Olivia Update

So I've noticed that most of the posts on this blog are about Annie (we'll call her the blog-hog) so this one is going to be all about my sweet little baby-O. She had her 2 month checkup and shots two weeks ago. Her stats are 12.5 pounds and 23.5" long. That puts her in the 80 and 90 percentile if you follow that sort of thing. Her shots were no fun at all. I've never heard her cry so much or so loud. I think the effects of the shots lingered well into the next week, she cried a lot more and was waking up in the middle of the night. Now she is back to her happy self, smiling a lot and also giggles a bit when things strike her as funny. The other day she actually rolled onto her side (we were laying in bed together so that might have had something to do with it). Other than that, she still sleeps a lot, and eats well, and is generally a happy girl.

Next week the girls and I are headed to Ohio. Olivia will be baptised at the church Tim and I got married at back in Lima. I'm still working on her dress, but I plan to hand it off to the master seamstress (Nana) as soon as we get there and hopefully she will finish it up for me or else we will have a baby wrapped in a bunch of white material during the baptism.

2nd Camping Trip, what could possibly go right!

Happy Memorial Day! This weekend we took advantage of the gorgeous Denver weather and headed out to Kenosha Pass, which is about 90 minutes from our house for our second outting with Poppy, our camper. We found a great camping spot right away and set up and didn't think too much about the temperature, it was early and bound to warm up. After being there for not more than 3 minutes Blue returned from a quick scouting of the area with what looked like a monkey paw in her mouth. Turned out to be a very large bone from some poor deer or something. Tim took it and chucked it as far as possible into the woods. Blue ran off to find it again and returned with a whole spine, complete with a complete set of rib bones...gross! It was getting colder so the girls and I headed to the warming glow off Poppy, wait a minute, why isn't the heater running? And what is that white stuff falling from the sky? I opened the door to find this...

In the meantime Tim is farting around outside trying to get the furnace to turn on. Poppy is not cooperating! Tim suspects the battery is dead. It's still pretty early in the day so we decide to drive into town and find an auto store to check our battery. Turns out the battery is dead-er than that deer carcass Blue rolled around in. New battery and back to the camper, furnace working great and the snow has stopped! We decide to take a little jant up the trail and see what we can see before our tasty hotdog dinner and somores. After dinner we decide that it is too cold for somores and plus its late so we hope in bed and proceed to freeze our buns off! Annie was apparently warm because she kept pushing her sleeping bag off. The next morning we wake up to...frozen water! I guess the water heater isn't working right yet and we are still trying to figure that one out as we speak. After breakfast we decide to try a little hike. Not thinking too much (or maybe I just didn't really want to hike) we left camp without our jackets and no hats or anything, I was wearing my sandals, so obviously my brain was still too cold from the night before to think that it might still be kinda cold outside. We ended up driving about 5 miles up a forest road and spoke to a ranger who said "It cost $5 to hike here, plus the lake at the top is snowed in." We said "See you later!" and headed across the valley for a drive and finally decided to go back and enjoy the warm weather in Denver...we did see some wildlife, the battery store had a few hummingbird feeders and I saw at least 7 hummingbirds hanging out there, and we also saw an antelope family while we were leaving the $5 hike.

Hey! Forgot to add...our truck turned 90,000 miles on the way back. Of course I called my brother John to celebrate...it's a Rondot thing, long story! Too slow with the camera though!

Annie the Teacher

The other day Annie and the dogs were out on the back patio. The dogs wanted to come in the house, but Annie was blocking their way. So I guess since she had a captive audience she figured she might as well teach them a lesson or two. She pulled out her new book, which was all about the letter "C" and read it to them...sounded something like this..

A - "Blue, this is a cow...Mooooo"
Blue - (stands there with a dumb look on her face)
A - "Hey Bailey, see the cat? Meow!"
Bailey - (laying on the patio, licking himself)

She has also tried to teach Olivia a thing or two about the alphabet, but doesn't get much of a response out of her either.

Olivia is 2 months old!

Here's our Baby-O as I affectionately call her, getting bigger by the minute. We have been trying out a few nick names for her...Olive, Livi, Liblear(that's Annie's favorite!) but mostly I call her Olivia. This is only about the second time she has worn short sleeves so I hadn't noticed how chubby her arms are. We go for her 2 month doctors appointment tomorrow and I'm expecting her to tip the scales, and wow the doc's with her charm and grace.

Say Hello To My Little Friends...

Annie popped in the house and asked me "Do you want to hold them?" I walked over to see what she was talking about and she showed me a huge pile of worms she had found in the veggie garden. My answer? "Umm...no thanks"

Our first camping trip...what could posablie go wonrg?

