Christmas with Nana and Papa

We were so happy to have Pat and Bill stay with us over the Christmas holiday!  Olivia slept like a baby most nights because her days were filled with walks, bike rides, trampoline jumping, dominoes, and on and on and on.  I didn't take nearly enough pictures but here's a little look at what we've been up to.

Olivia really "got" Santa this year, which meant that we had to make cookies on Christmas Eve to leave out for Santa when he visited our house.  Olivia did a great job helping.

Ready to go in the oven.

Checking on the progress.  Note: we made paleo cookies and they were not very good but Santa ate them anyway.

Mike and I got Olivia a trampoline for Christmas.  Mike worked on Christmas Eve so it was around 10:00pm when he and Bill got started on it.  Thankfully, it only took about an hour to put together.

Olivia was a lucky little girl this year.  She got so many nice presents and our living room is full of books, crafts, and Hello Kitty, just to name a few.  That said, she's still not too old to play in a box full of packing peanuts!

Off to my parents' house we went on Christmas Day.  Olivia is flashing her cheesy smile posing with Julia Alford.

Time to decorate the cupcakes!

Look at that sassy little face.

So wonderful to have the family together on Christmas day!

Later on in the week we made some special hot chocolate that a co-worker of mine gave me.  It was delicious!

Olivia also received a manicure and pedicure courtesy of Papa.  Pink on the nails and blue on the piggy toes.

Olivia has so many books that her current bookshelf is overflowing.  I have a really hard time putting "younger" books away so instead of going through to make room for all the new books she got for Christmas, we are just adding a second bookshelf to her room.  Olivia picked out the purple color herself.

Car washing day!  I forgot how sparkly my car is when it's clean :-)

Park time!

Nana and Papa were the preferred book readers while they were here.

Story behind this picture - Mike's Aunt sent us a box of cookies and treats for Christmas.  Oh.my.God., they were amazing.  So amazing in fact that we sent a video to Nan of Olivia holding the empty Tupperware asking for more cookies - snickerdoodles to be specific.  This was Olivia's reaction when she found out that Nan is making us more snickerdoodles and they should be here by the end of the week.  YES!!

 

Thank you so much to Pat and Bill for travelling so far to come and spend Christmas with us.  We had such a great time.  Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Puzzle with Papa

Bill signed up for the Hello Kitty puzzle this afternoon, quite the exercise in patience given it had A LOT more pieces than any other puzzle Olivia has ever done.  It went really well...

Getting off to a good start finding all the straight pieces.

 

Towards the end they took lots of breaks to "chill out".  Here they are practicing yoga breathing.

 

Finished!!  Olivia's cheesy smile.

 

And her sweet girl smile

 

Big hugs for Papa for helping with the puzzle.  Love these two.

Holiday festivities

Olivia and I had a busy day last Saturday!  We started off with a tea party at Olivia's dance studio and then went to a holiday party at the Microsoft office.  Whew, that's a lot of partying...

Silly face while showing off her outfit for the day

Decorating an ornament at the dance studio tea party . . .

. . . and having a treat and some hot chocolate with one of the big girl dancers

The older girls put on a performance of the nutcracker and then the 3 and 4 year olds performed dances that they had been practicing in class.  THEN they danced around like crazy kiddos.

 

 

After the tea party we were off to the Microsoft holiday party.  Olivia made a beeline for Santa although only stopped in for a quick photo op.  She had already been over her Christmas list with him during a previous meeting so didn't feel the need to remind him.

After a few bites of lunch . . . 2 donut holes, 1 Christmas cookies, and 1 piece of chocolate, (hey, it's the holidays, right?) Olivia started making her rounds to the various activities.  Here she is making an owl ornament.

Her accomplishments for the day clockwise from the left - a beaded necklace, a colored sugar-filled tube (that went in the trash when we got home.  I have to draw the line somewhere.), the owl ornament, picture with Santa, and decorated gingerbread man!

 

Merry Christmas everyone!!

