Oliver update

Okay, so I've been terrible about posting any pics of my beautiful baby (sorry Mom!)-- so here they are. It's hard to believe that he is already 3 months old! He is such a good baby and I am cherishing every moment with him. He already has so much personality and is such a joy to all of our family. So here's some things about him:

• We moved him from the bassinet into his crib in the nursery and he sleeps from 8-10 hrs a night (usually from 10pm to 6-8 am). I know! I told you I love this baby!
• He LOVES to coo and smile and now he is starting to giggle. Bob, Isaac and Uncle Ben are the best at getting him to laugh, but I get a few giggles every day myself. He is very ticklish under his neck! I love it! He also loves talking to himself in the mirror of his baby swing.
• After Isaac and Addie are in bed, he knows it is tub time and is grouchy if he doesn't get one every night. He loves splashing and just chillin' in the water.
• He's a good eater and nurses about every 3 hours during the day.
• I'm very sad to say that I can already see his two bottom teeth :( I hope they don't pop through for a long time still.
• He's pretty tolerant of Isaac and Adeline constantly wanting to hold him... we'll see how long that lasts.

That's about it. We are definitely out and about now with the beautiful spring weather and he does well in either his jogging stroller or my Moby baby wrap. He also does very well in the car-- see, I told you he was a wonderful baby!

P.s. the beautiful lady holding Oliver in the first picture is not me, just so you know. It's his gorgeous Aunt Lonni.

Oliver's nursery

I'm finally posting pics of Oliver's nursery. Really I didn't change it much from before... but a fresh coat of paint works wonders. The thing I love most are the bugs on the wall -- they are actually fabric pieces that I cut out and pasted up! You can dip fabric in liquid fabric starch (wicked cheap at Walmart) and stick them up on the wall- just like wallpaper. The beauty of it is, you can just wet it down and take the fabric off when you want a change--- no damage to the wall or the fabric. You can literally paste up whole panels of fabric like wallpaper, and then wash the fabric out when you're done and use it for something else. So easy, cheap and fun. I'm so glad I learned this trick to keep up with my kids' ever-changing decor preferences.

Oliver's picture debut

Okay, so here are a couple pics of my adorable new baby Oliver that my very talented friend Wendy Anderson captured. You can see more of them on her photography site (wendyandersonphotography.blogspot.com)
This football one was for you Rob.

I love you Rob/Dad/Papa...

We lost Bob's Dad unexpectedly on Sunday. His obituary (here is the link) doesn't begin to cover his life and influence, but I thought I'd share it with everyone. Please keep Bob in your prayers-- we are all heartbroken.

Introducing Oliver

Oliver Thomas Koger, our newest bundle of joy arrived late last night February 1st at 11:51 PM! 7lbs. 8oz, 20.5 inches, and born with a stylin' dark brown faux hawk. I am feeling great at the moment-- just overjoyed that everything went so well and for the numerous blessings poured upon us all. We arrived at LDS hospital just 2 hours before a not-so-comfortable, but mercifully quick labor and delivery. Bob is in a sleep-deprived, blissful stupor with the rest of us. Having been through this three times now, I can say that he is the ultimate birthing coach-- there's nobody else I'd rather have with me through such a miraculous experience.

We plan on being here until Thursday morning, and the kids are staying with Bob's parents (THANKS!). Thanks to everyone for their prayers and support. We can't wait for you to meet him!

Seven weeks and counting. . .

So, I felt the obligation to post some ever-so-flattering pregnancy pics (this ones for you fam)! So here I am in all of my 33 week glory. I'm feeling good, things are going well -- just the normal stuff that comes with getting bigger: back aches, impossible to find any comfortable sleeping position, and shrinking stomach, lung and bladder capacities!

Halloween fun

It was another gorgeous Halloween this year! Perfect! The kids had Friday off of school, and we kicked things off with an awesome ward party Thursday night... so it's been a crazy, sugar-filled couple of days. The kids definitely had plenty of opportunities to dress up. Isaac and Addie both intended on being Spiderman and a princess for the third year running, but both changed their minds last minute. Good thing I have a lot of costumes and spare fabric hanging around my house. If your wondering about my costume, it would make more sense if Bob, the other half of our dynamic duo, was in the picture. He was a scarecrow and I was a crow (thanks to my coworker for the great idea). It worked really nicely with wearing maternity clothes!

