.Cute.

This is actually a few weeks old now, but I think it's pretty hilarious. I heard Olivia waking up from her nap and this is what I found. Funny thing is it stayed there long enough for me to grab the camera and take the picture!

Plug for Bro-in-Law

So my brother-in-law is going to be in Rob Gardner's, Blackbeard this Sept. Here is something he has emailed our family:

It's a rare opportunity to be one of the first to see a show before itever appears on the Broadway stage. But, in just two weeks,"Blackbeard," a new musical aimed for Broadway, will premiere at theprestigious Herberger Theater Center right here in Phoenix. Ticketsare on sale now for the pre-Broadway event, playing September 5-27.
This exciting new show about America's most notorious pirate is fromRob Gardner, award-winning composer of "The Price of Freedom" and"12Princesses." The action surrounds Blackbeard's famously brazenblockade of Charleston Harbor, as he uses his fearsome façade tocapture and plunder his way into legend.
Don't miss this unique opportunity to be among the first to experiencethis brand new show! Call the Herberger Theater Center box office at(602) 252-8497 or check out the official website now athttp://www.blackbeardthemusical.com/ for detailed information, photos, musicclips, tickets and more.
See you at the theater!

Plus part of the procedes from ticket sales will benefit these adorable babies! (And other members of the cast! Spread the word!)

Sundays

I just love Sundays. So wonderful to relax and enjoy time with family and eat yummy food that I don't have to cook :) Today we got to go to a baby blessing. Aaron's cousin Dusty who lives in Texas blessed his little boy, Dallas today. Yes, Dallas, from Texas. I think that's so cute. We had some good laughs about their next child's name, Dusty said they were thinking maybe "Apache Junction", or if it's a girl "Queen Creek". LOL Anyway... it was nice. I also took some cute pictures of Olivia this morning.

She actually figured out how to sit up, pretty much over night! Yesterday she could barely sit up for more than 10 seconds and then today she was just sitting for as long as we'd let her. It was fun.

She looks incredibly long in this picture... I think it's just the angle.

This one is my favorite. I just love the hat and the smile... so stinkin cute.And this expression just cracks me up.

Also, I think this was most likely our last Sunday in our ward. I am going to miss everyone there so much! Since our new ward is at 9:00, sometimes I day dream about going to both and just pretending that we never moved. But I'm sure our new ward will be great. And it will be fun because Aaron's brother is moving into our condo, so the Opie's are moving, but the Opie's are moving in. Try not to get too confused!

Finally some Pictures!

Okay so I haven't been nearly as good about taking tons of pictures of Olivia as I have been in the past. So here are some random ones, the newest one is probably already over a week old. When she wakes up from her nap I'll have to add some more.

Love my Reliv!

Playing with cousin Jarom makes her laugh so hard!
Rice cereal goodness
Carrots (before we found out they constipated her!)
And this is hanging out with our friends, 5 year old Kaylee took this picture! Olivia started out on the other end of the blanket and scooted all the way off it to get my foot!

Pay it Forward

So Aaron and I started an envelope budget, and with all our travels this month we were left with only 19 for groceries for the rest of the month. Well I thought $19, turns out we had $17. And I had been adding everything up as I put it in the cart. When I got to check out I explained to the teenager behind the register that I only had cash with me, and I had exactly $19, so I would give him the most important stuff first, and if I ran out of money I would put the rest of the stuff back. Well it came to exactly $18.53. So I counted out my money and I only had $17! The teenager was so sweet though. He said, "Hold on, let me see something." And he pushed a few buttons and it rang up $16.53! It seriously made me so happy. It's those little things. And then I went to Home Depot to see if they could mix some old paint for me that was purchased at K-Mart 3 years ago. I figured it would cost me at least a couple dollars, but they did it for free!! Another pleasant surprise!

Anyway then I was putting the paint in my trunk and I saw the fudgesicles I had just gotten at Frye's. I took one out to enjoy while driving home, and I noticed there was this lady fixing the Coke machine outside Home Depot. She had been there when I went in, and was still there when I went out, on a radio and looked really frustrated. I thought I could pay it forward and give her a fudgesicle. So I grabbed one and ran up to her and asked, "Hey wanna fudgesicle?" And she kind of snapped at me, "What?!" And I was like, "Well I just was about to have one myself, I just got them at the grocery store, and I noticed you must have been out here for a long time, and you look really hot, I thought it might cool you off." Then she smiled, and got teary eyed and told me I just made her day. It was fun, because someone had just made my day!

My Reliv Story.

So it's kind of funny, I share this story with complete strangers almost every Tuesday night, and probably most people reading my blog have never heard. So I thought I'd type it out here and share how a network marketing company changed my life.

