Family Picture Outtakes

When we took pictures of the kiddos, there were some that inevitably didn't turn out. Here's some of the funnier ones.

love Ocean's side eye

all sorts of things happening in this one, tho I do like Ocean's smile

Ocean looks like he's posing for one of those 80's double silhouette photos

River's cheesing it up and Ocean is done

I told them to stick their fingers in their ears. The boys both did one ear.

the boys trying to do "I'm watching you" with their fingers

this is so Ocean: a blur of movement while everyone else does what they're supposed to

Ocean found his pockets!

love River and Sunshine's expressions

Ocean again :) totally looking at the wrong camera

Family Photos, Part 1

While we were at the park this weekend, I played around with the 50mm lens we got for Christmas. Why did I put it off for so long? (oh wait, I've been pretty busy since Christmas...) It made a huge difference in photo quality and I can't wait to use it more.

We are getting family pictures done next week, so these are part 1, and just individual shots of everyone. I edited them a bit, and I'm quite happy with how they turned out.

Ocean has such an expressive little face. And look at those cheeks!

River decided to practice his solemn faces in his photos. I would have liked to get some smiles, but the fact that I got two clear photos of him sitting still was a win that I'll take.

This was the only one of Sunshine that I really liked, but I think it tuned out well- she even has a happy, non-forced smile. Which is harder to get than you'd think. I like how the pinks and blue pop against the fallen leaves.

It's hard to get good pics of Mr M. He gets self-conscious and ends up looking like he's in pain. So I'm particularly happy with these photos of him. In the first one he was laughing about the funny faces he always makes. In the second one it looks like he's pointing something out to Ocean. I love their expressions. And we actually got a good smile in the third photo :)

After I took photos of everyone, Mr M took a turn behind the lens and was able to get this one of me, which I thought turned out pretty good.

Weekend Road Trip

This past weekend we drove to West Virginia to check out the area of a potential job location. The job sounds like it would be a great fit and way more stable than what Mr M currently does, but we wanted to make sure we liked the area before we moved forward with the job hunt. If we hated the area, it would be time to look for other job options.

We tried to time the trip with peak fall foliage, and we were partially successful. Some trees had lost all their leaves already, some were beautiful technicolor, and some were still green.  We thought this overlook was quite scenic.

While we were driving around, we randomly found this really cool park. Ocean needed to eat, so Mr M took the older two to stretch their legs while Ocean hung out with me.

Mr M was way too tall for the zip line, and even Sunshine was a bit too tall for it. It did spark her imagination though and now she thinks we need a super-elaborate zip line for the tree house.

River didn't want to hold still for the camera, so I "helped" him.

Sunshine has no such issues and had fun hamming it up for the camera. I think she was pretending to be scared of a dragon in the photo above.

This is just the front side of the play structure- there was a lot more on the backside. Isn't it so cool? The sad thing is, we were the only ones there. It was a little chilly, but we thought there'd be at least some kids there on a Saturday afternoon.

We went to the local ward Sunday morning, and we've never been welcomed to a ward by so many people. It's a small ward and they were very excited at the prospect of a new family. We've lived in a small ward, so we totally understand :) They were disappointed that we were just visiting, but hopeful that we'd return.

Will we return?

Probably- as long as we can find a job. The job we want was available 6 months ago, but the application website wasn't working. So we know the job we want exists, we just have to wait for the right timing, which apparently isn't right now. Hopefully in the next year or two, though.

The area is beautiful, though parts are more hilly than our current location, which brings an extra element of adventure when driving on narrow, twisty roads. And there's definitely neighborhoods that haven't seen an influx of money in a really long time. There are also some nicer areas, so it's not all crumbling abandoned houses and derelict single wides (seriously- so. many. single wides). The lure of affordable acreage with a nice mix of pasture and trees and the possibility of building our dream log cabin has us excited for what the future could bring.

In the meantime, we'll focus on getting out of debt and fixing up the kitchen and master bath- the last major projects in the house.

Edited to add (because I forgot to mention this): We haven't taken too many road trips lately, and none since Ocean was born. We have a longer road trip coming up in December when we head west for my brother's wedding, so this was a good opportunity to see how things work on a smaller scale. Three kiddos in the backseat of a Camry Hybrid is a very different experience from one kiddo in the backseat of a Chevy Avalanche pulling a travel trailer. Not as comfortable, but the mileage was soooo much better.

2 Years

River recently celebrated his second birthday, which is just crazy, in my opinion. There's no way it's already been two years since this happened:

And it was just one year ago that he transformed from a shaggy-haired baby to a little boy when we gave him his first haircut shortly after his first birthday.

These days River likes to do what Sunshine does, so we find him here a lot:

He thinks he's one of the big kids and likes to tag along at park days.

playing in the rain- everyone was soaking wet and having a blast

wanting to join in on whatever game the big boys were playing

River loves his baby brother and is always giving him hugs and kisses. He started out just wanting to hold Ocean for a second or two at a time, but now will sit and hold him for longer than that.