Trick-or-treating was great! I love seeing all the older folks in our neighborhood get so excited to see the kids. We actually made it all the way around our neighborhood this year before the kids gave up and started complaining that they were tired and that their candy bags were too heavy! I'm not sure I ever voiced that complaint when I was a kid! They are both asleep now, probably enjoying some sugar-induced dreams. I'm not sure that I'm excited for church tomorrow--- should I expect a Primary full of sugar-high kids with candy contraband or crashed out grumpy kids? Should be fun!

Plentiful Pumpkins!

This is a little late in posting, but I had to brag about my green-thumb, overall wearing hubby. . . Bob finally achieved his four year long dream of taking first place in the pumpkin division at the Utah State Fair! Previously, his pumpkins only took fifth and fourth place, but this year he was pretty determined. He is now one happy man! You have to submit two pumpkins from one plant. Then they are judged not only for shape and color, but consistency. Like most years, the pumpkins took over about half of our garden. Here's a sample of the rest of our "not so worthy" pumpkins that are now adorning our front porch. Personally, the cinderella pumpkin is my favorite. Don't ya just LOVE FALL! And in case you were wondering: Yes, we are dorks, and proud of it!

We're having a baby...

BOY! We all knew that's what it was-- but it's nice to have solid evidence now. More importantly, everything looked good and healthy on the ultrasound. He was very cooperative through the whole thing. Now I just have 19 more weeks of waiting. I'm definitely going to "live it up" for the next couple of months while I'm actually feeling good again.

So, I do have to share a series of conversations I had with Isaac about the sex of the baby. He was adamant that it would be a boy. He justified that it fit with the pattern (boy, girl, boy, girl). You can tell he's a first grader. Early in the pregnancy, after he saw some of the initial ultrasounds, he asked how we would know if was going to be a boy or a girl. So I explained fairly matter-of-factly:
"Well, in a few more weeks we'll go and get another picture of the baby. If it has a penis, it's a boy. If it doesn't, it's a girl."
Then he concluded on his own: "So,it could be a boy right now, it just hasn't grown it's penis yet?"
"Uh, yep." That's about what it comes down to I guess.
So, today when I reminded him that we were going to get another ultrasound today he asked:
"So, we're going to find out today whether or not it grew a penis yet?"
"Yep"
He was a very happy big brother when he heard the news!

The crazy Koger campers of Currant Creek

Now say THAT 5 times fast!

We just returned from probably our first successful (aside from a few hiccups) family camping trip this last weekend. All in all, we had a blast! I think if it were up to Adeline, we would never sleep in anything but a tent again! Of course she got a nap in the car ride there. The drive to Currant creek (up past Heber City) was adventurous to say the least, and took about 2 hours longer than anticipated due to the treacherous road we accidentally meandered onto. But we were happy to arrive with the car and all tires intact, even if we were late!

Now, the entire reason we went to Currant creek was off the recommendation of an avid fisher/co-worker of mine. We must not be up to par with his angler skills because this was all that we caught in three days:

Ben and the baby fish that he hooked through the eye.

And Bob "fishing out" Isaac's pole. . . again. Although you've got to admit that takes talent!

But the kids thought the fishing was the best, even if we didn't catch anything (they were mostly relieved that they didn't have to eat any that I was planning on cooking if we caught any)!

The kids loved the nature hikes and making collages of their finds.

Here is Addie with her forest Princess.

And we had a GREAT hike and didn't even end up carrying either of the kids!

Here is Adeline and Bob playing Princess crazy 8's in the tent during some down time.

Of course the best part for me was the food-- it was all great and I didn't really have too much pregnancy nausea the whole time. Bob's brother Ben and his wife Lonni were with us the first night, which was great. The second night was a little simpler with roasted corn-on-the -cob and hot dogs, but we all thought it was divine! The topper was having Daddy tell and read stories around the camp fire. I think we might actually do this whole family camping thing a lot more often (once we get a bigger car).

Summer so far

Since summer is almost over (can you believe it!), I thought I'd actually post something.

My painting and couponing has pretty much been abandoned this summer. Our garden has been left to it's own devices- so it's been an interesting and very green harvest so far. Bob and I have been making a lot of pickles and freezing a lot of peppers. It's interesting to see what flourishes without any TLC.

As I said before, we've mostly been playing in our own yard with neighborhood friends (we're pretty popular with our monkey bar dome) and park hoping. We've done a little fishing (which consists of Adeline casting and retrieving the same toy plastic fish over and over again-- but is just as excited each time:"Look! I caught another blue fish)! We hope to do some real fishing and camping this weekend (wish me luck).

