Koo Koo Ka Choo!

So lots has been going on around here... I've just failed to blog about it. (sorry) Atley finally took her first steps!!! Last Wednesday night, Andy and I were finishing up dinner. Atley was getting close to bedtime, and so getting super ornery in the process. :) She wanted me to hold her, and I was trying to put it off as much as possible because I was tired... so I went to turn on The Wiggles (her favorite show), she got up on her feet... frustrated... started bouncing (like she was gearing up for her big debut), and took 2 really quick steps!!!! And then fell... BUT 2 STEPS on her OWN!!! Yay!!! We were sooo proud of her! No she's standing up more and more on her own. She has yet to walk more though. She's such a cautious and stubborn little baby girl. :)

We also went to Disneyland this last Friday... which was a blast. Andy, Atley and I went with our friends Tammy and her beautiful daughter Sadie (who is so hilarious). On the way home after a long day at Disneyland, we were at a stop light waiting for our turn to get going, and Sadie (who can just barely talk) says : "COME ON." Haha! We couldn't help but all start laughing. She's such a cutie.

Right now Atley's really into asking questions... even though she can't speak with a lot of words yet... She says things in a question-like manner, with her vocal inflections going up at the end of every word? Dadda? Dodo?? Ssssssa?? Mamaaaa? Use your imagination. :)

Her vocabulary is growing though!!! She can say doddy (doggy), key (kitty), mow (meow), R R R (ruff ruff ruff), daddy, mama, sssss (sippy). And she knows a little sign language too! She knows "more", "eat", and "sippy", and "all done". Smart little baby!

Daddy and Atley girl enjoying the carousel at Disneyland. Mom is good at taking pics at just the right moment!! :)

The happy fam at a Halloween decorated Disneyland. It was very festive! Pumpkins everywhere! Even the flowers were all orange, yellow and red... autumn colors.

Every kid has to have that spaghetti pic sometime right?? She got it everywhere!! And is totally thrilled.

So I threw a baby shower for a friend a couple of weekends ago. It was a huge success... but I just had to show off my decorations. I made these tissue-paper balls and hung them from my ceiling. I thought they were kinda cute. She didn't know the gender of the baby, so she wanted white, black and yellow for the colors... in case you were wondering.

This is Atley's little friend Nina. They play together all the time, and are such good little buddies.

Grandma Jensen sent Atley a halloween package in the mail a little while ago, and she got this darling halloween princess bucket... with.... (gasp) M&M's inside!!!! (Atley's FAVORITE) She knows the M&M package by heart. And every time I pull it out she gets this huge smile on her face, goes "Ooooooooo", and starts shaking her hands cause she gets so excited. It's hilarious. I think she was saying "Oooooo" in this pic. You can kind of see it if you look closely at her mouth. Haha.

This is a pretty rose from my flower bed in front of my house. Andy picked it for me before his last trip to Houston, and I thought it was sweet. It was sooo fragrant! It smelled just like those rose scented body lotions. Reminded me of my grandma jensen. She always smelled like roses.

Now THIS is an Atley M&M face. See what I mean?? I accidentally left them out one night on the floor... OOPS!!! I was busy in the kitchen, and I noticed she suddenly went quiet that morning... I turned around, and found... this!!! Colors all over her hands, all over her face. And as soon as she spotted me, she stuffed as many in her mouth as she could cause she knew I would take them away. She's so funny.

Atley before church (notice the happy face). The happy face is no longer present when church is over. But this pic is special because the dress she is wearing was mine when I was a wee baby. I think it's so much fun to dress her in clothes I used to wear. Thanks mom for saving them for me!!!

I got this kitty headband as part of my halloween ensemble for myself this year, and ever since I got them, Atley puts them on her head all by herself and crawls around the house going "Mow". Haha. No idea where she got that from!

Don't know exactly what she's doing.... but this is after bathtime. I just love her in these warm hooded towels! So fresh and so clean clean.

Disneyland pic. Sorry these are so out of order.

Atley loves loves loves this dog!

Kitty in the kitty bed. I swear I did NOT put her up to this. She did it on her own!

So this is our new ball of fur... her name is MOSE, named after Dwight Schrute's cousin on The Office. She's a darling kitty and soooo sweet. We just got her.

Our dear friends Tammy and Sadie... we went to Disney with them this last weekend, and had a blast. Sadie's hilarious. On the way home, after a long day of waiting in lines and such... we were at a stoplight, and all of a sudden, out of this teeny tiny 20 months' old mouth, we hear "COME ON" from the backseat. We all just started laughing.

Aunt Mertha

Aunt Mertha (merissa) came for a visit during the manly manfest!!!! Atley and I were delighted to have her here for a week (and one day ;) ). We had sooooo much fun! We shopped, crafted, sewed, painted our toenails, (almost) got massages... and missed our husbands (a little). I would definitely recommend a woman's day to all those women out there.

Atley playing dress-up for Aunt Meriss. She LOVED Merissa... and would laugh and laugh at her. She warmed up to her really fast!

The two goofy sisters...

Atley's new sponge-bob jamas. I couldn't resist posting this pic. Haha.

So Meriss and I were out to lunch while Atley had a sitter. We went to the Garden Spot... a little salad and soup buffet. Anyway, while we got up for seconds (yes, we ate seconds), some guy behind me put his nasty soup bowl on my tray!!! So when we got back to our table, my tray was full of a nasty man's soup. Anyway, so this is my grossed out face. Merissa had a good laugh, needless to say.

