4 Kids in a Tub

There were 4 kids in a tub and the little one said........

"Move over! I'm crowded!"

I guess the little one can't actually talk. It was a little crowded.........

........but they actually all really enjoyed themselves!

Off to the Neighborhood!

A few days ago, Ollie was adamant about taking his letter puzzle to "the neighborhood." Whatever that means.

He was saying, "we'll put the pieces in the bag (he put them all one by one into my purse), and take the puzzle, here you carry it, to the neighborhood." He wanted me to carry the bag and the puzzle board, but when I told him I had to stay and do the dishes, he decided that he could go without me. He slung the bag over his arm, hoisted the board and took off out our door, up the complex walk, and off down the sidewalk.

Too bad he forgot to put on clothes! So I made him come back inside. I guess we'll just have to go to the neighborhood another day.

Messy, Chocolicious Fun

Ollie really wanted to make chocolate pudding. So we did! Then we ate it. It was yummy. Ollie did a pretty good job of keeping the mess to a minimum. He's getting to be such a big boy!
Now Dexy on the other hand, was a huge mess!

And apparently, loving every minute of it.

He's such a cute mess, though!

My Parents Moved to Nebraska!!

You heard that right. My parents moved to Scottsbluff, Nebraska. My dad finished his year program up at Weber State in clinical labratory services. He then started putting in applications, including one in Scottsbluff and got the job out there. It all happened very quickly. But it should be a good set up for him. They are allowing him to use their lab to continue working on his bachelor's degree and paying him to work at the same time. They have a cute, little apartment out there and seem to be enjoying it. When my dad got offered the job, they only had about a week to come get whatever they needed before heading out there. There was still a lot of their stuff at their house (where we live), so they came over for a couple of days and raced through it, taking what they needed and leaving the rest in a whirlwind of chaos. This place was a huge mess! It was kind of fun, though to help them and to hussel through everything on such a tight schedule. Adventure! This place is still a huge mess, but I was happy to help and am happy to keep helping to clear everything out, organize, and clean the upheaval that is the result of such a fast move. I just slowly keep pluggin' along. It's nice to have a little more space and a lot less stuff hanging around (two families worth of clutter can really add up). I'm so grateful to my parents for letting us live here at such a good price! And so impressed that they were able to take so much stuff with them in such a hurried move. Thanks!
They got a little U-Haul and hitched the car to it. My mom drove their truck. My dad got the fun task of driving the U-Haul. Ollie loved the big truck.

He was determined to go with them! First he got in the U-Haul with Granpy. He had a fun time turning the big steering wheel, but wasn't too happy when I made him get out.

Then he took off down the sidewalk when Grammy started trying to leave....

....and climbed in the truck to go with her. Grammy had told him that they were going to Aunt Marie's house first to pick up a few things. After she told him that, he just kept saying, "I'm gonna go to Aunt Marie's house real quick. I just need to check something." He was thinking up any and every way he could to go with Granpy and Grammy. But alas, his mean mommy eventually dragged him out of the truck and hauled him back inside. We will all miss them so much, but are kind of excited for them to have a new adventure! And with Skype (love it!) we can all video call and still get to see each other. We wish them tons of luck!

Transportation Cookies

Ollie discovered the cookie cutters in his closet about a week ago and has been getting them out and playing with them and begging to make cookies. Well, when he found the transportation cookie cutters, he got really excited. He drove them around and assigned everyone a vehicle - the sailboat for Alice, the fire truck for Daddy, the car for Uncle Derek, the train for Dexy, etc. So finally, a couple days ago, we invited Jude over and made sugar cookies. They were all very happy about it.
Especially the blue frosting that Cristina made for them. Jude didn't eat any of the cookie, but had an enjoyable time licking all the frosting off.

Ollie did a lot of just licking as well, but did finally take a few bites of the actual cookie.

It made his day!

And where was Alice during all this? Sleeping, like a little angel of course. Too bad she missed out on her sailboat. Maybe next time!

Us, Through Ollie's Eyes

Oliver got the camera one day and took a picture of each of his family members.
Bad timing, I guess. Or maybe this is just what he thinks of us.

Aren't we beautiful?!?

It's that Time Again!

But it's sadly that time for the last time, ever. My Harry Potter obsession is moving into it's peak madness as the last and finale movie (*sniff, sniff*) is now just a little over a month away!! I know that I'm suppose to be an adult, but I'm not and I'm am getting so anxious and excited and yet so sad that it's coming to an end just like an annoying tween. And call me a silly school girl, but I love Ron and Hermione's relationship and I'm pretty darn sure that I am seriously going to wet my pants when we finally get to see them kiss!! I have waited 10 years for this and I am going to enjoy it. And finally we'll get to see Snape in all of his glory. So going to cry over him! Look as this brilliant picture of him as headmaster! He rocks!

The trailers that have been released over the last couple months look spectacular!! This is going to be an amazing movie. I am so EXCITED!!!! And that's why I have added this countdown clock to my blog. "And now we wait." (Hermione says that in the 3rd movie, in case you're not as fanatic as I am!) AHHHHHHH!!!

