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We had a great time celebrating this little girl this past week. It is so much fun as she gets older and is able to appreciate different aspects of a birthday. We have purposefully kept things kind of low key the first few years - celebrating with family or close friends. As I (nervously, because I am not terribly creative) considered the option of having parties those first few years I concluded that those parties would be more about me than her because she was really too young to understand. Sure she would get that all the attention was about her and she was getting lots of presents, but I really felt like there were other things I wanted her to understand first. (And please, if you have thrown those parties, know that these are decisions we came to for our family. We have enjoyed every part we have been invited to. Who am I to judge friends who invite me and my daughter over and feed us cake?! Party on.) We received packages and envelopes of one kind or another almost every day this week. We piled them in the corner of the dining room and her anticipation grew each day. She referred to her calender more often this week than any other, counting sleeps. I love that this year she began to learn the feeling of anticipation, waiting on something, looking for it, longing for it. These first few pictures are of our community group. We had them over for supper the night before Olivia's birthday. (I didn't cook for all of them. We eat together every week and everyone brings part of the meal.)

The birthday morning. All the fun I have made of Karen is coming back to me now - we have entered the world of the princess dress. A neighbor that we met recently (more about her later) gave Olivia this dress and she has worn it everyday since last Friday. A friend from church gave her the shoes you can't see. Let's just say I wish we had carpet. We had the sweetest morning with her. Joseph happened to sleep in and so just the three of us shared the present opening. I know that might sound bad, but Joseph is at the age where he really doesn't get that it is her birthday and the presents aren't for him. I was thankful not to have to fight that battle the whole time but really be able to enjoy Olivia's excitement. We did plenty of celebrating with Joseph. In fact, he kept wanting to sing Happy Birthday to her over an over.
The addition to the birthday crown. We now have four buttons. Blue is her favorite color right now, so she got a blue button and I stitched her name in blue.
Now, notice the evolution of the outfit.
She loved the Crocs! Everyone will be happy to know that she no longer has to wear dog chewed crocs any more.

She was requesting her next present.
Crown ditched for the Strawberry Shortcake headband
and piggy.
Back pack! She wears it everywhere but to bed.
We could not love her more and yet some how as I get to know her I love her more every day. And we really do have a lot to learn about her. I can't wait to tell you about the neighborhood party we had the night of her birthday. We are so excited about the work the Lord is doing here and thanks to Olivia we were able to open our door open wide for that work in our home last night.