A Feeling I Get...

... when I think of His blessings, I'm reverent, for reverence is love.

Ok, so I couldn't help but continue with the lyrics of my favorite childrens hymn once I got started with that title. But back to the point, well I guess it kind of ties in, because I consider this feeling I have to be an important blessing right now.

I miss my dad, everyone knows that. But lately I have found great comfort in an incredibly strong spiritual impression that we won't be apart that long. Whether that means that the Second Coming will be soon (wouldn't complain about that) or that life on earth, no matter how long it lasts, really isn't that long in the grand scheme of things, I know I'll see him again and when I do it won't feel like it's been a long time.

I'm so grateful for the little ways the Lord blesses me daily, especially the quiet assurances He so often provides me with.

Oliver's Disneyland Favorites

Overall I would say Oliver loved the Disneyland experience. Since (even though it was Nathan's birthday) this trip was really all about Oliver, I want to remember the things Oliver loved the most. In his words...

The top of the list would have to be:
- "Casey Jr. Train"
- "Ride Horsies" - King Arthur's Carousel
and
- "Hi-Ho" - better known as Snow White's Wishing Well

He also really, really liked:
- "Go down su-ma-ine boat, see Nemo!"
- Mickey's house and Donald's boat and Goofy's house - "Goofy not home"
- "Oliver drive car!"
- Dumbo
- The live performance of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse
- "Mono-ail Train"
- Seeing "Lightning Car and Mater" - especially in the parade
and
- The Monsters Inc. ride

It has been more than 3 weeks since we were there and he keeps talking about it. It was so cute to see his reactions to things and figure out what he liked most. It was great to have the 2nd day to repeat a lot of these favorites and add to them. It was a great trip, and I know he won't remember it when he's older, so hopefully I'll remember it well enough to tell him all about it.

Disneyland Day 2 - December 8th

The second day of Disneyland was unexpected. When we left the night before we figured that was it. But when my mom caught wind that we were only doing 1 day and that it had been rainy and cold that whole day, well, that just wasn't OK with her. She offered to pay for a second day - I said maybe. She called back a few minutes later and said she would feel bad if we didn't go and talked me into it. I'm so glad she did! And thanks so much mom!

We didn't decide to go until a while after we woke up. So instead of trying to make it before the park opened we just rushed to make the next shuttle from the hotel - we barely did. We got to the park around 10 I think. As we were walking down Main Street we noticed a crowd forming near the castle and Nate heard something about the Disneyland band. We decided to stop and watch - good decision - Mickey and a bunch of other characters joined the band. It was a super fun way to start out day 2.

Our second day was a lot more laid back. We had done almost every ride we wanted to the day before, so there was no pressure to make it to anything. There were a lot more people, and lines were longer, but it didn't really matter because we weren't in a hurry. We kind of let Oliver decide what we did, with a little of our influence, mostly just repeating his favorites. We got to see both the Christmas Parade at Disneyland and the Pixar Play Parade at California Adventure (I took way too many pictures and will spare you - but they were both way cute and fun). We made it to a couple other things that we missed the day before as well. We did the Bug's Life stuff during the day this time, so we could see everything better and I think Oliver liked it more that way. And we saw more of the Disneyland castle at night, which with its wintry icicles was so beautiful and fun!

Disneyland Day 1 - December 7th

The first day of Disneyland was Nathan's birthday - which is why we even went - because he could get in free, making it enough more affordable that we couldn't resist. It rained all day. We got soaked - as you can see in all of our pictures. It was cold. There were no characters about and no parades. It was magical! It was fun! We only waited in maybe 2 lines for more than 5 minutes - most were either a 3 minute wait or we walked straight on - that part was awesome! A lot of the outdoor play areas were closed... but with no lines that just meant more rides!

The first ride we went on was Peter Pan and Oliver was unsure about the bar being pulled down across his lap - he was unhappy the whole ride - luckily he got used to the idea on only the 2nd or 3rd ride that was like that. He liked Dumbo, but didn't like the wind and rain in his face. The first thing he truly loved was the carousel (he didn't like the sea animal one in California Adventure though - funny) - we were able to stay on for a second ride because there were only a couple people in line - Oliver was happy about that (oh and he rode it again later in the day). We hit all of the rides we had planned on, and did some things we hadn't planned on like visiting Mickey and Minnie at their houses and playing in Toon Town which was way fun.

