{It's a love fest people!}

Last night Olivia and I were watching the Dancing with the Stars finale. We watched this season because Candace Cameron-Bure (aka DJ Tanner from Full House) was one of the stars, and if you know Olivia, you know her love of Full House runs deep!

We both love Candace and her willingness to share her love for God and her Faith.  She is a great role model for young girls and moms alike! She has three kids, two boys and a girl. She loves being a mom and often talks about how her faith and her family are her everything.

During one part of the show, Candace got emotional when talking about her daughter Natasha, who was cheering on her mom from the audience. Olivia sighed, "Oh wow. She really loves her mom so much, doesn't she?" I nudged Olivia and jokingly said, "Yep. Must be nice." Olivia looked at me and replied, "Oh come on, Mom, you know the feeling!"

What would I do without this sweet girl of mine? Who can melt my heart in a matter of seconds.

{Wanted: Cute Workers}

As I pulled out my sewing machine in preparation for making "CTR Baptism Towels" this morning, Olivia remarked, in the same voice typically used when she sees a darling baby or small child, "Oh mom, I love watching you work. It's so cute!"

{Note to Olivia's future husband: Here's the secret to winning her over.}

Olivia's favorite song right now is "ALL OF ME" by John Legend. We listen to it in the car over and over and she knows each and every word. We've talked about how amazing the lyrics are and I said to her one day, "Olivia, make sure you marry someone who feels this way about you." My favorite line is "[I love] your perfect imperfections."

Yesterday, after dropping Will off at soccer, and listened the song yet again, Olivia said to me. "Mommy, you know how I said I would DIE if my husband sang me this song one day? Well, will you please tell my husband to sing it to me on my birthday?" It was adorable and hilarious and wonderful. To think that her husband would, in 20+ years, sing her this song. I love it.  I asked, "What if he sang you this song when he proposed?" At that, she "fainted". And then made me PROMISE that I wouldn't forget to tell him. So I'm recording my promise here. It will be cheesy and sappy and over-the-top, but the boy who will sing this song to my girl, and mean each and every word, will have a place in my heart and our family forever.


"All Of Me" John Legend

[Verse 1:]

What would I do without your smart mouth?

Drawing me in, and you kicking me out

You've got my head spinning, no kidding, I can't pin you down

What's going on in that beautiful mind

I'm on your magical mystery ride

And I'm so dizzy, don't know what hit me, but I'll be alright

[Pre-Chorus:]

My head's under water

But I'm breathing fine

You're crazy and I'm out of my mind

[Chorus:]

'Cause all of me

Loves all of you

Love your curves and all your edges

All your perfect imperfections

Give your all to me

I'll give my all to you

You're my end and my beginning

Even when I lose I'm winning

'Cause I give you all of me

And you give me all of you, oh

[Verse 2:]

How many times do I have to tell you

Even when you're crying you're beautiful too

The world is beating you down, I'm around through every mood

You're my downfall, you're my muse

My worst distraction, my rhythm and blues

I can't stop singing, it's ringing, in my head for you

[Pre-Chorus:]

My head's under water

But I'm breathing fine

You're crazy and I'm out of my mind

[Chorus:]

'Cause all of me

Loves all of you

Love your curves and all your edges

All your perfect imperfections

Give your all to me

I'll give my all to you

You're my end and my beginning

Even when I lose I'm winning

'Cause I give you all of me

And you give me all of you, oh

[Bridge:]

Give me all of you

Cards on the table, we're both showing hearts

Risking it all, though it's hard

[Chorus:]

'Cause all of me

Loves all of you

Love your curves and all your edges

All your perfect imperfections

Give your all to me

I'll give my all to you

You're my end and my beginning

Even when I lose I'm winning

'Cause I give you all of me

And you give me all of you

I give you all of me

And you give me all of you, oh

{Alien Abduction?}

Tuesday mornings are rough for me, because I do laundry on Monday nights and am usually up until at least 1:00am. Yesterday was particularly difficult because I had also been woken up separate times in the night by both Will & Olivia.  When they came to my room at 7:00am, I sent them downstairs to get breakfast with the promise that I would be right behind them.

It took me a little longer than I intended to get going, and s I started down the stairs, I stopped at Olivia's room to turn off her light and noticed her bed was made, an anomaly, for sure. I then checked Will's room, and his bed was made as well!  I ran down the stairs calling out, "Will! Olivia! Where are you? Someone kidnapped you and made your beds!" I rounded the corner into the kitchen, only to find them already dressed, eating breakfast they had made themselves! I again joked, "Aliens! What have you done with my children!? Give them back to me!" We all dissolved into a fit of giggles and endless hugs.

