More Fun with Grandma and Grandpa!

As I mentioned in the birthday post, Andy's parents were in town last week and we had so much fun with them!  Since Saturday was mostly taken up by Olive's birthday party, on Sunday we went to the annual art in the garden fair at the Botanical Gardens.  We went to the same event with my mom last year when I was approximately 700 months pregnant and due to have Olive within the next two days...I will report that I had a much more enjoyable time this year! 

When we got to the gardens, we were greeted by a young moose! 

Olive enjoyed being pushed around and looking at all the fun art and flowers.

This was one of her favorites...not really my cup of tea, but appealing to a one year old, apparently.

The flowers were so pretty!

I love peonies! I can't wait for mine to bloom.

There was a lady at the gardens from a local bird rehab facility with a great horned owl that Olive loved.

Isn't he pretty? His name is Hoot:

And the Zoo brought its "teaching porcupine" Peggy Sue.

Isn't she cute?

Speaking of the Zoo, we also took advantage of our close proximity and walked to the Alaska Zoo one day to check out the animals. Although we brought the stroller, Olive really likes to be out to get a better look at the animals while we're there.  The yak is one of her favorites.

How can you not love the yak!?

We also saw a squirrel visiting his friend in captivity.  How nice! (I think he was stealing food, actually).

Olive was really interested in the trees that are all around the zoo.

The animals were being particularly silly while we were there.  This brown bear is rubbing his butt on a tree.

The zoo has three orphaned brown bears right now (I think they're headed to Minnesota soon) and they are SO CUTE.  They look like teddy bears come to life.

We had so much fun around town, but there's more from the trip to share.  Thanks for being patient with me while I sort through pictures and get them up on the blog.  I always think that I'll have lots of time during the week, but after chasing Olive around and going to work, I basically collapse every day.  I try to use nap time to catch up, but it doesn't seem like the little stinker wants to take her afternoon nap today.  Looks like we're in for a long afternoon! Pray for us!

Birthday Girl!

Can you believe this little lady is ONE already?  Where did the last year go?? 

I don't know what her face is here, but I love it.

I've been absent from blogging for awhile because we've been so busy! Andy's parents flew up for a visit and we've been enjoying a great Alaskan summer.

Last weekend we threw a first birthday party for miss Olive.  We invited pretty much everyone we know, and figured that since it was before the long weekend for the 4th that we'd have a huge crowd, but most of our friends ended up being out of town. Oh well, more cupcakes for us!

In the morning, even though it wasn't her birthday officially, we let Olive open her presents, mostly because the presents from the Naylor grandparents required Grandpa's assembly skills.

Olive got the cutest little rocking moose.  Perfect for this Alaskan girl!

And a really adorable mini-sized table and chair set.  The downstairs family room is officially the playroom now! 

She loves the little table.  What is it with kids and tiny furniture??

My parents sent her a little people farm set, just like the one that she played with and loved at their house.

Here she is getting mad at me that I'm not unwrapping it fast enough...

She loves it!

For some reason, the hay bale is her favorite piece.  You would think she'd like an animal, but no.

Andy and I got her a water table to play with on the deck.  This is better than playing in either the plastic tub or the dog dish (for us anyway).

We also got her some fun balloons, which she absolutely loved, and for some reason only lasted less than 12 hours (the latex ones anyway) glad they were cheap!

This balloon was a hit...but it was sometimes scary, too...

After a mid-day nap, she was ready to party!

I channeled my inner Martha and made cupcakes with lots of fun colors of icing that I dyed myself. I'm considering quitting my job to become a professional cupcake froster.

Olivia's buddy Jaxson from her daycare came to the party, which was so fun.  He's about two weeks older than her and we had a great time at his party in early June. Isn't he cute?

He ALWAYS has those two fingers in his mouth.  So much easier than the pacifier!

She had a difficult time sharing her stuff with him.

We grilled burgers and hot dogs and Olive ate about 10 lbs of watermelon (she mostly loved chewing on the rind, which is kind of weird, but it made her happy so we let her do it).

I also let her play with my paper plate after dinner not realizing it was full of condiments.

Do I have something on my face?

After dinner it was time for cake!

My coworker made Olive that bib. Isn't it adorable?!

She was very distracted in her chair...someone was on the deck playing with her stuff, and she was stuck!

Finally she went for the cupcake.  A little frosting at first...

And then she got more into it.  But always keeping an eye on Jaxson down below...

It was a great party!!

I'm 1!

The day after her birthday, we took her to the doctor and got the full stats.  She's so big now! She's 30.5 inches tall (91st percentile), 20 lbs, 15.5 inches (69th percentile) and her head is still in the 100th percentile.  What a big girl!

From this:

To this!

In one year she grew almost ten inches and twelve and a half pounds (really she's gained more weight than that with her losing more than a pound after birth and gaining so slowly after that).  She's kept her bright blue eyes (from the Danish side of my family I think) and she has this full head of strawberry blond curls from her dad that I'm totally envious of! She continues to be a busy, active baby (toddler?!), and as her personality comes out, we love her more and more each day.  She's funny, curious, and happy most of the time...except when she's frustrated.  She loves music and animals, eating (finally), and she loves books (especially "reading" them to herself).  She is always on the go and we end most days completely worn out, but we wouldn't have it any other way.  Happy Birthday, Olive! 

She loves Ripley so much, and she's even learned to be gentle with him most of the time.  It's so great to see them together.  What a pair!

This is her immediate reaction to frustrating situations.  Her walker ran into the wall and she couldn't figure out how to move it, so, meltdown! I have a feeling that the next few years will be filled with a lot of moments like this.

Look how she's grown!!