a LOVE SHOUT....

Just the beginning of wayy too many pictures:

this is oliver. He built a boat....put on his life jacket, and told us very seriously that he was going to go visit grandpa jon and grandma j

....they're in Russia, so a boat was a good choice of transportation.

me and oliver after swimming....isn't that the cutest little boy face!

I love these two...I love them so much. I love them separately, but I love them even more so "together"....what a fun adventure they have ahead....brother and sister!!!!!

so here is the story behind these pictures...there are a few of them. The other day I was changing oliver's diaper....Instantly"sister" came crawling over to him as fast as she could..she burrowed her little head in the crevice of his neck and just rolled right up into him, and began sucking her thumb. She loves him. And I love that she loves him. She is such a cuddler (in this sense...she rarely will let you cuddle her in your arms...but she does lay down by you and burrow herself extra close....I love it, and it is so stinking CUTE!

more of the two of them cuddling! I just can't get enough...

a couple of weeks we had a "MOVIE NIGHT" with some of our friends. We each ordered our own fast food, brought it to our apt. and then ate junk and watched a movie....Monsters Inc. It was very fun....
My family used to order out, and then lay a table cloth/blanket on our living room floor and do the same thing. I loved it, and I want to do it with our kids once in a while too!

Oliver is getting really good at drawing things lately. This is a picture of eliza: her head, eyes, ears, hair, mouth, nose, legs and arms....I thought he did a really good job!

He also really loves Grandma j and grandpa jon....I go to dance class quite often, sometimes teaching and sometimes taking a class. So if I ever leave it's usually for that reason. Oliver knows this, and wanted to come one time. So one evening we took the kids to my dance class and they watched. Afterwards the teacher gave him a chicken sticker and he was THRILLED! He immediately wanted to show and then give it to grandpa jon! cute....

OH I LOVE THIS FACE!!!!

I could squeeze it, kiss it and just love it all the live long day!

Oliver made this diaper train and was very excited to sit on it!

This picture is of something eliza does every time she is very tired. She pulls the side of her hair into her mouth and sucks on it and her thumb all at the same time. She gets very concerned if she can't do this!

Eliza's "sleepy habit" in action....the thumb and hair all in one!

The beginning stages of a VERY VERY SLEEPY GIRL!!!!

Oliver and daddy "resting"

Aren't they adorable....two peas in a pod I tell you!

Ok...these next set of pictures are really really funny.....I think anyway! Last weekend, we had just gone swimming and it was getting close to bed time. Eliza, was SO TIRED! I didn't even realize how tired she was until I later went back and looked at all of the pictures that I took of her....her eyes were closed in nearly every single picture....it was SOOOOO FUNNY! So here are eliza's "sleeping/sleepy" pictures...enjoy!



She says "mom...enough already with that camera, LET ME GO TO SLEEP!!!!"



Ok...so this section is very fun! The picture above is Oliver and eliza now
...and the pictures to come are of when oliver was 10 months, and when eliza was/is 10 months...she's almost 11 months now, but we'll do 11 months in a couple of weeks!

Isn't he darling!!!!!

He walked at 9 months, so he was really good on his feet at a VERY early age :O)

Oliver all ready to go in the jogger...we loved to go running then, and we love to go running now! I'm glad that I will look back and see smiles on his face when he went running with me...It just makes me happy to know that he enjoys that time.

Here is eliza at 10 months!
What a cute little mess.... She is such a doll and I LOVE HER SOOO MUCH!

Here she is again....just a darling little girl....

dear family and friends, I love our children so much. They make me laugh, they make me mad, they make me worry...they make me happy, really happy. Everyday is a new day bringing new milestones, new adventures...and so on. I love them, so here is a love shout for Oliver and Eliza!!!!!!!! I am not good at putting the pictures in any kind of order...so you'll just have to go through them (if you want :O)...and see what they're all about. There are a few pictures of oliver when he was 10 months old , and eliza (she's 10 months)...I thought it would be fun to do a little "comparison" To see if you all thought they looked similar or not!......FUN!
Ok...enjoy the many pics!!! sly

ps. Eliza had a doctor appointment last week. She weighs 16 pounds. I didn't catch her height because they were so worried about her weight, and that is all we discussed. She is small (they say) and would like her to go see a dietitian. She's dropped off of her curve and is now in the 3rd percentile for weight by age (she was originally in the 25th percentile).

They kind of scared us. They also did an x-ray of her chest to see if she is still sick from when she had RSV in December. She is sick now, so they were worried that that is why she is not gaining weight.

She's getting better though, and we feel that everything is ok....so we are not worried. The chest x-ray came out ok, and there was nothing to report.

