The almost 3-year-old is moving on! There is no longer a crib in the Smith home. Oliver has graduated to his big boy bed!!! We got him a low loft bed- which does make us a little nervous. But it has a railing, and we put an extra one on (that only really gives us about an inch more height), we put couch cushions on the ground, so we're hoping he'll be ok. I wish I could explain how incredibly excited he is about his new bed! All day long, "I LOVE my new bed!!!" He and Avery played- peacefully- underneath it for a long time!!!
He was very glad when he learned that kitty kat and all of his other stuffed animals could sleep in his big boy bed with him!
Avery wanted to read him his bedtime story!
You can sort of see how tall it us here. I think from the ground to the bottom rail is 28 inches. Sooooo much fun to be had under there! Neither of them knew that it was going to be this tall, so they were pumped! When Avery got home from school, she yelled, "It's like a fort all of the time!!!!!"
All ready for bed!!! He fell right to sleep. Here's hoping he stays in bed and stays asleep until the morning!
In other news, I have turned quite crafty in recent days!!! Oliver's birthday party will be Superman themed- so I had this brilliant idea to give out capes as the party favors. The problem is that I have zero sewing skills and no sewing machine!! BUT, my trusty neighbor has lots of both!!! (really- she has 6 machines!) So she's been teaching me to make these capes. Which is code for I do the things that need straight lines, some cutting, and some ironing. She does all of the hard stuff! But look how amazing they are!!!
Then, I was so inspired (and the machine already had red thread in it- I can't change the thread), I decided to try to make this valance that I've been wanting to do for about... 3 years! Yes, it was just straight lines, but still... I'm proud! This was a curtain- I had to make it wider, make the rod pocket on the top, and hem the bottom. No, its not straight, or even for that matter... but its better than the non-matching thing we had there before!!!!
Well, the time has come! Our little baby girl is going to be gone alllllll day now! She will officially be with her friends and teacher more than with us! YIKES!! But, if this smile is any indication, I think she's ready!
For those of you that have been around the blog for a while, will notice Oliver's marked improvement in his smiling skills! Thank goodness!
The other thing the Smith fam has been spending time doing, is re-doing the backyard. Unfortunately, we are terrible at taking before and after pictures. So here's the best that I've got.
See, we have this rock all the way around our backyard. I guess its good so that you don't have to weed-eat right up against the fence or something... but we're not fans of all of this rock. It makes our already tiny backyard have even less useable space. And, the neverending battle of trying to keep grass and weeds out of the rock... argh! So, we decided to move it all. All of the parts that do have rock, were running low on rock. The plan is to move all of the rock from around the backyard to the side of the house- then grow grass where the rock used to be. We'll see. Here is all of the ugly rock and grass in the rocks.
Here is our first new addition! This corner is right outside the kitchen sink window and was all jacked up from the roots of the trees from the house behind us. So we decided to just go with what was already happening, and turn it into a cute little flower bed. The dirt part on the right is totally done and ready for grass! The left, not so much.
This is where we are putting all of the rock. This area was sooooo overgrown with weeds, grass, and weird plants. We wanted to simplify this area and make it almost completely no maintenence. We took out all of the plants- moved some of them and just got rid of some of them. Took out planters, re-weed barriered it, and have been putting all of the rock there. Ahhh, much better. There may be a skinny little shed over here at some point- which would make winter garage parking soooo much easier! Only one more strip to go!!
And here's a video of Oliver... just because. He's got such a good giggle! Avery's at gymnastics camp this week- just for fun and to get her ready for all day school! Camp goes from 9-5! She's never done anything that long before! Wonder how grumpy she'll be tonight??!!
"HA, HA!!!" funny boy.
Oh Oliver. The other day I told Jeff that if we could just make a tv channel of Oliver playing, there would be a lot less depression in the world. He's just sooo stinkin' funny! This post is going to be overly gushing about the 2-year-old... I've given you fair warning.
