Halloween

Olivia had been talking about her Halloween costume since last year. Her costume plans were ever changing. They ranged from a scuba diver to Tinker Bell, but when it was time to make a final decision, she told me she wanted to be a bride. It turns out it is very hard to find a bride costume for a 3 year old, so luckily grandmother was so nice to make her complete ensemble.

We went outside to take some pictures, but it was so bright I couldn't get a single picture of our bride looking at the camera.

We went to our ward Halloween party. Olivia was our bride, I was a wedding cake and Olivia wanted Matt to be the groom. He thought that may be a little weird so he claims he went as the father of the bride instead, but I'm not sure there was much distinction between the two.
Halloween night was a bit chilly, but Olivia enjoyed participating in the Halloween parade and trick-or treating at all the different shops in the neighborhood with her friend.

Olivia collected a lot of candy. When she woke up the next morning she headed straight to her candy bag and spent the next three hours examining the candy and eventually mashing it all up into candy soup...she didn't eat a single piece.

October Fun

Olivia loves Halloween! I think it might be her favorite holiday, so we tried to have a fun October full of Halloween activities.
Olivia and I spent the whole month making Halloween decorations, ghosts, bats, spider webs, we ended up with a pretty spooky apartment. She waited until grandfather's visit to make her favorite decoration with him: the scarecrow.

Olivia was so excited to go to her friend's Halloween party. She wasn't quite sure why she was wrapping toilet paper around some of her friends' nannies, but she really enjoyed the party.

On the way home from the party she walked while looking behind her. When we were almost home she asked, "do you what to know why I keep looking behind me?" I asked her why. She explained that she had to make sure no candy fell out of her treat bag on the walk home. There was no doubt all of the candy made it home safely.

We had big plans to rent a car and drive upstate to go to an apple orchard and pumpkin farm to do some picking. Those plans were becoming more and more complicated so we decided we would go to a pumpkin farm the NYC way, which was going to the big greenmarket at Union Square. It definitely didn't have the country feel like we were originally hoping, but we were able to successfully get some pumpkins.

Baby excitement

Olivia has been so excited for the arrival of her little sister.

She is always telling us her big plans of playing, teaching and sharing with the baby and often has "great ideas" of how she can help take care of the baby... for example today she told us if her sister woke up in the night she would come and rock her so that mom and dad could sleep.

This morning when Matt and Olivia were leaving for church Matt told me to take it easy while they were gone since today would not be a good day to have the baby. The NYC Marathon is today and as a result we are pretty much trapped on our street. They have shut down the bridge into the city as well as the streets in our neighborhood. A couple minutes later Olivia ran up to me and said mom I want you to exercise and run all around so you can have the baby right now and when I get back from church I can see her.

I'm hoping Olivia's wish does not come true, but I know that she sure is anxious to meet her little sister.

Family Home Evening

Last night during FHE we had a lesson on scriptures. The lesson manual instructed everyone to go around and say "I love the scriptures." I asked Olivia to repeat it, she said "I love the scriptures." I asked her why she loves the scriptures. She responded, "Because they make my heart feel very happy inside."

I couldn't agree more.

General Conference

On Saturday while we were watching conference, Olivia was very curious and concerned why President Packer was sitting in a chair while he gave his talk. The next day while we were watching President Eyring speak Olivia wanted us to immediately say a prayer for President Packer. We paused conference and Olivia said a prayer, "Dear Heavenly Father please bless Boyd K. Packer. Please help him walk. In the name of Jesus Christ amen."

St. Croix

After getting back from Utah our last stop for the summer was St. Croix. Olivia is an airport security expert. She has her ticket ready to present to the TSA agent and she is very quick to get her shoes off and into the bin. However, at this particular airport our airport savvy 3 year old seemed to raise some red flags for the TSA agents and they pulled her aside for additional screening. I wish I could have taken a picture to capture Olivia's facial expression, although she was very cooperative during the pat down and additional screening she was extremely suspicious of the whole situation.

St. Croix was very beautiful. One thing we immediately realized is that there are a lot of little animals and bugs everywhere and there is no separation between outside and inside for them. There were very large millipedes all over the inside of the house as well as lizards. I thought Olivia would be scared of all the critters running around the house, but after her initial squeal when she saw a lizard run out in front of her, she wasn't the least bit concerned and even scooped a large bug out of the pool with her bare hands.

The house we were staying at had great views and a wonderful pool for Olivia.

Olivia loved having Matt throw her into the air. All in the same breath she kept saying, dad that was too scary for me, do that again!

