Stellan

So you all probably have seen the "Praying for Stellan" button on my blog and if you don't already know who Stellan is... check out http://www.mycharmingkids.net/...

In a nutshell tho, this is Stellan according to his mom, MckMama-

"MckMuffin is our cuddly 4 month old son S! In the womb, he was diagnosed with heart failure: premature atrial contractions at 20 weeks; supraventricular tachycardia, hydrops, and intermittent advanced secondary heart block at 23 weeks; and enlargement of the heart at 32 weeks. When the doctors told us at 24 weeks that our very ill baby would surely die, we chose to give our son completely to God, for He alone knows best. We have not stopped praising our Lord since then, for MckMuffin was healed and was born a well and whole full-term baby...with dimples!!"

Now Stellan is back in the hospital with heart problems (SVT & V-Tach).

So Stellan's Name Gallery was started before he was born because MckMama wanted everyone all over the world to know Stellan's name. SO I made this/took this picture for Stellan's name gallery:

I emailed it to MckMama... and she liked it so much, it ended up here:

Right there at the top of her blog!

This is her blog, below, and that is beautiful Stellan.

A farther away pic of my pic on her blog LOL

Now, I am very excited that my picture made it on the blog because hundreds of thousands of people read this every day...

But also because she has had the hardest last week that a mother could possibly have... and I'm glad I could give something little to smile about. She is an amazing mother, photographer, wife... and most importantly DAUGHTER of the KING OF KINGS that I love to look up to. I read her blog daily and enjoy everything she has to say - she really makes me stop and think about life sometimes :) So thank you MckMama for everything you do!!

And on a totally different note... does anyone wanna come over for supper? We're bbq'n the cat.

NOT REALLY.

We grilled steaks for dinner and Bailey apparently decided to lick the leftovers off the grill. It did make for a hilarious picture tho.

Video x 5!

Boy are you guys in luck today!! I am posting some various funny videos of Olivia... these were all taken in the last week or so. Ok well 4 of them were today b/c she's wearing her Dora pj's which she still has on at 2 PM. I can hardly pry them off her. They are loved. You can see tons of pictures of you, but there is NO WAY you can get a true feeling of her exuberant personality without the aid of a video.

*And I'll just apologize now for the lack of video skills I have. I hope it doesn't make you feel drunk!
**Excuse my EXTREMELY Southern accent in some of these... I think I sound more country video... but maybe I really do sound like that!?

Proud Owner of a Voyager

And no, not the old Plymouth Voyager mini van that looks like my grandparents old one.

I am the proud owner of a new LG Voyager (in Titanium of course!) cell phone. I'm not sure why, but they really stress that titanium part? I really could care less.



Yes, ladies and very few gentlemen who read my blog - I have entered the world of a touch screen cell phone. And so far, am loving it! I got it Tuesday, and think I've figured out how to use it, for the most part. It's pretty awesome. Get yourself one. Oh yeah, but mine also has the QWERTY keyboard too... very nice for texting - which I do maybe 12 hours of every day. HA - just joking.

2 & 2

So Olivia is now 2 years and 2 months old. She is almost the EXACT age that I was when my sister was born. My mom actually wanted my sister and I to be closer in age than we are, more like 18 months apart I think. She wanted us to be able to grow up together, play together, do everything together. And we did, for the most part. I have great memories of us playing dolls, Barbies, "Little House on the Prairie" (ha!), dress up... we had such great fun together. We used to wish we were twins so we could be in the same grade! haha :) I really enjoyed growing up with her and cherish the memories we made together. I still love her to death - good way to put it too, since when she was born, I loved her so much (or maybe despised her at the time LOL) that I would squeeze her so hard that she couldn't breathe! I don't think my mom EVER left us alone together for fear I would suffocate her... but it really was mostly out of love.

Now that Olivia is two, I couldn't imagine imagine having another baby right now! I don't see how my mom did it... and my sister was also in the hospital for a week after she was born with a virus - with a two yr old at home. I am sure it was really hard, but she wanted us to be able to have each other so she chose to have us close. (And the fact that my dad thought he was too old to wait much longer. He turned 40 the day my mom told him she was pregnant with Becca). I thank my mom (& dad) for my sister and I being so close.

On the other hand, I so badly want Olivia to have a close sibling (sister, specifically) to grow up with. I want her to have what I got to have with Becca. It really makes me so sad that she won't have that. We won't be having any more children for a VERY long time (if ever) - so I guess I will be her playmate, secret sharer, and trusted confidante... if she'll let me :) I don't think I'll amount to what Becca was - but I'll sure try!

Me & Becca when we were little

Oh yeah, and "Little House on the Prairie" was where we stacked all of our mattresses from our beds up (we each had a daybed, with a trundle) and pretended it was our wagon. They we dressed up and got our babies and traveled in our wagon across the United States to settle land west of the Mississippi... what can I say? She's creative.

