Growing Up Boys

Ollie loves to do "writing." It's his favortie activity. And now that he's getting so big, he has to use the makers instead of the crayons. In the past, I've been hesitant to let him use markers, but now that he's 2 1/2, I thought that I'd let him try. This is the first day that he got to use the markers and you can see why I was resistant. He ended up with markings all over him!

He even drew a mustache on himself! He really does want to be all grown up. He has been getting much better with the markers, though. Now he usually just ends up with it all over his hands, and as my mom (who is an elementary school teacher) told me, he needs to practice and it's actually so awesome that he WANTS to do writing, because must little boys don't want to. So, I guess it's just time to buy those markers that only write on special paper. Or at very least, ones that say washable on them!
And as you can see, he's also getting bigger and has been trying out big boy undies for the last few days! We can only do it when were at home, but he has actually been doing pretty good. I guess it's time to just really buckle down and finish this whole potty training thing.
And of course, when he saw Ollie wearing them, Dexy had to have big boy undies on too! He was so anxious to be like his big brother that he wanted me to put them on right away. So I did!
I love how he looks like some kind of crazy super hero! He always wants to be just as big as his cool big brother.
And of course, to be a big boy, you HAVE to wrestle with your Daddy! They are just getting so big and are so much fun! I love my silly boys!

Jumpin' Jacks

A few days ago we went to a bounce house called Jumpin' Jacks with Derek's family. We had a great time! Ollie loved it! He scaled walls, flew down slides, and bounced like crazy all by himself. Dexy had to be with me, but had fun as long as we were together. Jude was nervous for the first hour that we were there and then figured out that it was a fun place and got into the madness with us. Ollie even started a slammin' dance party. Oliver could have stayed all night long, but after about 3 hours the rest of us were worn out. It was a fabulous time for all involved. We'll have to go back!

NO!!!!! Not Again!

Every time we try to cut Oliver's hair, something goes wrong and we end up having to totally buzz it. Well, last night we tried again. I don't want to cut his beautiful curls anymore, but the sides and back were looking a little long and unruly. We usually use the clippers which I didn't want to do, so I asked Derek if he would just trim up Ollie's sides and back with the scissors. A few days ago, Derek cut Jude's hair over here and they both did so good, that I was hopefully. But alas, Oliver sat no where near as calm and still as Jude sat. It was, again, disasterous! He started crying as soon as we tried to put the hair cutting cape on, so we took it off and he sat on my lap, but it was all to no avail! He cried, screamed, started uncontrollably shaking, then wiggling, and finally, with one big jerk, it was all over. The side that Derek had started on was so uneven, so choppy looking, and the big jerk had left a huge patch of hair super short! And so, once again, even though I vowed to myself to not let this happen again, we had to resort to the clippers and the shortest attachment to get it evened out. Ugh! In an attempt to help me not feel so sad about it, Derek tried to have a little fun with his hair. First he cut it into this slammin' curly mohawk.
It was super punk with the curls and the long hair, and it went all the way down. Too, bad it wasn't Halloween time or I would have left it and costumed him accordingly. Brian thought it was funny, but too extreme for a 2 and 1/2 year old (it was).

Next, Derek trimmed up the hair and took off the back. Now it looked like a classic high and tight army do. I so desperately wanted him to get to keep some of his hair, and this wasn't quite so extreme, that I pleaded with Brian to let us leave it this way.

But in the end, the inevitable happened - all my Ollie's beautiful, curly locks were gone! *sigh* At least this time around it's summer, so it will help him stay cool in the St. George heat and looks more appropriate. If this happens one more time, I'm going to refuse to cut his hair untill he's capable to hold perfectly still. He'll just get to become a Samson child, with long flowing locks. Although, every time we've tried, we've learned something that helps us. I think that now we've collected enough Oliver hair cutting tips for me to say that I'm confident that next time we can get it right and he'll even get to keep his curls intact!

Cool Dudes!

We are loving soaking up the rays of the St. George sun! It's so sunny, in fact, that we had to wear our cool, new TMNT sunglasses (thanks Angela and Grandma Bowles) when we went out to play. Cristina invited us over to play in her mom's beautiful backyard. The boys were so excited that they even had to back their "pat-pats" to bring along, like they were going to be there for a long time.
Cristina had filled the little pool, un-covered the sandbox, and pulled out the toys. They all had a great time splashing and digging. Here, Jude face planted into the pool, but they were all enjoying themselves so much that he didn't really mind.
When they had enough water fun, they moved to the sandbox, then to the toys, then to either filling the sandbox with water or the pool with sand. And when that got old, they still found ways to entertain themselves. Climbing on and off the chairs, watering the plants (or in Ollie's case, the plant - he just kept dumping his bucket of water on the same one),

and working in the garden. Jude, at one point, was even working in the garden naked. Nothing like a little naked gardening time to make a fella's day complete. Dexy kept his clothes on, but maybe that was worse...
...he ended up with a bum full of mud! We are so glad to have nice, sunny weather (of course, we would be getting that in most places now, seeing as it's summer and all) and kids our own age to play with and be our friends. I'm just glad that the boys are going to get to know their cousins that are in their same stage and Cristina and I can be mommy friends in the same stages, too! We had a fabulous time splashing, playing and eating yogurt mud pies...oh, wait. That was just Jude's idea of a good snack. ;)

July 3rd and 4th

Happy 4th (well, actually this was the morning of the 3rd) of July! We were so happy to be back. We got to Utah on Friday morning after driving all night long, so we decided to hang in St. George for the weekend of the 3rd and 4th before heading up to North to see Brian's family and play with them for the week of the 4th up at East Canyon. It was so nice to have a couple of days out of the car before we had to get back in and it was even better that we had friends here to play and celebrate the 4th with us. Derek, Cristina, Jude and Ducats came over to play on Saturday. We went to a little splash pad out in Ivins by their house that morning. I forgot my camera, so Cristina has those pics on her blog. I'll have to get them from her. Then we let the boys nap and all had quiet time before we came to "?my?" house (it's really my parents) to grill up some delicious hamburgers. We played until bedtime and then they went home. I watched the fireworks by myself that night until they scared Ollie and he had to come out and see what was going on before he would go back to sleep without worring about the "popping sound." On Sunday we went to Church together and then just hung out and had a fun time eating and chatting. It was a laid-back, fun 4th with Derek and Cristina!