Everything was decorated for Christmas - which I had never seen before - and it was so fun. It's a Small World was totally Christmas and it was incredible. Speaking of which, Nathan and I both noticed the walls and ceiling on that ride for what we think was the first time - funny how your perception as a kid is so different.

We had a great day. We were sad we missed some things, but knew it wasn't that big of a deal because Oliver didn't know what he'd missed and he had a great day. It was a magical Disney day!

Happy Birthday Nathan

This year Nathan got to celebrate his birthday at Mickey's house!

Yep, that's right, I'm finally posting about Disneyland!

A total loss of where to begin is the main thing that has delayed my Disneyland posts. I've finally decided to start with the family photos - the one's with all 3 of us in them. Enjoy!

Little Musician

Oliver had a little 1 man jam session today! It was so cute! (as I tend to think almost everything he does is)

Nathan gave him this harmonica the other day & it's one of his favorite toys now.
This is where it started.


He then moved on to drumming. I bought a bunch of buckets the other day - turn them upside down and they make a perfect stool & drum set for an almost 2 year old.


Finally the guitar. He usually plays with the ukulele (more his size) but today he decided to go for the real deal.

Halloween Day

Since it's almost Thanksgiving and I haven't finished posting our Halloween pictures I figured I better get on it.

This Halloween was bitter sweet - we broke almost every Halloween tradition we have and I didn't like that. We didn't go trick-or-treating on Grandview with my friends, we didn't eat chili at the Millett's, and we didn't make it up to Pete & Camille's house to hang out until we were too full and too tired to drive home.

This Halloween was different - a little hectic - awesome because Oliver loved it - lots of fun - but different.

In the morning we went to a party at Missy's house. It was fun - Oliver had fun playing with the kids and he loved the home-made root beer.

Scary teeth - Ava the beautiful bumblebee

The evening is where things got off track. I made mine and Oliver's costumes & had them done in time for the parties that were on Thursday... Nathan was still putting his costume together at 7:00 on Halloween night. It was complex and I don't think he realized it would take so much time, but he still procrastinated a bit. At any rate, my goal of heading out by 5:00 was shot.

We Trick-or-Treated around the (smaller) block of our neighborhood. It was fun to actually go in our neighborhood for a 1st and see a bunch of the families and kids from our ward. Oliver couldn't get to the next door fast enough... he was practically running the whole time saying "hurry fast, get more candy!" So cute! Following Trick-or-Treating we went to help Ryan & Ashly move, or well, Nathan helped while I tried to keep Oliver out of the way. We then went to the Croft's (Nate's aunt & uncle's, not his parents) to pick up our friends that were waiting there for us and to get ourselves w/costumes put back together (see following picture). Finally we made it to Josh & Sara's house for their Halloween party - we got there later than planned (everything was a little later than planned) - but it was still super fun and, in suit, Oliver had a blast as the night wound down.

We did more than we had time for - we stayed out way too late - it was a little crazy - but it was fun!

GV2 Halloween Party

The second Halloween Party we went to was my mom's ward party, which was also on Thursday, in the evening. We all dressed up for this one, and even though Nathan's costume wasn't quite done it was still pretty cool. We didn't get any pictures of all 3 of us that night though. The main event of this party was the trick-or-treating. Several people sign up to decorate a classroom door & give out candy - the kids proceed down the hallway to all of the doors - also a little chaotic, but more like real trick-or-treating & a little more fun.

Oliver was very excited to find Grandma and to tell her "trick-or-treat". Even though my mom felt like her door was sub-par this year it was probably the cutest/best decorated one there.

By the middle of trick-or-treating at this party Oliver was officially into Halloween! So fun!

Adventure Days Halloween Party

This was the first Halloween party we had this year. Adventure days is a weekly activity group in our neighborhood for pre-schoolers and toddlers. The party was on Thursday, the 29th. There was a pot-luck "spooky" lunch, the kids were all in costume, and we ended with a chaotic version of trick-or-treating. It was mostly fun. It was good for Oliver to see all of the other kids in costume because I think it helped him be excited to wear his own costume - every time I'd tried it on him before this party was a struggle, after this party he was happy to wear it.