Their surprise, not only made my day, but turned what could have been a stressful and rushed morning into one of our best mornings ever!

{Beauty Drink}

The other day, Olivia picked up a bottle of water I left on the counter and asked, "Why do you drink so much water? Is it because drinking water makes you beautiful? Because it's totally working mom!"

{Reality Star}

This morning Olivia brought me a sweet card she made for me. I thought it was so special I started taking pictures of it so I could post it on Instagram. I needed one more picture to complete the collage of four pictures and asked if I could take one of her. Olivia got immediately bashful and asked, "Are you going to put it on the Internet for everyone to see? Because I don't live my life on the Internet!"

{Kindergarten Perseverance}

Recently, I was cleaning the kitchen and enlisted the help of Will & Olivia to put things that didn't belong away. Olivia had left her "100 days" hat on the kitchen table for several days, and since I had already taken pictures of her wearing it, I asked her to throw it away. It's a pretty obnoxious hat with 10 "tentacles", each representing one of the 10's (10, 20, 30, etc.) coming up and out from the band that goes around her head. At the end of each tentacle is a star and on each tentacle they put 10 stickers. It's a silly and fun hat, but not an easy to store hat, which is why I had taken a picture of it in the first place.

"What?! Why do I have to throw it away? But I worked so hard on this at school!"

"Because Olivia, we don't live in a house big enough to keep every single thing you guys do at school. We have already taken a picture of you wearing it and that's going to have to be good enough."

"Look, Mom. Before I made this hat, I didn't even know how to count to 100 by 10's...10..20..30...40...50...60...70...80...90..100...but I persevered!!!"

After I picked my jaw off the floor for her {correct} usage of the word "persevered", I told her we could keep the hat.

{Health Nut}

In our family, we try and make healthy choices. We're not perfect, and we try not to be ridiculously strict, but on the subject of candy, we try and follow our Virginia Pediatric Dentist's advice to only let the kids have chocolate, if we let them have candy at all.

For the most part, both Will & Olivia are good about following this rule. But that doesn't mean that there aren't times where they will still ask to have a sucker when they get their hair cut, or want to eat a jolly rancher that came in their birthday party goody bag (really parents? Can you please help us out by not giving our kids sugar at every turn????).

So, yesterday, being Valentine's Day, was one of those hard days. Everywhere I turned there was more and more "illegal" candy and I felt bad having to be the broken record of "no".

After school, my friend Angie hosted a Valentine's Day party at her house. She planned tons of fun activities including, Bingo & decorating sugar cookies & cupcakes.  She also had an activity where the kids make flowers using paper petals and a dum-dum sucker.

While outside, my friend Katt, attempted to give her little boy a Butterscotch sucker and Olivia stopped her. "No, no, no. Don't give him that one. Give him this one," she said grabbing an apple-flavored sucker. "It's apple, which means it's a lot healthier for him."

We've got some more work to do.

{Madame Smartie Pants}

It's a sad day when you realize your kids are wising up to your tricks.  A few days ago, Olivia asked me if I could read her mind. I've told the kids before that I can read their mind and usually can guess pretty close each time. I figure it will come in handy when they are teenagers if they think I can read their minds, so I told her yes and she asked me to prove it.

I told her to think of something and I would tell her what she was thinking.

"Okay, Mommy, I'm ready. What am I thinking?

"You tell me and I'll tell you if I was right," I countered.

"No way! You just want me to tell you and then you will say that's what you were thinking even if it wasn't!"

Caught red-handed, I started to laugh and so did she.  "I can read your mind, Mommy!"

{Birds, Bees & Super long Gestations}

As we were going upstairs together this afternoon, Olivia informed me that she is already a mom. My mind immediately went to the line about Eve being the Mother of all Living before she had had a baby. I thought perhaps something along those lines had been shared in Primary recently. However, she continued with, "...see it takes a long time for babies to be made...they are already growing in my tummy, it just takes a really long time."  Huh, I replied. Where did you hear that? "I learned it on the Internet!"

{Interference}

On Saturday, our friends and neighbors invited Will & Olivia over for a play date. When Michelle was getting ready to walk W & O home, she realized her youngest boy, Andrew had a messy diaper. Despite him wanting to go with her, she brought him to his dad, Rocky for a diaper change.  Rocky was a little bugged because he was trying to watch the 49ers game and Andrew was crying about his mom leaving him. Rocky hurried and changed Andrew's diaper and raced to catch up with Michelle. He handed over Andrew abruptly to a surprised Michelle, exchanged words, and ran back home to finish the game.

