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!