Dear Olivia,

Hello sweetheart! It's been awhile hasn't it? Well I made a list of random things I wanted to remember about you one day! So here we go!

 You are seriously at the most fun age imaginable! You turned two and out of no where you can talk. Like sentences and you say things every day that surprise me! With Bently it was very gradual increase of language skills. You just had this burst of words and all the sudden you can pretty much tell us anything and everything you want to! I still struggle with some words. Like thirsty sounds like horsey. :) But I'm catching on! Okay mostly your helping me by saying drink instead of thirsty! ;) But either way we communicate now! :)

You have actually stopped doing this as much since I wrote my list but you say Umm when you're trying to remember or think of something! It's really adorable! Especially because most of the time it ends in you not knowing. You'll say, "ummm... what?"

You are such a Daddy's girl! I try not to get too offended and most of the time I don't mind. But we went to California for a week and so you had a lot of Dad time! Boy did you never ever want me to hold you or help you, or do anything for you! It was actually a little sad for me. I do a lot for you Miss Thang! You better start showing me some love! ;)

You have the cutest hair! It's so crazy curly and I love it with all my heart! When I took your 2 year old pictures I didn't bother to do anything to it but put some gel stuff in it! I wanted to get the full extent of the crazy curly hair! Your top half is already a lot straighter and I'm already worried you are outgrowing it! I never want your hair to loose it's curl! Don't worry I'll still love you with straight hair! But I'm going to document it as much as possible while it's curly! Because I love it!

You have gotten obsessed with babies/stuffed animals. You constantly are holding them and playing with them and putting them down for naps! It's actually getting out of control. Currently as I'm typing this you are sleeping with 7 different dolls/stuffed animals! And you will notice if one is not there. I get very cranky having to run down stairs to grab a forgotten stuffed animal. I try and  not let you take them out of your bed because it has become such a hassle!

You love to read books! You love looking at them yourself and you love us to read to you! Bently has a few of our main books memorized so he will also read books to you! You are always coming up saying, "Read it! Read it!"

You are a much better looker than Bently. I don't mean you are prettier, I mean you find things easier. I will ask you to pick something up, tell you it's by the TV and you can find it! I'm impressed because Bently still has not managed this skill. :) My favorite part is you very enthusiastically exclaim "GOT IT!" when you find something! It's one of my favorite things you say!

You want to be held all. the. time. It's actually quite awful because I am rather largely pregnant currently and picking you up/holding you is no easy thing! :( We have had many a battles over my holding you. I will be on the couch and you will randomly fling yourself to the ground crying your eyes out while exclaiming, "Hold you! Hold You!" (I think you say hold you because we always ask if you want us to hold you! :) I will tell you "come here and I will hold you!" But no! Getting up and walking to me is just too much for you to handle! So instead you lay on the floor and scream and I sit on the couch trying to pretend like your screaming isn't bothering me. To be honest you win most often. I will come and get you after 10-15 minutes of this continuing. You are a stubborn girl!

I love you beautiful girl! You smile and laugh all the time! You are constantly telling me "I silly!" and you are! I need to take more videos of you! You are just too dang cute!


Love,
Mom

Dear Olivia,

I am so sorry I've been such a slacker at writing you. Life has been crazy as of late and it's really hard to find computer time! And I despise trying to type out anything long on my Iphone! But I am finally writing you and since it's been awhile you know what that means, a long random letter that has no organization whatsoever. ;)

Okay you are so expressive! I love it! I cannot get over all your cute facial expressions you do! I am constantly trying to capture them but it's so hard! My favorite ones are the ones where you are surprised or startled! And you never know when something like that is going to happen! Thus, it's hard to capture on camera! :) I hope you always remain super expressive! Hopefully you'll end up in Drama class like your Dad and I.

