Camp Snoopy

Ollie & I spent Thursday packing for our long-weekend trip to California. Aunt Elyce sent Oliver a present and he was excited it arrived that day.

 Ollie refers to this hat as his "broccoli hat." {Bronco - Broccoli, same difference. Right.}

He must like it because he refuses to wear any other hat now. Thanks, Elyce!

We finished up loading the car, picked Jordan up from work and took off for Temecula, CA.

 It was wonderful to see and visit with Steve, Jenni, and their family while we stayed there. We have missed them and Ollie & Daisy were good pals. Of course, I was having too much fun and never even took a picture of those two playing together. On Friday, we all went to the beach and again, had so much fun no pictures were taken. I did take a picture of us eating our fresh fish & chips lunch. So good.

Oliver took all of two minutes to fall asleep after a day of fun at the beach.

 {I made this blanket for Ollie the day before we left. He picked out the fabric, obviously.}

At the beach he enjoyed chasing the seagulls, playing in the waves with dad and digging with his shovel with mom.

On Saturday, we took Ollie to Knott's Berry Farm or Charlie Brown's house {Camp Snoopy}.

He was so excited to meet Linus and Schroeder, but wanted nothing to do with Lucy.

 This swing ride was probably his favorite...

and this bus ride was definitely his least favorite. Just ask him about the bus ride and he'll say, "I don't like that big bus ride."

I timed this picture just right, but it's weird because he loved the giant swings and I never saw him make this face, but my camera captured it.

 

The weather was pretty crummy that day {70% humidity} and we were thrilled with a late lunch at Mrs. Knott's Chicken Dinner {my family's tradition}. Ollie chowed down and was especially impressed by their raspberry Jell-O.

 The next day we drove home. Ollie is a great little traveler. He never had an accident and even was forced to hold it several times. He slept great and was in good spirits all around.

 We will definitely be going back.



Day Trip

We decided to tag along with my parents on a quick trip to Prescott to close up the cabin for the winter. The weather was perfect and the swinging divine.

 

We went on a short hike with Oliver and played in this beautiful green field.

Then we packed up and drove home. It was great to breathe in that fresh, pine-scented mountain air for a few hours.

The first weekend in October was General Conference. While the boys went to Priesthood Session, Mom, Ollie and I got out for dinner and a little shopping {mostly for fabric}. On our 20 minute drive, I looked in my rearview mirror and someone was fast asleep.

Mom and I sat and visited in the car for 15 extra minutes to allow the little guy to catch up on his Zzzz's.

On one of our many trips to Sam's Club, Ollie insisted he bring/wear his Mr. Potato Head hat and glasses. He even wore the glasses throughout the store and kept saying, "I can see!"

Weirdo.

Speaking of weirdos...

 Laynee made an awesome portrait of a very dignified Gru...

Silly girl.

We had irrigation issues and Oliver was happy to assist/squish around in the mud.

 {When did this kid get THIS big?!?}

Cadbury sulked/watched from his perch...

There is plenty more sulking to be done by you, Cadbury - - we {Jordan, Ollie, and I} are off to the beach for the weekend!!!

{Jane meeting the beach for the first time this week}...

Those chubby limbs are the bomb.com.



Unplugged

I have recently made a change by "unplugging" from social media. I decided it wasted my time and usually left me feeling more negative than positive. Honestly, I don't miss it and feel a lot more focused in general, but more specifically, focused on real-life people who matter most to me.

Now to completely contradict what I just said...here are real-life people made into not real-life people...

Princess Mom

{Oliver affectionately refers to me as this}

 Oliver Linus

{Ollie is always referring to himself in the third person, but calling himself Linus, if that made any sense}

 Stinky Dad

{Oliver's words, not mine - - Ollie calls him this out of love and always with a devious little smirk on his face}

We are super duper excited about the Peanut's Movie coming out next month!

After last weeks battle with rats (6 in total, ewww), this weeks was has been against scorpions. I think I would welcome back the rats. I hate scorpions. They are of the devil and can burn in you-know-where for all I care. Supposedly the extra busy monsoon season has brought more and more of them out of their outdoor dwellings and into people's houses. This has been true here and we have been finding them on a daily basis. {In the past, my parents have usually found 2-3 total each year}. Cadbury came in the other afternoon and went sniffing for anything that had fallen on the kitchen floor. He found a scorpion {as Mom, Beth, and myself were discussing these demonic creatures in the kitchen} and I immediately knew what had happened to him when he started freaking out because his nose had been stung. I ran for the pliers and picked up the evil thing before it could crawl under the cabinets and hide. It died shortly after by way of blow torch and I was happy to be rid of one more of Satan's spawn. Other than licking his nose more frequently and being sleepy because I gave him Benadryl, Cadbury is fine and maybe he will think twice before sticking his nose in all sorts of crevices.

