who am I??

Do I look familiar??? the style of the picture probably gives it away......

God's Gift

This weekend was spent celebrating olivia, the blessings she has brought to us and the blessing we bestowed to her. We baptized little miss on Sunday at St. Marks Church, surrounded by all our close family and friends...Olivia was an angel thru the entire service and even gave a little grin when given a drop of wine at communion (lord help us)!! we invited everyone back to our home for brunch and it was perfect....good food, good friends and a very good and blessed life we have!

wayne, kitty, nathan, me, olivia, mom, lindsey &preston

three generations of o'brien women

my little clone

The table dressings

personalized petit-fours, nothing but the good for olivia

ami enjoying time with olivia

baby strength

as most everyone knows...we had quite a start to the new year with olivia coming nearly 7weeks early. she spent a very long 19 days in the nicu to be released in perfect health. we were extremely lucky to have such a positive experience, but many others do not.....so that is why after leaving the hospital and looking back i felt the urge to give back for what i was given. This year i began what i hope will be a yearly tradition....i walked in the annual March of Dimes march for babies to raise $$ and awareness for prematurity and birth complications. It was the best thing i could have ever done for myself and for the foundation. I was truly humbled and blessed to see all that we, as parents of early children are given. In raising donations and walking, I was joined by my mom, nathan and my friend zoie! thank you all for your support and time....i remind myself how very lucky i am.

March for Babies 2009

Mom and I getting ready to stretch


Little miss wearing her badge of honor for strolling to the end!

Zoie and I


little miss and mama at the finish line...all for u

Hippity Hoppity Happy Easter!!!

Wishing everyone we love a very Happy Easter day.....may you have a basket full of smiles and sweets now and all year!! much love from our home to yours......

The Smith's at TCC Easter Brunch and Egg Hunt 2009

match up?

so, i had been going through old and new pics lately and funny thing....i found pics of both kids about the same age doing the same thing! now take a look and let me know if you think that jackson and olivia still resemble one another or if olivia is taking on her own look. i have been told by many that Olivia no longer looks just like jackson, but i think finding these old pics may just change your mind.....you tell me! in other updates, i have realized that i am lacking in the parent department with olivia......by now, i had jackson stimulated by more than the boppy or the swing; so the other night we busted out the activity mat and gave olivia a little bit of brain stimulation......and she loved it, so much so, that we had to limit the time because she was cooing so loud at 10pm we thought she was going to wake jackson up. it was so cute and amazing to see how much she needed it!

olivia at 12wks

jackson at 9wks

jackson at 11wks


olivia-12wks

jman- 9wks

giggles and grins

Olivia is growing and changing so fast these days....just this past weekend she gave me the biggest, sweet, melt your heart smile ever. this was her very first and it made me stop in my tracks... to see her clearly at this moment.....she is no longer that newborn we brought home, but our growing baby and growing is what she is doing.....she cooes, smiles, squeaks and squeals. not always at the most favorable times, like say at 1:30am!! but we will take it, nathan and i just have to laugh. she has also found her pout and can bark at us already!! lord help us.

olivia and mommy after bath time..12wks

first ever hairbow....

miss emsley getting her sugar from baby "liv" too cute, little mama

olivia holding her head up so very well on her own...10wks

spring is in the air

this week started the beginning of spring break for jackson and also the chaos for me at home. it would not be so bad if the weather was not so terrible and jackson hadn't been fighting a bad cold . lets just say cabin fever for all and boy are we ready to get back to our normal routine. Jackson's school always does a great job with parties and this spring fling was the best so far......sun, fun, bubbles, icies, chik-fil-a and the lady Cow, face painting and chalk paint.....what more fun could one little boy have. the family time was great and getting to see all the children and their parents is really a ton of fun. Jackson did enjoy himself, but when he crashes, he crashes hard and he melted down with exhaustion on the way home....lucky for me, it gave me a bit of well needed quiet time.

jackson trying to decide if he likes iicies or not

bubble time and hula hoops

the other smith clan

little rockstars

Today was the two's class turn to do the chapel music presentation and boy was it entertaining!! I surely thought that the kids would be more timid and not want to sing much and that was not it at all...jackson and his fellow classmates hooted it up and jammed to the music....we certainly have little rockers on our hands...that is no surprise to us because jackson has liked to shake his groove thing with music since the day he was born. they sang three songs; twinkle twinkle, baba blacksheep and abc's......it was just too cute and i was so mad at myself for no having the camcorder ready to go....

jackson, lilly and john michael getting ready for ABC's

wesley singing with her letter


jackson was the loudest of the pack and the whole chapel!!

baba blacksheep

jackson is actually singing on the top of his lungs here

cole, henry, wesley and bree

like mother, like daughter!!

this is for u mom.....
when my mom came to visit, she could not get over the fact that olivia already managed to fill her closet full by the age of 2 months old and what made her laugh even more was the way it was so meticulously organized!! come on mom, who's daughter is she anyway...would you expect any less?? i have already donated clothes of hers to the goodwill that she has outgrown...now i must admit that gives even me a laugh!! you know that i have to teach her, from the beginning, the priorities in life....right from wrong lesson #1, you can never have to many clothes, hehe (wink)!!

where does the time go?

Olivia rounded the two month mark this past weekend and i realized how much faster time is going by the second time around!! she is growing like weed and received perfect marks at her 8 week checkup this past monday from the Dr. olivia did however have to get 4 shots and one oral vaccine and boy did she not enjoy that!! i think that i cried as hard as her..... on the bright side, she has finally caught up to where all other babies her age usually are. we are enjoying every minute of littlemiss and reminding ourselves that every day is a blessing to watch olivia grow & change.