Pictures, mostly pictures. And some ramblings.

It physically hurts me when I think of how cute my daughter is to me.   As she is asleep right now I run through all of the cutesy things she did today.  We were at the splash pad today and I turned to Dave and I said, "You know, I feel like I can honestly say that our child is the cutest child out here."  Dave, of course in all of his logic said, "I bet every single mother out here thinks that."

I think we are just wired to feel this way.  We also definitely had our fair share of tantrums and lessons to be learned today, but the cute as always seems to outweigh the nasty.  Again, probably another way that we are wired biologically to love and need to protect our young.  Anyways, enjoy....

Also, we spend a lot of time half naked around the Copeland house.  Very few people would ever really think that, because we seem like totally modest and conservative people.  However, when we get home from work all clothes off! lol.  Okay, not ALL of them but usually at least half, and with Olivia, forget it, you will be lucky to at least find her with pants on if you just surprise us and drop on in.  Our poor neighbors.

Mommy Speak

You know how they say that twins have their own secret language?  They are able to communicate with one another just by grunting or making gestures and the such, or even sometimes making up their own language.  I totally feel that there is sort of the same thing when it comes to parents and their babies!  Olivia is a talking fool these days, but sometimes I know she is saying things that only mommy would understand.  I love it because she is making communication easier every single day, but at the same time I feel crazy explaining to someone "oh, she just said 'shut the door'"  when I know what she said sounded nothing like that, but it was what she meant.  

There are a ton of words that Olivia does say very clearly, and what she is saying cannot be mistaken. Outside (her favorite), stop it please, no, yes, Thor, Oreo, door, rat baby, baby, shoe, please, walk, eyes, ear, nose, hands.  The list probably goes on, and everyday she is surprising us by the words that she knows.  I am forever amazed by what she is learning and picking up on.

Something that we have recently started doing was pointing out body parts in Spanish.  She picked those up very quickly, however, my Spanish is very limited, so sadly hers is too.  She was like a sponge learning los manos, la nariz, la boca, los ojos, la cabeza, los pies.  Tonight I taught her la luna and she loved that, she even liked saying it more than moon.



We are spending most of our evenings outside with the warmer weather.  Olivia will be a little brown bear in no time.  I'm very happy that she has not had a single sunburn yet, and the sunscreen has been doing it's job, however she has a killer farmer's tan.

The cutest little tush in the world.

Outdoor Fun

We are outdoorsy people, or at least we try really hard to be.  I love to be outside, in the water, or being active somehow, however, sometimes the Texas heat can really get the best of me.  We are trying to get a lot of our favorite outdoor activities in before it gets to stinkin' hot!  It looks like summer is going to come early this year, and I'm betting it's going to be brutal.

We have really wanted to go camping lately, but we can't quite get healthy enough to do the full-blown overnight thing.  A couple of weeks ago I was sick, and then Olivia, and now Dave is finally getting close to feeling 100%.  We decided just a day trip to check out a new spot would be all we could manage.  We drove up to Arkansas Bend which is in Lago Vista, about 25 minutes from our house.

Even with Lake Travis being really low, it was still so gorgeous out at this spot.  We will definitely go again sometime this summer.  There was lots of shade, lots of seclusion and easy water access.

Olivia LOVES to be outside.  She says "outside" a million times a day.  Today the very first word out of her mouth when she awoke from her nap was outside.  We have reached that point in Olivia's toddlerhood where we need to spell certain words so we don't trigger and activity we aren't necessarily ready to commit to at the time.   Needless to say, she loved our little day trip.

Olivia started out her afternoon with a great outdoor nap.  These are the best kind.

After nap time we got in some water clothes.

The water was still a little cold even though it was a 90 degree day.

Dinner time!

The corn on the cob was a hit.

The rest of the weekend we spent running errands, shopping, and cleaning.  We decided to buy Olivia her own little fold up chair because she loved to climb in and out of ours.

Olivia trying out her new chair!

My baby girl looks like such a big girl!

Sunday afternoon we went over the Gammie and Yaya's house for some family time and dinner.  Once again we spent a good amount of time outside!  We had a wonderful weekend.

My Little Animal Lover

Olivia's love for creatures started at a very young age when our monster dog was forced into her life.

Their love grew over time.

Olivia then started to love all animals. Big,

and smaller.

Some animals reciprocate the love, others do not.

Here's to hoping she is an aspiring veterinarian, and not an animal hoarder. 

School Days

Here are some fun pictures of Olivia at play at daycare.  At the end is a cute little video of Olivia getting into Itsy Bitsy Spider.  Enjoy.

Little girl hanging with the big dogs.