Oliver's 1st birthday party!

Oliver turns the big ONE on Wednesday, but we celebrated his birthday on Sunday (since no one likes mid-week parties, including myself).  We prayed and prayed for good weather, and although it was partly sunny, it was the wind that drove us to a quick party. 

I've heard everyone had a wonderful time - I was very very busy, and felt like I barely spoke with anyone.  So if I didn't say much or anything to anyone, I am sorry in advance.  I also didn't take too many photos.  Some of these are from my mom's camera (click to enlarge). 

I'm pretty sure Oliver's favorite part of his b-day party was my dad pulling him around in the wagon.  He liked it best when he was in a full sprint!  Luckily, no babies were harmed.  Just big smiles.

          

We were all bundled up (except my brother, who never gets cold, apparently). 
 

         

It was cupcake time - my mom made two different kinds.  Oliver enjoyed a yellow cake with chocolate frosting.  

           



Oliver then very delicately ate sucked on the cupcake like a vampire.  He did eventually eat the whole thing, but it did take a while. 

He nommed and nommed on his little hand like that for a long time.  

This was about the dirtiest he got.  Kept it pretty clean, there, Oliver!   We wrapped it up a bit after that, deciding that Oliver was cold enough.  After a warming bath, Oliver opened up his presents!  He loved immediately playing with all the toys as soon as they came out of a bag or were unwrapped.  He got some nice new toys and clothes and money for college. 

Tim and I were just WIPED after all the activities of yesterday, and so was Oliver, so we all called it an early night and went to bed.

I cannot believe this year has flown by already!  More birthday updates as they come about!

The jam packed weekend!

Yes friends and family, two blog posts in one day!  Little man and I went down to Dad and Jana's on Saturday.  Of course, I forgot my camera!  Ugh!  This is why I need a little skinny camera to leave in my purse.  Oliver had a wonderful time giving big smiles and giggles to Dad and Jana.  Dad was nice enough to take me grocery shopping (thank you again!), while Jana rocked little man to sleep.  We visited some more while Oliver took a nap. 

Saturday evening we hung out with some friends at Andrew and Terrell's pad, but left a little before 9:00 to get little O to bed.  My, how our outings have changed! 

Sunday, Tim, Mom, Oliver, and I went to Bainbridge Island to visit Kurt (long-time family friend) and his partner Britton.  That's correct, Oliver's first ferry ride! 

It was super cold out, so we busted out his "snow suit."  No flippy-floppies for him.

The Tacoma was a mighty vessel and got us safely to the other side.  Once on the island, it was just a short hop, skip, and jump to Kurt and Britton's place.  They had a few bites for us, and had a faux log on the fire.  I really could have stayed all day.  Very peaceful and relaxing.  Oliver thought so - he took a very LOUD nap there.  Oh, I forgot to mention, he is getting another cold, so he was coughing and all boggery (if that is a word) all day.  What a little cutie, even with snot running down his face! 

It was a very busy weekend!  I didn't get very much housework done, but made it for it in all the people we got to visit.  I love my life right now!

Bonus video!  

Life is wonderful.

I just found out one of my other friends just got engaged this week. That makes three couples that make me smile even happier! Congrats, Brooke and Keene, Heather and Sarah, and Terrell and Andrew! The highlighted ladies also have blogs which keep me entertained at work. Thanks!

You know what else makes me smile? My sister in law is about to pop. If she goes on Sunday, I'm the big winner winner chicken dinner of her baby pool. Although no prize involved, I get the knowledge that I know when babies come. We had a baby pool for Oliver, and I guessed closest with that one, too! Go me.

Speaking of awesome babies, Oliver wanted to show you what an avid reader he is:

This weekend, we are going up to Everett for a holiday party, we are also going to try to hit up Macys for the annual "buy an ornament for the other person" festivity. This year we will also buy Oliver an ornament. We may even visit Santa as long as the line isn't too long and he has a real beard. Fake beard Santas make me scream.

