Jordan's Thirtieth

Earlier in March, we planned on going down south by Tucson to see Kartchner Caverns. The day before I came down with really awful allergies. I decided we better give my ticket to JJ. I was bummed, but Jordan had a good time. That was one of the things he did for his birthday. On his actual birthday, we went out to dinner and came back and had cake with family.

Ollie waited all day to be able to blow out those candles. The next morning, Jordan and I went on a mini hike at Mount Ord. It had beautiful views and was the perfect amount of hike. Of course, Jordan has all the pics from these occasions on his phone. Wha Whaa. BUT, believe me when I say, it was a great month. Jordan - you turned thirty with grace & style...I hope I handle it as well. :)



Cinnamon Rolls & Captain America

I made cinnamon rolls one Sunday afternoon. It's always a good idea to make cinnamon rolls in my book. Ollie agreed...

{after looking at these pictures, I decided Ollie needed a haircut...which he got later that day.}

The next Sunday, we got an invite out to Chris & Heather's for Sunday dinner. Smoked ribs!!! Ollie had fun playing with cousins, eating bites of ribs and being Captain America.

Thanks for the tastiest ribs ever guys!



Flying Kites & Springtime

I have been wanting to fly a kite with Ollie. I knew he would love it. So when my sis-in-law called and said she was bringing her five spring-breakers over to fly kites, I was pretty excited. I was going to skip Ollie's nap since all the action was going to happen then, but for the first-time-ever-in-history, Ollie ASKED to take a nap that day. So bummed. I put him down for a nap and went to watch myself. I woke him up early and caught the tail end of the adventures. He was less excited about the kites and more excited about playing with his cousins at the park. Go figure.

Baby Jane is getting big & even more precious everyday!

 

The trick is removing the children from the park...am I right?!

That evening Jordan left for a camping trip with his brothers and buddies. When he got home later the next day he was excited to put Ollie to sleep so him and I could drive his truck and put on the 200,000 mile. Very exciting!

We enjoyed the last of the absolutely gorgeous weather. Jordan put up a tent in the backyard and him & Ollie spent every waking moment out there until it got too warm. The following picture shows when it finally got too warm for Ollie...

the tent came down as to avoid creating a sweat lodge in the backyard.

Spring has been gorgeous this year. Allergies have been aplenty as well and have hit everyone in the house at one point or another. The beautiful roses at my parents house are showstoppers.

 

 

It has steadily gotten warmer and warmer, but the evenings are still perfect.



Grandma's Guitock

When Oliver first started saying the word 'guitar' it came out sounding like 'tick-tock.' Now it sounds like 'guitock.' He has a play guitar that he loves to rock out with. He stomps his foot and bangs his head. We were at Grandma & Grandpa Rogers' home and found out grandma has a guitar she got for free years ago using booster stamps. When Ollie saw her play it, he pretty much thought she was as cool as Mickey Mouse. I thought she was as cool as Walt Disney when she pulled out a song called "Eddie Suka-Tamahara-Tosa-Nova-Tosa-Nostra-Sama-Kama-Whacky-Brown."

 



Potty Training Attempt

In the back of my mind, I knew potty training was coming up. I looked into it and read some stuff, got advice from those who have done it and bought some big boy underwear for the big day. I finally decided to give it a try. We spent an entire morning parked in the play room, rug rolled up, froggy potty out and lots of extra underpants in tow. When I put him down for a nap, I decided the kid had ZERO interest at that point and gave up the potty training for another day. Until he shows the smallest amount of interest or turns three, I'm not going to stress about it. Here are the pictures to document our failed first attempt.



Twinners

This is Jordan at age 2 {plus 4 months}...

This is Oliver at age 2 {plus 6 months}

Side by Side

This little outfit was a present for two-year old Jordan from his grandparents who brought it for him when they returned from their Japanese Mission.

Here are some more gems from our current-day photo shoot.

 

There was a lot of bribing that went on that day, but it was well worth the effort!



Mr. Articulate

Oliver Kimball Rogers,

YOU are wise beyond your years. You freak me out with how knowledgeable you already are about many things. Where do you learn these things? I assure you, I do not know.

Yesterday, Ollie was playing in the bathroom sink while I got myself ready for the day. He loves to "wash" all his toys {from Mr. Potato head's shoes & hat to all your Mickey Mouse figurines and everything else I will let you dump in the sink}. This particular washing involved Legos. He would fill them up with water and dump them into empty ones and started getting everything {rug, cabinets, floor} wet. I got after him and told him he could only dump over the sink because he was making a mess. While I continued getting ready I watched him sulk. After a few minutes of his very entertaining pouty lips I asked him what was wrong...

"I'm sad."

"Why are you sad?"

"Cause you be mean to me."

Bleeding hearts of the world unite {fave quote from The Grinch} that broke my heart.

Just one small example of my little dude getting too big for his & my britches.

{Above picture: "Look, Mom! It's an 'x'!" He also knows that 'O' stands for Ollie or "Oddie" as he refers to himself.}

Our routine lately has consisted A LOT of going outside so Ollie can ride his bike {it's actually a tricycle, but I can't get him to say trike instead of bike}.

 {Usually Donald & Blue Blankie are always invited along for the ride.}

We spend many, MANY hours outside each day.

Lately, we have been going down to the "lake" with Grandpa so Ollie can throw rocks.

 {Red Mountain in the distance.}

This piece of land is owned by my dads family and they are in the works to sell it.

There has been an enormous bulldozer there for the past few weeks grading the land so it has a nice gentle slope down to the "lake" {err...rainwater/irrigation runoff}.

It's strangely addicting to watch this bulldozer go back & forth smoothing out the land.

It was an absolutely beautiful day so we spent a couple hours just throwing rocks.

 

Another obsession lately has been "fixing" broken down toys with Ollie's tools. It started when he took a tumble with his scooter. As seen by these very dramatic pictures.

He dusted himself off and decided because the scooter fell over it was broken. He went and got his tool box and spent an hour "fixing" it.

Awesome sauce. Now whenever something performs differently than he thinks is normal, it is considered "broken" and out comes the toolbox.

Our Valentine's day was not very exciting. I was really sick & Ollie came down with a bad fever along with me. I spent the day in bed but managed to make some sugar cookies with Ollie a few days prior to getting sick. He LOVES helping me in the kitchen. I drag a stool over and he dumps in the flour, sugar, salt, water, whatever and helps me mix things together. His favorite thing was to smash these cookies with a cup {then I used my finger to shape them into quirky little hearts}.

We have been juicing oranges and Ollie loves to juice himself a cup, drink it, and juice some more. So far we have made cookies, juiced orange juice, scrambled eggs, made pancakes, more cookies & fixed him PB&J.

And just because we spend most of our time outside, I'm going to finish off with more pictures of Ollie doing what he loves best...

 

 

playing outside. I love me that little tree frog.