::: OLIVIA AT 28 MONTHS :::

I love this girl!

She makes me laugh, she makes me mad, she makes me tired, but most of all she makes me happy.

This last couple of months it seems like she has turned into a little girl and not my baby anymore.

She talks and talks and talks!

Some of the things I have no idea where she heard it!

I am constantly surprised by the things she is learning and picking up.

( I'm going to have to start watching what I say now )

Here are some of the things she tells me....

O: "Mom, listen."

M: "what"

O: {screams} I LOVE YOU!!!!

Playing dolls with Livi ALWAYS goes like this:

O: "Hi! What are you!?"

M: " I'm (insert whatever doll i haves name), Who are you?"

O: "I'm Mickey mouse ( or whoever)..... Save me!"

M: "Good morning Liv! How did you sleep?"

O: "Dood morning mom, I seep dood in my moo bed"

Or if we are at grandmas, 

"I seep good in donna's moo bed"

O: " Mom, all i want is a moot snack"

Today I was being silly and playing around with her.

Olivia laughing: " Mom! You are so funny!" 

She is absolutely obsessed with her little toys.

They go EVERYWHERE with us!

She will play for hours with them. She destroys the house in the process too.

Everything I own is used as something to play with her toys.

I start cleaning in the back to come to a front room COVERED in toys.

All the toys dumped out of bags and all mixed together is how she rolls.

It's funny because I'm OCD about the toys being put in separate bags and all put nicely away so nothing can be seen.

So after sorting them out and getting the front room cleaned, I'll come find her in the back in a pile of things she has gotten out back there.

I can never win:)

She is still in love with Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.

She branched off to sofia the first and doc for a little while, but to my dismay, she has returned full force to mickey :(

She still takes a bottle.

Shame on me I know.

She LOVES the thing.

She gets excited for bed because she finally gets her "bauble!"

I have no idea how i'm going to take it from her.

I told her one day that she was my big girl now.

She replied with....

"No Mom, I a baby. I not a big girl"

I guess she knows how hard it is to become a big girl:)

Man! Can this girl throw a tantrum! 

Luckily if we are at home it will only last about two minutes when I stick her in her room, but oh boy! if we are at a store..... Those are the times she makes me mad:)

She is such a sweetheart though.

Her curls still make me smile.

Her fake smile makes me laugh.

And her kisses melt my HEART

::: 2013 :::

I cant believe that 2013 is already gone.

It was a wonderful year for our little family.

We had the best ups and very few downs :)

Here is a little bit of the main points of our year!

* Josh completely excelled at school, he worked his butt off and passed some of his most challenging classes with A's and B's!

* We took a family trip to PA, OH, NY, and DC

* Olivia went from my baby to my little girl :(

*  Had a fun Borrowman reunion this summer in Enterprise.

*  Spent MANY of our summer hours in Jessica's new pool. Olivia is a major fish!

* Played at parks and watched olivia fearlessly tackle slide after slide.... even a two story one that makes me a little nervous!

* Watched Olivia come alive with her talking. I love having full on conversations with her :)

* Found out we were expecting baby #2 after months of trying.

* Also found out that we Miscarried Baby #2 a week or so before Christmas.

* Got the courage to start leaving Liv with babysitters and had some super awesome dates with each other.

* Got our family pictures taken by someone professional for the first time!

* Found out how much I love to take pictures and worked and worked on my skills. I was lucky to have so many people who were willing to let me practice on them! I'm gonna need people this year too!!

* Olivia turned the big 2 and got her first bike.

* Spent Holiday after Holiday with our amazing families!

2013 was wonderful to us. I am so lucky to have my little family. Josh works so hard to make sure all of us are taken care of and happy. Olivia is the best thing that has happened to us and make our year so much fun and entertaining!!!

2014 is starting off on a very good foot! We have some very hard semesters of school ahead of us, but I know how lucky we are to even be in school and can't wait to see how much we grow and become and even stronger family:)

Wish us luck!

