Merry Christmas!

I am totally behind on sending out cards this year, but they are in the mail now. I wanted to be sure to post this picture before Christmas. I love how it turned out this year!

Merry Christmas to all our family and friends!

Oliver is 38 months old and other great news

Okay, okay, I'm still counting and snapping pictures for my refrigerator magnets. I love having his monthly pictures side by side on my refrigerator. My mother in-law asked where I am going to fit all the pictures of the new baby, and although it will take some adjusting, I'm sure we can make room; just like in all other aspects of our life. Oliver's 38 month birthday started out with a trip to the doctor's office with both Mommy & Daddy to see the new baby again. I had a first trimester Down Syndrome screening where they do a sonogram and a blood test which detects DS with 91% accuracy. Oliver loved hearing the baby's heart beat and even requested to hear it again, fortunately the doctor was nice enough to let us all hear it again. The baby was sleeping in a very cooperative position and so at just 12 weeks we were able to find out we are having another BOY! And there was no doubt about it, the doctor didn't even have to tell us for us to know. How exciting to know so early! We didn't know with Oliver until I was 21 weeks pregnant. Oliver has been telling me all along that it was a boy and he was right. We are all very happy to welcome another boy into our family!

the traditional profile sonogram

and proof of the gender -- if you are not familiar with looking at sonograms, this is a shot from the diaper changing position, in the center of all the blackness there are two almost parallel white lines which are his legs and in between is the proof.

Afterward, we went to Oliver's favorite mall to do a little shopping, ride his favorite cars, and see Santa. But you may be wondering, didn't we just see Santa??? Yes, we did. But Oliver was worried that the "mall Santa" might not know what he wants for Christmas. And since it was his 38 month old birthday and all, I couldn't resist having his picture taken with the same Santa as last year for my refrigerator magnet. Oliver was certain to tell Santa that we would be in Utah for Christmas and that was one smart Santa. He told Oliver he has to stop and pick up more packages in Draper, so he knows right where his Grammy's house is in Sandy. So although I wish Oliver's smile would have looked a little less forced and a lot less painful (Santa really isn't hurting him), I am glad he is in an outfit of my choosing with a Santa that I just love!

Nuestro último día de escuela de español

Spanish School has come and gone. Oliver really enjoyed the activities and the songs we sang and his Spanish vocabulary increased significantly. And on top of all that, he got a little taste of what preschool will be like next fall. If his attention span will increase, I think he will love it (but I guess most children this age have this problem)! We learned about day and night, names of family, days of the week, pets, colors, shapes, body parts, and several other things I can't think of right now. They had a little party on our last day and Oliver got to eat a chocolate cupcake; that is when Josephina won his heart! (I have no idea if the title is correct, I used Google to translate)

Oliver's Impromptu Santa Visit

This is not what I would have chosen for Oliver to wear for pictures with Santa. Nor is this the Santa I would have chosen for him to visit. But we walked into the grocery store, and there was Santa, and the store employee offered to take their picture. Kind of hard to turn down free pictures with no waiting! :) Only problem is now my little guy wonders why their are two different Santas. Isn't three young to question that kind of thing? Luckily I was able to change the subject without answering, but I guess I'm going to have to come up with an answer someday. Oliver is very excited for Christmas and is even more excited now that he was able to tell Santa what he wants: a train that goes round and round. Now he just has to stay on the nice list and he will get exactly what he wants! :)

My Little Digger

Oliver loves excavating with this tractor he received for his birthday, but let's face it...you can only dig pretend dirt so many times before it becomes....BORING!!! So today, Oliver and I came up with something new to dig. Oliver loved it and would play with this all day if he could.

Christmas Tree

Oliver helped me with the tree this year while Clayton put the lights on the house outside (which look great by the way). The lights to the tree are connected to a light switch and Oliver loves climbing up this step ladder (which unfortunately has made a home right where you see it) to turn on and off the lights.

Oliver actually took this picture of the tree while laying on the ground...I think he did pretty well. I continued my tradition of making a kid-safe ornament for our tree this year again. I made candy cane ornaments which are cute, but not my favorite. The balls I made last year didn't make their way to the tree because I really didn't love them. The Rudolph ornaments I made the first year are still my favorite kid-safe ornament. My absolute favorite ornaments are my stainless steel Restoration Hardware ornaments I got the first year we were married. I love them! I have three of each kind (ice skates, stars, snow flakes, etc.) and although I have checked, they have never had the same ones since. I really wish I would have purchased enough for my entire tree that year. Oh well, maybe someday I'll find more!