Weekend of Bowles' Fun

WARNING: This is another long post. I'm going to try to be less wordy, but there are still lots of pictures. When Brian's family comes down to visit us, they only get to come for Friday and Saturday, so we pack a lot of fun into the short time that we have. They got here at about midnight Thursday, so everyone just went to sleep. But the next morning, Friday June 3rd, the fun frenzy began. Grandma Bowles started bustin' open the packs of party poppers for the boys. Then there was a few moments of calm catching up time before moving on to the next activity.
We walked down to Snow Park to play before lunch. Dexy was laughing his head off and loving every minute of Uncle Ben letting him "kick" him from the swing.

Ollie took his cool dude self one of the few shady spots to dig in the sand. Angela went over to play with him and helped him build a sand birthday cake, which Angela told us he even took a bite of when they were done.

Dexy flying with his Daddy!

It has been a really long time since I climbed a tree, so I decided to climb this one and ended up with lots of company. It was so nice and cool up in the leafy branches! I like Ollie's askew sunglasses. This quickly became one of my new favorite pictures.

Then we went home for a quick chicken salad sandwhich lunch before we ditched nap time and headed off for more fun at Sand Hallow Aquatic Center where the family summer pass that we purchased is already proving itself very worth the mere $100 we paid for it. Since we first went there, all Oliver could talk about was bringing Angela (or Grandma or Uncle Ben, etc.) to the blue water slide, so we knew we had to take them there. The water slide was, as always, a huge hit!

But when somebody either pottied or had a diaper leak in the kids area of the pool, that whole section including the water slide got closed down temporarily for cleaning. We got banished to the much colder lap pool, but it was still fun. The water slide opened again in enough time for us to take a couple more trips before it was time to go. After the pool, we piled into the Bowles saburben and the first thing Ollie did was say, "we should get some ice cream!" Of course, grandparents can't resist so we stopped off at Menchie's for the best fro yo around! Then dinner and a beside himself naplessly super tired Dexy before I got the boys in bed and the babysitter here and went to meet everyone else out at Tuachan for The Little Mermaid. It is an amazingly visual play! Loved the effects and the colors! Their desire to see this play was the catalyst for their trip down here. It was very fun!

The next morning, Saturday June 4th, Brian's dad took Ben and Brian golfing bright and early and the boys were back at it with the poppers. They love them and Grandma Bowles always buys several bags of party poppers for them. It's become their special Grandma Bowles tradition. It makes them very happy!

This time they were really enjoying throwing fistfuls of poppers at one time.

When the men got back, it was back into the surburban for another adventure. This time we were on our way to the sand dunes in the Snow Canyon State Park. Dexy chilled on Angela as nap time was drawing near, while....

....Oliver tried to eat the wind that was rushing in through the open window in front of him.

The sand was so HOT! We had a great time running and jumping off of the dune.

Brian could jump really far...

...but in the end, Ben won the jumping competition by a mere inch or so.

Then Amanda volunteered herself to be buried. The sand was much cooler underneath, so she was actually the lucky one.

We got her buried good!

Dexy who was already tired, refused to get down in the sand at all. He snuggled with Grandpa while the rest of us played. In fact, if Grandpa tried to set him down, he'd pull his legs up and refuse to be set down. The rest of us had a grand old time digging, jumping, rolling, and running in the super soft sand!

When we got back, I put Dexy down for a quick late nap and everyone else zonked out, too! I made Brian's cake and we all got cleaned up. There was lots of sand in our clothes! After about an hour of Dexy napping, we woke him up (poor kid who gets so tired during our intense fun packed weekend) and went to Chuck A Rama for an early dinner. It was yummy and we stuffed ourselves so much that nobody wanted any of Brian's birthday cake when we got back.

His birthday was actually on Sunday, but we sang to him on Saturday since his family was here to join in. He pulled a classic Brian and smashed his face into his cake as soon as the song ended. Good thing I made two cakes. Since we were all so full, we just had the second one for his actually b-day the following day.

Ollie was found it so incredulously funny and tried to wipe the cake off Brian's face! And then the party was over. They loaded up the suburban and we said our good-byes and they headed back up to the land of the cold, poor unfortunate souls. The boys went out to watch them leave and chased them down the sidewalk as the drove away. When Ollie couldn't keep up with their car anymore, he stopped and sadly said, "OH! They're gone!" What fun!

Bathroom Duty

During naptime on June 1st, I got cleaning the bathrooms and Ollie decided to help. He doesn't nap anymore, but I usually let him play on the computer as his quiet activity during that time, but he wanted to help me clean the bathrooms more than play computer games. Sweet! I'll take help any day! It had been way to long since either one of them had been cleaned very well, so we totally cleared the counters and sprayed everything down. Ollie loved being the sprayer! He was even pretty good at the cleaning up after he sprayed. He helped me clean the counter, mirror, and sink in both of the bathrooms! He was a very good helper!