My little one...

My sweet and spunky little one turned FIVE last week.  5.  A Whole Hand.  She just doesn't listen to me when I tell her to slow down!

Where in the world does the time go?  

        

                                She went from this ......                                                to this.....

          in the blink of an eye. 

All I can say is that this little girl has changed our family.  She is the best of both worlds.  She is sweet and loves to dress up and play with dolls, yet she doesn't mind going out and playing football with a bunch of the neighborhood BOYS.  Seriously, she wears her princess outfits and gets right in there and plays like it's totally normal to wear pink and plastic high heels to play football.  

                   

I love it.  I love her.  I love having another little girl around here.  She is my buddy, my other-half and my best friend.  We love Olivia around here and she certainly loves us right back.

I will list some things off the top of my head that I've observed over that past year, feel free to skip the list.  I'm sure it'll be too long, there is lots to love about cute Liv.  But I want to remember them when she's older.  I really should keep a piece of paper handy to write stuff down as the year goes on because I always forget so much.

This past year she has grown so much:

She's tall for her age, she wears a size 6.  She's solid, she weighs exactly 42 lbs.  

She wears a size 12-13 shoe. She LOVES shoes, just like her mom.  

Her hair grows like a weed (I've given her several big hair cuts this past year and it is still as long as ever).  She likes her hair best when it's curly and always loves a bow in her hair.  She loses at least one hair bow a week.  

She can hold her own in a fight with her brothers.  

She's very Independent.

She's tough.  

She's sensitive.  

She still runs to the door every night that dad comes home and yells, "Daddy's home!" 

She rarely cries about things, but when she does, it can break your heart.

She's our 'salty-and-sweet' one.  

She used to want to marry Justin Bieber but the past few months she said she doesn't want to get married anymore because she wants to stay a little kid forever and live with mom and dad.  That sounds good to me.  ;) 

She got her ears pierced and was very brave.  No tears.   

Sometimes she thinks she's in charge of the 'boys' as she calls them.  She really likes telling them what to do, they, on the other hand do not.  She's in a tattle-tale phase, we are working on that.

She's great at making messes.  Our house is always a mess with her dolls, barbies, tea sets, toys, play food everywhere.

She always wants her toes and fingers painted with glitter nail polish.  Aunt Heidi gave her the cutest little sparkle nail polish kit for her birthday, you would have thought she opened $100.  :)

She loves big bubble baths with mom.  She likes to spike her hair with shampoo bubbles, and give us bubble beards, she thinks it's so funny.  She loves it when I let her finger paint with the shaving cream.    The baths with me will have to stop soon, very soon, but I love them too.  

She likes to style and blow dry my hair.  She preferres my hair curly.  She tells me if she thinks my outfit is 'weird'.  

She is not shy at all.  She will go up to anyone and talk to them, she always has a lot to say.  After a minute with them, she has a new best friend.

She likes to take pictures.  Every time I download pictures on my computer, I have tons of pictures of feet, or stuffed animals and barbies, or the ceiling or even silly faces of herself. 

She learned to swim, roller skate, pump on the swing, and ride her bike without training wheels this year.

She rides her pink princess bike on the dirt bike track with all the boys.  She's always the only girl out there and she's always the littlest one on the track.  She has no fear. 

She always wants to go running with her dad.  He usually takes her around the block and she will come home and give me a high five.  Then she waits for him to finish his run.

Her and I have a secret handshake.

She is learning her letters and numbers, and she LOVES to draw and color and really loves her preschool class.  She's made some great friends there.  She brings a card or picture to give to someone every day that she has preschool.  Her teacher said she will get down and wrestle with the boys one minute, and the next minute she's playing kitchen with the girls.

She has a cute/full/round rear-end that Dan and I love to pinch!  She hates that.  Especially when we pinch her on the way up the stairs.  She says, "ugh, that drives me crazy!"

She really wishes she had a little brother or sister to take care of.  For now, she will have to take care of little Lucy and Russell her newest niece and nephew.  

She loves to catch Rolly-polly bugs and spiders and make houses for them.  

She has discolored front teeth from a fall she had as a toddler.  It reminds me of her adventurous toddler years when she climbed on everything.  I have a feeling by her next birthday she will have lost her front teeth.  She had a couple of cavities filled this year (oops) and wasn't scared one bit.

She wishes she could wear her swimsuit or her disney princess dresses every day.  

She changes her clothes multiple times a day which drives me nuts.  But her tutu and leg warmers eventually get 'itchy' so she has to get a new set every few hours.  I told her to wear a certain pair of tights for church one day and she did NOT want to and told me, "I'll Do what I Want!"  Oh boy! 

