Fathers Day

For Fathers Day, we slept in (YAY), lounged around, went to lunch, went to Jared's nursery and then came home. At home, Keith did some yard work (crazy, I know, but he wanted to) and Oliver and I got ready for the new week (we relaxed!).

This is Oliver getting lubed up with sunscreen before heading to the nursery. We got some GREAT plants for the back yard!

Here is Keith and Oliver with Keith's "Championship" rose bush. Well, that's what he calls it. He just discovered it was growing off the corner of the house last year. We didn't even know it existed until last summer! Now, it is "championship". I must say, I don't know that I've seen one grow so tall.

OH... the many Expressions of Oliver!!!

This is Oliver hanging out in the back yard this evening. All of these expressions came across in about 30 seconds. He truly is a happy kid who loves life! How can he not, he lives like a king :)

There is some serious G Brow going on here. That is short for Grandpa Garner eye brow expression. This kid definitely has some Garner in him. Not only does he have G Brow, he is a grumpy gus on an empty stomach.

Boys will be Boys... and make lots of NOISE!!! Keith and Oliver could entertain each other for hours.

Last Lecture

You may or may not have seen the "Last Lecture" by Randy Pausch. I thought I would post it here (on the right panel) to share with everyone if you haven't seen it. It is extremely moving! I was fortunate to see it on Oprah while I was home on maternity leave. It was just a freak chance that it was on and I had the opportunity to see it. I shared it with my team and one of the ladies found his blog. I have posted that web page also and you can see updates as to how his is doing. Not only was the "Last Lecture" moving for me, but for the first time it really made me realize how much responsibility it is to have Oliver and it made me want to be the best parent that I could. I'm not sure that I'll let him paint his walls (like in the lecture) but I want him to look back and say that we were supportive of all of his dreams and that he is the man he is because of his Mom and Dad. I think every parent hopes for this. I know that Keith and I can say that about our parents. My parents may not have let us paint our walls, but they didn't stop us from hanging pancakes from the ceiling, HA! (well... they didn't know it was happening until it was done, but what fun it was!!!) Keith likes to reminisce about throwing his underwear into the ceiling fan to watch them fly. We tried this recently to see if it was as exiting as when he was a kid. I must say, it was quite entertaining and we laughed until our sides hurt. Enjoy!

Just Because, Photo

I just thought Oliver was cute here, so wanted to share.

Yard Project - Update III

Here is some photos of the yard progress from last weekend. Keith got the last two flower beds out and the ground smooth. He said he is letting in settle before we re-plant it. I think he is just taking a break. We are going to see our friends Geoff and Stephanie in Longmont today. Geoff is a horticulturist and we are hoping to get some advice as to what to do in that space. He always has some creative suggestions to plants we've never heard of. He helped Keith with his Loveland house and they did a great job.

The flower beds are out!!! The wood was quite rotten in several places, so it's good that we got it out when we did. Now... what do we do with the wood? Keith bundled it up and we're hoping the trash man will take it away. Otherwise... we may have chiminet fires every night for the rest of the summer!

Keith admiring his hard work. Yes, this is Oliver and Carrie lounging in the grass. Make note... Keith was lying between us until he went to get the camera. He said he wanted to make sure I post these on the blog to show people how much "work" Oliver and I were doing. This just happen to catch Oliver enjoying the shade, and me enjoying the sun. I suppose Keith got his revenge when I ended up with a sunburn.
Note: Keith isn't REALLY raking! He posed this for the photo. You can't really see it in this photo but he has a HUGE grin to show that he actually set this up. He made a point of asking me to post these on the blog. If he knows me well enough he knows that I am going to tell the real story of what was going on here. However, notice how smooth the ground is where the flower beds used to be. We can't wait for it to be done!