We're transitioning him from his crib to a twin size bed, but it's proving rougher than we anticipated. Sunshine went from her crib to what we later called her "Harry Potter room", and it was fairly easy. This time around we haven't yet moved the crib into Sunshine's room for Ocean, so River kept wanting to sleep in that rather than his bed. He was excited about the idea of the bed, but not so much the reality of it. He's coming around though and is staying in his bed and sleeping better.

excited about the big boy bed in his room, right after we set it up

Back in July I mentioned that River was in speech therapy. He continues to progress, but we're not sure if it's because he's maturing or if the therapy is working, or a combination of the two. Probably the latter. He is saying more words, though they're not clearly enunciated. He randomly busts out with words, but he only says them once- if we try to get him to repeat it, he refuses. He does not perform for us or anyone. He does have a few 2-3 word phrases that he uses infrequently. One of these days he'll skip straight to talking in full sentences. In the meantime, we're continuing to teach him new signs and he knows a lot more than Sunshine ever did. Being able to figure out what he needs is actually a downside at this point. He knows we know what he wants/needs, so there's very little incentive for him to communicate verbally. We're now working on changing that thought process and habit.

River isn't as fond of stuffed animals as Sunshine is, but she's rubbing off on him and he does have a couple stuffed animals he likes. A little stuffed dog is his favorite, mostly because he also really likes dogs. "Dog" and "woof" are two of his most often used words.

snuggling the giant dog (bigger than him!) at Costco. no, we did not take it home with us :)

I made gluten free carrot cake cupcakes for River's birthday cake. As I frosted them I realized I totally slacked off- Sunshine got a super-cool Nemo cake for her 2nd birthday. But she didn't have a 2 month old younger sibling draining mommy's brain cells. We had lots of cousins around for Sunshine's 2nd birthday, but it was just us for River's. I do enjoy making the more elaborate cakes, so I just need to plan ahead to make it happen next year. The planning will be key: September and October are when I work on Halloween costumes, so having a plan in place before then will make it a lot easier for me to quickly and efficiently make a fancy cake in the middle of sewing costumes.

River might be a lefty- if you look at the picture of him eating ice cream and the one of him writing at the school table you'll see that he's holding the spoon and the pencil in his left hand. That's a normal occurrence, though he does occasionally use his right hand for those tasks.

River is a sweet, happy little boy that we're blessed to have in our family!

One Month Old

Ocean has turned into a chubby little baby. He's definitely a good eater- he weighed 11 pounds at his 1 month checkup, which is 2 pounds 12 ounces more than his birth weight. He's gone from the 33rd percentile at birth to the 56th percentile at 2 weeks to the 78th percentile at 1 month for his weight. His height is still in the 55th percentile or so and his head is in the 93rd percentile. Smaller than Sunshine's big head, but bigger than River's was.

snuggling with sister

He gulps air while nursing which causes bubbles in his tummy. I have to burp him at least once during each session or he gets too uncomfortable. His burps are quite impressive- multiple loud longish belches. They make stealth nursing impossible :)

He frequently gets the hiccups, which upsets him. He frequently got the hiccups before he was born, so I'm not surprised that he still gets them.

snuggling with daddy

He's a smiley baby- the pediatrician caught one of his smiles while doing his one month checkup and she commented on it being a bit early for social smiles. His smiles are too frequent to all be gassy smiles though.

Ocean has a receding hairline and his hair is thinning :(  I think River lost some of his hair, but it started growing back in before he went bald. I'm really hoping that's the case for Ocean as well.

He's already working at holding his head up and is gaining more control of the wobbles. I carry him in the Boba carrier, and I think that helps strengthen his neck muscles.

He's not sure if he likes the pacifier, but he will suck on it when trying to get to sleep. He's found his fingers and thumbs a couple times, but hasn't figured out how to do it on a regular basis, hence the pacifier. We're thinking he'll probably stick with the pacifier, unlike River. Even at this age River was expressing his dislike for the pacifier and trying to suck his thumb every chance he could.

a rare thumb sucking instance, and I don't think he's flipping us off- wrong finger :)

Ocean sleeps long periods at night- he only wakes up to eat once or twice after I go to bed. So I'm not as sleep-deprived as I could be, though I'd like to get to bed earlier- he likes to stay up and get one last feeding in before settling down to sleep.

funny poses

He still thinks he should be held all the time. He'll tolerate the bouncy chair for short periods of time, but he would much rather snuggle with mommy. I'm enjoying the snuggle time, but it does make it harder to get stuff done around the house like meal prep, cleaning, projects, etc.

snuggling with mommy

He continues to sleep a lot during the day, which came in handy when I was driving Sunshine to her day camps. As long as he was sleeping, he didn't mind being in his car seat, but once he woke up, he complained about it. If we're home and I lay him down while he's sleeping he'll only sleep for a short period before waking up when he realizes he's not being held.

He's still a pretty calm baby and only fusses if he's hungry, has a bubble in his tummy, or wants to be held, so the fussing never lasts long. Sunshine was a much fussier baby (stomach issues because I wasn't gluten free yet), but River was also a pretty calm baby.