J-E-L-L-O

While we were in FL Oliver turned 7 months. Here are his little 7 month pics

 Since being home he LOVES balls. He probably plays with these two balls for about 3 hours each day. That is a ton considering he is only awake for like 9 hours each day. This was a new little outfit and I thought he looked so cute, so I just snapped a few good ones. He is sitting up so well now too.

 I was looking on Pinterest one day and one of the posts was about sensory activities for babies. This wasn't one of the ideas, but I thought that Oliver would enjoy playing with Jello, and if he ate it he would be okay. He did taste it, but he didn't like it. Instead he got all green, especially around the diaper area.

He is also very smart spoon wise as well. When you hand him the spoon, he turns it and puts it in his mouth the correct way. He loves his little spoons.

Bow Ties

Today after church we took a couple non-traditional family pictures:








Here is Oliver and Eric trying to outdo each other with their cute bow ties. Oliver's is from a cousin on the Thompson side, Sarah Brunson.



And here is a bonus video of Oliver getting tickled by his dad. Hopefully he doesn't become as ticklish as Eric, but it looks like he's already halfway there. Eric curls into a ball the size of a marshmallow when anyone tries to tickle him.

In other news, we signed a contract for our last place in Provo. We will move next week and after the summer we will go north for a while until Eric figures things out with grad school. Peace out!

Last Few Days in FL

We just got back from our trip to FL. UT looks very different. No more tulips and everything is so green. The trees are all covered with leaves and my ceiling in my apartment seems shorter. We are happy to be home and be with Eric again. We missed him so much.

A few days before we left we went and visited Gosia, my favorite person left in G'ville and my old flute teacher. We got the added bonus of also seeing Natalia and her kids and Ali. Gosia really hit it off with Oliver.

On Mother's Day I got to be with the oldest and youngest mother (and grandchildren) in the family and my dad surprised all three of us with balloons, flowers, and chocolates.
 
 We finished the final touches of the fence by putting up the top board on my last day there. That day Oliver truly rocked the fohawk.

We've been getting a lot of tongue action from this kid lately.

Oliver rode horses for the first time and he loved it. I thought he might be scared after what happened when we moved them, but he must have forgotten. He loved their mane the most. He fit great on Choco. His size of horse.

Black Velvet was nice too.

But he looked so tiny on Monty. We couldn't catch Gideon the Donkey, otherwise he would have ridden him too.

Oliver also drove the car for the first time, but only about 100 feet.

This was at the airport when our flight home got delayed an hour. I was pretty bummed to think that he could have been doing this on the plane if we had left on time.  He was perfect on the plane ride though so it didn't matter.

I thought his feet looked so cute so I needed a close-up.

And once we got home we played a good game of catch. I think he'll like balls.

Sukiyaki

The one food that I requested on my trip here to FL (although I did hope for many others) was Suikiyaki. After Dad went to Japan for a 10 day visit, he came home with many delicious recipes and Sukiyaki quickly became a family favorite. Since I haven't had it for probably 6 years or so, I thought that as Dad made it I would document it so that I can reproduce it on my own while I am not visiting.

The great thing about this recipe is that it uses veggies, veggies, and more veggies. Perfect for when Mike has so many veggies from the garden and we don't know what to do with them. So here are my rough instructions with a few pictures to go along.

Oh, and please eat this with chopsticks. You really can't get the whole experience my using a fork.

Use any and all veggies- but a few great ones are below. You can mix and match and use just the veggies you want and love. Slice all veggies in strips.

Ingredients

Yellow squash

Zucchini

Carrots

Bamboo

Water chestnuts

Green beans

Sweet potato

Mushrooms

Swiss chard

Bok choy

Tofu- cut into squares

Chicken or beef (sliced)

Miso soup paste

pickled Ginger (the pink stuff) sliced thin (about 1/8 cup- change amount to your liking though)

So, the way this works is that you cut up what you want and however much you want. You use a skillet so that it can cook on your table (because you will be eating out of the skillet and you can cook more as you eat if you want). You start by adding a little water and then cooking your meat in the water (as if you were getting Mongolian BBQ). Once the meat is cooked, add the ginger to the skillet. Add water to the miso soup paste to thin it down and pour it into the skillet. Push the meat to a corner and then add each vegetable and the tofu into it's own little section. Once all the veggies are in, cover and let simmer about 10 minutes or until the veggies are crunchy soft (the skillet should be about 1/3 full of miso soup liquid once all the veggies are in).

 
 
 
 
Then comes the fun part. Sit around the table and with your chopsticks take out whatever you want from the skillet and put it on your plate. Japanese people like to dip, so put out a few dipping sauces too (sweet and sour, teriyaki, soy sauce, mustard, etc.) and dip away. It is so much fun so eat and chat. And as I mentioned earlier, if you have a large group, cut extra veggies and as they get eaten out of the skillet add more. They will cook while you eat the other veggies and meats. The tofu is always one of my favorites so don't forget it. It tastes great prepared this way!

Here is the master behind it all.
 

 And we made a little bit of sushi too.

What Oliver Thinks of Horses

Well today Oliver made his first trip to my hometown of Gainesville. We went to go pick up the horses. Bubby and Troy and Hailey and Hunter came with their horse trailer to take the three big horses and then mom wanted to take choco in the van. Oliver was a good boy as usual and slept the whole way over. (except for the moments he and I were playing)

 Once we got there the horses and donkey loaded really well. Soon we were loading back into the cars to come home. Oliver was all buckled in and the car started to roll. Then about 30 seconds in Choco stuck her head over the seat right into Oliver's face (her head is the size of Oliver) and neighed. Poor Oliver. It really scared him to death. He just got bright red in the face and started screaming. You know he was scared because I can only think of one other time in his life that he has cried like that (he is great and never really cries). We tried to calm him, but he would not be calmed. We took him out for a bit, but the horsey kept neighing and freaking him out more. When we would put him near the car or his seat he would wail again. We decided he should ride in the truck instead and he finally calmed down once we were in there. Poor baby.

We got the horses safe and sound over to the land.

Afterwards we went to Steak and Shake where Oliver entertained us.

We have tried to Skype with Eric a lot while we have been here. It is for sure that Oliver has not forgotten him. He laughs so hard every time he sees him.

Also, here is a cute sleeping baby.