Livy's 1 Year Pictures!

Our Doll Baby is One!!! Sweet baby Olivia, we love you so! What a blessing you have been this year. How did your mommy, daddy and big sis get so lucky?! You have been a dream since the day you were born and have brought more joy into our lives than you can ever know. With the patience of a saint, you have survived a whole year with a big sister who loves to smother you with affection! We are all head over heels in love with you! Each day you give us a million more reasons to smile and we love seeing your personality shine through. Your giggles and grins overflow our hearts. We look to the future with much anticipation of what you will do next! We love you, we love you, we love you!!!
Mommy, Daddy & Ella

Olivia is The Big ONE!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY OLIVIA LYNN!!!
Our Doll Baby turned 1 on December 13th! We celebrated with a party the Sunday before. It was a bitter sweet day as we were beaming with pride just like the day she was born and then realizing that a whole year has past already! The days seem to pass by in the blink of an eye.

Proud Daddy and Mommy with the Birthday Girl!

Grandpa's Girl! Olivia was stuck like glue to Grandpa this visit! It was so precious how she always wanted to cuddle with him and only wanted him to give her, her bottle. Thanks for coming up Grandpa, you made a very happy little girl!

Olivia enjoyed being the center of attention at her party.  Here she is making the rounds with Uncle Gary, Aunt Judy and cousin Kade.

Present time!

What a happy girl, surrounded by her big sis Ella and cousins, Dayne, Emma, Kade and Ethan.

Men at work! Uncle Jeff put together one of Olivia's presents, while Papa and Uncle Gary supervised.



So sweet, cuddles with Aunt Judy before cake!



Happy 1st Birthday to ME!!!  Olivia getting ready to blow out her candle while we sing Happy Birthday to her.  She was so cute, dancing like crazy while we sang. 

Mmmmmmm...cake!

Olivia's 1st Birthday Cake!

There were a few bumps in the road making Liv's cake, but we are all still alive after eating it!  Our mixer died while I was trying to finish up the 6th layer!  Uncle Gary and Aunt Judy (our awesome, lifesaver, loved to pieces neighbors) to rescue once again!  Bob had to run over and borrow their mixer at 10:30pm.  Of course this is after we had to borrow their rolling pin as well.  Judy was sure to remind Bob just how much he loves me as he indulges me in my little experiments!  Thank you Judy!

Big sis Ella helped make the batter.  We used 6 different colors for the inside.  Pink, orange and yellow in one pan, and purple, blue and green in another pan to give it a rainbow effect.  Ella, Daddy and Grandpa helped with making and rolling the 6 different colors of fondant. 

Fun Fact: The cake weighed 18 pounds!
 I am not even sure that Olivia weighs 18 pounds! 

Bob and Uncle Gary contemplating what layer to dive into!

We had a collage of Olivia's cake smash pictures taken the day before her party. She was wearing the same thing that Ella did for her 1 year cake smash. The girls look so much alike in these pictures, it's precious!

1 Year Photo Banner!  I made a banner of Livy's pictures, one from each of the last 12 months, then added her 1 year pictures above.  I will never admit how many times I broke into tears making this!  Looking back, month by month, at how quickly the year has gone by and how much our beautiful, healthy daughter has grown, brought tears to her daddy's eyes too.



Birthday girl Livy getting loves from her Nana!





Family picture to celebrate Livy's big day! Ella was such a big help in preparing for her baby sister's party.  It is adorable to see how much they love each other! 



Up, Up, & Away!!!

Another huge THANK YOU to Holly for taking Olivia's birthday pictures! 
We were able to sneak them in the last warm day we had in October, so they were a bit early for her birthday, but the weather was the determining factor for this setup!  Livy loved taking these pictures!  You can see her screaming in a few of them below as she rocked the basket back and forth.  That's our doll baby!  Thanks for capturing this precious memory Holly!