Today is a very special day

The 3rd of the month has a lot of meaning in our family:

- We got married on June 3, 2006
- Exactly a year and a half later, on December 3, 2007 we found out I was pregnant
- And on August 3, 2008 Oliver was born

So today on December 3, 2009 we have been married for 3 1/2 years, we found out 2 years ago that I was pregnant, and Oliver is 16 months old today!

Today after work we took Oliver to see Santa. Me and my mom actually took him on Monday to see how he would react to him, and he did a really good job, so we decided to get his picture taken tonight. He did so good! He absolutely LOVED him. They let me take some pictures while they were taking them and they all turned out great!

For some reason I am having a hard time scanning the one that they took, but here are a couple that I took.

This past week

This past week has been super busy. My sister and her family came into town last Tuesday evening for Thanksgiving and stayed until Sunday. Thanksgiving was spent between my parents house and Joey's dad's house. It works out pretty well with our families. My family eats early, usually around 4, and his family eats around 6. So after we were done at my parents we headed over to his dad's house. Joey's two step sisters were in town, so it was really nice to spend some time with them, and have them spend time with Ollie since they don't get to see him that much.

Friday Joey had to work, so me and Ollie headed over to Target later on in the day. It was not nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be. I got a couple gifts out of the way and then went over to my parents house. It was pretty much a lazy day after that. Joey got off around 4 and then after dinner and after we put the kids to bed me, Joey, and my brother-in-law met my cousin and his fiance over at Starbucks. My sister met us a little later after she got her hair cut.

That is when my cousin spilled the beans about what happened after we left my parents on Thanksgiving. My grandfather had some pretty odd things around his house. One item in particular was this statue of a naked women, just from the chest up. Last year my uncle put it up in my parents garage. Now, they have decided to start a "tradition" that every year someone different gets her. And we are now the lucky owners of her(my mom has named her nefertitty). Since we left her at my parents, my sister, brother-in-law, and mom decided to go over to our house and hang her up on our wall. Mind you, this all happened on Thursday night, and on Friday I didn't even notice it!



Needless to say we have moved her...into the downstairs bathroom!

On Saturday Joey's brother and sister-in-law were in town from down south, so we all went to dinner at Luna's in Old Town Clovis. We had not seen them for a while, so it was really nice to catch up with them.

The rest of the weekend was spend relaxing and doing our normal Sunday activities, lunch at Colorado Grill, and our weekly trip to Target. We also hung Christmas lights outside(pictures to come later).

I have also had a couple days off of work. I decided to take a weeks vacation, just to hang out with Ollie, and get all of my Christmas shopping done. It has been really nice having these past couple days off with my little man and really don't want to go back to work on Thursday:(

Family Pictures

Here are some of the pictures that were taken a couple weeks ago while we were in Walnut Creek. I really like the way they turned out. He took over 150 pictures, so to say the least it was hard deciding which ones to get.

Lots to catch up on!

I know I have been MIA for a while. Get ready for a lot of pictures.

Halloween weekend we headed up to Walnut Creek to see my sister and her family and then my husbands family and also to have our family pictures taken.

The family pictures turned out really good, now I just need to go pick our favorites and order them. I think I have narrowed it down, but I am going to go through all of them one more time.

Halloween evening we headed to downtown Walnut Creek to do some trick-or-treating. Joey's little sister, Allison, came along to help out with the boys.

My little dragon

Dragon and Daddy

Mommy and Dragon

Ollie the Dragon, Allison the Mardi Gras Girl, Matthew: Dash, and Jonathan: Woody

After trick-or-treating we went back to Joey's mom's house to roast marshmallows by the fire pit in the back yard.

Sunday was a pretty lazy day and just hung out around the house most of the day and then left to come back home around 6:00pm.

This past week was full of work and then Oliver's 15 month check up on Friday. Here are his stats:

Weight: 22.1lbs(20%)
Height: 30inches(25%)
Head Circumference: don't remember the number but he is in the 45%!