For the holidays, we always have a great time at the Koger's for our own little 4th of July Firework show. The picture is of Isaac with his Aunt Eve. Isaac is sporting his very fashionable and functional ear protectors (he won't come near fireworks unless he has them to block out the sound).The kids and I were also part of the 24th Hand cart day parade with our Primary here in Bountiful, and Bob took the day off of work to volunteer at the concessions during the festivities.

And we've also consumed a lot of s'mores and read a lot of books. It's been a good summer!

So... I've been busy

I know it's been forever since my last post, but here is the official proof that I have an excuse! Well, partly anyway. Yes, we are expecting our third in February! Here is a shot from today's 12 week appointment. Other than the normal pregnancy blah everything is great. But needless to say, all the nausea,vomiting, fatigue, etc. has really put a damper on my blogging amongst other things. Can you believe the summer is already half over!? The kids and I have been staying busy mostly playing with friends and family around home and frequenting the local playgrounds. We are also in the care of my friends adorable 3 month old baby Tuesday-Fridays. It's been good for all of us to get back in the baby mode! But yet another reason I've been a little tied up. Wish me luck!

Addie the Graduate

Today was Adeline's graduation from Preschool. My neighbor Mrs. Cope taught her this past year and was AMAZING! Adeline loved it and grew so much. This was unfortunately Mrs. Cope's last year teaching :( So Addie and I will be doing our own little home preschool next year.

Anyway, the graduation ceremony was precious! The amount of work and detail put into it was amazing. The kids all sang a couple of songs (complete with sign language), and had their own parts in the ceremony (Addie was the greeter). The best part was Mrs. Cope's personal awards that she made for each child. Here is what she said about Addie:

"Adeline loves to pretend to be a princess. She is small and petite with a tiny voice, but don't let that fool you! She is a small, petite ball of fire, who is very independent. She loves to do things all by herself, and does not like to be helped. Mrs. Cope learned that the first day of school when she tried to help Adeline write her name. At the time, Addie did not know how to write her name, but insisted that she DID know how to write her name and would not accept any hand-over-hand assistance. So, Mrs. Cope got out Adeline's name card and asked her to copy it, which she did, and has continued to do to this day. Adeline is the youngest of all the children in Mrs. Cope's preschool class and probably has the best handwriting! She knows how to open wrappers all by herself, put on her shoes and jacket all by herself, put her chair away all by herself. . . She says she wants to be a princess or a nurse when she grows up. Mrs. Cope thinks that whatever Addie wants to do, she will! The Provident Living Award for "Excellence in Self-Sufficiency" goes to: Adeline Koger!"

I thought that "Excellence in Self-Sufficiency" was a nice way of saying "Stubbornness." I know it's a quality that I will come to appreciate in her. . . someday.

More pioneer pics

Okay, there were just too many cute pictures-- I had to post some more :) Isaac was pretty impressed that pioneers had "3D" picture viewers. Oh, and if you're wondering about the picture of Bob: we had the wood guy fit him for a coffin while we were there. . . just in case ;)

Do you love your goat?

Bob sure loved this one. Too bad we're not zoned for goats here in Bountiful :(

Monday we went to This Is The Place Heritage Park here in Salt Lake (where the pioneers first arrived). It seemed fitting as a Memorial Dayactivity, plus we've always wanted to go there. I was a little worried that it would be too boring for the kids (anything dry and historical is exciting for Bob), but it was awesome and the kids LOVED it and so did we. We were there for over five hours and still didn't see everything. There was a ton of traditional building going on (that I think any of my family would love to learn). One of the few real tinsmiths in the U.S. works his craft in Heritage Village. There was also rope making, wood carving, a tailor and cobbler, hat making, furniture-maker’s shop, newspaper print shop, and the saddlery. There were also women carding wool and spinning it into yarn, weaving, and making lace. Not to mention the Native American village and tons more.

The kids got to see all of these things, but also got to help with pioneer type chores (like Isaac beating the rug-- I think I'm going to get rid of my vacuum now). They attended mock school, and road the trains (named "Jupiter" and the "119" after the two trains that met at Promontory point), but Isaac chickened out of getting a straight edge shave by the barber/dentist/surgeon. But they worked leather, made snake toys and marbles, played pioneer games and dances, rode ponies, made arrow head necklaces . . . and I don't know what else, but it was a blast! It was also Baby animal day-- which is where the goat came in (were you wondering?). Addie was pretty attached to the lambs and Isaac loved the bunnies. Great day--