Miss Independent {6-8 months}

Crawling, singing, talking and kissing!

Olivia has flourished the last two months! We are on a schedule that works 80% of the time, she is eating fantastically, and cruising all around. Liv says mama, dada, and nana, though she says dada the most. Speaking of daddy, Liv's favorite part of the day is when daddy walks through that door after work, she just gleams and screams with excitement! Liv is learning so much every day, and loves to explore. Her favorite toy right now is mr.puppy, which use to be one of my old toys from my childhood, so its special. Prior to mr.puppy, her all time favorite toy was mr.owl, but sadly mr.owl is currently residing in Charlie or Zoey's intestines and I am sure will make its appearance sooner rather than later. Liv will not be getting mr.owl back though... 

Olivia loves bath time! She sits in the tub all by herself and splashing nonstop. We are still toothless at the moment but I have a feeling those bottom front teeth will be coming in the next few weeks! I can't wait to see that beautiful smile of hers complete with some pearly whites. 

Olivia also has a new cousin. She is the only girl with three boy nephews! Zeke Daniel Bajza was welcomed January 6th! We are actually flying out to Utah this weekend to go meet the little guy and I can not wait. Liv is going to seem so gigantic to him, though she only weighs 5 more pounds than the little chunk! I can't wait to meet my brother's son and am so happy for them! 

One of my favorite new things Olivia does is SLEEP THROUGH THE NIGHT! You all have no idea how happy this makes me! Even if she does wake up in the middle of night, 75% of the time she will settle herself back down and I don't even have to get out of my warm cozy bed! I shouldn't brag like this because thats always bad luck but I have thoroughly enjoyed the last few weeks of good solid shut eye! 

My sweet girl is growing up so very fast and it is truly getting better and better by the day. Who knew love could just keep growing like it has!

 Zoey is Olivia's best friend. These two just love each other! 

 She started making this face a couple weeks ago and its just my favorite!

Helping mama bake cookies!

Olivia {4-6 months}

Eating solids, sitting up, and talking away!


Olivia's eating issues were at their all time high between 4-5 months. So I said goodbye to my job at Starbucks. I was sad to leave because I really did love my job and my boss and coworkers, plus I was really good at my job and it gave me purpose even if that purpose was just to make a latte perfect. But I had to do what I felt was best for Liv and thankfully it really did help her tremendously. We started solids at 5 1/2 months but didn't really love food until 6 months or so. Sweet potatoes and squash were favorites and the list has grown since.

Liv started sitting up at on her own about 6 1/2 months and also moved into her own room too! I waited a while to do this because I was so worried something would happen and I wouldn't hear her, but everything worked out great and I love that we have our own places to sleep. It is great for my own sanity.


 During these months we celebrated Liv's first Halloween and Thanksgiving. Liv was dedicated to the Lord in October too, and Uncle Danny and Aunt Christina came to visit for that. Nana and Papa bought a new house, which also meant that I said goodbye to the only home I have known and the house that I grew up in. It is a little bittersweet but the new house is complete with an indoor pool and 7 acres so that helps quite a bit.

Olivia also experienced her first and only flu which debuted in an emergency room visit for such a high fever and wheezing (over reaction on my part but better safe than sorry! ) Liv also learned how to jump in her exersaucer which made it ten times cooler for her! Liv is half way to her first birthday and so so fun!

Olivia {2-4months}

Olivia is laughing, rolling over, and cute as ever.

Olivia is seriously the sweetest thing. She rolled over right at three months from her stomach to back. She lost all of her beautiful dark newborn hair, she rocked the old man style for a bit. We started bottles of breast milk at 5 weeks to see if that would help with her cluster feeding and fussiness at the breast. It gave me a break yet demanded that I pump. At four months, her eating struggles were at their worst and I was beyond exhausted. I was working and waking up multiple times at night with her, and getting up at 2:45 to feed her, pump then head to work for the day. It was hectic and I don't know how I did it! We had to have a barium swallow test, x rays, and other tests with specialists to try and figure out why she was eating so horribly, and constantly throwing up, but we never received any answers. We started trying bath time at the end of four months, but Liv was still pretty unsure about the whole and lots of tears were had at the end of bath time. We are completely off the breast and only bottle-feeding and this mama is pumping around the clock!

Olivia Capri Winters {Newborn}

Olivia Capri Winters {Newborn}

Olivia came a little over two weeks early on May 17th at 10:34pm. She weighed 6 pounds and 15 ounces. I was in otter shock that the feisty little kicker in my belly was such a sweet endearing little girl. She is perfect in every way. 

Her first month with us seems like such a blur. It was full of exhaustion, doctor appointments, and tons of cluster feeding. Looking back on it, I feel like I was totally unprepared. I should have taken classes, read some books, done something to better prepare me for the utter shock of caring for a tiny human 24/7. Olivia was cluster feeding around the clock, but surprising sleeping well at night. I remember she was less than two weeks old and waking up once at night, and sleeping through the night at just a month old. But she napped horribly throughout the day, and was pretty colicky towards the end of the first month. Yet, she was so beautiful and happy. She smiled constantly and was learning to laugh. It was the sweetest sound ever. Erik and I were actually able to a lot together despite having a newborn, which was so dumb on my part. We took her out way more than we ever go out now. I am forgetting how incredibly hot it was in our house though, so that is probably why we were constantly trying to get out and into some air conditioning!