I Spy Quilt

My grandmother - O calls her "Maw Maw" - made her an I-Spy quilt! It's really neat and O loves it!

This is the quilt >>>

And this is Olivia's favorite part of the quilt... the puffins which she lovingly calls penguins.

St. Patrick's Day

To tell you the sad truth, I totally forgot about St. Patrick's Day. I showed up to drop Olivia off at school in a yellow shirt with pink pants and I was wearing sweats and a tshirt that were NOT green!

Sooo... as soon as I got out of school, I rushed home to get Olivia's super cute shirt and change into a green shirt myself. I made it to her school just in time to change her clothes and help set up for the St. Patrick's Day party. I forgot about St. Patrick's Day last year too! What's up with that?? I am setting my cell calender RIGHT now for next year! haha :)

This was Olivia's table during her party. Such a fun group!When we got home, we played outside and blew bubbles.

Don't you just LOVE that shirt???!!

Hope everyone else had a great Irish day and hopefully I will remember for next year!

Aiken/Augusta

We went down to Aiken friday morning (with Ben's mom) to see Ben's dad, who works there during the week. We got there about noon and ate lunch at his apartment and Ben made oriental crunch salad which was yummy yummy! After lunch, we went and explored the playground which is about 30 steps from Jim's apartment... Olivia had so much fun! She kept asking to swim in the pool, but it's still a little cold for that - maybe next time. Then we headed to Augusta to see more of Ben's family. We saw Katie and Evan and then went to dinner. We ate at Fatz (which was delicious! I wish we had one in Chatt) with David, Teresa, Donnie, Elizabeth, and Michael. It was so great to see them all and hang out. After dinner, we all (minus Donnie) went back and hung out at David and Teresa's house and watched basketball.

This is a cute new restaurant in downtown Aiken that almost is Olivia's LOL

They have painted horses all over town.

Saturday morning we got up and walked around downtown Aiken in the mist... it was a cute little town!! I found an adorable pink dress I wanted to buy at one of the little stores, but then I realized it was $163... ahh! Never mind! :) We ate lunch at Ferrando's Pizzaria which is actually owned by the father of someone we go to church with at Burks! Small world huh? It was wonderful wonderful pizza - some of the best I've EVER had!! Ben said, "I should franchise in Chattanooga!!" After lunch, we hunted down some girl scouts and bought tons of cookies LOL and then took O back for a nap. She was having some serious allergy issues - and was VERY grumpy! Saturday afternoon, we went back to David and Teresa's and got to see Christina - Olivia wanted to know where Christina was all the time! It was so funny! We had a yummy spaghetti dinner and then headed back to Aiken, went to Marble Slab where Olivia "did not yike dat trawberry ice cream" and then went to bed at 9:30 - while watching "Yion King" of course. We were so tired!!

This is Ferrando's - we really did eat there for lunch - but I took the picture when we went back to Marble Slab which was next door.

I wish we could have seen Brett, Stephanie, & Corbin, and also Courtney and the boys but they were sick :( We should be down in May so we'll see you guys then!

Sunday morning we got up and drove home stopping at The Varsity in Atl for lunch. I had never been there, but they have amazing hamburgers I know now!

Cast Members for this post:

David & Teresa >>> Ben's aunt and uncle

Stephanie, Katie, Christina, and Evan >>> David & Teresa's kids

Brett & Corbin >>> Stephanie's husband and son

Donnie >>> Ben's uncle

Elizabeth & Michael >>> Donnie's daughter and her BF

and of course Courtney & boys are friends who moved to Augusta - Williams Family on my blog list.

AND SHAME ON ME FOR ONLY TAKING 3 PICTURES THE WHOLE TIME WE WERE GONE!! AHH!

Poop.

OLIVIA POOPED IN THE POTTY!! WOW! YAY OLIVIA!!

No I did NOT take a picture of it. But we danced and cheered. It was fun :)

Lemons & Sing-Sides

These pictures are from Sunday and Monday. They were both BEAUTIFUL DAYS so we spent most of them outdoors! One funny thing she did last night when we were outside (that I did not get a picture of) - She was pushing her little Dora doll around in her doll stroller and she started to go down the driveway (it's a hill) Olivia yells, "WHOA DORA!! TOO FAS! SOW DOW!!" (Sow dow is slow down, and fas is fast, obviously) She kept saying it and things like it over and over. I was laughing so hard, I was crying! It was the funniest thing ever!

Olivia likes to eat lemons! How funny :)
Still munching on her lemon... She practically looks like a teenager in this picture... I mean hello? Where did my snuggly little baby go that I birthed just 2 short years ago??

Lemon, lemon.

This one is just adorable...

She's so funny with her little hat.

Playing on her "sing-side". She calls her swing set a "sing-side" meaning swing-slide, because that's what she does on it LOL

Big kid swing!!

