Book Worm?

This year for Easter, Brown Grandma and Grandpa Bill gave Oliver a gift certificate to Barnes and Noble. We thought it would be fun to go pick up Dad from work [for the 1 hour that we get to spend with him on Mondays] and go pick out a couple of books.

O really likes the lift-the-flap books. We picked one out for him and then decided to also get a "learning" book. I thought about buying Hands are not for Hitting [since he's been having a little problem with this] But Everyone Poops seemed to be more of his style.

As soon as we got home, he pulled the books out of the bag and we sat down right in the middle of the hallway and read each book a couple of times. He then proceeded to take the books to the green couch and enjoy them on his own.
Many times, I've caught him reading books around the house and jabbering along to them. He has a great jabber...could it be from all his reading??? Who knows, but it's fun to watch him in his own world learning and just being Oliver.

Guaranteed Delicious?

Have you ever had this stuff???

We have and it's oh so good!

For dinner, Oliver would not eat his food. I don't know what's come over him but he just wouldn't eat. Not even a bite! Totally stumped and panicked, I ran to the fridge to see if there was some sort of solution to my problem. Sure enough, The Lighthouse Avocado dip was sitting in plain sight wanting to be dipped into. I put a dollop on O's plate and this is what happened...

He ate, he got messy, he got to take a pretty long bath, and we were both very happy.

Easter 2010

Easter this year was a little more exciting for us since Oliver could actually be involved in the activities. After our breakfast, we walked into his room to show him what the Easter bunny had left for him. It was a small basket filled with a car, Sidewalk chalk and eggs. Although it was small and simple, Oliver was all smiles and loved it!




His favorite items were the Easter eggs that made noise when shaken. He wasn't aware that there was candy inside nor does he really know what candy is. When he threw one of the eggs and it popped open, he didn't know what to do with the jelly bean that fell out. We put the candy in his mouth and he smacked his lips and just smiled at us. From then on, he knew what to do with the noisy eggs.



After conference, we headed out to the Bakers for activities and dinner. My mom decorated eggs with the kids and the winner of the best decorated egg won a prize...10 dollars. Kade ended up winning with Mekenzie coming in at a close second.

After decorating eggs, my parents went out to the back yard to hide eggs for all 15 of us. We were only allowed to each find 2 eggs, some of which were filled with money and others that were filled with confetti in which you would smash on top of someones head.

The Bakers ended up winning all the loot. Spencer found the egg with a 50 dollar bill, Ethan Found a 10 and a 1 dollar bill, and Tayten and Luke found a one dollar bill. Lucky boys!

Dinner was as good as always. We had cupcakes that the kids decorated for desert and sat around and talked for a while until it was time to go home.
I loved that Easter fell on conference weekend this year. It was the perfect way to reflect on this holiday and to be reminded of the Savior through the prophet and the leaders of the church. We hope you all had a fantastic Easter weekend.

SG & Sin City

Last week we got back from a really fun trip to St. George. Luke and I decided to leave Oliver behind with the Jensen's {thank you thank you thank you Trent and Amy} and to take my cousin Juan and our friend Rita. The first full day that we had, we took Juan to Vegas so he could see what it was like.

Don Juan is only 18 and he didn't get to gamble, so we did. Luke and I are not gamblers at all so we just played the slot machines for a little while. The first dollar I put in won about 18 free spins and I came away winning $24.50! Woohoo! I instantly cashed out and only played a few more dollars. Luke's biggest winning was $1.10. We had been in the casino playing for about 45 minutes when Juan finally got "carded" and we all left.


We walked a good part of the strip, watched the Bellagio fountains, visited the M&M and Coke factory, Saw a lot of crazy people, watched gamblers, and did a lot of shopping.

We walked around so much that we had to rest. We headed to the Cheesecake Factory (a personal Favorite in Vegas) to have a bite to eat. The best part was of course the bread, ranch, the chocolate tuxedo cream cheesecake, and the waitress thinking Rita was a child.

After resting from our trip to sin city, we took it easy for a little while...until we went bouldering in Moe's Valley. This was my favorite thing we did on this vacation and I think I'm addicted. Rita found out that they were actually having a bouldering competition that day so we headed down to see what it was all about. We watched the really good climbers for a little while before we were brave enough to try it ourselves....

RITA...aka: Frita, Frito, Froto!

LUKE!

KIMMY!

JUAN-CARLOS...aka: Juan, Don Juan

From top to bottom: Climbers falling...It's not what it looks like, I'm just getting chalk...The group...Rita making this whole bouldering thing look easy...and caterpillars everywhere.

The rest of our trip consisted of playing loads of Wii, Driving, Eating..A LOT!, watching golfers, going on morning runs, going on evening walks, shopping, sleeping in and laughing a lot.

We are already making plans to go down again next month. I love that we have something new to do there and can't wait to go bouldering when it's a bit warmer. I love SG and always enjoy spending time there with great people. Can't wait to do it again.