Oh, my...

It has been four months since I have posted ANYTHING on our blog. I've been going the quick route and doing more updates, pictures and whatnot on Facebook. Not the best choice seeing as I want to be able to print out our year in book form from the blog. Oops. My goal for this week is to catch up, as much as possible, on the last four months and then go back and talk about other things that happened.

My to-write-about list includes:

-Our trip to Washington to see my grandparents at Thanksgiving
-Christmas
-Selling our house/moving
-Living with Grandpa Merrill for a month
-Moving into our new house
-A tour of our new house
-The 6th grade play
-Winter guard
-New band stuffs
-ALL of the adventures of our girls (this will be a loooooong one with tons of pictures)
-Lots of house projects
-Teaching music classes, swimming, early summer fun...
-Olivia's 1st birthday
-Fathers day

Let's get to it!

Olivia is 8 Months!

Demolishing a biscuit

Olivia- someday you'll probably read through the posts (in book form, of course) of your big sister's first year and then wonder why you haven't gotten a post-a-month, too. Well, the answer is simple: Sophie didn't have a big sister to play with and we have spent LOTS of time since you joined us playing with sissy, mommy, daddy, cousins, grandma's, grandpa's and so many friends who love you. You've also gone on trips (Seattle to meet your great grandma and grandpa Nasson), tried "exotic" foods and so much more. We have lots of pictures and videos (many more videos than we did of your big sister) that we're hoping to have stories written with but mommy and daddy are human and can't do everything. And honestly, we would much rather spend our time WITH you. We love you and your big sissy, Sophie, lots and lots!

...

 Daddy has written some things about you for this month: 

Livi loves helping with
laundry- especially when
it's clean and warm!

So Olivia just turned 8 months old yesterday, and she is getting some attitude. Just about anything you put in front of her will go straight into her mouth, which is both good and bad. The good news is that she is putting on weight really well. Her and big sister have been sharing diapers for some time now, but Livie is really starting to chunk up to fill them. She loves pretty much any food we put in her mouth, but she particularly enjoys shredding Mommy's biscuits, or really anything else she can make a big mess of. She is a really good sitter, and is usually content to just sit and play. She loves her exer-saucer and her big sister. Daddy loves to come home and see her big smile all of the time. She is a pretty easy-going baby, and never cries for very long, unless you put her down. But why would you ever want to?

Sissy (sister) playtime

She is finally sleeping (almost) all the way through the night, and always wakes up happy. When you go into her room and she sees you, she gets the biggest smile you've ever seen and kicks her feet so hard her whole crib shakes. She went on her first train ride with Mommy and Daddy and Sophie this month. We all went on the new FrontRunner line from Provo to Lehi and back. Olivia seemed to enjoy it, but big sister got a bit scared.

Nap time is really Sesame Street

 play time

Olivia enjoys playing with Sophie- especially during what is suppose to be nap time. Sometimes Sophie still doesn't understand how to share but she is generally very good about making sure Olivia has some toy or another in her hand. Recently, Sophie has taken to sneaking out of her room during nap time and climbing in Olivia's crib with her. We hear "cah-boo!" (peek-a-boo), giggles, laughs and very recently, Sophie has started singing "oooo, snuggle wivvy of mine, *gibberish* fine! I wuv yoooou!" Which Olivia just eats up.

They love double carts!

Home Depot is especially fun
with your sister and a crazy
daddy driver!

Okay. It finally happened.

I'm having myself a mini meltdown tonight. Why? All of the stress of, well, EVERYTHING has smacked me upside the head. Thanks for that, life. I really appreciate you doing that NOW.

Current stresses:

• Dealing with the lovely little pinworm party in our house. So. Much. Bleach. I wonder if my hands, nose or our clothing will ever be the same. : /
• Surprise! We are selling our house and moving (within the neighborhood). With selling comes house showings. Which require homes to be model homes, not lived-in homes. Think it's stressful trying to keep your house "clean enough" for unexpected visitors with two wee ones? Try keeping it beyond perfect. While working. Actually, I like all of you so don't do that. 
• I'm working. This in and of itself is not stressful since it is keeping me sane and unmedicated. But, for some reason, people still seem to think that if the mom parent is working, she is still responsible for all of the things she might do if she was an at home mom. There are simply not enough middle fingers to express my frustration with this whole concept. I cannot make everything from scratch, have perfectly manicured nails, gorgeous hair, a perfect body, spend 18 hours a day with my girls, have an amazing dinner on the table every single night of the week when Craig gets home (I'm also having a "why should I be expected to do that?" moment with this one), an immaculate house, perfectly dressed, clean, happy, kids and always be working on the next item on the Pinterest list of "1,534 ways to serve your husband" and on and on. 
• Color guard is at the beginning of the season. I LOVE guard. It's a big part of me and I absolutely adore the people I work with at Spanish Fork and Springville this season. As much as I love it, there are things that are just stressful at this point in the season. Our first competition is Saturday. We don't have all of the silks we need for our flags. Our big props aren't done yet. We don't even know exactly how we're getting to this show (fingers crossed we find out tomorrow morning.) 
• 6th grade show. I need to find a pianist. And figure out what I want to delegate to the classroom teachers and what I need to do myself. I will not be a control freak. I will not be a control freak...
• I have depression and anxiety. Notice I said that *I* have it. It does NOT have me. Most of the time. Working- having structure and people counting on me to be somewhere- has been huge. The depression isn't nearly as bad as it was months ago. The anxiety is a bit better but it isn't great. For people who have never been there, it can be a nasty cycle. I need my car to get places but driving causes panic attacks. I like to talk to people on the phone when I'm driving for this reason. If no one answers, I talk to myself out loud. Yup, I'm one of those people you see at stop lights talking. 

Okay. Writing has helped some. I still want to have a good cry and have been pushing it away all day. Maybe a warm shower will help.