Here is the last post in the long line of my mega post. We went to Indiana last weekend and got to meet our new nephew, Jack! He's two weeks older than Oliver and soooo cute! It was so fun to hang out with the old crew and to have everyone meet Oliver. Jack and Oliver weren't often in the same room- someone was always sleeping or eating or crying. So, these were the only pictures I got of the cousins...
Jack's got the best dimples, although you can't really tell here...
Enjoying time with Uncle Adam....
The kids with their buddy, Erin...

Avery made her first garland with her friend, Sarah...

Avery is psycho about horses. She pretends with horses all of the time, pretend rides them, and has every size and version of toy horse you could want. Soon, you will see pictures of her dressed as a cowgirl/horse for Halloween. So as luck would have it, we discovered an event called Halloween with the Horses. Perfect! There were horses to ride, horses to watch, horses in costumes, horses to pet! Such fun! Here are some pics of her enjoying her horses!
First, here's Avery at the pumpkin patch. We also found some horses there! She was so excited to be able to pet them!


Waving to her buddies at the pumpkin patch...

Here's her riding Knick-Knack at Halloween with the Horses... look at that face!!!

Here's how Oliver enjoyed the horses...






We've been a little slack lately in our posting of pictures...sorry, grandparents! So here are some recent pictures of the boy...

Helping daddy on the computer...

Pumped about his first Arapahoe volleyball game with posing big sister...
snoozin' on mama...
Lookin' sporty in his Nike shorts- mesh shorts for a newborn?? So cute!!





Avery: Ham is pig poopies

Mom: What?? No, we never eat poop.

Avery: Is it pee? Where does it come from? Do the pigs push it out?

Mom: (hesitantly... do I really want to go here?) Well, when pigs die, we cut them up and that's where we get ham, bacon, and pork.

Avery: And Cheez-its!!!
Oliver is officially a month old now and we thought we'd put some more pics up and talk a bit about what he's like.

He doesn't do a whole lot... basically eats, stays awake for a bit and "plays" and then sleeps. The first two and a half weeks, we thought we had hit the newborn jackpot... amazing sleeper, eater and really- a piece of cake! Then he may have hit a growth spurt and was pretty intense for a while. He seems to have gone back to "normal" and is pretty content most of the time. We'll see!

Jeff's convinced that he knows how to socially smile already. I don't think that's supposed to happen until a bit later... but it's tough to say. He really seems to smile at appropriate times and not just when he's got a full belly! Here's what I refer to as his "alien smile". He looks like he's got a bizarrely shaped head in this pic...

Here's Oliver sleeping peacefully. Unfortunately, he doesn't seem to be too fond of taking naps in his crib. So lately, he's been sleeping quite a bit in his bouncy seat and swing. I should probably be more dedicated to getting him in his crib... someday soon, I suppose!
Here's Avery playing school with Oliver. She's teaching him about colors, taking roll, and reading him this story. Oliver responded by falling asleep... hopefully not an early indicator of his feelings toward education.
Here's a less alien-like smile.
I was trying to capture his pretty brown eyes, but its just him sitting on his play mat.
Look at this little cutie!! He's about to enjoy some swinging... can't you see the excitement in his eyes?Avery's doing pretty well. She loves when he smiles and I love when she talks to Oliver. She always calls him "boy" which cracks me up. She says it sing-songy and with a bit of an accent. We have been getting this look quite a bit...
Definitely some discipline issues and some "listening" issues... but it seems like its just her adjusting to splitting time and attention. She loves Oliver and doesn't seem to be taking her frustrations out on him.
Overall, he seems to be pretty laid-back. We already have a kid with my personality- so hopefully this one has Jeff's! I'm not sure we can handle another mini-me!!!
The Indiana trip is right around the corner... so let's be sure we're making plans, friends!!!

We're gettin' ready to have a ball in everyone's favorite midwestern town... Muncie!! We're coming to meet our new favorite nephew, Jack and to introduce everyone to Oliver! We lucked upon some super cheap tickets (which everyone can luck upon if you need to come visit us... check out Southwest airlines!) and decided to make the trip happen. Woo hoo!

So, everyone block out your schedules for the weekend of Oct 24-26! Revo band, we're expecting to hear you guys rock- and to worship with our favorite band. We'll be in Muncie by noonish on Friday and we're leaving town Sunday evening. So far, we're wide open... so let's make some plans, friends!!!

Gabe, are you excited to see Oliver "up close?"