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

Dear Olivia,

We had the best Halloween! And you were adorable so I have to write you a quick letter to tell you about it!

It all started off one day in September in Smith's. They had barley set up their Halloween aisle and of course we had to walk down it since Bently, and now you, are obsessed with Halloween. As we were walking your eye caught sight of an Anna costume from Frozen. You immediatly started pointing at it exclaiming, "Wear it! Wear it!" So we tried it on and it was adorable! And you didn't want to take it off! So we changed our plans for costumes and bought you the 20 dollar Anna dress! Then we put it out of sight so you wouldn't wear it constantly! :)

We did lots of fun things for Halloween this year! We went to the library for there little activity. We also went to our church Halloween party. It was quite the adventure. It was our first big function as a family of five and you could tell we were newbies! You and Bently basically ran crazy as your Dad and I tried to figure out how to juggle holding Lincoln and dishing up 4 different plates of food. We failed pretty bad at it. We finally got food when you fell down and split your lip open! You decided on this day to be a Mommy's girl. It was so unexpected and rare. I enjoyed every minute of being the favorite parent! You didn't want Dad to hold you so I ran off to the bathroom to help you take care of the blood. Luckily it wasn't too bad. You just had one little whole from one of your top teeth on your lip. Then when we got back Lincoln was ready to eat. So we went to the mother's room to feed him. You came along because you wanted to be with Mommy! Even though Daddy had the food! Usually I would have said no and made you stay and eat but I really was relishing in the fact that you wanted me over Dad! I remember thinking, at least Greg and Bently will get to eat. At this point I had eaten a roll. While in the mother's room you had diarrhea. As soon as I finished changing your diaper, Bently and Dad walked in. Where he informed me Bently and him had not been eating like I thought. They had both been in the bathroom because Bently had diarrhea too! Oh boy! By the time Lincoln was done eating, was our food gone. Oh well.

The rest of the party went much smoother. We played some games and did the trunk or treat and got our picture done in the picture booth! After the party we hit up McDonalds. Because we were all starving. Haha! So much for not having to worry about dinner that night! ;)

We also went to the Christian Academy's Halloween party. We went in with pretty low expectations. It was super crowded and it was free and we were late. We figured we missed all the good stuff. Luckily that was not the case. The first thing we did was hit up the bounce houses. I was worried because you were so little that you would be crushed in the bounce houses. Well I should have known my stubborn little girl would hold her own. You had no problem jumping along with all those big kids. You looked adorable in your Anna costume going crazy! You kept yelling out to Dad and I, "This is fun!" (A common phrase for you right now!)  We let you bounce for most of the time because you loved it so much! Then we went trunk or treating. For reals this time. The church one was actually inside, this one was the real deal. We went at the very end so everyone was trying to get rid of their candy. We got A LOT of candy! At one point you stopped and tried to pick up a candy wrapper thinking there was candy inside. A nice lady noticed your disappointment and dumped and ton of candy into your bucket to make up for it! We had pounds of candy from that trunk or treat!

Halloween day wasn't very exciting for us. It's hard to find things to do during the day! We went shopping for dinner and watched "Hotel Transylvania". You ended up falling asleep during the movie and woke up in a horrible mood. We had dinner and even got a few trick or treaters. You loved handing out candy. You even called one girl back to give her more candy. I think you might have enjoyed handing out the candy as much as you enjoyed getting it! You were pretty dang adorable trick or treating! You loved to knock on the doors even though your tiny knock were mostly unheard. After every single house you would exclaim, "Mom (or Dad) I got lots of candy!" It was adorable! You were so excited over every single piece you received! :)

That was pretty much it! We had a fantastic Halloween! I love that you are old enough now to really start getting holidays! Bently is already explaining Santa Clause to you. I know you'll be very cute on Christmas morning! :)

I love you beautiful girl! Tonight I went in just to check on you sleeping and I couldn't get over how adorable you! Not only that but your hair! You had a bath tonight and it was just sitting there in the most perfect ringlet! I continually pray that your hair never goes straight!

Love,
Mom

Dear Olivia,

You are such a good helper. You always want to help me with whatever I'm doing. You help with dishes and cooking and picking up toys. I love it! You get so excited when it's time to clean up. It's sorta hilarious! You sing the clean up song and willingly go to work. You always want to help carry Lincoln's car seat. 

I think you're finally starting to get jealous of Lincoln. Not to say you don't love him, because you do. You're actually obsessed with him. I can't set him down anywhere without you laying on him or trying to pick him up. The other day I caught you full on holding him while standing. You had pulled him off the couch. You were proud of yourself and I had a heart attack! 

But like I said with all the love does come some jealousy. I don't blame you newborns require a lot of attention. You get mad whenever I have to feed him and beg me to hold you. You actually beg me to hold you whenever I'm holding Lincoln. It's pretty rough and I have no idea how to handle it. I try holding you as much as possible but you don't want to be held unless I'm holding Lincoln. It's pretty rough to be honest. But we're getting through it!!

Love,

Mom

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