Ollie walks

I guess you are supposed to let people know when your kid does this...



So there ya go. He walks. It's adorable. It's trouble.

Merry Christmas

Christmas day will no doubt be a whirlwind so I thought I would post this now.

I'm so excited for Christmas this year. So excited to spend time with my family. SO grateful for my family. This last year as been by far the best year of my life. I have never felt so much joy and happiness and content in all my life. I'm just so happy. And to thank for it all... the man we are celebrating this Christmas season. My Savior. Without whom, I would have none of the things that make me so happy. I'm so grateful for him. For his birth. For his sacrifice for me and for you. For his absolutely endless love.

Have a great holiday everyone!

Binky Blankee Boy

I really want to start recording all of the funny little things Ollie does. So I'm gonna. This will probably not entertain anyone else but me, but that's ok.

Ollie loves his binky and his blankee. A lot.

Every day, at some point, I will be busy doing something and Ollie will sneak into his room and when I find him, he has his blankee and his binky in hand (or mouth), and he is happy. He thinks he is so smart and clever because he figured out how to get them out of his crib without me. Sometimes I think he really is pretty smart because I'm not sure how he gets them sometimes when the bink seems to me to be out of reach... sneaky sneaky.

Anyway, when he gets his treasures, he put the bink in his mouth and snuggles his blankee and it's just so cute... it usually looks something like this

(he is cuddling... not crying)

or this

or both.

See. Not that entertaining huh? But that's my boy, and he entertains me :) I love him.

GREAT giveaway at Laura Winslow Photography

Holy smokes, so many great vendors, I want them all. Check it out!

http://laurawinslowphotography.com/blog/2010/11/29/over-2000-59-shops-1-winner-the-huge-fabulous-holiday-giveaway-my-fave-things-scottsdale-photographer/

1 YEAR

Oh boy... it happened.

This day happened. This day, that we celebrated 1 year since our sweet little Oliver finally made his grand entrance into this world.

Can I believe it? Not really. Am I happy? Oh yes. Crying? check.

My mind has been flooded with thoughts from what my life was like 1 year ago. Where I was. What I was feeling. What was happening. Yesterday, I was taken back to one year ago on November 20th. I was driving to St. George again (we had been back and forth for a few weeks as we anxiously awaited Oliver's debut). I remember VIVIDLY at that time thinking and praying that this trip would be the last time I would have to go back to SLC without my son. I was so desperate to meet him, to hold him and let him feel how much I loved him.
I was SO, SO ready.
I also remember vividly feeling a kind of fear that I have never felt before. A fear that "what if something went wrong". I loved him so fiercely before he was born, that I felt as though I had been carrying him all along, and the thought of him not coming home with me was a kind of fear I just can't describe with words. It's hard for me to even think about to this day. Yet, through all the fear, I felt a peace... which much like the fear, is hard to describe.
I knew he was mine.
I knew that was the plan all along.
I knew it was right.
I knew it would be ok.

And then, he came.

It all happened so incredibly fast... I was in shock. Literally. I just stood there shaking and crying, I didn't know what to do. I just watched him. Watched the nurses clean him up and make sure he was healthy, and as I was watching, one of the nurses literally grabbed my arm, pulled me towards him, pushed another nurse out of the way, and put my hand on him... yet another moment that I just can't describe. I sat there surrounded by medical personnel, holding my baby's hand, and everyone else disappeared. And in that instant, I knew he was mine and he knew I was his.
I am so grateful to that nurse for snapping me out of my state of shock so I could have that moment with him. SO grateful. It was magic.

And my life has never been the same since. And I am so glad.
I have never felt so happy. So at peace.
The past year has by far been the best of my life. More joy, more laughs, more love, more smiles than any other time. I could not possibly be any more blessed.

Oliver,
Mom and Dad love you so much. So much more than you will be able to understand until the day you become a Daddy. You are perfect to us. We will be grateful to you for all eternity for picking us to be your parents. Thank you for your great big smiles, for your kisses, for how happy you are every day, for your funny faces you make, for how excited you get to see us in the morning, for being THE BEST boy we could have ever hoped for. For everything.

We love you buddy bear.

NOW

On to the really fun stuff.... the pictures :)
Here are a few from his party.

BIG thank you to my long time best friend Bevin for working ALL day to help me get this all ready and for making that ADORABLE cake.
Ollie is scared of cakes... more on this in a sec.
These boots... oh I love these boots. And that picture on the left... that is Ollie's stink face. It is the funniest thing. I love it so much.
Before I had Ollie, I had this dream in my head of my first child's first birthday. How the party would be and what kind of pictures I would do. The party, went exactly as I had always hoped. The pictures..... not quite.
Apparently, Oliver is deathly afraid of cake. Or at least touching cake. I know he likes to eat cake because I had him practice with a little tester the day before.
But don't make him touch the cake or sit near the cake.
Here is a little smidgen of how the shoot went:

Oliver is only smiling for about 15 seconds while Jon was jumping up and down trying to get him to stop crying...
He doesn't like cakes. He doesn't like when you try to force him to touch cakes. He doesn't like it at all.

I was so sad I couldn't get any pictures of him with his hands all digging in to his cake and shoveling in his mouth like I had planned. But that's my boy :) Who knows what he will do. I still love him and these pictures will always be priceless for me.

Thank you to everyone that came to help us celebrate this great little boy. He was so spoiled. He is so lucky to have so many great family and friends that love him. :) Thank you.