When Aaron and I got married 3 years ago, I knew his mom did something from home, and earned as much as $10,000 in a month. I had no clue what it was. I had never heard of any work from home opportunities before, so I had no bias against "network marketing". I wanted to know more about what she did. She I went to a Tuesday night meeting. I met lots of people also making lots of money, but also had lots of health results. So we decided I would start the products. I was dealing with a lot of fatigue. Probably slightly more than the average college student. I got sick a lot. Swollen glands and fevers frequently. Sinus infections probably every couple of months. Horrible menstrual headaches. None of these things seemed like huge issues to me. But anyway, 3 weeks taking Reliv and I started to feel better. I'll never forget waking up before my alarm clock, actually ready to get out of bed. Anyway, 3 years later I still feel great. But the most exciting result to me was when we started to try to get pregnant. It was taking forever. Every month that went by was really driving me insane. It was literally all I could think about. Finally after a year, before Aaron would agree to fertilty doctors, he wanted me to add Soy Essentials (one of reliv's functional formulas) to my Reliv Shake. 2 months later we were pregnant. I don't know where we'd be otherwise. And of course we've told people about it. Average income is around $200 a month, but our best month was $4,000. And now we're working towards allowing me to always be a stay-at-home mom, and dreaming of the day when our income is enough that even Aaron could come home.

St. Louis

So we're in the airport on our way to St. Louis for Reliv's 20th Annual International Conference. Exciting stuff. Our flight was supposed to be at noon today, but they overbooked it, and were looking for volunteers to give up their seats in exchange for a free ticket to anywhere in the US. So after a little debate we decided it'd be worth a day in the airport, since tickets for NJ for Christmas are looking to be like $850 a peice!! However, there are of course some restrictions that we found out about after. Like... we might not be able to use the tickets for Christmas time. But they're completely transferable, and so we could fly my dad out, or something like that. We'll see.

Olivia is 5 months old now! She amazes me daily with how she's figuring out this world. She's making lots of new noises and babbles. She's still not a pro at sitting up. She tries to crawl, but hasn't been too successful, although I am afraid because it looks like any day she's just going to pick up and move on me. Lately she's been a terrible sleeper. Waking up lots and lots during the night. I nurse her back to sleep, but I don't think this is the best thing to do. It gets her right back to sleep, but then I keep waking up... so I don't know. I tried keeping her in bed with us, I tried leaving her in the crib, and then I tried leaving her in our bed and I went on the couch. lol... I think it might be teething. Her gums seem pretty swollen. But we have so much going on, this trip, then the move, then in Sept. going away on that trip... so after all that is said and done we'll establish a better sleeping routine, and hopefully get her sleeping through the night. In the meantime, I'll try to enjoy it, because she def won't be a baby forever.

Totally Blog-Worthy :)

So yesterday we dropped O off with her grandma around 1:00. Then we ran a few errands, then the fun began. We got massages at Massage Envy. It was absolutely heavenly. Then we stopped by the new house to check some things out, then we headed to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner. Food was absolutely wonderful, and we had a great time. Then we wandered around the mall a bit. Window shopped. Looked around at JCPenney Home store and imagained all the fancy things we want in our new house. And then it was a wonderful night all to ourselves! I was actually able to relax more than I thought I would. I didn't even call to check on her once (probably because I knew if I did I would have wanted to go get her, or I'd just worry more). I just kept telling myself that my mother-in-law has more experience with babies than I do, and even if she is crying she's in loving arms. And turns out she was crying. Her tummy issues from the carrots hadn't yet resolved. So she was up almost all night. Poor girl. Grandma said she slept from 6-9! Yikes. But she's sleeping peacefully now, and I think we'll be okay. So, I called my mom and told her the test was successful and we'll leave Olivia for 4 days with her. I am scared out of my mind just saying that. But it really was so important for mine and Aaron's relationship, to have that time just the two of us. Totally rejuvinating. So to ease my guilt I keep telling myself that really it's for Olivia's own good. So now the countdown to our trip begins! Woohoo!

First "Words"

Okay, first of all sorry if I offended anyone with my Twilight rant. But I had to get it out somewhere. :)

Second of all... two days ago Olivia was just laying there on a blanket on the ground and Aaron and I were talking on the couch, and she just said, "Da-da! Da-da-da-da-DAAaaaa" and she hasn't stopped since. It's funny because spend a lot of time telling her, "Saaay mama!" or "Saaaay dada!" and then she just did it all unproked. Of course she has no clue what she's saying... or does she? It's funny this morning A went into her room and she started saying it.

