Oliver is 9 Months!

I can't believe our little man is already 9 months old. He thinks he's a lot older than that, though. He doesn't want me to kiss him or snuggle him, he only wants to stand by himself, he wants to walk (with me holding his hands) and not be carried, and he prefers to feed himself as much as he can. haha. What a little cutie. He also loves to roll all around the house. If he sees something across the room he'll roll over to get it. It's really entertaining. haha. Also, he isn't shy about staring people right in the eyes and holding their gaze for a very long time. He could beat anyone in a staring contest! 

Every day he looks more like a little boy and less like a baby which makes me sad in some ways because I'll miss my sweet, angelic little newborn. But, in other ways I can't wait for him to keep growing. I can't wait to explore the woods with him, help him find bird nests, catch bugs, play in the mud and all that good stuff that comes with being a little boy. 

I've been super lucky with this kid. He still sleeps all night long (every night since he was like 2 months old), he takes 2 really long naps every day, he isn't picky... he'll eat just about anything even what we eat for dinner (Austin fed him hummus and beef schwarma the other day and he loved it!), and he hardly whines or fusses. If he does whine I just take him outside for some fresh air and he's cured. Being outside fixes everything for him. If it's been a hard day all I have to do is take him on a nice long walk, go feed the ducks, or sit next to the lake or river and he's the happiest kid alive. I love that about him.

Anyway, I'm happy. I'm happy to be his Mama. I'm SO happy that I am blessed to take care of such a cool and handsome little guy. And, I'm happy that he is happy. That's all that really matters to me now.

Goodbye, Pup.

My heart feels very heavy today. We lost a very important member of our family on Easter sunday, March 31st, 2013. Our sweet little Juneau was hit by a car and passed away a few minutes later. She was only 1 1/2 years old. It was a huge shock to me and Austin and we are both really sad and upset about it. There is a giant hole in our home right now where she used to be. We already miss her so much.

A little bit of history on Juneau:

Austin bought Juneau for me for Christmas in 2011 right after we found out we were expecting Oliver. We wanted to get a puppy before Ollie was born so we could train her and get her ready for the baby. We picked her up when she was 8 weeks old and brought her to our home in Provo, Utah. She was the most fun and sweet little thing. She loved to snuggle but also loved hiking mountains and camping with us. She was the perfect dog for our little family.

We moved to Montana when she was about 6 months old. She loved it there too. When Oliver was born she was amazing! She was gentle and loving to him and treated him like a fragile little puppy. She never chewed his toys or clothes. We couldn't have asked for a better dog.

Then, we moved to Michigan. Life got a little harder because there weren't any mountains to climb or huge, open spaces to let her run in. But, there were a lot of parks (granted, she had to be leashed) and lakes to swim in. She loved chasing ducks and geese in the water! We took frequent trips out of town to find places for her to run and play without having to be leashed. It was so fun to go out as a family like that and to watch her in her element.

As Ollie grew she was always right there next to him (literally always). She sat next to his high chair while he ate in hopes of catching anything that might fall. She sat next to the tub while I bathed him and tried to drink the bath water or lick the drops of water off his skin (which we didn't let her do). She sat by his bedroom door while he napped just waiting and hoping he would wake up soon. Sometimes she would even whine and make noise to try and wake him up early.

They were seriously best buds! Two pals that were meant to grow up together. We were so happy with her and grateful we had her in our little family. I couldn't wait to see the day when they would run outside and explore together. It breaks my heart to not only lose her but also to know that Ollie won't even remember her and how close they were.

Some of Juneau's nicknames:
June
June bug
June woman
June pup
June dog
J.D. (short for June dog)
J
Crazy J
pupster
'lil pup

She loved being in our laps as a puppy. Even when she was full grown she thought she could still fit.

My Christmas puppy. I never knew I could love a dog this much!

Snowshoeing with her. She LOVED hiking and exploring in the mountains with us.

She loved Jim's (my father in law's) beehives. Even after being stung over and over she still went back to try and catch them. One time her entire face swelled up because she was stung so many times. haha!

A beautiful view in Montana. We lived there between Utah and Michigan.

