Ollie, Oliver!

The title of this post is dedicated to the song that Gavin invented for his new little brother, Oliver.  It goes like this:

Ollie
Oliver!
Ollie,
Oliver!
Ollie,
Oliver!
Ollie,
Oliver!

Pretty much like that.  Over and over and over in a chant sort of way.

So Oliver is like the best baby ever.  No but really, he is just a total angel baby.  He hardly ever cries unless he is super hungry and even then once he can see me getting ready to feed him, he'll stop crying and wait for his "food" to emerge.  After he has eaten, he'll smile and stare and just "be" until he falls asleep.  It has been amazing.  We all love him so much.  Sometimes Gavin overly loves him with his gigantic head or laying on him but it all comes from a good place so we can't really complain.  Constant vigilance is what we have to do around here.  I can't believe he is already 2 months old.  It seems like just yesterday we were in the hospital worrying about whether or not he was ever going to be hungry and try and latch onto me.  I want time to slow down.  Sometimes we get so caught up in the day to day stuff that we forget to just sit down and let the kids hold him in their awkward and dangerous ways (how else will they improve?) or just all hang out together.

I promise at some point I'll get to his birth story but for now, I'll just say that we love him and we're so glad he is in our family!

Happy Fall Y'all

It will kill me until forever that we'll never know what these apples are called.  They are the most delicious apples.  They are crispy but not hard, tart but not sour and they make the best applesauce in the world!  I don't even think I have ever followed a recipe for applesauce.  I just add cinnamon and little water so the apples don't scorch the bottom of the pot and then that's it.  No sugar even!  My favorite fall dessert is gingerbread with applesauce and cinnamonned (made that word up) whipped cream.  Doesn't get much better than that!

I think they will be mourned and missed every Fall once we're out of Canada.  Until then, we'll be enjoying lots of applesauce, apple crisp, and baked oatmeal with apples.  Yum, yum, yum!

Service Time

 

It was the annual food drive again this year and we finally got down a good routine.  Chloe was excited to play a bigger role in running from house to house while I drove slowly with our trunk open and the hazard lights on.  Tati was finally big enough to get out and help too and she even lasted longer than we expected her to.  Gavin on the other hand was just happy to watch a movie and eat some caramel popcorn.  We were a bit bummed to see how few people donated food this year especially since we put the flyers out with more notice than we did last time but I guess we should focus on the food we did get and the effort we made.  Plus, we can't forget about the good influence this whole program is on our kids and teaching them the importance of service!

2 Months Old!

 

Oh my goodness Oliver just cracks me up in that right picture!  He looks so dorky but cute and hilarious.  So what can Ollie do this month?

• He follows your voice with his eyes.
• He breaths fast when he gets excited.
• He moves his arms all around crazy when he gets excited.
• Smiles.
• Nurses lying down.

Other than that, he's just so mellow.  Sometimes I think he's dead because he is just so quiet and sleeps and sleeps or I think he's asleep because he's so quiet but then I notice he's actually awake and just chillin and taking in the world around him.  I just love him so much!  I wish I could have like 50 more of him without having to get fat and then have a c-section to make it happen.  ;-)

Sunday Sanity

 

Maybe it is just our family, but it seems like Sundays are our worst days.  It feels like it shouldn't be that way especially since we go to church and really make an effort to devote the day to the Lord, but that is the truth.  It is the day the kids seem most out of control and the day that me and Greg seem to most annoy each other (which could also be greatly influenced by experiences like this one pictured).  Gavin is in a very difficult phase right now.  Everything seems to be life or death to him and he will cry and cry and whine and whine and be so irrational.  So I'm just putting this out there for those of you who can relate to this picture.  You're not alone.  I know I'm not alone but sometimes it feels good and helpful to myself to admit it that I know we're not the only ones who struggle with our kids or with Sundays.

But let's all just not give up, ok?

Handsome Hair

I cute Gavin's hair and I was so THRILLED at how well it turned out!  I love him and his cute smile and even though it is annoying at times, I love how he'll never look at me in the eyes when I'm trying to take his picture.  He just wants to keep it real all day long.  ;-)

The frustrating thing about this success is that I really feel like I didn't do anything different except that it turned out so much better.  Let's hope I can pull it off again in a few months (if his hair can last that long)!

Our little artist

 

I just love this whole series of pictures because this is just so Gavin.  I asked him if he wanted to paint while he was still in his jammies.  Then he came downstairs naked and said he was ready.  I tried to convince him to put clothes on and a painting apron on top of clothes to protect his clothes from the paint when it dawned on me that if he painted naked, I didn't have to worry about any paint spilling on his clothes. (We have a BUNCH of craft paints from old projects and even some I picked up from church and sadly they are not "washable" so even though I think painting is fun, it kills me how quickly they can ruin the kids clothes.  I want to buy some kid/washable paints but I can't bring myself to waste all these perfectly good and still pretty full ones.)  So I let him go crazy and it made him so happy.  And since he is very unhappy these days in his wonderful mood swings, I thought I'd enjoy some "Happy Gavin" time.