Wednesday, November 22, 2017

Sunnyside

Hello!

This post is a tribute to my amazing, sweet, wonderful and now 6-year-old daughter... Olivia! I do realize that as her mom there is some built-in bias about the extent of her incredible-ness, but God's honest truth, this little gal lights up every room she walks in.

Jason said it best when he said that Olivia somehow turned out with the best qualities of both of us. From me she got the power of forgiveness, emotional resilience and hopefulness. She was also blessed with Jason's incredible kindness, sensitivity and the ability to see the best in everything. She has a great singing voice with near perfect pitch and that is not something she got from either of us!

Olivia is a sponge at school these days, really soaking up the learning and advancing quickly with reading her little "book in a bag" to me each night. She's the darling of her Kindergarten teachers. My sister Chandra once said that it's no wonder that Kindergarten is the age when the outside world wants to teach our kids because they are just so darn cute right now. I couldn't agree more.

She's a wonderful big sister -- here she is working with Quinn to read one of her books in a bag!

Olivia is altruistic in nature, often putting the needs of others ahead of her own and planning nice things to do for people. Every few weeks at Olivia's behest, we prepare a treat, special card or work of art to present to the teachers at school. When we went to Disney World a few weeks ago and her Papa gave her a little money to spend, she spent it on gifts for her friends! She didn't buy herself ONE THING with that money. We were all surprised.

Olivia is highly prolific with her art projects. We have stacks of pictures of the family and many scenes of Olivia and Quinn holding hands. Her pictures often include big happy faces and bright colors. I bring them to work, posting them around my office, and they seriously brighten up my day!

She loves singing and making up her own songs too. She loves the "Mister Golden Sun" song. I named this blog "Sunnyside" after another favorite and also because around Olivia things are usually kept on the sunnyside.... isn't that something? She has a genuinely cheery disposition and it lightens up every situation.

As I said, Olivia is optimistic, forgiving, hopeful and resilient. A perfect example of this is when I over-schedule our busy Saturday and we run out of time to go to the park even though promises were made that we would go. Quinn will probably be mad about this, whereas Olivia will move quickly past the disappointment to "It's OK, Mommy... Maybe tomorrow we can go. Ok?"

Here's a cute one of Olivia and Quinn practicing 'flexibility' and the Double Sloth Hang at Papa Mike's house!

Finally a picture of Olivia, Daddy, Papa Craig and Great Grandma Joleen at her 6th birthday celebration dinner at Waldo Pizza last week!

Olivia, your family loves you SOOOOO MUCH! We look forward to sharing your 6th trip around the sun together.

Love Always, Mommy, Daddy and Quinn

PS: this blog is scheduled to post at the exact time of your birth 6 years ago :)