Olivia looked up at Michelle and said, "Looks like you married the wrong husband!"

Update: I was told this story by Rocky at church on Sunday - you would have to know Rocky to fully appreciate the story - but he is very mild-mannered - very nice. He admits that he was annoyed and may have been abrupt in his delivery of Andrew. I asked, "Don't you have a DVR so you can pause the game." He revealed that he is too cheap to get one. I told him in jest, "You should. It will save your marriage."

Update 2: I was relaying this story to Phil and Olivia was nearby. I asked her what did Michelle say? "She just laughed and said, I think I did!"

Rocky apparently shared the story in Bishopric Meeting and it's been spreading like wildfire.

{Sing, Sing a Song}

Olivia, my little singer/songwriter was busy making up a new song this morning. She asked me, "Mommy, I'm goin to give you two words that rhyme with France and you tell me which one I should use."

"OK," I said.

" 'stick a hungry squirrel down your pants' OR 'romance'".

What!? I opted for romance, but as the song went on, they both made the cut.

{Nicknames}

One of the families we are closest to in CA are the Nielsons. Phil and I go out with Mindy & Tyler regularly on the weekends. Olivia & Lily are great friends and Will and Ava are good friends. We love spending time together and we have even traveled together.

For awhile now, Tyler has called Olivia "O-Town" whenever he sees her. Recently, she has started calling him "T-Bone". Today at church, Tyler said to Olivia, "O-Town's in the house!" To which she quickly replied, "T-Bone's in the steak!"

{Dangerous Duo}

During her post-swimming lessons shower this morning, Olivia was singing a song she made up: "I can't resist...I can't repent...I can't resist...I can't repent."

Uh-oh.

{Bird Dreams}

Last Friday I took Olivia to get a princess manicure and pedicure as a reward for no longer biting her nails. On the way to the salon, Olivia said to me, "Mommy, do you know what animal I would want to be if I could be any animal?"

Intrigued, I replied, "No, what?"

"I would want to be a bird so that could poop on cars I fly over."

"What? Are you serious? I would think you would want to be a bird so you could fly." Surely she is kidding, right?

"Nope. I want to be a bird so that I can poop on stuff I fly over. {Pause} Okay. I'm just kidding. I want to be a bird so that I can fly."

{Extreme Couponing}

Yesterday, Olivia and Will were working on some art projects. Olivia made several drawings of numbers and letter for me. She explained to me that they were coupons that I could use on the internet.

She said, "Okay, Mom. So here are your coupons. You are going to want to use this one first, and then this one and then this one. You need to put them all into the internet and then you will probably be able to make a Christmas Tree" (her voice trailed off at the end with uncertainty).

I burst out laughing, which she didn't like, but I quickly explained that laughing is my favorite thing to do and anyone who can make me laugh that hard is my favorite person in the world. She seemed to like that.

{Makes me wonder what she "means".}

I just asked Olivia a question and she delivered her answer with air quotes!

{Super Baby}

This morning, on our way home from taking Phil to work, Olivia asked me, "Mommy, what if I was zero years old? Like a brand new baby that was just born, and I could lift a giant boulder.....with only one hand?"

{Kiss & Tell}

Tonight, Olivia crawled up on my lap and whispered in my ear, "Mom, today Sophie and her friends chased Will and kissed him! But don't tell Will I told you!"

Shortly thereafter, Will came in the room, and I asked him, "Will, did anything happen at school today that you want to tell me about?"

He turned about 6 shades of red, and knowing his secret was out, said sheepishly, "Sophie and her friends chased me at school and kissed me! I didn't want to tell you because I thought you would be mad."

Of course I wasn't mad! We teased him relentlessly and of course had to get every excruciating detail out of him, but I made sure he knew that he can always tell me anything especially when it comes to girls and he doesn't need to worry about me being mad.

My favorite part of this whole story is that Will wanted to share his secret with his sister! Of course I also love that she immediately came to tell me (she'll have to be a little more sly about that if she wants to continue to be on the receiving end of his secrets!). But it made me so incredibly happy to see their friendship go to a whole new level.

{Good to Know}

While I was making pancakes this morning, Olivia marched into the kitchen to inform me, "Mom, I do like witches. I just don't like fat witches."