Our Second Anniversary

It's hard to believe it but this Monday, October 10, marks our second anniversary of marriage! Our first two years as husband and wife have been loaded with love and change, and we are so thankful to be on this journey together as best friends, soul mates and lifelong loves. By far the most profound change occured when we found out I was pregnant two months after returning from our honeymoon (discovery on January 12, 2010, to be exact)! Marriage and parenthood have been such rewarding, challenging, life-altering adventures, and we give thanks to God daily for having brought us together and blessed us with our darling Olivia.

We took time out over the weekend to look through our wedding photos and loved every minute of reliving that special day. Here are some of our favorite photographic memories from the loads of photos (no joke, at least 2,000):

We were fortunate enough to welcome The Grand Mimi to our home this past weekend, where she got to spend some quality time with Olivia. She was also our babysitter while Rob and I went out to celebrate our anniversary (dinner at Season's 52 followed by a movie).

My handsome date!

Season's 52 does a veggie dinner right

Season's 52 also does dessert right!  The perfect size to warrant indulgence :)

We had a lovely time and we owe The Grand Mimi a huge debt of gratitude for visiting and babysitting for us. Thank you so very much Mom Guidry!

At the end of the week we are headed to Michigan and are looking forward to visiting Schneider family and friends and celebrating Halloween and cousin Stephanie's wedding.  The Grand Mimi is dog sitting for us while we are away, so she whisked our canine children away with her to Orlando upon her departure from our house (which is unusually silent with Bubba and Pedro gone).  Here's a great picture of The Grand Mimi and the boys bidding us farewell until November (as I do the same to all of this blog's followers!):

Olivia's First Birthday Bash

September 13, 2011, was the first anniversary of the birth of Olivia Maria Schneider, and we celebrated with style and flair!  We wanted to share some of the celebration with those of you who couldn't make it to Atlanta for the party, so here is a little bit of her birthday magic!

The smash cake with Olivia's favorite cartoon friends:  Moose and Zee

The cake for guests

Olivia waiting patiently to smash her cake

The smashing begins!

Shortly after this photo was taken Olivia stuck her finger in her eye !!

Party guests Sarah and Paul with Rob

Party guests Jess and Jen with Jayme

Me and Ilse

The Guidry Gals

An end-of-party snapshot of Olivia and her nuclear family

After all of the partying we headed to the north Georgia mountains for three days of much needed rest and relaxation.  We stayed in a beautiful cabin in the Blue Ridge Mountains surrounded by verdant hills and numerous wild animals and insects (a doe and her two fawns said hello to us each day and a praying mantis camped out with us).  We definitely want to return to our hideaway in the mountains in the future!  The best part was that it was only an hour and a half from our home in Marietta.  Here are some pictures of our trip:

Olivia hamming it up on our way to the mountains

Daddy's Girl -Take 1

Daddy's Girl -Take 2

The view from the cabin's deck - Take 1

The view from the cabin's deck - Take 2

Family Photo - Take 1

Family Photo - Take 2

Daddy's Girl - Take 3

That's it for now!  Thanks for scrolling with us through Olivia's birthday bash festivities :)

Schneider Summer

Rob and I officially began our household de-cluttering typically referred to as spring cleaning over Memorial Day weekend. We decided we would finally deep clean the garage, and once we started we couldn't stop! Below are some before and after pictures of the garage project (Rob ultimately decided to resurface the floors and paint the walls - he did a great job), and we've since started making our way through each room of the house, which is bound to have remarkable chi once we wrap things up!

After pressure washing, before re-surfacing

Here's a close-up of the floor

In June Olivia made Rob's first Father's Day phenomenal by crying every time he left the room! She had to have known the significance of the day and was energetically showing how much it meant to her. Here is a lovely photo of Father and Daughter on their special day:

I also tried to make the day memorable for Rob by making him a delicious breakfast and presenting him with a new wine aerator. It looks like some sort of contraption from the future:

On the Olivia front, we are happy to announce that five pearly whites have officially made their grand entrance into her mouth! She cut each one of these five teeth like a champ and is in the process of cutting a sixth one as I type. She is very proud of this feat:

On the nursing front Olivia's new teeth have Mommy feeling a bit apprehensive! My goal was to nurse her for one year, and I'm still planning on meeting that goal barring any unforeseen injuries!

Olivia is also crawling and cruising like crazy now.  It won't be long before she takes her first tentative steps on her own and inaugurates toddlerhood in the Schneider good-chi household.  She recently learned how to say bye-bye, wave, clap and give a high five, which pleased Rob and I to no end (check out the first video below for proof of this)!  The second video demonstrates Olivia's version of pinball.






Following are some random photos that are too adorable not to share!

LiviLou laughing on the changing table

This is one of Olivia's favorite activities!

She finally figured out how to play with Pedro without hurting him

Hamming it up with Mommy on the Fourth of July

More Fourth of July fun

She loves being pushed around in her laundry basket

I'd like to end this post with a photographic update on our canine children, Buster and Pedro. They've felt a smidge left out since Olivia's arrival and we are trying our best to give them large doses of love throughout the day!

Our Playful and Snuggly Pedro

Our Beloved Bubba, Cherub's Resident

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone