Catch up!

Apologies for writing about Christmas in March.  I'll try to at least post every month if I can!

First of all, Olive hit 18 months on January 1 and she's enormous! She was 33.5" tall (91st percentile), 23 lbs, 14 oz (65th percentile) and her head was in the 99th percentile (back on the charts for the first time in months!).  How did she get so big??!

As I mentioned in the last post, the weather has been pretty lame this winter.  We've had some warm days, which can be nice, but many of those have come with rain, not snow.  We've been enjoying a lot of indoor activities over the past couple of months.

Olive is my best helper around the house these days.  I can pretty much always rely on her to respond when I say "Come help me!" which is a helpful tool whenever I want her to stop doing something. I've been on a big organization kick trying to make our house feel bigger (since all the toys and toddler junk keep multiplying and taking over the house) One day, we moved all of the food in the kitchen into the hall closet to actually use it as a pantry.  She was so helpful with her shopping cart!

We find new and exciting games to play around the house like laundry basket rollercoaster...

and "selfie"...

A couple of weeks ago, we went to the zoo.  Now that she's really good at walking, she doesn't like to be confined to the stroller.

Hey you! Musk ox! I see you!

She swapped hats with dad while she was on his shoulders.  Andy doesn't look too happy about it.

She loved the otters, who were playing with her through the glass...

What else is new.... Oh! We're planning to upgrade the Subaru! Not that we dislike the car, but when we have visitors, it's no fun to cram four adults and a car seat (and usually Ripley) into the forester.  We're thinking three rows is the way to go.  A couple of weeks ago, we hit up the dealerships around town to check out our options.  Olive loved the Toyota dealership because they had about 10 different cars in the showroom she could play in.  She was a big fan of the rav-4.  Too small, Olive!

She's cuter than the toyota girl.

We finally picked something after a few long days of looking.  It's on the boat from California as we speak.  I'll do a whole post about it when it gets here (and we give them all our money!).

In January we started Olive in a tumbling class.  It's really fun to see her run around with about 10-15 other toddlers between 18 months and three years old.  Some kids really love it and go crazy (mostly the boys).  Olive hated it until about three weeks ago.  Now she can't wait to go to 'nastics every week!

This was week one... a little bit cautious...

She is working on getting confidence with the bigger stuff.  She doesn't like to jump off of things (thankfully)

This was her a couple of weeks ago.  All smiles and enjoying the class!

And this was last week! yay!

The rings are her favorite! She loves to hang and swing her legs around. She's getting strong!

Last weekend we went to Potter's Marsh to see if any birds had arrived yet.  It was FREEZING cold and windy.  We stayed about three minutes, but Olive loved walking on the boardwalk.  It will definitely be a fun place to visit this summer!

And this weekend was the start of the Iditarod.  We braved the crowds and went downtown to watch some of the dogs run.  We had so little snow this winter, and it warmed up so much in recent weeks, that they had to haul seven box cars full of snow on the railroad to Anchorage from Fairbanks just to have a little starting path.  It was pretty sad and then, by some miracle, we got a couple of inches of snow on Friday.  Just enough to make the roads treacherous and make it look like winter again.  I think the dogs appreciated it!

We stopped and got Olive a new hat before the race.  This is a kids' hat, not even toddler sized.  God her head is huge.

We got a free balloon.  She enjoyed it more than watching the dogs.

There they go!

That's about all we've been up to.  Looking forward to spring hopefully soon! 

Christmas??!

Having a toddler sucks up all my free time, and when she's sleeping all I want to do is put my feet up and recharge my batteries in anticipation of her getting up and needing all my attention again.  (Last night Andy said that waking up on the weekends with a toddler in the house is like someone waking you up by throwing you out of a car...which is the most perfect parenting analogy I've ever heard). So yes, I fully acknowledge that it's March and I'm just now blogging about Christmas, but considering the fact that Andy just took the Christmas Fur Rondy lights down today, I think I'm doing pretty good! So here it is...Christmas 2015!

