Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Show me your teeth!

O had just brushed her teeth and was showing me how clean they were! Haha... It was too cute :) I asked her if she was cute and she said, "Yeeeahh! I'm tute." It was so sweet.


Monday, December 29, 2008

Christmas with the Oliver's

Saturday the 27th we went up to Lenoir City to spend Christmas with 2 of my cousins on my dad's side and their families. Greg grilled hamburgers and hot dogs and Ben was so excited about having "regular food" and not turkey, ham.... yada yada (traditional Christmas foods) (Also keep in mind we ate huge every day at Disney World, so by this time we are a little tired of food) It was even warm enough to eat out on the back deck! However, it wasn't quite warm enough to go swimming even tho O really wanted to.

Olivia opening a gift
She got a pretty apron, 2 Dora coloring books, and a small play kitchen

My dad tuning Hannah's little pink guitar... funny looking huh??


The only 3 girl great-grandchildren! Olivia, Addison, and Hannah


The grandchildren and great grandchildren (about half of us at least)

Sunday, December 28, 2008

Christmas Afternoon at Nana & Pop's

We spent the afternoon at Ben's parents house where again I got hardly any pictures... How is that???

Olivia opening her Minnie Mouse bathrobe - She also got a Sleeping Beauty doll and a Disney Princess luggage set. Olivia opening her magna doodle from Aunt Allie... huge hit!

Ben modeling O's bathrobe

Olivia took these pictures of Nana and Aunt Allie



Christmas Morning at Granna & Grandad's

After opening gifts at our house, we went over to my mom and dad's for breakfast and more presents!

Olivia opening her Pizza Hut set Ben in his mask thing...??

Olivia looking at Ben while wearing his mask thing
Becca did this most of the morning LOL


My gramma and O opening her Princess cups

O's baby doll. She likes them naked...?? WEIRD!




My dad in his new fly fishing gear.

Stockings!



Olivia making a bridge for her Thomas the Train set

I did not get very many pictures because we were all opening gifts at once and it was a little chaotic! My parents definitely went overboard on her gifts though haha! Other than what's pictured she got a Minnie Mouse car, a Little People Schoolbus, 101 Dalmations, a wagon with Megablocks, a whole stocking full of fun things, and probably more that a can't remember right now!

After we did presents, we sat down and had a wonderful breakfast of "Christmas Breakfast" (casserole), fruit salad, and cinnamon rolls.

Christmas Morning at Home

Santa came to our house and Olivia must have been sooo good this past year because look at all she got!
Not so sure about the huge kitchen in our living room.

Ummm... is this all for me???
Playing with the kitchen


Mommy: "Hey O! Do you want to open your other presents??"
Olivia: "Noooo"
Mommy: "So all you want is the kitchen and nothing else??"
Olivia: "...YEAH!"


Finally got her to open another present... a Disney Princess tea set

Throw it up girl.... where did she see this????

Beautiful Belle doll.... that she destroyed in 5 minutes


Opening an Olivia book
"Eating" a piece of bread out of her Subway kit. She also got a Build a Burger set from Mama & Daddy to go with her kitchen.

Opening her stocking


My present to Ben (Mickey sleep pants) and his present to me (Countdown to Christmas calendar)
Poor Belle with her messed up hair.

Saturday, December 27, 2008

Christmas Eve in Knoxville

We spent Christmas Eve (day) in Knoxville with Ben's grandparents and family. We ate lunch at Olive Garden and then all went to Jeremy's house (Ben's brother).

Olivia & Emily got these matching Santa Bears from Grandpa & Kay. They had so much fun setting them up on the stairs! They also got Santa stuffed animals.


Opening another gift from Grandpa and Kay... matching keyboards with microphones! We later had the pleasure of listening to a concert. Emily sang and O played the keyboard. Grandpa & Kay
Excited about presents

Posing with their keyboards in the box. We got Emily's out and put it together, but not Olivia's since we had to bring it home. At one point, they were having trouble sharing and Olivia had a bit of a meltdown. Jeremy asked Emily, "Why is Olivia crying??" Emily replied, "Her's is still in the box!" haha It was sooo funny.


Olivia got a Dora book and a play cupcake kit from Jeremy, Lesleigh, and Emily.
I'm trying to be good.... I promise!




They had a sweet little tea party with the set we got for Emily.

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Disney World 2008


We returned from our Disney trip on the 23rd and I have been working on this blog ever since! It took over 2 hours for me to load all these pictures and then arrange them how I wanted! AHH... but all is well now and I am finished. Enjoy the Disney 2008 story :)

We woke up at 3 AM and left for Disney on Tuesday the 16th. Olivia was very excited to make it to the Florida welcome center and get some orange juice.


Olivia thought Daddy was being very silly...But of course wanted to try it herself!We finally made it to Disney World!Olivia had a blast running around the docks at Old Key West.And she took the time to stop and smell the flowers.This place was named after HER of course!!Tuesday night, we ate at Olivia's Cafe at Old Key West. I love love Olivia's so it was great and we had fun hanging out and chatting. We even got recognized as Family of the Day!



>>>Ben with our balloons and certificate. Emily and Olivia were so happy so be together.





Here they are in their matching Minnie Mouse pajamas courtesy of Nana.
Sweet girls

They are so silly.