More in Olivia news... I think I got overconfident with the baby food, and started to move too fast for my poor baby's tummy. I was giving her rice cereal three times a day... twice a day with carrots. And then she seemed to be doing great with that, so I gave her just carrots at lunch time. Anyway, basically she got constipated, and a hurting tummy. And cried from 7-10 last night when she finally fell asleep. So I guess I'll ease up, and go back to just the cereal for a while longer.

Location and why I am not on the bandwagon...

So I don't really want to give the exact location of the house on my blog that's open for anyone to read, and I included a picture of it on my last post, and just never know who's out there... so I'll just say it's out of the ward, for sure. In fact, it's most likely in the Lehi Ward. So still in Mesa, just further East, and a little further North. Sorry that's pretty vague, but ask me in person and I'll be happy to let ya know the exact location.

And now for my rant... why I am really just not a fan of Stephenie Meyer's series. WARNING! This rant may include some spoilers from Twilight, New Moon, and the first half of Eclipse. Oh, and if you are totally obsessed and in love with this series, just don't read it. It will probably just make you angry. Okay, I tried. I really tried to like it. But here's my problem... I think the first book should have been about 100 pages. Total. She repeats the same details over and over. Okay I get it, Bella's truck is loud and old. Edward is perfect. Charlie likes her cooking, and he watches sports. And where was the build up to the love story. I would have liked more detail there. And Edward's perfect, and glittery, okay got that. What color was his hair? Maybe it was mentioned and I missed it. I don't think there's very good character development at all. And now a couple tiny details that just ruin it for me. For example... Bella is all immune to Edward's mind-reading powers, and that super powerful vampire's ability. But yet, Alice can still see her in her visions. And Jasper can control her emotions with his weird thing too. And Alice can't see werewolves, but Edward can read their mind. I think this is so inconsistent and it just bothers me. I also think Edward is controlling and tempermental. Bella is needy, and pathetic. Jacob was the only redeeming character until he got obnxious and kissed her all crazy like. The relationship with Angela was barely established, but their dialog is like they're best friends. And so I kept reading with the hope it would get better. Two and a half books later, and I'm just more annoyed. So I stop. Want a good series? Check out the Belgariad by David Eddings. :)

And after that rant I'm glad I didn't disclose the location of my house! Ha

Happy 3 Years

So today's our 3 year anniversary. We will celebrate this Friday by leaving Olivia with my Mother-in-law, and we'll enjoy some time just the two of us for the first time in 150 days, or so! But to make matters even more exciting... WE GOT A HOUSE!! Our realtor called today to tell us the bank accepted our offer. It still feels weird, like too good to be true, I guess. Here's a pic of the front of the house:

Cute, huh? I am so super excited to have a yard! And a pool! And a kitchen big enough that me and my husband can both fit it in at the same time! And a garage! It's all so overwhelming. We close August 29th or something like that. I have no idea how all this works from here. But I am very excited.

Oh and it's also exciting that we've made it three whole years already. I joked with Aaron this morning saying, "And what do we have to show for it?" Well lets see... what do we have to show for it?

Just about a dozen trips to New Jersey, and NYC.

Even more trips to Disneyland and Cali.

New aquired skills like my piano playing... :)

A Nintendo Wii

2 DS's

An awesome snowglobe collection!

Memories of the best times of my life... like Beauty and the Beast on Broadway, Saguaro Lake trips, Navuoo trips, every day moments that would take me forever to type out...

and of course...

The queen of drool herself... :)

Love you honey

Just a quick update

So not much is new in our little Opie World. Olivia is loving her rice cereal. I'm still trying to be consistent about the times that I feed her. I usually just feed her when she seems hungry. So right now she definitely gets rice cereal around 11, and again around 4. Trying to find a third time where I can be consistent with it. She still wakes up at 2:00am to eat. I tried to not nurse her at this time, and just give her back her paci and pat her back to sleep. Not so successful. If I nurse her, she falls right back to sleep. So for now I'll stick with that. She also wakes up again about 5 to eat, and then sleeps for a couple more hours til 7:30. I'm not sure if I should worry about weaning from the night feeding yet. We have earned an all expense paid trip to Lake of the Ozarks. We will be gone from Sept 3 - 7 (I think, something like that anyway, first Thursday to first Sunday). It would be reeeally nice to leave Olivia with my mom, and enjoy a few days of just me and my hubby. My mom's willing, but of course I worry. When I think about it though all my fears are pretty irrational, except that my milk might dry up?? I will plan on pumping as much as possible while we're gone to maintain my supply, but I'm not sure how well that will work. So we're going to do a trial run this Friday. Aaron's mom agreed to take Olivia for the night. I will try not to have a panic attack while we're apart.

In other news.... we have an offer on an awesome house. Hopefully we hear back tomorrow! Well that's about all the excitingness I can handle for now.