My Absenteeism

Just a quick excuse for not posting lately (especially when I have Santa pictures waiting to go up!)... our computer network, meaning my parents computer network which we frequently connect to, has recently experienced a plague of sorts. Not a single computer (even the computer in the new TV) has been able to avoid it. Something horrible that I don't know enough about to expound on has taken over the computers and virtually killed ours. Please say a prayer that we will be able to at least recover the bits of Nathan's book that are not yet backed up! (yeah that's the worst part, but at least we have most of it backed up) And hopefully we'll be able to get our pictures too... But for now I guess I'm on a forced Christmas break from even blogging. Our Christmas photos may just have to wait until the new year.

If I don't make it back on in the next week or so... MERRY CHRISTMAS to all! And may your computers stay healthy! :)

Thanksgiving

We got to spend a few days before Thanksgiving with my brother Ryan and his wife Ashly. Ryan had fun taking pictures of Oliver. Believe it or not this is just a small sampling...

the changing seasons

blogging in my opinion is the gateway drug of the online community.

i now have a facebook profile and my own blog.

nutbop.blogspot.com

and yet in all this renewal of friendships and reconstruction of toppled bridges, i still cant get anyone to play wii online with me. im starting to believe jr high actually was a very good time in my life...basements everywhere were filled with people practicing up to then lose to me at bond. here's to you 007 in all your 64 bit spledour. i pine your glory days...

Deathready list #3 play a major role in the development of a sucessful video game

Halloween MUST come before Thanksgiving

And it's getting close! (I must say I'm excited for Thanksgiving!)

Anyway, I am finally getting Oliver's Halloween pics up. Hooray! It took me forever to get them edited, but I just decided that I must get them up before Thanksgiving. So here they are. I know I need to learn how to do the whole slideshow thing... yeah, yeah, yeah... but until then, here's my monster:

Good Times ------make sure you read the post under this-------

i HATE non-fortune fortune cookies! you know the ones that say crap like friends are valuable assets, or live with a smile, or some other fluffy bit of crap advice. i mean they are called fortune cookies not friggin cute quote cookies. if i wanted sayings like that id eat dove chocolates. no offense dove, but thats what i expect out of you that and good not-so-american-tasting chocolate.

speaking of my book i recently submitted the first three chapter a cover letter and an outline of the rest of it to my first publisher the other week. woot! so cross your fingers and hold your thumbs. i know i am. im wishing on every star satellite or helicopter i see at night. and all my eyelashes too..

how is that speaking of my book you asked, well i got a fortune cracker what said, "Remember three months from this date. Good things are in store for you." Now thats a fortuune! anyway it is about the time i hope to receive word from publishers about my book. like i said fingers and crosses.

So, lately weve been reading lotsa' book of mormon, well listening anyhow. We hardly ever found time/remembered/whatever to read so we've been listening to it on cd while we play Dr. Mario and Tetris. (a week or so ago i was ranked #5 in the wolrd at by the way!) anyway it makes life easier. ive said it once and ill say it again when you read the book of mormon life is better. i think it boils down to spiritual nourishment.

everyone NEEDS spiritual nourishment, be it book of mormon, praying or any other form of piety if you feed your soul life is good. even if you dont necissarily learn anythign specific or gain any great wisdom, if you as a whole have a well balanced diet of physical mental and spiritual nourishment and stimulation you will have a heightened quality of life.

so okay thats my shpiel, and if you know how to spell shpiel let me know cause i used it in my book and i i ought have it correctly spelled.

i finished chapter five today while spending all day at Diva's a cool new coffee/cupcake shop on 33rd. you should go there.

and that about catches you up to speed since my last post, forever and a day ago.

Deathready list #17 Witness the Northern lights, (yeah i friggin lived in sweden and NEVER saw them, I KNOW!)

Oliver's Deseret News Debut

Oliver and I are in the Deseret News today! We're on the front page of the "Utah" section, section B. We got caught at the Pep Rally yesterday. Go red!... I guess... still not sure if I'm a Y fan(school) or a U fan(work). Either way, the festivities are fun. Oliver had fun dancing with me while the marching band played, and he liked the buttons. Plus now he's "famous"!


