Olivia's Blessing

Olivia was blessed on July 4, 2010. We went home to SC to have her blessed in the Conway Ward because it was easier for our families to be there. I think our family doubled the congregation size that day! It was great to have so many of our family members there to support Olivia on such a big day. My mom made Olivia's blessing dress. She used the leftover fabric from when she made my temple dress for Olivia's dress. That makes it extra special! Mom is a great seamstress...I've decided I'm going to learn to be a good one too (we'll see how that goes). As promised, here are the blessing day pictures:

Our immediate family

The men who were in the blessing circle

Victor, Bryan, Dad, Paul, Frankie (Paul's dad), Matt, Rich

Our little family

4-generation picture

4th of July Weekend

Paul, Olivia, and I drove home to Myrtle Beach for the weekend of The Fourth. We left on Thursday when Paul got home from work. Olivia actually did really well traveling that long. She was still in the stage when babies sleep a lot, so that helped. We only had to stop once on the way there and once on the way back!

On Saturday, the 3rd, a bunch of family came over to my parents' house. We had a cookout/pool party. It was a lot of fun to have everyone running around.

My grandma had 5 great-grandchildren born within 7 weeks of each other (3 of the 5 are my parents' grandchildren), so we lined them all up in age order and took a picture. It was convenient that their ages had them lined up girl, boy, girl, boy, girl....perfect! It was so precious to see all the little babies lined up together.

Mallory, Wyatt, Lucy, Logan, Olivia

Olivia was blessed at church on July 4th. We had tons of family there - I think we took up over half the congregation...haha! I don't have the pictures from Olivia's blessing on this computer yet, so I'll post them as soon as I get them on here.

After church, we went to Paul's sister's (Elizabeth) house and had lunch with all his family. Paul's other sister, Carrie, has 4 kids and it was so cute to see them be so excited to see Olivia. Brooke was especially adorable. She had a great time feeding Olivia. At one point, I was holding Olivia and she was crying. Brooke immediately ran over to Olivia, started patting her back, and began singing "I'm a Child of God" and "You Are My Sunshine" to her. I can't help but smile when I think of that.

After lunch, we went back to my parents' house and everyone that was staying there went on a walk around the neighborhood. (My mom is taking the picture, so she's not in it.) Backtracking....on June 30th, Olivia went to her 1-month appointment. She got a shot, but only cried for a minute before she calmed down, so it wasn't too bad. However, I must admit that her cry was so sad that it just broke my heart. Here are her stats:

Weight: 9lbs, 11 oz - 63%

Height: 21 3/4 in - 74%

Head: 35 - 71%

I'm not much of a storyteller right now...sorry! I just want to catch up on everything, so this was just a brief synopsis. More will come later.

Olivia Jayne is Born!

Olivia Jayne Crolley entered the world on May 29th at 4:21pm. She weighed 8lbs 3oz and was 20 1/2 inches long. She came out crying and healthy. I can't express the joy I had when I first heard her cry. I just couldn't believe I was a mommy as I looked down at her chubby-cheeked face.

My mom, both Paul's parents and stepdad were there at the hospital when Olivia was born. We were grateful to have them there supporting us. Mom stayed with us for a week to help us out at home. I am sooooo thankful for her willingness to do that. She was a huge help. I don't know if I could've done it without her.

And here are a few more cute pictures from Olivia's first few weeks here on Earth.

This next picture is for Paul's sister, Elizabeth. She got this onesie for Olivia and all the aunts keep joking about how they're going to embroider their name at the bottom. Ha ha!

Being a mom definitely wears you out...

...but it sure does make you happy :)

Baby Showers

Because I have a lot to catch up on, I'm not going to give too much detail about the baby showers we had for Olivia. The first shower we had was in Myrtle Beach, SC and was given by my mom, Tiffany, and Heather. We had a lot of family and friends come to give their support for our growing family.

The second shower was given by two of Paul's aunts, Ann and Lisa, in Camden, SC. We ate the yummiest cake there!

The third shower was given by some close friends from church. These ladies are wonderful and even had a little table for the guests to make scrapbook pages for me to use for Olivia. Unfortunately, a couple of people left before we took the group shot...oh well.

And the final shower was given by my co-workers. It was a surprise shower given for a coworker's wife and me. They did a great job at sneaking behind my back and talking to Paul.