The Anderson Family: Happy 5th Birthday Olivia!

My baby is FIVE YEARS OLD!!! Oh, how the time has flown. Words cannot describe the joy and blessing she is in our lives.

Here is a section of the journal entry I wrote from the day Olivia was born:

"Dear Journal, YAYYY!!! I had the baby! Olivia Grace Anderson was born today at 11:34 am, weighing 9 lbs 2 oz (!!!!) and was 18 inches long. WOW! All I can say is how utterly happy I am that she is here! I feel so incredibly blessed that she is so healthy and everything worked out. I thank Father in Heaven so much. She is beautiful and perfect, and looks just like the other girls. Chloe's mouth, Lily's eyes, Izzy's cheeks, a mix of Lily and Chloe's nose. She is just so beautiful. I lover her so much and am so grateful and happy."

I go on to describe the labour and delivery, which went very well, although a little eventful. Olivia was my only baby to not come 1-2 weeks early, and so she was the biggest baby! 9 pounds 2 ounces! Because of that, when she was born her head and one arm came out, but then her shoulder got stuck. It was all quite a blur for me, but I do remember the doctor yelling, "We need another set of hands in here!" A couple more nurses came rushing in, and I do remember one climbing on top of me and pushing on my abdomen to help get her out. I remember it was excruciating! Even with an epidural. She was the only child I had the epidural with, and I am so glad I did. Finally, she came. Healthy, and strong.

I wrote in my journal:

"She didn't cry much at all, but she still scored a 9/9 on the APGAR. She is so far just a really nice, mellow baby, hardly makes a peep, and is easy to calm. I just feel so incredibly grateful she is healthy and alive and beautiful and here. I love her so much already. The girls came to see her and boy, were they happy and excited. When we called home to tell them, Lily exclaimed, "Huuuuuhhhh!!!! Goodbye!" and hung up the phone, and my mom said she just came downstairs and excitedly told everyone, "Olivia is being borned!" We called back and I talked to Izzy and told her Olivia is here and she was the biggest baby! Izzy was a little concerned and said, "But I'm still the biggest one right?" like she thought I gave birth to a 6 year old child or something! It was funny and cute. When they came to the hospital, Chloe said, "Are you at the coctor? I want to see the coctor too!" meaning doctor of course. She was singing, "Old-livia, Old-livia," it was so cute too. We have all been anxiously awaiting her arrival and we are all so happy she is here! I still am amazed and just so thankful to Heavenly Father for this precious gift that is so healthy and came without incident or trouble. What a birthday treat for me! And 3 days early too, before I turn 28. We are so blessed. It has taken me all day to write this story with breaks. My wonderful parents just left. I love them so much and am so grateful for them. The view out the windows here are spectacular. It helped while she was being born. Anyway, I will rest now with Olivia. I am so happy."

It was a wonderful day indeed! Here are some pics of that day 5 years ago...

This was moments after she was delivered

Happy parents

The girls came to meet her

Poking and prodding

Olivia is still a major girly girl. She loves jewelry, especially earrings, lip gloss, hair bows, dresses...you name it! She is a thoughtful and considerate friend to everyone. She loves learning and really enjoyed this past year in preschool. She is so excited for kindergarten in the fall. She is fun and loves to make jokes and make other kids laugh and smile. She loves to sing songs and make songs up. She has actually learned several of the Articles of Faith purely from listening to the songs on the primary CD we have. She loves to play with babies, dolls and real ones. She loves animals and really wants a puppy. Her favorite color is gold. She loves to help me clean and organize the house, even the bathroom. She is very organized with all her things. She loves baking and watching baking shows. When she grows up she wants to be, "a doctor, and that's all."

Here are a few cute things Olivia has said and done recently:

-she was helping me clean the bathroom once and she bonked her elbow on something. I said, "Oh, did you bonk your funny bone?" She said, "No, it was my hurting bone."

-when she sees any Catholic church, she says, "Look! That looks like it would be a good preschool for me." Her preschool was held in a Catholic church, so she associates all building with crosses on them as preschools!

-she calls white jet streams in the sky "zip lines."

-everytime she sees a house for sale she says, "Look mom! That house is free! And so is that one! So many free houses! Let's get that one!" she says to every house with a for sale sign on it.

-she went to McDonalds and she got a Happy Meal. The toy was a little stationary set that she thought was a diary. She said in a very loud voice for all around to hear, "Look mom! A diarrhea! I love diarrhea! I lost my old diarrhea. Now I have a new diarrhea! I love diarrhea mom! Diarrheas are the best!" She said it too fast for me to correct her before several people heard and smiled.

-she started doing what she calls, "Soy Baths." It's where she has someone lay on their stomach and she chops her hands on their back, kind of like a massage. It's so cute, she'll say, "Do you want a soy bath? Can I give you a soy bath?"

-Ben had grown a beard and was shaving it off. She LOVES to watch him shave. He had shaved all of it and was just about to shave off the mustache when Olivia says, "Right there Dad! Right there! Perfect! That is perfect, perfect, perfect!" She loves mustaches, and you know, our other girls do too.

-for Mother's Day the primary children were taught the song, "I often go walking..." to sing to the Mothers. There was a primary party a couple of weeks before that, where they each got to plant a seed in their own pot and take it home. I told Olivia that I read once that singing to plants helps them to grow. Well, she really wanted her seed to grow so one night she was laying in her bed and singing, "I often go walking, I often go walking, I often go walking,..." over and over and over again. That's the only part of the song she knew. Ben called out to her and asked what she was doing, and she said, "Mom said if I sing to my plant it will grow, so I'm singing nicely to my plant!" It was so adorable it was hard to argue with that. She eventually fell asleep.

And here are some photos of our Olivia through out her life...