Oliver and Company

Today was a wonderful Stake Conference, with Elder Bruce A. Carlson presiding. Oliver woke up at 6:30, which would put his nap time somewhere between 8:30 and 9am. We left for Conference at 8:45, and he got about 2 minutes of sleep in the car. So I spent much of conference out in the hallway because Oliver gets really hyper and loud when he's overtired. He was finally calming down enough that I sat with him in a chair in the hallway, and then these two adorable little girls came over to say hi to him. He was at least rested by then, and so he was having a blast with them, just giggling and playing. He loves playing with other kids, and because he responds with his big grin and giggle, they love him right back and love to make him giggle!

In case you were wondering, I got relieved by a soon-to-be neighbor, and then her daughter (who is my age) got Oliver to sleep, so he got maybe 20-30 minutes of morning nap. That's Sunday for ya, but I was really glad to get to listen to Elder Carlson's talk.

Lately Oliver has been spending a lot of time playing with his friends, so here are some pictures to catch you up!

Oliver's friend Evan comes over every week during his sister's ballet.  They love each other!  Evan loves putting balls in his mouth, so he was teaching Oliver one of his favorite things.

Oliver loved going swinging with his friend Robbie!

Robbie is about a month and a half older than Oliver.

Revisiting Halloween goodness, we had another baby brawl.

When Robbie's older brother Heber was beyond playing with the babies anymore, he found the bubble wrap.

Nycole and Hallie playing with Oliver at a playdate.

The kids all loved the trampoline. Oliver even liked it until he noticed kids bouncing by his head.

So he played on the grass.  I can never get enough of that face!

Little Teddy (on the right) just loved "the baby" and even shared his graham cracker.  Cameron even came over to play even though he is usually afraid of Oliver bullying him.

We had a lovely picnic on the grass.  The weather was beautiful!

Look, I even got out from behind the picture.  Oliver was getting impatient and started trying to steals everyone's food.

We tried for a group shot with everyone's trampoline hair...

But some kids were more interested in bouncing, and had even better trampoline hair.

Dogpile!

Party in my crib!

Heber and Oliver can make each other laugh like no one else.  It's amazing!  Oliver enjoyed hanging out with Heber and Robbie for the last time before they moved across the country. 

Moving across the country...now that sounds familiar.  Oh yeah, because one year ago THIS WEEKEND we were packing everything up into our cheap relocubes (fake PODS) and planning a drive across the country.  We were freshly graduated, and I was very pregnant.  While we're sad to see our friends go because they understand a lot of our nerdiness, we completely understand that you go a) where the job market takes you after graduation, and b) where you are supposed to be and what feels good.  Luckily, New Hampshire feels good and we don't feel homesick for the west.  Sure we wish we could afford to visit family and friends more often, but we love New Hampshire, and are excited to move into our first home next week.  I don't think I'll ever get tired of the beautiful ever-changing seasons, or the fact that rivers actually have water year round here, or the courteous drivers, or the amazing people we have met here.  I {heart} New Hampshire!

p.s.  Our new sofa has a bed in it, and we still have our super air mattress that is amazingly comfortable for an air mattress if anyone wants to visit.

Happy Things

Listening to this playlist from Dear Lizzy.

I just uploaded this picture for the challenge at Peppermint Creative.

Blue skies with puffy white clouds make me happy.

This little face scooting towards me:

How could that face not make you happy?

Matthias will be home tomorrow night from his work trip.  You'd think that spending most of a summer apart would get us used to this, but it's still really hard to force myself to go to bed when he's not here.  Instead I scrap:

click for credits

...and make a pointless blog post.  I promise I've got more pictures coming.  I've decided to start shooting in RAW because I'm horrible at setting my white balance and then it gets frustrating to edit photos.  So even though it's faster to get my pictures edited, I'm horribly behind.  I'll probably just post them randomly.  I hope you don't mind.

I'm in the middle of week 2 of C25K and 100 Push Ups.  Allergies and sinus infections gone and now I'm going strong, and loving it.  I feel like these workouts were catered to me and help me exert myself just enough that I don't overdo it.  Tonight I maxed out at 10 consecutive push ups for a total of 28.  How are you doing?

And what makes you happy?

Clap for fun!

Ok, so I've been really bad at posting pictures of Oliver lately due, in part, to crazy allergies that led to sinus/ear/throat infections. Don't worry, I bought some local honey, a neti pot, and will be taking my meds every day next year instead of hoping to be immune.

Anyway, Oliver is almost 9 months! That means that he'll be out of the womb for as long as he was in the womb! And you won't believe all of the tricks he is up to! Here's a preview and hopefully I'll have pictures posted next week:



Clapping his hands reliably is new tonight! He used to just make us clap our hands.
"Guh" has been his favorite word for the past two weeks. He says it ALL the time.
Clicking his tongue is what he does when he isn't guh-ing
Playing with/eating his toes
Smiling with his TWO teeth
Leaning over in his high chair. He has to see what he's dropped.