Dear Olivia,

You are one year old. I can't believe the day came and went so fast! It was a great day! I'm not gonna lie! We woke up and took our beautiful birthday girl to breakfast! That was a little rough. You were impatient and for some reason IHOP was very busy! ;) We walked around until our food arrived. I think you enjoyed your eggs and pancakes! :)

We basically spent the rest of the day getting ready for your party. We really didn't want to have your party on your birthday but there was no other day to do it on. I spent the day baking and getting things organized and then finally it was time to head up to decorate. Let me note, when we planned your birthday we didn't even consider the Bountiful City Pioneer Day Parade. I assumed that the parade would take place on the 24th, but nope. It took place the 23rd exactly the same time as your party, 6 o'clock. It was crazy traffic at 5 when we headed up to the park. This caused many of our guests to either be very late or not come at all unfortunately. :(

You sat in your high chair while we decorated the park! It looked pretty good! You spent your party being passed around from person to person. Luckily, you are doing better with people who are not Mom and Dad. We had 2 games at your party, one was guess how old Olivia was in each picture and the other was a quiz about you! Valerie Eddings and Sue Hyer won the picture game and Ron Hyer won the quiz about you. We then opened presents. You weren't quite into this part. It was weird, every present that was given to you was in a bag. You didn't open a single wrapped gift. They were all in gift bags. You had a hard time when we would take the toys away. It was so sad, but adorable.

Then it was time for the cake smash. I had no idea how it was going to go. You love your food, but your brother barley touched his cake. We sang to you and I made it through with crying, though it was a close call! It's always my favorite part of any birthday and yours was no different. There I was, crouched down next to you holding your cake and thinking about all the beautiful and wonderful memories the past year had held for you and me. From you being a tiny infant to a crawling almost toddler. I loved looking around and seeing all the amazing people who love you! We are so lucky to have such an incredible support system! And of course I was looking at you. My incredibly smart and beautiful little girl who was leaving the baby years behind her. Birthdays are so bitter sweet but I sure do love celebrating them!

After singing I set the cake down in front of you and just watched. At first all you could get was frosting and you started to get done really fast. (It was VERY rich frosting) But then when you started getting to the cake you got so excited! Once you had enough cake and learned how fun it was to take both your hands, raise them above your head, and smash them down on the cake. You threw that cake every where. You literally had a cake smash! It was so cute and fun to watch! I love that you were so happy!

We used some of Sue's emergency water to wash you up. Luckily it was very warm since it had been in the car! You loved that almost as much as you loved the cake smash itself. Daddy washed you up and I loved getting to just watch your relationship with your Dad. He loves you so much! You guys just laughed at each other as he wipped all the cake off your face, tummy, arms, and legs!

Then we cleaned up and hauled everything home. By this time it was almost nine. As much as I knew you needed to get to bed, I wanted a moment to just sit, enjoy you, and have some quiet family time. So your Dad, Bently, me, and you all sat in our family room read some of your new books and played with some of your new toys. That was one of the top moments of the day. Just enjoying you and watching you interact with Bently and your new toys. There is something magical in little perfect moments like those. I hope you always keep your eyes open and notice them when they come around. Those are the moments that make life worthwhile.

I love you my beautiful one year old. I love watching your personality develop and I love watching your grow and learn. I am grateful to have you as my daughter.

I love you forever!
Mom

Dear Olivia,

I cannot believe we are 3 days away from your first birthday. I keep thinking, oh last year this time I was so miserable. Last year this time I was thinking, there is no way I am going to go latter than I did with Bently. But low and behold you had your own ideas. 5 days after your due date. I know five days doesn't sound like a long time, but wait till you have your own child one day. Five days is a lifetime.

You are getting so stinking big. I am constantly amazed with how much you can do now! You give hugs and kisses, dance, try singing to the radio, say lots of words, (bye, hi, Dad, Mom, Uh-oh, and whoa.) you smile at everything, and you climb and climb and climb. Girl you climb on everything. You are going to be my no fear child that gives me heart attacks. I just know it! You have been trying and trying for weeks to climb to the top of Bently's slide and yesterday or today you did it! You managed to climb all the way to the top, then you turn yourself around and go down. You love it and do it all day long.