Here is a small classic example! This is your face after I blew a bubble. You thought they were pretty dang amazing! ;) 

Your talking is really starting to take off! Everyday I'm amazed at all the words you can say. I still have a hard time understanding most of what you say. Your Dad is much better at speaking Olivia than I am. He's always yelling at me from across the room what it is you want! I'm really trying I just don't think I'm imaginative enough to figure it out! 

Let's list some things you like currently shall we? (Sorry for the randomness)

-You love TV. It's actually annoying. Your favorite shows are Super Why and Tangled. You really like frozen but because Bently is afraid of it, we don't get to watch it. Ever.

-You love to go. You will randomly come up to us, shoes in hand, and insist we "go". I never know where you want to go and the destination never really seems important. You just want to get out of the house. It's really hard where we have no where to go. There have been many a tantrums over this issue. 

-You love to be outside! You love bubbles and playing with chalk and pushing your shopping cart around!

-You love candy and love to ask for it! You know exactly where it is and will point at it and beg for candy. Girl after my own heart!

-You love Daddy! When Daddy wakes up, well that's the best time of the day for you! You do have Mommy moments too thank goodness. But overall if you had a choice you would choose Dad over me. 

-You love to dance! Any music and you are saying, "dance dance!" Good thing Bently is such a willing dance partner!

- You love Bently! Or you can't stand him. This one is very hot and cold. You don't call him Bently hardly ever. Mostly you call him "brother". So that has pretty much been his name around here the past couple months. When you two do get along it's stinking adorable! Your favorite game to play together is "Arctic Circle" (like the restaurant) You go under the kitchen table and use the bench as your window or serving area. You guys make us the most interesting food!

-You play pretend all the time! You are always bringing us food you made in your play kitchen. You smile lights up when we drink or eat whatever you made! Melts my heart every time. 

-You love Grandma Kay Lynn. We stayed at her house last week and you two were thick as thieves. Grandpa Paul had surgery early one morning so Grandma Kay Lynn wasn't there when you woke up. That was not okay with you. You were very cranky. I love watching how close you are with your Grandma.

-One of your favorite phrases is "Where'd it go" Or "Where'd _____ go?" You are very interested in where every one is all the time! ;) 

I know there is more that I could say but my fingers are getting tired so I better go! I love you Miss Olivia! I can't even describe how cute you are right now! You make me smile every single day! 

Love,

Mom

Dear Olivia,

The time has come. No more binkys. I've been wrestling with the idea of removing the binky for a while now. You just seem too old to have one. Plus you started waking up every time it fell out of your mouth in the middle of the night. But part of me didn't want to take it away. You love the binky. You get so excited when you see it! And it makes night times/nap times so much easier. Plus with the binky gone that means you are officially a big girl! :( It made the fact that your growing up all too real! Yesterday, at nap time, was the last time you got the binky. Last night you did okay falling asleep. You cried for 40 minutes and then were out. Today is a different story. You've been in bed 40 minutes and your still crying. I figured nap times would be the hardest! Night times you are tired enough to give up. Nap times, not so much. I'm not looking forward to a no nap Olivia today! :(

You have started to pick on Bently. It's hilarious. After all this time of him picking on you, you finally can get him back. You constantly are sitting on him or climbing on him or hanging from his neck. You steal his food and his drinks at dinner. I'm already starting to feel the exhaustion from breaking up fights! ;) But as much as you guys bicker, you get along too. You guys have started to play more and more together and it's pretty fantastic!

You recently have started to become more of a mommy's girl. Don't get me wrong I'm stoked. I spent a year of you being all about dad. But sometimes it is exhausting. You constantly want to be held. Or played with. You call out my name over and over. "mommy! Mommy! Mommy!" Until I look at you or pick you up. Is as cute as it is annoying! ;)

Your vocabulary just keeps getting bigger and bigger! You are constantly saying new things that surprise me! You've also started putting two words together. Mostly hi and bye or Night night! You'll say "bye Dad!" Or "Hi Mom!" or "Night night Brother!" You call Bently Brother more than Bently. Which is a real shame because you say Bently so dang cute!