Friday I also met up with an old friend from high school and her little boy Vincent for lunch. It was so good to see her(it had been over 3 years) and it was so good to meet Vincent, who is so adorable!

Seriously how cute is he?!?!

Oliver loved him!

Big hugs!

Oliver sharing his seat with Vincent

Also on Friday my sister and her family came into town. This morning my sister ran in the Fresno/Clovis Half Marathon, and I ran the first leg of the full Marathon! I was definitely not ready for it, but I did finish. My work was sponsoring it, and the needed one last person, so last minute I said I would do it. Now, I have not ran since I got pregnant with Oliver, so to say the least I was way out of shape! 3 years ago I ran the Disneyland Half Marathon with no training, but running 6.5 miles this morning seamed a lot harder! But that did put me in the mood to actually start training and maybe I will run the half next year!

My cheesy boy!

This is Oliver's new "cheesy" face! Whenever we get the camera out, he has this smile.

We are taking family pictures on Halloween, and I know he is going to ham it up for the camera. We are going to be up in Walnut Creek that weekend and Joey has an old friend that is a photographer up there. We have been wanting to take family pictures for so long, so we thought that this would be a great time to take them. Also, we have yet to take Oliver's 1st birthday pictures(a little late I know), and since it is Halloween, we will take a couple with him in his costume.

Oh, and tonight while I was brushing his teeth, I noticed he got one of his back upper teeth! We had no idea it even came in!

I just have to put this picture in. Joey took Oliver to the park today, and I just love this picture he got.

Boys will be boys...

Oh my oh my!!! I think I have finally learned that boys will be boys!

On Saturday we were all in the back yard watching Joey BBQ and enjoying the nice night outside. Oliver was exploring the back yard, and decided that it would be fun to play in the flower beds(can you still call it a flower bed if there are not any flowers in it?). I took his shirt off and just let him run around in his diaper. That is when all the fun started!

I took my eyes off of him for 2 seconds(I know I know) and I look over at him and he has a mouth full of dirt! He thought it was so funny. I didn't have my camera outside, so I ran inside to get it. The 30 seconds that it took me to run upstairs and get the camera, I get back outside, and this is what I find!

Joey had taken him over to the other side of the yard to "wash" his hands and thought it would be fun to sit in the mud!

Oh, and it doesn't end there. About a minute later that cute little muddy hand of his went right into his mouth! Mind you this whole time, Joey was cracking up laughing!!!

I stripped him naked and gave him a bath in the kitchen sink.

I have always heard the sang "Boys will be boys", but now I truly know the meaning to it now!

Pumpkin Patch

Tonight after dinner we decided to go to the pumpkin patch. There is one closer to our house off of Palm and Bullard, but we heard that the one off of First and Nees is bigger...plus it is close to Yodigity!

This was Oliver's first time to the pumpkin patch. Last year he was only 3 months old on Halloween, so it would have been kinda a waste to take him being so young.



He loved it out there! He was able to run all over the place and even tried to pick up some very large pumpkins!





Right as we were getting to leave, he met a little girl that was a month younger than him. She was so cute! They were almost the exact same size, and even kinda looked alike!



Oliver was such a great little boy today too! This morning we dropped my mom off at the train station, she was heading up to Walnut Creek to watch the boys since Katie and Eric are going down to Disneyland tomorrow. After the train station we went to Target, we drove past my grandpa's house, went to the grocery store, and then finally came home to have some lunch.

I can't believe how much he is learning everyday. Today he started to say diaper, and I have to say it is so cute to hear him say it. Also, if you tell him it is time to go to bed, he will walk right into his room and point to his crib.

Tomorrow is going to be a lazy day spent around the house. Joe has to go into work for a little bit, so that will give me time to do laundry and clean the house up a bit.

