7 Year Anniversary

Who says there is a 7 year itch!?! We had so much fun celebrating our anniversary with a weekend alone in Banff. We are so thankful Nonna was here and took care of Olivia for the weekend. It was the first time I had ever spent a night away from Olivia in her 19 months!
When we were saying our goodbyes, for the first time ever, Olivia spontaneously said, "I Love You". It was the sweetest moment and I will never forget it. I cried leaving her and she simply waved goodbye.

Our hotel was stunning! It is over a hundred years old and looks and feels just like a castle. We checked in late and they didn't have a room available, so they upgraded us to a suite.


On top of the backside of the ski mountain in Lake Louise

Dog Park

We have the best dog park within walking distance of our house in Calgary. It is fantastic for both Maya and Olivia. Maya can run around and be crazy with the other dogs and Olivia can watch and scream with glee about it all. We were so excited to take Nonna there when she first got here.

Happy Bird Dog with a smile!

Downtown Calgary in the background

Edmonton House Hunting

We went to Edmonton again to try and find a house to rent. We had fun, but still didn't find anything that will suit our needs. Fingers crossed something comes available for us!

Sweet Baby Girl out to dinner

Peeping Tom!

Checking out every square inch of the hotel. Where the demand for "WALK" first began

Olivia is hoping stair climbing becomes an Olympic sport

Looking for buses and trucks

The Chef Enjoys Her Stew In Style

No kitchen is complete without a table to enjoy all of your wonderful cooking! I was so excited to find this on Ebay for Olivia! She loves it.

Calgary Zoo, again

I just love this zoo, even in the winter. We are really going to miss the zoo when we move to Edmonton next month. Olivia continues her love affair with the giraffes and hippos. Ever since this day at the zoo, every night she wants to sing goodnight to Chase, the giraffes and the hippos. She thinks it is hilarious, too.

She is about to jump out of my arms to get a closer look at the HUGE hippos.

Kiddos checking out the fish in the hippo tank

Chase and Olivia looking at the new baby giraffe, Sophie

Chase roaring like a lion

I LOVE ducks so much I will actually smile for the camera for a change

This was amazing! The Calgary Zoo has a complete gorilla family. The silverback was just hanging out when we first got to the gorilla area. After a few minutes he ran over to his baby, who was sleeping. He just sat there looking at his baby boy and just loved on him and groomed him while he remained sleeping. It was really so sweet to see.

Rhodes in Calgary

Last week, Mike, Courtney and Chase Rhodes came to visit us in Calgary. We had an absolute blast with them! Olivia is utterly in love with the Chaser. She would wake up every morning and from each nap and say, "Chase" until we took her to see him. We spent the long weekend (Family day in Canada) in Lake Louise. It once again, did not disappoint. It is just stunning! While we were there, Olivia went to the day care for two days at the base of the mountain while we went snowboarding. It was her first time in any sort of child care and only my second full day away from her. She did great (better than he teary Mama)! Snowboarding is fun, but HARD! I need some more lessons, for sure. Fife somehow got us in to a fully booked fancy hotel restaurant and thanks to a babysitter, we enjoyed our early Valentines, no kiddo meal. Fun times we will always remember.
The kiddos playing in the tent at our stop to pick up some more cold weather gear before the trip.

Uncle Fife reading a story

Olivia's first time using a big girl fork..she loved it! This was in Banff on our lunch stop-over on the way to Lake Louise

Giving sweet kisses

Olivia slipping Chase the tongue :)

Chase getting geared up for skiing (he is three)

Fife on one of his MANY trips running down the hill after Chase

A huge change I have noticed since skiing many years ago, almost everyone now wears helmets.

Future snowboarder

Calling "Nono" in the hotel

Olympic ice sculptures on Lake Louise in front of our hotel

What a gentleman!!

Rhodes Family on the frozen Lake Louise

Snowballs!!!

I love this picture of my big girl

Cute!

18 Months!!

It is so hard to believe, another milestone has come and gone! Time flies when you are having fun and learning, learning, learning!

We thought it would be fun to celebrate her 18 month birthday. Just like her real birthday, she showed limited interest in cupcakes.



Little things I don't want to forget...

1) The speech therapist in me loves hearing all of the two word utterances that are flowing these days. My favorite one is "Silly Yaya", whenever Maya does something that tickles her. She has also started saying, "Uh-oh, Cheerio" whenever an accident happens. I have no idea how she came up with that one. It is super cute.

2) We have always talked about the letter "O" for obvious reasons. She loves for me to sing the ABC's and now she loves the letter "A". When we are coloring, I can write both an "O" and an "A" and she can tell me which is which! I am still amazed at that one!

3) Olivia is ON THE MOVE! She now pretty much runs anywhere she is going and never stops going!

4)She is such a sweetie! She gives big, wrap her arms around our neck hugs as well as spontaneous and on demand kisses.

5)She still loves music and now "sings". She sings, "Row Row Row", "A A A" (ABC's), "I See Ya" (A Gymboree peek-a-boo song that is really "I See You"). She loves to dance and has picked up a hilarious head bob whenever she is in her car seat. When we are driving, she says, "Mama" so that I will turn around and see her head bob "dance" with a huge smile on her face.

6)She has started exhibiting imaginary play. Her favorite is making "stew" with all of her new cookware and food she got for Christmas. She stands at the top of the stairs shaking the baby gate that leads to the basement saying, "stew, stew, stew" when she wants to go cook.

7) She has started "hoarding", piling up a huge pile of toys up on a chair and then climbing up to sit amongst it all.


Hoarding in Maya's kennel...Maya looks thrilled!


8) She LOVES to Skype. She wants to all day long. She looks at the laptop and says, "Nana, Abby" (my mom and her dog) and "Nonna, Holly" (Mike's mom and their cat).

9) We went to the park the other day and she followed a group of 8 year old girls for about 30 minutes. She just tried as hard as she could to keep up with them, saying "HI!" over and over again to them. She was enamored by them.

10) Maya is still her best bud in the world. She loves to feed her. Several times a day, I hear, "Yaya cookie" or "Yaya ice" when she wants to give her a treat. We have to now feed Maya after Olivia has gone to sleep because she wants to hand feed Maya every bite and gets frustrated if Maya eats by herself.