Olive's New "Treehouse"

I know that I have mentioned before how blessed we are to have incredible friends. But they have now taken their "awesomeness" to a whole new level! When Dad started getting really sick, one day he was really upset and told me that he wasn't supposed to be in the hospital, he was supposed to be taking Olive to Home Depot and building her a playhouse. This was something he had talked about since she was born and I am pretty sure if we looked around in his garage, he probably has a drawing of that "playhouse" somewhere. Well, I had told my friend Deanna that he had said that. Little did I know, she and her husband Adrian took that to heart and decided that if Dad couldn't build Olive a playhouse, they were going to rally the troops and make it happen. Project "Do It For Dano" was born. They worked with all of our other amazing friends for over 2 months to purchase and build (all on Saturday, 4.5 hours plus 6 men) and SURPRISE both Olive and Mommy with the playhouse! We came home Saturday to a driveway full of friends and I had no clue what was going on! Then we went into the backyard to see what was happening and we couldn't have been more surprised to see this... How cool is that?!! She even has her own special street sign!!

It took me awhile to figure out why everyone would be gathered at our house for Olive to get a playhouse and then Deanna explained how special this playhouse is!

Olive is absolutely in heaven! She calls it her "treehouse" and woke up this morning asking to see it. Her favorite part is the doorbell that rings and she rings it EVERY time she goes in or out of the house!

It has everything a modern day kitchen has, a really nice cordless phone...

and a service window...

and a sink and range...

and a really awesome clock! What more could you need?!

This evening she went into play and wouldn't come out! We were worried about her getting too hot, so Stephen got her Sonic water to drink (brilliant thinking!)

But she had different plans for the water and it quickly got poured into bowls and served as "soup, so yummy"

I wonder if we will ever get a picture of her in the playhouse without a spoon in her mouth!
Seriously, this must be some good soup!

She even serves "soup to go!"

Most blessed little girl in the whole wide world!

It was so hot on Saturday when the "big reveal" took place that I don't think I understood the magnitude of this incredible gift! I am so overwhelmed by the love of everyone who had a part in building this playhouse for Olive. There is no greater tribute anyone could have made to my Dad than to make sure his little Olive had the playhouse of her dreams. Thank you to everyone who contributed and who kept this incredible secret for so long! Olive couldn't be happier and her Mommy couldn't feel any more blessed to have such amazing people in our lives. We love you! Come over for some soup, I can tell you, it is YUMMY!!

Olive-isms

Olive has quite the vocabulary these days and some of the things she says are so funny! I wanted to make a little list so that we can look back on it one day and giggle!

"I hochoo" translation: "I hold you."

"A Strawp" translation: "Sonic"

"O'er deeeeer" translation: "Over there"

"Happy Dueday Mica!" translation "Happy Birthday Mica"

"Iscrean" translation "icecream" typically said when passing Orange Leaf..

"Ca Park!!" translation "the park!"

"blankalet or blanquet" translation "blanket"

"Dragon" translation "Travis"

"I doe like dat" (followed by shaking her head no) translation "I do not like ___ (that , what you are trying to make me do, etc)"

"Jesus Jesus" translation "Sing Jesus Loves the Little Children"

"Wrigleylou!" translation "Wrigley Lou"

"Oyedoit" translation "Ollie do it"

"I haelp you" translation "I help you"

"Da water?" translation "Let's go swimming!"

"Hi Mommy, Howyoutoday?" translation "Hi Mommy, How are you today?"

"Woo woo, emergency!" translation "I see a fire truck"

"Yum! Balls!" translation "Yummy donut holes"

"Blue and yellow? Blue and yellow?" translation "Can I play with play doh?"

She is also really good at remembering names and will start the Where? game at least 4 times a day. This involves her asking where anyone she has ever met is. It usually starts with her friends and then as soon as she gets to someone who I respond "they are in Texas" then she starts on her list of Texas people!

I absolutely LOVE hearing her sweet little voice talking, but it has made us realize that there will NEVER be another quiet moment in our house! Sweet girl talks all the time...oh what we have to look forward to! :)

Jesus Loves Me!

Olive has been quite the little singer lately, she walks around the house singing "Jesus Loves Me", "Jesus Loves The Little Children", "Twinkle Twinkle" and the "Itsy Bitsy Spider". She loves to sing! A few mornings ago, she had been singing "Jesus Loves Me" perfectly, so I sat her in the chair to sing for the camera, well of course, it didn't go quite as well.

So, we tried again!

Still so sweet! Love my little songbird!

Happy Birthday America!

On the Fourth, we met up with the Beverages, Villanis and Jules to watch the Brookhaven Parade. I have to admit, I love 4th of July parades, they are so nostalgic. It reminds me of watching the Bethany parade every year. Stephen thought I was a little crazy when I was disappointed that Norman didn't have a parade, but never fear, there are several neighborhood ones and we were all able to enjoy it!

Molly and Olive waiting for the parade to begin

(fake smiles #1 of the day)

Stephen and Adrian were pretty excited too!

Jules, our beautiful yard hostess, and the girls

Here it comes! Olive was so excited about the "emergency"

"hi emergency!"

At the end, the Daddys jumped in to let the girls think they were in the parade.

Grady sportin' the shades. So cool.

Olive and Molly with fake smiles #2 of the day! Cici "invited" us all over to swim for the afternoon and pool progress was made! Olive actually calmly got into a float and Molly jumped off the side into the water with no one catching her! Thank you Cici for the fun afternoon of swimming!

After nap time, I wanted to try to recreate the picture we took in front of our big flag last year. Let's just say, that didn't happen, but I got a few cute ones.

We couldn't wait to see the fireworks! Last year Olive never saw them because of the rain and the ridiculous reschedule for November, so we were excited to see her reaction.

Waiting...

Waiting...

Still waiting...

Here they go! She was in awe! She kept saying "so pretty!"

"Wow!"

Then she started calling out the colors.

"Yeah fireworks!"

She was very disappointed they were over and the whole way home kept saying "fireworks all gone?" We are so thankful to live in a free country and so grateful for those who fought to make it this way! Thank you! God Bless America!

The Second Annual "Not on the Fourth" Fourth of July Party!

We had the Second Annual "Not on the Fourth" Fourth of July party on Sunday evening at the Beverage's house. It was a great time with fun, food and fireworks! All day when I was telling Olive what we were doing, all she would say was "Molly Grady park" and that is the first thing she wanted to do...play on their new swing set!

These three little ladies had fun times swinging.

Whee!
Then a little sidewalk chalking...

Olive and Lillian are so silly together. It is so fun to watch them interact because they do things so the other one will do it and then they crack up at themselves. For instance, playing on the empty splash pad...

After we ate dinner, we decided to try to get a group picture. We knew this was going to be a disaster, but we wanted to try anyways! It was a 3rd of July MIRACLE! They all sat and smiled!

Grady, Olive, Molly, Campbell, Lillian, Anna

Then we let them all put on their swimsuits and get in the water! They were so excited!

Grady wanted to show off his muscles for the ladies!

"How you doin'?"

Then someone said the word "cookie" and they all lined up on the porch! Look at these faces filled with anticipation!

Jules makes the best cookies! YUM!

After getting their much needed nourishment, it was sparkler time! Molly held the inagural sparkler like a pro! Lil getting in on the action!

Daddy and Olive with their 3 sparklers. She was a little more enthused when there was only one.

Yeah Olive!

After all that hard work, these two girls needed some refreshing water,

and giggles!

Family picture time!

Our wonderful hosts, the Beverage family

All the ladies

Thank you friends for a fun night!