Christmas Morning

Christmas morning was a lot of fun!

Olivia enjoyed passing out the gifts

Olivia enjoyed opening the presents

Olivia really enjoyed getting her doll from Santa!

Christmas Eve

Since we were going to be at home for Christmas Eve, we decided we would start some family traditions. One of those traditions is acting out the Nativity story. Olivia was Mary and she did a great job acting out her part

Santa

Santa came to the ward Christmas party. I thought Olivia would like sitting on Santa's lap because all Christmas season she had really loved seeing pictures of Santa and she loved to say "ho ho ho" all the time.

When Santa came into the room she was excited and waved at him and shouted "ho ho ho!"

But it was a different story when it was time to sit on his lap.

I thought maybe Olivia would like Santa better if we all stood next to him together...I was wrong.

Rockefeller Center

We took Olivia to Rockefeller Center to see the big tree. She loved it!

We also took her to see some of the department store window displays. There was one window of a little girl on ice skates flying through the air...that was Olivia's favorite window, she thought it was so funny.

18 Months

I can't believe Olivia is 18 months, she is growing up way too fast. We are so lucky to have her in our family she is such a sweet and loving little girl who loves to be silly!

Here are some things she loves at 18 months...

-Olivia is still crazy about dancing. A cell phone, a whistle,...if Olivia hears any little tune she can't help but start dancing.
-Olivia loves to help around the house. She loves to help with laundry, emptying the dishwasher, sweeping, washing the floor, pretty much everything. She always wants to help and she really does a good job. -Olivia's favorite place is the gym. We're not sure why- we never went to the gym in our apartment building until Olivia started requesting we go. After being out of town for almost 2 weeks we walked into our building late at night and Olivia immediately said "Gym...gym!!" She loves it!

-Olivia trying to open the door to the gym in our building-

-Olivia loves our wedding video. She sings along with the song and loves to act out parts of the video. -Olivia watching the wedding video with her dad and doll-

Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving in North Carolina with the Dickson family and Joe and Emily. We traveled on Thanksgiving day so Olivia dressed up like a pilgrim. Everybody in the airport loved her and quite a few people asked if they could take a picture of her...Olivia loved it

We all went for a walk to the pond in the Dickson's backyard. Olivia had fun walking with Joe and her dad.

Olivia really enjoyed playing with her cousins Reed and Max. Max giving Olivia a good-bye hug-Olivia was sad to leave.

Happy Halloween!

Our cute little bumble bee!

Olivia's favorite spot in the house. She loves to climb up on the ledge and look at the city and watch the boats go by on the river.

Ward Halloween Party

We went to the ward Halloween party Saturday night. It's important to me that all of our costumes go together. This year I wanted Olivia to be a bumble bee...so Matthew was a beekeeper and I was a flower. Our family actually won the costume award at the party-it was a lot of fun!

During the party Olivia went over to the food table and reached up and grabbed a cupcake off the table and started dipping her finger in the frosting and licking it. She was very pleased with herself.

Trick or Treating-New York Style

Halloween morning Olivia was apart of the Long Island City Halloween Parade. She marched with other kids down the streets of our neighborhood. After the parade everyone went trick-or-treating.
Olivia went trick-or-treating at a restaurant, grocery store, the police station, and ended at a bar. The bar had a big bowl of candy the kids where suppose to grab from. Olivia had other plans... she decided she would like to donate all of her candy to the bowl. She unloaded her whole bag into the bowl, Matthew had to convince her to take some back.

Pumpkin Fun!

We had a lot of fun decorating pumpkins for Halloween.
We each selected our pumpkin at the store and Matthew and I carved our pumpkins and Olivia painted hers. She enjoyed painting the pumpkin, but I think her favorite part was helping to scrape out all of the slimy seeds.

The artist at work

The final product

Olivia's masterpiece

A Good Listener

These last couple of months Olivia has become really good at understanding everything that is going on. I really feel like she almost understands every single thing I say. She can successfully complete any task given to her, putting her dirty clothes in the hamper, closing doors, finding the phone, taking out the garbage, putting her toys away, selecting the books she wants to read, etc.

She has really become good at prayer time. Whenever I say it is time to pray she immediately stops whatever she is doing, folds her arms, bows her head and after the prayer she says amen. Sometimes she even tries to say the prayer along with me.

When I call Matthew at work to tell him something cute Olivia has done, she will often reenact the event while I am telling the story to Matthew.
She is growing so fast, it is so much fun to spend time with Olivia!

Grandma Mary comes to visit

Grandma Mary came to visit Olivia a couple of weeks ago.

All of these wonderful Lambert family trips we have had this summer sure have helped Olivia get to know her extended family better. Olivia remembered Grandma Mary as soon as she saw her and they were great friends the whole time she was here.

Olivia enjoyed going to the park with Grandma Mary, reading stories together, and Olivia even wanted Grandma Mary to hold her hand as they walked down the street together. It was a great visit and we were all sad to see Grandma Mary leave.

Her new thing...

Olivia has started pursing her lips a lot. I'm not sure what started this, but she loves to purse her lips all the time. It's really cute!

14 months old

Olivia is 14 months old...I can't believe it!
She has such a fun personality, she really likes to be silly and make you laugh.
She is really trying to talk a lot more, her vocabulary seems to grow each day.
These are some of the words that she says clearly:
mom, dad, hi, bye bye, all done, dog, go, no, eye, nose, & toes
These are some words that are clear to us, but probably not to everyone else:
Jesus, down, tree, baby, book, duck, head, light and hat