Dear Olivia,

I could listen to you talk all day. You amaze me with all the words you can say! It makes me so happy to hear a little of what's going on in that head of yours! 

You are currently obsessed with the show Daniel Tigers Neighborhood! You call it Tiger Hood. ;) your favorite episode is the one where Daniel gets hurt. You once watched it three times in one day. Bently and I are getting pretty tired of it. Bently even started quoting it today. :) don't worry we still love you!

You are a good sister to your brother! He is going through some pretty intense fears and refuses to basically go anywhere in the house by himself. I'm hugely pregnant and not willing to walk everywhere with him. But 99% of the time, when asked, you willing grab his hand and walk him to the bathroom or the bedroom. It's pretty adorable to watch you walk up take his hand, and lead him away! You are a good sister!!! And I really appreciate your help! 

I love you beautiful! 

Love,

Mom

Dear Olivia,

We went down to Davis County to buy a van. Yup, we are minivan people now! Honestly it needed to be done so we did it. I love our new car and you like it too! :) It came with a DVD player which I think is your personal favorite feature! :)

Now a couple weeks ago Uncle Bryan offered us a twin bed they weren't using. We had been discussing moving you from your crib. You started to get very into thing that are yours. It began to be, "my crib". I worried you would have jealousy issues with the new baby taking over your bed. While a free bed would be nice, we had no way to get it to our house. We lived three hours away with no way to transfer it. If we rented a truck it would be cheaper to buy a new bed.

So anyways, while we were down we were at Bryan's with our new van and he mentioned the bed would probably fit in the van. So after convincing from your dad that we could make it pretty, we took it. The bed was black. Aunt Brittney had painted it and I just didn't like it at all! So we drug it back up to Vernal and first thing went to Lowe's. A very nice man helped us on how to do it and off we went. We painted the bed white and was pretty cute and looked so much better. So it took all day. Between painting and getting a mattress and traveling home from Davis County. So we started putting it together about 7:30 ish at night. Now uncle Bryan gave us what he thought were the right screws. Well they stuck out on the inside and we were worried they would tear the mattress. So we went and bought shorter ones of the same screw. Well that semi worked. We got one side together with the shorter screws but for some reason the other side wouldn't go together with the shorter screws. After calling Bryan he informed us the screws didn't reach the mattress and we could use the longer ones. But we had already returned the longer ones we had bought. So we all loaded back up in the car and went back to Lowe's. (3rd trip that day) After putting it together we realized we were missing nails. So I stayed home with you and Bently while Dad went and bought nails. It was a nightmare. Especially because you and Bently had been off schedule and were both exhausted and emotional and naughty. Finally after 8 ish hours working on it the bed was together. You had already fallen asleep in my bed so we just moved you over! I was really worried you would fall off but you never did. You did get stuck between the bed and the wall once.

The first night you slept in it, (September 18th) you woke up a lot and ended up camping out with your Dad. But since then, things have been smooth sailing. So far you haven't gotten out of bed. You treat it like your crib and stay in there till we come and get you. Except in the mornings you'll come out with Bently when you guys wake up! It was weird the first morning having both of you come into my room! :) I'm so grateful it's been easy thus far. I know eventually you'll probably learn you can get out and it'll be a whole new adventure but for now, I'm just going to enjoy you being an easy child! :)

You are big girl now and love your bed! :) You call it your new bed and tell us all about how you sleep in it! I can't believe you are growing up! It's gone by fast beautiful! I know once the new baby is here you'll seem even older! I love you! Don't grow up too fast okay?

Love,
Mom

Dear Olivia,

We went to California to visit family! It was pretty dang fun! Of course it had it's highs and lows but mostly we had a grand old time! :)

When we drove out there we decided to drive through the night. But we got tired fast so we pulled over to sleep. While, in usual Livvy fashion, we hadn't been stopped more than 2 minutes when you started to cry. From the time you were tiny you will wake up the minute the car stops moving. It is so strange. So Dad tried to hold you and sleep but that didn't work. So I took over and I realized why he was struggling. So I turned "Frozen" on the portable DVD player and we watched it/snoozed together.

