Olivia's First 4th of July

We celebrated Olivia's first 4th of July last weekend! It was such a great weekend. Corey & I took Thursday off work and headed to the lake for a nice long 4 day weekend. It was perfect weather & not a lot of people around, so it was very low key, which is OK when you are trying to get your 3 month old on a sleep schedule. (Which by the way is getting much better. We moved her down to her big girl crib on Sunday night & so far this week we have had her sleeping by 9:30! Woo!)

We spent most of the weekend just hanging out with my parents & the lake neighbors & spent the day over at Bama & Papa's for the 4th. I will have some funny video footage sometime soon of our fun on the 4th! My Mom's twin Martha put on a really hilarious 4th of July day parade with all the little cousins.

On Saturday Papa Brian came out to see us at the lake with his girlfriend Jan and her two daughters Kate & Emily. It was so fun for Olivia to spend some time with them and the girls had lots of fun on the water tramp & tubing behind the boat! Hope everyone had a great 4th!

Sorenson Family Fun Weekend

Well here is a very late post about our fun weekend in Brained. Every year Corey's family has a family reunion, which until this year has been in Solon Springs, WI. Thankfully we switched locations and ended up renting a reunion house at the Grand View Lodge in Brained. It was so much fun to see everyone. And I know Olivia had such a great time spending the whole weekend with her Papa Steve.

Of course she was on a zero sleep schedule and we fought & fought to get her to bed on Friday night which resulted in Corey & I falling asleep so early. So Saturday night we let her party it up, & she fell asleep on her own...and with the help of Corey's Cousin Brandie, which I found out the next day wrapped her up in a blanket & walked her around outside. I am the worlds best Mom! I didn't even realize she had been missing! Mostly I just wanted to post up a few pics from the weekend. Enjoy!

Baby Hope

As most of you know, Corey's cousins Jeremy & Emily recently had their baby Hope. Due to some complications during labor Hope was deprived of oxygen for an estimated 15 minutes and has been living in the NICU at Meritcare here in Fargo. And we are SO SO SO happy to say that is sounds like Hope will be getting to go home for the 4th Holiday (which was her due date!). I should have posted this long ago so people we didn't have on our e-mail chain could check out Hope's Caringbridge Site: http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/hopepoehler

Olivia & I pray & talk alot about Hope together. I tell her she has to send lots of happy thoughts to her new baby cousin so she can get all better & come play with us. It just breaks my heart to think of Hope & all her struggles and look at Olivia and know that we are so blessed to have brought home such a happy, healthy, thriving baby girl. We all take for granted things in life when they are perfect. So please keep this family in your prayers. Even though she is going home, it sounds like she still has a long unknown road ahead of her, and sometimes I think we forget to keep pumping up the faith when we can see the light at the end of the tunnel. So remember this family even though things are looking better.

I found this prayer for the sick & thought I would share it, this prayer has been comforting to me knowing I am praying for exactly what Hope needs, Love, Hope & God's Presence in her life:

Jesus,
Divine Physician and Healer of the sick, we turn to you in this time of illness. O dearest comforter of the troubled, alleviate our worry and sorrow with your gentle love, and grant us the grace and strength to accept this burden. Dear God, we place our worries in your hands. We place our sick under your care and humbly ask that you restore your servant to health again. Above all, grant us the grace to acknowledge your will and know that whatever you do, you do for the love of us. Amen

With all that said (and my religious rant)...Have a very Happy & Safe 4th of July!

What is new with Miss Olivia?

Well it has been so long since I last posted anything on the 'goings on' of Miss. Olivia. Our lives have been just so nuts for the past week or so, with no sign of it slowing down. This is driving poor Corey nuts because he really likes the relaxing home life, but not me, I just pack every minute of every day full of plans & activities...no rest for the wicked.

The past few weeks Olivia has been grown up so fast. I can't believe how big she is getting. If I had to guess I would say she is over 14 lbs and around 24 inches, and getting close to growing out of her 0-3 month clothes. What a big girl! We have 100% switched from nursing to formula. Which went very well, minus the fact she is allergic to cows milk (formula), so we have her on Soy and she seems to really like it. I have been meaning to get a video clip of what this Soy does to her poo's. It is really funny as it makes everything very solid so when it hits her diaper she can feel it and starts making the most ridiculous noises like she is gasping for air to get it out of her pants. We have about a 30 second window to change her before a complete meltdown occurs. But other than that things are going really well on the formula front.