Oliver the Panda - Jonah the Lion - Parker the Dalmation

The crazy trick-or-treating circle & a boy who couldn't get into that sucker fast enough!

tears ~ jealousy ~ sorrow ~ comfort

Tears arrived when I got sick last month, so a few weeks ago. The cough (that lingered forever) is long gone - the tears have lingered longer. I'm sad. But this is to be expected right? It still sucks to be sad.

I am jealous of Adrianne & Amber - friends in my ward. Amber's dad stained her kids playground last week. We went to play in Adrianne's backyard today and her awesome dad who is always there was (of course) there to babysit the baby while the big girls went swimming.

Sorrow is how I've chosen to describe the feeling I get when I think of everything in the future that I wish my dad could be a part of. I really miss my dad - I miss everything that he was and I have questions for him every day.

Comfort comes in many ways. It comes from countless friends and family who have given so much, shown so much love and who continue to check up on me. It comes every night when we read scriptures with Oliver - the verses have been speaking directly to me lately. But mostly it comes from Oliver, specifically when he tells me that Grandpa lives with Jesus and he's happy.

1st Snow

I'm pretty sure Oliver is young enough that he has no previous memories of snow. His reactions to today's snow storm validate this theory. So, with the first real snow of the season today, Oliver had (another) first snow experience. So fun. When I first held him up to the window to check it out he looked at me like what in the world is that stuff. I explained that it was snow. The rest of the day he parroted "snow falling, snow falling" (most of the time without the s though).

He was quite keen on getting bundled up.

First in his big coat:

Later in his monster hat & gloves:

He was surprisingly good at keeping his gloves on. It was so freezing outside that I think he understood the value of being bundled. That and he really didn't like the snow on his face and I think he was glad the coats/hats were keeping it off the rest of him.

My personal opinion is that it is at least a few weeks too early for snow, and it is way too cold. But the snow is pretty and peaceful, it makes the world a bit quieter, which I appreciate.

Pumpkin Patch

Hooray! It's Halloween time!

Last night we went to this great little pumpkin patch out in South Jordan (I think) - it was pretty clost to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple (which I hadn't seen yet and is beautiful, so that was fun too). We didn't get there until about 7:00, so it was pretty dark, but still way fun.

One of the first rows of pumpkins we came to was called "Oliver Way" so we made sure Oliver picked his pumpkin from there. He (with Nathan's help) found a perfect little pumpkin, which he was quite proud of.

They had rows and rows of pumpkins that Oliver loved running (and crashing) through!

They had cute little wheel barrows for kids. Nate tried to show Oliver how to push it, but it didn't last long. Still cute though.

Oliver also enjoyed (for brief moments before urgently asking to get off) sitting on the tractors. He liked looking at them better than being on them.

When we got home we carved our pumpkins. Well I carved Olivers and made yummy apple cobbler, didn't quite get to my own pumpkin though, but that's ok with me. Oliver picked circle eyes and a square nose.

It was a fun, fun night!

Oliver's 1st Kids Birthday Party Experience

My friend Missy's little girl Avary had an awesome birthday party at the Little Gym for her 2nd birthday. This is the first party with tons of kids that Oliver has been to. He was a little intimidated at first but ended up having a ton of fun.

Thanks for inviting us Missy & Avary!

Climbing around!


Missy & Avary ---- Lucy, Nicco, Oliver, India

(I'm sad this one's blurry) ------- (A cute group of kids!)

Obama's Education Speech

A Few Good Lines:

Every single one of you has something you’re good at. Every single one of you has something to offer. And you have a responsibility to yourself to discover what that is.

Where you are right now doesn’t have to determine where you’ll end up. No one’s written your destiny for you.

They faced challenges in their lives just like you do. But they refused to give up. They chose to take responsibility for their education and set goals for themselves. And I expect all of you to do the same.

I know that sometimes, you get the sense from TV that you can be rich and successful without any hard work -- that your ticket to success is through rapping or basketball or being a reality TV star, when chances are, you’re not going to be any of those things.

