happiness

There are moments when I look at this baby boy and I try to drink up every ounce of the moment we are in. I can never have too many smiles, giggles, and cuddles from this little guy.

Oliver is getting so big, so fast. He is army crawling all over the place and wants to play with cords more than any baby toy. He's got opinions and can tell me what he wants through a series of grunts. His most enthusiastic grunts are when I'm drinking from a glass and he wants to share too. After taking a big gulp, a huge smile spreads across his face like he's proud of what he's done.

Life is good.

gray

Today, the asphalt matches the sky. And my little heart does too. Lots of sad things have happened to friends, family, and even those I don't know. The thing weighing most heavily on my mind today is the passing of a sweet baby girl. She and Oliver shared a birthday. I can't imagine the heart ache of losing a child.

I hope that I never let a day go by without cuddling my sweet child, loving my wonderful husband, and thanking my Heavenly Father for my beautiful family. Life is so precious, and sometimes so painfully short.

say yes to leg warmers

Someday he may hate me for this... but for now I have free reign on his wardrobe :)

help please?

I'm not much of a blog designer... and most of the blogs I read I use google reader anyway. How do I get the image of us (in the title) to be smaller? Way smaller?? I like the picture of our family but it is SO big and a bit much for my liking. Any suggestions?

Thanks!

Oliver's first ferry ride

One day, while feeling particularly lonesome in the countryside, I suggested a Seattle trip. The ferry terminal is about 25 minutes away and from there it takes about an hour to ferry across to Seattle. Not too shabby.

While on the ferry, we kept getting smiles from strangers and people pointing at Oliver. He was sucking his thumb and staring people down.

Oliver was content in his stroller for about half of our trip. The other half he proceeded to cry until we either held him or put him in our carrier. I had the wishful idea that he might just decide to take a nap or two in his stroller but no such luck. He barely slept in the carrier. I guess there was just too much excitement around us.

From the ferry we walked to Pike's Place. It was a Saturday. The place was insanely crowded. We saw some flying fish and sampled some yummy fresh fruits and even chocolate pasta (gross, in my opinion). We made the rookie mistake of thinking we could maneuver a stroller through the Saturday summer crowds and it was just too difficult. We'll probably ditch the stroller for the next trip. Oliver was getting cranky and hungry so we left the market area and found a park a block away so I could nurse him. I settled in on a park bench. At this point he was hungry and tired, a winning combination... and he had no desire to be under a nursing cover in the warm sun. Feeding him was a bit of a struggle, but the icing on the cake was the drug deal that was going down about a foot away from us. What can I say, we love adventure!

The next place we wanted to go was the Olympic Sculpture Park. It's outdoors and you can walk along the waterfront to get there. The weather was absolutely perfect. We admired the sculptures, pushed along an empty stroller, and attempted to convince Oliver to nap. We ate fish and chips along the water and then walked to the Seattle library to admire the architecture and take a self guided tour of the inside. We called it a day and caught a ferry back home.

We are definitely looking forward to some more exploration of Seattle. Tony and I agreed that it had such a different vibe than Portland, even though people often compare the two cities. I hear there is a lot of good food to try and I'm looking forward to our next trip!