Beautiful weekend, party of 3

When I saw the forecast for this weekend, I squealed with delight. And then when Tim told me his work will not be carving pumpkins Saturday afternoon, I shrieked with excitement. So much wonderful weather - and the last one before going to Pennsylvania next month.

Saturday morning, Oliver and I walked up to Laura Bee to check out the new scarves they had in. If you know me, you know that I LOVE scarves. I used a coupon and some birthday money and picked up two. Tim then came home and we drove up to The Farm in Snohomish for some quick pictures at the pumpkin patch. Now I have not been to a pumpkin patch in over 10 years, but I do not remember them ever being this busy! There must have been at least a thousand people there. Although, beautiful day, two weeks before Halloween, um, yeah - it all adds up. Here are a few highlights:

Having Oliver here meant we didn't actually do too much as there was huge lines for everything - hay ride, sweet corn, espresso, etc... so we walked through the animal area and posed with some pumpkins and called it good. Even so, we were still there for a good hour or so. This place was BIG so we did quite a bit of walking (and carrying Oliver, too).

So I'm seeing this is turing into a long post. But we had such a good weekend, I have to share it all!

We came home and got ready to go out. Oliver's grandpa Carl and Jana volunteered to watch the little man so Tim and I could go out for a few adult drinkies for my 30th birthday. I'm not sure who had more fun, but when we came back, Oliver looked pretty darn content hanging with them! Thanks again, Dad and Jana for babysitting! While they did that, we went to The Copper Gate, which was just a few blocks from our place. It used to be a dive bar, but as with most things in Ballard, it got redone and cleaned up. Inside now is a bar shaped like a viking ship. It has cool benches and awesome decor. They also have delicious cocktails and nummy food. I'll only share one of me towards the end of the night:

Yeah. Need I say more? I had a lot of fun.

Sunday we met up with my friend Heather Trimm and went to the Arboreteum for some family photos. Her baby shower gift to me was a family photo shoot, and we finally got some decent weather to do it! I will share here once she has them ready. I am super stoked to see how they turned out!

We came home, Tim and Oliver took a little nap and then we headed to my mom's for dinner to celebrate my birthday and my sister-in-law's who birthday is tomorrow. Oliver got lots of love from everyone.

::whew:: okay so that was our weekend in a nutshell. Lastly I will share a quick video of Oliver not doing a whole lot. I experimented with some new features here. The quality is not as good - sorry in advance!

First weekend in October

I am first sorry in advance for the lack of multimedia this weekend - to be honest, nothing was really worth reporting. Saturday, I FINALLY went to the DOL and renewed my driver's license. I decided to get one of those "enhanced" ones so I can go to Canada (my passport expired years ago and I have yet to see about getting a new one). Oliver, Tim, and I drove up to the Lynnwood DOL. It was quite big, and they were moving the people through quickly!

It was pointed out that the lady in the red jacket seems very inviting, alas, we did not sit next to her. Oliver was busy charming the pants off of everyone there - including an 8 or 9 year old boy who could not get enough of Oliver's softness (this is where I say, "OMG, stranger, no touching the baby!" but he was very gentle and his intentions were just to be lovey to him).

We walked around Alderwood afterwards and purchased a nice outfit that will be good for photo ops and for his baptism later this month. We also purchased THE hat. The hat that has made everyone giggle and smile (and has made it to both Tim and my background on the phone). More photos to come for that.

We then went down and visited the Al/Trav residence. We watched a bit of the UW/USC game while Violet again got to get a lot of good licks in. Allison picked up a super cute onesie for Oliver from Baby Gap that will look super good in a few months!

Sunday we got to have lunch with the newly engaged Sarah and Heather down at Cafe Flora. Both Tim and I were pleasantly surprised how delicious a vegetarian restaurant could be! We will be going out with them next weekend (weather permitting) to get some cute family photos in. Stay tuned.

Sunday night we wrapped with dinner at my mom's place with G'pa and Jim. We all had a wonderful time and they all were amused by Oliver's antics. One might say that this was a very busy, productive, and happening weekend.