This is a video of them playing with their balloons from our Family of the Day award! LOL I know kids are supposed to play with balloons but they were closely supervised. It is so funny

Wednesday we headed over to Epcot. We rode Nemo and Friends and Spaceship Earth, which Emily calls the "beach ball". So of course Olivia started calling it the ball. She would ask to ride it over and over but when we actually got inside she would get a little scared.


We ate lunch at Japan which was WONDERFUL! You can see Emily is using chopsticks in this picture. She did really well! I had chicken and shrimp and of course my favorite shrimp sauce (white sauce at Ichiban). Olivia ate the sauce with her fingers. HA!



After lunch, we went back to the room to rest and then headed to the Magic Kingdom where we rode the train and walked through Toon Town (visiting Minnie's and Mickey's houses). Then we rode Small World and Pooh. Olivia LOVED Pooh and kept saying, "Wanna ride Pooh!" over and over. We watched Wishes (fireworks show) but Olivia didn't really care for them.






Thursday morning we got up early and headed to Magic Kingdom. We rode Buzz Lightyear, which I am terrible at) and walked around Tomorrowland.


Daddy and O on "wee-way"We finally saw Pooh!!!! But Olivia missed him because she was.....


For dinner we went to the Polynesian resort and ate at Ohana's. It was delicious! We had steak, pork dumplings, chicken, turkey, noodles... all Hawaiian style of course! For dessert a delicious Bread pudding and pineapple dipped in warm caramel. (Note to self: try at home!!!)



At the Polynesian

O & Em at the Polynesian
Hawaiian Christmas Tree :)
After dinner, we went to Hollywood Studios (formerly MGM) to see the Osbourne Family lights. They were amazing... just like last year!! I could never get tired of seeing them! And Olivia thought they were great too... she LOVES Christmas lights.
This is a video of the dancing lights.Friday we went to Animal Kingdom in the morning. We rode the Kilamanjaro Safari which was so neat! Olivia thought all the birds we saw were "cack cacks" (ducks) and everything with 4 legs and horns were "moooo" (cows). It was so cute!
Giraffe on the safari. Olivia LOVES giraffes... not sure why.
This guy was GREAT. He was such a ham. I told Olivia he was related to her daddy.Waiting patiently on the Lion King show to start. It was a great show... possibly my most favorite thing about Disney but she slept through the whole thing.
We went to Epcot for dinner at China and also rode"the ball". Olivia wore this cute Mickey Mouse dress.We got up very early Saturday and went back to Magic Kingdom. We rode Small World, Snow White, Pirates of the Caribbean, and PoohThen we went on the Jungle Cruise where our friend Jackie works!! Ben just had to have a picture of her name tag because it says Soddy Daisy.
Afterwards, we hopped on the carousel. It was very fun and O's first ride!She was telling me to GET OFF! I didn't because I didn't know if she would be scared or not. Next time, I am getting my own horse tho!Waiting in a very long line for Pooh.... again!Riding Small WorldIt was "Senior Adult Night" (haha) so all the "adults" (AKA over the age of ohhh 45 or so) went to eat at the fancy California Grill atop the grand Contemporary Resort while Ben, Olivia, and I hit up our FAVORITE little soda shop in the whole world, Beaches & Cream!!
I ordered a cheeseburger and fries and Ben got a huge turkey sandwich. For dessert, I had a banana split and Ben had the Brownie Ala Mode.Me and O with our HUGE banana split!After we left Beaches & Cream, we walked around the Beach Club resort and found Mickey and Minnie!This carousel is made out of gingerbread and chocolate. No lie.
Olivia walking over to Epcot from Beach Club.
About to ride Nemo.... can you tell she's excited!?Olivia being eaten by Bruce!We walked around Epcot for a while and rode Figment, The Land, & Spaceship Earth (with no lines at all!!)
We also stopped and listened to the Candlelight Processional where Abigail Breslin was telling the Christmas Story.
We went back to Animal Kingdom Sunday and rode the safari first, where we saw a Cheetah. Olivia said, "kitty cat!!!!" I said, "No, sweetie. You can't pet and hug that kitty." We also saw the bird show and rode Triceratop Spin (below). O said "more, more!" when we were done.
We had dinner at the Grand Floridian Cafe and it was AMAZING. I highly recommend it if you are planning a trip to Disney. I had Shrimp Penne and Chocolate fondue for dessert! It was DELICIOUS!These are pictures taken at the Grand Floridian.
After Olivia went to bed that night, Ben and I headed back to Magic Kingdom for late hours. There was hardly anyone there. We walked around for a little while and rode Stitch and Pirates with no lines! Then we got ice cream cones and sat on Main Street. We finally headed back to the room exhausted after midnight.
Monday we went to Hollywood Studios and had a great time. We rode the Great Movie Ride and did the Backlot Tour.
Davey Jones' piano from Pirates (Backlot Tour)Olivia at Hollywood StudiosWe went and saw a Playhouse Disney show also! O really loved it!
That night we went to Canada at Epcot for dinner. We got on an empty bus and had the whole thing to ourselves so of course we had to take a picture! L to R: Beth, Jim, Ben, Lori, Zack, Dave, Brad, Rusty, Me, and O. Allison, Denise, and Beverly were taking the picture.... so they weren't in it.Olivia with Allison and Beth