Olivia's first Halloween

I've got door duty tonight, giving out candy, while the girls are off trick-or-treating with Daddy. Although it's Olivia's first time doing this, she's a quick study! Here is a picture I took of my snow princesses right before they left.

Today was also Olivia's first gymnastics class and she was very excited about it. The teacher said she followed directions well and fit in perfectly with all the other four and five year olds. When I asked if there were any communication problems, the teacher laughed and said there weren't...and added that she loves to say "watch me" and "look at me!" Yep, that's my girl, totally opposite from her big sister who hates to be in the lime light. Olivia loves attention and is very confident, outgoing and independent. It's funny to watch this little tiny one walk with such purpose, head held high and swinging her arms as if she's on a mission! She's our little spitfire!

Tomorrow night we're off to the circus! Another first for Olivia!

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"Catch Me!"

P.S.
It just dawned on me that tomorrow marks 8 months since we first met Olivia! Our Gotcha Day was February 27 and you can see that entry here.

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In case you've been fooled by the pony tails and clips, Olivia's hair is still pretty short, but it is coming along nicely. Here you can see that we're still in the process of growing out her bangs...and you can see why it's usually pulled up out of her eyes!

In addition to her hair growing, I think she's finally had a little growth spurt :) I think it's just happened in the last week or so because suddenly the pants she's been wearing since we met in China are high waters! I noticed it yesterday and thought it was odd that the pants that were fine last week are suddenly so short. Then today a second pair was also short so I checked her against her tick marks on the wall and, by George, the girl has grown at least an inch! Finally :) She's going to be five soon and she's still in 18-24 months clothes! No one believes she's four, and they'll really think we're crazy when we say she's five!

School Picture Day

Today is school picture day and I decided not to throw any more money away on sight unseen pictures that almost never turn out well...so,before school this morning, I decided to take the annual school picture myself! These are my favorites that I'll get made into wallet size, etc. When I was done, the girls wanted to pose together, which I thought was kind of sweet. I threw some clips in Olivia's wild morning hair and snapped a few more pix. I'm pleased with how they turned out :)

Sisters

I took these pix tonight as the girls were (supposed to be) getting ready for bed. I'm continually amazed by how easily Olivia became a part of our family and how well the girls have adjusted to being sisters :)

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Princess Olivia

Every day now Olivia hauls out one of Emily's princess dresses and asks for help getting it on over her clothes. Today was no exception and I let her keep it on for her nap and getting Emily from school where she basked in the compliments! I took a picture just now to post here. She is kinda cute, isn't she?

Wednesday we went to the dentist, an appointment I wasn't looking forward to since a few molars are brown. At first things weren't looking so good when the hygeinist said three out of four molars needed fillings. However, when the dentist came in, he said the teeth weren't actually decayed--as they appeared--but were discolored due to decalcification. Since they are hard as rocks (vs. soft and decayed) he said he's just leave them alone :) In the end, she has one small cavity that needs to be filled, but her teeth aren't as bad as I thought. Phew! I'm still not looking forward to that filling, but one small one is much less daunting than what I expected.

"Yes, I know, Mama"

Olivia found Emily's play make-up and got busy beautifying with some lovely blue eye shadow. When I said she looked nice, her matter of fact reply was, "yes, I know, Mama." Hmmm...no confidence issues here :)

Two new exciting developments

...exciting to Emily anyway!

1. Daddy added MONKEY BARS to our swing set!! Emily has been in love with and begging for monkey bars for 3-4 years now and Daddy assembled some last weekend! Hope we're not on the tail end of that window for enjoyment, but at least Olivia's still an up-and-coming monkey!

2. On Monday it occurred to me that we had three soon-to-be-expiring reward flights...that Andy has more vacation days to burn (which we didn't realize this summer)... and that Emily has the first week of January off from school... Hmmm...perfect excuse to escape the cold and introduce Olivia to sunny Florida and Disney World! By Tuesday, we bit the bullet on Olivia's expensive holiday flight (not so bad when the other three are FREE!) and booked flights!

By Thursday I'd reserved another beautiful new 3BR 2.5BA town house with it's own pool in addition to having a full kitchen and washer/dryer. I love getting a bargain--especially at peak season--and am thrilled to report that it cost less than a hotel room, at a whopping $85/n. Click here for pix and virtual tours of the town homes themselves and here for pix of the brand new Encantada resort. This is the same builder as the townhouse we stayed in in 2006, but different location. I don't get commission, but if anyone's heading for Disney, I can refer you to the rent-by-owner site where I get good deals :)

Emily is excited! Disney and Florida don't mean anything to Olivia yet, but I think our littlest princess will fit right in with royalty at the castle :) We'll be in Florida Dec. 28-Jan. 5, the day our reward flights would have expired. How perfect is that? We can still have Christmas at home with family, but before the after Christmas let-down has a chance to settle in, we'll whisk off to sunnier pastures :)