Another party weekend!

September 29th was Max's official graduation party! We were thrilled to celebrate his accomplishment, and always love getting together with the family. I'm just going to include this hodgepodge of pictures...they are pretty self explanatory :)

Danielle is trying to do everything that the babies do...this doesn't last for very long, but it's fun to watch!

This is O thinking that she's playing football with the boys. To her that means skipping around them messing up all the plays :). They were super sweet about letting her have the ball every once in a while, and never got mad at her antics. What great cousins!

This is what happens when I give up the camera for a few minutes :)

 On the 30th (yes we do busy weekends in this family...) we headed out to Silverton to celebrate Julie and Dale Bystrom's anniversary. It was really fun to chat and eat with the Wellman side of the family.

O got to hang out with Ruby, who is two years older. Ruby was adorable, bossing Olivia around the entire time, which is great for this girl who is always in charge.

Cousin Norah getting her first drink :) OK is was water, but I love that you can see the brewery label on the glass.

Great Grandpa getting her nose :)

Hallie bragging about her 'skills' at getting babies to sleep. I'll admit that she has two things I will never have to help with that :).

Still September...

The last week in September was the first week that I was really feeling up to getting out. Recovery from Carter was pretty hard, but I was anxious to have a family outing just to play. We headed to the park, and had a great time. 

This isn't a great picture...of anybody...but that afternoon we had packed a great picnic and we were so excited to have a great time. Unfortunately the bees felt otherwise, so we packed it back up and headed to the car. We still had fun...just a little squished and crazy.

Olivia has always liked lemons (she takes a lick, makes a crazy sour face, then goes in for more about twenty times). This particular afternoon she sucked on this lemon for about an hour, while she helped clean up dinner, water the plants, and play before bed. I finally had to take it away at bedtime; she wasn't thrilled.

This next picture is very important to me. Like I've said before, Carter was quite a fussy little guy for quite some time. Now I realize that it was only about two months, but BOY do those days drag on. One day I was really tired of carrying him around everywhere, and had tried the two slings we have to no avail. I headed out to the consignment store and bought this sling that had Carter in a cocoon position. It totally worked for about a week, and it was glorious. I haven't tried him in it for a while...maybe I should :).

 Here is O doing her first chore! I'm all child labor in the home, and think that kids learning responsibility is very important. She unloads the silverware every time we run the dishwasher, and it has given us an opportunity to talk about all the work that goes into keeping the house running. We may have spoons jumbled with forks, but I love when she asks for a chair because she sees the silverware sitting on the counter waiting for her.

Here's a few shots of the awesome faces of Carter. He's quite the little character :)

A cute little impromptu picture during a walk...these women help me every day!

And we had Andy home for the weekend! What a treat for Olivia, who loves to play and jump and run around with her aunt and uncle. Here he is serving as a water fountain.

Another huge plus to Andy being home is that he inevitably will be making a cheesecake. My stomach and muffin top attest to the fact that they are impossible to stop eating...so delicious! Here is Olivia enjoying the first taste the night before Max's big party.

Game Day Party

On September 22 we (as in Mary and Gary :)) hosted a Game Day party for the OSU at UCLA game. Most of the Casqueiros came over, and we had a blast.

Carter spent the majority of the time hanging out on the ottoman watching everybody, when he wasn't being passed around from person to person of course ;).

I love this picture because it shows how identical these two are...can you tell who's son Max is?

I don't really remember why, but at one point in the afternoon Gene declared that he wanted a seat on the couch. Instead of joining the two people on the four person couch, he decided to squeeze between Jim and Kathy on the short couch...

I love Carter's face here...he's just taking everything in while Olivia is slightly possessive over who has 'her' baby.

And she pulled out the angry eyes...we see this more and more as she gets older...and it still makes me laugh every time :)

Talking on her hamburger bun phone...she went through a phase of using everything as a phone...here she is having a full on conversation with her bun :).

The next day we FINALLY got to go meet Logan! (He was about a week old, but it seemed like forever). It was funny to see the difference in these boys, especially head size. They are about five weeks apart, and Logan has already caught up to Carter in most ways, but this makes my newborn look like a giant :).

Carter was just wavin to the camera here :). I feel like it's the first picture that he kind of looks like an infant not a newborn. He is really starting to have a lot of expression and to move his arms and legs with more control.

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 :))

Carter also had his first official smile this evening, as a birthday present to Jenaye. Grandma Terece was actually holding him...but he was quick to do a repeat performance for his mom so it was all good. I didn't get a picture for a while more, but he would smile every once in a while, between screaming sessions :).

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.

The 17th was also one of those days when I woke up encouraged and ready to be a 'great' and 'fun' mom. I tried to accomplish this at lunch time by making melon balls out of a cantelope that we had. I learned very quickly that melon balls are much more fun to throw than to eat for an almost-two-year-old...lesson learned, and I will wait a few more years before trying that again. I was cleaning juice up off the chairs and cupboards for about a week.

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.

We had a few sick days in the middle of September, and our kids and I were sick enough that I didn't get to see our new cousin Logan for a few days after he was born. I was really excited to go to the hospital to meet him, so that was a major bummer, but I know as the boys grow up they will be great friends and hopefully keep the older kids in line :).

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 we had our first major spill from Olivia. She has fallen and scraped herself up wuite a few times, but I'm not too concerned about the normal bumps and bruises that come with kid-dom. This particular afternoon, however, she fell down an entire flight of stairs because she missed a step. The 'crash, crash crash' sound, followed by silence is a totally scary sound as a mom. I knew it was serious even before I made it out of the kitchen. I was just glad that I was there to scoop her up and give her love. It didn't take long for her to calm down and she was ready to tell grandpa how she fell down down but was a big girl. :) It was sweet, and she was totally fine.

That evening, 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 :).