Dear Olivia,

You have the most adorable personality. I wish I could bottle some of it and put it here for you to enjoy! I love listening to you talk and could all day long. You have the cutest little voice! And when you get excited your eyes go big and your whole face becomes animated! I love it! I'm going to have to start filming more so you can look back and see how adorable you! :)

We made a goal to show you some of the classic princess movies. We rented Snow White from the library and showed it to you yesterday. It was going quite well and I thought you really liked the movie. I never really like the classic princess movies so I was excited you liked them! Well after the movie is over all you would say is, "Snow White is scary!" It was adorable and sad! ;) You also requested to watch Beauty and the Beast today. You've seen the movie before so I was surprised when you snuggled up to dad and told him you were scared of the beast! The best part is we asked you if you wanted to turn it off you told us firmly no! It does seem you are entering the fears stage. I think we will have to be more careful with what we show you! ;)

We went to Dinosaur National Monument yesterday with Melanie and you loved every second of it! We had a blast! You of course had to carry your Elsa tin with you everywhere. We bought you a purse for Easter but for some reason you still like to carry around the Elsa tin! Well you always have toys in their but as we walked all around Dinosaur you had to add rocks from everywhere we went! It was adorable watching you collect your treasures!

We went swinging in the park today. You still LOVE swinging! You kept telling me you wanted to swing high with the birds. And of course you pretended to be "buzz buzz light year!" You are very into Toy Story right now. You love it!

I love you beautiful girl!

Love,
Mom

Dear Olivia,

You had a very special evening with your Daddy tonight. Vernal holds an annual father daughter dance! You have been looking forward to this dance for a very long time! Constantly you would tell me, "I'm going to a dance with Daddy! Not Lincoln, Not brother (Bently), Not you. You stay home." The night finally arrived! It was a wee bit crazy because I was sick the night before and still not feeling 100%. But the real problem was that Bently threw up a couple hours before the dance. It was nasty! But luckily you show no signs of throwing up so Dad and you and Uncle Cole and Emma went off to the dance. I got you ready before the dance. As I sat there doing your hair for your first dance I couldn't help but think how fast other dances will be coming. Dance class, prom, college dances, your first dance, and of course, your Daddy daughter dance at your wedding. I prayed in that moment for time to slow down. Those other dances can wait! I'm going to sit and enjoy our living room dance parties, soak them in before they're gone! 

Daddy met you at the door with flowers and kisses! You looked incredibly beautiful in your gold dress and pig tails! You were jumping with excitement. There was one bad moment when you hurt Lincoln and I told you that wasn't a good thing to do. You burst into tears and in classic Olivia fashion, stormed out of the room exclaiming you didn't want to go to the dance! I thought it was very dramatic, even for you! ;) But you cheered right back up when Dad told you you were going to get cheese burgers for dinner! :) 

As for the rest of the night you will have to ask your Dad how it went! :) I love you beautiful! I hope you had a fantastic time at your first dance. 

Love,

Mom

Dear Olivia,

Today you started playing this game where you went to work. You packed up your bag of things you need and left for work. Of course kissing me goodbye! A couple minutes later you would return with big eyes and tell me all about your day at "work" with your big brown eyes full of excitement! I loved every second of playing this game with you! Your excited voice and facial expressions are just the very best thing in the entire world! I can't even tell you how much I enjoyed watching you run away with your little curly pointy bouncing as your feet went faster than your upper body. Girly you melt my heart every single day. I just think you are the cutest thing I have ever seen in my entire life! I love you so much darling! :) I am so lucky to be your Mom!

Love,
Mom

Dear Olivia & Bently,

Sometimes I catch myself getting caught up in things that aren't important. I'll tell you no or later because I have to clean or do things on the computer. And while those things are important, I'm trying very hard to stop telling you later. You guys are going to be big and old and grown before I know it. I never want to look back and say I wish I would have played with them more. Or cuddled them more. So today I stopped what I was doing and made a very sad make shift tent in the family room. I don't know who came up with the idea, but I know both of you wanted to do it. Unfortunately, when it was done, Bently wanted to read books and not play with Olivia in the tent. So I suggested we read books in the tent! So that's what we did. We read our library books in our tent. It was magical. It was perfect. It was a moment straight out of my head of what being a Mom would be like. I wish you guys could remember these moments! They are fantastic and magical and hilarious! You both say things that make me laugh all the time. I was sad when Lincoln woke up! I love spending time with you guys! You make me smile and laugh every day. I couldn't ask for a better job than being your Mommy! :) Thank you for reminding me to slow down and appreciate the moments!

Love,
Mom

Dear Olivia,

You have your brother (Bently) and Bincoln Brother (Lincoln). I think it's super funny that you don't call either brother by their right names. Bently has always been brother. From the very beginning. It's very rare for you to call him anything besides brother. And now you have another brother. So he is Bincoln Brother! You also have your favorite doll that you carry around all the time. Her, yes her, name is Bincoln Baby! It's pretty adorable and hilarious to listen to you talk about all these people! :)

We kinda tried potty training, for a day. You told me you wanted to wear underwear so I let you. You actually did pretty good over all. You had 3 poopy accidents but I think that was only because you had diarrhea at the time. You went pee on the potty once. I then asked you if you had to go a hundred times that day. Including sitting on the toilet 3 times while we were at Walmart. But to no avail. You peed yourself at the dinner table! I gave up. You want to do it, but you don't at the same time. You have been wearing diapers again for the past couple days and you haven't mentioned underwear since.

You are becoming more and more independent. You are always saying, "No I do it myself!" It's very different then your older brother who still begs us to do everything for him! I love it, but again it is time consuming. You are learning and growing so fast! You half birthday is 4 days away and I can't believe pretty soon we'll be closer to 3 than 2! Three is old! I can't even believe that my second child is going to be 3. You're making your Mommy feel OLD! ;)

I love you beautiful. Even if you love your Dad more! ;)

Love,
Mom

Dear Olivia,

Yesterday when we went to the store and again today taking out the trash, you insisted on not only taking your doll. Oh no. You had to take your doll, her pillow, her rattle, and her bottle. It's a adorable and annoying. :) You walk really slow carrying all that stuff which  makes the store/taking out trash time consuming. But I do love looking back to see you carrying around your baby doll.

Love,
Mom

Dear Olivia,

You my dear are seriously in the midst of the terrible twos. I have never in my life dealt with so many tantrums in one day. With that said, you are also the cutest sweetest little thing. I put your hair in pigtails and you smile at me, boy oh boy. I'm wrapped around your little finger. :) It's amazing how you can go from crying screaming monster to the world's sweetest little girl in about .5 seconds. :)

You are at such a fun age. Even with all the tantrums. You talk all the time. I tell your Dad all the time I could listen to you talk all day long. How you say things and what you say is adorable and hilarious. :) You giggle all the time. And you are always hamming it up for the camera. You are so much personality in one tiny human being. I wish I could more accurately put into words your personality. I wish I could take a little snapshot of you now and somehow make you see all of the things about your personality that I love!

I'm going to try and be better at writing these letters to you. Maybe that will be one of my New Years Resolutions. Today is December 31st and we are a mere hour and half from entering a brand new year. A year were you will turn 3 years old. I can't even imagine you at three years old. I know you're talking is just going to keep getting better and your attitude will probably get bigger! And I can't wait to experience all the highs and lows of 2016 with you my sweet sweet girl. I love you with all my heart. I hope you always know that!

Love,
Mom