I Snuck into Myles' Room

And found them doing this.  Myles telling Olivia a story and Olivia discovering her own book.

Second Part of Olivia's Birthday

We had a little family party for Olivia's birthday.  I loved how Olivia knew it was her special day.  Everyone gave her very thoughtful gifts.  They sure do love Olivia.  I'm so grateful that they are so sweet with her and truly love her.

 (Very blurry picture of pin the bow on Olivia)

I had the kids play pin the bow on Olivia.  It was a hit!

No Snow...

No problem!

Weekend in Park City

I'm going to try to do a little catch up here.  It is already July.  Oh I wish time would slow down.  Back in January we were able to go up to Park City and stay in the Mountain Side Marriott.  It was a great little get away with the kids.  And of course the kids loved every bit of it.   Every time we go up to Park City we always end up at the Pizza Place on Main Street.  

 

 Olivia loved the pizza as much as the rest of us as you can see.

 I don't know how I possibly got away without taking pictures of outside our hotel window.  We had such a great view of the Park City Ski Resort and watched skier pass nearly right by out window.  It was such a fun sight.  We then spent the rest of the evening in the hot tubs outside.  The kids loved just swimming around.  We got up nice and early the next morning and hit the hot tubs again.  The hotel has a fun activities area for the kids.  We spent a little time there to let the kids play with some toys and relax a little.

We invited Meagan to come up with us.  She brought a few friends and stayed in another room.

 

It was such beautiful weather.  We love that place.

We spent Saturday afternoon at the Olympic Park.  I'm not sure how 10 years has passed since the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake and this was our first time coming the the Olympic Park.

 

 

 

Our Olympian!

We ended the day by watching people go down in bobsleds.  I couldn't get enough of it.  The bobsleds were going down so fast, just watching was a rush.

So glad we finally made it up there!

Prayer and Blessing

Myles has a "To Do List" of eat breakfast, make bed, get dressed, brush teeth, and say his morning prayer that he does each morning.  He is so good to do his list each day.  Myles always request for help to make his bed, but loves to do everything else all by himself.  Last week I noticed he was standing up and moving around a lot while saying his prayer.  He has also gotten into the routine repeating the same prayer.  It often include bless dinner, lunch, and breakfast, bless everybody...Amen.  I took him aside last week to review a proper prayer.  Tonight for family prayer Matt asked Myles to offer the prayer.  It started off like the routine prayer he gives, but then it became much more sincere as he asked to bless his mom, dad, Olivia, and himself.  He asked that we would be patient.  He asked to bless the prophet.  He asked to bless dad at work and that he would come home safely.  He asked that Olivia and him would sleep good.  I'm not sure if it was our review on prayer from the past week, but he sure is a thoughtful boy.

Matt had to sit in Myles' primary class today.  Dan Jordan is Myles' teacher and talked about the priesthood.  This evening Matt was going to give me a blessing (I am preparing to take my PTA license test).  Matt began talking to Myles about what they had learned in Primary about the priesthood.  Matt asked Myles' what you do with your hands when you give a blessing and Myles' put his hands on his head as he said "you put them on the person's head".  I went to go sit down on our hope chest to receive the blessing.  Myles came and stood on the chest and began to put his hands on my head.  Matt and I both started to tell Myles that only dad could put his hands on my head.  We broke Myles' heart as we started to brush him off.  He broke down in tears.  This was the most sincere cry I have heard from Myles for a very long time.  He just kept saying that he wanted to help give me a blessing.  Matt just held him tight and explained the situation.  Matt then asked Myles if he wanted to receive a blessing.  Myles did.  Myles came and sat on my lap and received a blessing first and then Matt performed a blessing for me.  It was a very special teaching moment.  Myles was satisfied to receive a blessing.  Myles wants to be just like Matt in everything he does.  I am so grateful that Myles has such a great example to look up to.

