Merry Christmas!

On Sunday we celebrated our family Christmas. It was so fun. In the morning I made Paul's favorites (egg bake and sugar & spice puffs). He sugared and spiced them since that is one of his many skills. Oliver just had oatmeal and milk:). Then we had to wait while Oliver took a nap before we opened gifts. One part of my gift from Paul was to find a dual foot feeder for my sewing machine and to walk around JoAnn fabrics by myself for a long time. Our first Christmas as a family of 3!

My Google countdown clicker says 1 day, 9 hours and 51 minutes until we take off for MN. We are really excited to get home. We wish all of you a very Merry Christmas!

Belly laughs

Happy 5 months Oliver!

Anonymous Posts

Hi everyone! I did some more digging on the blog settings and now you can post as "anonymous", that is, without a google account. I thought I had it set up to do that, but apparently not!

Rolling Right

This is Oliver's new favorite activity. He can only go to the right so when he reaches the end of the blankets I flip him over. The most difficult part of this is that if he rolls off the blanket he inevitably spits up on the carpet.

Keep out of reach of children.

I can no longer leave Oliver in a room by himself. Paul's G'pa Boswell and G'ma Jean sent us a excer-saucer just in the nick of time!

I think his Christmas present this year will be a day where he gets to wear just his diaper. After we've let him play without his clothes, he throws quite a fit when we try to put on his pants. He kicks and cries.

So how are we doing?

I don't want this blog to simply be updates about Oliver, though I know everyone loves to see videos and pictures of him! People have been asking how we are doing, especially with being away from home for our first major holiday so I thought that I would reflect a bit...a little for me, a little for all of you. At this point I feel like I can honestly say we are doing really well. We are developing some really great friendships. One of our favorites is the youth pastor, his wife and daughter from our church. Its so nice that we both have kids under 1 because whoever is hosting takes out the pack-n-play and both kids sleep while we play board games and eat dessert! We spent Thanksgiving with the family of a mom I met through my moms Bible study at church. They were so warm, made really good food, and had fun little ones running around to play with. I met with the children's director from our church last week and I am so excited about the volunteering opportunities coming up for us and rubbing shoulders with her to learn. She has been doing this for 7 years and the program is much larger than what I have worked with before (250 kids regularly). I think the fog is starting to clear - we aren't so tired anymore or stressed out. We are finding routines that we really enjoy and of course we are finding more and more joy in parenting Oliver! I'm so thankful for God's faithfulness.

On the Move

This weekend Oliver mastered the role from back to tummy. He often does the roll with more ease, but this video captures the essential elements to pass Uncle Andy's rolling specifications.