Four in February!

Little Olivia turned 4 years old and had so much fun being the birthday girl. She loved taking donuts to her preschool class to celebrate and asked us to sing to her many times when we had a mini family party a few days before. She loved meeting grandpa for a birthday lunch and requested a birthday pedicure out of the blue. She loved waking up to a chocolate cake and Disney decorations and she especially loved her birthday party at Pump it Up with all of her favorite friends. They bounced and jumped and ran wild for a good two hours and afterwards ate cupcakes and cheetos and M&Ms. The whole birthday was Minnie Mouse themed and the red and white classic Minnie costume was on the top of Olivia's wish list. She was thrilled to open each of her presents from everyone and was so surprised that so many people thought to bring or send her a gift. It was a special week of celebrating our little lady and once again Ben and I find ourselves praying that time will slow down.




Things about Olivia at age 4:
* Olivia is very passionate about clothing. She has opinions on what she wants to wear and with what accessories and there are definitely outfits that she thinks are perfect for certain occasions. I have learned to give her two options and then make her commit.
* Livi is a dancer. She is learning quickly in her ballet class and dances around the house all day every day.
* She still loves Neenus and has added Cheezits to her list. She eats most of her calories before noon everyday and then mostly snacks.
* Olivia loves Isabelle and cries if Belle ever gets in trouble. Belle is the person she runs to if she gets her feelings hurt and her favorite thing to do everyday is find some time to play with her big sister.
* Livi has lately decided she is "scared" in the dark, or in the bathroom alone, etc, and we cannot wait until she gets over this phase.
* She is getting super fast on her micro mini and spends some time everyday outside cruising.
* Olivia has decided that she wants to marry Robin Hood and it melts my heart every time she says it. I hope she always does! Ha ha.
* Livi loves to cook and asks me most days what we can bake. She loves following the recipe and likes me to go through the check list after every ingredient.
* Olivia knows all of her letters and most of the sounds they make but is not overly interested in working on them daily. She rather run, jump, do flips and dance.

Sugar and spice and everything nice. Sounds just like our Olivia.

LOVE

I love love! I love February. I love hearts and pink and sugar cookies and flowers. I love Valentines Day!

Both girls made love-note boxes for school this year and spent an entire workout for Ben and I making them. It was fun for Olivia to understand the holiday a little bit more this year and we laughed when she wrote OLIVIA as well as SAHNN on her box. She enjoyed passing out her cute Valentines we made and had so much fun eating ice cream sundaes with her classmates.

Isabelle counted down the days until her class party and couldn't wait to read the special notes from each of her friends. She has such a cute teacher this year and Mrs Steed makes everything fun and special.



Valentines Day was actually a school holiday this year so Ben and I surprised the girls with a trip to the Houston Childrens Museum downtown. They ask to go there at least weekly and were beyond thrilled for the day trip. We spent the day climbing, building, make-believing, and learning. We took a break for a few minutes and had lunch at the museum cafe and then spent several more hours exploring. It was a good family day and we left tired and a little bit more in love. I love love.

January - The month in review

After all of the sickness and business of December, gloomy January was like a breath of fresh air. We still managed to stay super busy running from place to place but we enjoyed some quieter moments as a family as well.

Isabelle lost her second tooth and proudly represented her school at a 2nd Grade UIL writing competition. Olivia baked and baked and spent an entire month dressed as Pinkalicious. We enjoyed a day ice skating with our friends and had fun playing on our new IPADs and NABI. It was a cold(ish) month and we loved drinking hot cocoa while watching tv as a family. 2014 is off to a great start!

Creekside Spurs

Isabelle loves to be busy. She wants to participate in everything and so far loves pretty much everything she tries. She really hopes to be more athletic and I think since basketball was both her mom and dad's sport growing up, she really wants to be a basketball star.

This past winter Isabelle played on the Creekside 2nd Grade Girls basketball team and was lucky enough to be a SPUR. Ben got wrangled into coaching again but had a great assistant who LOVES to coach and was a big help. Isabelle loved going to practice each week and loved playing with buddies from school. She seemed to really get the sport better than some previous sports and Ben and I were both thrilled when she showed some real potential. She was tough on defense and was a great ball handler. She dribbled great and was a star when she brought the ball down the court. She mastered the bounce pass better than anyone else on the team and led the team one game with 6 points. She never got the hang of rebounding and still had moments where she was thinking too much to function, but overall she had a stellar season.

Ben was a fantastic coach as expected. He was patient and soft but tough and strong as well. The girls all loved him and I felt bad for him sometimes when he was trying to talk to them all together in a huddle and he had more than one hanging on him or hugging him or something. They all loved Coach Ben and gave him a nice card and gift at the end of the season.

Olivia loved the basketball season too. She played on the court with the other little siblings during practices and ran back and forth from mom in the bleachers and dad coaching during the games. She especially loved that she always got the post-game snack along with the team.

The highlight of the season was the trophey the girls were presented with at our Spurs Basketball party. Isabelle has been waiting for something other than a medal and was so proud to accept her real trophey. It was a fun few winter basketball months and if soccer didn't start two weeks later, we may just sign back up for another round of basketball right away. Go Isabelle!

December - The end of a busy year

December was a whirlwind like mentioned in previous posts but we of course had fun along the way. We visited with Santa at the annual Cookies with Santa event at CFES and I was once again the chairman of the event. It was exhausting but rewarding and Ben and I were both glad when it was off our calendar. The girls attended many holiday parties...at their schools, friends homes, church and so on. We went to our traditional Nutcracker performance a few weeks before the girls performed it themselves and this year we took Olivia too. She had never seen the production in the big theater and she loved every single minute of it.




Olivia discovered her love for salad and comes home everyday from preschool with shoes full of sand. I don't know how she can stand to walk with sandy socks all day. Isabelle had Polar Express Day at school and wore her reindeer nightgown and continues to hang out with Paloma and Emily most days at school. Ben traveled multiple times to snowy weather destinations and tried to take a picture one night to text the girls. I think we were all a little relived when December came to an end and life began to slow down just a bit. Life is a funny thing, the days often seem so long but the weeks fly by too quick. Now we are on to the new 2014 and have new goals and great expectations once again. According to Oprah, Cheers to a New Year, and another chance for us to get it right.