Our Halloween Stinker

Halloween is SO much more fun with kids. The festivities went on and on!

First up was our Murder Mystery party. Jon was Ernie G. Ambler, a wealthy gambling man, and I was Silky M. Adam, a.... well, a madam apparently and a MURDERER in the end. And Ollie was just adorable. :)

We also had a HalloWING party. A variety of delicious wing recipes to choose from and good friends to share them with. Can't really go wrong there.

But the BEST part of Halloween for me was Ollie's long awaited Skunk costume.

My oh so talented Mom made this. She's amazing and it was THE cutest costume I have ever seen. Ollie was the perfect age to be a little skunk because he is crawling all over the place and so he totally looks the part. Endless entertainment for me watching him roam around.

And this is his best evil skunk face.

I meant to grab my camera and take some good pictures of Ollie in his costume but didn't get a chance yet... maybe later. These snapshots will have to do for now.

Hope your Halloween was fun and safe! Let the Holidays BEGIN!

11 Months

4 teeth later and we are at 11 months.

Last month as a "months" baby. 1 YEAR right around the corner.
I'm having anxiety about this. Lot's of it.
I mean, he's my baby... my BABY boy. He's just a baby... right? RIGHT?!

Breathe Tracy, breathe.

Here is the little stud this month in all his adorable glory. I think he is the cutest thing on planet earth.

He reminds me SO much of his Grandpa Layne in this picture... Same laugh, same smile, I love it. Plus look at those adorable chompers.

Oh I love him. He has such personality. So many expressions, so many funny/cute faces. So much fun. :)

We will have some great Halloween pictures coming soon with his murder mystery outfit and his little stinker costume grama barb is making!
Stay tuned.

Yes please...

Oh how happy it would make me to win THIS amazing giveaway with Crave Photography

10 months

10 months

2 months away from 1 year... yikes.

Little Ollie is doing wonderful. He had a lot of stuff go down over the past month. Cutting his first tooth (way fun). Learning to walk (with assistance) and never wanting us to stop walking with him. Learning to pull himself up, climb stairs, break Mommy's pretty centerpieces on the kitchen table, all that fun stuff!

As scary as it's been to see him learn so much and grow so fast in such a short time, it's also been so stinkin' fun. I love the look he gets in his face when he is doing one of his knew tricks and he just looks at me like "Mom, are you seeing this?? Look what I can do!". It's completely adorable.

Love you Poppy... 2 more months till birthday time!!

A fond farewell...

to summer.

Jon, Ollie and I had such a wonderful, fun summer this year. It felt so carefree. I felt like I had everything in the world. I really could not have been happier. Where as the past few summers prior, though fun, were always missing something very important.
Oliver.

Oh how I loved sharing a fun summer with my husband and my baby boy. Watching Ollie do the fun summer activities that I have always enjoyed so much, brought even more joy and more fun to everything. I loved every minute of it.

There are exactly 105 summer pictures (that is after I narrowed it WAY down) that I have on my computer. I will not force you to look at that many. But here are a few.

Here is Ollie, VERY excited to see grandma and grandpa great.

And some from Lake Powell.

I know it looks like he doesn't like me slobbering all over him but I assure you, he does.

Daddy and Ollie's footprints

Daddy. Aka my hot husband.

Ollie is SO his Daddy's boy. I love that they are both pulling the same half-smile face.

First ride on a jet ski. He was a little unsure but I think enjoyed it in the end because he fell asleep.

Now, for the first 2 days at lake powell, Oliver was SICK as can be. He has never been sick before so this was a very unwelcome surprise at a very inopportune time. He was cutting his first tooth and he had a terrible cold so he was completely miserable for those 2 days. This is what his face looked like all the time. So sad, so tired, so sick. No fun. Even when we tried to take him out to play in the water he just felt so lousy. Totally broke my heart. Luckily he made a full recovery and had fun the rest of the trip.

Big air for Jon

Not so much for me.

What a little stud in his little life jacket. He wasn't a fan.

There was SO much more, but I am way too tired to post it all. So this will have to do.
Thanks for all our friends and family that made this summer totally rock.

Thank you Ollie, for being here, and making this summer so much more fun and for making Mommy and Daddy so happy.

A couple more

Just wanted to throw in a couple more 9 month pics of the babe.

Also a small change to the last post...
This boy now has a tooth.

9 months

It's that time again... time for your monthly Ollie fix.

Month #9
Also known as, 3 more months until I have a 1 YEAR old.
Yikes...

This month, baby boy has started chatting... gaga, nana, baba that kind of stuff. It's adorable.
He's crawling all over the place but in his own special way. He CAN crawl normally, I've seen him do it, but he prefers what looks like the butterfly swim method. It's quite fun to watch.

I feel like Oliver's personality is really starting to show these days. He's always had it, since the day he was born, always been really happy, chill, curious, but I just seem to notice it more and more each day. It's wonderful. He has so many funny quirks and funny faces, and I love that I know them all so well.

Here are some of my favorite Ollie faces...

Deep concentration

Studious...

Frustrated

Deeply concerned, poutty

Happy and happier (my favorite!! And of course he wouldn't pull this face until I let him go in his jumperoo)

Oh how I adore those gummy smiles. Yes gummy. All gums. No teeth. Love it.
Love him.
Don't know what else to say. Just love every minute of him.