Olivia Learing to Words

We have had a speech therapist working with Olivia for months.  I am not even sure how many months, maybe 10 months.  Olivia's progress has been very slow.  In fact for the past 3 months it has felt like a plateau.  Just recently I have been getting a little frustrated.  All day long I am constantly repeating simple words to her and singing songs and emphasizing everything we do with words.  Olivia has been able to say hi, bye, mom, dad, and nana (banana) for several months.  But she was not even trying to say any other words, just grunting.  Olivia would never imitate what I was saying to her either (example:  moo, baa, papa).  On April 18th Olivia had her Let's Play class.  Her speech therapist, Lizzie, comes each week to help with Olivia.  While we were in class we were finishing up an art project and Olivia said "done".  Lizzie and I both looked at each other and said "she just said done".  We were both very surprised.  Throughout the rest of the day Olivia just took off with words.  When we got home later that afternoon Olivia went and got the bubbles from the cupboard, brought them over to me and started to say "bubbles, bubbles".  Once again I couldn't believe it.  Boy was I excited.  During the rest of the day she said "ide" (outside), "aut" (hot), and baba (bottle).  I was just amazed at all the words she was saying.  Since then, it has been a week and a half, she has continued to take off.  She is now trying to imitate everything I say to her.  She is saying  "wawa" (water), "ight" (light), "moo", "neigh", "ruff", and when I say a word I can get her to say the beginning or at least try to say the word.  It is so fun to see her start communicating with words.  I think she feels pretty good to be able to use words now as well.  I love when we are able to jump over another hurdle with Olivia.  What a sweet girl that has come to our family.  We sure love her.

Olivia's 2nd Birthday

This little girl turned 2 today and boy she was feeling pretty good about it. She opened one present before Matt went to work. She got a set of pots and pans and cooking utensils. She loved them and played with the food she got from Christmas and her pots and pans all throughout the day. She doesn't typically sit down and play with too many toys, but she loved stirring her food in her pots.

Started off the morning with a surprise of decorations that Matt put up.

How did our girl get so big?

Olivia was feeling pretty special opening her very own presents.

She got lots of special attention. Pretty sure she was loving every bit of it.

Myles was pretty excited to give Olivia Holly Shiftwell from Cars 2. She also got a magnadoodle, a dress, toddler utensils, and a piano. The piano was Myles' when he was little, but it has been tucked away that didn't have batteries. We thought she would appreciate the piano now, so we brought it out and she loved it.

Happy Birthday Olivia!

Fun facts about Olivia:

-Olivia can crawl up and down the stairs by herself. She can walk up a few by herself.
-Olivia can say mom, dad, hi, banana
-Olivia signs more, milk, water, eat, I want, up, open, help, please
-Olivia loves to wave by and blow kisses
-Olivia smiles and tucks her head into your body when she knows you are talking about her
-She loves to wrestle with Myles
-When Matt says, "come over and be my pillow" Olivia will crawl over and lay down underneath his head
-Olivia loves having a bath. As soon as you turn on the water she tries to climb in with her clothes on.
-Some of Olivia's favorite foods are: yogurt, peanut butter and jelly sandwich, cereal, fruit, and any sweets.
-When Olivia is ready to go to bed she will go to the bottom of the stairs and cry until we take her to bed.
-She loves to hang out in the front room and tear out the books in the book shelf.
-She loves climbing on everything. She will pull out a bucket from the pantry and stand on it so she can see what is going on at the counter. Olivia is always climbing up on the kitchen chairs and table.
-Olivia loves electronics. If we are ever at the computer she pulls herself up so she can see what is going on. The other day we were leaving the dentist and there was a lady in the waiting area reading a nook. Olivia went to the ladies side so she could see what she was looking at.
-Olivia loves to hide in the cabinet next to the laptop in the kitchen. She will pull everything out of the cabinet and hide in there.
-Olivia loves to pick at sticky things.
-Olivia loves pulling herself up in the little rocking chair and rocks herself.