You're doing okay in nursery. I swear every week it gets harder instead of easier. You cling to me now and start to cry as soon as we're in the room! But usually after I leave you calm down in about 2 minutes flat. So it's not horrible. I just hate leaving when you're crying and yelling Mommy at me! It breaks my heart every single time!

You have semi started trying to sing. You sing the go part of let it go. You sing the "and me" part of Jake and the Neverland Pirates theme song. You sing Scout of the "I'm with you scout" theme song. Apparently we're letting you watch too much tv! Ops!

I love you beautiful girl! I hope you always know I love you so stinking much. You're smiles and giggles always brighten up our home!

Love,
Mom

Dear Olivia,

I have been such a slacker with writing you. The problem is your Dad works graveyards, so he sleeps in the bedroom during the day when I could use the computer and your brother is usually asleep in my bed at night. So there is no time for me to just sit and type. Even currently I'm typing away while your brother sleeps, praying he doesn't wake up!

Let's catch up shall we? Christmas was amazing! I kept accidentally calling it your first Christmas! It just felt like your first! Last year you were only 5 months old! This year everything was new and exciting! From watching you hang ornaments to looking at Christmas lights, everything was magical! Though Christmas was a little hectic this year. See we moved from Bountiful to Vernal the 5th of December! It was crazy and fast and all the sudden we were here and it was Christmas! Your Dad and I had presents arriving in the mail Christmas Eve! We were just so busy! Luckily before we left we were able to go to Layton park and look at the lights. It was amazing! Spending time with our little family is my favorite thing to do! You lit up and pointed at all the lights. You were so enthralled by them! We got out and walked the park this year because it wasn't so cold. You looked adorable all bundled up running around looking at lights. You kept trying to go under the railing to get to the lights! You also enjoyed dancing to the Christmas music in the park. There were a couple times we had to stop and wait because you refused to stop dancing! It was stinking adorable!

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day we were both sick. We had a pretty nasty cold. You were in the beginning stages of having it, so you weren't so bad, but I was miserable! Christmas morning was so magical! Having both my cute kids walk down the stairs was my favorite moment! We opened stockings first and you did awesome at unwrapping those presents! The only problem was is you were hungry and you found cookies! After you had the cookies you could care less about opening presents! Eventually the cookies ran out and you opened presents! We got you a tunnel and you loved it! You began to giggle and shreek the minute we set it up for you! I love watching you be so excited!

I think that sums up Christmas. I was going to write more but I'm going to write you an 18 month letter on our family blog so you'll just have to check for that for other updates. Oh but one more thing before you go...

Your Dad works Sundays, which I means I brave church all by myself. It can be quite a daunting task! By the time sacrament is over I'm usually ready to be done. So as much as I love having my tag along with me when I go to Sunday School and Relief Society, I was excited for nursery! I had subbed in nursery a couple weeks so I was hoping the transition would be a little smoother. Today I walked out of sacrament and took you to nursery. I put you down and you ran off to play with out a care. I knew you expected me to stay. I read once you shouldn't sneak out so I said, "Good bye Olivia!" Boy did that get your attention. You immediately turned around and began to walk after me, whimpering the whole way. I shut the door and immediately looked through the peep hole to see how you were. You were crying and reaching at the door. I wanted to rush in and save you from the horrible nursery leader ;) but I waited like a good mom. Within a minute you were distracted playing with toys! I couldn't believe it! My big girl was in nursery. After waiting and waiting for this day to arrive it had. And then, I was sad! You are getting so big!

I love you!

Mom

Dear Olivia,

Sorry there has been quite the absence in my letter writing. We moved. Yup to Vernal. It's been quite the adventure but you've handled it pretty well. Well actually you've been pretty cranky but I think that's because your teething and miserable. You also have a horrible cough. It's been no fun for you! I am actually doing this on my phone due to an Internet issue. So I'm going to make this fast

You are obsessed with growling. You growl all the time. You'll just walk around the house growling at nothing. It's actually pretty adorable! 

