Olivia is 3!

These are a few things that characterize our little girl as she begins life as a 3 year old.

1. Olivia loves to be silly, play tricks on people and make people laugh. It is very important to her to make people laugh. When she is with her friends she puts on a one man comedy routine. She falls to the ground, runs into walls and makes up crazy languages all in an effort to get her friends to laugh, and she is usually very successful.

2. As a result of loving to read, Olivia has an extensive vocabulary. I frequently hear things like this:

- "I saw a dog go to the bathroom on the sidewalk, he was victorious!"

- After waking up one morning she said, "I feel very tired and lackadaisical."

- After walking into a public restroom she immediately stopped and said, "Mom this bathroom is vain and selfless."

3. She is fascinated by things that are gross and macabre. When we read her Bible stories we can never get past the story of Peter chopping off the soldiers ear, she wants us to read it again and again.

4. Imagination reigns supreme. Olivia can go weeks without touching a toy, she would rather play doll with pretend dolls and play restaurant without her toy pots and pans. Her absolute favorite activity right now is to play "holidays." We don't actually act out the holiday, we act out making decorations for each holiday...her favorites are Christmas and Valentines Day.

5. This little girl is obsessed with dresses. The first thing out of her mouth in the morning is, "Can I put on a dress?" She changes her outfit numerous times a day- each time into a different dress.

6. Olivia happens to be the sweetest little girl. She tries so hard to make us happy and show us her love. There isn't a day that passes that after Olivia is asleep Matt and I will comment to each other, "she tries so hard" and she really does try so hard to be kind and thoughtful.

Happy Birthday Olivia!

Olivia had a great birthday, she was lucky enough to have Grandma Mary, Grandpa, Joe and Emily come out for her birthday. Since her birthday was on Sunday this year, we thought we would celebrate on Saturday. Whenever we go to Central Park Olivia always loves to look at the horse and carriages so we thought this would be a fun birthday activity for her.

On the way to the carriages we ran into Elmo and Olivia wanted to say "hi!"




After Central Park we all headed home for a little party. Olivia selected a strawberry cake and lemon frosting for her birthday cake, but she was most excited about the rainbow jello and she wanted to be very involved when it was time to make it.







After the food she opened her presents.




Matt and I got roller skates and a helmet for her birthday. Whenever anyone would ask her what she wanted for her birthday that was always her answer. After opening the skates she put them on immediately. We have since found out she loves to ride her skates inside the apartment, but doesn't love riding them outside.



I'm not sure where she came up with this idea, but since this last winter every time we go down the cereal aisle, Olivia would stop at the Froot Loops box and tell us that was going to be her special birthday cereal. Sunday morning on her birthday she had a big bowl of Froot Loops and loved them.



Olivia enjoyed playing with Joe and Emily. She loved having them here, I don't think she wanted Emily to ever leave her side.



After church we had a birthday dinner. I had asked Olivia what she wanted for her special birthday dinner she requested mashed potatoes and carrots. I added pizza rolls, which I knew she loved, so it would be a little more of a meal.



Olivia absolutely loved having everyone here for her birthday, she was sad to see them leave.

Victorian Gardens

When the weather warms up Central Park opens up a little amusement park, called Victorian Gardens. We took Olivia last year as well, but this time she had a lot more fun!

The first ride she wanted to go on was a flying swing ride. As I saw her go around and around I could tell she loved it. Last year this was also the first ride she went on. The plan was for her to ride on it with Matthew, and so I was shocked when I saw the ride start and Matthew walking through the exit gate. He said there was no room for him so he left her by herself. The poor girl looked terrified as she went around and around. When she got off he said the ride was scary for her. Luckily this year, she had quite a different reaction.

Matthew and Olivia went on a bouncing frog ride. Unfortunately they both came off the ride saying their stomachs hurt.

This airplane ride was Olivia's favorite. As she was waiting for take off she told me she was off to England and than France. Matthew said the entire ride she was screaming "this is fun, this is fun!"

