Overalls for All

I have officially decided that I am obsessed with little boys in overalls. I just can't get enough. It is my weakness, if I see overalls at the store I must buy them. Here is my cute boy in all his cute overalls. (sorry for the crappy cellphone pics but you get the idea.)

I told you, adorable right?

Olive's Birthday Bear

I have loads and loads of birthday stuff to post about but I'm kinda "waiting" on someone to get it edited. So I thought, in the meantime, I would post the gift I made for Olive on her 3rd birthday.

 Here he is, Olive's Birthday Bear. Isn't he cute? We are still deciding on an appropriate name for him.

 I really like his little face. Olive is in love with him. She saw me making him and I told her it was going to be a teddy bear, but I don't think she believed me because they were all flat pieces before he was sewn together. When she took it out of the box she screamed "It's my teddy bear!!" with so much enthusiasm it was like he was her long lost bear. She is the funnest girl to give gifts to because she is so genuinely excited for everything.

 My heart melts every night because she asks to sleep with him. It's so cute. My plan is to make Milo one for his birthday too so they have matching bears.

I just love how he turned out. His little face, his floppy limbs, his pudgey tummy. I think Olive loves him too.  It will be a good keepsake to remember her at 3 years old.

Bre's Wedding

About a month ago I had the chance to go to my cute cousin Bre's wedding in California. I was so excited for Bre mainly because I know how happy and exciting that time of life is. There are only 3 girls out of all the cousins so I had to be there and represent us girls! I just love Bre and her family and I'm so happy I could be there to celebrate with her. These cousins are the ones I know the best 1) we are all roughly close in age (roughly, but more so now that most of us are at the same stage of life. kids are a major equalizer aren't they?) and 2) they were the cousins we saw the most growing up.

I took Milo while Scott stayed home with Olive for a few days. I was so nervous to leave her because I had never spent a night away from her. I kinda figured that she wouldn't miss me as much as I was going to miss her. They partied it up while I was away seeing movies everyday. It was play, play, play. But, Olive asked for me every night, so I guess she did miss me after all.

It was a beautiful and simple sealing and it I kept thinking about my own wedding day. That day I was kinda stressed out but listening to the temple president talk about the blessing of marriage made it melt away and I remembered how lucky I am to be married to my husband. I  really wished he was there and it made me miss him so much. There is nothing like the feeling of knowing that you have a partner walking with you through everything you will experience in this life.  

Jerrica was nice enough to take care of Milo while we were in the sealing. I was so worried that he would scream the whole time but she said he was fine.  She might just be saying that. Or he just saved the crying for me when I got out of the temple. But, I would prefer that than crying at them.

Kellen loved harrassing the little boys. They loved rough housing back.

 

 

 Everyone socializing and waiting for the bride and groom. I really wanted to take Olive to this wedding because she is in love with brides these days. I knew she would love to see one in real life. But Scott had a wedding that weekend and I didn't think I could handle traveling with the 2 kids on my own.

 That is the only shot I got of the bride and groom when they came out. Can you believe it? Can you even see them? Milo started getting really tired right when it was time for all the photos so he is probably crying in most of the actual photos. 

 One of my biggest motivations to get out to the wedding was that I knew it was a rare chance to see some of my cousins. We all live across the country so it is a very special occasion to bring us together. There were still quite a few missing though! I love that we are all grown with our own families now. Some of their kids I was just meeting for the first time. I am so glad that I did get to spend some time catching up with them so it was well worth the trip. Here is my cousin Austin with his two kids and my youngest brother Connor.

 Milo and Grandma:

 The reception was absolutely beautiful. They had everything you could want in a reception and lots of details I never even thought of. They totally treated it like a party and everyone stayed to dance and have a great time. I kept thinking "Olive would be in heaven! I wish she was here!"

 I don't know why but I loved the table arrangements. Every table was had a different grouping and it created such a perfect look. I loved it but I'm sure my camera phone photo doesn't do it justice.

 Dancing the night away. It was a blast and I'm so glad I could be there to celebrate with them!

Shoes Shoes Shoes

I fooled you huh! You thought this was a post about Olive. But no, indeed, Milo has a ton of shoes. Why are baby shoes the cutest things ever? And since Scott and I both have a weakness for shoes (Scott might possibly have more shoes than I do) we always agree that Milo must have it when we see a cute baby shoe.

 Milo was also given lots of dang cute shoes at his shower. So, he wears shoes every single day so that we get some good use out them before they don't fit anymore, which might be next week or tomorrow!

 Here wears these the most because they are probably the easiest to put on.

 We, of course, had to have some Vans for him. I can't wait until he is big and running around in real Vans. Oh he is going to be so cute!

 These are by far my favorite and he has some pants to match them so they are extra cute!

 He has to have some high tops!

Here is our big boy!

Olive is (almost) Three

 Wow! 3! What a sweet and loving girl Olive is. I am absolutely loving 3 year old Olive.  When she was born I couldn't picture what our life would look like in three years but I have to say, it is wonderful.