But the truth is, being successful is hard. You won’t love every subject you study. You won’t click with every teacher. Not every homework assignment will seem completely relevant to your life right this minute. And you won’t necessarily succeed at everything the first time you try.
That’s OK.

...understand that you can’t let your failures define you – you have to let them teach you. You have to let them show you what to do differently next time. If you get in trouble, that doesn’t mean you’re a troublemaker, it means you need to try harder to behave. If you get a bad grade, that doesn’t mean you’re stupid, it just means you need to spend more time studying.

No one’s born being good at things, you become good at things through hard work.

Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Don’t be afraid to ask for help when you need it. I do that every day. Asking for help isn’t a sign of weakness, it’s a sign of strength. It shows you have the courage to admit when you don’t know something, and to learn something new.

And even when you’re struggling, even when you’re discouraged, and you feel like other people have given up on you – don’t ever give up on yourself.

Words of a Friend

In scanning a few of my friends blogs I came across these beautiful words posted by my amazing friend Kerri. They made me cry, they mean a lot right now. Thank you Kerri.

"I've been weeping for the loss of a friend, for the pain of mental illness, for the darkness that waits just around the corner for so many of those I love.

I've been speechless with joy at the light that waits right around the other corner, the joy that comes from love, from kindness, from compassion, from lifting each other in our hardest times."

In Loving Memory

William Kraig Roberts
January 31, 1955 ~ July 08, 2009

William Kraig Roberts, 54, died July 8, 2009 in Salt Lake City. Bill was born January 31, 1955 in Twin Falls, Idaho to William Junior and Dawn Kyees Roberts. He served an LDS mission to Oklahoma and later married Deborah Ball on June 10, 1978 in the St. George, Utah Temple. Bill graduated from the University of Utah, College of Pharmacy and worked at Primary Children’s Hospital and Shriners Hospital. He later worked for the University of Utah in Pharmacy Tech Support.
He is survived by parents, loving wife, son: William Ryan (Ashly), daughter: Megan (Nathan) Croft, grandson: Oliver Croft, and his brothers: Chris, John, and Mark. Bill was preceded in death by his sister Dawn.
Bill was multifaceted and dedicated. He could fix anything and lovingly did. Never compromising quality, he offered close attention to detail with every effort. Bill had a keen mind, enjoyed solving puzzles, making home improvements and other complex projects. An avid audiophile, he played the guitar and was in a band in his youth. Bill’s hobbies became his passions, from exotic birds, salt-water fish, jet-skiing, biking, photography, to home theatre and computers. Bill was soft spoken, kind and tender hearted. He was a wonderful father. His favorite place to be was with family and his latest greatest joy was his relationship with his “little buddy” Oliver. He gave his absolute all to everyone within his influence. Bill will be loved, remembered and emulated.

4th of July Fun

I started this post (uploading the pictures) the morning my dad died... needless to say, it kind of got forgotten/lost its importance.

However, now that life is starting to move on a little bit more normally (emphasis on the "little bit") I've decided to complete this post and hopefully get a few more up.

The 4th of July holiday/weekend was our last holiday with my dad. It was such a fun weekend and everything was so normal. Ryan and Ashly were in town for Friday the 3rd and most of the 4th. On the 3rd we did water balloons and set up Oliver's pool, and lots of pop-its of course. That night Nathan, Oliver and I went up to Nathan's aunt and uncles house in North Salt Lake for dinner and fireworks. The 4th started with our neighborhood bike parade and breakfast. That afternoon we hung out at my parents house - played croquet with Ryan, Ashly and my mom during which I think my dad took some pictures and helped keep Oliver out of the game - and just had a good summer-time day. That night R & A went to Stadium of Fire with Ashly's family. My dad barbequed dinner for us and then we went to the fireworks at Sugarhouse Park with my mom and dad, like most years. It was a good family-filled fun holiday weekend.

Oliver's water balloons on my parents front lawn

I love that foot! - Oliver's swimming pool

Fireworks in NSL

Nathan's grandparents & Aunt Camille

cousins Abby & Mallary

My sign! I was so proud of it!

Oliver's festive bike and attire

I Love You Daddy!

Best Friend - Hero - Idol - Grandpa - DADDY!