"Spirit Committee member Debbie Carlson hands a Utah button to 10-month-old Oliver Croft and U. employee Megan Croft at the rally in anticipation of Saturday's big matchup against Brigham Young University. (Courtney Sargent, Deseret News)"

Feeling Inadequate...

and in DIRE need of a good camera!!! One that I would actually use. I want what all of my friends have, a Canon Rebel (the digital kind - I have the film kind, but that's not really any good for blogging). One of my biggest obstacles to posting is my lack of pictures. I feel like a bad mom for my lack of photos, I need Kerri and Liz to teach me how to take pictures more often.


Well, despite that, I do have something happy, exciting, fun to post about...

Yes, baby OATMEAL!
Tonight when we were getting Oliver's dinner ready I swear (at least 3 times) he said "oatmeal". Now whether or not he actually did is irrelevant. As far as I'm concerned he knew what he was talking about and he was saying (or at least trying to say) "oatmeal"! So cute, so big, so smart, and oh so fun!


And then there's the not so fun. Nights have gotten to be more and more of a joke, with 3 rather than the intended 2 people sleeping in my bed! Ahhh! It's totally my fault, I just couldn't bear the whole "cry-it-out" thing & between 3-5am it's just too hard to do anything else when all it takes to get him back to sleep is lay him next to me... unfortunately that has meant sub-par sleep for Nathan and I for too long now. After talking to some other moms I concluded that something must be done. We have tried to start a new bedtime routine & for 2 nights now I have actually let Oliver cry in his crib. I HATE IT! I feel so mean. But I know, or at least I'm pretty sure, that it's for the best. And this morning he was just fine and he still loves me, so... we'll keep trying. Wish us luck! I'm exhausted.

One final note... I'm working on getting Halloween pics up. I promise they're coming soon. My little monster was so cute! And such a good sport... so there's something to look forward to...

Halloween at the Institute

Oliver and I are in the institute class for moms and babies. Today we celebrated Halloween by taking our little ones on a "parade" through the building in their costumes. Oliver was a pretty good little monster - he had to be soooo hot in his costume but he put up with it quite well. Aren't they cute?

Special Visitors

Hannah & Canyon were in town (from California) today. We met them (and Brita) at the Pizza Factory in Provo & hung out for a little while at the Dalton condo afterwards.

Look what ive been roped into

well ive been dragged into blogdom. megan had me read kerri's post about josh turning twelve. then i had to reply, then i had to update my profile and before i knew what had happened i was an official blogger on the croft family blog whatsit.

stay tuned...

i will be posting things from our own "bucket list" course we're not calling it a bucket list but lately it seems i cant stop thinking of things i MUST do before, well, before long...


-#32 Own a fruit bearing citrus tree

(not necissarily number 32...)

Hawaii was a Success

     
My dad at Pearl Harbor My mom at the beach

     
Grandma & Grandpa brought Oliver this cute Hawaiian outfit!

Grandma and Grandpa (my parents) finally went to Hawaii!!!

For my mom and dad's 30th anniversary (June 10th) we (us, Ryan & Ashly, and my dad's parent's) gave my parents a trip to Hawaii.  My grandparents had actually given them skymiles to take the trip with 5 years ago for their 25th anniversary but they just never went.  So last fall I called my grandma and told her to book the tickets.  We planned the trip for about a month after their anniversary so they could have time to prepare.  Ryan & I picked the hotel and booked/paid for that part of the trip.  So with the 2 biggest components of the trip taken care of they had no excuses, plus everything was paid for so there was no backing out!

The trip was July 8th - 14th and they had a great time!  I think this was the best surprise I ever pulled off!

4th of July

This morning we got up early for our neighborhood breakfast.  I got Oliver dressed in blue & white stripes with red sandals - so festive! (Nate rolls his eyes...)  We had the stroller all decorated for the bike parade... unfortunately we were a few minutes late getting out the door and missed the parade.  But at least we had a patriotic stroller for the day!  After our breakfast Oliver and I walked over to my parents ward breakfast and Nate got ready for work.  While Nate was at work I made star shaped cut-out cookies for my visiting teaching girls.  When Nate got home I got the cookies decorated then we went around to deliver them (we took some to Nate's family too).  

  Isn't he cute!

  Talking to dad... Oliver is so happy in the morning!