You have started to actually try and repeat words. Before you would just look at us when we would tell you to say something. But now, you actually repeat it. And you're getting pretty good. You can now say Bently instead of brother. Though you mostly just call him brother. You'll say baby when asked and shoes. I'm so excited to see you start talking more and more!!! 

We set up the Christmas tree and you were entranced with putting the ornaments on. It was adorable until the obsession didn't end. You won't leave the dang tree alone. I tried putting the ornaments higher but our tree is pretty short so you can still reach the majority of them. You also are pretty good at getting your brother involved in the action. Today you guys worked as a team and pulled the whole tree down. I was not a happy mama. 

You guys were not upset at all. You thought it was pretty neat. 

With this move it means I get to be a stay at home mom which has been so fun! Lucky for us the weather has been incredible and we've spent some fun time at the park! :) you love the park and have no fear which scares me. :) you climb and climb and go down those big slides! It makes me so proud! :) 

You are at the funnest stage my darling. You run around the house non stop causing trouble and smiling the whole time you do! Speaking of smiling, you have started to smile when I get the camera out. That is very nice. 

I love you so much darling. I'm going I have to better at taking video so you can see exactly how adorable you are! 

I love you!

Mom

Dear Olivia,

Today in church you were walking around the room in Sunday school. Well we started to pray and you stopped and began looking around at everyone folding their arms. You then folded you little baby arms. It was adorable. You've been folding your hands but this is the first time you folded your arms. It was dang adorable. 

Today it was the first snow. First you just stood in the doorway and watched the snow, mesmerized. Eventually you walked out into it. You loved it. You giggled and laughed and ran around in it. It was all going well till Bently pushed you. Then it went downhill. ;) 

I would like to make note that you wake up from naps and sleeping cranky. I mean extremely cranky. Like can't put you down because you cry cranky. This was today.  

Notice your crazy curly hair? I love it!

 For a good forty five minutes you cri d. Finally I knew we had to leave and I set you on the table to get your shoes on. I walked away to grab them and when I came back you were eating pancakes that were on the table from that morning. I guess you were hungry. ;)

I love you beautiful! You are getting so big I can hardly believe it. I'm going to make a quick list of all the words you say. 

Mama

Dads

Hi

Dog

Duck

Brother

Bently

Baby

Elmo 

Grandma 

Papa 

Love 

Mom 

Dear Olivia,

Guess what? You decided to stop nursing. You just stopped asking for it. I don't know if you just became frustrated because there wasn't much coming out anymore or what. But you're done. We haven't nursed in days. The funny part is I was like, that happened so fast! Haha! I miss it a little bit now! I guess it just goes to show you better appreciate what you have! :)

You are such a little trooper when it comes to doing your hair! I sit you on the counter and mostly you just sit there and let me do it! It's amazing and I am so grateful for it! I really wanted bows to put in your hair so I spent 21 dollars on stupid bows! I only got like 10 or so for that much money! It was ridiculous! But luckily they look so cute on you! Now you don't touch them unless you are tired or in your car seat. I think you get bored in the car so you play with your hair and that's when you find your bows. I forgot one time to take your bow out when I put you in the carseat and you didn't touch it. So I got confident and didn't take it out for a second trip. You lost the bow. The weird part is I have looked all over around your carseat and cannot find your bow! Your carseat has ate 2 bows! They are seriously gone! I am more than a little frustrated and angry about the money your carseat just ate! ;)

I had a quiet morning alone with you this morning! Dad was at the doctors and Benlty was at preschool. We snuggled and played and I chased you around the house. There was a little of tickling involved and lot of giggling! :) I loved every minute of that hour and half we got together! :) I wish you could remember these moments! But I guess that's why I write them down for you!

Love,
Mom