So I was talking to a guy in my office yesterday and he was telling me his 12 week old babe is on this strict schedule of eating, being held & bedtime at 7:30pm! Now, as much as I felt like a terrible mother because Olivia runs my schedule, I really seem to enjoy the time in the evenings I get to have with her since I work all day and ship my poor babe off to daycare all week long. I try to do bedtime at 9-ish but it turns out by the time she gets done eating, rocking and I get my cuddling in she is sleeping by 10:30. I don't know how many 3 month old babies are on such a schedule, but for now mine will stay the way we have it. However we are doing something right because last night we laid her down awake and she fell right to sleep-no crying! You go girl!

That's all for now, I will try to get some pics up this week sometime. Have a safe & Happy 4th of July!!!

Sunday Paper Coupons

I thought I would network myself for some valuable coupons to help fund our baby's diaper & formula consumption. So if you are ever looking through the paper & find any formula OR diaper coupons send them our way! We would be very appreciative. Hope everyone is having a great Monday! Love, Trish

Our Address:
1601 American Way
Fargo, ND 58103

Take me out to the ballgame...

This past weekend was a busy weekend for little Olivia. It has been a crazy couple of weeks at that. I have been back at work now for 3 weeks going on 4! It is so hard to believe it has been that long already. I think life is starting to pick up some sort of routine and we are starting to get the hang of things and life with a baby in the picture. All I have to say is, thank god for cleaning ladies! I would not keep my sanity without one. And thank my husband for being such a great laundry folder!

Exciting Events:

We purchased a bike trailer! This has been so much fun for our family, and Olivia just LOVES it! She sits and looks around or sleeps. We haven't pushed her much past an hour or so ride, but she does really well. Our next big journey will be over the river to grandma & grandpa's house...as soon as the river goes down we will be head your way South Moorhead!

Olivia has learned to 'coo & babble'. Check out a few of her clips, it is so funny to watch & listen to her. It is pretty amazing how alert & smart she is getting. Today I called to check up on her over lunch & Grandma let me say a few words to Olivia and she was babbling back and I was told was smiling away listening to me talk to her!

She got to sport one of her new swimsuits at the lake! I even dunked her feet in the water, which not surprisingly made her shriek. I would have shrieked too....brr that water is still SO COLD!

And we celebrated Father's Day. Oh we had so much fun! We spent the weekend with Papa Mark at the lake, Went to the Red Hawks Game with Papa Steve & Grandma Ilene & will be celebrating with Papa Brian on Wednesday. This girl is so lucky to have so many great men in her life the parties just never end. She seemed to enjoy the Red Hawks game, only one minor meltdown, which got the attention of the opposing teams "home run hitter" to

come and say hello. Overall it was such a fun day. And I think Daddy Corey had the most perfect 1st Father's Day ever!

Holy Waters

Yes, for those of you that didn't know Olivia was blessed with the Holy Waters of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church on Sunday June 1st, 2008. She looked so adorable. Corey & I were very proud parents to see our little babe become part of the church. And of course she was such a good girl. So while we were standing up in front of a packed house, as it was our church's 1 year anniversary of moving into our new building, little OJ decides it would be a good idea to give sucking on her index finger a whirl...it didn't go over very well, she ended up gagging herself almost spitting up on Mom and having a meltdown. Thank goodness a little butt patting subsided the meltdown and the gagging just ended up in her making some pretty funny faces. I am laughing now just thinking about it. She was such a little ham for the rest of the service, drinking her bottle, smiling at Mom trying to coo & make funny giggling noises which in a hushed congregation sounded like she was using a microphone. What a fun day. Oh and I must not forget to mention, Papa Mark sang to Olivia "Jesus Love's Me" and sounded absolutely amazing. To our disappointment my Dad's church rock band is on a break for the summer so they were not present at the service this day, I am sure Olivia would have loved to see them as this was her first debut at church since when I was pregnant OJ loved the rock band. She would kick & wiggle around as soon as they would start singing or their drums would start up.