Construction Party Day

My morning was crazy busy, and I didn't leave myself quite the amount of time I should have, but all worked out in the end. Unfortunately I totally forgot to feed Oliver breakfast so he was STARVING by the time lunch came around. Despite having an empty stomach, Oliver was a fantastic birthday boy. He was so, so, so good at sharing his new toys with his cousin Ace and I was so proud of my big boy! It turned out to be a great party. Thanks to Grammy, Gramps, Grandma, Grandpa, Tricia, Steven and Ace for making his day very special! And thank you to those who called and sent gifts that couldn't be here, we missed you being part of the party!

the party invite

my mountain wall with construction trucks...I tried to make the wall 3D by adding packaging paper behind to be like rocks

Close up of some of the trucks. Each of Oliver's cousins were driving a truck.

I'm not good about remembering to take pictures of the decorations, so luckily my Dad took care of that for me! :) Thanks Dad!

Oliver & Ace decorated their party hats and played with trucks and tractors in their Home Depot aprons.

Ace checking out the tractor

Oliver & Ace playing with Oliver's new cash register

Time for lunch; here is the spread. Everything was yellow in keeping theme with the construction party.

enjoying lunch

my ravenous little guy couldn't even look at me to take a picture!

getting ready to open his gifts

construction DVD

Lincoln logs

cool space station and book

and a TRACTOR!

I had to post this picture. Clayton and my Dad so nicely stayed up until 2:00 AM building this monster! Thanks guys!

I loved this picture of Uncle Steven showing Oliver how to work the levers

The party group -- thanks for letting me take so many pictures to get a good one! :)

THE CAKE! (Tom Thumb bakery so wonderfully made this cake upon my request and did an AMAZING job!)

The birthday boy with his cake!

blowing the candles out

Excavating his cake -- too cute!

Oliver totally dug the frosting this year again!

Must have wet nap.

our family

The Evans

Grandma & Grandpa

Grammy & Gramps

And last, I thought this picture was too funny of Oliver and Aunt Tricia!

Happy Big Three My Little Guy!!!

I can hardly believe that three years ago, I was in the hospital delivering this little guy and now look at him, he is turning into such a little boy. He is certainly not my baby anymore, but I still like to call him that; even if he corrects me most of the time! :) Oliver's birthday was on a Saturday this year, and we planned his party for the following day so that we could take it easy on his birthday. I set out all his presents the night before and hid his coveted gift, hoping to save it for last, knowing that he wouldn't be interested in anything else after he opened it. My parents were in town and I got up bright and early to make his favorite breakfast: Sneaky Chef Pumpkin Chocolate Chip muffins (they are delicious and they are packed with good for you ingredients like whole grains, fresh pureed pumpkin, pureed carrots, pureed sweet potatoes, and applesauce -- click Sneak Chef above to go to the website to see Missy's version of the muffins). It turns out I didn't really need to wake up so early, because Oliver decided he was going to sleep in and didn't grant us with his presence until 10:45. I think we were all more excited than he was! I had ordered a new camera the week before his birthday, and unfortunately, with all the party preparation, I didn't have time to learn how to use it before the big day. So two things happened: first, a lot of my pictures turned out horrible because this camera doesn't function well on auto like my first canon digital did; And second, I meant to delete a really bad picture and ended up deleting everything I had on my camera. Total bummer! Thanks so much for taking pictures Gramps, so I at least of some pictures of the morning!

So on with the show:

Here Oliver is seeing his gifts for the first time. He is actually looking at me in the pictures, but these are from my Dad's camera. He was really excited, and it was difficult, but somehow we managed to get him to eat breakfast before opening gifts. :)

I love this shot of Daddy playing with his birthday boy first thing in the morning!

Here he is looking at my camera again while we sing his first happy birthday of the weekend to him. Still cute from the side!

After breakfast, it was on to the presents...as I mentioned before, there was a coveted gift. One he had seen at the learning store back in August that he spoke of almost daily. Coming up to his birthday, he would ask me everyday if it was his birthday. And almost every time, the question was followed by an excited question about getting said coveted gift. There was really no question about whether or not he would get the gift, I just wanted him to wait for it. So the present opening begins.

He got 14 new books, wrapped in three packages. The first one he opened he said "nope, this is not my _____ (read on to find out what it is) ".

We were able to get him a little interested in the books by reading them. Here Oliver is ready Boom Chicka Boom. Cute!



The content on this video isn't very good. He isn't responding to my questions, but I thought he looked so cute, I just had to post it.

Then he went to the second gift, and we asked him what he thought was inside it. He said books. He was right and very disappointed might I add. Suddenly he shoots off to the side of the room, between a chair and sofa (where I have his coveted gift hidden) and says "hey, I bet this is my ____ "! Dang it. How in the heck did he see that gift? We had several more unopened gifts that I knew he would love if he didn't open that coveted gift yet.

nonetheless, here he is between the furniture, finding his coveted gift already having correctly guessed what it was inside

he literally threw it over the arms of the furniture, and then ran around to get it

he runs around to open it

are you excited to see what it is? He was! Keep reading...

My little boy has been pretending his laptop computer was his cash register for the last two months and now he finally has his very own CASH REGISTER!

He was so excited, and couldn't wait for his Daddy to open it!

Look at that face!

I was totally right to hide it, I just should have hidden it better. It was quite some time before we could get him to even look at another present.

Since the theme of his birthday party was construction, we got him a construction set which he has also been asking about for over a month. Unfortunately, this was not as big of a hit and this may be the only time he has actually worn this play set.

I thought this was cute: This is from my camera. Oliver showing his hat off to Gramps.

And this is the photo from my Dad's camera at that very moment. "Umm, are you sure you want to take this picture?"

