One month old

My baby is one month old!
It's amazing to think that it's only been that long

but I feel like he's been with us forever.

We're still getting used to each other,

but we're learning

and getting more content everyday.

He's growing like a weed

and is already almost 9 1/2 pounds!

He face is starting to fill out

Which makes his cheeks even more soft

and plump to kiss

and he's got an adorable double chin

His brothers still adore him

and slather him with kisses constantly

Zach has proven to be my best helper

and prefers to be right next to Oliver.

By the way - this is not the same picture

as posted in a previous post.

It was taken today,

in the same place, and almost in the same position

to see how much Oliver has changed already.

Isn't he adorable??

Red Cloud Loop

Labor Day weekend, we had

my mom, brother,

two sisters and their families come visit.

There are lots of driving tours here in Vernal,

so we decided to check out the Red Cloud Loop driving tour.

It was a 74 mile drive

that took us past Steinaker and Red Fleet Resevoir

through the Ashley National Forest

past Dry Fork Canyon

and back into Vernal.

It was quite an adventure

and we stopped where and when we wanted to

to see everything.

We stopped at a resevoir halfway through

for a picnic lunch.

Here's Porter attempting to touch

a huge praying mantis we met on the way.

Melissa and Zach
showing us how tough they are

Savannah and Andrew leading the way
up the hill
on the trail to see the petroglyphs

Zach, Andrew, and Savannah
with a petroglyph

What we do

Since I've been an incredible slacker,

I forgot to announce that

Zach has started Kindergarten!!
He is loving everyday

and loves riding the bus to and from school

(which is a huge blessing,

so I didn't have to make three trips to the school everyday)

Here he is on his first day:

And what does Andrew do

now that everyone is gone?

Well,

we paint

we take naps

(well, at least Oliver and sometimes Andrew does)

we make forts

and do lots of reading

playing

and doing whatever we want.

Yesterday, after taking Oliver to the doctor

we had some time

so I asked Andrew what he wanted to do.

He said he wanted to go to the playground,

so we did!

We played on the swings,

the slide, the climbing wall,

the ladder, and the monkey bars.

I even showed him how I used to hang

upside-down on the bars

like when I was a girl.

It's what we do!

Our friend, Charlotte

This is our friend, Charlotte:

She lives in the corner of our sliding glass door frame

on the OUTSIDE, of course.

Now, I'm not a big fan of spiders,

but since this one is outside,

and we rarely use the door except to go out and BBQ

and since she's quite facinating to watch,

we've decided to keep her.

Now just to put it in perspective,

this is her next to a quarter;

just so you can see how big she really is:

(now mind you, she is about 1-2 inches from the outside of the window

the quarter is on the inside)

but just so you can get an idea -

I always wonder if one morning I'll wake up
and find a word written in her web.
We don't know what kind of spider she is
I can't look at the spider pictures for too long
before I start to get the willies...

In fact, I'm getting them now...
time to move on...

This Past week

Porter started second grade last week

You've never seen a kid so excited to start school again

He loves being able to go

and play with his friends and learn.

He also started flag football with his dad as coach

They played their first game today

and did quite well.

Zach starts kindergarten on Thursday

I'm counting the days...

We met with his teacher last week

and she was very impressed with how much he already knows.

I'm anxious to see how Andrew does with all his playmates gone

I guess he does have one left... me.

I am going to start lessons with him twice a week

To give him something to do

and to provide us with some one-on-one time.

Cute little Oliver is changing already

I hate how fast babies lose their newborn look.

He's a really good baby -

Loves to sit up and look around

and is even giving me a decent stretch of sleep in the night!