Olivia is now 7!

Sara and Josh,

Another year has passed!  I love to put together the birthday slideshows because it gives me an opportunity to see how much Olivia has grown within the last year.  Not only does she look older, but she has accomplished new things.  This year she started 1st grade and she is loving it!  Of course, her favorite part is recess (what little kid doesn't like recess?!)  One recent accomplishment is that she learned to stand on her head!  Jenna has been practicing this skill for a long time, and Olivia couldn't stand to be outdone.  Another skill she has is an amazing memory when we work to memorize scriptures as a family.  I have a hard time remembering every little detail, but she can learn the scripture after repeating it just a few times.  I'd say she's the best one in the family!  We also started using that skill to help her memorize her spelling words.  She does better if she studies them aurally/orally.  Another developing skill is that she loves to read.  More and more, I'm seeing her snuggle up in a corner with a good book.  Just a few days ago she started ice skating lessons.  She and her sisters get really excited to go together and don't let me forget when it is time to go.  Other things she is looking forward to are an art and painting class that she will start next week.  The art work in the house from three little girls is going crazy, so we recently created a family wall gallery for them to display their masterpieces.  As always, she and Jenna and now Natalya are endless sources of singing and dancing and acting.  I keep thinking I need to teach Jenna and Olivia how to start singing in parts because the music is continuous!

Yesterday, Olivia was super excited because she got to have a birthday party at a local bowling and arcade place called Perfect Games.  She had 13 friends ages 6-9 come, and we had a great(/crazy) time!  She was so happy!  And today we are having pasta shells for her birthday dinner along with a cake that has a pretty flower on top that she and I made together.  She hasn't opened her presents, yet, but she is very anxious!

She really enjoyed helping me pick the music and take some of the pictures for the birthday slideshow.  We hope you enjoy it!   

 

As always we are thinking of you and your family!  The last 7 years have been wonderful, and we are all looking forward to this year as she prepares to be baptized!  Crazy, that's just one year away!  There will also be some very big changes for our family as we are planning to move to the Washington DC area as long as everything falls into place.  One piece of news is that we adopted our son Elijah, the youngest you'll see in the slideshow, this last July, so we are officially a family of 5 children!

We send our love to you all!

Sharon, Robby, Olivia, and family

P.S. - Check back later because I'm planning to upload the pictures to a web album with some captions, and I may see if I can upload a higher resolution copy of the video.