Friday afternoon we packed all our gear into the camper and got our delicious hotdogs and so-more fixin's and eggs and vegies for gourmet breakfast omlettes all packed up and headed out for our first trip of the year. While we were pulling out of the neighborhood, I kinda thought to myself that we should have made sure there was propane in our tanks, but quickly dismissed the thought...the camper has 2 tanks, both of them couldn't possibly be empty! So we headed north on I-25, only to get stuck in traffic. 10 miles and 45 minutes later...finally we are getting somewhere! We ended up at Chief Hosa campground which is just a few minutes into the mountains, and just off of I-70.

So on we go to set up the camper, and of course Annie is dying to get in there, she loves it! My mouth is watering for some tasty so-mores, but too bad...no camp fires aloud. The girls and I hang out and play while Tim putters around making sure he knows how to operate everything....and that is where the fun begins. Apparently we are out of propane...good for us there is a Home Depot and a Walmart not more than 5 minutes away. Propane refilled, but then still no stove flaming or heater working. Lucky for us the camper 4 spots away is the exact same model as ours. After convincing Tim to give up and go ask the other campers how to work our propane system, we figure that there is a valve broken on some tube that connects the tans to the camper, nothing that a quick trip to Home Depot might fix, right? 90 minutes of farting around with some old fart who works at home depot we finally find something that might work, until his coworker comes up and tells us it won't. Where was this guy 90 minutes ago! Apparently threaded parts are slightly different for gas grills and campers...so by now it is getting dark so we head over to McD's for dinner and then to Walmart to check out there supply of space heaters since we wouldn't be having any heat that night. Back to the campground and getting ready for bed, Annie was so excited to have her own sleeping bag, I thought she would never go to bed, but not more than 2 minutes after we turned off the lights, she was out herself.

The next morning we borrowed a grill from our neighbors to cook our eggs on, and hiked a bit before heading back to Denver. All in all we had fun and learned a few lessons, which is why we stayed close to town for our first trip. And it was nice to know that our good friends the Tepens were willing to pay 7 dollars to come make fun of us if we had gotten a trailer spot at Cherry Creek State Park like we had originally planned...I know in my heart they really wanted to come to see us because they really want to be Nuetzels, but you can't always get what you want.

Later that night we drove back up to the mountains for our friends Krisinda and Andrews wedding. I missed most of the ceremony because Olivia got a little fussy, but the rest of the evening was great. Annie really enjoyed the party, and bruised up her shins pretty good dancing the night away, which for her is running in circles on the dance floor. We are pretty sure she was high on frosting, soda pop and butter since that was about all she ate that night.

Big Weekend Plans!

Slow week this week, nothing interesting to report, so I'll fill you in on our weekend plans. Tim is going to pick up our camper tonight, that means we can start using it! We have plans to take it to Cherry Creek State Park and camp out Friday night. Close enough to home that if anything is broken or whatever, we can just head home and sleep in our own beds rather than freeze. I've been doing some shopping and found sheets for the beds, and a few surprises for Annie to play with while on our first camping trip of the year. Now just have to figure out what we want to make for dinner and breakfast, and pick up the fixin's for somores!

We also have wedding up in Evergreen to attend and I'm excited for that...Olivia's first! She also turns 2 months old this weekend, so you know there is a photo session in the plans too.

Happy Mother's Day!

Here I am with my girls on Mother's Day!

And since they were looking cute, one of Annie and Olivia.

Here is Annie trying to get Olivia to smile by playing peek-a-boo...too cute!

Nice camper...ever take it off any sweet jumps?

We are so excited for the weather in the mountains to warm up a bit. Why? Because we got a camper! Here it is...the picture does not do it justice at all.

It sleeps something like 9 people (the manual doesn't say what size the 9 people are, just that it sleeps 9 peeps) It's got a hot water heater, and an exterior shower...two awnings, and a screened in room, just exactly what I was looking for. I'm not sure what we are going to do with the second awning, maybe wait for Tim to break the first one and then start using the second.

Here is the view looking towards the back of the camper...it's pretty spacious because the dinette area slides out a few feet. We had looked at one earlier in the week, but the four of us could barely all fit in it at the same time, and you had to pump the faucet with your own muscles in order to get any water! (yes, I love technology...) Come to think of it, I don't even think it had a stove...on with the tour...

...here is where Annie and Tim will be making their famous blueberry pancakes, or maybe even some dang quesa-dillas.

