Oliver is 1!!!

I have to first begin with my apologies to Oliver's Grandpa LaBonte and G.G. (his Great Grandma Caldwell). Sorry it took me so long to get this up! Oliver has made it one whole year! We can hardly believe that it has already been that long. Time goes by way too fast. His birthday was on November 21st and we had a little shin dig for him on the 24th complete with presents, cupcakes and grilled cheese (of those three things grilled cheese was his favorite, go figure!) We had an owl themed party for him, which was cute in theory but very hard to find things owl related for a first birthday party. Luckily my husband is super creative, and crafty I might add, I mean he works at a scrap booking company for goodness sakes, so he helped the party to be a smash hit.

We made over sized cupcakes that looked like owls. I have to say they turned out pretty cute, which is crazy since they were my idea! For dinner we served soup and grilled cheese sandwiches which were quite a hit with the kids and adults (the key is to use sourdough bread...delicious). Oliver had a great time although he was very uninterested in unwrapping the presents. Luckily his best bud Jacob helped me and we got those presents opened in no time.

Can you believe that Oliver wore his hat! I am shocked!

Here he is digging into his cupcake. Can you tell that he ate all the icing off first? Smart kid!

Halloween Fun!

Hope everyone had a great Halloween. We had a lot of fun dressing up Oliver. I am not sure he enjoyed it so much but he is a nice boy and humored us by leaving his costume on which covered up his hands and had a hood. He is a good sport. Here are a few pictures of the evening. We went over Jacob's house, Oliver's bestest friend, so we could get a few pictures of the boys together. Oliver and Jacob are so nice to tolerate how much Sarah and I fuss over them, what can we say...We love our boys!

Here are the pumpkins we carved this year. Dusten takes this very seriously and does a great job. He did the owl and pirate ship. I did the bat and Bryan's girlfriend, Julia, did the one with flowers.

I had to include a picture of my lovely sister Emily. Do you know who she is dressed up as? I'll give you a hint...Robin Williams in "Night at the Museum" (the absolute worst movie ever made I might add). That's right...Theodore Roosevelt. Emily just might be the only 20 year old girl I know who dressed up as a deceased US prseidnet. What can I say, she loves history!

These are Oliver's cousins Daphne and Miles. My sister-in-law made these adorable costumes for her kids. Miles is serious about being Peter Pan.

Probably the most exciting thing that took place on Halloween was that I let Oliver have his very first candy. Wow, did he love it. I tried to just let him have a few licks put he quickly pulled the sucker out of my hand and wouldn't let it go. He loved every sticky second of that thing.

Werewolf Bar Mitzvah

I just found out that they recorded an entire song. Some college kid put these pictures to it. Enjoy.

Good Times!

My Grandparents came for a visit from Oregon and boy did we have a good time. They got to see the sites of Lehi which you can imagine took all of 5 minutes but we managed to keep ourselves busy. Luckily we have Oliver to keep us entertained. Actually it was nice to show off the state that I have been so reluctant to call home. There really is so much around here and it was fun to get reacquainted with things that become so hum-drum after awhile. I don't know if you Utes have taken the time to enjoy the gorgeous season change going on around you but it is truly beautiful. I don't know why I don't remember it being this pretty last year. Maybe because I was large with child and very few things held beauty for me that didn't involve babies. If you haven't taken a drive through the canyon you really need to. We went up to Sundance for dinner one night and the drive up was gorgeous. New England has nothing on us. Except for maybe maple sugar candy. Have you ever had it? Its divine.

On one of our outings we went to Thanksgiving Point and walked around. They had all of these fun fall decorations out so we decided to snap a picture of our cute fall baby. You may be thinking to yourself that this picture would have been cuter if Oliver didn't have his "plug" in. But actually he was screaming in crying in the other pictures so I thought the pacifier was a great touch

See.

Happy 9 months!

Dear Oliver,

I can't believe that you are already 9 months old! It is crazy to think of life before you came, your dad and I must have sat around so lonely and bored. You have brought such joy to our lives. I never knew that I could love someone as much as I love you. Being your mom is the best job that I have ever had! You are growing so quickly that its hard to keep up with all the stages! Here are a few of your many accomplishments in the last 9 months:
You are crawling everywhere! I can't take my eyes off you for a second. You pull yourself up on every surface, your favorite places being the tub, the coffee table, and my legs. You already have 8 teeth, that are very sharp I might add. You have have a very good appetite and have taken to baby food very well. You heart cheerios and vegetables are your absolute favorite. You say "dadadadada" and "mmmmama". And most importantly you have been sleeping through the night since you were 6 months!


I love you so much and want to thank you for being the very bestest baby a mom could ask for.

Love, Mommy

(To our readers: Thank you for letting me be a bit cheesy and sentimental!)

Really?

I am not really sure what's going on here. I love Kanye and I love Will Oldham, but I'm really not sure about this. It's not that funny...it's just weird.

Good Ol' Faithful

Hello all! Well we are home again for a few short minutes so I thought I would let you know what we have been up to. We went to Yellowstone a few weekends ago for a Hutchings family reunion. We had such a good time, the cabin we stayed in was really nice and the scenery was beautiful. Some of Dusten's uncles had brought their canoes and so we decided to take them out for a leisurely ride down a calm river. Before we left my sister in law asked me if I was going to bring Oliver and I replied, "Of course, why?" "Do they have life jackets for the babies?" she replied. I looked at her blankly and replied, "Um yeah, I guess." I hadn't even thought about needing to put Oliver in a life jacket! Now this statement may not be so weird to you but you must know that while I had no second thoughts about sending my 8 month old coasting down a river, I shudder and gag at the thought of putting him in those baby seats they have attached to some carts and have near cardiac failure at the idea of him playing in a "ball pit". Anyway after feeling like a horrible mom I inquired about life jackets and there were some in his size so away we went!

We were enjoying our lazy canoe ride when the weather took a turn for the worse very quickly and before we knew it we were having to find shelter on land because we were being pelted by hail and tossed around by wind. Luckily I had my trusty mountain-man husband by my side and he had a dry place for us to sit in no time. He even supplied us with yummy Swedish Fish as we patiently waited for the storm to pass. I have to say I was very impressed by his resourcefulness and if he was writing this he would have to say that he was impressed that I didn't completely freak out. Thanks babe.


When the weather subsided a bit we climbed back in to our canoes and made the rest of the trip in peace. Oliver even fell asleep in my arms (which is so not his style)! Man that kid is a trooper!