Olivia’s outfit was inspired by this sketch that Tim drew before Olivia was born. He showed me the drawing, and said, “Okay, now can you make that hat?” It’s been waiting to shine since before she was born, and her head is finally big enough! : )

She just started sitting up on her own, but she still leans to the side for balance most of the time.

She also just started crawling, and she’s getting faster every day. I can’t take my eyes off this girl for more than a second!

Our baby girl is getting so big!

Congrats to Katie McGregor,the winner of this giveaway! Enjoy your Christmas cards, sister.

To enter, click HERE to go to their site & check out their Christmas & Holiday card collection. Then, leave a comment on this post, telling us which design you might choose if you win. NOTE: if you’ve never commented on a post before… 1: welcome & thanks- I like comments almost as much as I like lip balm; and 2: your comment must be moderated before it will show up on the page, so please be patient. : )

Contest begins Today- NOW!- (Tuesday 11/8) and ends tomorrow (Wednesday 11/9) at 4pm PST. (California time, y’all…since that’s where I reside)

I’ll use random.org to select a truly random winner & make that announcement soon after the contest ends. But, I do have a baby to take care of, so I can’t make any promises about an exact time. ; )

Also, if you’re into that whole “Santa” thing, head over to the Tiny Prints Facebook page on 11/9/11 (offer ends @ 11:59pm!) to receive a free card to your kiddos from Santa & see how you can personalize one of these cards for free:

And, to my fellow bloggers, you can host a giveaway like this one by visiting this page: http://blog.tinyprints.com/feature-tiny-prints-christmas-cards/. Tiny Prints is trying to get the word out, y’all!

I particularly love getting photo Christmas cards from our friends and family. I usually design my own card, but the last time I did a design by myself (Olivia’s announcement), it took a long time to actually get it printed & in the mail. So, I’m turning to tinyprints.com this year. I’ve never ordered from them myself, but I’ve been the recipient of some of their really great-looking invitations and announcements. My favorite thing about them is the matte finish on high quality paper.

Here are two of my favorites after browsing their extensive Christmas card selection:

Having a baby girl makes me want to order things like this all the time. I can just picture my little sidekick’s sweet face smiling at me from the Christmas tree on an ornament card like this one.

I love the colors and textures in this one!

One thing’s for sure: I’m going to have a hard time choosing which picture and which card template to go with.

To my blogger friends: If you want to take advantage of 50 free prints for reviewing tinyprints, follow this link!

http://blog.tinyprints.com/feature-tiny-prints-christmas-cards/

I love my family.

Check out Katie & Joey’s flickr pages!

• Joey’s pics

• Katie’s pics

Olivia loves to be outdoors. If she’s crying (or screaming), she will usually stop right away if we take her outside.

If we are too impatient to try to get her down for a nap in her own bed, the quickest way to get her to sleep is to put her in our front carrier, put on her bonnet, give her a pacifier, and go for a walk. Almost guaranteed to result in a sleeping baby in half a block.

She also loves to stand. She is constantly pushing herself up onto her feet on our laps, using us for balance. That is, until she gets tired and collapses back down.

Smiling is Olivia’s newest skill, and I LOVE it! She still doesn’t smile all that often, but she sure is cute when she does.

She is also working on making her voice heard. She has started making a lot more noises other than just crying. Sometimes she sounds like a monkey

Olivia continues to love bathtime. We rely on it for a little peacefulness during her usually fussy evening hours.

We love our growing girl!