I think you enjoyed your time in California. It's hard visiting a bunch of old people when you are 2 but you won them over even with you all the trouble you caused! I was actually surprised how fast you warmed up to Grandma and Grandpa Stetson. We hadn't been there very long when you were calling them Grandma and Papa and letting them play and hold you! Watching you with Grandma and Grandpa Stetson is something I hold very dear to my heart. They are the closest thing I have to my Dad in a lot of ways and watching you interact with them is incredibly amazing! :)

We went swimming in our hotel pool and had such a blast! It was one of my favorite parts of the trip! It was just us 4 and we had the pool all to ourselves! We brought a little floatie thing for you and you actually like it more than I thought. You still spent quite a bit of time in your Dad's arms swimming around! You of course were more brave than I wished you would be! You had no problem jumping off into the pool to your Dad or trying to climb in with no adult help! You had a blast though and didn't want to leave!

We also went to the beach! I was so curious to see how you would react to the water. I thought you would love it or at least like it more than Bently since you are such a brave girl! But nope. You didn't like it. It scared you. It was one of the first times I heard you use the words, "I scared!" Your reaction was too cute and funny! You would come out in the water if we held you but you still didn't really want to touch it! I think part of the problem is it was pretty chilly and you get cold easily. That being said you had a blast in the sand! You enjoyed every second digging in the sand and exploring the beach! At one point your Dad and I buried your legs and you thought that was the coolest thing ever! You didn't ever want to get out! :) I can't even describe how magical our beach day was. We were there just before sunset and we just got to relax and enjoy being together! It was my favorite day of the whole entire trip!

So those are just a few highlights from our Cali trip. Next up, camping!

So Bently really wanted to go camping so camping we went! Now you didn't have any warm girl 2T clothing. At first I was worried we would have to buy you new clothing just to take camping and get dirty. But then the thinker I am realized we had Bently's 2T clothing in the closet. So yup you were boy clothing for the majority of the trip! It was a little strange to see you in Bently's clothes but it was good too. Amazing the memories clothing can bring on!

So we arrived for our very last minute one night excursion to find out we were pretty much the only people camping there. Us and an elderly couple. We chose our site and started setting up. Your brother and I spent the setting up time getting into as much trouble as possible. Mostly crawling under the tent your Dad and I were trying to set up!

We had tin foil dinners which you didn't love. :) Then we explored the lake that was right by our campsite. You loved throwing rocks in the water. A little too much actually. You kept getting your shoes and your pants wet. We only packed one pair of pants and closed toe shoes so you might have been cold the rest of the night. I'm not really sure! :)

After we went back and just hung out around the campfire. We sang songs to keep you little ones entertained. You insisted on singing all of the Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood songs a million times. That show is you recent obsession. You love all things Daniel Tiger. You also entertained yourself by tipping brother and his chair over. First it was funny, then it got annoying. Especially for poor Bently! ;) You laughed and laughed every time though! :)

That night we looked at the stars and then it was off to bed. We had planned this trip very very last minute and hadn't charged our air pump. Bently ended up on the cold hard ground and you, Dad, and I, slept on the half blown up mattress. It was pretty bad but not as awful as I thought. Every time we sleep someone where not home you have a moment sometime in the night where you wake up and cry for no reason. I mean, cry. There is no making it better. It's just waiting for you to get tired enough to stop! So we had one of those sessions which was fun! I remember being grateful that we didn't have anyone even remotely near us! :) Dad slept in the  middle and since it was only half blown up we all ended up squishing dad! But on a positive note, we were toasty warm! :)  

The next day we had breakfast and threw rocks in the lake again. Honestly for our very first camping trip just our little family, it was pretty much awesome! I spent the next week looking back over the memories with fondness! :) I'm pretty excited for next year!

Okay I think that is everything! I love you beautiful!

Love,
Mom