Thanks Grammy!

Thanks Grandma Oliver for helping Mom make our big, super cute, and soft blankies! Mommy put them in the hard, uncomfortable playpens that she makes us sleep in and they help a lot.

We love them! And we love you! Love, Oliver and Dexter

Growth in St. George

Whenever we go to St. George, the boys seem to make big growth or developmental strides. At least that's what Brian's family always tells me. Maybe it's just because they had to go a whole week or even 9 days without seeing them when they are use to seeing them every few days, so it seems like they have grown a lot. Or maybe it's all that happy, vitamin D rich sunshine strengthening their bodies and brains and warming their souls! Cheesy? Yes! But I think it has a lot to do with it. This time while we were in St. George, Dexy finalized himself as a walking baby. He started pushing everything that he could around on my parents smooth, wood floor. It was the perfect way for him to get steady and feel like he could do it himself. By the time we left, he was what I would consider, a walker. He still falls, but he walks by himself, far distances, often. Started walking at 10 months old! Oh, dear! What are we in for next? What a big, cute boy!

Ollie grew, too while we were there. He and his daddy learned and perfected a new trick - the back flip! "Holy Coooow!!!" He also discovered that it's funny to send a lowercase b to the capital B section ( or vic versa) to make a mis-match. Then the starfall kid says, "opps!" and you get to laugh histerically. He's started doing it wrong on purpose. What a kid!

Another Warm, Sunny Day

On the 16th, Cristina and I took Jude, Oliver and Dexter over to her mom's house to play in the kiddie pool in her backyard. It was so nice of Leslie (Cristina's mom) to set up the pool, fill it with warm water, find lots of fun toys and invite us over to play! They loved it! Ollie counted all the balls and toys clear up to 12 without any help, Dexy was fascinated by the little watering can, and the dogs, of course, wanted in the pool, too. Funny side story. Leslie has a dog named Reggie that is actually Ducats' brother. When my boys and I walked in, Ollie saw Ducats and said, "Ducats, Hi!" Then Reggie came over and Ollie said, "another Ducats?! Hi, another Ducats!" He's so cute and clever. We all had a wonderful time!

Veron Worthen Park in St. George

We came home from the perfect, sunny weather of St. George late Monday night. When we woke up on Tuesday, there was snow on the ground. Ugh! Here are some more pictures from our fun week. The grass was so green and the sky was blue and the sun was shining pretty much every day! I'm already missing it like crazy. Today it's still chilly, but at least the sun is out (for now, anyway)!

Just Havin' a Little Ice Cream

We have been in St. George - Yay! We headed down Friday night and got here at 1:30 in the morning - Yuck! But we have been having a great time in the gorgeous weather. Brian had to go back Monday night to return to real life, but I got to stay and play. I have lots of cute pictures from the fun that we have been having, but here's a few for now. On Saturday morning, Derek came over with his little boy. Cristina was a work. Derek and Brian had run out to get something. I fed the boys lunch and then decided, "what the heck, I'll let them have a little ice cream!" I gave Oliver and Jude some chocolate ice cream (after putting on the mega-catch-all bibs, of course) and let them go to town. Everybody else got back at about the same time and this is what they found. They loved every minute of it!

We had just a great time just letting them eat and play that whole day, that we piled all 3 boys into the bath tub that night. They played and splashed, drank up cupfuls of bath water (gross!) and even shared some with Ducats who wanted into the party, too!

It was all of this bath time fun, however, that caused this fabulous black eye on the Dex! He was trying to stand up, unassisted, in the middle of the bath tub. Needless to say, he kept falling. I kept catching him and trying to make him stay seated, but one time I was too slow and he hit his face on the side of the tub. Not so fun! But he didn't cry for very long and handled it well. He looks kind of drunk in this picture. He wasn't; I promise. He had just woken up from a nap.

A Couple of Big Boys

Dexy is so sure that he needs to be as big as Ollie. Here's more evidence for my case. I gave Ollie a "big boy" cup at dinner a couple days ago and when Dexy saw it, then he needed one too. And actually, he handled it very well. For a 10-month old, he's super advanced. He's quit the dexterous child - which may be the reason why we really wanted to name him Dexter! Then he just started throwing it around. Oh, well. He did really well.

And Ollie is of course, super big now that he's two years old. He was singing and playing the piano for me the other day. It was a fabulous concert!

The Belated Birthday Fun

The beauty of having a lot of family on both sides is that birthdays kind of last for a week or so. Ollie's had a few more little birthday gifts come over the last couple of days. We got a package in the mail from Derek and Cristina the day after his birthday. He was excited!