She loves to sing and dance.  She is so cute when she plays Just Dance.  She knows how to shake it!  We love dance parties in our bedroom on Sunday nights.  Last week we had a Muppet's soundtrack Dance party.  (great new soundtrack by-the-way)
She will skip everywhere she goes.

She LOVES her stuffed animals and has WAY TOO MANY in her room. 

She asked Santa for a pink teddy bear with a pink bow in it's ear. 

She makes sure that she always has 3 animals in bed with her and always makes sure that they have a pillow and blanket covering them so that they don't get cold.    

She has a couple of boys in her class who have mini crushes on her and we love to tease her about that.  She brought home her first 'love' note/picture last week from Luke.  Keaton did not like that, he is already protective of his little sister.  He wants to meet the boys and tell them to stay away from her!  

She has a crush on Justin Bieber and asked for his perfume for her birthday present.  

She thinks she's old enough to dress herself and she is very sure about what she wants to wear every day.  It's almost impossible to change her mind once it's made up about something, and her outfits rarely include jeans.    

She eats her lipgloss because it tastes good. 

She still loves princess movies and cartoons.  

She is drawn to anything with glitter on it.  She loves to wear it, do art with it.  Anything.  It's so 'BEAUTIFUL' if it's shiny!

She will spend hours playing with playdoh.

Her best friends here are Shiori, Lilly, and DeLorey.  

Her favorite family activity is going to the movies or to the library.  

She loves to go shopping with mom.  Her favorite store is Target.  

She has the cutest little lisp when she talks.  She doesn't always say her L's right, they are usually W's.  So it's Wuke, not Luke,  I Wuv you, and Wittle Wucy.  We had her speech tested and she passed just fine.  She will outgrow it, she's already starting to, but for now, I think it's pretty cute.

She memorized her Christmas program line for school and her Primary Program part.  She loves to perform and doesn't get scared at the microphone.

Her favorite food is lettuce wraps.

She sings with me in the car.

She looks out the window every morning in hopes for a big snow storm.  She loves the snow.

She says the sweetest prayers every night.  She always prays that she hopes Jesus is happy and that she was glad he was born.  She loves church and Primary.  She NEVER lets us forget to bless our food.

Her favorite song for me to sing at bedtime is "You are my Sunshine".  

Her favorite song to sing to me is "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star".   

Her favorite color right now is purple.  But that could change next week.  

She loves to help cook in the kitchen.  

Her new favorite word is 'absolutely'.  Or absowutely! 

When she grows up she wants to design clothes.  A fashion designer.  I think she's watched the Barbie Fashion Fairytale movie too many times.   

She is anxious to be in Kindergarten next year.  I am not.  I will miss her by my side all day.  But she will be a great student and friend.

She is really, really good about giving hugs and kisses.  

She is really good at holding grudges.  

She is my only 'morning' child.  In fact, she's the only 'morning person' in our house.  She's always the first one to fall asleep at night and the first one up in the mornings and I love it when she comes and cuddles in bed.  She always scratches my back.  It's very sweet.

She eats her cereal dry.  No milk.  But her favorite drink is steamed milk. 

She loves watching football with her dad, she also loves going to sporting events, especially baseball games. 

She really wants to go to Disneyland this year and meet the princesses.  Her favorite is Ariel.  

Her goal this year is to get a new puppy.  We will see about that one.    

We just love that little bundle of joy.

Right now, I hear her singing along with Dora The Explorer.  She makes me happy.

Here are some pictures of her big 5th birthday.  

She was very specific on what she wanted for breakfast in bed.  Bacon and LINK sausage, Eggs, and Strawberries and oranges.

The one activity she wanted to do on her birthday was go to Build-A-Bear.  She made a bear and named her 'Heart-y'.

She was completely spoiled!  Thank you to everyone who sent gifts.  She loved everything!

Her 'party' day was on a Saturday.  We made a whole day out of it.  Britt and Shawn came in the morning and we went to her Preschool program at school.  We had lunch at Red Robin.  We went to see Santa.  Then we ended the day at Chuck-E-Cheese.  It was a fun-filled day full of all things Olivia.  

Here is her Preschool Christmas Program.  She was a lamb.  

Red Robin and Chuck-E-Cheese.  Notice the bottom right pictures on the collage.  Olivia got some tattoos from Britt and Olivia wanted matching tattoos with Lucy on their cheeks.  :)  

I still can't believe my baby is 5.  What a big milestone.  We love you little one.