While in Montana we had her trained for bird hunting. She had the most beautiful point when she found a bird. The instructor loved Juneau. He said that she was a world class bird dog and he wished we would put her in competitions.

Juneau was in love with Ollie

Her favorite spot in the house was by this heater.

I always caught her trying to lay on top of Oliver. haha.

She liked to lay on anything that belonged to us. Our blankets, clothing, etc. because they smelled like us.

She always sat right here and watched me put on my make up and get ready for the day.

She loved being snuggled and held like a baby. 

I could always find her sitting right next to Ollie. She never once tried to chew his toys.

Sometimes Ollie would get mad if she put too much weight on him. He would cry out for help and I'd find them like this. haha.

We'll never forget our crazy J. She loved us with all her heart. And, we loved her more than I can put into words. I'm so sad to say "goodbye" to her. She was way too young and had so much life ahead of her. But, we'll always have the memories of all our fun adventures together. We love you, J.

Easter Sunday

Easter Sunday was a bitter-sweet day for us. It started off great. We had a wonderful morning at church where we learned more about Jesus Christ's atoning sacrifice and felt the spirit so strongly. I love this church. If you don't know what church I'm referring to click HERE. We went home and quickly took some family Easter pics before everyone started getting tired and changing into comfy clothes. I'm so glad we took those pics. 

Scratching Juneau's face. She loved having her nose and chin scratched!

Our little family!

I'm so grateful that I get to be with these two forever! I love my boys.

Oliver Harold

The Easter bunny brought him a book and a rubber ducky!

What a sweetheart. 

Then I started making a big Easter meal: leg of lamb, roasted golden and red beets, homemade sourdough bread, wild rice, etc. Our good friend, Samantha (Austin's office mate and friend from school), was going to come over and have dinner with us.

While I was cooking Austin decided to take Oliver and Juneau out on a walk. It was a gorgeous day! On the way back from the walk a squirrel ran right in front of them and Juneau took off after it. Juneau is extremely obedient and very well trained. We've never had a problem in the past with her taking off very far or going near roads. But, today she chased that squirrel right into a busy street and was hit by a car. Austin ran home to drop Ollie off and went immediately back to the street where she was laying. She lived for a few minutes all the while having seizures. Austin was frantically calling every animal hospital he could think of trying to see if any were open when she passed away. 

I'm sure you can imagine how the rest of the day went. And, honestly, I don't feel like writing about it right now. All I can say is that I already miss her so much.

Oliver is 8 months!

Our little man is already 8 months old! I can't believe how huge he is. He already has 6 teeth (2 on bottom and 4 on top), he can eat almost anything but he especially loves fresh fruit, he is obsessed with reading books, and he rolls all over the house. He is SO close to crawling but he is so heavy that he can't stay in crawling position for very long. He is 26 whopping pounds and he wears 18-24 month clothing!!! I love my big boy. 

Everywhere we go people are commenting on his huge cheeks, his dazzling smile and his big blue eyes. I'm pretty proud if you can't already tell. :) I also love that he looks so much like his Grandpa Boles. He has the exact same eyebrows and big dimple on his left cheek. Anyway, besides marrying Austin, he is the best thing that's ever happened to me. Austin and I are so happy!

Lake Huron Trip

Austin became friends with a visiting student named Dawen who was here at U of M to use some of the machinery to process his rock samples. Dawen was about to head home to China without fulfilling his life-long dream of seeing the great lakes of Michigan. haha! Seriously, though. We asked him where he wanted to go out of all the places in America and he said the great lakes. So, despite the terrible weather, we all drove to Lake Huron and spent the day playing on the frozen beach. We built a fire and had a picnic lunch that I packed. It was super fun. I'm glad we braved the storm and decided to go. Dawen was so happy and grateful, too. He was frolicking along the beach and trying to contain his excitement! It was hilarious!

Austin and Dawen

Juneau didn't care about the cold. She was in heaven running along the beaches and eating chunks of ice!

Spring Break!!!