We had a wonderful time at the beach. Matt and I decided this was the best beach either of us had ever been too. It was so beautiful, it was very clean, the sand was very soft, the water was warm and calm and for some reason we pretty much had it all to ourselves.

Our little gymnast loves to find "balance beams" whenever we are out and about. The palm trees served this purpose.

Whenever we had previously gone to the beach, Olivia hadn't wanted to go into the water. This time she loved the water. We ended up spending almost all of our time out in the ocean together. She kept wanting us to take her out further and further into the ocean.

We all had a wonderful time. If you ask Olivia she would tell you that she loved St. Croix. Not because of all the fun we had together, but because the house we were staying at had a large set of wooden dolls with magnetic clothes that she has absolutely fell in love with. Numerous times since we have been home, Olivia has asked "Can we please go back to that country with those dolls I love so much!"

Idaho

After our trip to Grand Junction we headed to Idaho to meet up with the extended Lambert family.

There was tons of fun to be had. After enjoying mulberry shakes Olivia took her turn at being spun around by grandpa. Grandpa soon realized Olivia's amazing ability of never becoming dizzy when being spun around and around and she didn't want him to stop.


The 3 girls had a lot of fun together. Olivia sure loves spending time with Ella and Vivi!
We looked for a creek for the girls to play around in, the creek ended up being ice cold so the playing was limited, but it was fun to walk around such a pretty area.

We took an excursion out to Yellowstone. We stopped to see this beautiful lake and some roaming buffalo.

Before we started heading back we stopped to see Old Faithful. Here the girls are patiently waiting to see the geyser go off.

The Lambert family vacation was a lot of fun!

Grand Junction

We had a very busy summer, during the last month we took 11 different flights. Our travels began with a trip to Grand Junction to visit Nana and Papa and meet up with my sisters and all of Olivia's cousins. Olivia had really been looking forward to seeing her cousins.

We took a day trip up to the mountains to go fishing. Olivia said she was excited to touch one of the worms, but had a quick change of heart when we opened the container of squirming worms.

Olivia tried her luck at catching a fish with her dad's help, but the fish weren't biting.

It sure was beautiful up there and despite the fact that no one caught any fish, everyone had a fun time.

All the girls taking a break together, enjoying the beautiful surroundings.

One of the highlights of this trip for Olivia was running outside in the middle of a rain storm. All the kids had so much fun getting soaked and chasing each other.

One night the kids attempted a sleep over all in the same bed. It was clear in about 5 seconds that this was never going to result in anyone falling asleep.

Olivia had so much fun spending time with family

...sharing an ice cream with Ruby

...taking a break from running through the sprinklers with Max and Scarlette

...and of course enjoying her time with Nana and Papa. Olivia now refers to Nana and Papa's house as the juice house. She just couldn't believe the never ending supply and wide variety of juice, she loved it.

Birthday Party

For her birthday party, Olivia pretty much wanted a repeat of last years party. She was very excited to count down the days until her party. Unfortunately we kept postponing it while we waited for one of her friends to get back into town. She was so patient as we we kept having to restart the countdown. The party ended up being a month after her real birthday, but she sure was thrilled when the day finally arrived.

We had a bean bag toss as one of the activities. Olivia really enjoyed that game, but was also eager for it to be over so she could turn it into an ice cream costume for herself.

While Olivia's friend put on the ice cream, Olivia ran over and licked her as if she really was an ice cream.

I hadn't planned on having a pinata at the party, but whenever Olivia would talk about her party she always mentioned a pinata so I decided to make her one.

The highlight of the party for Olivia and her friends was the parachute. We waved it up and down over their heads and they couldn't get enough. We probably could have done that the entire party and they would have been happy.

Although Olivia had to wait a while for her birthday party, she really had a fun time with her friends.

Booster Seat

A recent conversation that Olivia and I had:

"Mom do children sit in booster seats?"

"Yes"

"Do little boys sit in booster seats?"

"Yes"

"Do little girls sit in booster seats?"

"Yes"

"Do small inventors sit in booster seats?"

"I suppose so."

A True Fan

Matt and I don't really talk about BYU, but we have recently learned that when Olivia is left to her own thoughts, BYU is on her mind.

The other night I had put Olivia to sleep. I thought she had fallen asleep immediately because I didn't hear a single sound from her bedroom. About 40 minutes later all of sudden I heard very loud chanting, "BYU Cougars...BYU Cougars....BYU Cougars!"

I guess this shouldn't have come as such a surprise since the week before Olivia and I squeezed our way onto a crowded subway, it was crowded but very quiet. As we were riding under the East River, again I heard Olivia loudly chant, "BYU Cougars!!" again and again.

I think it is safe say someone is excited for football season to start.