Finally new pictures

The past 2 days have been very long...Oliver officially has his first cold of the season:( I noticed a runny nose the other day when I picked him up from the babysitter. I really didn't think anything of it because I thought it was just because he is teething. Well yesterday when my mom was over watching him, she noticed that he was coughing and sneezing. This morning when I got him up he looked so pitiful. His eyes were all red and his nose was running and he was coughing. I decided to stay home from work, but I had an eye doctor appointment at 9:45. So my mom came over just for a little bit so I could go to my appointment. When I got home at about 11:00 he was sleeping and slept till about 1:15. When he got up from his nap, he seemed to be in a great mood. We had lunch and then played till about 3:00 when I put him down for another nap. When he woke up later on, he looked a lot better, but was coughing a lot! I felt so bad for him. After dinner we went for a nice walk around the block, then it was time for a bath, more playing and then bed.

I put him down, and about 10 minutes later I could hear him talking like crazy. I go in there and find him laying down talking to him bunny. It was too cute.

He is now down for the night. Tomorrow we are suppose to go over to a family friends for dinner, but I think Joey is going to stay home with him.

Sorry, no new pictures:(

So I know I promised new pictures, but we lost the memory card to the camera(don't worry, all of our pictures were already on the computer). We just went out today and got a new one.

New pictures of Oliver will be up by the end of the week...I promise!

I am still alive...I promise!

I know, it has been over a month since my last post. Honestly though, not much has been going on, although we have been so busy during the week. With work and all, it just doesn’t seem like there are enough hours in the day. By the time I get home from getting Oliver from the babysitter I still have an hour before Joey gets home. In that time I have to figure out what to make for dinner, make it, and keep Oliver entertained. Let me tell you, that is no easy task.

At the beginning of September Joey was in Vegas for 5 days for work. This meant 5 VERY long days for me. He left on a Sunday morning and came home on Thursday morning while I was at work. Oliver was so happy to see him, and so was I!
This past Friday Joey’s mom and little sister came into town to watch Oliver for the day. I had been about 3 months since they saw him, so it was nice for him to spend the day with them. When I came home from work we went out to dinner before they headed back up to Walnut Creek. It was a short trip, but hopefully we can make it up there in the next couple weeks or so.

I can’t believe how much Oliver is learning these days. When they say kids are like sponges, they are totally right. When Joey’s sister was here she taught Oliver how to make a monkey sound, now, he walks around the house screaming like a monkey! Then on Saturday me and my mom went shopping for his Halloween costume and found the cutest dragon costume at Old Navy. I roared like a dragon, and now he does that too.

Not only is he learning so much, he is learning how to get around certain things too. For example: My mom has these decorative spoon rests hanging on the side of the island in the kitchen. For some reason all 3 boys have loved to play with them. They know they are not allowed, but do so anyways. On Sunday we were over there for dinner and Oliver walked over to the spoons and started to play with them. I told him no and he walked away. A couple minutes later I looked over and he was holding his bunny having the bunny touch the spoons! I have to admit, I though it was pretty funny, and smart on his part!

Since I am at work, there are no pictures to post, but I will try and get some up tomorrow after my birthday dinner!

Oliver's 1st Birthday

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What a day!!!

Yesterday was Oliver's birthday party, it was a crazy, busy day, but so much fun at the same time. Me and Joey started early at 7:30am getting things ready. I had some last minute things to pick up like the cake and balloons, so I did that while Joey stayed home to clean while Oliver was napping. My mom and brother-in-law, and then Joey's dad, step-mom, and Papa showed up around 10:30 to get all the food over to the clubhouse. By the time 11:00 rolled around the party was in full swing. Everyone was arriving, getting some snacks, and Joey and his dad were firing up the BBQ.

There were so many people that loved Oliver there to help celebrate his big day! My sister and her family drove down from the bay area and my cousins fiance came up from Visialia, also one of my good friends, Meredith, was in town from Arizona so she came with her adorable kids, Monica(2) and Magill(2months). Other's that were there were my parents and Joey's dad, step-mom and Papa, The Harris Family(John, Kim, Mia, Portia, and Ethan, The Bird Fam(Aimee, Baylee, and Marlee, my Aunt, Uncle, and cousins, Jay and Vanessa, my friend Andrea(from work) her boyfriend, and his son.

