We had such a great time at Christmas! I'll have to let Shaun put some pics of that on. I think he took some. When he comes home I don't worry about getting pictures. Olivia had a wonderful first Christmas! She got all kinds of toys from everyone! She is still exploring each one. Music is one of her favorite things and she loves anything with it. She is starting to dance by bouncing around and is still trying to walk. She stands on her own really well but no steps alone yet. She was 10 months old on Christmas eve! Shaun and I are both shocked how fast she is growing. She says Mama, Dada (only when he is here) and doggy. She also has started to say Kiko which is Andrew's girlfriend Ross's dog. She is a huge dog that loves Olivia. Since she is still crawling still she has taken to carrying around items in her mouth, right now she is crawling with two puzzle pieces sticking out of her mouth. She is a very smart baby. Olivia and I are both sad that Shaun had to leave on Sunday. The time together was a wonderful tease, but we are all looking forward to this summer when he is home for good! Getting back to our house and our family will be Heavenly!!! For now we just keep moving forward. Shaun is excited to get school going again, and is busy there. He has some pics up on his blog and on flicker under Shaunbailey

Merry Christmas to all and Happy New Year!!!!

Olivia eating a lemon! We think that it is pretty funny and so did she for a minute! This was at dinner with Grandma and Grandpa Bailey.

Some pics of Livie! She is trying to steal a bite from her Daddy's Cookie, and playing in the mirror.

We have had a wonderful trip to see Shaun, our thanksgiving was a very special one. Despite the fact that we weren't with family we were lucky enough to have friends to share the holiday with. We spent it with Shaun's high school friend Kim and her new husband Chris. We had a very good dinner at Chris's cousin's Maria's house. We really enjoyed meeting all of Chris family and being welcomed so warmly. We actually spent the entire weekend with Kim and Chris. We stayed at their home in Portland Maine and drove up to Bangor to visit with Kim's parents and to see Shaun's old hometown. This was a lot of fun seeing all the places Shaun has told me all about. Saturday we drove home from Bangor which took about 5 hours and made Olivia grumpy! But we made it home to go to church in the morning and got to have dinner with the missionaries and two lady's in the ward. We had a wonderful time there and so enjoyed getting to know some people in this area. I am getting sad to leave him here but excited that he will be coming home for christmas so soon! Hope you all have happy holidays!

Grandpa Bailey loves to get Olivia laughing, here they are with Olivia bouncing and Grandpa tickling her back:)

This is another video of Shaun startling and laughing with Olivia. This quickly became a favorite game of theirs. Olivia is just become so much fun. She can't sit still at all! Church is already becoming a fight with her! Shaun has now experienced her wiggles at church, and she is only just turned nine months! She crawls so fast, and is trying to stand on her own. I'm sure walking isn't far away (I can only imagine what fun that will bring to church!)

our trip to Mass

Olivia and I flew up to Mass last week. We have had a wonderful time seeing Shaun. Though we have had our share of misadventures! First off we almost missed our flight, catching it in the nick of time, but unfortunally our bags didn't make the flight and we had to walk around Hartford Conn to pass the time until our bag could land. It was about 5 hours! It was so fun to see Shaun again that we didn't mind. We both thought Hartford looks like a nice place. Shaun had two days of school before his Thanksgiving break. O and I got to experience a laundry mat, which was fun until she got tired of wheeling around in the xl baskets they have. We did get to have lunch in a really neat old paper mill that they converted into a book store and cafe. that is where the pic is from. Also we had lunch at Shaun's school and all of the other students oggled over Olivia. She entertained quite nicely:) We set out one day for a picnic just to find it overcast and rainy, our picnic ended up in the car with O napping.