Anyway, just thought I would give an update in that area.

Well....I need to get going. I hope you enjoy the pics!!!

sly

ummm...

bare with me...I really need some "blog-look" help! I'm working on it :O)

alright already...

A whole BUNDLE of FABULOUS pictures :O)

these pictures are in a bit of a random order, ranging from:

Easter, just at home shots, and our Lake Tahoe Adventure!!!!!!!

ENJOY!

The BIG chair!!!!!

Oliver loved this chair...he actually more so loved the statue you can see on the left hand side....I'm sad we didn't get any pictures of that. Oliver really thought that was cool!

Eliza is just getting SOOOOO Daring and adventurous!!! I love it so much!

A cute little mug of me and eliza...you can also see beautiful Lake Tahoe in the background!

just a pretty little smile!

Oliver just cheesing it for me....thanks oliver!

A cute family mug....

Can you believe my arm was long enough to get us all in there....

yes, I was quite amazed:O)

just another cute pic of eliza!

She was SOOOOOOOO tired!

Oliver and Eliza sledding on crispy/dirty snow! It wasn't the prettiest snow...but it sure made for FAST sledding!

My most favorite meal of our WHOLE trip!!!! These were Garlic Bread Cheese Chips!!! Oh man, this was seriously a delectable treat. The kids loved it, we loved it....It was perfect!

Messy little eliza...but such a pretty face :O)

Me and the kidlets sledding!!!!! It was SOOOO hot. The only thing that was cold was the snow. We could have been in shorts and tank tops.....I'm serious! The whole weekend was so NICE AND WARM!!!!

Hanging out at the Condo.....this was so funnn! I love these kids so much!!!!!!

I think oliver forgot how to suck out of a straw....therefore, I guess his nose was a perfect spot to stick it! hmmmmmm????

Two little cuties in the Great Big Chair!

Daddy and oliver going DOWN!!!!!

A-HA! She says!

Daddy loves his little girl so much!

Another daddy-daughter moment....CUTE!

Daddy taking oliver up the really big hill!!!!!

WHAT A DELICIOUS BREAKFAST!!!!! ... And darling little boy!

We made a bunch of granola before we left so we could have good breakfasts while we were away! We added some fresh strawberries...and this is what it looked like! Doestn't that look delicous?

If you can tell...this is what is happening in the picture: Oliver is slouched over on top of Eliza, SLEEPING (that is his big blue helmet)....and that is eliza squished up against the side of the bike trailer....pretty funny eh? I felt really bad for eliza. She was crying at first, but she just gave in and went to sleep too!

Eliza's Darling little wave! SHE IS SOOOO CUTE!

Oliver coloring Easter eggs!

Eliza holding her precious purple egg!

Oliver on the bus getting shuttled up to where there was a big Easter Egg Hunt!!!!

FUNNNNN!!!!!

ok folks,

I really dread blogging sometimes. Not because I don't like it (I don't think it's that anyway...:O). I dread it because I write WAY TOO MUCH, and make short stories into novels... can you see how this would cause a person a little weariness about posting a new post :O)

Anyway..... A lot has happened, if you can imagine. So let's get started!

The main story for this post is that we went on a semi-unexpected family vacation! Aaron tutors a boy whose family owns a time share for a condo at Lake Tahoe, Squaw Valley USA. They offered us a free stay there last year, but due to lack of a decent/safe car we decided to pass. This year however, they asked if we were interested and we were TOTALLY DOWN! So this last weekend we spent Friday and Saturday night in a beautiful condo, right in the village of Squaw Valley USA. It was really an amazing experience.

Skiing is a VERY UNKNOWN hobby/sport to me....I've never really gone ( that cross country skiing outing doesn't count Debbie...you know I wasn't in my right mind :O)
I truly feel like we discovered a whole new world, a whole new dress status-quo (which we definitely Were NOT a part of and did not really fit in :O). It was the craziest thing I have seen in a very long time. I longed to be a part of that "world" because everybody looked so relaxed and like they were just enjoying a long day of skiing and snow boarding and looking really cool while they were doing it.
In the evening after the ski lifts stopped, people just crammed into the village eating, laughing, warming up by the fire in the center of the village, and it was really fun to watch them.

