one year later

I vividly remember my last post last winter. I was so sick of posting pictures of the winter and the snow. I felt like there was nothing new to say because we were either stuck in the house or outside in the snow. I told myself once it became warmer I would post again, but once it did we were outside and busy all of the time. The summer, fall and the holidays are all a blur. I can't believe how fast this year has gone by. So many people have said to me that the time when the are home with you goes fast and they were so right. The last couple of months I've been helping out at Oliver' school and seeing the little kids makes it all the more real. Oliver is getting so big. He turned 4 in December. He is still the same sweet, silly, stubborn, easy going, chatterbox that he has always been. He is so funny. Constantly saying the craziest things. Somehow he has picked up the phrase "oh my Jesus" and he uses it appropriately. He still has another year before kindergerten and I'm so glad. I don't think either one of us are ready for him to be gone all day.

He still loves all things cars, but recently he is very into knights. There is a new show called Mike the knight. It has changed his life. He has been telling us he wants to be a knight when he grows up. I was subbing for on the teachers at school on Monday. We were there all day. He was tried and was whining to watch tv. His teacher, Jane heard him. While he was with her Oliver told her he wanted to be a knight when he grows up. Jane told him that knights don't watch tv. Without missing a beat Oliver told her he was still little so he was a knight in training and it was ok to watch tv.

Tomorrow we are going on vacation. We are going to the beach. The end of last winter we said this winter we were going away somewhere warm. Of course, this winter has been as far as I'm concerned amazing. Anthony and Oliver are very disappointed at the lack of snow. Anthony said it is like if we had a summer without sun. I don't agree, but I'm excited to go away.

outside a little

Yesterday was warm. It was in the 40s. I took advantage of the "warm" weather and we spent a lot of the afternoon oustide. It was nice to see Oliver riding his bike and scouter. I think this is first time that I've played outside with him in two months. I know it's terrible and I should be taking him out more, but I hate the cold. Anthony has been great about having him outside. They play for hours in the snow and go on long hikes in the woods.

Tonight while I was in the kitchen working on dinner Oliver came and said he wanted to have a conversation with me. We sat down together and he said "Mom how do I stop growing? " He touched the top of his head and said "this is as big as I want to be. How do I start growing down?" I smiled and laughed at him. I asked him why and never got a straight answer. I think I know what it might have something to do with. Lately we are making him do more for himself and we are telling him that he is a big boy.

We had another really funny conversation the other day. It's a little dirty. Sorry, but I really want to remember this one. Oliver and I were in the bathroom because he said he had to go potty. As I was unbuttoning his pants his "oh shoot Mom, I crabbed my pants." I just laughed and told him that was ok.

Otherwise we are surviving this long winter. We visited my parents in Florida about two weeks ago. We had beautiful weather. It was great to be able to walk around in short sleeves and flip flops. Oliver likes the winter, but while we were there he told me that he was glad that he didn't have to wear all of the clothes I make him wear at home.

a bit of a recap

Here are pictures from Halloween through the beginning of December. We've been busy and done a lot. Oliver was a shark for Halloween which he loved. He was telling everyone he was going to eat them up. I remember thinking it was so cold that day. Wow was I wrong. We went to California in the beginning of November to visit with two families we adopted with and to see our family. I'll post separate pictures of the kids from Vietnam. There are too many to go through right now. We had a great time seeing everyone in California.

We did so much with our family. Oliver loved visiting everyone in CA, Aunt Mary, Uncle Mike and Olivia, but he especially loved his cousin Elise. She is older than him and great with him. They were adorable together. Oliver cried for days about leaving Elise. For about a week he would ask when we were going back.

The pictures are out of order. Sorry. It was a lot to go through. Next I'll go through December and post more about what Oliver's been up too. He is nonstop action which is another reason I can never post to this blog. I want to because I feel like time is flying and I'm forgetting everything. Oliver is so much fun. He brings such joy to our lives and the lives of our friends and families. We are lucky.

Merry Christmas

Guess who is 3?

August

August came and went in a blink of an eye. It was a crazy month with a lot of ups and downs. Thankfully it ended on the up side.

They are still working on the house. The kitchen is pretty much done and now they've moved onto the basement. We went on vacation to Montana two weeks ago today. The day before we had to move all of our furniture into our bedrooms so the floors could be refinished.

That Saturday was crazy and Oliver was really confused by the whole thing. At one point, while I was at the store, he wondered into his room that was crammed full of stuff. He got back into a corner and couldn't figure out how to get out. Andrea found him in there. He was crying. She went to pick him up, but he told her no that he wanted her to wash her hands. She and Anthony were painting and she had paint on her hands. She told him it was dry, but he insisted. When I got home he told me that he wanted upies, but he didn't want to get dirty. He was so sad and cute. I felt bad for him.

Our trip to Montana was perfect timing. It was great to be away. We all had fun and enjoyed being outside so much. We stayed in a cabin at a ranch. Oliver thought it was our new home. He told me he was glad that our stuff wasn't all over the place.

Hopefully September will be more normal.