Mid September :)

Needless to say, September kept us busy. In the middle of the month we had some fun outings (Enchanted Forest included), and spent a couple days down in Philomath for Jenaye's birthday. We also had a few visitors that hadn't met Carter yet. He was just a month old, and getting to the pinnacle of his crying phase, so they were 'interesting' visits. Here are some great shots from when Jen and Randi came...I have to put in the bad picture because this happened literally two seconds after Jen was complaining that we never get good pictures of her. How can the rest of us help it when she's always making faces like this!

That evening we went to Philomath for some 20th birthday celebration! I'm totally in love with the shot of Grandma Grahyl and Grandpa Vern looking in on Carter and his crazy face. My children are blessed with so many grandparents and great-grandparents that they know and love, and will hopefully have cherished memories of as they grow up.

 (And yes, Tasha, Picasa did find your face in this next picture to label...so I couldn't bear to crop it out! You were with us in spirit :))

We were always wary of the end of September, knowing that fall and the rainy season were coming quickly. We took as many opportunities as we could to play outside, including this balcony day. O was thrilled to just sit in her tent and read, pushing Alex and I away if we got too close.

I have a few random pictures of the adorable gentleman that has joined our family. His smiles and sweet *not-so-little* eyes capture my heart every day. As he continues to grow and get more alert we are able to see glimpses each day of his little personality. At this point he was crying more often than not, but he is still a sweet little addition to our family.

September 17th was Alex and my 1st anniversary. I took this picture idea from Pinterest, and we will continue taking a picture each year of our progress as a couple. We had a great date at Bentley's after walking around doing window shopping downtown. We had Carter with us, so our date couldn't be overly long, but it was great to get out of the house for some 'us' time to remember the strength of our relationship during this trying transition time for our family.

Mary and Gary are wonderful hosts to us, and I regularly find something they have done or are doing to make my life easier. They never seem bothered to have a 'helper' at their feet, or yelling all around the house as they are trying to get stuff done. One afternoon while Alex was out I was wondering where Olivia had run off to while I was feeding Carter. I could hear giggling, but I never know if that is a good or a bad thing, so I went in search of the little munchkin. I found her 'workin' in the garage with Grandpa, who was pulling her around and around the garage on this makeshift cart. She would have gone for hours on that thing, and I was reminded again how wonderful it is to have the help that I have during this crucial time in the lives of my children.

On the 21st, just before their move to Alaska, Alesha and her husband Aaron came by for a quick visit and to meet Carter. He was a little calmer for her than he had been for Jen, and it was great to get to see them before they left for so long. I am so glad that my friends from high school continue to be close enough to just drop in for a visit, even when our lives have gone in such drastically different directions.

I'm especially proud of this picture. It was towards the end of the garage saling season, so I was surprised to see one that boasted TONS of kid stuff within walking distance of my house. I headed out early to hit this one house, and bought easily 40 pieces of clothes for Carter plus other random things. We are starting from scratch with boy clothes, so I was thrilled. Honestly I wish I had bought more. I didn't plan to buy this much, so I ended up carrying a HUGE box back to the house, but I was beyond ecstatic so I didn't care. I then went to two or three other smaller sales, and ended up with this huge pile of stuff for under $30. The biggest find in my mind was a little pair of Saltwater Sandals that he will hopefully be able to wear next spring.

And here is Carter waving goodbye :). I don't think his hands and feet ever stop moving, but this was the first time that he got enough momentum to get all the way on his side to look at me while I was talking :).

Enchanted Forest!

 In the middle of September, Olivia (and Carter) took their first trip to Enchanted Forest. Olivia is just getting into the perfect age for this fun outing; she thinks everything is real and is old enough to recognize the princesses and stories that she knows

The crooked house is one of my favorite parts of the Park. It is so disorienting, you don't know what is up. My favorite part this time was when O saw some stairs painted on the wall and tried to walk up them. They are painted pretty realistically, so she tried a couple times before giving up

Carter slept pretty much the entire time, as was to be expected at 5 weeks.

The giant slide was Olivia's favorite part of the day. She went on it 6 or seven times, and would have stayed all day. I felt silly being one of those parents who drags their child away from one attraction to see the next, but we had to keep moving, C was on a schedule. I love the pictures of her face, filled with delight as she gets closer and closer to the end of the slide.

Next we went to the are where you get to drive your own bumper boat. As you can see by the picture, Alex was at least as into it as O was, but they had fun. In the boat picture you can see their boat, stuck between the two rocks in the middle of the pond :). I had to remind Alex that the most important thing was for his daughter to have fun :)

We were thrilled that Andy was able to come with us. I even got picture proof that this cowboy was NOT a faster draw than  he was. The game insisted that Andy lost, but he is apparently a pretty quick draw.

 Just walking up the hill :) This was right after a sad moment when I talked up this big slide that was a tunnel and went around and around (O loves slides), and then we got there and she had to be 3 inches taller than she is even to go with an adult. Even my quick distraction techniques didn't quite work, but there is enough fun things that her sadness didn't last long.

For lunch we got pizza and watched the indoor water show that may or may not rival the Bellagio :). I realized just as the show was getting over that Carter needed to eat, and this was a great place to do it. So the rest of the gang went on and I stayed to feed him, These next two pictures are of him watching the show after he was full. He just kept moving and moving like a crazy person, stopping every once in a while to just stare at the water. This is pretty impressive for a newborn, so I was sad to only have my cell phone camera. I'm glad it captured the crazy movement though!

One of the last things we did was a little kiddie ride roller coaster that took us around a miniature land with gnomes, castles, and mini animals. It was new since the last time I went, so it was fun to have an excuse to jump on the kiddie ride. There are also bumper cars, bumper boats, and a few other rides that would work well for kids a little older.

Can you say exhausted? I don't think O made it out of the parking lot awake. It was a great day, and I can't wait to go again in the spring!

Newborn photo shoot #2

When Carter was officially one month old, we went to do his newborn shots at the photo studio. I like to do them a little older so the baby is awake more, and it turned out very well. What didn't turn out well was a sibling shot. As you can see, Olivia was still getting used to having a brother, and to sharing all the attention in the pictures.

This was an unintentional shot of me trying to show O what to do...

Yes he cried for a lot of the session. Carter just had a hard time his first two months getting used to his body and the strange family he was born into.

Handsome 'man' pose. I love that you can see arm and shoulder hair, even in the sepia.

Also, here are a few extra pictures that I scrambled up from that week. I took a lot of pictures of Carter when he was a newborn, and I think O stepped it up a little in cuteness so that I would take pictures of her too :) It worked...

Sweet sleeping babe.

Sporting a onesie from Ashley...

O went out to help Grandpa install some new lights. They were out there together for a long time before I went out, and she was just sitting right next to Grandpa, swinging away with the hammer.