Probably not.

 Oliver went to Beth's one afternoon and came home with a bag of pure awesomeness. Nora is the best little babysitter and does such cute things with the boys.

 I love finding absolutely ridiculous jammies. These were a great find...

Another awesome purchase...

Side Note: My favorite store has always been Gap {in fact, everything Ollie has on in most of these pics were purchased there}. Recently, most of them have closed their doors - I don't know what this world is coming to, but I'm a little bit devastated.

In closing...here are a couple pictures that were snapped milli-seconds before I got hit or something thrown at me for taking a "certain someone's" picture...

 In this case, the applesauce got sprayed all over me...

"I 'dough-nut' like it when you take my picture, Mom!!!"



Doodles & An Excellent Book

The weather has cooled slightly so we are emerging from our cave dwellings little by little. The evenings have been especially lovely and the daytime temps are in the 90's. Ollie

asked if I would take him to the park one day - he never asks, so when he does we try to oblige.

Thankfully, he doesn't complain when I say it's time to go home after 45 minutes of heat stroke - I think 45 minutes is enough sunshine for him as well. We immediately came home and took a "bath" with the hose in the backyard to cool off.

While 90 degree weather means we CAN go outside, but let's be honest, we still spend most of our time in the air-conditioned indoors.

Oliver has been going through a phase of not wanting me to take his picture.

{I delete A LOT of pictures that look like the following...

all because I am taking his picture.}

Finally, today I turned the shutter sound off on my phone and went to town.

 A game of hide-n-seek...

{the Mickey Mouse sucker is from our trip to Disneyland...in January. I forgot about them until today when he asked for a Lollipop. I was trying to get the wrapper off - it was old and sticky and I told Ollie it was kind of melted. He didn't mind. He licked it once and then said, "I will call you Melty."}

My mom put this adorable desk

 in the playroom and suggested I fill it with pencils and crayons for Ollie to use. I finally got around to moving everything today & it's such a great spot for him to doodle.

This guy is ready for school. He is constantly asking to go & I am constantly thinking, 'When the heck did my baby get old enough to almost go to school.'

The first week of September, I invited Beth's family to dinner on a Monday night. She informed Mom & I that Nora's birthday was on Friday and she requested a quilt. So we got busy and made her birthday wish come true. I think it turned out super cute for my super cute Nora.

 Here it is before we added the ties, but this picture shows the actual colors better...

In some less pleasant news, we have been battling roof rats the past week. Rats love last years rotted citrus and a family moved into the backyard recently. Cadbury has been going nuts barking at them in the evenings. My dad got some rat poison and sure enough, dead rats are being found in the yard. Cadbury came in one day with blood all over his coat. I went outside to check things out and there was the first dead rat. He must not have liked the taste, thankfully, but I called Jordan and informed him Cadbury was locked outside until he could come home and bathe him. I had cleaned up the dead rat and it spoiled my lunch and the next few hours of my day.

Cadbury was quarantined from the backyard due to irrigation {and rats} so I had to take him out to do his business every few hours, I sent this picture to Jordan the next day...

and said, "I eat dead rats and dried up dog poop I find in the front yard." Gross Cadbury. The next day I found a baby rat who had obviously eaten the poison, but hadn't died yet.

I felt bad for the little guy and checked on him a few times in the following hour. I do not have it in me to put him out of his misery so the least I could do was talk nice to him and keep him company. Ollie sang him some songs and I named him Theodore. After an hour, he finally joined his mommy in rat heaven. Sad.

On a lighter note, last weekend we took Ollie to Bass Pro to walk around, see the {stuffed} animals, fishies, tents, and all the other cool stuff the place has to offer.

Cheap entertainment for sure. More cheap entertainment...Walmart.

 A friend on Facebook posted her love of a children's book called 'Room on the Broom.' They made it into a movie and it's on Netflix. I watched it last night {it's only 30 minutes} and quickly decided Oliver would love it. He did and we promptly went to Wal-Mart {pictured above} to pick up the book. The book is marvelous, just like the movie, and there is an app that is just as great as the aforementioned {I've used that word twice in the last two days and zero times before that - I wonder how it became part of my daily use - I must read a lot of books or something.} Anyway, check it out - it's the best $7 I've spent in months and probably one of the best children's books I've read.