lights. hahahaha.

It's the most wonderful time of the year...

So Christmas season is officially here! I am very excited about the holidays this year. I am totally in the decorating/baking/celebrating mood, it's crazy! Here are a few pictures from the Christmas parade in the Village. Olivia had a lot of fun! We saw a lot of friendly faces and Olivia LOVED Santa. Scroll down to see just how much she loved Santa this year...

My mom made her a Christmas blankie. So cute.

Shaun with his hands full!

Hahahahaha, she was terrified of Santa! She wouldn't let me put her on his lap hence why I am in the picture. This picture makes me laugh every time I see it! hahahahahaha.

Oh Edward...how do I love thee?

Oh me...oh my! Only 5 days left until we get to see our beloved. I am so excited! Twilight has done an amazing job of making me feel young again. I mean I might compare how I feel about Edward to how I used to feel about Jonathan Brandis...hahahaha. This is WILD!

...clingy little Livi...

Olivia is growing up so fast. The older she gets the more opinionated she is. She cracks me up on a daily basis with the things she says and does. However, the smarter she gets the better she gets at driving me absolutely insane at times! She is still in her never-ending "mommy phase"...some of you moms might know this phase...the one where they want YOU and only YOU to do everything for them. Of course, I don't give in to this most of the time. But there are instances where I'm so extremely exhausted and it's supposed to be daddy's bath night but I give in and give her the bath just so I don't have to hear her cry about it.

We just got back from a BBQ...she didn't know any of the people there so of course she wouldn't let me out of her sight for two seconds. Every 30 seconds or so she'd find me and say "Mommy" but not in a cute voice, in an extremely whiny voice to make sure I wouldn't leave her side. Times like these I just want to scream! I end up taking it out on poor Dennis when it's not even his fault. He WANTS Olivia to want him to do things with her. He probably gets his feelings hurt every day. But somehow I still feel resentment towards him since he just gets to sit back and relax while I deal with our whiny and clingy daughter.

Sorry for the rant. It feels better now that it's out.

I keep waiting for the "daddy phase" to come. People tell me it's coming...but not soon enough!

DJ Lance, Foofa, and friends!

Olivia got really into Halloween this year. My mom made her a Halloween blankie that she slept with every night, she loved going into stores and seeing all of the scary decorations (especially skeletons for some reason), she yelled "HALLOWEEN!" every time we drove up to my parents because they had this witch flag outside of their house... I guess this year was just extra exciting because she started understanding what Halloween actually is all about...CANDY OF COURSE! She went trick-or-treating for the 1st time and loved it (and we had fun too.)

She dressed up as Foofa from Yo Gabba Gabba! That is her favorite show at the moment. It has been for quite some time. I actually really like the show so I thought I'd take advantage of the fact that she likes it so much before she moves on to something else. My mom and I made her costume. We finished it the morning of Halloween just in time to go visit Papa at work!

We also visited Matt Bandy at work which was really funny because I don't know if she recognized him at all. Usually she says, "Hi Matt!" (She loves him.) But he was the corpse of Walt Disney, hence the blue face paint, and she just stared at him.

Dennis was DJ Lance Rock and Olivia thought it was just the greatest thing to see him dressed up! She wanted to be with him all night. It was the cutest thing! Dennis was reluctant to wear the costume at first but I think once he saw how excited Olivia was he started getting into it!

Ok, how cute are these kids?! Claire was a pretty little bee, Ella was a princess ballerina mouse, and Parker was a precious little golfer!

We went trick-or-treating around Taryn's neighborhood. Some of the houses we went to were decorated really cool! Some people went ALL out with movies projected on their windows, fog machines and gigantic pumpkins!

As the night wore on, Olivia was getting tired so we ended up taking turns carrying her. She made you sweat. She really liked Shaun. She says his name now which he might think is pretty cool!

I got to see Faye for the first time! She didn't miss out on any of the festivities! So cute.

Trick-or-treating with friends was a blast. I am so glad we did it. Next year will be even more fun with even more kids!

This was Olivia on our way home - cracked out on candy! Look at those crazy eyes! hahahaha.

(I apologize for so many pictures but I just couldn't help myself!)

Halloween: 1 year later

Before:

2007 - 9 months old






















After:

2008 - 21 months old

* I debated whether or not I should post the most recent picture as some people might see this as a form of child abuse. Believe it or not, she was fine until I stepped away to take the picture! You'd think I was making her sit on a bed of nails or something!!!

Halloween Eve

Today I finally made it to the pumpkin patch with Olivia. Better late than never! Olivia had way too much fun trying to run away from me the whole time. And she refused to take a picture with me (in the one below she's trying really hard to get away from me.) So these are the shots I managed to take. I swear my little girl is part Tazmanian Devil.

Olivia's Friends

Olivia is so funny these days. As the days go on she is forming more and more attachments to "babies" or pretty much any doll or stuffed animal she can get her hands on. Recently she has been obsessed with the following: tiny Elmo (in her hand), soft Elmo, Brobee, about 5 baby dolls (some aren't pictured), Rose, and Mickey and Minnie (also not pictured.) She tries to take them ALL everywhere with her. Of course she cannot possibly hold them all so she ends up dropping one or two and then proceeds to not know what to do because she cannot leave any behind. It's the cutest thing!



She dances with them and sleeps with them. She actually sleeps with an elephant and a couple of bunnies too. They are only for sleeping though. And when she wakes up and it's time to go to Ama's she insists on taking all of them. I have to pack them all up every morning and then bring them all home with us in the afternoon. Heaven forbid I forget one of them!

I can't believe how many ideas have been forming in her little brain lately. I love watching her pretend. This is probably my favorite age as far as playing is concerned...so far anyway. Today she grabbed my sister's cell phone and opened it and said, "Hello Taryn? What you doing?" Hilarious!