We love you! We'll always miss you!

1/31/1955 - 7/8/2009

Faces are NOT Meant to be Grated

Cheese, certain vegetables, sure, grate those. But faces, well, I'm pretty sure faces are not meant to be grated. Especially my baby's face! Unfortunately our stairs do not feel the same way.

Exhibit A: See the resemblance between our stairs and a cheese grater? (if you can't tell, all of those little dots are where the metal sticks up, with holes in the raised part sort of like a cheese grater, and they aren't particularly sharp, but they sure aren't soft either!)


Oliver and I were sitting at the top of these stairs doing pop-its with the kids that live downstairs. We were all having a lot of fun. That is until (I think) he tried to grab a pop-it that had landed a couple of stairs lower but failed to pop, to give it another try. I was looking down the stairs, not right at him, but I'm pretty sure his shoe must have gotten caught on the stair, causing an unexpected forward fall. Luckily I saw enough to catch him before he fell any further than face meets stair. Who knows how bad it could have been if he'd kept tumbling. Nevertheless, the stair did grate my baby's face. So sad. But a few jelly belly's and Toy Story later he was back to his happy, crazy self!

Exhibit B: 3 lovely scrapes on his forehead (1 is sort of hidden by his hair despite my best efforts to hold it out of the way) and 1 scrape on his nose. One of his hands also got 1 good scrape, though not pictured here.

Pop-Its! We greet summer with a BANG!

Well, summer is here now (not too sure how I feel about that - it's just sooo hot!) and yesterday we welcomed it with a bang! Or rather a lot of little bangs accompanied by a lot of little "POP"s and giggles from Oliver. This was Oliver's first hands-on experience with fireworks, and they were definitely a hit!

I was using my normal camera for these videos, and kinda turned the camera when I shouldn't have. So just turn your head to the side and hopefully you won't get sick... :)

In my family pop-its are also known as "step-its" - there's a back story there, but really, if you haven't tried stepping on them you should, it's fun!

A Very Busy Weekend

This weekend was fun and filled and fun filled and full (like too much food full)! Very busy and great!

It started with my Craft Sale, which was Friday evening and Saturday morning. Getting ready for and having this sale was a lot of work, a bit of frustration, stressful yet stress relieving, and so much more.

I'm not going to go so far as to post all of my "catalog shots" but here's some pics of my displays just to give an idea of what was included:



Some awesome side effects of the sale:
1) Nathan finished & assembled some shelves that we've had sitting around way too long
2) Nathan and my dad finally got all of our electronics out of the living room and set up in my closet - our living room is cordless now! It's glorious!
3) Shelves + electronics removal = BIGGER LIVING ROOM!!!
4) My entire closet was emptied onto my bed in order to do the wiring and such, which has presently left me with a very messy room, because I've now started building new shelves along one end of my closet so that I can put everything back in a much more orderly fashion - which may not sound so good, but I'm so excited to get things organized!

After the sale ended on Saturday afternoon we went down to the Chalk Art Festival at Gateway. As always, there were several impressive works. Unfortunately in the time we were there a serious down pour came through - a lot of the drawings were protected, but some didn't fare so well. A few favorites:




Saturday night Ryan and Ashly came into town and we watched "Yes Man" with them at my parents house. I liked it a lot more than expected. The cutest part though, was when Oliver decided to take a break from playing with cars and climbed up on the couch to sit next to Ashly. He seems to be getting more and more comfortable with them (which I love!) just in time for them to move closer this fall (which I'm very excited for!).

Father's Day, Sunday, is where the too much food part comes in... My mom was out of town for the weekend, so we (Ryan, Ashly, Me, Nathan, Oliver) took my dad out for breakfast. We went to Marie Calendar's for their Father's Day Brunch - sooo much good food it was hard to stop trying things. We were more than full all the way through our afternoon church! Following which we had family dinner at Nathan's grandparent's house, which pretty much made my stomach feel about to explode! The food was great as always, Oliver got some good aunt/cousin playtime with Caitlin and Abby, Oliver loved the trampoline, and it was just a nice evening overall.

It was a good weekend! (but I'll be just fine if it's a while before another one this busy comes along)