This Kid!

When Olivia first started talking, Matt and I were amazed by how quickly she learned new words and marveled daily at her ever expanding vocabulary.  Before long, we stopped counting how many words she knew and we realized we could clearly have a conversation with her.

However, lately her ability to talk has elicited shock/disbelief in us.  Here are a few gems from our little sassy pants:

1.  If you try and discipline her, even in the nicest tone possible without raising your voice, she will pout her lip, begin to breathe loudly and quickly, and say - in the most pathetic voice you have ever heard: "I'm about to cry if you say that."  I guess she thought that announcing she's going to cry will save her from a lecture?!

2.  The other day I told her to come try and go potty.  She looked at me and said "No habla ingles."  And then she died laughing.  I asked her where she learned that and she said Emma -- one of her friends at school.  Who does that?!

3.  She woke up in tears the other morning (very unusual) and when I burst in the room to see what was wrong, she grabbed a piece of her hair and worriedly exclaimed "THIS!!  I need a bow!!"  Always the fashionista I guess?

Oh this one - I love her so much!  But, man!

The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year

We have been having so much fun getting Christmas-ready over the past few weeks, doing several Santa visits and other holiday activities.

We went out to Santa's Holiday Market so I could do a little shopping and we could introduce Olivia to Santa.  This was about as close as she got to him.

Later that night, we went to Herman Park to enjoy the "holiday train."  (Note: As Matt is quick to point out, putting some holly on a regular train, doesn't necessarily make it "festive" -- but Olivia still seemed to love it nonetheless!)

And a few days later, the jolly ol' guy went to Olivia's school.  Last year, I was able to go with her and I really wanted to this year as well, but I just couldn't make it work with my work schedule.  Clearly she was very suspicious of him, but trying to be very brave.  The funny thing is that when I saw Olivia that evening after school and asked her about the pictures, she told me that she did sit on his lap (true), she didn't cry (barely true), but that her friend Sarah did cry (apparently also true).  She seemed to be bragging about how brave she was.  Let's just say I hope Sarah doesn't see this picture!

And last Sunday was cold and rainy, so we decided to decorate a gingerbread house.  Much to my dismay, Olivia is developing quite the sweet tooth and was much more interested in eating the candy than putting it on the house!

 PS - How is THIS the face I constantly get when I tell her to "smile"???!!  Lately it takes a lot of work to get a normal smile from this one...

I'm not sure how much candy she actually ate, but she got super silly afterwards and insisted on tackling mommy!

We had another meet-and-greet with Mr. & Mrs. Claus at the Aquarium.  This is the best picture we got....(Really?!  The lady taking the picture couldn't get ONE with Olivia actually looking at the camera??!!)

She was okay to sit on Mrs. Claus's lap, as long as I held her hand, but she happily jumped off after the picture, looked at Santa and loudly said "Bring me a baby doll!"

The best part of her day, however, was riding the carousel and train!

Unfortunately, waiting in the cold for her to come back from a train ride was the worst part of Matt and Aunt Naz's day.

We have one more Santa visit, plus a few other fun weekends planned before Christmas, so there will be lots of excitement before the big day...

Thanksgiving 2013

We had a great Thanksgiving this year!  We started off the day with some chocolate chip pancakes and a little lesson in being thankful.  Not sure she got it....

Then we headed to the Woodlands brunch.  While we waited for Uncle Drew and Aunt Jenny to arrive, Olivia entertained everyone by literally doing laps around the house!

Then we went to brunch.  We were so happy Uncle Drew and Aunt Jenny were able to come into town this year!

Olivia was really good - she ate all her food and then took turns "stealing" different people's seats and generally being silly!

After a nap, she opened up her Boogie Monster legs and CD from Uncle Drew and Aunt Jenny and we all had a dance party.

It's important to keep your energy up while dancing.

Then we headed to Humble for dinner with my family.

Olivia was over taking pictures at this point.....

Olivia helped Mimi get the food ready.

The best part of having aunts is wearing all their awesome clothes, huh?  Olivia has gotten very girly lately, constantly commenting on everyone's clothes, jewelry or shoes.  So, when she saw Aunt Naz's boots, she had to give them a try!

Unfortunately, Olivia didn't even make it through dinner.  I think the excitement of the day was too much for her and by about 6:45 she was crying to go to sleep.  But the rest of us enjoyed a delicious meal!

 But, luckily we spent the night at Mimi and Grandpa's house and the next morning, she was back to her old silly self!  We got in lots of playing and cuddle time!

And had a yummy breakfast of kolaches, donuts and breakfast smoothies

It was a wonderful day and a nice time to be thankful for family and this wonderful life we have!

Weekend Fun

We recently had 2 fun weekends with grandparents.  Although as I look through the pictures, I realize the grandparents aren't in very many of them because Olivia was pretty clingy to mommy.  But, I promise they were there and she loved having them with her!

First we went to the Woodlands Children's Festival with Pop-O and Tutu.  There were lots of great activities for her to try out.

But the 2 favorites were the train ride.

And being dressed up like a ballerina by some real, local ballerinas and getting her picture taken with them.  Despite the non-smiling face, she was absolutely thrilled by this.  So much so that I'm going to sign her up for ballet lessons in the new year because she hasn't stopped talking about when she was a "bayarina."

Then the next weekend we headed to Old McDonald's Farm with Mimi and Grandpa.  Olivia was not into feeding or touching the animals.

It's much safer on the outside.

But once we found a train and a playground, she was all smiles!

Such fun times with our family!