So these pics are pretty terrible- they're all blurry and dark. But, again... the cuteness- it shines through the bluriness!!
So, Oliver really wanted to help make dinner. He was the best little asparagus cutter ever! He kept saying with every fiber of his little body, "I'm sooo good. I'm really good at cutting. Then they go in the line. I'm sooooooooo goood!!!" The passion with which he praises himself is impressive!
Then, there's the game Memory. Soooooo joyful!!! He just loves it, never gets tired of it, and is sooo happy when he gets a match!!!!!
These are just some bonus shots for those of you not on facebook. I had recently posted about hitting the 50 lb mark of weight loss!!! Everyone wanted to see pics, so here is Jeff (at 40 lbs lost) and I on our 10th anniversary!!!
Wow, April 24, huh?? That was the last time I blogged? Yikes. Well, I'm going to attempt to catch you all up on what's been happening in the last 2 months.
We potty-trained Oliver! Phew! What a relief! He still wears diapers for snoozin', but he is a total pro otherwise! He got lots of treats, toys, stickers, and tattoos during the whole process. I was trying to get a pic of him with his favorite Superman, but this is what I got instead. The kids trying to pretend to be mad.
Up next, the end of Avery's first year of elementary school! Yay! She graduated kindergarten with flying colors and is totally ready for first grade! We find out her teacher this week- I hope its a good one! 
(oh yeah- and Jeff and I are kickin' some serious butt on our formerly chubby selves! Since the end of January he's lost about 40 lbs. and I'm only 2 lbs away from 50!!!! I think Jeff looks super skinny in this family shot!!)
After school ended- or really- the day school ended, Avery had her 1st baseball game of the summer. I'm the coach of the Black Bats and we are doing totally awesome! (sort of) Our defense has come really far and we're making some good progress in all areas!
Then the day after our 1st game, we took off on a road trip for Oklahoma to visit the Bouse House and meet our new nephew, Graham! Grandpa and Grandma Smith were there too, so it was fun to hang with the grandparents!
Our last two visits to the house of Bouse have involved Oliver playing with Jack's SuperWhy! toys! About 1.8 seconds after entering their house, he finds these and monopolizes them the entire visit! He really turns into quite the super hero- I think its the cape.
Well, Grandpa and Grandma thought this was pretty great and got him his own set of the toys!
He then wore his mask and cape ev.er.y.where.!!! Even to Old Navy where he was endlessly mocked by a 3-year-old girl. 
Ok, what else... Avery did a sports camp at a local church. She did the cheerleading track with her buddy. She is the one in pink shorts and a white hat. Sort of behind the coach. This is her final show at the end of camp.
So we're pretty current now. It is officially summer and we've hit the 90's here in Parker, so we broke out the sweet pool! The kids have been swimming like crazy!
He was very glad when he learned that kitty kat and all of his other stuffed animals could sleep in his big boy bed with him!
You can sort of see how tall it us here. I think from the ground to the bottom rail is 28 inches. Sooooo much fun to be had under there! Neither of them knew that it was going to be this tall, so they were pumped! When Avery got home from school, she yelled, "It's like a fort all of the time!!!!!"
In other news, I have turned quite crafty in recent days!!! Oliver's birthday party will be Superman themed- so I had this brilliant idea to give out capes as the party favors. The problem is that I have zero sewing skills and no sewing machine!! BUT, my trusty neighbor has lots of both!!! (really- she has 6 machines!) So she's been teaching me to make these capes. Which is code for I do the things that need straight lines, some cutting, and some ironing. She does all of the hard stuff! But look how amazing they are!!!
Then, I was so inspired (and the machine already had red thread in it- I can't change the thread), I decided to try to make this valance that I've been wanting to do for about... 3 years! Yes, it was just straight lines, but still... I'm proud! This was a curtain- I had to make it wider, make the rod pocket on the top, and hem the bottom. No, its not straight, or even for that matter... but its better than the non-matching thing we had there before!!!!
