Dental Check up

Olivia above having her first fluoride treatment. She got a great grade on her dental exam. We moved from an A+ to an A this time. We need to work on brushing her gums better. And need to start flossing...oh my that should be fun?! My rule use to be "one sugar a day" as she gets older it is getting harder to stick by that.

24 weeks

Here I am at Columbian Park 24 weeks pregnant. We are really getting excited and have started to gather up Olivia's old baby stuff. I can't believe how tiny she used to be. We got the paint color for her room and have really been brainstorming away on baby names. I think we are going to try and keep her name a secret until she is born! Liv has lots of names for her though, which she changes on a daily basis.

Columbian Park

Last weekend we took a little drive and headed up to Lafayette to Columbian Park. It was a darling park and I definitely recommend it if you have young children. Olivia went on the 3 fair rides that were built in the 50's. She loved them. We went to their little Zoo..which was free, we also ventured to the water park but the water was so cold we only stayed in for like 15 minutes. After that we let her play in the park area which was great. The picture below which we called the "Zip Line" was her favorite. It was just a great family day for us. Brad and I were talking about what fun we have had just the 3 of us since Olivia has been born, things are going to change a lot once the baby comes. We really savored in the moment of it just being "the 3 of us" and enjoyed our daughter's enthusiasm and fun spirit while we were there. We had dinner at Bruno's Swiss Inn and the food was great! Very Yummy pizza! I hadn't been by the Purdue campus in years.

Going on 16

She wanted to get a "maternity bra".................oh my!

Rollerskates

The Recital

The last day was the recital. Sorry about the sideways video taping, I couldn't figure out how to rotate the video. It was so cute that I still wanted to post it. She did really awesome on stage doing her best with all the dance movements. I am going to sign her up for dance again in the fall.

Princess Dance Camp

Here is her group waiting to go up and sing the Birthday Cake Song. She was in the group with Ms. Kelly her favorite dance teacher. Everyday they broke into several groups with the same dance captain each day with only 2 other children. Her captain's name was Ciara.

Here she is with Ms. Kelly. I highly recommend this dance program called, Traveling Tutus. She is also the dance coordinator at the YMCA. Here is the website

http://www.travelingtutus.com

I wanted to sneak in a phtoto of us

The lighting in the church was so bad that my pictures didn't turn out good. She is in the front in the middle if you can see her.

Olivia Margaret

Olivia has been so excited to turn 4. She has asked me several times a week for the last few months "am I four now Mama?" I kept saying not until July 16th, well the anticipation of that day has come and gone so quickly; kind of like how the last 4 years of her little life have gone by for me. I can't help but think that next year when she turns 5 that about 3 weeks later she will be starting kindergarten. Wow, now that is nearly impossible for me to comprehend. Sometimes it seems like our days are slow..playing barbies, my little ponies, her and I playing pre-school, coloring..but really when I stop and think about it time has gone by so fast. She is my side kick always there willing to be my helper or my mess maker either way staying at home with her has been very fulfilling to say the least. Being a parent surely has taught me a lot about my strengths and weaknesses, but mostly it has taught me how to love selflessly. In her book there are no record of wrongs.......sometimes I learn what giving "grace" looks like in situations more from her than anyone. I think one of the neatest/hardest things about being a parent is being able to kneel down to their level and see things thru their eyes with as much imagination and whole heartedness as they are capable of doing. You have to act like you have never seen a yellow bird before...b/c to them it's incredible. Sometimes that's hard to do..but we try. We have been telling her for months that when she turns 4 her taggie has to stay in her room; she has done great with that. Sometimes she disappears and goes into her room..for what she says is to have a few "sucks". Brad and I thought that was going to be a lot more difficult. I pray that God gives me more patience this year, and the wisdom to Shepherd her little heart in away that proves to be uplifting and encouraging to God. Parenting is not for Cowards....I need to read that book! Happy Birthday, Olivia!

She is officially 4!!

Giggles the balloon lady came and did face painting and made some really cool balloons for the kids.

Monica and Olivia

She is getting so tall

Olivia got so many nice gifts...she of course wanted me to wear the Hello Kitty party hat!

She got a huge piece of cake, I think she really only ate the icing.

Happy Birthday to me

Brad got a sitter and took me to Bonefish Grill. I love the bang, bang shrimp! Then we went to a park in Fishers and listened to a nice concert. Thanks honey for a great 32nd Birthday!

Olivia got me a pink lemonade candle, orange balloon and some straws. She was so excited to give me these gifts.

Brad got me a little birthday cake and had everyone sing to me after we celebrated Olivia's birthday with the family.