Oliver's First Football

Oliver loves to play with balls; baseballs, bouncy balls, squishy balls, Madalyn's balls with bells.... you get the point. Keith stopped at the store yesterday to get him a new ball. He didn't bring home exactly what I had in mind, but obviously it was exactly what Oliver had in mind, he LOVES IT!!! Here are some photos and video of Oliver's first football. Do we have a sports star among us?

SO Cute!

This was just last night and I thought this was too cute not to share. It is hard work to be the most charming ladies man in the class. Not only that, but he's the cool guy, hanging with his buddies. Kind of like Danny in "Grease", he's the cool guy with the T-Birds AND the Pink Ladies! Tires a little guy out. :)

Have Hawaiian shirt, will travel!

Oliver is ready for Hawaii.... too bad we don't go until September. I hope this still fits him by then!

Fun in the Grass

This photo cracks me up. It makes me think, WOW, Oliver is becoming such a big boy!!!

We tease Oliver that he has Grandpa Garner eye brows. Since day 1, he has let us know what he is thinking by the position of his eye brows. I didn't know that newborns could have such strong eye brows until I met Oliver. Can you tell what he's thinking here?

Back Yard re-do, Part II

1 flower bed out, 2 dug out, 2 to tear out.... 1 sore back and 1 major sunburn for poor Keith. This weekend we have high hopes that the last 2 flower beds will be out and we'll be at the nursery shopping for some aspen trees. Overall, Keith is making some great progress, sore back and all. So far, I think Madalyn (the cat) is the happiest about the progress. She rolls around in the dirt and pounces in it like she's a real tigress. Then, she usually pounces (like Pepi Le Pu) across the lawn and attacks the tree trunk. Don't worry, she isn't getting TOO WILD! She still just watches the birds walk past her in the yard. Maybe they have an agreement to co-exist in the backyard that she thinks is heaven.

Hair Cut

Oliver had his first hair cut on Saturday. Well... it was more like a trim. He was growing fuzzy wings over his ears and they were driving me CRAZY! I do like a clean guy, husband OR son. Keith finally agreed that he could take flight at any minute so he was due for a trim. Perhaps I fluffed the wings up a little extra for the photos.

Before

After.... so handsome!

Saturday with Friends to the North

We spent Saturday visiting friends who live North of Denver. First, we went to Shawna and Phil's in Fort Collins. Some of you may remember Shawna who I met in high school while I was in Seattle for a week at the Art Institute, we lived together in Seattle after high school and then a couple of years after her and Phil moved to Denver, I moved here too. They recently moved from Lakewood to Fort Collins so it's not as easy to get together. I sure miss our lunch dates! They recently added a new addition to their family, Ian. When we visited, Ian was 9 weeks old. Abigail is now 2.5 and getting taller by the second. We were all celebrating Ian's arrival and Phi's completion of his Masters degree. He is a fellow graduate of the University of Colorado at Denver, just like myself. Way to go Phil!!!





On our way back south, we stopped to see Nate and Kelly and their daughter Maisie. We hadn't seen them in months. Last time we saw them Maisie was practically brand new and now she is almost 10 months old. A little history on Nate, Nate and Keith are friends from the University of Wyoming. Nate and Keith are SO funny when they get together. I would have never thought grown men could giggle like little girls, but these two do when they get together. It is SO funny! They truly do share the same sense of humor.

Monday - Memorial Day

Monday, Memorial Day we were lounging around the house. It was a rainy day and we didn't have anything on the agenda. Here are a couple of cute photos of Oliver with his bongo drum.

Brian, Stephanie, Lauren and Kaden had left early that morning so that Stephanie could run the 10K Boulder Bolder. They were planning to leave after the race to head back to Sheridan, WY. We got a call at 1 PM that Kaden had an accident and was in the hospital in Boulder with a head injury. We rushed right up to Boulder to see them. Kaden was OK that evening and they all came back to our house to stay one more night. It was nice to have them here and see them another day before they headed home. We were all very glad that Kaden was OK.