Swinging is serious - in her toddler swing :)

And she's precious. That all there is to it.

Spring is Springing!

& GREAT DEALS on winter clothes for next year!

We went to Prime Outlets at Calhoun today, because my dad needed a tool that was on sale. My mom, Olivia, and I just rode along and shopped a little. (I'm still not feeling 100%) But we ended up with all this stuff (below) all for well under $100! We got 14 LS shirts and one pair of pajamas for next fall/winter. We also got 6 pairs of TCP socks, which are of course the BEST! I picked up 4 summer sunhats at $1 a piece and then 2 cute Carter's summer dresses... ok ok I couldn't resist! They are size 24 months... Olivia still wears an 18 month in Carter's - I think it runs huge!

After we got back, Ben & I went to pick up a swing set from some friends that built a new (awesome, I might add) clubhouse/fort/fun play thing in their backyard... I don't have pictures of that yet, we haven't gotten it all put back together and tied down so that will be another post - but thanks a bunch Keith, Teresa, Spencer, and Kennedy! She was so excited when she saw it!

We then put on one of our new (to us) summer outfits and walked up to Maw Maw & Paw Paw's to play for a little while.

She was convinced she had rocks in her shoes... she really didn't!

She was putting ice on Maw Maw's boo boo. (Knee surgery)

I just love love her apple outfit!

I think I'm finally getting over my bug... yay!! Time to enjoy spring before my allergies start going crazy :) LOL

The Bachelor

Alright, so now after 4 days or so to get over my shock, I can now blog about The Bachelor ending. Just so you know, I am a Bachelor addict and have admitted it. That's step one in the 12 step program right?

I definitely thought Jason was such a sweet guy, BUT after Monday night, I definitely have changed my mind.

For one, I was so nervous on Monday night, my stomach was in knots and I had butterflies!! HELLO!!!! I was only watching it! What's wrong with me?? It's not like I was actually on the show or had any reason to be nervous at all! I was thrilled to death when I saw THIS:

I even thought it was so adorable that they jumped in the pool because they were so excited.

Don't get me wrong I do understand that people break up and that's fine. But c'mon Jason! At least give it a try first, and if it doesn't work out that's ok. BUT DON'T GO MAKING OUT WITH MOLLY 5 MINUTES LATER!

That is why I think he is basically scum now. Because he lied to Melissa about having contact with Molly and then made out with her on TV not 5-10 minutes after he broke it off with Melissa. Gosh Jason, you are such a man whore.

On a lighter note, I found this cute picture on photobucket. I think it's adorable :) I hope she's happy with her new man, Ty.

Oh yeah! And Jason! MAN UP - YOU CRY TOO MUCH!!

Infamous Bath Tub Pictures

These were taken last night and I thought they were cute... and something to humiliate her with when she's 16!

You think she has enough bath toys??? There's almost no room for her in there!

And the O'Dell open mouth smile... she looks so much like Ben here!

And another open mouth smile!

Looking more like me in this one... :)

New Bed, Dress Up & O's Funnies

We got Olivia's new bed yesterday and set it up :) She loved it and did so great sleeping last night!! Thanks so much Nana & Pops!!

I snapped this last night right after she fell asleep - Notice the pencil box on her bed with the books and drink stacked on it... She reads usually every night before going to bed (by herself) and sometimes plays quietly for a little while, but when she is finished and ready to go to sleep, she always organizes what she has been playing with/reading. Sometimes she lines up her Barbie dolls or in this case stacked up her books. She is so funny!

We also played dress up yesterday which we don't do often... she gets mad if she doesn't have help, so I have to be right there all the time when she plays with her dress up stuff.

Here she is putting on her shoes

Princesses always wear high heels with their jeans!!
And pouting because I wouldn't let her jump on her new bed :(

She has also been saying some really funny and cute things!!

When she falls she immediately yells, "I'm ok!!" (usually - sometimes she really isn't tho and she doesn't say it)

She also leaves out "with" when she talks so we hear things like, "Walk me" "Jump me" "Run me" "Play me"... etc. It is soooo cute!!

Also started yelling, "Yee-haw!!" when she is doing something really fun - like running the outside of the living room rug or running circles around the kitchen table.

She also yells, "I'M FAST!!!" when she runs.

She brings me a Dora DVD and says, "Can I?" or "Can we?"

She says, "Mon!" all the time which means "Come on/C'mon" But lately she's starting to add "dies" to the end which means "guys" so she says, "Mon dies!!"

Last a little funny story. Last night at Nana & Pops she wanted to see the fish. When we got in there she goes, "I wanna eat, I wanna eat!!" and pointed at the fish. At first I was like WHAT??! You can't eat those fish! Then I realized she wanted to FEED the fish like she had done last time... she just didn't know how to word it. It was adorable.

And I will leave you with this precious photo of mine and my sisters cats snuggling on a rainy day :) (They are brothers)