Where'd the weekend go?!

While Oliver was busy reigning over his kingdom...

...the weekend flew by super quick! The big highlight of the weekend was the remarkable win by the Seahawks! A game that was surely to go down in flames, they rallied their way to an impressive 31 - 6 win over the 49ers. We went down to Travis and Allison's place to watch the game, which meant that Oliver was going to get some Violet love! And this time, I remembered my camera!

Oliver got LOTS of Violet kisses (which were quickly washed off once we got home). This dog loves our little guy. She is very protective, to the point where if we do super baby she starts barking as if to say, "Put that baby down, you're going to drop him!" It's all out of love.

Here is an EXTREME close-up of kisses. You can actually see Violet's tongue hanging out.

We also were very productive cleaning our place - even did 3 loads of laundry yesterday, and also did an impromtu Rug Doctoring after my latte seemed to explode out of my hand and onto the carpet (it still did not come up). Oliver went to bed earlier than normal, so Tim and I watched Season 4 finale of Dexter after putting him down. It was a nice way to round out a very busy weekend!

Happy birthday, Byron!

Our friends Gina and Brian invited us over to celebrate Byron's first birthday. Byron, as mentioned in a previous post, was being extra cute for his birthday. We got him some books and Sassy Bucket of Beads - the adults had a lot of fun putting them together and making pretend leis - Byron enjoyed the bucket!

He then got to rip into some cake. It started very cautiously... and then he figured out how fun and messy it could be! By the end, he was in full sugar rush, and was violently whipping his head around. It was so funny - he had all of us cracking up!

During all this, our little man was very well behaved and tried not to steal Byron's thunder. He was very quiet for the most part - and loved taking a test ride in Byron's old swing:

We all had a very good time. Happy birthday, Byron!

Just formula. NOT.

Yesterday I was lucky enough to be off (again, working on Sunday... my last one, whoo hoo!), and I soaked up as much Oliver time as I could. My mom was also off on vacation, prepping to go camping at the Gorge this weekend, so she hung out with me as I went to Costco to pick up some formula. Only formula. If you've been to Costco, you know that is not how it works. Somehow I ended up with other stuff that we definitely needed and will use. Oliver loved looking at everything on the shelves and the lights. We wandered the aisles for a good hour and he was completely content the entire time!

The day before, a friend of ours that we have not seen in forever came over with her little one, Jacob. He is 8 months old, and is super cute. He has so much hair, he already got a haircut! Our condo has not been babyproofed yet, but with him crawling, he showed me what things need to be addressed once Oliver is mobile.

I also wanted to share a few photos that my mom took when she took Oliver down to my grandpa's (we are calling him G G'pa, for Oliver's sake). My mom reminded me how my brother and I would love to stand or sit on the couch and look through the picture window. They have a view of lots of trees and shrubs, which is way interesting for little O.

Weekend, et al

Now with me being back to work, I am sad to say I don't have a whole lot to report! This weekend, Oliver got to see a lot of people. We went down and visited my Dad on Saturday in which Oliver charmed the pants off of him. Oliver also really liked his lighting fixtures. :-) We came home and Tim was just getting off work - then this happened:

I also cleaned out little man's dresser and filled up another box full of clothes that don't fit anymore. He is busy growing like a weed! He also continues to hate "Tummy Time," and methinks he will never crawl, but just go straight to walking.

Sunday, I had to work (only one more to go!), so Tim got to watch him all day. Oliver was happy with this arrangement, as it meant more Daddy time! I came home, made a quick salad, and we all headed to my Mom's for dinner to celebrate Tim's 36th birthday. It was a delicious dinner which ended with people fighting to hold little man. Afterwards, we went to our friend's Gina and Brian's place and got to hang out with them and their little one Byron (who, by the way, is a SUPER cutie with the biggest, most handsome eyes I've ever seen). We had to make it a pretty quick visit however as Oliver was TIRED.

Tomorrow I am off, so I will be soaking up as much baby time that I can with him. I can't wait!