Terrific Two-year Old!

Olivia turned two on Saturday, and I can hardly believe it.  I thought her first year went fast, but her second year went by in the blink of an eye.  Really, my daughter is TWO?!

She is the sweetest little girl and so funny. We can hardly believe how she has changed...she was so serious in her first year year of life - it was all we could do to get her to "laugh," which, for her, was a whopping "he" sound.













A year later, she is constantly smiling and laughing, and is the ultimate ham! The picture above was taken on Friday when she stole my lipstick from my purse... she was so proud of herself! This little girl will come running up behind while you are sitting on the floor and jump on your back.  She'll tackle her brother, who is twice her size.  She is fearless to the point of jumping off diving boards in the deep end at 18 months old. 

She is the sweetest little mommy to her baby dolls.  She rocks them, feeds them, has us change their clothes.  She kisses them and loves on them, pushes them in the stroller, sits them in her shopping cart while she shops, puts them to bed and tells us to "shh."

Olivia dislikes wearing jeans.  She loves comfy play clothes, dresses, and especially her tu-tu from Grammy.  She even wore her tu-tu for her two-year pictures that we took with Ms. Jana a few days ago.  She will smile for the camera and say "cheese!"  She's got the 'run, stop, look back over your shoulder, and grin' pose down pat!

We had a Japanese cherry blossom themed party for her and invited a few of her little girl friends, neighbor Makenna, friends Vera and Madilyn, church buddy Clare, and bestie Charlotte. 

Olivia loves bouncy castles, so we rented one for the day. 

She was so excited - her face just lit up when they delivered it and blew it up!  It was hard to tear her away from the bounce house to open presents!

I had a lot of fun with the Japanese Cherry Blossom theme.  I made her invitations with my cricut machine and used it to cut the cherry blossom branches on it.  As you can see in the pictures, I made yakisoba noodles, which the kids loved, blossom-shaped sammies, edamame, fun candy "sushi," cherry blossom cheesecakes, etc. to go with the theme. 

I made the Happy Birthday Livy banner and decorated with the paper lanterns and faux-cherry blossom flowers (you can't see them here).  I am mad that I forgot to take a picture of the party favors, because they were my favorite: cherry blossom tins with pink-flowered coin purses and Japanese cherry blossom mini hand sanitizers from Bath and Body works (thanks Jen Farrell, you're the best!!).

The cake was the best! My talented friend Jenny made Olivia's birthday cake - a 3-layer strawberry-chocolate cake with beautiful cherry blossoms on the fondant.  I LOVED IT! She did such a great job!!  Here is a little video of us singing Happy Birthday.  It took her a minute to figure out the "blowing out the candles" part!



Birthday girl opening her presents... she loved them all. Special thanks to the grandmas for mailing her presents!  Olivia had so much fun - she was exhausted!  She took a 2-hour nap after the party, and slept past 8 a.m. for the first time EVER the next morning!  Then she took another 2-hour nap a few hours later!  I am now considering purchasing a bouncy house. :)

Sunflower Festival

 I blogged about the sunflower festival last year. It is one of my favorite festivals in a land of never-ending festivals!  The weather has finally turned from cool and rainy all the time to mostly sunny and a little warmer, and it was a gorgeous day to see the sunflowers.

 This year, Tommy was unexpectedly here to share it with us, and we were excited to show him the sunflower fields.  Wyatt especially remembered our trip last year and had a good time showing daddy the fields.

 Wyatt thought it would be fun to stand like a statue.  Olivia didn't see it as quite that much fun.

 As a general rule, sunflowers are not my favorite flower.  But there's something about these sunflower fields...  I think I could take pictures of these sunflowers all day!

 Wyatt is in his "I'm not going to smile nicely" stage right now.  He likes to squint his eyes or close them altogether and give me a cheesy look.  I have definitely noticed him growing more out of the "little" boy stage and into the "boy" stage lately. :(

This photo sequence of Olivia cracks me up.  She is starting to look like a little girl, and she certainly has her own little personality. These pictures exemplify her attitude toward life this far, from what I can observe - grab it and stick your face in it full force, but make sure you look cute doing it!!  She is my little firecracker!