All the kids got along so great! We had some baseball coloring pages for them, also some little soft baseballs and slinkies. The little baseballs were a big hit. As soon as some of the little ones started to get a little fussy, I pulled those out and they LOVED them, even some of the bigger kids joined in.

Oliver got some great gifts! Joey's dad and step-mom got him the cutest little ride on fire truck and fire hat. As soon as we opened it, he wanted to get on and ring the little bell. He also got a lot of super cute clothes for the winter, a ride on little car, a lawn mower, telephone, remote control car, and a bunch of other cute toys.

We ended up taking a lot of pictures, so I am working on uploading them in a slide show and will post again with all the pictures.

Now we are relaxing today with a couple errands and I just have to go back to the clubhouse to clean the floor and make sure everything is nice and neat. We had the room all day, so after the party and a much needed nap, we had my family over for some poker and visiting.

It was such a fun day, but I have 2 words for next year...Chuck E Cheese!!!!

Birthday Pictures

He was not happy about getting older already!

Ollie and Daddy

He loves his new wagon so much he wanted Lenny to join him!

Chef Oliver

Not too sure about the frosting!

Happy Birthday Oliver

Today, my baby is a year old! Seriously I cannot believe I have a child that is a year old, not a baby anymore, a toddler. I am sitting here at work (yes, I have to work today, it sucks, but Joey is off all week, and is getting some quality daddy and Ollie time in) going over all the things that were taking place a year ago. I had trouble sleeping last night, kind of how it is when it is my birthday, so excited that it is hard to fall asleep. I finally fell asleep at around midnight, and then woke up at 4:05am, exactly 40 minutes after I had Oliver a year before. Me and Joey actually joked about waking up at 3:25am and wishing him a Happy Birthday. My mom has always called me at 11:38am on my birthday, but there is no way I will do that for Oliver!!!

Oliver is such a happy baby. We call him our little cheese ball. When we tell him to smile, he makes this cheesy smile showing his cute little teeth and scrunching his nose. He says a couple words: Dada, Mama, owsa (outside), baa (ball), and ha (Hi). We can really see his little personality coming out too. He loves to play with our cell phones and any TV remote control, but if we take it away from him, he throws a little tantrum! He also loves all types of food. I don’t think there is one food that he doesn’t like; he will eat anything that is put in front of him! He is almost waking on his own too! He will take a couple steps before falling to him bottom. But I can tell he is going to take off any day now!

His looks are changing all the time too. Sometimes I look at him and he looks exactly like Joey, then other times he looks like me, then other’s he is just Oliver.

I cannot wait to see what this year brings for us, to watch him grow and learn new things.

Happy Birthday Oliver!!! I love you will all my heart!

Where has the year gone?

As Oliver's birthday approaches I have been sitting here thinking about this past year. I can't believe that in 2 days my baby is going to be a year old! It seems like yesterday we brought him home from the hospital and we had no idea what to expect. Every new parent tells you that one of the hardest things about being a new mom is the lack of sleep. Apparently Oliver is not the norm. From the first day that we brought him home till he was 8 weeks old, he would only wake up once in the night for a feeding. Then once he was 8 weeks old he practially slept through the night. We would have to go into him room once a night if he spit out his pacifire, but Joey was always so good about not making me always get up.

If being a fist time mom was not stressful enough, we decided to buy our first house when Oliver was just 4 weeks old. Then 4 days before I went back to work we moved in. We have been slowly getting things done and organized around the house, it has taken a while, but is getting finally getting done!

So as I sit here looking back on the first year, I leave you with a couple pictures.

Some pictures from this weekend

Thank you Papi for installing the new fan in my room!

This was his face when he saw Big Bird and Elmo on TV

Swimming with Daddy

Love this face!!!

Happy 4th of July

Hope everyone has a great 4th! We are going to be heading to my parents house in a little bit for some BBQing, swimming, and a little birthday celebration for my cousin Darren.

Yesterday we spent a good part of the evening in the pool. Oliver loved being in there and watching his cousins splash around and tried a little splashing for himself! I will be sure to post some new pictures a little later this weekend, probably tomorrow morning.

