Seven Weeks!

This past few weeks has flown by.  We are having so much fun with Keller.  Since the last time I updated a lot has happened.  Mike started classes one week after Keller was born. He loves his classes and is really enjoying what he is learning.  He is sitting beside me studying right now. It has been crazy to see him as a student again.  He was also asked to begin coaching all 12 city group leaders at our church.  He initially started with six so his load has doubled.  It has been encouraging to see how the Lord is stretching him.  Mike is doing a great job balancing his many duties.  I started teaching Childbirth classes again a few weeks ago, and have been finishing my final exam.  It has been fun to share my birth experience with the three couples in my class.  I also celebrated my 28th birthday and decided to train for a half-marathon.

Avery is continuing to enjoy her "little boo."  That would be Keller : )  She loves him so much and cries when I have to put him down for a nap.  It is so much fun to watch him smile when she talks to him.  She is also still enjoying the pool.  The week that Keller was born we had her in swimming lessons. Avery would tell the teacher everyday that she couldn't swim.  For about two more weeks she continued to tell us that, and then one day she went for it.  She has been swimming like a fish ever since.  Mike takes her to the pool almost every afternoon.  It amazes me how well she is doing.  

Keller is doing great.  We had a hard first few weeks but he is doing much better now.  I spent the first two weeks trying to make him like Avery.  I wasn't taking the time learn who he is and meeting his needs.  We spent one week at home so that I could focus on him and try to learn his cues and his needs and he has been a different baby.  He is finally sleeping pretty well at night and he is all smiles.  He has started cooing at us, and Avery tells everyone he can talk now.  He is so cuddly, and I am trying to make the most of this time.  

There is so much I could say and I have so many thoughts and wonderful memories from the past few weeks, but I really don't know where to start. I have tried to include a lot of pictures instead.  Sorry that the pictures are so out of order but my brain has been a little out of order these past few weeks : )

This is Avery at swim lessons.  She really enjoyed it, even if she did try to convince the teacher she couldn't do it.
Our little Keller man.  He is all smiles these days.  He is almost 8 weeks old. It is so hard to believe!
My precious family.  You can really tell in this picture how much Keller looks like Mike.  Our friends here will be carrying Keller around and say they feel like they are holding Mike.  Oh well, maybe our next one will look like me.
Avery has been so colorful lately.  She is literally colorful in this picture because she put makeup all over her forehead. I think I better work on makeup application a little longer.  She has been so much fun these past few weeks.  She makes me laugh so hard.  Last week she told Mike and I that when she stops wetting the bed she wants to get her nose pierced.  I have got my hands full!!
This is Keller meeting his great-grandmother for the first time.  My Mamaw is 86 this year and was delighted to meet Keller.  
This is Keller at seven weeks.  If you look really closely at the back of his head you can see that he has a huge cow lick.  Avery calls it his "noHawk."  You can't help but giggle when you see it.

One day while Keller was sleeping, Avery and I made playdough. She then wanted to turn it into a Dora cake and pretend it was her birthday.
This is Avery and her friend Joel.  They have so much fun together. One day he was over playing and they were very quiet. I walked in and they were reading books to each other. It was really cute.  I think she was educating him on all of the Disney Princesses.
Uncle Nate came to Orlando for a visit.  He got to meet Keller for the first time before he headed to California.  
Cinderella at her finest!  She wanted to dress like Cinderella and then vacuum the floor.  I promise I don't make her clean the house.

These next three pictures were taken when Keller was only one week old.  Leslie Larche so generously came to our home and took family photos for us.  We had such an amazing time smiling and laughing together.


 Thanks for keeping up with us!  We are blessed to be able to share this sweet time with others.