Oli and JJ's Birthdays

Soooooo.......my big bog Oliver turned 3 on April 28th, and my baby Jordan turned 1 on May 2nd.
I can't believe it has really been a whole year since we graduated and had JJ a week later! It's been a crazy year with moving to Texas and Tim starting grad school. But its been great, and Oliver has grown up SO much. I wanted to make it a really fun birthday for Oli since now he's old enough to realize so we planned a lot of fun stuff. Tyson, Sara and the cousins came from Dallas to stay with us and we had a birthday party with all of Oli's friends, a Thomas cake, and of course-presents! That's the part Oli loved the most I think!
 Here's some pics from the big day:

Opening presents at home

Sporting his new tools!

Baby JJ is one!

Oli's Thomas birthday cake, it's not perfect but he loved it!

Blowing out his Birthday candles

Cute sack lunches we made for all the kids

Opening more presents, thanks friends!!

The "I want" phase.....

So Oli is in the "I want" phase. These are the things I hear a million times a day: "I want candy" "I want a gogurt" "I wanna watch Thomas" "Mummy, I want waffles" "I want to play trains" "I want a drink" "I want to go playplace"...........it goes on and on and on. Then I realized, I think I'm still in the "I want" phase too. These are the things I say a million times a day (usually in my head): "I want a house" "I want a yard" "I want Tim to be done with school" "I want Tim to have a proper job" "I want to go on holiday" "I want a new car".......the list goes on and on and on. So how do we get out of the I want phase and enjoy living in the now? Something I've yet to learn, but I'll try. I DON'T want to wish away time and miss everything that's happening now!!!

Funnies....

No comment needed......

 JJ and his wonderful hair....

Apparently swinging is hilarious......

When Oli hurt his eye....

The he helped Daddy change a tyre.....

And Mummy got out her wisdom teeth......

I pledged allegiance.......I AM an American!!!!

So now I can proudly say I am a citizen of two countries! Woo hoo!

Us on the day!

Porter, JJ, Makayla, Oli & Lawson

Our Boys.....

Recent events have caused me to realize how much I LOVE my boys and how blessed I am to have them. I have a few close friends who are battling infertility and though I can never understand how hard you struggle, I wanted to say: I'm sorry this is happening, and I love you :)

So here's a tribute to two of the world's cutest little boys:

Oliver

Oli is our big boy, almost 3! He has grown so much in the last few months in so many ways. He has been wearing his big boy underwear for a while and is doing very well about not having too many accidents. He is very aware of other people's emotions, "Mummy is sad," "JJ is laughing" I like his running commentary on life that I now get to listen to all day. I love that I can have a pretty normal conversation with him, although everything usually revolves around trucks or trains in the world of Oli. He loves being outside riding his bike or at the park. I blame most of his naughtiness on being in this small apartment for a lot of the day! He still frustrates us with his eating habits and he can be very stubborn. His favourite things are: Thomas (the tank engine), Toy Story, and of course Mr Crabs. He is terrified of the dinosaur at our local museum and always talks about it. He also has the sweetest little soul and can be very sensitive and loving.

JJ

JJ is our not so little baby boy, who is almost 1! It is crazy how fast he has grown up and how fast he is learning new things. JJ is our amazing eater, seriously that boy will eat anything! I could feed him the entire fridge and he would still have room for more, but I love it! JJ is learning to be a walker, still a bit wobbly. I love JJ's smile, he is usually in a good mood and showing his teeth and cute dimple with that smile! He loves his brother and is usually content to be in a room with Oli just watching him play. He has also learned that he can make Oli very mad by taking apart his train tracks. He is good at napping and sleeps well at night. He LOVES his bottles and dummies. He does not like being strapped in the stroller, it makes him very mad. His favourite games are patty cake and tickle my belly! He is almost 1 but has been in 18 month clothes for a while. I love this chunky boy!!!

Where to begin??

Well! It's been a LONG time. I apologize! Since we got back from England life has been fun, hectic, and fun. There's a few updates from the last three months so I'll go in order!

Christmas in England!!!

Our trip began with two children and a 10 hour flight from Dallas to London. All I can say is WOW. I never ever ever ever want to do that again! Luckily, I had been dreading it for weeks so it turned out to be not nearly as terrible as I'd thought, although it was still pretty terrible. At one point Oli took of his clothes and ran down the isle naked......ya. Here's a cute shot of my boys sleeping at some point during the 10 hours:

After some delays we arrived in London more than a few hours behind schedule. Sadly, lovely Shelley hadn't checked our flight status before she left her flat at 7am and was waiting in the airport for 4 hours!!!  Soooo we finally arrive and where is our stroller? Hmmm nobody knows? And I am MORE than frustrated! We wait an hour....and it comes, thank goodness. There is only room is Shell's car for me and the boys so Tim has Dan's oyster card and a map and is off to brave the London underground. Me, Shell and the boys get to her car, which has a flat tyre! Oh no! But luckily somebody kind helped Shell pump it up, we stop a few more times on the way to Shell's house, which is pretty close to the airport, but traffic is crazy! It seems like it takes forever but we're there! The Jones' place. Cute little one bedroom in the center of London: perfect. Georgie is the perfect dainty little angel, nice to see you in real life and not on skype! By the way.....England is FREEZING!!!!!!! That's all I have to say about that.

A few REALLY fun days in London consist of: FREEZING OUR BUTTS OFF! But seriously, Pizza Express, THE LION KING, hilarious ride on those bike/cart things, shopping, WWII museum (fun for Tim) and lots more London fun.

We spent the rest of our holiday in Loughborough at Mum n Dad's house. This consisted of seeing lots of friends and eating lots of chocolate. Our 4 year wedding anniversary was December 22nd so my Mum kept the boys and we went to Warwick. We did some shopping and visited Shakespeare's house in Stratford.

It was SO cold. We also went to Leamington Spa to visit Tim's old mission flat and we went to see Nigel, one of his favourite friend's from his mission. He remembered Tim, it was so cute!

A few days before Christmas we visited my Dad's parents, Grandma & Grandpa in their rest home. I was really glad to get pictures with them and the boys, its amazing that they have four great grandparents alive.

Couldn't get Oli to smile at all!

JJ is almost as big as Grandpa!

CHRISTMAS DAY!!!!!

Christmas day in my family is the funnest day ever! My Nan & Grandad came over and also Uncle Adam who lives in DC who I haven't seen in a very long time so that was extra special. I'm really glad JJ got to meet everyone especially his great grandparents! They were so cute with him too and wanted to hold him all day.

Oli got the hang of opening presents pretty quickly!

Tim's favourite gift

Nana & Grandad

Great grandparents loved JJ

LOVE!

JJ and his Great Uncle?

Sooooo on Christmas day we were all gathered around like this:

And Mum n Dad announced they are going to be Mission President's for 3 years in......

CRAZINESS!!!

One more thing:

For Georgie's 1st birthday Shell and I made the most amazing cake! It took 4 hours and a lot of dedication but we were so proud of it!

Thank you Mum and Dad for flying us home it was amazing!!!!