Texas, here we come!

We are so excited, our trip is finally here! Matthew and I will leave to get Mike at his work in just a little while, and make the trek to Portland. Tomorrow morning we leave to fly to Austin,Texas. It will be Matthew's first airplane ride and we are both hoping he does really well with minimal crying. Our trip is so packed, but hopefully we get to see lots of our friends. Thursday we'll drive down to Houston to visit Mike's best friend Glen, his wife Lisa and their new baby Hayley. Friday we'll drive back to austin for my cousin Joan's wedding on Saturday. Sunday it's off to stay the night with my aunt and uncle. Monday morning we head to the DFW area, where we will spend the week seeing all of our friends. It will be a VERY busy time, and hopefully it doesn't mess Matthew up too much. We are very excited to spend Halloween with our good friends and all our kids. The four babies are going to look so cute in their costumes! It's so weird that so many of our friends, and us (!), have kids now. Oh how the times change so quickly!

Pumpkin Patch

What a beautiful Fall day it was today! Despite it being football Sunday, we did take a break from the games to visit the local pumpkin patch with Matthew. His first trip to the pumpkin patch! We had fun taking lots of pictures of him, and he didn't get TOO mad at us.

Great week!

Matthew met more family this week! Mike's sister and her family were here visiting this week and we had a great time. Matthew and I certainly love having people here with us during the day when Mike is at work. Matthew enjoyed watching the kids play and I'm pretty sure they all had fun getting to hold and love on little man. Family is so important to me, and it was so much fun to see Matthew and his cousins together. Hopefully they can get together and play as they get older. Matthew and I took yet another trip to the waterfalls with the family, and although it was a bit chilly out, it was a beautiful day. Boss got lots of attention, most especially from KC, the littlest one. He seemed to really love Boss and enjoyed sitting right on top of her. Boss didn't even flinch most times. It sure was quiet here after they left, but now we're getting ready for our big trip to Texas next week! We are so extremely excited to see all of our friends and some more of my family!

Here are a few pictures of this week:

Proud Aunt Jenny and Matthew

Uncle Clay with the kids

Matthew loved to be held by cousin Kassidy

Even Laney got to hold Matthew. KC just liked playing with his ears.

The family at the falls.

Tummy time!

So, with the whole "back to sleep" thing these days, we're told to make sure we put our babies on their tummies several times a day. What they do not tell you is there is a fairly good chance your baby will HATE tummy time. There was a long time there where I felt like the bad mommy because Matthew would get very angry when I would lay him on his tummy to play. I think there was some kind of turning point this week and he is doing so much better with tummy time! I mean, he'll last 3-5 minutes instead of seconds. This is progress people. He lets me know he's done by either flipping himself back over or by screaming bloody murder. Either way, he gets his point across. Anyway, these pictures are from this week--as you can see, it wasn't all torture.

Just some cute pics

Gangsta-like

Standing is my new favorite position
Talking to Babci
Ready for my close up
Getting stronger everyday.
Geesh....could my kid be ANY cuter?!?!

Who needs food....

when you have perfectly good arms and hands to eat?

3 months old!

I mean, really?! It's been 3 months already? Sometimes it seems like last week when he was a teeny tiny newborn. Of course other times it seems like he's been with us always. We are truly blessed to have this child and this family. When he's sitting on my lap, smiling and giggling at me singing silly songs to him, and his face just lights up, sometimes I think my heart will explode. This is not an exaggeration. By the way, don't you just love that open mouthed baby smile in the top picture???

A couple more pictures from today....