Man Festers 2009

This year for the annual manly Olson manfest, the boyz went to hike Mt. Sneffels in southwest Colorado. Such cute boys. They spent a lot of the time touring the San Juan Mountains, the Colorado National Monument, and also hiked into the Black Canyon of the Gunnison. They saw lots in the little time they had together, and had lots of fun and created lots of memories. Looking forward to next year's manly manfester reunion. (maybe the wives can join in the fun next year) (wink wink)

From L to R: Cameron, Andy, Jeff, Tuna, and Ty.

Awww.... breathtaking isn't he??

Atley's ONE!!!

Saturday, July 11, Atley turned ONE!!! I can't believe it was a full year ago that we had a brand new Atley. Time sure goes by quickly. Here are some fun facts about my little sweet Atley:

On 7-11 one year ago, she was born at 10:13 p.m., and was 7.7 lbs and 20 inches long.

Now she weighs 18.12 lbs and is 30 inches tall!

She LOVES snacks. She's not a good eater generally, but loves little crackers and yogurt puffs.

She prefers soy milk over cows milk. She loves it!

She has always loved music, ever since she was first born. Music was the only thing that would stop her from crying when she had colic for that first 6 months, and now whenever she hears a song, she smiles and dances to it. :)

She loves The Wiggles, and Baby Einstein. She's always been a TV junkie. Andy and I joke that she's always happy as long as she's got her movie and a snack in front of her.

She loves kitties and dogs. She gets sooo excited when she gets to pet either, and will say "dah dah" referring to dogs.

She's a very happy, very easy-going little girl. A few weeks ago, she had really bad ear infections, and you would never have known it by her attitude. She was so happy.

Atley's very feminine and on her birthday I put a purple lei on her, and she was so excited. She didn't try to take it off all day.

She's figured out how, and loves to push buttons.

Her grandma and grandpa Jensen came to Bakersfield to help us party, and it was sooo nice to have them here. Thank you for traveling so far for Atley's little birthday party! :) We love you! THE CAKE...

Atley's first birthday cake, homemade by none other than... myself. It was my first attempt at being decorative with a cake, and I had so much fun doing it. It tasted really good too! :)
There has to be lots of pics when you put so much time and effort into something. :)

The most important part of Atley's day... the GIFTS!!! She got a WALKER from mommy and daddy, a mini piano that she loves, and grandma and grandpa got her a horse that she can ride and it rolls on the ground. She likes to press its cheek and hear it niegh.

Atley diving into her giant cupcake with grandma and grandpa J beside her. She loved the frosting!!

The ONE candle, and getting ready for action. Notice Atley's got her bib on all ready to eat sugar.

Hmmm... but does she like it???

Still so lady-like, eating with one finger at a time in her mouth.

Grandma and Grandpa also got her a little cowgirl hat, and she actually didn't mind wearing it! We had a blast with her in this hat.

Atley holding 'her baby' on grandpa's lap. She will give her kisses and holds her just like a real baby. She's so funny.

Grandma J dancing with Atley. She would squeal and laugh during the turns, she loves it, and she loves her grandma!! She gets so excited when she sees grandma and grandpa!!

Waiting for grandma and grandpa to arrive... a ritz cracker sticking out of her mouth. Silly girl.

Sequoia Day: Mineral King

So this year for Independence Day, Andy, Atley and I set out for a day in Sequoia National Park. I think this is our favorite park in CA so far. The trees are amazing, and it's sooo beautiful and peaceful. We picked a new route to drive on so we could see some new areas of the park. It was such a GORGEOUS day, so nice and warm. When we got up into the pines, we stopped at a campsite to eat lunch and picnic. Atley loved being in the mountains. She was all smiles, squeals, and kept waving her arms like crazy (she does this when she's really excited). Scenery pics along the drive. Oh, and (not pictured), but we saw a bear!!! I was sooo excited! It was just sitting on the road, and when we got close, it started barreling off into the trees. So I got to see it's little bear bum jiggle into the woods. It was so fun to see. It had pretty auburn fur that shimmered in the sunlight as it ran. I tried to grab my camera, but it was too fast.

More scenery. Isn't it so beautiful?

This is a little hike we went on to see a little waterfall. It was fun. We saw a marmot along the way. I told Atley it was a dog because she loves dogs so much. She got all excited and started saying "Dah, Dah". I'm sure the other hikers thought I was crazy though because I was calling it a doggy. Oh well.

We took of her little socks at the waters' edge and put her feet in... she seemed to be so fascinated by all of the running water.

Me doin' my mommy duties in the comfort of our Yukon, and of course Andy just HAD to get a picture of it.

Here Atley is, just enjoying the grandeur.

I am SOOOO fascinated with these huge pinecones!!! Aren't they cool? It's almost the size of Atley!

Bad lighting, but this is Andy and Atley in front of a huge Sequoia tree stump.

This is the campsite where we had our lunch-time picnic. Andy was sooo sweet to get everything ready for the trip in the morning while bug and I slept in (we had a rough night... Atley's getting her molars in!), so he had packed a little grill and some hotdogs and chips and a bunch of snacks for our lunch.

We took the Mineral King road... it's very very windy the entire way... but this is the bridge you cross over a huge river that carves its way through the canyon. It's so beautiful.

I made this very comment to Andy yesterday, and this was his reply: "Now all you need is some hairy armpits to go with that granola comment."