Snow White

is Ben's FABE-BRIT Princess because according to Olivia, they look alike.

Blow up frameworthy

These photos are DEFINITELY blow up frameworthy. I was sooo lucky to have caught Olivia in a "photo shoot" kind of mood! She let me pose her for the first one and then the others she posed herself! It was a totally original Olivia shoot :) and turned out perfect! (These are just a few)

Oh the Weekend of a Bargain Hunter!!

This weekend was very productive and made me very yard sale happy!

THE DRESS. I saw one almost just like it last spring at a consignment sale for $8. I wanted to buy it for Olivia to wear last Easter, as her "afternoon" dress/Easter Egg hunt dress... you know. But I didn't buy it since it was $8 and I thought it was too much. So I kept thinking about the dress - for like 6 months. I really regretted not buying it for her. SO I go into Bethel Thrift Store (which I rarely go in) and THIS DRESS was hanging on the Toddler rack. I grabbed it and started searching for the size. It was a 3... it was fate. At this point I'm about to start jumping for joy thinking, "OMG! It's the dress!!! It's the dress!!! I don't care about the price, I'm buying it!" So I looked up at the sign above the rack and it says CHILDREN'S CLOTHES $1.00. I just about fainted. Seriously? a dollar. For a dress I'd been thinking about for 6 months. A dress I seriously regretted not buying. Oh happy day!!

THE CHAIR. We went out Friday looking for a recliner for our living room, nothing expensive since we will probably be buying a new living room set next year when we move. So we didn't find much on Friday, but Saturday morning, we went yard saling and found this big guy!! The couple was 65-70 years old and just so very sweet. The wife was sitting up on the porch trying to stay out of the action, while her husband (who reminded me of Ben) was pricing everything and taking care of the sales. I asked her how much she wanted for the recliner and she said $10, but I'd better ask her husband. I asked him and he said $25... I kinda laughed, just cause they were a cute couple - but I think he thought I was laughing because $25 was too much, so I told him his wife had said $10, and he goes "OK 10 it is then!!" So we got it for a whole ten dollars :)

THE PRINCESSES. Another yard sale we went to had 4 dress up dresses for $1 a piece so I grabbed them all! I got Tinkerbell, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, and a Barbie one. GREAT DEAL, considering these are $20+ new in stores. They are a little big and have been worn but awesome for her to just play in and grow into!

Favorite Fridays: Storms

I LOVE STORMS.

Like, so so much.

I am actually sitting here as I type this in a storm, listening to it, watching it, with the blinds open. My love affair with storms started when I was just a wee little thing probably just a few months old. When I would wake up during the night because of a storm, my dad would take me into the kitchen (with tons of windows) and pull up one blind so I could peep out and see the lightning and hear the thunder. I LOVED it. And I've NEVER been afraid of storms. They are facinating to me :) Now when we hear a storm brewing, we usually both go sit on the front porch and watch it roll in, only leaving when it gets to be sheet rain pelting us up on the porch.

In school, I used to play in the rain (ok storms too, dangerous I know). Jumping in puddles, running through the muddy yard, "swimming" in my neighbor's ditch (yuck!), and spinning in circles in the middle of the yard.

But there's just something about the sound of thunder, rain, and even lightning that is calming. Also, that smell that comes right before a storm is so refreshing... it just clears my mind. That smell would have to be classified as the "calm before the storm" smell.

Olivia told me tonight when she heard the thunder that it sounded "scary". I realized I have not instilled my love of storms in her... Ben has beaten me to it and instilled his FEAR of storms in her. HA. Yes, he is very scared of thunder and lightning but I didn't tell y'all that, ya hear?!?

Oh and BTW. I took the lightning pic last week while it was storming... cool huh??

O'Dell

Family Reunion was a wonderful success!

We all (13 adults and 5 girlies) got together at Jeremy & Lesleigh's house for a Saturday full of fun. We got our pictures made first in black/white/khaki/and jeans and then got to put on our "frimsuits" as O would say!

We spent the afternoon in J & L's BEAUTIFUL pool :)

The 5 girls (maybe soon to be 6?? I'm not sure O'Dells can produce baby boys!)

Mary Beth, Addison, Morgan, Emily, and Olivia

We ate lots and lots of yummy food including...

a shrimp boil!

and these adorable flower cupcakes!

The girls later jumped on the trampoline all together (hilarious!)

Favorite Fridays!

So I've decided to start a new blog on Fridays about all of my favorite things. Some might be about people, some places, some activities, some just things. All that will stay the same is that they are all absolute FAVORITES!

This week my favorite things are BACK TO SCHOOL GOODY BAGS & MY GRAMMA.

and they are both in this post because she gave me the back to school goody bag :)

She got a Wal-Mart reusable shopping bag...

and added all these goodies to it. Hot chocolate, tissue, every kind of M&M, oatmeal, peaches, mac & cheese, soup, a giant paperclip memo holder, new socks, and a change pocket full of quarters for the snack machines.

