3!?!

Before my little Olivia turned 3 there was one thing we had to do...

...take away the binky!!! (I know BAD picture)


Jared's mom gave us this great idea to take Olivia to Build A Bear and put the binky inside the bear and that way she will always have it.

Three days before her birthday we took her to Build A Bear and picked out the perfect pink bear. We stuffed the binky inside gave her new bear a bath, picked out an outfit and printed out a birth certificate with her bears new name "Binky".

And it was that easy! NOT we had two very hard nights with lots of tears, but after those two sad nights things have gone back to normal. And we love our bear.



For Olivia's 3rd birthday we went to a children's science museum.

In a big bubble.

Playing with our daddy.

This year we decided not to have a big birthday party and celebrate as a family with our big 3 year old!

Where has the time gone it feels like Olivia has been with us forever and at the same time I can't believe she is 3 already! I'm so excited to see what the next year will bring for my little Olivia.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABY GIRL!!!

In October...

...we went to Uncle John's Cider Mill and picked out a couple of pumpkins.

While we were there we rode a wagon, train and had the best apple cider ever! I've never been a big apple cider fan, but this was the best apple cider that I've ever have had.

Olivia riding a little apple car. This was probably the best part of the day for her. (for some odd reason she loves those quarter machine rides)

Of course we had to get a picture with the bus.

We carved our pumpkins with some friends.

And then the big day came Halloween!!! Olivia had been waiting weeks for this day to come.

She was a little purple fairy and dad and mom were boring and did not dress up this year.

She was so excited to get candy that she lost some of her manners and ran across the lawns!

Over all we had a great Halloween!

Fall Fun!

This last Saturday was such a beautiful day so our little family decided that it was the perfect day to go to the park and play and take some fun pictures. (Well maybe the whole picture idea was just mine).

Playing hopscotch.
Olivia is at such a fun age where she wants to learn how to play games and tries her very best to understand them.

We still aren't quite strong enough for the rings.

We love our daddy! He's so silly!!!

My two most favorite people. :)

And yes we like being just as silly as our daddy!

Don't you just love the fall and all the leaves!!!

Olivia is ready for the Halloween season to start, thanks to Granny!

Last week end Jared and I did a first. We were driving through our town after getting the oil changed in our car when we saw a yard sale and decided to stop and bought this little kitchen for Olivia for 5 dollars! She loves this little kitchen and has been playing with it everyday since we got it. We did have to buy the food and dishes at Toys R Us but we still think it was a steal all it needed was to be soaked in bleach :) to get all the icky germs off.

The best part was bringing it home! Jared was soo mad when he found out it wouldn't fit in the trunk. He told me to take it back to the lady and get our money back. But with lots of begging I finally convinced him that we could look like a bunch of wierdos and tie it to the top of the car. And so here is a picture of how silly we must have looked driving down the road. :)

Home

A few family members have asked to see pictures of the little place that we are now calling home. I've tried to post pone this post in hopes that they (you) would decide to just come all the way over and visit us. Two of them did, but the rest have failed to do so, so here is a peek into the place that we now call home. :) (I know we've only been gone for three months)

The top picture is the outside of our little apartment. I wish I could claim the wreath on the door, but I can't seeing that we live upstairs and that it's the neighbors door.

This is the entry into the apartment with a little Olivia waiting to greet you at the top of the stairs. (the door goes into the garage)

A view from the top of the stairs into our living room.

The top of the stairs takes you strait to the kitchen table.

Just in case you can't tell this is the kitchen. ;)

A closer view of our bare living room.

And one more view of the living room just for fun.


And last but not least







my most FAVORITE room in our





home...















Olivia's room!

This is the first home where Olivia has had her own room, I never got to decorate a nursery for her or anything so this has been a treat for me. (poo hoo, do you feel sorry for me:)

Our bedroom, is just a boring bedroom, so I failed to take a picture. And no our house is not always this picked up. It would be nice if it was but that's almost impossible with our two year old.

tOo MuCh fUn!!!

The other week our little family was blessed with a great surprise! POP AND GRANNY (Jared's parent's) came to visit!
We were soO happy when we heard that they were coming to visit us during Jared's little break between summer and fall semester. Jared has such great parents, so this truly was a blessing and treat. While they were here we did a few fun things around our area.

Granny and Olivia sitting on a butterfly seat at the Children Garden's at MSU.
What two cute girls!

This was a really weird but a cool plant sculpture man thing that they had.

Our little family

We went to the "beach" (Michigan Lake). It was a windy day, but we still had a lot of fun showing Pop and Granny our Michigan beach.

Its so hard to believe that this is a lake and not the ocean since you can't see the other side and it has waves.

Olivia loves the water and tells you that she's surfing. :) What a silly!

Jard and his dad with the huge waves.

We went to the Henry Ford Museum and had lots of fun looking at all the cool cars.

Olivia loves buses! Ever since she rode one for the Draper Temple open house she has not stopped talking about buses and how cool they are. Every time she sees one she will let you know that's a bus and how cool it is. So we had to take her picture in front of this little bus.

And then she got to ride one to the place where they build the F-150 trucks. I think that was the best part of the day for her.

Jared's parent's in front of the Detroit Temple.


We had so much fun with them and were so sad to see them go even though we have made so many new friends and everyone has been so kind and welcoming there is nothing like family. :)