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Abby Cadabby has been one of our best friends lately. It's a good thing because the theme for Olivia's 2nd birthday party is Abby Cadabby.

I guess Olivia thought Abby needed a turn in the cozy coupe.

 Another best friend? Baby dolls...she LOVES her babies. She likes to share everything with them and then put them down for a nap. I will notice the door to our bedroom is shut and will open it to find one, two or three babies taking a nap face down on our bed. Then Olivia will walk around saying "shhhhhhh baby sleeping".

Can I please bottle this sweetness up???

We were having dinner at our good friend, Reid and Paula's the other night. Reid taught Olivia a pretty good trick. We were so surprised she could actually do it.

Poor baby Ford doesn't get photos of his mommy's big belly. This time we opted for a belly cast. Don't ask me what we're going to do with it but I'm sure I'll come up with something.

What We've Been Up To...

Is our child the only one that likes to sleep with weird things?? She begged to sleep with the balloons on Christmas night and we let her until she fell asleep. She also likes to sleep with certain books, baby dolls, her juice cup, food from her kitchen and the list goes on and on.

 Playing with her kitchen....it's more fun after bath time when your naked!

The girl LOVES her books. ALL of them.

We had to purchase this Barney balloon while we were on the grocery trip from hell. Ughhh...it was one of THOSE days. Too many tantrums to count, had to open every item I put in the cart, people staring like I was THAT crazy mom. It could not have gotten any worse!

Yep, I celebrated the big 3-0! Yikes...it's one of those numbers you never thought you would actually get to. I'm there and telling myself that 30 is the new 20.

I think she must be practicing for Ford's arrival. Hope the babies don't mind sharing the swing with him.

We had a guest at the lunch table the other day. Abby Cadabby was served macaroni and cheese.

Olivia's First Haircut

Is it possible that Olivia already needs a haircut??? I really wasn't in denial until I got in the chair with her and the lady cutting her hair got out an envelope to put her baby hair in. Baby hair??? Oh my goodness, they are cutting off the precious hair she was born with! I was all the sudden overcome with sadness that before I blink my eyes twice she will be 16 and driving or going off to college. Is it selfish to pray that God would just slow down time??? If life had a pause or slow motion button, I would be pushing it right now!

On the other hand, Olivia did such a good job. I just knew she would have a screaming fit much like she did the first time at the dentist. She proved me wrong. She shed no tears and was a perfect BIG girl. She got her sucker after it was all over with, said thank you and we were on our way. All I have to say is....KAIROS!

Belly Shot

We are now 32 weeks pregnant with Ford. I am still a little shocked that we are going to have a baby boy. It has helped now that the nursery has touches of blue and there's a closet full of little boy clothes.

This pregnancy was very different from Olivia's at the beginning seeing that I got sick this time but as time has progressed it has been pretty uneventful and a lot like the first go around. Besides a little lower back pain and a couple of feet up in my rib cage, things have been great. I just pray the rest of the time is much of the same and labor and delivery is similar to Olivia's. We can't wait to meet him and kiss his little cheeks. We are officially on the countdown....Eeeek! That's frightening!

Geaux Saints!!

We were able to go to the Saints/Lions playoffs game last Saturday. It was so much fun and most likely, the last home game of the season. Sad to see football season come to an end. What do y'all think??? Are we Superbowl bound??!! I think so......

New Years

New Years was a lot of fun this year. It was very low key which is exactly what we needed seeing that our world is about to be very hectic. Olivia stayed with her Nano and Pops and we rented a cabin with the Bakers and Gurners near Pickwick Lake. We relaxed, slept in, played games, watched movies and rang in the new year. Exactly what we all needed and we were sad to go home.

Sad, sad but this is the ONLY picture I took the entire weekend. How pitiful. I don't even think I actually took this one. I guess when you are having fun the camera is just forgotten.



 The boys didn't want to drive home so they got stuck in the back seat with Olivia and all of our stuff. It was kinda funny, I think Olivia had more room in her car seat than they did. Good grief...surely we don't need to already upgrade to something bigger because we don't have enough room???

Spreading the News

Christmas mid morning we took a wrapped box with a blue balloon inside to each grandparents house for Nano and Gigi to open.