You stood by yourself the other day. You have done it a couple times before, but I was never 100% sure you did it or if I imagined it. I mostly caught it out of the corner of my eye. 07/17/2014 though I held you by your hands and you stood there for a good 5 seconds before you sat down. You did it multiple times! I was so incredibly proud of my big girl! You are going to be walking so soon it's crazy!

Oh my dear Livvy, you turning one sure is bitter sweet for your mommy. I am so excited to see you grow and change but at the same time, I am sad. I don't' think 0-1 is as big of a change than 1 to 18 months. For some reason kids just seem to go from baby to toddler in those short six months. I cant' believe we're about to enter that stage! It's coming way too fast! I love you so so much my beautiful girl! I can't wait to celebrate your first birthday with you!

Love forever,
Mom

Dear Olivia,

You have started doing so many cute things! I feel so guilty for not writing them down! I'm already forgetting my mental checklist! I will try and remember them for you!

-You are obsessed with saying hi. You say hi all the time. It's pretty darn adorable! You'll look at me and say, "hi!" then turn and say "hi" to your Dad or anyone who is near. You are obsessed and I am so glad because I cannot get enough of your cute voice! You seem so old talking I can barley believe it!

-You still try and hold 5 items in your hands at one time. It's so funny. You do the same thing with food. You just will pick up as many as you can hold.

- You do this new scrunchy smile. You smile so big that you're whole face scrunches up. You do it a lot when you are super happy or when you are being cheesy for a camera! It's stinking adorable and I kind of hope you never ever stop doing it.

Prime example from the 4th of July! :)

 

 

-You have become a Mama's girl and I am so happy. You. like your brother, have had a Daddy preference for the most part. I try not to take it personally but I thought I could just have one child who preferred me. Well now you do! You have started saying Ma ma ma all the time! You reach from your Dad so I'll hold you. You just love me and I love you too! You make your Mommy so happy when you want her! :)

 

I love you Miss Olivia Beth! You bring so much happiness and light into our family. You are my favorite little girl in the entire world!

 

Love,

Mom

Dear Olivia,

We celebrated your last first holiday! The 4th of July! I love the fourth! It's one of my most favorite holidays in the whole entire world! It was a bitter sweet celebrating your last first holiday. I can't believe you'll be one in less than a month. Where did my baby go!?!

Fourth of July was a little rough for you. We stayed up too late the night before and you were a wee bit cranky for the parade. Not horrible, but slightly cranky. Mostly you just crawled around while I kept pulling candy out of your mouth! You did clap and dance to the music. You love music! I loved watching you dance! You were just grinning from ear to ear!

Fireworks were really REALLY rough. You were done. Cranky beyond reason by this point. You really could've used a second nap, but you refused to nap at Aunt Shawna's. We got to the firework spot and you started doing what you normally do when you are overly tired. One second your smiling the next second you are arching your back screaming flailing around. I couldn't wait for the fireworks to start. I was hoping it would distract you. Your Dad and I took our customary lay down and watch the firework stance. We soon realized you didn't want to lay down and you didn't want to sit up. A couple minutes in, I realized if I wanted to see any fireworks, I was left with on option. With no cover available I silently prayed everyone would be too distracted by the fireworks and I nursed you right there in the middle of a huge crowd of people! It worked though. You would nurse and then stop and look up at the fireworks than nurse some more.

Unfortunately I ran dry before the fireworks were done. I was left with no choice but to give up our tradition and move to a lawn chair. Luckily your Dad and Bently joined us so I still got to watch the fireworks with my family. Mid firework show I couldn't help but cry just a little. Not because I was so, but because I was so incredibly happy. There I was celebrating my favorite holiday with my own little family. I felt so incredibly blessed because I am.

I love you so much Olivia Beth! I love celebrating holidays with you! I can't wait to start celebrating all our second holidays together! :)

Love,
Mom