Oliver's 3rd Birthday!

Oliver's 3rd Birthday Cake

Parker hanging out while Oliver was opening presents

Oliver with his birthday cake at Chuck E. Cheese

We celebrated Oliver's third birthday at Chuck E. Cheese while we were back in Iowa for Thanksgiving.

Oliver playing games with Uncle Joe

Oliver playing with his new play-doh set

Oliver opening his present from Parker on his actual birthday

Oliver blowing out the candles on his birthday cake

Oliver and his birthday cake on his actual birthday at home in Illinois

Parker waiting for birthday cake

Here is a link to a video from his birthday party: http://youtu.be/6d7-SirRVMI

Oliver had a fun birthday and enjoyed cake and presents.  He is getting bigger every day.  He does lots of talking and loves to play with play-doh and legos.  He also loves to play hide and seek with blankets.  He is getting more and more imaginative every day.  He likes to read books and sing songs.  He likes to help make food in the kitchen.  It is hard to believe that just three years ago, he was a tiny little baby (I think he was quieter then).  Happy 3rd Birthday Oliver!  We love you!

Happy Halloween!

Oliver and our pumpkins

Starting to scoop out the insides.  Oliver didn't like to touch it and would only do it with the scoop.

Parker was brave!

Our little pumpkin- we started a little too late and so we did this one fast so that Oliver could go to bed.  Our bigger pumpkin has Buzz Lightyear on it, but I haven't taken a picture of it yet.

Spiderman trick-or-treating at the mall on Friday.

Our robot doing his share of the trick-or-treating.

Spiderman!

A robot & Spiderman

Our Robot!

The robot lost his balance :)

One last sucker- very intently opening it.

Oliver is 2 and Parker is 10 months old!

This morning we were driving to a park and I said that Parker is 10 months old today.  Oliver said "we need to take his picture with the number 10 and his lamb."  Later in the day, he told me that he was going to draw the number 2 on his magnadoodle and I should take his picture with the orange side of my blanket and with his duck.  So we did :)  Plus I figure I haven't done much for updates on Oliver in quite a while.

Oliver is 1 month and 2 days away from turning 3.  He is full of energy and spunk.  Here is a little update on him:
-He talks pretty much all the time and loves the question why?
-He is completely potty trained while awake and is getting pretty close to switching to underwear at naptime.
-He loves to play games and do puzzles- and typically wants to "do teamwork" (which means we play the game with him or do the puzzle with him.)
-He likes to play outside.
-He likes to play with Parker most of the time.
-He has been on a big play-doh kick recently.
-He is still pretty picky on food- chicken nuggets, mac & cheese, and grilled cheese are what the kid survives on.
-He loves to go on campus and go to Dad's office.
-He is getting excited for his birthday- we are going to Chuck E. Cheese this year!
-He is very imaginative and likes to play with toys.
-He loves to sing songs.  He knows quite a few songs, but he often times puts in made-up words and sounds into the songs.
-He is getting to be such a big boy.  He is working on dressing and undressing himself.  He has been a big helper with setting the table lately.  He also helps to feed the fish.  It is hard to believe he is so close to 3. 

Parker turned 10 months old today! 
-He has 4 teeth (2 on top and 2 on bottom).  His top 2 both came in on Tuesday.
-He pulls up to everything.  He likes to let go and stand on his own too.
-He loves everything Oliver is doing.
-We have yet to find a food that he doesn't like and he typically just keeps eating until we stop feeding him.
-Sleep is improving quite a bit, we are working on sleeping through the night, but most nights are down to 1 wake up now.
-He smiles almost all the time. 
-He moves ALL the time.
-He likes to play outside too- he loves the swings.
-He started saying da-da last Monday.  I don't know that he quite uses it for Eric yet, but he says it a lot.  He does a lot of gibberish too and growling (we call him Growler)
Parker is getting big fast.  He is a boy that can always make you smile.  We are looking forward to keeping him out of trouble :)

We have all but three of our cabinets installed (as you can see, we are still waiting on doors and drawers).   The countertop is cut and in place, but we still need to attach it to the cabinets and silicone it to the walls.  The sink and dishwasher are fully functional (which is awesome!).  Once we get the countertop attached, we'll silicone around the sink and that section will be done.

Eric's parents came out this past weekend and helped us get this done.  It was great to have the help and very nice to have the visitors also.  We are very happy with the progress.

We went the the local apple orchard/pumpkin patch Sunday afternoon when we stopped working.  It was a cool day, but the boys had a lot of fun.  They had a wagon ride, a bouncy slide, a hay bale maze, a play area, pony rides, and pumpkins to pick.  Plus they have delicious apple donuts that we all had after we finished up. 

Parker is 9 months old!

Parker is 9 months old (on Monday)!  (excuse the non-matching sign, our printer is not hooked up and it was not worth it to pull it up and mess with it so I just made one)
He had his 9 month appointment on Tuesday and he was 18 pounds, 2 ounces and 27 3/8 inches long.  He was healthy as can be and only had to get 1 shot.  He did pretty well with his shot and just fussed briefly right after he got the shot. 


Here is what Parker is up to:
-he crawls very proficiently
-he pulls himself up all the time
-he is starting to let go when he pulls himself up and is getting a little better at balancing
-he likes pretty much all foods and prefer to have pieces to feed himself
-he is figuring out sippy cups and especially likes it when he finds Oliver's water cup lying around
-he takes a morning nap and an afternoon nap and is ready for bed about 7:30
-he is still waking up to eat a few times a night- I'm hoping we can get this stopped fairly soon
-he is a very happy little boy
-he loves to play with Oliver even though Oliver regularly knocks him down
-he is always putting things in his mouth so we try to keep our floors pretty clean
-he is still a bit of a mama's boy and sometimes fusses when people take him if I'm around
-he loves to play with toys and has been having fun lately with stacking cups and blocks

In general, Parker is just a happy little boy.  He seems to have fun in all that he does, he loves to cuddle and loves to laugh. 

Happy 9 month birthday Parker!
We love you!!