So what are we going to do with our camper? Maybe take it up to Alaska over the summer to hunt for wolverines with my uncle...or whatever we feel like we wanna to do...Gosh!

Well, gotta run, I haven't done flippin' anything today.

(Thanks to Napoleon Dynamite for the sweet "quotes" in the post, it's pretty much one of my favorite movies)

Our little runaway

Tonight after dinner we headed out to the local market to pick up some things. Annie loves shopping and was having such a great time that she did not want to leave, and threw a big fit, crying and screaming all the way home. It took both Tim and I to strap her into her car seat. We finally made it home and Annie got out of the car, still crying, went into the house, cried some more, went back into the garage and tried her hardest to reach the garage door opener. I went out to see what she was up to, and trying to calm her down, opened the garage door and asked her what was wrong, and what she wanted. She told me she was going to run away. She got as far as the end of the driveway and then just stood there wondering where to go next. I finally convinced her to come back inside for a Popsicle and a snuggle with me. I guess the magic of the Popsicles still works!

Annie's concert for Olive..just push play!

Where the deer and the antelope play...with foxes and rattlesnakes

We just got back from a "quick" hike in Roxburough State Park, which is just on the southwest-ish side of Denver. I say quick because it was only about 2+ miles but it took about 4 hours to finish. We have been trying to get Annie to hike on her own a bit, but she is so slow....and she likes looking at little pebbles, and ants, and flowers, and she likes to feed her pretend reindeer too. It's almost like hiking backwards with her sometimes. Anyways, the park is really pretty neat and has lots of huge red rocks and cliffs, etc. I never really thought there was anything like that (outside of Red Rocks Park) that was that close to Denver. The hike we did today was really pretty cool! We saw 2 fox, and 2 other people told us they saw a rattlesnake that day, and one other told us they saw a bear in the park last fall, and there was a sign warning us about mountain lions. Half way through the hike we stopped to have our picnic lunch and while we were sitting there, about 7 deer came strolling through, munching on the grass and then some sat down in the trees behind us! They were literally less than 10 feet away from us, and apparently not scared of toddlers at all. They hung out with us for about 30 minutes, then mossied off on their way. Too bad we forgot the camera, but I'm sure we will be back someday.

Singin' in the Snow...

If April showers bring May flowers, what do May snow storms do? Annie and I tried to figure that out today. This morning it snowed about an inch or so, but it was mostly melted before Annie got home from school. That didn't stop us from going out to play in the puddles the snow left behind, and we also took some pictures to celebrate!


I also finally finished my layout for Olivia's one month photos for her scrapbook, check them out here...
http://picasaweb.google.com/ReyneeandTim/OliviaSScrapbook




And if you want to see more of Annie playing with her umbrella, check out our family photo album, the link is down in the links we like section.

Why I like Wednesdays...

I'm trying to decrease the amount of TV we watch, which is difficult because whenever we turn the tube off Annie thinks it is broken and wants one of us to fix it. But anyways, some tv shows are pretty informative and the one that I seem to get the most useful info out of lately is the Wednesday night Super Nanny. First off, I have to say that we don't have any issues as bad as what some of the families on the show have (last night there was a 8 year old who threw tantrums 10 times worst than I have ever imagined Annie throwing, and I saw one on a kid who was afraid to go potty in the toilet so they let him pee on the neighbors shrubs). But anyways, we do have some issues with Annie that we are trying and trying to fix. A few weeks ago trying to get Annie to go to sleep was like trying to get Blue to stop being such a dog. It would take Tim at least 90 minutes to get her to sleep, and half the time he fell asleep sitting in her room. One of those nights I flipped on the tellie only to see the same thing happening on Super Nanny. I was astonished, and wondered if this super nanny lady had some sort of book that would help us fix some other problems. Since I have nothing better going on most days I headed out to the library and found she had two books, which I immediately checked out (after paying my outstanding fines, apparently they don't let you check out books if you have so much in fines outstanding, I won't tell you how much, but it was more than I owed for the book I checked out back in 1989 that our family dog destroyed, which makes me wonder if that dog whisperer guy has a book that I can check out to improve Blue/Bailey's attitude and then forget to return). So what was this post about? Oh yeah, so the Super Nanny really is a super nanny, and after watching 3 episodes I think I've figured out that you really have to have a cold heart to get kids to do what you expect them to do. Right now I think I have a luke-warm heart. Last night I put Annie to bed and followed the Nanny recommended procedure (letting Annie know who is in charge, no funny business allowed) and it was hard for me, but she went to bed better than she has been doing, so I guess it is paying off a little.