Olivia was also very excited to ride the train. She made a be-line for the pink car.

She loved being the conductor and was very concerned about the comfort of her passenger.

Olivia absolutely loved this outing. We went just a few days ago, but we have already reenacted out amusement park adventures many times and she often asks if we are going back.

Miami

We decided to take a trip down to Miami for a week. Olivia frequently talks about going to the beach and she loves to have us play "beach" and build sand castles on the rug. We knew she would have a wonderful time in Miami, and she did, but I was quite surprised that she didn't seem to be as eager to go to the beach down in Florida as she was at home.

She wasn't interested in getting into the water, Matthew convinced her let him carry her in once. It was a pretty short excursion, she came back to report to me that a wave splashed salt in her eyes.

Olivia may not have been that eager to head down to the beach, but she always had a lot of fun once we got there.

The swimming pool was Olivia's favorite. She practically skipped all the way to the pool, she loved it.

The cabanas by the pool offered a lot of fun as well. It turns out cabanas can also serve as a stage for wonderful performances.

(Olivia laughs whenever she sees this dancing picture)

We had so much fun in Florida, probably the highlight for all of us was the bike ride down a beautiful boardwalk on South Beach. Olivia was very excited to wear her helmet.

On our last day in Florida, Matt asked Olivia, "Isn't Florida great?" Olivia enthusiastically answered "Yes, but New York is my favorite!"

Church Cleaning

This morning was our turn to clean our church building. Everytime we go to clean, Olivia sure loves to help!

Olivia always keeps us laughing with comments like these:

-I told Olivia: "I am going to go to the temple tonight, so dad is going to put you to bed." Olivia replied "Ok mom....so who are you going to marry this time?" It looks like we need to talk about eternal families.

-Olivia asked me the name of the man we had hung out with the night before. I told her his name was David. Olivia responded, "Oh just like..." I interrupted her and said "just like David from David and Goliath." I assumed she was going to say David and Goliath because she loves that story and we had just read it. Olivia replied, "No, just like David A. Bednar."

-Olivia absolutely loves the song "The Star Spangled Banner" and she loves to sing it. If she is singing along with someone else she does a pretty good job with the song. If she sings by herself she gets some of the words wrong. Without fail she always belts, "Whose broad stripes and bright stars thru the Harold B. Lee." I haven't corrected her yet, because I just think her version is so cute.

-I love when Olivia will make up a word and immediately define it for you. For example she was pretending to be my waiter and said, "here is your hamburger and your trelecoo...a trelecoo is an adult drink, not for little girls."

Easter Sunday

When I got Olivia ready for church on Easter, I was so surprised she kept taking her hat off. Olivia has worn a hat or large headband on her head almost everyday since the day she was born and has never had any interest in trying to take it off. After explainging to Olivia how exciting it was to wear a special Easter hat to church on Easter Sunday she was sold and kept the hat on her head the rest of the day.

Last night

Last night when Olivia was in bed she called her dad to come to her bedroom. Matt went to her bed and Olivia said, "I heard a rumbling noise dad." Matt told her if you hear the rumbling noise again you can call me. Olivia responded, "It's OK dad, if I hear it again I'll say a prayer."

Easter Egg Hunt

Olivia had been looking forward to the Easter Egg Hunt in our neighborhood. I can't believe it has already been a year since we were taking a picture with the Easter bunny last year. Last year during the potato sack race Olivia jumped in the same sack as her dad, but this year she was ready to take on the race by herself.

She was very excited for the actual egg hunt. Her strategy for the egg hunt did not lend itself to collecting a lot of eggs. She would find an egg, sit down open the egg, put the candy into her basket and then discard the plastic egg. She may not have collected very much candy, but she sure had a great time. Olivia was thrilled to be able to take part in all of the egg hunt activities with one of her favorite people, her friend Sophia.


It had been pretty cold and windy the whole egg hunt, but at the very end the sun came out. Olivia tore off her coat and started to dance, it was very funny.