The Livy 500

 Olivia gets these bursts of energy, and likes to run as fast as a speeding bullet from our couch, down the hall, full speed into the door (in the background), and back again to the couch.  Then she does it all over again!  She repeats this about 50 times!  Wyatt used to do this at her age, too, and we always got a kick out of it.  My mom gave her the lei she has around her neck - she loves it.  She wears it all the time! Or her babies do :)

She has a silk diaper cover on here too, which she really likes.  She is sort of going through a naked phase, where she likes to strip off all her clothes.  We have finally convinced her to leave her diaper on, I think!  I just love this picture because she looks so happy :)

Wyatt & Olivia's Baptism

Last year I blogged a little bit about the new church that we had found.  Tommy was raised Baptist and I was raised Catholic, and this church was a nice blend of the two religions for us.  The church (coincidentally) happens to be the same place as where Wyatt goes to preschool, and the priest (also coincidentally) happened to be one of our neighbors our first year here on Okinawa.  His two kids match up closely in age and gender to our kids, who played a lot together until they moved off base.

 We have been thinking about baptizing the kids for awhile now.  After much thought and discussion, we had them baptized on Sunday with our friends (Okinawan family) there to help us celebrate!  We hope that when they are older, that they will make the choice for themselves about what they believe... but we also believe it is our job as parents to help guide them in the right direction toward faith, which if I am being honest, is what has really helped us get through this tour in Okinawa.

 The kids did great with the service - despite the fact that Olivia had been awake since 4:50 a.m.!  She is an early bird, that girl.  She didn't even bat an eye when Father Esau poured the water over her head.

 Wyatt was a big ham as always - he had a big grin on his face all the while the water was being poured on!  It was awesome to have Father Esau be the one baptizing our kids, since we have a connection with him outside of the church as well.

 They gave each of the kids a baptism candle, and Olivia, seeing Wyatt holding his, desperately wanted to hold hers as well... a little frightening there for a minute as she was reaching and grabbing for candle and flame!

 I made a bunch of food for the reception at the church, and the church bought this cake, which Wyatt exclaimed was "beautiful!"

 The kid's table... I see lots of donuts and not much of the fruits and veggies and egg bakes that I made!!

We were so grateful that all of our friends here were there to witness and celebrate with us.  It really meant a lot to have them there since our family in the States obviously couldn't make the trip :)  It was a beautiful, sunny day to receive such a wonderful blessing!

Camping at Okuma

After Bunco on Saturday night, Tommy brought the kiddos up to Okuma on Sunday around Noon so that we could spend some time there as a family. They had never been to Okuma (I had been there once before on a scrapping weekend, about 2 years ago) and there is a lot to see and do there. Jenny and Amanda stayed too, with their husbands and kids, and we all rented log cabins.

The weather was pretty rainy, so we killed some time in the game room before it cleared up enough to go on the scenic walk around Okuma.  The kids had fun playing on this retaining wall... :)

 

Another picture from the top of the breathtaking view!  You can see the sun trying so hard to peek out of the clouds!  We walked down to the bottom and the kids all looked for sea shells and "treasures."


Tommy and I at the top of the hill... the kids were off running around somewhere :)  Next we played a round of miniature golf, but that didn't work out so well.  Because of the rain the holes were full of water and sand, and Olivia and Vera tried to eat/drink what was in them.  Wyatt and Harrison repeatedly tried to put their balls through the putt putt tunnels to see where they would end up.  Then they would fight over the balls.

We retired back to the cabins for a bit and started the fire and food.  The boys played with some trucks for awhile... I would love to know what they were discussing in the picture up there!  They look so serious.

 Little miss Olivia did not particularly like the smoke from the fire.  She wasn't feeling the best either, she and Wyatt both had a nasty cold and they were both very tired from the day's events. We tried to put them to bed...


...but that was a major struggle.  Olivia would almost fall asleep and something would happen... cell phone rang once, a troop of child bandits walked into the cabin once, a loud burst of laughter from the group next door... you name it, it happened and the kids just couldn't get to sleep.  Had we not both already had a beer, we would have driven her around in the car, but the legal limit on Okinawa is .03 so that wasn't going to work!  After almost 3 hours of trying, I finally took her outside by the camp fire and she fell asleep sitting in my lap.  After a frustrating night, it was fun to snuggle with her for awhile until the rain started in again.

It poured down rain all night on the tin roof and the kids woke up off and on.  We had planned to hike Hiji Falls in the morning, but when we woke it was still pouring, so we ate a quick breakfast at the restaurant and hit the road and went home.  Honestly, we were so tired it probably wouldn't have worked out anyway but the rest of the trip was so much fun that I know in a few years I won't remember the rain or the lack of sleep, and I will just have another great memory of Okinawa!

Lookee Here!

Lookee what I won!  My friend Marianne (the one who is coming to see me in February!) has a blog about their baby (Finn, the golden retriever) and has passed me the "Versatile Blogger" award!  I am honored to receive it!  Marianne and I met in grad school when we were hall directors together at the infamous Arizona State University and she was a reader in our wedding!