Olivia visits Santa

We took Olivia to visit Santa this afternoon.  We like to go during the day before school lets out because there is rarely a line.  Olivia showed Santa her Christmas wish list and told him that she wanted a Lalaloopsy doll house, a fire truck, and an airplane.  She also gave him the "happy sun" picture she drew for him, which is very graciously taped to the wall of his Santa shack.  We got some great pictures again this year and it would have been a 100% successful visit . . . if Santa wasn't a Packers fan!!

Smile!

Telling Santa what she wants for Christmas

Signature Olivia smile!

 

Take a look back at Olivia's 2010, 2011, and 2012 Santa visits!

2010

 

2011 - not our best year

 

2013

 

It's starting to look a lot like Christmas!

Halloween 2013

What a great Halloween we had! I must say we were quite surprised when Olivia said she wanted to be a dragon for Halloween this year. I don't know what the inspiration was but I do know that I looked all over the place for a dragon costume fit for a pretty 3 year old with no luck. Instead, I asked my VERY talented friend, Katy, to make a costume for her. She did such an amazing job!


Halloween week started at dance class on Monday. There's Olivia with all the princesses and a cowgirl in her class. Up until this point, Olivia told everyone she was going to be a "scary" dragon but that all changed when she scared one of the princesses and decided she wanted to be a good dragon instead.


On Halloween, Olivia had a pajama party at school that the parents could come to!


Pumpkink painting!


A little sustenance before trick or treating with her friend , Mazzy.


This is what herding cats looks like. There were 2 other kids there, 5 month old Alex the monkey and 2 week old Piper the cow. Kids everywhere!


A good shot of our sweet dragon


The mask didn't make it very long and the dragon ears came off shortly after this picture as well.


Candy time!! She had a couple of pieces on Halloween but hasn't asked for any since so it's all sitting in our pantry...mocking me :-)

Happy Halloween!!
Blogged from my wonderful Windows Phone!

Sweet, sleeping girl

I'm actually just testing out how blogging from my phone translates to the computer but thought I would share this picture of my sweet girl. This was just last week

If this phone blogging business works, you might be hearing from me a bit more!

Prayers

Yes, I'm still here!!  The last few months have been an absolute whirlwind and unfortunately, the blog found its way to the back burner.  I plan on catching up on what's been going but wanted to post this video of my sweet little angel's voice -

 

Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep

May angels keep me in their sights and keep me safe until morning light

Lord, thank you for today.  Thank you for always keep us healthy, and happy, and safe.

It's in Jesus' name we pray.  Amen.

 

Stay tuned for updates...

Easter 2013

That's right, a blog that isn't about a birthday party!  We don't have another one for two weeks :-)  Today is Easter and we had a wonderful day at my parents' house in Spicewood.  Olivia really "gets" Easter this year from the Easter Bunny to egg hunts.  I'm still working on the meaning of Easter but we'll get there.  There are actually some pictures from our camera this time (because Mike was there) and not as many lesser quality cell phone shots.

When Olivia woke up she discovered that the Easter bunny had visited our house!

 

Getting ready to go to Granny and Paw Paw's house

 

The Easter bunny stopped off at Granny and Paw Paw's house too!

 

One of Olivia's favorite things from her Easter basket was a pen with a pinwheel on the end of it

 

Well, and the jelly beans!

 

Daddy getting all set up to dye eggs

 

Olivia waiting "patiently" with Paw Paw

 

Olivia's signature "smile"

 

Down to business

 

Olivia said she wanted to take a nap so we put a mattress on the floor and put her down.  She's never slept anywhere but her crib or a pack n play before. 

 

Right after Olivia went down for her nap there was a random hail storm!  It didn't wake her up but it came close to giving me a heart attack because we had driven my (new) car to Spicewood.  Thankfully, no damage.

 

Muddy ground outside meant indoor egg hunt. 

 

 

 

Time to see what's in these things...

 

...candy!!  She didn't really notice that we have her a couple of pieces and put the rest away :-)

 

Happy Easter everyone!