Everyone was very excited to say the least.

 Gigi opening the BLUE balloon.

Nano opening her BLUE balloon.

What an exciting day it was for our little family. I wouldn't take back the time we waited for this news for anything. It was perfect.

Christmas Morning with our Girl

It was really nice spending Christmas morning at our house with just us. Besides the excitement of finding out if Olivia was having a brother or sister, it was nice to let her get up and leisurely (but quickly) play with her toys and have some time with just the three of us. It was a bit early and she was a bit tired but she enjoyed playing with her new toys.

Gifts that Santa brought. Highlight was definitely the kitchen. It's been a highlight every day since. 

 She held the blue balloon the entire time she played. Silly girl!

Our Christmas Surprise!!!

As you know, the plan was to not find out the sex of the baby. Well, that didn't quite work out so we decided to have the sonogram tech write it in an envelope for us to open on Christmas morning. Everyone kept asking me how in the world I was doing that but I really didn't give myself another option. I tried to not let my mind wander to the verdict because that would just make me more anxious UNTIL Christmas Eve. I did NOT sleep a wink that entire night. I watched EVERY hour pass by. I just could not imagine what the baby was going to be and it drove me crazy all night.

FINALLY, at 7am I woke Hays and Olivia up. We let Olivia play with the toys Santa brought her for a few minutes (which seemed like eternity). I grabbed the envelope off the mantle and opened it and read what you see below....WHAT??? A BOY!!!! There's not a ton of families that have a child of each sex (believe me, over the last several months I have noticed this). So, I thought for sure we would just have all girls. Is God not so AWESOME??? He knows the plans for our lives before we ever even think it. Awesome. So in a few weeks we will be welcoming a little boy into this house that is full of pink. We are so ecstatic that I really need to pinch myself to make sure this is my life I am living. Thank you, God for my undeserved life and many blessing.

Bedford Hays Collins "Ford" will be arriving in a short 7 weeks or less.

Christmas Eve

Our Christmas Eve day is very low key. We pretty much pack, make Christmas breakfast and play while time passes until we have to get in high gear for more celebrating. We go to Christmas Eve service at our church and then to spend the rest of the night with the entire Collins family having supper and opening gifts.

It was a lot harder this year to get a good picture of her in her Christmas dress. Took 2 of us and about 30 minutes of acting ridiculous to get one half way decent picture that is not even in front of the tree. Oh well.



Me and my girl.

The Collins Family.

Christmas Eve Eve

So for the next few days we are going to be back tracking through time. Pardon the tardiness on these blog posts but I still want to remember these days even though they have passed. We'll play catch up and then be back on track. So here goes nothing...........

Our traditions have changed a bit this year. Both of our families do big celebrations on Christmas Eve so the first year Hays and I were married we flipped a coin to see which family we would be with on Christmas Eve and have flip flopped every year since. Well, since Olivia's arrival we have decided to stay at our house through Christmas morning then go spend the rest of the holidays with my family in Memphis. It is what is best for our family and our traditions.

That being said, we now spend Christmas Eve Eve with the immediate Collins family having supper, opening gifts and starting this year, having a birthday party for Jesus. It's a lot of fun to take our time and really enjoy the kids opening their gifts and just being with each other.



Our two little elves waiting patiently to open their presents.

That smile is too contagious not to post. Love her to pieces.

She wanted to open every gift AND play with it right away. Calls for very patient onlookers as this process took A LOT of time.

Wil Franklin opening his fireman costume. He LOVES to dress up these days.

Ummm....you've got some static, girl.

"Mommy, you look soo cool!"

Aunt Leelee and Uncle Matt got Olivia a piano. I guess pay back is pretty harsh seeing that Wil Franklin has recieved 2 instruments from us the last 2 years.

Gran and Aunt June (who was here visiting from Australia...how cool is that?)

Olivia got a cozy coupe. Fit for a princess.

Wil Franklin got a golf cart. Watch out pedestrians!!!

Last but not least, we had a nice birthday party for Jesus. I pray this is really what Olivia will think about when we celebrate Christmas. My heart rejoiced as I watched Wil Franklin and Olivia sing Happy Birthday to Jesus.