  8 AM is just to early for Nate! He was a good sport to be there at that hour.

Oliver's 1st Fireworks:

We walked to Sugarhouse Park with my parents for the fireworks.  We sat at the practice field at Highland High with Nick & Anne Marie and their family.  We were right under the fireworks it was pretty cool!  Oliver thought the fireworks were pretty neat but too loud.  During the finale he started playing with his ears and just looking around uncomfortably - as soon as I put my hands over his ears though he looked right up at the fireworks & just stared at them.  I'm glad he wasn't scared.

DCFC

Oliver's 1st concert! We went to see Death Cab For Cutie tonight. It rained all day & it was an outdoors show, so it was freezing but luckily it didn't actually rain during the show. We bundled Oliver up, put in some special earplugs (which thankfully he didn't fight) and set up camp at the back of the crowd. Oliver loved watching the lights flashing on the stage. It was a good show!


These pictures are off my cell phone so they're not the greatest but they're still fun:

Wii Fit

Nate probably could have actually waited until my birthday and I would have been none the wiser, but I get his reasoning for giving it to me early. He was afraid I would realize that it had already come out and that he hadn't gotten it yet and I would figure out that that's what he was going to give me.

When I got home yesterday he had it all set up. He was sitting on the floor with Oliver & right in the middle of the living room was the balance board with 2 Caribbean passion Jamba Juices on top of it (that's our favorite). The game was in the Wii and the TV was on all ready to go. It was way cute.

Let me just say - this is one of the coolest things in video gaming to date. The balance board is amazingly sensitive to every movement & works as a pretty darn accurate scale too. The game assesses your balance and BMI and then allows you to set fitness goals. It has different "games" or "workouts" in Yoga, Strength Training, Aerobics, and Balance. It's way fun. One thing that I think helped me and Nate want to keep going on it last night is that it's competitive - we were fighting for the best score at the downhill skiing. I'm way excited! I may have lost all my baby weight, but I'm still looking to get back to my wedding weight & this should help!

They say it's your birthday!

Well, not really, I've got 8 days to go... But according to Nate I either have to have my birthday early or know what I'm getting before I get it - so we're celebrating my birthday today. Happy early birthday to me I guess! Can't wait to see what he's scheming...

Victory!

I now know for sure that I have actually lost ALL of my baby weight!!! Last week I knew I was close, but now I know that I'm under the # I was at when I got pregnant. And thus I shout VICTORY!

My pledge to do better at this...

OK, so I started this blog when Oliver arrived in the hopes that I could use it to keep track of milestones and as the journal that I've never been able to keep. However, true to character, I have failed miserably at posting anything. I think part of the problem is that I decided to do some retroactive posts and that gave me that "behind" feeling that I have such a hard time getting past... So I have now decided that it is not necessary to post the past and that if I get around to it great, if not, well the goal here is to just keep current at least. So this is my pledge to (at least try to) do better at this blogging thing.

Rollin' Rollin' Rollin'

He did it! Oliver rolled over! After months of absolutely hating tummy time and endless screaming and struggling (minus a few exceptional happy tummy moments) he finally figured out how to get himself out of it. We were at my parents house (except Nate who was at work) and so mom, grandma and grandpa all got to witness it. We cheered him on, and when he got to his back he looked up at me with that "I'm hot stuff" look - it was great!

In 'n Out is in St. George!

We spent half of this weekend on the road just to eat at In 'n Out (twice)! We drove down Friday and back Sunday. We stayed at my grandma & grandpa Roberts house, where we got to be a part of my cousin Jessica's 8th birthday celebrations. And we got to visit my grandma & grandpa Ball for a few hours on Saturday afternoon. It was a crazy busy weekend, but it was fun, and we love In 'n Out!




If you look closely you can see Oliver's binky tan! (oops!)




Jessica holding Oliver @ her birthday party!

In the ICU

Oliver was diagnosed with pneumonia & entered the Newborn ICU on Monday, January 7th (just a few hours before we were set to go home). He was in the ICU to receive antibiotic treatments for one week. What a long long week! He also had jaundice, thus the funny foam goggles to protect his eyes from the lights.

Welcome Oliver!!!

Oliver Jonatan Croft was born today at 8:06 pm - 8 lbs. 7 oz. - 20 inches