And I was excited, too, when we found these super, cute jammies inside! He likes bears right now and just kept saying, "bew, bew, bew," as he pointed to them. He then had to go back to playing with his alphabet puzzle from Grandpa Oliver. He loves that thing!

He also loves to write on his Doodle Pro! He goes back and forth between the letter puzzle and write letters on his doodler. He will sit there and say, "write E; write K; write Dexy; write Ollie; now write capital L," etc. He loves it when I will sit there and help him write whatever he asks. Grandma Bowles said that when she was out looking for his present that she saw this and just felt like it was the perfect present for him. She was right! It's fabulous for him and me, especially because it keeps him from writing on things he shouldn't.

Then last night was the big Bowles' family birthday celebration for the month. Every month, as many people as can make it, come to Great Grandma and Grandpa Bowles house to eat cake and ice cream and sing to everyone who has a birthday that month. The past several times that we've gone, Ollie has cried when everyone started singing. He was so scared of the noise, I think because there are so many people there. I knew that his b-day was coming up, so a couple of months ago I started singing him the "Happy Birthday Song" often in preparation for this very evening. And he did great! He was a little worried, but he didn't cry at all. He's such a big boy!

The 2nd Celebration of Ollie's 2nd Birthday!

We had a lot of fun with Oliver on his 2nd birthday, March 4th 2010. The start of the day was pretty slow and mostly like normal. After nap time, the fun could begin. We anxiously waited for Daddy to come home early from work to go swimming with us. Hollianne and Angela came, too. And actually, it was there idea to take Ollie swimming for his birthday. What fun aunts! We went to the Kearns Fitness Park. They have an indoor pool and we thought that they'd be more leniant about letting lap-riders go down the slide, but unfortunately they weren't. We got there, stuffed all of our belongings into one big locker, and got everyone ready to go. Ollie was so excited as he waited for the rest of us to be ready. Dexy was the last one dressed and even he was excited. And with good reason! They loved it!

They got tossed high into the air by their Daddy, played in the shallow area with all the fun water works, sat on shoulders underwater, and floated through the little lazy river. Brian even took Oliver down the slide, which he thought was totally great. But then he was told by the lifegaurd that he couldn't do that, so Ollie only got to go once and was so sad when he had to just watch as Hollianne, Anglea, and I went down the slide. We all only went once, too, so that we wouldn't make him too sad.

When the boys were both looking kind of purple, were shivering, and had the uncontrollable lip quiver going on, we pulled them out of the water and made them be finished. They probably wanted to keep playing, but were happy when we turned the warm shower on them. Then we went to the Bowles' house where Ollie got to open presents, and have fast mac 'n cheese and cake and ice cream for dinner. Grma and Grpa Bowles (Grandpa didn't get to be there, sad! He had to go to meetings before we got back from swimming. His busy life as Bishop has started) got him a Doodle Pro, his favorite flavor of Goldfish crackers and a super funny shirt (too bad the only one they had was a 4t, he'll have to wait a while to wear it). And Hollianne and Angela got him his own pair of super cool, Spiderman sunglasses, since he always wants to wear their sunglasses. He loved them and as you can see, wore them until he had to take them off to get cleaned up! He also thinks that the Doodle Pro is the bomb! He played on it with Grandma right until we told him it was time to go home, to which he said, "bo phanks, home," because he thought he had to leave the Doodle Pro there at Grandma's house. He was so excited when he told him that it was his and he could take it home with him. Then he came home happily!

I'm so happy that he had what seemed like a great birthday! His 1st birthday happened right as we were moving and I was hugely pregnant, so it was so lame and pathetic. I was sad about it for a whole year that I didn't get to make a big deal out of his 1st b-day. Now I feel much better, because we did get to do lots of great celebrating this year. Thanks to Hollianne and Angela for the great idea to go swimming and to Grandma Bowles for making him a cake and getting such cool presents. We're happy to have family to make memories with! Happy Birthday, Oliver!

Happy 2nd Birthday, Ollie!

We had a great day celebrating with our big boy, Oliver. I made him pancakes for breakfast, we took him swimming with Angela and Hollianne, and he got cake and ice cream and presents from the Bowles. I will post all of the cute pictures from our super fun today tomorrow when I have more time. Right now I just wanted to make sure that I did a special post on Ollie's actual birthday about why he's so wonderful and how much we love him!

