Olivers First Halloween

Apparently our town Queen Creek sponsors a Trunk or Treat. I say apparently because even though we planned to go with our neighbors Ana, Luca and Mauricio we did not actually make it. Oliver was too tired! Roberto works late so I was going to go with the neighbors who have a two year old, well at about 6:45 as we were piling into our cars Oliver started falling apart at the seams. So I decided not to force him to go do something he wouldn't remember or care about. Not to mention the fact that I'd probably end up lugging around my 30 pound one year old in my arms all night! :) So, off to bed Oliver went and I'm here posting the few pictures I was able to take of Oliver and Mauricio before they left! Oliver has also decided that he doesn't like pictures right now so I don't have very many good pictures in fact I think I might have one where he's actually looking at the camera... grrr... oh well! Enjoy my little dalmation puppy and his friend Elmo! :)

Ode to the Letter Factory

So my good friend Carol Ann told me about this amazing DVD called the letter factory, and my friend Heather happened to buy it for Oliver. For those of you who don't know what the letter factory is, it is this amazingly wonderful little movie that teaches kids the alphabet and one sound that each letter makes. It's geared toward ages 2-5 but when we were getting packed I was desperate to distract Oliver in any way I could. Well, Oliver will sit down (something he doesn't do often since he walks now) and he will watch the entire thing. He also frequently repeats the sounds of some of the letters. I LOVE the letter factory! It is awesome and I'm so proud of my little one for already picking up on the sounds of the letters!!!

2 Wonderful Years

Today Berto and I are celebrating our 2nd anniversary! Time truly does fly by. I know two years seems insignificant to those of you that have been married ions more BUT to us it means so much! I feel truly blessed to have such a loving, honest, hardworking man who is working hard to support our family and prepare for our future! I feel blessed today! I love my honey and am so grateful that he gave me our little Oliver who brings joy to me each and every day!

We're not doing much to celebrate. Today is Berto's first day at Verizon. I woke up to flowers and a beautiful card. When he gets home we're eating some yummy dinner (Pasole) and then I'm going to try a new bread pudding recipe! (Bread Pudding is one of his favorites).

What a blessing he has been in my life. I don't know how I could have made it through the tough times my family has had over the past year and a half without him. He is my rock and my anchor!

I love you Roberto!

We've moved

Well Saturday was our big move. Berto and our Elder's Quorum loaded up our Uhaul and Berto was off to Arizona. Oliver and I stayed behind for a few hours and at about 6:30 pm we hopped in the car with my mom and set out on our journey.

Berto's drive was smooth. He got in around 7:00 pm and they unloaded the truck in about an hour. My mom and I had a bumpy ride. We planned to leave later so that Oliver would sleep... well he did sleep in between a lot of crying. Three stops and six hours later we arrived at about 12:30 am.

Thankfully we are safe and sound, getting settled in and enjoying the time while my mom is here with us!

We'll be updating the blog frequently! Hope you are all well! We miss California already!

Roberto, Elizabeth & Oliver

My HILARIOUS Son

So Oliver is developing such a funny personality! (Like father like son I guess). Anyway, the past couple of days we've been singing "If you're happy and you know it" to him. This is one we sing frequently. Usually we repeat only the clap your hands verse because he can clap and knows how to do it on cue. Well yesterday he was having a fit in his high chair so we decided to change it up a bit and started singing the shout hooray part of the song. Well Oliver decided he liked that and when we would say hooray he would throw both arms up in the air and shout "YAY!!" It was so cute. I'm going to have to put it on video and get it up here.

Also, he is so random. There are certain things on T.V. that make him stop in his tracks no matter what he's doing. One of those things (I've posted about this before) is Billy Mays from the Oxy Clean commercials. The other is the Hillshire Farms "GO MEAT" commercial. I don't know why he likes it but he will stop anything he's doing and stare at the T.V. then when they yell "Go Meat" he throws an arm up in the air as if he's saying 'YEAH' to them! It's so funny!

And even when I was searching youtube for this clip he stopped what he was doing (crying to be exact) and turned to the t.v. The funny thing is the commercial happened to be on the t.v. at the same time it was on the computer!

Pumpkin Patch TIme

So I love the Pumpkin Patch and I have been dying to take Oliver to one. I couldn't wait to see how he reacted and how cute the pictures would be! So we took him a few days ago to the pumpkin patch, we took him to one with a petting zoo to double the fun. I personally am not a huge fan of goats and horses eating out of my hand but wanted to create the experience for Oliver (yes I do know he's not quite one yet) so I let them eat out of my hand (kinda gross if you ask me). Oliver wasn't too sure about the goats which is so funny to me because he is an animal LOVER. Here are a couple of fun pictures to document our day!

Our Big News

No we're not pregnant! :) Actually Roberto accepted a job in the Phoenix area! So... we're packing our bags and moving in three short weeks! Look out Arizona here we come! We are excited and nervous and looking forward to the next chapter in our book of life. We hope this will be a great move for our future! We will miss all of our loved ones that are staying behind here in California but we know this is the right move for our future!

We love you all and appreciate your love and support so much!

Roberto, Elizabeth and Oliver

Our trip to Tito and Tita's House

Oliver in a tunnel at the mall's indoor playground
Oliver and Vandana Playing with Bubbles
Berto playing with Oliver and Vandana at the splash park in Gilbert.
Berto and Vandana at the Gilbert Splash Park
Oliver, Vandana and me at Vandana's little birthday party!