Fall clean-up

We cleaned up an additional 14 bags of leaves today. Our Maple really has a lot of leaves. Oliver had fun jumping in the piles of leaves even though it was so cold. He thought it was funny to turn his hat around so he could barely see.

Who doesn't love Cheerios?

Oliver does. He especially loves that you can use them to make an edible necklace for boys to wear! :)

If this is any indication...

...it's gonna be a long winter. The snow fell for a good two-hours then the rain melted it within minutes.

Taken from my back porch

Thanksgiving in Oklahoma

For Thanksgiving this year we spent a couple of days in Oklahoma with Clayton's family. We drove up on Wednesday night and it took some finagling, but we managed to keep Oliver awake the entire time. Oliver watched Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer on the way and now all he wants to talk about is the abominable snow monster. Francie was amazing, despite having worked the day before, she managed to have almost everything ready by the time we arrived, which left hardly anything for Thursday morning. I did enjoy making a Waldorf salad beside her while she made the cornbread dressing. Everything turned out delicious and the company was even better! Thanks for inviting us!


Clayton's sister's family arrived on Thursday morning. Oliver was really excited to see Ace and the two of them had a fun time coloring on this huge box left over from Grandma & Grandpa's brand new TV. Thanks for sharing your art supplies Ace!

Ace working on his Batman masterpiece

Oliver with his masterpiece

Grandma, Oliver & Ace pretending to take a nap post meal.

hanging with Grandma

gingerbread house decorating....turned out to be a disaster since we didn't let the house set up for long enough and the roof kept falling off.

Friday, we made our way to Turner Falls in the Arbuckle Mountains with the intention of seeing some of Clayton's Dad's family. Unfortunately, we didn't make the connection, but we were able to see some pretty "views" as Oliver calls them.

We hiked up through this old castle and up the mountain to see this:

Turner Falls from above

I liked the sun rays in this picture

the sun made this one not turn out so well

Ace & Steven hiking back down

Daddy & Oliver on the way back down

I think Ace was loving this!

Afterwards, we walked over to the bottom of the falls. It was a really pretty afternoon!

We took our time getting over there, and when we got there Steven had already hiked up to a cave above the falls. I was so jealous! I really wanted to go, but I figured better not endanger myself and the baby, so I refrained.

From the bottom. People swim in the pool at the bottom during the summer. It really is quite majestic looking.

Then Clayton decided to hike up with Steven so I could live vicariously through him. Here they are at what I thought was the top.



Oliver and Ace were hilarious! They kept yelling Daddy-O (what Oliver calls his Daddy) while their Daddys were up on the mountain.

Then they went even higher. I guess the super zoom on my new camera is the ONE good thing about it.

Oliver & Ace

And some nice girl agreed to take a picture of the family. She took two with my camera, unfortunately, Oliver wouldn't cooperate for either. This is the better of the two.

After leaving, we stopped for Mexican food and then we drove through this amazing light display. They had tons of these huge light displays and most of them were in motion. Oliver loved it!

With a full belly, and three days without naps, there would have been no way I could have kept Oliver awake this time. He was sleeping within 10 minutes of leaving the lights. He slept the duration of the way home, continued to sleep as I carried him in, woke briefly while I was putting his diaper on and said "hmmm..it looks like we are in Texas", went back to sleep after I put him in his PJ's and slept until the next morning. I was AMAZED! You may recall from earlier posts, that this kid is NOT an easy sleeper. The environment generally must be perfect for him to sleep and car sleeping is totally out of the question. What a great memory to end our Thanksgiving trip!

Giving Thanks

Despite my recent blogging hiatus, I couldn't let Thanksgiving pass without acknowledging how grateful I am for these two:

And for this one who will be joining us sometime before June 28th.

Oliver is incredibly excited to become a big brother and he loves to pat and kiss my tummy while talking to the baby. This is a very exciting time for our family. Unfortunately, the fatigue with this pregnancy has been overwhelming. Hopefully, I'll feel more normal soon as I approach the end of my first trimester and I'll be able to resume my normal picture taking and blogging.

Happy Thanksgiving to all our friends and family!

November Photos