Olivia is 9 months!

First Day of School!

You gotta do the traditional "First Day of School" pictures, even if you're in grad school!

Second year grad student!

Olivia had to make an appearance in a few pictures, too.

Olivia's First Parade

Yesterday when we went to Disneyland, a parade started just as we were getting in the park, so we decided to stop and let Olivia watch for a little.  She LOVED it!  Looks like we're going to have to start watching a lot more parades!

She got way more excited after we finished filming this, but we were having too much fun watching her go crazy with excitement to record any more!

Goodbye Blockout Days, Hello Disneyland!

Yesterday we were finally able to go back to Disneyland after eagerly waiting since June!  And, since Nick starts school up again next Monday, we figure that we better get in as much family together-ness time as we can: Disneyland style.  Here's just a few moments from our adventures yesterday.

Olivia liked watching the boats and canoes go by.

She sure worked up an appetite!

Olivia the Crawler!

Here she is: our little crawler!

Overalls Photoshoot

So, Becky thought it would be cute to snap a few pictures of Olivia after church in her adorable overalls dress...

...but the thing is, once you've learned how to crawl, it's a lot harder to sit still for photoshoots!

Mobile Olivia!

For weeks Olivia has been tantalizingly close to crawling-- she could spin in circles, push her herself backwards, and even move sideways.  But she couldn't quite figure out how to go forward...

We tried getting her to go forward by putting all sorts interesting things in front of her, just out of reach.

"Crawling is hard...perhaps I will just walk."

Today after her 8 month check-up, we sat her down on the floor to play and she just started moving!  Something must have just clicked all the sudden :)  Right now she employs the "slow and steady wins the race" method, but she can most definitely crawl now!

Happy Californ-iversary

Oh my goodness, we have now officially lived in California for ONE year-- can you believe it?!  And what better way to celebrate a year of California than to take a road trip to Arizona :)

Ok, to be fair to California, we really have liked living here for the past year!  Nick loves his grad school program, the weather is great, we're meeting lots of new people, and there's plenty to do to keep us entertained.  But we decided it would be fun to go on one last trip before Nick needs to start getting ready for this next semester.  So to Arizona we went to visit Becky's parents!

Olivia loved playing with her Grandma and Grandpa.  We managed to stay pretty cool in the 100 degree weather by swimming at the pools lots.

We were also fortunate to see lots of family and friends while we were there, which was so wonderful!  But it seemed like one of Olivia's favorite things about the Arizona trip getting to play on the rocking horse (note: Becky got that horse when she was a little girl!).

Travelling is always so fun, but it sure does feel nice to be home...in California!