The award requires me to share seven things about myself, so here goes:
1. My kids crack me up.  Olivia insists on having all doors closed at all times.  No door shall remain open!  If a door is opened, it must be closed immediately!  This morning Wyatt told me that he wants to move back to Iowa NOW because it is way too hot here. When I reminded him that there is a lot of snow and ice in Iowa, he said "that's okay because I can make a hole in the ice and we can have a swimming pool.  But only for kids who are three, four, and five years old."

2. I am really, really, really afraid of driving over long bridges over water.  So living in DC was not a good choice for me.  My father-in-law used to take the "long" way and find a bridge to drive over (or under, through the water tunnel as is the case in DC sometimes) just to see me freak out!

3. That reminds me...I miss my father-in-law more than I ever thought, and think about him every day.  I especially hurt for my husband's loss and am so sad that my kids won't know their Papa!

4. Staying at home with my kids is waaaay better than I ever thought it would be. It is also way harder!  But they amaze me every day. I am so proud of the (usually) well-mannered little people they are becoming!

5. Being a military wife has been a huge blessing in my life.  It has forced me to become more flexible, adaptable, and patient - many things I still need to work on!  I love the friendships I have made, the places I have traveled, and most of all I am so proud of my husband and his service to our country!

6. I consider it a good day if I have not been pooped on, peed on, thrown up or spit-upped on.  However, I know that while the days may seem long, the years are definitely short and I am enjoying this crazy ride I am on called motherhood!

7.  I cannot wait to go to Taipei in a few weeks!!!! I am going with two friends on a girls' weekend and this will be my first weekend (first night, actually) away from Olivia ever.  I am super duper excited to get to travel and not have to plan around nap times and Mickey Mouse!!

And now, I am happy to pass the award on to my friend Nerissa, whose blog about her little ones never fails to bring a smile to my face.  She is full of great mommy ideas, fun family time, yummy recipes, and is the most thoughtful friend I have. She has sent us care packages for absolutely no reason since we first arrived on this island and they are always chock full of great surprises for me and the kids.  She just recently sent me a deployment care package and this is just one of the many reasons I love her!

Fire Department Tour

Now that it is summer and preschool is out, we have a playgroup for the kids in Wyatt's class.  Each parent hosts a week and is in charge of setting up whatever we do that day.  So far we have done parks/playgrounds and had a water fun day.  Yesterday one of the moms set up a tour of the Fire Department on Kadena Air Base and the kids had a great time!

 The Airmen showed them the ambulance and explained the different features and equipment and then the kids got to walk through it.  Then they did the same for the fire trucks - they showed them the jaws of life, the hoses, and other stuff that I have now forgotten :)  Then the kids got to walk through the mid-section of the fire truck where the bench was.  Wyatt asked several times why they didn't get to sit in the FRONT of the fire truck so they could drive it... I didn't have a good answer for him on that one!

All the kids got red fire hats and a bag full of goodies, including a KFD water bottle, caribeeners, pencils, fire pamphlets and information, and a gold firemen's badge.  They had a great time!

Our little lady looking very "fiery" red! :)

Easter Festivities!

As was the case last year, we had a wonderful Easter season filled with lots of fun celebrations.  We started off hosting our Easter party that I blogged about last week.  We are still eating the eggs from the egg dyeing session!!  The kids both actually liked the egg salad I made - yay! I'll be making that again!

Then Wyatt had his Easter programs at his preschool this week.  He sang most of the words but wasn't too excited about doing the actions.  He mostly held his hands in the air and twisted his body around from side to side!  He is so funny.  The kids did an excellent job, though.

This Easter I got to play mommy, daddy, AND the Easter Bunny!  Here are some shots of the kiddos opening their Easter baskets (notice the note left by the Easter bunny), followed by a package from Grandma Gretchen, which the kids both loved as well.  They have long since opened their package from Grandy Cathy!


The kids and I went to Good Friday and Easter morning church services.  Well, actually the kids stayed in the child care room while I went to the services... I am not brave enough to have them both with me yet alone!  Wyatt wouldn't be a problem, but Olivia can't sit still for the life of her!  I still dressed them up in their Easter clothes, though... a great reason to take some pictures!

Then in the afternoon on Easter day we drove up to Yomitan to my friend Colleen's house.  The weather was gorgeous again so the kids had a fun egg hunt!  Olivia wasn't too into the egg hunt but Wyatt was off and running!! 

They have a beautiful patio upstairs off their kitchen that was perfect for sitting out enjoying the beautiful weather and great food.  We had a great day and I am always so thankful for my extended Okinawa "family!"