Spaghetti

The other night I made spaghetti and although you can't tell from the picture, Oliver loved it. He had it all over the place, his hair, ears, up the nose, and even his diaper was stained orange! Actually the reason why he is not happy in the picture is because he ate it all and there was nothing left.

Oliver is becoming such an active little guy. All he wants to do is play and when it is time for bed he gets upset because he still wants to play. He is also a daredevil, and as I type this he is standing on some of his toys trying to get over the baby gate(don't worry, he is no where close to getting over, and I just moved the toys out of the way). He is standing all by himself and even walking with his little shopping cart that we got the other day. With all this of course, comes a lot of falls, some with some bumps and bruises:( I can't believe in a little over a month he is going to be a year old!

Busy, Busy, Busy!!!

The past couple weeks have been super busy. For the past week and a half I have been on vacation, and have another week off! It is actually the rest of my FMLA leave from when I had Oliver. I did not take all of it after I had him, and have to take it before his first birthday, or I will loose it. I didn't want it to go to "waste" so I decided to take it now.

The first week I just stayed around Fresno, hanging out with my mom and did a little bit of shopping. Then came last weekend and this past week. Where do I even begin? On Friday night my sister came into town for Megan's bridal shower that was on Sunday. Saturday we had a girls night with some of Megan's friends that came into town for the shower. We went to an amazing new restaurant Elements. It was really good and have decided the next time Katie and Eric are in town we are going to all go there for dinner.

Sunday was Megan's shower and it was beautiful! It was at her aunts house and as always it was so much fun and she got some really nice gifts. At around 4 that day me, Katie, and Oliver headed up to Walnut Creek. We arrived around 6:30 and once we got the kids to bed we went out at got a late dinner. I called Joey's mom to let her know that we were in town and that I wanted to meet up with her later on Monday after she got home from work. She said she was not feeling well, but that she would give me a call.

Monday morning after Katie dropped Matthew off at school me, Katie, Jonathan, and Oliver went to Starbucks for some coffee. That is where I got the call that Joey's mom was in the hospital! Bob wanted to know if Allison could hang out with us, and of course we said yes(Matthew and Jonathan love Allison, and she is such a big help with them). Bob dropped Allison off and that is when I found out that Sheryl had kidney stones and she was in A LOT of pain. I was suppose to come back to Fresno on Wednesday, but Joey really wanted to see his mom. So I decided to come home Tuesday and tomorrow we are headed back up to Walnut Creek for the weekend. We are planning on leaving tomorrow after Joey gets off of work at 2, then we are going to go into the city on Saturday. Oliver has not experienced San Francisco yet, and it has been a while since me and Joey have been.

Pictures will come a little later...

Happy 3rd Anniversary

Today is our 3rd Anniversary!!! I can't believe how fast it has gone by, and how our lives have changed in the last 3 years.

One of our 1st pictures together at Disneyland September 2001

Our Wedding Day June 3, 2006

Look how young(and skinny!!!) we both look in the first picture! The wedding picture is a little dark because of the power outage, but is my favorite picture of us from that day.

Joey took the day off today, and I am on vacation so we are spending a nice day together. I think we are going to start the day with taking Oliver to the park, then it is off to Home Depot(Joey's new favorite store) to get plants for the backyard. Joey and his dad worked so hard the other day getting all the bricks laid for the patio, and also the retaining wall bricks for the planter box area. As soon as we get the flowers planted I will post a picture. Later tonight my mom is going to come over and watch Ollie while we go out to dinner and a movie!

Ollie's First Hair Cut

Yesterday me and Joey decided that it was time to get Ollie's hair cut. His hair was so out of control, always in his eyes, and you would not believe how many people thought he was a girl! We took him to this really cute kids cut place in Clovis and the girl did a great job. He looks like such a big boy now! I miss his curls, but love his new "Big Boy" hair cut.

Some new pictures from the past couple days

This was the first time he pulled himself up!

So proud of himself

"I'm not doing anything"

Happy boy out with daddy!