This is Lauren, Oliver and Keith playing in the crib in Kaden's room. (Kaden was in the bed)

Kaden being silly with a shirt on his head on Monday night. He went home with a bruise on his head, but it is covered with the shirt in this photo. This was probably the first time all weekend that he stood still for a photo!!

Day at the Zoo

This past weekend Keith's brother Brian, his wife Stephanie and their kids Lauren and Kaden were in town. We took them to the zoo on Saturday and we all had a great time. I think that Oliver and Lauren were more entertained by each other than the animals. I don't know anyone who can make Oliver giggle as much as Lauren. He just loves her to pieces. Here are a couple of photos and a video of Oliver giggling at Lauren.

Laundry Day

The bad part about both Keith and I working so much (besides missing Oliver all day) is that laundry seems to be never ending and it piles up out of nowhere! The best part about laundry is that Oliver isn't mobile yet and he is quite content sitting amongst the sorting piles. I thought these were too cute not to share of Oliver "helping". Notice, he is wearing "Daddy's little helper" on his P.J.'s.

Back Yard Project

We have decided to take out the flower beds in the back yard. They are a nightmare to weed and the wood is starting to fall apart. The unfortunate part is we don't really know what we're in for since the people who owned the house before us put them in. Keith has been anxious to take them out since we moved in. We made a deal that he would take them out if I entertained Oliver for a couple of weekends. Here are some "before" pictures. Hopefully in a few weeks we'll have some "after" pictures. We expect it to take the next couple of months to get the exact plants we want to put in, but hopefully it is done by this fall. We are also planning to put in a water feature of some sort. Keith said since I'm not doing the work it is up to him to design it. This is driving me crazy, of course, since I'm such a planner. BUT... I suppose it's worth the trade off to not have to tear all of this out. However, I will be sure to get my two cents in along the way, especially if I'm at the nursery when he is buying the plants. AH HA!!!

I saw Keith doing this when I was in the kitchen. I thought it was quite ingenious so I took a picture. He says that this is how it used to be done before tractors. Hmm... not so sure about that, but I bought into it. Good thing I married an engineer to impress me with this kind of stuff!!!

There are a total of three flower beds (weeding nightmares) equipped with sprinklers and lights. Hopefully our vision of what will this space will become is as good as we think it will be and we won't miss any of this. (By the way... it is also heaven for neighborhood snakes which I will NOT miss)

Sheridan Visit

Last weekend we took our first trip up to Sheridan, WY with Oliver. It is about a 7 hour drive only taking short stops. It took us 8 hours to get there since we stopped for dinner. On the way home we had a shorter lunch stop and then a much needed stop in the middle of nowhere. Oliver was a champ on the trip up, but was quite upset about being in his car seat for so long on the ride home so we had to take an impromptu stop in Carr, CO. We have no idea what is in Carr since we didn't see anything but fields, but it helped to get Oliver out of the car. He liked watching the trucks drive by on I-25. The visit in Sheridan was very nice and Oliver did very well. He charmed everyone with his contagious smile. We are planning to go up again in July. Hopefully he is a little happier for the drive home. Here are some photos from the trip.

Oliver meeting his cousins Lauren and Kaden with Aunt Stephanie for the first time. He LOVED them!

Lauren showing off her Hannah Montana shades with Uncle Keith

Kaden, Aunt Carrie and Lauren

Mom and Oliver

We escaped for a few hours and played some golf with Keith's Dad. It was extremely windy, but it was a beautiful day and we had a great time.

Nana with Oliver

Oliver peeking at Mom over Dad's shoulder

Oliver peeking at Mom over Dad's shoulder

Oliver with Aunt Stephanie

Oliver with Great Grand Dad Hamilton

Keith playing with Kaden and Lauren

Uncle Keith and Lauren

Getting ready to leave, Oliver with Nana and Papa

You would think that we packed for a week!

Oliver's smile, one of the few we saw on the ride home.

A much needed stop in Carr, CO, just over the WY/CO state border. Oliver was SO glad to be out of the car in Carr.