We spent last week in Arizona visiting Berto's parents (tito and tita). We had a nice visit. My sister in law Terry and her daughter Vandana were in from Spain (where they live) it was a fun week! Vandana is two and is so fun! We had a blast. Oliver loved being able to chase his big (er I mean older) cousin around! We went to JC Penney's and had their pictures taken, went to a splash park and just bummed around for a week. We had a great time!

CHOC Walk '08

Dear Loved Ones,

We are participating in the 17th Annual CHOC/Disneyland_® Resort Walk in the Park, and we need your help. As walkers, we're trying to raise as much money as we can to help the children of CHOC. Children's Hospital of Orange County (CHOC) is a very special place where any child can receive the medical attention they need, regardless of their ability to pay. Last year, the CHOC Walk raised over $1 Million to help pay for this medical care and this year our goal is to raise even more! This is a unique opportunity to make a difference in the lives of the 150,000 children who visit CHOC each year. Any support you can offer is greatly appreciated.

This is our first year participating and we hope to make this a family tradition. Elizabeth saw through a family she knows the excellent care given to these amazing children. We hope to be able to make a difference! Every little bit helps!

Click Here to Sponsor Elizabeth

Click Here to Sponsor Roberto

Click Here to Join our Team Kids In Motion and participate with us!

Visit wrdinc.net to learn more about our team!

Thank you for your support,

Roberto, Elizabeth and Oliver

Uncle Donnie

My brother paid us a quick visit over the weekend. Donnie lives in Provo, UT , we haven't seen him since March so it was a nice little visit. Oliver wasn't sure of him at first... but then again Oliver isn't sure of anyone at first except his mommy! :) In the end they were good buddies when Donnie left!

Oliver's New Toy

Don't ask me why... but Oliver's favorite thing to do right now is push around the recycle bin full of water bottles.... it's quite funny to watch!

Fun with Daddy

This is Oliver having fun with daddy... and looking at a dog book. His favorite thing!

Labor Day

We had a fun labor day. We spent it with friends! We swam and ate and played with three of the cutest dogs! Oliver's favorite was Jake, a boxer. He LOVED him. Jake was so good with him. He would run past him and up to him and lick Oliver in the face! Oliver just laughed and laughed. Oliver LOVES dogs so he was in Heaven!!

So Much Fun

We've had a fun few days. My oldest friend in the world Rebecca came into town from Utah last week with her little one Cameron. We went to meet Cameron on Thursday and visit with them. Oliver LOVES Cameron. He's so cute. He smiles and laughs at him and tries to touch him it's so adorable!

On Friday we headed down to Anaheim. Our friends were running in a 5k at Disneyland and we went to babysit their daughter during the race. They treated us to a night out and everything. We had fun.

The pictures are of Oliver and Cameron, and us outside the Disneyland Hotel Convention Center.

Day at the park

Today we decided to go to our favorite little park for a picnic. It was actually a VERY nice day! It was about 90 degrees which seems like it would be hot but there was a cool breeze blowing. Oliver and Berto went and played in the water feature for a little while and we just lounged on our picnic blanket and relaxed! Oliver decided to attack the Dorrito bag.... not the dorritos just the bag! Kids... And we actually took a picture of all three of us... and even a picture of just Berto and me.. we realized we hadn't done that in a long time... 9 months maybe?! Anyway, it was a nice relazing Saturday! Tonight we're going to our friends Randy and Rachel for dinner! Yay!

Homemade Baby Food

So a while ago I decided to start trying to make baby food myself. I've discovered that it's not as hard as it sounds AND it really is CHEAPER!! Here are pictures from this morning. I made squash and sweet potatoes. Oliver is eating a lot more lumpy foods and foods he has to chew but these are a staple he LOVES them!

The ice cube trays make freezing so easy. I freeze the food into cubes and then once frozen pop them out and store in freezer bags. Each cube is one ounce so it's easy to figure out portion sizes!

Oliver's First Haircut...

This post is probably only going to be interesting to grandparents that live far away, but Oliver got his first haircut last Saturday! We cut off the little locks of curls. I was very sad but his hair was just looking too scraggly so I bit the bullet and we took him to get it cut. It's very cute but he looks like a little boy now and not a baby. Here is a little video of his first haircut experience. He did really well. No tears! He was VERY curious. Thanks Kim for doing such a great job... and for being willing to let Berto record you... he was a little obsessive with the video camera last weekend! :)

9 Month Statistics

Oliver had his 9 month check up this week. He is continuing to be a healthy boy! The doctor was VERY impressed that he's walking already. Here are his stats:

Weight: 28 lbs 5 ounce - Above the 95th Percentile
Height: 30 Inches - In the 90th Percentile
Head Circumference: 46 1\2 Inches - Above the 95th Percentile

He just continues to be a big boy!

And it's finally happened... he's WALKING....

My little (okay well he's not so little) 9 month old is WALKING... look out world! He is too cute when he does it though! Please enjoy the clip!

All the words I say....A photo show of all of my words!

MAMA
DADA and PAPA
UH-OH WHICH HE SAYS EVERY TIME HE THROWS DOWN A WATER BOTTLE!
ABBY. ABBY IS OUR DOGS NAME. HE PRONOUNCES IT ABBA. HE THINKS ALL DOGS ARE CALLED ABBA. WHEN HE SEES ANOTHER DOG HE SAYS ABBA AND WAVES AT THEM. IT'S SO CUTE!
BYE, WITH A LITTLE WAVE!

Oliver is getting quite the little vocabulary. He says six words already. We of course think he's just so smart! This is such a fun stage. I'm loving every minute of it!