Anyway, we got there on Friday afternoon and after much searching we finally found our destination. The kids were majorly riled up because the car ride was a LOT longer than we had anticipated. Thus, we were thrilled to finally get to our room and unwind. The first thing we did was get ready for dinner out in the village. We NEVER EVER EVER take our children out to eat. We took Oliver out to eat once when he was a little over 1 year old...and we've never done it since. If we are spending money on a nice meal, it needs to be a relaxing experience, therefore....we'll wait until they are older.
However, they did a GREAT job in the Restaurant. They both had high chairs and they ate really well....I love it when we do things Oliver really loves. Watching him light up inside is one of the best things in the world for me...I love it, and it makes me soo soo happy to see him so happy.
We went to a pizza/pasta place and loved ever BITE of it!
After dinner we did another thing that OLIVER ABSOLUTELY LOVES.....we watched the SNOW PLOW'S even out the ski area....oh man, oliver was in big machine HEAVEN! It was so cool for him and he couldn't get enough. He even got to see the snow-mobiles going hither and thither on the hills, and that was very cool too.

The next day we went to a children's play zone where oliver got to play with some pretty cool things. He wasn't super impressed, but it was still fun. After the kids' naps, we went on another REALLLLY FUN adventure! We took Oliver and eliza Sledding!
Did oliver just love it???? ummmmmm....actually, NO!!!!! He's a little "sensitive" when it comes to being cold, and therefore it wasn't his most favorite activity. Aaron and I really loved it though. I could have stayed there for hours just sledding down and running up the hill.....it was a riot. Eliza seemed to like it better than oliver, so that was fun. The bunny hill was closed for skiing, so that is where people/us went sledding.

Since that wasn't much of a hit with oliver, we decided to try and take him swimming...in the hot tub. He and Eliza both liked that, so we were happy to end the day of fun on a good note. That night we again went out to eat (we brought breakfast and lunches...but decided to go out for dinners...FUNNNNNN!!!!!) and nothing else looked too great, so we ate at the same place as the previous night.

On Sunday morning we drove to/through Tahoe City and went to church. This was not a great experience. Oliver was really ready to go home by this point....so it was very very tricky and we left right after sacrament.
On our way back to the condo we stopped at LAKE TAHOE!!!!! It was SO GORGEOUS!!!! Oh my goodness, I wish we could have stayed there all day, taking in the beauty of it all. It was peaceful, quiet, and just so amazing.
The kids were getting awfully restless so we had to get going. We ate lunch back at where we were staying and then headed home......

it was a great trip. I loved hanging out with oliver in the morning, eating breakfast and watching the ski lifts go up and the skiiers come down. He loved it and I did too. The Condo was much more spacious than our tiny apartment so you can imagine that oliver and eliza were just elated with all of the SPACE! Oliver loved it, and I am so happy that he had a good time. It was still stressful because vacationing with children just seems to be that way....but it was really really fun.
We feel so grateful that this family let us use their time share, allowing us to have a family get-away. We've NEVER done something just as a family like this....and I'm really glad we did it. I love being with my family and I love when oliver and eliza love it too.

Oliver kept asking "where's Tahoe"...and we tried to explain to him that we were there and that this was it....but he just kept asking. It was so funny. I love oliver so much. He says the funniest things, and makes me laugh so much. At the dinner table he's a riot. He talks about the day in this funny voice...picture those kids in high school who would half shut their eyes and say "yaa" in a raspy voice, lifting their chins in the air..... that is what he does and it's very hilarious. We have no idea where he got this from, but it is sooo funny.
He is also calling grandpa jon and grandma j....oh and let's not forget "zeroni" ALLLL of the time on the phone. When we were at Lake Tahoe, I overheard him on one of the phones saying "oh hi grandpa jon and grandma j and zeroni, I need a nap!" He had been acting up and he must have known he was in need of a nap. It was so funny ps...zeroni is a "weird" character off of the movie "holes", which oliver likes to watch sometimes. I say "weird" because this is a word that oliver uses probably 50 times a day. Everything is "weird" to him. We're not sure how this all came about, but it started a long time ago and it is still going as strong as ever!

He is such a crack up!

Eliza is really cruising these days. She crawls LIGHTNING FAST and pulls up onto everything in sight. Her and oliver's favorite thing to do is take off EVERY cushion from the couch and crawl all over them, climb all over them, jump on them, roll off of them, and jump on the couch without them....it's very funny. It's fun, because this seems to be their first real game. They both love it, and they both laugh and laugh at the other one when they do something funny....it is so fun. I love them so much.
we think eliza says: tree, truck and da da. They do not sound like those things, but she does try to say them and it's very cute.
I hope she walks soon. I just can't wait for her and oliver to REALLLLLY run around together and play. It's going to be so much fun, even though I KNOW their will be a lot more arguing/fighting/pestering when it happens as well...oh well, such is life :O)

Well, I think that just might be it for now!

Good night to all, and to all a good night!!!!

sly,
me
ps...if you read this and there are no pictures...I'lll add them soon!