Thursday, September 17, 2009

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...

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

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!