I feel like this picture sort of sums up the week for our little family. Smiles, silliness, lots of love, and way too much fun! We thought about going to Chicago for a few days but Austin wanted to use part of the week to get some work done on campus (I thought spring break was supposed to be a break... haha. But, he was excited to have an empty lab and an un-used x-ray machine so he could process a ton of his samples.) So, we decided to stick around the area and fill the few days we had with as much fun as possible.     

After a few wild games of laser tagging with some friends

Laser tagging was a blast! We were invited by one of Austin's mission friends and his wife, Josh and Whitney Krogue. They also live here in Ann Arbor and we love doing stuff with them! Unfortunately, they live in the other ward so we don't get to see them as often as we'd like to. There were also a ton of other couples from their ward playing as well and it was fun to meet all of them. 

      

                                                                                                    

 Ollie is getting more and more fun everyday. He gabs and chats all day long and laughs easily. It's really fun to tease him and play games with him too. He finally understands humor and knows when we're just messing around with him.

Having fun at home with Daddy!

Anyone who knows Austin and I knows how much we love hiking. There aren't any big mountains or even many hills to climb out here but there are lots of forests to explore. We love getting away from people, cars, noise, etc. and breathing fresh, crisp air. We went exploring twice this week and loved every minute of it. We packed a few lunches, Ollie's snow suit, baby carrier, and our dog Juneau, of course, and then we just walk and walk and walk until we get our fill. :)

We have to squeeze Ollie into his snow suit and his baby carrier. haha. We're hoping to get a nicer carrier soon.

Friday was the most sunny and beautiful day we've had here in months! So, we packed a few lunches, bundled up Oliver and headed to the Detroit Zoo for the day. It was the perfect day for the zoo! All the animals were really active and charismatic and the sun was shining beautifully all day long! We had SO much fun! It was Ollie's 1st time to the zoo (3rd if you count the 2 times while I was pregnant). I absolutely LOVE animals! We bought a year pass so that we can frequent this amazing place. :)

The Grizzly Bear triplets put on a major show for us... wrestling, fighting, playing! haha!

Ollie LOVED the Reptile House! What a boy....

Standing outside the Polar Bear enclosure.

I loved these two crocodiles that were snuggling in the corner together. Austin said that crocodiles don't snuggle. But, I'm positive that they were. :)

Then, to finish off the week strong we met up with our good friends, Dave and Bekah, for dinner at a Somalian Restaurant. Delicious cultural food and REALLY good conversationalists made this a perfect end to a really great week!

Detroit Dog Show

On Saturday we randomly decided to head to Detroit for a day to hang out at the Detroit Dog Show. On our way part of I-94 was closed and the detour led us through a seriously sketchy area in West Detroit... I took a few pictures with my phone as we were driving through the abandoned and run down streets. The economy hit Detroit pretty hard. 5 years ago the city had a population of 1.5 million people and today over half have moved away leaving it's population at around 750,000 people. We passed by huge buildings that are completely empty and abandoned, desolate neighborhoods, streets with every single business empty and displaying a "for lease" sign on it's window. It was depressing. I couldn't believe how much was left isolated and unkempt.  But, as we got into the heart of the city things lit up a bit with people everywhere, unique bridges and brick streets... it was very cool!

Abandoned building... every window is broken except 2 in the center on the very top floor. 

Completely desolate and abandoned streets everywhere we looked.

In the heart of the city

Detroit!


So, we finally made it to the dog show after the crazy detour. As soon as we walked through the doors to the center I knew we made a good choice in going there. Every breed imaginable was represented in different competitions and presentations. It was seriously cool! Every 20 minutes there was some kind of event. We saw sheep herding demonstrations, terrier races, gun dog demonstrations, agility courses, etc. and of course we saw some of the dogs taking their turns being shown and judged in hopes of being "best in breed", then "best in group", and then "best in show". It was a really cool day. Oliver LOVED seeing all the dogs and the dogs were pretty excited about him as well!

Blood hound

This was one of my favorite breeds there. This is a Rhodesian Ridgeback. They were originally bred to hunt lions so they are super strong but very sweet, family dogs. If we get another dog someday we'll consider this kind.