So, it's been a while...

I've been meaning to post forever, really. Since we moved into our new place I thought it would be great to post some pictures of our home, but it is taking forever to come together just right. I don't want to admit how many chairs and tables I have returned, I can't make up my mind about where to hang things up on the walls, and the rug I ordered still hasn't come in yet. So, on this post I'm afraid that all you get is me and no pics. (I don't really have any pictures to share anyway, Sam got me a Flip (video camera) for mother's day and I've been playing around with that and totally ignoring my good old camera.) And of course I don't know how to post a video. I just wanted all my faithful readers (I know who you are because you have been sending me hate-posts for neglecting my blog for so long) to know that I am indeed still alive.

For the record, we are loving our new home, we are on a quiet street with lots of kids and Oliver has no shortage of friends to ride bikes and cause trouble with. Our house is beautiful - minus the lack of decor and furniture - and just the right size for us. We are beginning to acclimate to our new ward and Sam was even called into the boy scouts, he's thrilled :)

Aside from buying and returning furniture, practicing how to make fondant flowers for my sisters wedding cake next week and riding our bikes around the block again and again and again, here is a little list of what we have been up to:

1. Potty training. We are only on day two and have yet to have any success, but I am determined not to throw in the towel (or should I say underwear) just yet. Oliver is registered for preschool in the fall and can't go unless he is out of diapers so we are motivated!

2. Shots. Ruby was due for some shots last week. When I explained to Ollie that we would be taking Ruby to the doctor to get some shots he asked me how bad it would hurt her and if she would cry. When I told him that she probably would he insisted that he would hold her hand so that she would not be scared. Just as he promised, when it came time for her shots he pushed a stool over to the examination table and held on tight. I think he was a little traumatized watching the shots, but he never let go of Ruby's hand, it was just so sweet.

3. Friends. When we moved here I promised Oliver that we would get some new friends. He has been so excited and for the first few days every morning when he woke up he would ask me where his friends were. Well, it didn't take long for him to find them. Everyone is Ollie's friend. He loves to introduce himself to everyone. His intro usually goes something like this, "Hi my name is Oliver, I'm two. This is my mommy Janell and my sister Ruby, she's so cute." The other day we went to a store and he walked right up to the sales clerk, announced his name and told her he was looking for a friend (unfortunately they didn't sell those at that particular store).

4. Goldman. Sam is really enjoying his position with Goldman Sachs. He is already putting in a lot of long hours and we miss him, but are glad that he likes his job so much.

5. Bikes. Oliver is a biking fanatic. All he ever wants to do is ride outside with his "bike friends". I think that he would live on that thing if we let him (it does occasionally have to sleep in his room with him.)

6. Crawling. Nope, we are still not there yet, instead we seem to be stuck in the "I want to crawl so bad but can't figure out how to put one hand in front of the other so I will just squawk in frustration instead" stage. It is a joy.

I know that there are a million other things I need to write, but I can't remember them. I guess that is what happens when you procrastinate blogging for over a month. Don't worry more to come soon, with pics, I promise!

Oliver's Tail

So, the other day Oliver came to me and wanted to play catch. When I threw ball at him he made no attempt to catch it, rather, he explained to me that he wanted to hit it with his tail. (I think he saw a show with dinosaurs playing catch with their tails.) We had played that game before so instead of throwing the ball at his chest I threw it to his bottom. He then informed me that that was not his tail and that his tail was under his pants. Being the obliging mother that I am I helped him take his pants off. (Sam, who was in the room and had caught on a lot sooner than I had was smirking by this point). After throwing the ball at his now pant-less bottom he once again insisted that that was not his tail and that his tail was in his diaper. It was at this point that I caught on to exactly what a "tail was. Seeing as there were a number of people around and in an effort to avoid any indecent exposure I diverted his attention by offering to find him an even better tail. Hence, the above outfit. What I was not prepared for was just how much he would love it. He insisted on attempting to fly off of every piece of furniture in the house and flat out refused to remove the wings and tail for his nap or for a trip to the store (although I did manage to put his pants back on him for that outing!) A few days later we finally had to hide the wings and tail in order to get him to stop putting them back on.

Sunny Days

The weather has finally turned warm and we just can't enough of it!


We went to a Bees game this weekend with the SUU alumni association. Sam says it isn't really summer until you watch some baseball. (Personally I can think of a lot more entertaining ways to get into summer, but whatever). Alas, the game was cut short for us when Sam let out and over-enthusiastic cheer while holding Ruby on his lap, he completely freaked her out to the point that packing up and leaving was the only way to make her happy again. I guess she is a girl after my own heart!

Oliver thought it was great however. My dad has a lathe and recently made Oliver his own wooden baseball bat. I think my dad may regret it now that Oliver is constantly pleading him to "come pitch for me Grandpa." At the game he enjoyed picking out the pitcher and the hitter and yelling and clapping whenever anybody else did.

A Ruby Pile

One of Oliver's favorite games is to make a Ruby pile. Basically this consists of him laying on top of Ruby and then making Sam and I lay on top of him until we make one great big Peay family pile. Ruby is pretty accommodating seeing as she absolutely adores her brother and really has no choice in the matter.

