Walt Disney World

 Our family had the most wonderful vacation to Walt Disney World. From the moment we boarded the plane in NY until we were walking off the plane in Orlando Olivia sang Disney songs non-stop...we knew Olivia was excited and we knew we were all going to have a great time!

Favorite Rides: One thing we learned on this trip was that we have 2 VERY adventurous and daring girls. Olivia went on every single ride and LOVED them. She was nervous for a moment when we were in the Haunted Mansion and the spooky voice screamed "there is no way out." Olivia immediately leaned over to me and asked "he's just joking right mom...there really is a way out." Her favorite ride was Thunder Mountain, which she wanted to go on again and again! Olivia was not the only thrill-seeker in the group, Lyla wanted to go on everything she could. Lyla's favorite ride was definitely the rollercoaster Barnstormer. It was a pretty adventurous rollercoaster and truthfully Lyla wasn't quite tall enough, but the first height checker let her on and then there was no looking back. We ended up going on that rollercoaster 6 times. After the first couple times Lyla felt she was a seasoned roller coaster professional and hopped right into the car pulled the bar down and would give me a big smile. She laughed during the entire ride and as soon as it stopped would begin shouting "again, again, again!!"

 Olivia loved Barnstormed too and would happily skip off the ride after it ended.

 

Another favorite were the Teacups. This came as no surprise, since these girls love spinning in circles at home to see how dizzy they could get.

Favorite Moments: I had put "visiting the princesses" as a bottom priority on our list of activities. My girls aren't really into the Disney princess movies and so I thought they wouldn't care either way if we saw the princesses. On our second day at Magic Kingdom, we walked by the Princess castle and the line was really short so we decided we would get in line. I'm glad we did, the girls absolutely loved meeting the princesses, especially Olivia and especially meeting Rapunzel. Rapunzel was so sweet to the girls. She told Olivia they had the same hair and told Olivia she could even borrow her brush...that's all Olivia needed to hear, she became an instant Rapunzel fan. Olivia loved Rapunzel and as a result we left Disneyworld with a Rapunzel piggy bank and pen.

 

Lyla enjoyed her visit with Rapunzel and Snow White, but that enjoyment ended with Cinderella. For whatever reason Lyla didn't like Cinderella and when the photographer came to take their picture he said "ok everyone smile," after waiting for Lyla to smile he "ok or your can just frown." And frown she did!

 

A favorite moment of mine was on the way home after our 1st day. We got ice creams on the way out and finished them on the bus ride back to our hotel. Lyla began offering everyone in the back of the bus a lick of her ice cream. No one took her up on her offer, but she had the back of the bus smiling and laughing all the way back.

Another favorite moment for me was sitting next to Olivia in the 4-D Mickey Mouse show. Olivia had never experienced a show like this and I found it very amusing sitting next to her as she ducked, gasped and zig-zagged her head throughout the whole show.

Parades and more rides:

 

More Fun:
The first night we got there we went to Downtown Disney and went to the Rain Forrest Café, the girls thought it was great!

 

Lyla was a huge fan of the gift shops!

As we were walking around we kept noticing Lyla's hat slipping down and so we would fix it for her...we finally realized that she was the one pulling her hat down, she thought it was fun to hide.

Everyone had such a good time. As we were driving to the Orlando airport, Olivia asked if we could please come back next week. Unfortunately we are going to have to wait a little longer than that, but it's been almost 2 months since our trip and I don't think there is a day that passes that the girls don't talk about Disneyworld.  

Mid-winter Break

Olivia had mid-winter break from school and we tried to plan some fun activities to do around the city despite the freezing temperatures. The week involved a whole lot of time on the subway.