 

Olive is a very expressive girl. Her little eyebrows just tell you her thoughts. Sometimes we just chuckle at her from the faces that she makes. She loves to be silly and make silly faces. I love how goofy she is. 

Olive likes telling jokes. She will say "You jokin' me!" when we  are teasing her and she loves it. She likes playing the opposite game. For example, if she says "I love strawberries" then I will tell her "No, you love pickles!" or something else she doesn't like and she will laugh hysterically. The only problem is that there is no stopping that game. 

Olive thinks her dad is the funniest thing on earth. He can make her belly laugh like no one else. He has made her laugh so hard that she literally falls over laughing. It is the cutest thing in the world.

 Olive is quite a sensitive girl. She really doesn't like people, especially mom, to be upset or angry with her. She is quick to say sorry when she has done something. I love it when she says "Fank you for saying sorry" if I apologize to her. She gets embarrassed if another adult corrects her. She is "afraid" of the garage and laundry room because "Scary monsters wiv in dere".

 Olive loves learning and asks questions all day long. She wants to know what things are called and how they work. I love her inquisitive mind. She knows her ABC's and can count to 20. She has started recognizing her letters and likes to find them. She is quite an auditory learner and can learn songs really fast. It is kinda surprising. Once a neighbor was teaching her (for about 10 minutes) how to count in Spanish and now she remembers and can get all the way to ocho without help. It didn't know this had happened and then one day she was just walking around saying "Uno dos tres..."

 She loves barbies, princesses, ballerinas, dress ups, and being fancy more than ever. She has opinions about what to wear and likes to pick out her clothes while shopping. She watches me do my make up in the mornings and likes to have some put on her too. She likes watching and doing whatever I'm doing. She is hilarious talking on the phone because she holds it up and walks around the house while talking.
Olive loves to cook in her kitchen, take care of her babies, play with playdough and do art, read books, and she especially loves when you do those things with her. What I love so much is her enthusiasm for what ever we are doing. It is really easy to get her excited for almost anything (except using the potty but more news on that later).

 Olive likes to go places. Almost every morning she asks "Where we going today?" She likes going to the store and running errands. She wants to know what kind of store we are going to, and if we are getting to the grocery store or a different store. Recently I listed off a whole bunch of places to go like the farm, zoo, dinosaur museum etc and she got so excited and said " We going there? I get my shoes!" and ran off before I could tell her that we weren't going at that second. She often asks "Today is Sunday?" because she really likes nursery and wearing a Sunday dress.

 Olive is gaining lots of friends and loves to play with them. She talks about her friends constantly and wonders what they are doing. She likes to tell me what she likes to play with them, like "Me and Jane eat meat" or "we be dinosaurs". She will ask her friends to be "my body guard" when she is playing princess. If we walk or drive past a friends house she tells me who lives there. Unfortunately some of her closest pals don't live very close to us.

 Olive has some funny sayings that are just so classic Olive.
She asks for "fresh milk" in the morning.
She likes things that are "so com-for-ble" like our bed or her blankie.
She says "I don't fink so!" all the time.
If she wants something or sees something at the store she ask to get it "for my birf-day?"
She will add "and stuff" and "or some-fing" on the end of her sentences.
If you ask her to do something, like use the potty, she will say "maybe tomorrow?"
If you ever ask her how something was like dinner or a party she always, 100% of the time says "it was reew-ey goob!"for really good.

 Some of Olive's favorites are:
Favorite color, pink
favorite food is definitely fruit, seriously almost any fruit. She especially loves strawberries. Her favorite "meal" food is pizza.
Favorite princess is a toss up but she usually says Cinderella or Belle.
Favorite shows are almost anything, she loves tv but frequently asks for YO Gabba, Dora, or Rugrats

 

Olive has had an amazing third year. She has learned so much. Olive brightens every day and we are so proud of her. We feel lucky that she is in our family!

PS If you want to know what I thought about the new Jane Erye read my review tomorrow at showtimeshowdown.com!!

Bear Bums

One thing that I loved about a baby girl is all the ruffles, especially ruffled bum pants. I love it so much I even made a post about it here. So I was a little sad when I wasn't going to be getting out the ruffle pants. But, little boys have cute things are their bums too. Things like lions and bears. I might even like little lions on bums more than ruffles.

Olive Get a Real Hair Cut

 Olive has been talking about hair cuts for awhile. She likes to give me pretend hair cuts. Well her hair has gotten a little hammered this summer with all the sun and swimming. Scott was quite sad about it, I mean it was her little baby hair we were cutting off of those ends. I knew we were also going to lose her curls and her blonde since her roots are quite brown. I was convinced she was going to look like a different girl.
Before:

 We also needed to do something about her grown out bangs.

 Here is her rather impressive pony tail. I can't even remember when I had a pony tail that long.

Here we are at the trusty old Cookie Cutters. She was really good at sitting still and being patient. There were loads of kids running around and it was kinda crazy in there but she knew not to wiggle too much.

