Build A Bear, Thanksgiving, and Decorating!

Time to play catch up!
The weekend before Thanksgiving, we took Olivia to Cherry Creek Mall to check out the new indoor playground (it has been COLD lately!). It was super crowded, but she liked it!



They just completed the new playground- it was breakfast food and now it is Looney Tunes.







I had a coupon for Build A Bear, so we headed there next. She picked out a Christmas moose, but was kind of scared of the stuffing machine. She did pick out a heart:



She loved giving her an air bath:



We have since decided that she is too young for Build A Bear. She just didn't really get it and we spent $20 on (another) stuffed animal. Naturally, she liked the box it came in the best and insisted on carrying it by herself. Which proved to be difficult, considering the size of the box:




We spent Thanksgiving with the lovely Twiss family (we also ate with them 2 years ago). We were really excited, because they are great cooks, ha! We split up the sides and desserts and everything was wonderful. We had such a great time just hanging out and eating!



Sweet Liza made everyone a Pilgrim, Indian, or Turkey hat:



And I do mean everyone- we even got Michael to wear his for a picture:



How cute is that?! Baby Beckham was asleep during the picture, but not to worry- he got to wear his turkey hat (complete with beak and gobbler) when he woke up:



Olivia looooooves this baby:



I know I've said it before and I'll say it again- we are really lucky to have such great neighbors!

Thanksgiving night found me at Toys R Us at 8:30. Michael thought I was crazy for leaving so early, but people were lined up around the building when I got there. I'm not sure how long the first people in line had been there, but they had chairs and a propane heater! They started letting people in the door at 9:30. They let in 50-75 people every 10 minutes. I got in around 10:15 and found everything on my list except for 1 thing! Then I waited in line for another hour to pay. Luckily, Michael gave me my anniversary present early (a Kindle!), so I read while I waited!

We didn't really do much more Black Friday shopping. Not worth the trouble, although I saved almost $100 at Toys R Us- love that they opened at night. I would much rather stay up late than get up early!

We put up our Christmas tree today. It made my heart smile to see Olivia pulling out all the ornaments.



She was more interested in decorating herself:



She was especially interested in playing with the Nativity:





I love decorating the tree. The ornaments bring back so many sweet memories:











Love it!



She got tired of decorating and went with Daddy to play her new favorite game: hide in the fort!





I love that she thinks she can put a blanket on her head and we can't see her! Hope you had a great Thanksgiving!

Girls Night

Michael had inventory last Friday night, so Olivia and I were on our own. We headed to the outlets to get her a heavy winter coat, then I took her to Red Robin. Red Robin is a very kid friendly burger restaurant. We sat in a 2-seater booth with her across from me. She took a little nap on the way and woke up with lots of energy! She is such a people person. She said "Hi!" to every table we walked past and then spent a good 10 minutes pointing to everything in the restaurant, saying "Mommy, YOOK!" She started getting a little antsy, so I grabbed her crayons and menu and started writing. This is the conversation we had:

Me: Let's write your name!
Olivia: YAY, YAY, YAY, OK Mommy!
Me: O-L-I-V-I-A. What does that spell?
Olivia: NAME!

Oh my sweet girl. How I love you!

Playing with her balloon from Red Robin:







Her new winter coat:



It has been a little chilly, although we had a nice day today. She does so much better when she gets to play outside for a little while!

She is super excited, because Liza, Landon, and baby Beckham are staying with us tomorrow night! I pulled a few baby things out of the basement and she loved sitting in her old Bumbo:



Pretty funny how well she fits in it! Hope you have a great week!

Olivia and the IMAX

I took Olivia to The Wildlife Experience today. We have a membership (for the 2nd year!) and the weather has turned much cooler, so we needed a good indoor adventure. Although we've been several times, we haven't tried the IMAX theatre. I took Olivia and Avry to the dollar theatre to see Toy Story 3 a couple of weeks ago (side note- 2 and under are free, so the three of us saw the movie for $2.50!) and she did really well, but IMAX is different. Much bigger screen and much louder, but I thought we would try it. It's free for her and $7 for me, so not a big deal if she hated it. We headed to the theatre and had a little trouble with seating:



Then I figured out there were booster seats:



Much better! We watched Dolphins and Whales. She did really well the first 45 minutes- every time a dolphin or whale came on the screen (which was pretty frequently) she would say: "Mommy, YOOK(look)!" Pretty cute! It was a slow moving, informational film, so we left about 15 minutes early to hit the rest of the museum.



She loves fish! She kept pointing and saying "Dory, Dory!" Dory is in Finding Nemo for those of you out of the Disney Movie loop!



She stopped in her tracks when this monkey started making noises. I kept having to remind her that they're pretend:





I tried to get her to pose in front of this elk when we were leaving, but she wasn't into it!



It was fun!

As I've mentioned, her language is getting better and better. It's so fun to have actual conversations with her! There are still some things she doesn't quite understand. She doesn't get it when someone asks "How/What are you doing?" She ALWAYS answers with: "I'm 2!" The first time she said it, I was caught off guard and said: "Oh, you're 2? Mommy's 30!" She hasn't forgot that conversation! EVERY time someone asks her how/what she's doing she answers: "I'm 2, Mommy's 30!" It's bad enough that she's announcing my age to everyone, but with her toddler drawl, it sounds more like: "I'm 2! Mommy's dirty." Ha! I finally caught it on video:



Here she is singing the ABC's a few weeks ago- she kind of fades at the end! :)



Her teeth are blue from eating M&M's- that was before she was completely potty trained. She goes without a reward now! Potty training was not supposed to be that easy, we were really lucky!