GREAT stuff to start off the school year!

My grandmother is always doing nice things for us like this and picking us up goodies when she sees something she thinks we would like. She is always thinking of others and volunteering her time and efforts into making others always feel special. So thank you Gramma for my fun goody bag and for being you! Love you :)

This is a picture of us with my grandparents on the 4th of July

The Beach

Monday we went to Chester Frost Park to the "beach" and played for a little while. Olivia really enjoyed it! She loved the playground more than anything, but it was just so hot we only stayed for about 45 minutes.

& right after we got home, this was just so cute, I had to post it!

She my frenn.

Today I stopped by Nana's (where I work, or should I say worked I guess - I'm a yoyo, I leave, come back, leave, come back... etc.) to get a paper from my boss/friend Monica. Monica has a little girl who O loves to play with named Krysalee. As I was getting the paper from Monica, she told me that Krysalee had a staff infection on her ear (no fun!!). It was also pouring down rain.

We both pulled out of the parking lot, us following them and this was mine and O's conversation...

O: "That girl right there... (Monica) Does she have my frenn in there (meaning her car)??"
Me: "Yes, I think Krysalee was with her, but she's sick, she doesn't feel well."
O: "Ohhh no.... does she have the hiccups??"
Me: (laughing hysterically) "Nooo she doesn't have the hiccups - her ear hurts."
At this time, Monica was pulling into her neighborhood
O: "Follow that girl!!! I want to go to her house!!"
Me: "Well Olivia, we can't because she is sick."
O: "Oh no!! She gonna get wet at her house????!!!"

Then I spent the rest of the trip home assuring her that Krysalee was going to be ok and that she could go play with her when she was feeling better. But it was so sweet that she was worried about her!
This is a picture of Krysalee and Olivia playing at Nana's last summer (JULY 08)

Totally Worth It

I think the $1000+ I spent on my camera and 2 lenses was totally worth it for this...

and this was just a bonus.....

Look what we're wearing!!!

Big girl panties!!!!!!!!!!!

Ohh yes! We've started potty training!!

We have a chart on the wall with 5 blank squares and a picture of a present at the end. For every time she pee pees she gets to put a sticker in the box. If she poo poos, she gets two :)

When she fills up the line, she gets a present! (AKA I raided the clearance aisle at Target and didn't pay more than $5 for anything.)

Today is our 3rd day at it and she peed 8 times and pooped once!! We had only ONE minor accident, but she realized it in time to run to the potty and finish!
WAY TO GO O!!

And by the way, I really mostly wrote this post mostly for my recollection later, as I'm SURE those of you without kids probably don't find it very interesting! HAHA :)

Me and The D

as in D5000, ya know.

We are starting to get along much much better than when first brought home.

In fact, this is how much better...

I'll call it close to fabulous.

The Mickey Boat

Otherwise known as the Disney Cruise!

Yes, we've been back since Saturday, but I've been dreading blogging about this because frankly, I just don't have the energy. SO I will post just a few good pics (I took almost 1000)

& Here's a brief synopsis of what all we did:

Key West: Walked to Margaritaville, down Duval St., met Ernest Hemingway's bust, walked down by the ocean, and sweated about a gallon a piece. The heat index was 109 degrees. yikes!

Grand Cayman: Went to see the 500 banks (ok, not really but we did explore the financial district a bit, since I AM a Finance major), walked up the street right along the ocean, and rode the tender which is how I got some AWESOME shots of the ship.

Cozumel: Got off the ship without O (wow!) and went ring shopping. If only it were for me.... haha. No, it was for Ben's mom's new wedding band which her and I picked out a whopper!! Diamonds and rubies galore :) It's gorgeous. We shopped for the rest of the day, much to Ben's dismay. <

Castaway Cay: Disney's Private Island - LOVE IT. Got off the ship with Olivia, it was her first time to swim in the ocean and she LOVED IT! We picked up sea shells, swam, didn't really want to touch the sand TOO much. Then we took her to the nursery and headed to the adult beach. ADULT BEACH = HEAVEN. AHHH. I could LIVE THERE.

On the ship: Went to many fun dinners, hung out a lot on Deck 9 around the pool after dark, went to a Playhouse Disney party, went to the character breakfast, Olivia got to go to the "kids club" (Oceaneer's Club) as well as Flounder's Reef Nursery and Ben and I got to visit the ADULT pool (Quiet Cove - I mean can you think of a better name??). VERY FUN.

We also ate at the adults only restaurant Palo which was GREAT. It's something like 7 courses and they give you lemon sorbet to "cleanse the palate". Hello. That's amazing. Definitely will be dining there again.

All in all, we had a GREAT, FUN trip and can't wait to do it again someday!! (AKA 2012 when the new ships come out!)

Oh and there are 200 pictures on facebook if you are dying to see more! :)