Look Whose King of the Oliver House

After we got back from Texas, we stayed at my parents house in St. George for a few days to give the boys a break from their car seats. While we were there, Oliver certainly learned that Grandma and Grandpa are softies when it comes to cute grandbabies. Grandma letting him play Starfall on her laptop, standing on the chairs, getting Grandma to give him messy M&Ms, and helping himself to the large, movie theater tub of popcorn are just a few of the things that he got his subjects to do for him. Oh, well. We're all happy to serve the king, especially when he's so darn cute!!!

Hey, Jude!

Since we've been back in St. George we are now getting to play with our cousin, Jude. He is the son of my little brother Derek and his wife Cristina. They are such a cute, little family. We love them! On one of the days that they were over at my parents house playing with us, all 3 of the boys were wearing horizontal stripes on rompers that looked similar. So I had to take pictures of them, of course! I love any opportunity for cute pictures!

Let's Jump on It!

Here are the last of the pictures from our great trip to Texas. One of the days that we were there, we went to one of those bounce places called Jump on It! This place was great because it not only had a couple of rooms with big, bouncy slides, houses and courses, it also had a room with little ones in it for kids 5 and under. Oliver and Hadley loved it there! They could go down the slides by themselves without being scared, run around, jump, and literally bounce off the walls. Ben really liked the toddler room the best as well. He's about the size of a 6 year old so we thought that he would like the bigger ones, but he is actually only 4 1/2 so the toddler room ended up being more his speed. We played there for about 3 hours! All the kids loved it and were worn out and even the adults got a work out. The little ones wanted us to endlessly take them up and down the big slides. Even Grandma and Grandpa Oliver got into the action some. Everyone was eventually tired and hungry, but we still had to convince them that it was time to go. It was wonderful, bouncarific fun!!

Oliver and Hadley

Oliver and Hadley had a wonderful love-hate relationship. They loved playing together. They hated when the other one had what the wanted or took something from them. They loved needing the same adult at the same time. They hated when any adult was only helping or holding one of them. And they loved getting into messes together (see previous posts for pictures of them with cereal dumped all over the floor, mega blocks everywhere, and them climbing up a large ladder). I could go on, but I'm sure that you get the picture. This is the right of every toddler, though isn't it? They got to be such cute friends! I loved watching them play and it was so good to see Ollie love being with a lot of kids, especially his cousins that he hasn't seen since he was about 6 months old. What was especially great, though was the fact that if Haddie was going to bed, then Ollie wanted to go, too and if Ollie was going to take a nap, then Haddie wanted to nap, too. Sleeping at Heather wasn't even a problem at all and he usually has a hard time sleeping anywhere other than our house or my parents house. Here they are playing at the park, sometimes with the big kids help, after we had them get a very cute cousin picture (I'll post those pics once I get the CD) and getting into their final mess in the backyard on the last day that we were there (Friday, July 17th). There was one, small puddle on this little roller coaster track and they of course found it and got right in the water. The only problem was that they wanted to be right in it at the same time. They ended up quite wet, but who cares. Clothes dry and they just had so much fun together!

More Texas Pics

We just had so much fun in Texas with my wonderful sister, Heather, that I still have lots of pictures to post from our time there. Here's the school where I went to 3rd, 4th, and most of 5th grade and the house that we lived in. It looks a little different, but you can still tell that it's the same house. Oliver and Hadley loved playing with these mega blocks together. And of course, Aunt Heather had to catch up on getting to know my boys, but they grew to love her quickly and were more than happy to make up on a small amount of her lost snuggle time with them! We hope they can make up some more of that time soon.

More Texas Fun

Here's a nifty collage of more of the fun time that we've had here so far. I made this using Heather great photo program called Picasa 3. I love it so much that I'm going to have to get the program on my computer when I get home. The kids are having a fantastic time together and so am I!

Dexter

Brian, this post is specifically for you, but I do hope that other people enjoy it also. Dexter is getting soooo big! I want you to be able to recognize him when you get home, so I took these pictures. The first picture is of him laying by a standard, 12-inch ruler so that you can see just how big he's getting and the second is the triumphant, captured smile picture. He is such a happy, smiley baby. We love you and miss you and can't wait to see you!!!

Play Time

Since we've been here, Ollie has had so much fun playing with his cousins. We haven't seen Heather and her family for a year, but her kids are so nice and friendly that Ollie hasn't had a hard time getting to know them. They were pretty instant friends. It's so nice to talk with Heather and her husband, Scott and to play with her fun kids. The pictures are of us playing in the pool, Ollie and Haddie being 1 1/2 year old mess makers, Emily holding Dexter, the boys - Ryan, Ben, and Oliver playing, and Dex sleeping (I laid him down for tummy time and instead of fussing he just feel asleep).

The Long Drive

I came with my parents to Texas to see my oldest sister, Heather. We left on the 8th at about 1:30pm from St. George and arrived in Keller, TX (near Fort Worth) on Thursday morning at about 8:30. My dad drove all night long. The boys did very well. We only stopped 3 or 4 times. We had lots of snacks, drinks, and Backyardigans and Curious George shows for Oliver to watch on my mom's laptop. I'm so happy with how nice they were. But, they were still definitely happy to get here and be out of the car and able to play with cousins. The first pic is of both boys getting loves from Grandma while she explains to them the long drive that we are about to take. The next 2 pics are of both boys being so nice in the car. Ollie does have a large bag of cheesy, puffcorn keeping him happy. And the last pic is of freedom - out of the car, walking with Heather and Hadley to the playground at the school across the street.

Oliver's Indepth Conversation

Over the last few days Oliver has been talking up a storm. Most of the time it just sounds like jibberish, but sometimes it sounds like actual words and kind of even makes sense. And all of the time it's certain that he knows exactly what he's talking about and is very determidly saying something quite important. It has been so fun talking with him! I'm glad that it looks like Oliver will be a big talker - I'll always have a friend to talk to, especially when Brian is out of town.

July 4th

For the 4th of July, we headed back down to St. George to celebrate. Brian is still in Denver, so we needed people to play with. Dexter's favorite part of the day actually happened early - sleeping in bed with Mommy, looking all cute and cozy. Other than that, at 2 months old, he didn't do much celebrating. Oliver had much more fun. We went back to the splash fountain and falls and this time I even got to play as Dex slept happily in his carseat. Ollie loves it there! Then we all (Grma and Grpa O. and Derek, Cristina and Jude) went to my uncle Rob's house for burgers and dogs, homemade ice cream and homemade hot fudge, and packaged fireworks. Ollie wanted to be like the big kids, so he of course thought he had to wander out in the street. And Grandpa Oliver set a great example by running around the fireworks for the "traditional" tribal fire dance. We had tons of fun!