Doesn't Oliver's bunny look cute all dressed up?

Oliver also got a shopping cart. Market Street Grocery store has small carts and Oliver loves them. He has been wanting one forever, and he was very excited to see this and be able to use it with his cash register.

He got a scooter. His cousin's, The Reeves have a scooter and he has wanted one since he tried their scooter. He did really like it!

Here he is telling me that when you ride a scooter outside, you have to use a helmet. Good boy!

And last, this fun drill set. You use the drill to screw the bolts into the board and make patterns. I think he likes the drill better to pretend to repair our house, but I bet he'll grow into it!

A short video of him using his drill for the first time.

I thought this was a cute picture!

Oliver and Mommy reading stories at the end of the day.

We ate breakfast so late that we skipped lunch and my parents bought us Oliver's favorite Chinese food for an early dinner and then we spent the rest of the day playing and getting ready for Oliver's party the next day. We did have a Costco Pumpkin Pie for desert which Oliver totally dug. But no pictures. What a fun day to spend with my little guy!

Mommy & Daddy love you birthday boy!

Such a proud Mommy moment

A potty story:

When Oliver was about 18 months old I bought him a couple of potty chairs for our bathrooms and some books to introduce the subjects. He seemed interested at first and he would sit on them fully clothed whenever we went. He wasn't interested in sitting on them bare, and soon his interested waned and my time was stretched thin because I was in school. Fast forward to about eight months ago; I have more time since I was finished with school, and we started working on the whole potty thing again. We got some new books, and although it took him a while to become interested again, he finally showed some interest. It started out with potty right before bath time. When that was going well, we bought him some Lightening McQueen underwear which he loved. One day when he had a diaper rash, we decided to try them out. In 5-6 hours, he had 5 or 6 accidents and we went right back to the diaper changing table. We kept on reading and going at night and a couple months later we tried again. He did well, but I was always the one asking him if he needed to go and if I forgot to ask, then he would have an accident. He still wasn't ready.

We went on vacation and when we came back we started talking about trying underwear again and he would tell me he wasn't ready. For almost two months we talked about trying again after his birthday. I bought him some new tractor and airplane underwear and was ready to give it another go this week, but he beat me to it.

After we had opened his gifts on his birthday, I was in the kitchen when Oliver ran up to his Daddy and said "I need to go poopy and I want to do it in the toilet". They quickly went into the bathroom and Oliver did his business and then exclaimed that he wanted to wear underwear because he was a big boy now. He came running out to tell me and he was so proud of himself. This was one proud Mommy moment. For the last six days he has been without diapers except for naps and bed time. He has gone at restaurants, on regular toilets and even standing up and has only had one small accident because he was trying to hold it for too long.

I'm so proud of my little guy! Go Oliver!

Happy Birthday Grammy!!!

Here is a video of Oliver's birthday song for you Grammy. He gets a little distracted by his shadow in the end, but it is too cute! We love you and can't wait to see you in a few days! Happy Birthday!!

Fall has finally arrived in Dallas

The weather has been cool on and off for the past couple of weeks (60 yesterday, 85 today), and I've noticed that some of the trees are finally beginning to have a slight bit of fall color. My favorite tree to see change is the Bradford Pear tree that seem to be so popular around our neighborhood. The colors range from a bright orange-ish red to a deep dark purple and it is breathtaking. We don't have any, but luckily our neighbors right across the street have two, so I am able to see them changing every time I look out my front window. :)

Autumn is truly my favorite season. I think my biggest reason for fall being my fave, aside from cooler weather, is the pumpkins. I love looking at pumpkins, eating anything pumpkin, hearing about pumpkins, carving pumpkins. You name it, I love it. I think Oliver is heading in my footsteps in that regard. I can remember last year at this time, we would drive past decorated houses at night and he would say "ooooh, spooky". It was so endearing. This year he is just as fascinated. Tigger from Winnie the Pooh calls ghosts spookables. Now, Oliver calls them that as well. Instead of ooooh, spooky, he now gets so excited and pleads "Mommy, can we drive by the spookables again?".

To start our fall out right, Oliver and I spent our morning at the Dallas Arboretum. Their pumpkin festival was truly amazing. There must have been thousands of pumpkins throughout the gardens both on display and for sell. It was so fun to share this experience with Oliver. We both loved it!

We have had so much rain lately that the summer plants are still in full bloom and are gorgeous.

Oliver loved this funny looking pumpkin/gourd?

There were some enormous pumpkins on display. Oliver wouldn't sit on one because they were wet, but you can get an idea of just how big they were and there were tons of them!

Check this out!

Oliver wouldn't go in here for me to take a picture of him because it stank. Really it did.

trying to lift this pumpkin

Oliver's first maze built from bales of hay

he had a great time, especially in the dead ends

The Arboretum still has their storybook playhouses until the end of the year. I didn't get a picture of him in this one last time. This is Eragon.

He really is not sad.

cheese, all day I kept on getting these huge cheesy grins...I love them!

a little break on some canon balls

once again, cheese under the Crepe Myrtles. :)

Oliver's Daddy is my hero!

Our patio in the backyard is without rain gutters and with all the rain we receive, we had mold growing on the patio and it was getting so bad that I didn't even want to be out there.

It really was disgusting and I'm kind of embarrassed to be posting this picture, but you had to see the before to truly appreciate the after

We rented a pressure washer this weekend and Clayton went to work

While Clayton worked, Oliver and I played out in the soggy yard

I love action shots! :)

Oliver and I collected baby acorns from our Live Oak in his bucket, but he didn't want me to take any pictures

After a little over an hour of spraying, here is the finished product:

what a difference! Thanks Clayton!

Whew...now it is like we actually have a patio! :)