Ollie Dolly is 3!

Hello Big 3 Year Old! Ollie was so EXCITED for her birthday this year. She's been counting down since Addison's and it was forever. I asked her what she wanted for her birthday and she listed Addison's exact birthday (club sandwiches, cake with dots and yellow ribbon, snorkel set . . . )!

Big day of course . . . Breakfast at Kneaders with Banna, Lisa and Jeff. The city power had gone out so it wasn't the yummy culinary dream I was thinking.

Big, huge nap for the afternoon before the party. Dinner was a mix of Olivia's fav foods . . . terriyaki chicken, potato wedges, spinach salad with Mandarin oranges . . . and cake. We went with a pink butterfly and a purple flower for the cake and pink (strawberry) ice-cream.

She was so into presents! She got Pet Shops, Vespa Scooter Barbie, lots of clothes, Horton Hears a Who, modest Barbie clothes (from Addison), a snorkel mask, a water sprinkler toy and a Play Doh Spaghetti Set. Addison likes to spread the fun out over days while she tries out all her new toys. Olivia wanted them all open and going asap. The next morning she never even woke me up. I just found her out playing with her new wealth of toys.

Happy Birthday Ollie Dolly! We love you!

We always start with the Provo Parade and Einstein bagels, then a BBQ, neighborhood party and fire works. Though this year we decided to throw a couple of things for extra fun this year . ..

1. Addison threw up first thing, we thought it was too much junk from the neighborhood party the night before. But then when she threw up at the parade and later at Banana's house and we all took our turns being sick the next week we realized it wasn't just the party.

2. A little power struggle with Olivia to wear Red, White or Blue like the rest of the family. Come on it's the 4th! You'll see in the pictures I did win. You know as a parent you have to pick your battles and I couldn't let this one go.

3. We all got slightly different and mostly wrong directions to our location at the parade. We took an extra 2 block detour with a huge stroller and a sick Addison (we feel horrible we made her walk all over before we realized she was really sick). Lisa and Katie took a hour long route to the Parade carrying our large diet cokes (with ice at one point) and bagels all over Provo. The parade (company, food and tradition) was, as usual, worth the effort.

4. Our Aruba trip inspired Dad to become John Watkins:Gelatto Maker. His first batch he threw (or sprayed with the beaters) all over the kitchen including the ceiling. It finally froze after everyone had left the BBQ. Since then he's become VERY efficient at it, so next year is sure to be a treat.

5. I poured salad dressing all over my mom's fridge. The clean up necessitated pulling EVERYTHING out of the fridge. That was also a little fun twist to the afternoon.

6. And lastly, after mulling it over we finally did decide to watch the BYU fireworks (we were all exhausted and by this point we were aware that Addison really was sick). So a good 20 minutes later we finally found a place to park (mind you we drove one street over) and a good 10 minutes later we found a place for our chairs. We watched the last 3 fireworks and packed up. As we pulled out, the fireworks started up again, so we did catch a few quality moments of the grand finale.

I took Olivia to get her pictures and she wanted me to play at the kids' lego table while we were waiting . . .

Olivia: Oh careful Mom, don't break the little chairs.

Ouch.

Bubbie . . .

You know how you make up those lame nicknames when you talk to babies . . . we're way into "Bubbie Baby DrewB" right now. I said it once and Ad and Liv love it. Anyway, here's some pictures for the family. . . First time to church.

MyAddison's Room

We finally got the new bed and Olivia moved in with Addison. Olivia calls the room "MyAddison's Room." It's working for the most part, but Olivia likes to lay in bed and talk while Addison likes to go straight to sleep, plus Olivia can't keep herself in bed.

Cupcake Crayons

I found this idea on a blog and the girls thought I was the best Mom in the world (for 2 hours anyway). We made our own new crayons, by unwrapping the crayons, breaking them and melting them into new chunky crayons. I know, WOW, right?

The Miracle Worker

We have a baby swing from the girls and Drew was pretty into it, but I was going through batteries like crazy so I found a plug in swing on KSL.com for cheap and Drew LIVES in it now!

Olivia won't leave it alone. The music, lights, spinning toys and swing are all always on full blast and she's singing to it, trying to lay in it or has her baby in it if Drew's not there.

Dad didn't need a boy . . .

he has his girls . . .

The girls love going to the Bees Baseball games with Ansen. Hotdogs, soda, cotton candy and kettle corn . . . Dad really knows how to do it right! And I know you would think they were headed to New York, but this is the standard attire every game.