Aside from making "Ruby Piles" Oliver's other latest craze is dinosaurs. Ollie gets to watch one TV show every morning while I take a shower and a few months ago he switched allegiance from Sesame Street to a new PBS show called Dinosaur Train. Our entire existence pretty much revolves around Dinosaur Train now. For example, he spends all day calling out, "tickets, tickets please" after you give him a ticket he punches it on his claw, a.k.a. his toe, and tells you "thank you very much!" When ever we drive under an underpass he call out "Time Tunnel." Obviously you would have to actually watch the show to comprehend all of this, but I would recommend just taking my word for it.

He is learning quite a bit from the show as well. The other day he was eating my mom's houseplant and when I asked him what he was doing he explained that he was a herbivore so he had to eat plants and leaves. One morning when I asked him if he had any ideas about what we should do that day he told me that we just needed a hypothosis. At the look of confusion on my face he said, "you know mom, a hypothesis, it's an idea you can test." He hypothesized that the wind was blowing in a particular direction and we took a flag outside to test his idea. Last week he informed me that he had brachiosaurus feces in his diaper. (Hopefully one day soon he will learn to get that brachiosaurus feces into the toilet instead of his diaper!)

I would prefer that he stuck to Sesame Street so that he could pick up on his numbers and letters instead, but I'm sure one day it will be important for him to understand the meaning of nocturnal as well!

Easter

This year we made a greater effort to teach Oliver the meaning of Easter. He picked up on the story amazingly well. His favorite part of course was the big rock that was rolled in front of Jesus' tomb. (No surprise there!) And now every time we drive past a church with a cross on it he reminds me that Jesus died on a cross and got owies in his hands and in his feet.


The Easter bunny did pay us a visit this year, but he obviously didn't check the weather before filling the baskets. However, the snow certainly didn't deter Oliver from heading outside with his sunglasses and gardening tools!


Here is Ruby and daddy relaxing after Easter dinner.



We had a big Easter dinner and Easter Egg hunt and Grandma and Grandpa Cornwell's house. Oliver loved being there and spending time with all of his cousins. He did loose all interest in the Easter egg hunt however, at the sight of an old deflated football. He already has his priorities and sports, or balls, definitely take precedence over candy.

It has really been great to live close by and get to participate in family events.

Tour de St. George

In May we traveled down to St. George so that Sam could ride in the Tour de St. George with his brothers. It turned out to be quite the family event and we had tons of fun hanging out with all of Sam's family. Sam started planning to ride the race in January and had outlined a pretty rigorous training schedule. However, jobs, cold weather (and general laziness) got in the way and with a month to go until race time the "race" was downgraded to just a tour. In the end, it was just a "ride" with his brothers and I was not even allowed to refer to it as a race. It really didn't matter though, Sam rode the 30 mile "ride" and thoroughly enjoyed himself.




Oliver thoroughly enjoyed waiting at the finish line with his cousins. It wasn't exactly warm and balmy as we had hoped, but that didn't deter Oliver from getting absolutely soaked. Oliver has three cousins from South Weber that he absolutely adores. He refers to them as his girlfriends and often begs to go and see them.


We got to see Sam's brother and his family from Arizona, this is Ollie and Marley, they are only six days apart.

Ruby and Vance are just six days apart as well, you would almost think that we had planned that :)

Explanation and a failed diet plan

So, if your thinking that my blog seems a bit lop-sided Ollie-wards, you are probably right. I need to post more about Ruby June. The trouble is that I am a huge proponent of pictures in posts and Ruby does not like the camera. She is such a smiley happy baby and she will smile for the camera, the trouble is that when I push the shutter on my camera a little red light goes off right before the flash and when Ruby sees it her smile fades into confusion and that is the look I always seem to capture. She is only to blame for the confused look in this particular picture, the blurry face is the fault of an Oliver-sized finger print on my camera lens.

But, fuzzy or not, I had to post a picture of this cute hat I made. It was part of a new diet plan to keep my hands busy so that they would not be available to stuff chocolate into my mouth! Unfortunately the crocheting project only took a couple of hours so that by the afternoon I was right back to my old ways. Bummer, but at least the hat turned out nice.

Desperate times call for desperate measures!

Oliver absolutely loves to play basketball, he even has a pretty sweet left-handed jump-shot (for a two-year-old). His Little Tykes hoop is still in storage but he was insistent on throwing his basketball through the hoop the other day. Sam is usually the one to take him out and lift him up to the big hoop but when dad was gone mom had to get a bit creative. It worked out great other than the fact that I had to be the one to chase down the ball every time it bounced out of the trailer.

Countdown to Home Sweet Home

Here is a sneak peak at our soon-to-be new home. Barring any unforeseen disasters (and from working at a title company I know there could be many) we should close in the middle of April. Yahoo!!

If you have a half an hour . . .

If you have an extra half-an-hour in your day to spare stop on by and ask Oliver how he hurt his head. You will be taken by the hand to a particular corner of the house where he will reenact and recount (in great detail) how he slipped and hit his head. You will then be led to the phone where mommy called dad to see about getting stitches. He will tell you all about how he cried and mommy gave him his blue blanket. Then, he will take you to the bathroom and tell how mommy gave him a bandaid and a kiss to make it better and how the "butterflies" came out and made the ouchie go away. (Obviously there is some confusion in regards to the butterfly bandaids).

In this picture Oliver had decided that his cut needed a bit more tape so he took things into his own hands. He insisted on leaving the tape in place for a few hours.