::: BREE COMES TO TOWN :::

Bree got the coolest gift of all for Christmas:

Round trip tickets to see the family for a week sans kids!!!

Of course this means that I packed up and headed to St. George for the week too!

I loved every minute of her being here.

we had a fun girls/cousin lunch at pizza factory

 Got a VERY rare picture of all 8 kids together. 

It's been years since we have all been in the same place at the same time :(

 My favorite was the girls Pedicure! Just the five girls and Mom.

The only thing that would have made this better was if we could have found a place that would have fit the full 9 of us girls. Sorry newer sisters :(

 We had a BLAST!

 not to mention we had pretty toes after!

We need to make this a yearly thing BreeAnn!

I loved every minute of our fun filled week.

I think I have a full 8 piece setting of Yogurtland spoons:)

::: CHRISTMAS :::

MOM FAIL:

I Normally do really good at making sure I have my camera with me or at least take pictures with my phone.... This year I failed HORRIBLY :( Christmas morning was caught on video and then the camera didn't come out again.... so sad.

But, I did catch some events from Christmas eve:)

This year was my families year.

All year long I watched my Mother work her little heart out making the most wonderful gifts for her grandkids!

The woman and her skills are amazing!

Not to mention she has almost 30 grandkids now.

 The fun part is she hands out the gifts and counts down.... from there it turns into a whirlwind of paper and excited squeals from the kids!!!!

3...2...1... OPEN!

Lol i should put the video up, but just know Olivia was so excited about the darling stick horse my mother made.... we didn't see her for the rest of the time we were there.... the kids had a round up and played all night.

Chris made the most delicious prim rib in the world!

I love our christmas traditions:)

My parents started the christmas festivities early so the whole family (besides bree.... we missed you!) could be there.

So we thought Liv would love seeing Santa and Josh's grandparents house.

LOVE is a huge understatement!!!

This girl started in the line up just like the rest of the kids, waiting patiently for her name to be pulled out of his bag.

 Her name was not at the beginning. So excitedly she moves a little closer.

 Come on Santa..... call her name!

 Finally "Olivia" is called out and she Pops up and excitedly jumps on the guys lap!

 "Josh" is called out.... ooohhh!!! Another chance for olivia to sit on his lap!!!!

I love that my child has never been scared of Santa and has always looked forward to her turn.

We traveled home that night and waited for santa to get to our house.

3:30 we both wake up and have to make ourselves go back to sleep.

6 rolls around and josh gets up for a while

when he returns to bed I notice that his hair is wet and all styled

" your taking a video.... I don't want to have bed head!"

Oh man, what have I turned him into?!

I give in and we wake our little girl up.

We shook and shook her and she did not want to get up.... who could blame her, it was 6 a.m!!

"Olivia, Santa came!"

She sat straight up and said "oooooh!!!!"

she LOVED every minute of opening her presents.

Grandma and Grandpa Meacham Spoiled us all.

She made a cute little doll house for livi.

How did we end up so lucky to have two very talented grandmas?!

Christmas was so fun seeing all the family.... but man were we tired by the end of the day!!!

We are so blessed with such wonderful Family and Friends:)

::: NEW TRADITIONS :::

This year we decided to start our own family traditions. 

Christmas Eve Eve we decided to have a big family sleepover under the christmas tree!

My favorite was when Olivia saw us pulling our mattress into the family room.

She squealed with delight at the thought of us all sleeping under the tree!

Our night started out with pizza.

We made snowmen cookies and decorated them and set a few aside for santa the next night.

(which she was SOO mad Santa ate the cookie she left for him!!)

Made Snowmen foam decorations to hang on the tree.

Watched a Christmas movie and ate treats!

Olivia was beyond excited to sleep with us.

She kept waking up and sitting up to make sure she was still under the tree.

Josh started a big fire and we LOVED hearing it crackle and pop all night long :)

I think this might be one of my most favorite traditions now!

Cant wait for year 2!

( I guess I could pull out my nice camera but the phone is so handy

Sorry for the blurry pictures!)