 

Here is the after: 

 

Thankfully she didn't lose all her curl. We were also able to tame those bangs. I wanted it a little bit shorter but this was a good compromise. I sometimes blow it out and flip up the ends which looks so cute. She looks like such a big girl with her new hair cut doesn't she?

My Movie Reviews

I just thought I would post a quick reminder that I write a weekly movie review on my husband's website Showtime Showdown. Check them out because there is usually something for everyone. I would love to hear your feedback if you have seen the movie(s) that I reviewed. Or if it inspires you to go watch it to I definitely wan to know if you agree or not. Leave me comments!

A new review is up today. Just go to showtimeshowdown.com You can click on the As Seen on Netflix tab to see my past reviews. Plus, if you want news on the new movie coming out you could listen to there podcast I guess. I mean, they are kinda funny. But I mostly care about my reviews so check it out!

Milo Update

Thankfully this has been a really good week. I won't lie, there were lots of weeks where I could not have said that. But this was a good week. Although, I don't want to jinx myself.
After we switched Milo to the new formula for his milk allergy I thought life we going to be perfect. I hoped that was going to solve all our problems. Unfortunately, the new formula caused a whole new set of problems. First, it was gross. Seriously that stuff smells horrible and it makes their diapers smell horrible too. That doesn't matter much except that Milo also thought it was gross and didn't want to eat it. He would barely eat 2 ounces at a feeding, sometimes less than that. I couldn't blame him but, I started getting stressed because he wasn't getting any nutrients. He was always hungry but then didn't want what I was offering. I kept telling myself that in a couple days he will be so starving that he will eat anything and we would be back on track. Just then he started getting this terrible diaper rash. I'm sure this is exactly what you want to be hearing about. Seriously though, it was horrible. It was like the first layer of skin was gone. Nothing I put on it would help. His poor sore bum! So, nothing was solved and lots of things were worse.

Then, we had a family get together and saw little Gavin. You remember Gavin right? Well he was just the most chill baby ever. He would sit in his little chair and coo. Milo would never do that. Milo would squirm and fuss and last for about 5 minutes just sitting there. Milo would need to be walked and bounced and swayed and patted and to try 50 million things. Gavin was just happy. That is when Scott and I realized that is how babies are. Lots of babies are just happy. As we watched Milo and Gavin in comparison it made us realize, something was wrong with Milo and the milk isn't solving it. I called that night to get an appointment with the doctor.
And, we were right. Poor Milo has acid reflux or GERD. The doc seemed a little skeptical at first and I wasn't totally sure either.  I had done some research online and he didn't necessarily have the biggest signs. What finally sold me was the realization that there are lots of times where he is crying, well, more than crying, and nothing I do helps. It seemed like he was in pain.
I almost don't think I can explain what it is like to have a baby like that.  Unless you have had a reflux baby it's hard to know what it really means. What is it to have a baby scream at you. What the reality of that is 24/7. You are trapped and you never leave the house because it is too hard on the baby. You give up even normal outings like going on walks because all he does is cry the whole time. It feels like your life is caving in on you. It feels like nothing will ever be normal again. It is daunting and depressing. The worst part is that it is almost impossible to not get frustrated with this little person but in truth you know it's not their fault. Then you feel awful for being mad at them.
I have been reluctant to tell anybody, especially the internet, about how I was really feeling. I got the sense that people thought I was complaining. I guess it sounded like I was just griping, that I didn't want to deal with a "fussy baby". There is nothing further from the truth. I wasn't wanting an out. There is nothing more that I would rather be doing!  I wanted to be the one holding him while he screamed. I wanted to try and make him better. I wanted to be the one that would try 50 million things even though none of them would work and I would have tried 50 million other things too. I wanted to be the one up at 1 am (and 4 and 6) every night with him. I wanted to be the one to stand and walk/bounce him for 5 or 6 hours every day (that is how I watched tv, standing up bouncing.) So, I stopped telling people. No one understood. Even the people that tried to understand couldn't actually.
Thankfully, he is a whole new kid. Medicine works miracles.
I have also learned some coping strategies:
First, I cut out basically everything extra in our life. This was a hard one for me. I "thought" I had done that initially but then I found that I kept scheduling things. So I for reals cut out everything. I had to get things settled before real life kicks in the fall with preschool and such. Having nowhere to go has made each day pretty simple and relaxed.
I use the swing. Milo loves the swing. Olive never did so I got out of the habit of really using it. Now, it is the only way I can get anything done. I also had to let go and just him fall asleep in there. It is the only way to survive.
I now see why there are so many gadgets and gizmos for babies. When you have a hard baby you are willing to try/buy almost anything to make it better. We turn the music on, we use the vibrate buttons, we tried every drop, trick or suggestion out there. We never turned did any of those things for Olive.  In fact I don't think her bouncer and such even had batteries in them. But we do now.
I've realized that I need more me time and I value it so much. A little break can go a very long way. 
I'm just thankful it's been a good week.