One night we had quite a trek...we traveled on 6 different subways, took an elevated tram across the river, climbed 20 flights of stairs, walked 30 blocks and ended up at McDonalds. We rarely go to McDonalds so for my girls a dinner at McDonalds is quite a treat, but McDonalds was not the real reason for our roundabout trek through the city. Our real activity that evening was to ride the elevated tram. The elevated tram has been on our NYC bucket list for quite some time and so we thought riding the tram across the river at night with the city all lit up would be fun. It didn't disappoint...the views were beautiful and the girls were really excited.
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Another activity this week started with another long subway ride. We decided to head down to Coney Island and visit the NYC aquarium. We arrived at the aquarium 45 minutes before it closed and they wouldn't sell us any tickets. We had already come all that way and still wanted to find something fun do to. Our first stop was the beach and boardwalk at Coney Island, definitely not a place that is frequented during the winter, but we had a lot of fun enjoying the beach covered with snow. Olivia dug down to the sand and scooped handfuls of sand into the pockets of her coat, which ended up remaining there for a few weeks despite washing the coat. After leaving the boardwalk we headed for Brighton Beach aka "little Russia" for some authentic Russian food. The stroganoff was a HUGE hit with the girls.

Although Olivia said it seemed like we spent the entire week on the subway, we spent a good deal of time just hanging out together and having fun.

The fun included...ballet

...Family movie night. The original plan was to watch Tangled, but Olivia asked if we could watch some Curious George instead. It is extremely entertaining to watch Curious George with Olivia...she finds it hilarious, which is why almost all the pictures of Olivia are just a big blurry blob.

 

and of course there was a lot of playing

Lyla

A few things about Lyla...

1. She has a contagious laugh...strangers can't help but laugh when she laughs.
2. She LOVES LOVES to read books. She's been know to read 20-30 books at one sitting.
3. She loves to be around people.
4. She is athletic. Other parents have commented a number of times on Lyla's athletic ability, specifically her speed and jumping skills.
5. She loves to hide. Hide and seek is definitely a favorite of hers, but even more than that she loves to run and hide from me and Matt. Every single night when she hears the bath water turn on she yells out "Olivia lets hide" and will go racing to the couch and lay down flat on her belly...convinced that if she can't see me, I can't see her.
6. She has an serious obsession with mints. She has rarely eaten a mint (much to her dismay), but is passionate about keeping a mint in her pocket.
7. She loves to trick people.
8. She loves to cook. She loves to sit on the counter and prepare food with me.
9. She loves to help. "I want to help!!!" is a phrase you hear often from Lyla...don't even think about cleaning the toilet by yourself if Lyla's around.
10. She loves to be super silly...something she picked up from her big sis.

FHE

Every week as soon as we announce it's time for Family Home Evening, Olivia always asks if she can give the lesson, so we often end up with 2 lessons or have her be our lesson "helper." The other week we let her be completely in charge of the lesson...and it turned out quite wonderful.

 

In our family everything is much more fun if you can pick it out of a bag, so Olivia started off with a bag full of ideas of ways we could be more righteous. We each took turns picking ideas out of the bag, including reading scriptures and being nice. 

 

 

After a brief discussion on how we could all be better, we moved on to an activity of "pin the Angel Moroni onto the temple." Lyla was definitely a fan of this activity.

Olivia concluded her lesson with everyone drawing pictures of their favorite temples. 

There is nothing Olivia loves more than planning things for us to do as a family, and this definitely fit that bill. It was a great lesson and it looks like Olivia will be on lesson duty a lot more often.

Worst Day Ever

With a big pouty face Olivia declared that this was the worst day ever...after we realized that our Valentines Day wreath had been stolen off our door. She could not believe that someone would steal the wreath. After a few minutes she came up with a plan...she decided we could find out who took our wreath, ask them what their favorite holiday is, make them a decoration for that holiday and then give them the new decoration in exchange for our wreath. I told her that was a good plan, now we just need to track down who took it.

Songbird

 

Olivia has always loved to sing. Since the time she spoke her first words Olivia was singing. Our home is always filled with music from our sweet Olivia.

Recently Olivia has really become interested in writing her own songs. She has asked me to right down the songs she makes up so one day when we have a house we can get a piano and she can play and sings all the songs she has composed. A few days ago she had me write down a number of songs she composed. After composing 2 "country" songs she said she wanted to write a church song....this is what she wrote. 

 

"Jesus Came to Life"

by Olivia Lambert

 

Jesus came to life,

He bowed and sacrificed.

He loves us, He cares for us, He serves us, He comforts us today.

He is love in person.

He loves you, we love Him.

Oh yes we do, we do, we do, we do.

Jesus came to life one day.