I decorated! and we bought monogrammed stockings.  Also, due to some weird mixup at Pottery Barn, they initially sent us two "mom" stockings (progressive!) and then sent us an entire additional set of these same stockings.  So if you know anyone who wants a "mom" "dad" and "Olivia" stocking in the below patterns, give me a call. 

Love our fake tree.  I never thought I'd say that, but it takes about 20 minutes to put up and take down and no needles everywhere.

I tried to take some good pictures of Olivia for our Christmas card, but failed miserably so I went with some other pictures we had taken during the year.

She was obsessed with the stockings.

My parents came on Christmas Eve to spend a few days with us.  We got a family picture out of the deal (At least one of us is looking at the camera...win!)

Mom made this adorable owl blanket for Olivia and she loves it SO much (can you tell she likes owls? her stocking, her shirt...).  She sleeps with her owl blankie every night.

I made roasted chicken, potatoes, stuffing and green beans.  Olivia graduated from her high chair to a booster seat shortly before Christmas and enjoyed eating at the table with everyone and sitting by Oma.

Family photo!

After dinner I lit up the "jesus helicopter" for Olive to watch.  She loved it! (She's kind of obsessed with fire...)

After we put Olivia to bed, mom and I watched White Christmas while dad and Andy spent hours putting Olive's christmas present (one of many!) together - a new play kitchen! Looks like hard work...

In the morning, Olivia was freaking out about the presents.  Mostly her shopping cart!

She enjoyed delivering presents to everyone with it.  Nice hair, huh?

Need coffee...

I "helped" Olivia with her stocking.  She got a bunch of plastic animals to go with her Little People zoo and some other small stocking stuffers. We could have stopped with the stocking and shopping cart and she would have been thrilled (but of course we didn't...in retrospect she would have been perfectly happy with a box...see below).

I look so awesome in the morning, I know.

After we opened presents upstairs and did our traditional Ebelskiver breakfast, we went downstairs to check out the kitchen.  she LOVED it. 

The phone is one of her favorite parts.  She likes making phone calls while she cooks.

Uncle Bryan and Auntie Deedee got her a tea set, which is also a big hit in the Naylor house.  Uncle Mike and Auntie Kelly got her the plastic food for her kitchen.  She has so much good play stuff! 

You may notice her awesome head wound. She went face first into the box spring on our mattress about a week before Christmas.  Thankfully, it didn't leave a scar.

Love the kitchen! She especially loves putting everything away.  She inherited something from her Auntie Kelly I think...

Andy's parents also sent some incredible presents, including a CAR for Olive.  She could just sit in it all day long.

Running over papa!

She still (even now) hasn't really figured out how to push it, so she demands that someone push her up and down the hallway.  Opa got a few (hundred) laps in during the visit.  He also scored extra points for assembling the car.  Yay Opa!

Andy's parents also sent the most ADORABLE little cowboy boots.  Olive loved them so much that she couldn't wait until she was dressed to put them on.  This is a good look!

Of all the presents, the box that the car came in might have been one of the best things Olive got this Christmas (and Fro for that matter)...

The weather wasn't great when my parents were in town.  We have had (again) one of the least snowy winters in history in Anchorage, and when my parents landed, I think it was about six degrees outside. By the time they left a few days later, it was pushing 40 and the little bit of snow that we did have was starting to melt.  Even still, we made it downtown to do some shopping while they were here.  The Captain Cook hotel was a big hit with all of the pretty decorations and giant gingerbread house.

Somebody loves her Opa!

Olive especially enjoyed wild through the hallways.  Love that 70s honeycomb tile!

The visit was too short - it was really nice to see Olive finally ENJOY Oma and Opa (she was a little scared the last time we saw them).  We've tried to facetime a few times since then and she's really liked that, though recently we hung up and she ran to the stairs and said "OPA! OPA!" thinking he was in the guest room :( I guess we need to book some more visits soon!