More 4th of July Fun!

Brian's side of the family has a 4th of July tradition that is a week of fun up at East Canyon. They get a bunch of condos to stay in and take their company's boat up to the lake and have a grand old time tubing, water skiing, and knee boarding as well as playing in the pool and the little splash play back at the condos. Last year we didn't make it to East Canyon and the year before that, Ollie was only 5 months old and I was breastfeeding so it wasn't very much fun, at least for me. But this year, we had a great time! We took the boys on the boat and even on tube rides and they loved it!

Ollie got to drive the boat a few times and thought he was the king of the world!
There was even an inflatable, floating trampoline, but the boys didn't want to jump on it anymore after we put it in the cold, lake water. We also had fun not at the lake.

Swimming in the pool,

getting wet at the little splash pad,

playing at the playground,

or even just chillin' in the condo.

Brian and Oliver also found a new, dangerous trick or two!

Brian would put Ollie on top of the tall shelfing that held the entertainment center and murphy bed and then when Brian would say "jump," Ollie would just leap off and Brian would catch him!

When that wasn't high enough for them anymore, Oliver even jumped out of the upstairs bedroom window with absolute trust! Brian caught him, but the force of that jump caused them to bump heads a little, so there were a few tears and they only did it once. But we were still so amazed by the fact that he would just do it, no holds bar, in the first place. At least we know that we're doing a good job of establishing a relationship of trust.

Like I've said so many times, this boy needs to be in gymnastics as soon as financial possible. Or mabye he could just run away and join the circus. Rumor of his amazing trick spread and a lot of the extended family had to come watch him jump from the shelf. My crazy, fun boys! We had a great time!

Update

Well. We are back in Utah. The boys allergies just weren't getting better (they were both waking up at least 2 times every night and Dexy even seemed asthmatic) and Brian's sales were dropping rapidly so we decided that the best thing for our family would be to return early and get settled and ready for the upcoming semester of school at....wait for it.....Dixie! Brian has transfered to Dixie State and we will now be living in St. George in my parents condo across the street from Dixie High. My parents are kind of up in the air right now as my Dad is going to school and Weber but my Mom couldn't find a job up North and is therefore still teaching in St. George. So, they said we could live there and we'll work out whatever needs to happen as we go along. It a nice place, enough room for us, and the boys are at least kind of familiar with it so hopefully it will be a fairly smooth transition. The whole time we were in Texas, Ollie keep saying to me, "let's go home, Mommy!" so I hope he can feel settled there and like he isn't a Gypse child anymore. I, of course, I'm thrilled! Anyway. Here are some pictures of the end of our time in Texas.

We found this fabulous aquatic park in Lewisville. It had a little lazy river, a big water slide, 3 splash play areas around the pool, and a zero depth entry into this kiddie area with a water slide just their size. No where in the Dallas/Fort Worth area will let you take a child down a water slide on your lap and all Brian wanted was for Ollie to get to go down a water slide. That's why finding this place was so perfect. Ollie got to go down the little water slide all by himself, as many times as he wanted! It made everyone happy and was such a golden find! Too bad we found it right when our time was almost over.

Then we went to the Fort Worth Zoo with Heather and her family the day before we left. Wednesdays are half price there, so we planned our whole last week around going to the zoo together on Wednesday. The boys love animals and it was actually a cloudy, overcast morning so even the weather cooperated. We had a fun time. That night Brian and I went to the Dallas Temple. It took almost an hour to get there and then there were only 5 people, including the 2 of us, in our 5 pm session. I couldn't believe it! It was a good experience and it made me want to make sure that I'm not taking the Temple for granted.

The next morning, we stuffed all of our stuff back into our teeny Hyundai Elantra and started our long drive back to Utah. This picture was taken Thursday July 1, 2010 at 11:48 am as we headed out of D/FW. We drove all night long! Our car was so packed that Brian wouldn't fit in the passenger side, so we couldn't even take turns driving. Finally, at about 7 am the next morning, he switched me and squeezed into the passenger seat for about an hour and half of sleep before he's legs and feet were totally asleep and he had to switch me back. After what seemed like the longest drive of my life...

...we were almost there! We decided to go straight to St. George so that we could unload our car and spend the 4th of July weekend with Derek's family before we came back up North to play with Brian's side of the family at their traditional week of the 4th at East Canyon fun. But, all of that July 4th fun will have to be another post. The drive had been so long, about 22 1/2 hours with stops. The boys were actually fairly good and handled way better than anticipated, with the exception of Dexter throwing up all over himself at 2 o'clock in the morning in the middle of New Mexico! We eventually found a place and got him cleaned up and he went back to sleep. Ollie just wouldn't go to sleep, so I told him that he was going to have to sleep in his carseat and he said, "How do I do that?!" It was rather funny and he eventually got some good sleep, too!
Now, this picture was taken on Friday July 2, 2010 at 9:57 am after hours and hours and hours of driving. It was crazy, but we just wanted to get back fast. Nobody got very much sleep over that 23 hours period, but it's over now and we're glad to be back!