Ollie and Ellie

Today our special friend Auntie Misty and her sweet little Eleanor came to see us. They are visiting from Texas and we were so excited to get to spend the afternoon with them. Sticking to the usual tradition, we had lunch at BJ's and then went to do a little shopping. The girls were so good! They are only 6 weeks apart and they are going to grow up to be great friends. We sat them next to each other to take pictures and laughed as they tried to interact.

Olive: "Oh, Eleanor! I am so glad to see you!"
Eleanor: "I'm glad to see you too, but will you please let go of my arm?"

Eleanor: "Olive, do you have toys in your room? Let's go!!"Olive: "Eleanor, you are so silly!"
Olive: "Hey Eleanor! Look what I can do! I can stick my toes in my mouth."

Eleanor: "Olive, you are really flexible. Do your toes taste good?"

Eleanor: "Olive, this I-pod thing is so cool! I want to gobble it up."

Olive: "Yeah, I know. Santa brought it."

Eleanor: "Olive, be careful not to hurt the hungry caterpillar!"

By the time we got to Target, they were both passed out asleep. What a peaceful ending to a fun day. Auntie Misty and Eleanor, thank you for coming to play with us. We love you!

Good "jeans"

Olive wore jeans for the first time today! I can't believe how big she looks and I had to share!

Christmas with the Youngs

Due to the weather, we didn't get to have Christmas with my family on Christmas day. So, everyone came down today. We had a delicious breakfast and the opened presents while Olive napped. When she got up, she got to open her presents and there were a lot! I didn't do a very good job taking pictures, but here are a few that I have. Honey, Auntie M and Granny all got pink snuggies. I think they could easily be on the commercial. Can't you just hear the tune "Put on your snuggie"...Olive is so lucky to have so many people who love her and want to spend time with her. She loved opening her presents and playing with everyone. This is her very special stocking that Granny made for her. We are so thankful that Granny took the time to make it for her. We love it! "OOOHHH!! It sings!"I have a feeling this sign will be hung on our front door when she goes into middle school!
She loved the paper the best.

She got her very own Home Depot project apron. This way she will stay nice and clean when she works on special projects with Dano. Speaking of special projects, Dano made her the most adorable "olive" step stool, but for some reason I didn't get a picture of it. I will post one soon. It is so special.

Books! Books! And more books!Showing Honey my new silly faces and making her laugh!

Giving love to Dano and Auntie M

Thank you Dano, Honey, Granny, Auntie M and Uncle Isaac so much for coming down for Christmas! We loved getting to spend the day with you.

Susie Snowflake

Here comes Susie Snowflake dressed in a snow white gown...

We made a snowman in our front yard. Wrigley helped by digging snow around the snowman. She also enjoyed chasing snowballs and trying her best to bring them back. Olive met the snowman after it was complete.

Christmas Snow

Pop and Gipper game down to play for a little while early afternoon and then Olive took a nap. When she woke up, we decided to bundle up and take her out to "play". Getting her dressed was quite the process...

Layer #1 Layer #2
Layer #3...ready to go!
"I can't put my arms down!"
Thank you Molly for letting us borrow your super warm snow suit! It was perfect.
Daddy made a snow angel. He's the best!
Our little snow angel.
She didn't really seem to notice the cold.
Playing with Daddy

We had a great day! Several other neighbors built snowmen, we will have to see how adventurous Mommy and Daddy feel to see if we get one too. I hope that you all had a very Merry Christmas! We got to spend the whole day with our special little gift and it couldn't have been more perfect.

Olive's First Christmas morning

Olive must have been a good little girl in the four months she has been here, because Santa came to our house! Stephen and I had a big decision to make when getting ready to be Santa...to wrap or not wrap the presents? As a kid all of our Santa gifts were not wrapped, they usually just had a bow or something. But at the Link household Santa wrapped everything. So, we decided that Santa would wrap his presents with special wrapping paper that is different from the rest (starting next year, that is). We got up and found out that the roads were still really bad, so Dano, Honey, Gigi, Auntie M and Uncle Isaac weren't going to attempt to come down. That was a bummer, but it ended up being just fine. We will celebrate on Sunday, which means Christmas lasts longer! Hooray! Olive really like to pull the paper off of the presents! She would get to the toy and shake it, drop it and look around like she was ready for another one. I hope that isn't a pattern.
She loved seeing what was in her stocking too! A special stuffed bunny named Gardenia from Daddy and several other toys which of course went straight in her mouth!

"Here Daddy, this one is for you. I hope you like it!"Wrigley and Olive are very interested in finding out what is in the box. Oooh!! A new driver! Well, technically a certificate for him to pick out whichever driver he wants and a "free" Sunday each month to use it.
Now it is Mommy's turn. Santa sent a note that said I needed to put on my blindfold.The Project Runway limited edition sewing machine!! Thank you Stevie and Olive! Mommy is so excited to start learning to sew and working on fun projects.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve was certainly snowy!! The weather men had been predicting snow, but of course, we figured they were just getting worked up like they always do. We always go to church for the Christmas Eve service at Dano and Honey's church, but it snowed so much that the service was cancelled. So, we snuggled in to our jammies and had a fun day at home. The best part was getting to hang out all day long with little miss with no interruptions! We were worried about our friends and family who were out in the storm, but luckily they all made it home safely. Here are a few of the things we did on this snowy Christmas eve...

Hooray!! It is snowing. Daddy showed Olive the snow out of her bedroom window. She thought it was pretty neat.

"Daddy! I want to play in the snow!" We realized there was a chance we might lose power and that we may need "rations" in case we were snow bound, so Stephen and Wrigley headed to the store!

Later in the afternoon, Daddy showed Olive all of the special ornaments on "Grammy Tami's tree". The tree in our dining room is decorated in her ornaments and it is very special to us. Stephen gave her the tour of the ornaments, the ones he bought Grammy Tami of all of the special places in Ponca, the one he made in second grade in Ms. Erner's class, the one he made in 1st grade in Mrs. Nelson's class and on and on...she reached out and tried to grab them like she knew what he was saying.

Then the biggest part of the day was when she got to eat a special "Christmas eve dinner" of...Rice cereal!! Yum!!

The new Gerber baby poster child!

We had a great Christmas Eve despite the change of plans! We are so thankful to be together and have a warm place to be. We are ready to celebrate Jesus' birthday tomorrow!