Tonight we went back and watched the videos from Oliver's birth. And let me just say, that I am so happy that he is with us and healthy and prefectly well! He wasn't under any great stress or trama, but he was loaded up with magnesium (and let me just tell you, that stuff stinks) and it was kind of sad to watch him be unresponisve with the doctor and then given oxygen by the nurse before he even let out a weak, half- hearted cry. He was so teeny and so quiet and looked so helpless. Boy has he come a long way!

Oliver might still be considered kind of small for his age, but he is now far from quiet and helpless! Ollie is so smart! He can tell you every letter of the alphabet, be they capital or lower case as well as the sound they make and maybe he'll even throw in a word that begins with that letter. He can already whip through the alphabet puzzle that Grpa. Oliver got him for his birthday in no time, making no mistakes, naming every letter as he goes. He now also knows all the basic shapes and can count to 10. He has a fabulous memory! Ollie remembers where we saw horses 2 months ago, knows all the words to his favorite songs, and repeats phrases and sayings from his tv shows after only seeing them a couple of times. What a genius!

For a 2 year old, Oliver is great at all the routine stuff that a lot of toddlers fight. He eats well and sleeps well. When I tell him that it's time for a nap or bed, he happily walks himself to his room and goes to bed without any fuss. And though he has his "poor choice" moments, he behaves well. He even sits himself in his "poor choice spot" sometimes and stays there all on his own until he's ready to be happy. He can be reasoned with and has a pretty good understanding of things. He also says please, thank you, your welcome, help me, and no thanks. What a peach!

Oliver also LOVES his brother! He's so happy to hear Dexy start making noise in the morning and runs down to his room to help me get him up. When I open the door, Ollie joyously exclaims, "Dexy, Hi!" followed by, "Dexy, awate (awake)." He's also so concerned for Dexter. He helps me feed him and shares food with him, brings him his shoes if we're going somewhere and makes sure that we won't leave him when we go. He even tries to share toys with him sometimes and that's true love if your a 2-year old!

Ollie is just so much fun! He loves to sing, dance, read stories, do CRAZY tricks with his Daddy, laugh, swim, be outside, line up trucks and do anything that involves letters! He has to sleep with a mound of blankets and stuffed animals, climbs in and out of playpens by himself (but only during the day for some reason - he waits for me to come and get him if he's been sleeping), tries to say everything we say even if it's a big word, loves wearing cowboy boots, and just has a general, pleasant disposition. We love you so much, Oliver, and are so glad that you came to us!! Happy Birthday!

The 1st Celebration of Ollie's 2nd B-Day

It's taken me a while to post these for some reason, but on Saturday the 27th of February we had a fun party for Oliver's birthday. That weekend was the closest to Ollie's actual b-day that my parents could come up, so we just celebrated a little early. And since that day was the day after Amanda got married, we figured that the Bowles family would need a rest. We will celebrate with them tomorrow on Ollie's birthday. Anyway. On Saturday we met Marie's family at the McDonald's in Lehi and had a grand old time. Marie made the cake on the delicious frosting for us and then went above and beyond the call of duty by making scrumptous sugar cookies that spell out "happy birthday Ollie." I lined them up all cute, but my camera batteries were dead, so mom took a picture of it. You'll have to wait until they post it or email it to me to see it spelled out, but no matter what it was cute and they were yummy! Mom and I then decorated the cake. She paitently stuck tiny M&M's all around the cake for me while I wrote the letters and his name. It turned out so cute, so thanks a bunch to both Mom and Marie for helping me make it happen!

We had a good time letting the kids play in the playplace, eating hamburgers and fries, and getting the kids all hopped up on sugar! Mom also found Seasame Street plates, cups, and napkins with letters all around them to tie in with our letter theme. And Mom and Dad stopped and bought 6 balloons, one for each boy to take home. Thanks, again for helping this be fun! I love the picture of Mom and Dexy making the same face and of course, the classic of Dad and I taking pictures of each other taking pictures!

The best part of it all was getting to celebrate my big Ollie's 2nd birthday with my side of the family! We get to see the Oliver clan WAY less often than the Bowles clan, so it was so great to have them be a part of our lives and memories. I'm sure that when we look back, we will remember how much we enjoyed each other's company way more than the fact that the playplace ended up packed with what seemed like a trillion, noisy, unsupervised kids, eventhough right now that part is a little more memerable! All in all, it was a great time and I'm so glad that we were able to make this party happen. Thanks, again to everyone for your help and for coming and celebrating with us!!!