We had a fun-filled birthday weekend here at the Andrews house. Instead of a birthday party, Livy wanted to go to Sea World. We had a really fun day with beautiful weather (sunny & 65), light crowds & special holiday shows. The animals were really animated during feeding times because they are not getting as much attention in the “winter” months. In fact, the dolphins were really active and splashed Violet & I pretty good while we were admiring their acrobatics. Our favorite was the Shamu show ‘Miracle.’ They didn’t actually use Jesus’ name, but they talked about the miracle that a tiny baby brought to the world, sang The First Noel, and encouraged us to recognize the miracle of our family & friends. The theme song for the show was When You Believe from the Prince of Egypt Soundtrack. This is the soundtrack that I played while in labor with all of the girls and that song specifically, was exceptionally meaningful for me with regard to Olivia and the miracle that her birth was for us. So, of course, I had a few tears stream down my cheeks as I saw my miracle baby’s face lit up with excitement on her 3rd birthday while her two baby sisters sat in their father’s lap. A miracle indeed!! On Sunday, JR made Olivia a beautiful princess birthday cake and she opened a couple simple gifts from us (a Cinderella Barbie with pony and a princess writing pad for tracing letters). She also opened a trunk of princess dress up clothes from Grandma & Grandpa Kane and that was the favorite gift! Grandma & Grandpa got to watch live on the webcam so it was all very exciting. While we ate cake, we visited with Grandma & Grandpa Andrews, Aunt Lisa, Abby, Andy, Alex & Ben. It was nice to have family for her birthday – even if they were 800 miles away! She has requested that we sing Happy Birthday each time she’s had cake and enjoys asking “Who’s birthday is it?” She knows the answer, but just likes to hear it!

It’s been awhile since I’ve written about Liv, so here’s an update I’ve been working on.

Olivia Grace is now 3 years old. It’s exciting to see the big girl she is becoming – sweet, enthusiastic, affectionate, a little shy, & very bright. She’s loving her two mornings a week at “school” and her favorite thing is music practice. She always wants music on, and especially enjoys choosing between her CDs. She is starting to remember the words to the songs and is doing fairly well with the tune, too. Tonight she got to stay up a little later than Molly and we sang every song in her Children’s Bible Songs book. She was delighted and it was fun to do something together that we both enjoy. It seems that she & I have so little time together just the two of us anymore. She also enjoys the art projects they do at school – mostly painting – and hanging them on the refrigerator at home or sending them to work with Daddy. We have started watching one episode of Sesame Street pretty much everyday now. It’s surprising how well Livy follows the stories and participates in the little activities. She isn’t quite as enamored with Signing Time anymore and I’m disappointed because she was just about the sweetest thing ever doing all her signs. Guess I’ll have to wait for Molly to get into signing! I’m excited for what this year will bring for Olivia – she is understanding so much more of the world around her and has an insatiable curiosity. All day long, I field questions – why? what are you doing? why? what is that man doing? why? why? why? Livy didn’t really go through much for terrible twos, but has been known to burst into tears at the drop of a hat in the last few weeks. I’m sure this is just a phase, but I am hoping it is a quick one! We are working on following the rules and consequences for behavior (good & bad). Molly calls Livy ‘mama’ and it fits pretty well as she is the babies’ ‘little mama’. She definitely wants to help care for them by giving them their pacifiers, holding them & making them smile. In fact, she wants to do so much with them that I have to watch her so she doesn’t try to do more than she can handle. It’s wonderful to see how much she loves her baby sisters, though, and I can’t wait to see how much they enjoy one another in the coming year.