Gus - 1 Week and 1 Day

Here's Gus in one of his more alert moments.

Week 1

We finally had some time to put some more pictures up. Allison and I have talked about how that is the biggest difference in our lives we've noticed so far -- every day goes by so much faster.

Both sets of grandparents were down here helping out last week which helped a lot. Thank you very much for making the first week at home so much easier. Gus has been sleeping great the last two nights. He has slept in 4 hour stretches consistently. Hopefully it stays that way. Also, he doesn't cry unless he's hungry or has a surprise for us in his pants. Basically, he's a perfect kid.

Congratulations to Uncle Josh and Aunt Christy on your wedding last weekend. We wish we could have been there. The video of the cermony looked great. From the video and what everyone has said it was beautiful. You two are perfect for each other. The three of us wish for you a long happy life together.

Here's the pictures...




Uncle Chad with Gus at the hospital.


Aunt Stephanie and Uncle Mike holding some random kid in the hospital. Just kidding, that's Gus they're holding.


Grandpa Dave and you guessed it -- Gus.



He's a little smaller than me at this point.



Adorable.



Not a happy camper.



"Hi there."


Nice hat...



...but it's a little big.



Thanksgiving picture with Grandma and Grandpa V.


Grandpa and Grandma P. with their new Grandson.



That carseat is pretty comfortable.




"There is nothing on TV tonight."



"Uncle" Brett with the little guy. Actually he is second-cousin Brett but we figure we'll explain that to Gus later on.


Our new family on our first Thanksgiving.



Tired.

That's all for now.

Good night,

Ross, Allison, and Gus

Proud Parents!

Gus Alan was born at 2:41 a.m. on 11/17/2007. He weighed in a healthy 7 pounds and 10 ounces. He wasn't as tall as we thought he'd be at 19 and 3/4 inches. He's in good health and we couldn't be happier.

Allison did great -- she is tough as nails. Both Mom and Gus are doing great. He's been successful at latching on to eat twice now. We've been spending almost every minute of the day staring at the little guy. He's absolutely perfect.

Here's some pictures of Gus right after he was born.

"So that's where the voice is coming from that I've heard for the last 10 months."

The specs on Junior.

"Lady, take that cold metal thing off of me. Now!"

He didn't enjoy being weighed.

It's an unbelievable feeling to be parents. We couldn't be more blessed! We wanted to say thank you to all our family and friends who have helped us through this and have been so kind.

R&A

Kickin' Baby

The Home Stretch!

It shouldn't be long now. The official due date is 3 days away. We thought we'd better get another picture up before it's too late. The little guy has been kicking like a madman the last couple of days. We've been telling him that if he'd just come out he would have all kinds of room to stretch out.



We realized that the baby shower pictures were never posted. Steph flew into town and helped put the final touches on Junior's room while she was here for the shower. Here she is putting together a little nightstand. Steph always has loved power tools.

Michelle hosted the baby shower. Our friend Carin put together a diaper cake.

Allison holding up a Baby Bjorn.

I'm not sure about this.

Opening gifts...

A while back we were visiting a few some daycare centers to get an idea of what they were all about. At one of them they told us to enter our names in a drawing for a bike. Junior won! He might be a little too young to ride it though.

Allison turned 30 on Friday. We had a surprise party for her at an Italian restaurant in Plymouth. Brett, Mike & Michelle, Buzz & Tara, Paul & Jaime, Carin & Alex, and Holly were all there. Allison didn't have a clue -- it worked out perfectly.

That's all for now.

Good Night.

37 Weeks and Junior's Room

We haven't posted pictures of Allison lately so we thought we'd better put some up. We're not far away from D-day. I guess we better start thinking about getting a hospital bag and the car seat ready.

We had a good weekend. Steph was in town for Junior's baby shower. We also had friends in town and it was fun to see some people we haven't seen for a long time. Junior was spoiled rotten at the shower and he thanks everyone for all the gifts.

While the ladies were off doing the baby thing, us men played some cards and watched a little college football. It was fun to see the Bison whip up on the Gophers.

Well, here's Allison.

And me too...

Allison did some more work on Junior's room and took a few pictures with her wide angle lens. They look pretty good.

Here's some truck pictures and the crib with the bedding and a few gifts in it.

Here's one corner of the room.

Thank you aunt Steph for the wall clock.

And once again...the grand finale.

Well, the World Series isn't too exciting so far. It looks like the Red Sox are whipping up on the Rockies.

A little baseball humor ...

A man walks into a bar with a dog. The bartender says, "You can't bring that dog in here."
"You don't understand," says the man. "This is no regular dog, he can talk."
"Listen, pal," says the bartender. "If that dog can talk, I'll give you a hundred bucks."
The man puts the dog on a stool, and asks him, "What's on top of a house?"
"Roof!"
"Right. And what's on the outside of a tree?"
"Bark!"
"And who's the greatest baseball player of all time?"
"Ruth!"
"I guess you've heard enough," says the man. "I'll take the hundred in twenties."
The bartender is furious. "Listen, pal," he says, "get out of here before I belt you."
As soon as they're on the street, the dog turns to the man and says, "Do you think I should have said 'DiMaggio'?

Later,

R&A

Granola

We've been making our own granola bars for awhile now ever since we saw it on an episode of "Good Eats" on the Food Network. I like these better than the packaged ones you buy in stores since you can put what you want in them and they're not so full of sugar. The official recipe is:

Dry Ingredients
8 ounces of oats
1.5 oz of wheat germ
1.5 oz of raw sunflower seeds
3 oz of almonds

The other ingredients
6 oz honey
1.75 oz brown sugar
1 oz butter
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt

Since I don't like to use the official recipe we have experimented a few times and found some combinations we like. In this particular batch we used a big pile of oats and smaller piles of wheat germ, flax seed, sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds.

1. Mix up the dry ingredients on a cookie sheet and toast for 15 minutes at 350 degrees stirring occasionally.

2. Bring the other ingredients to a boil on the stove top. We generally use half a honey bear, some brown sugar, vanilla, and peanut butter.

3. Take the toasted dry ingredients out of the oven and mix into the liquid.

4. Grease a glass baking pan and pour the mixture in. Press down firmly with another pan.

5. Bake at 300 degrees for 25 minutes.

6. Let them cool and slice 'em up.

There, now everyone can be on their way to healthier snacks. Warning, these don't taste like the store bought variety and some people may not like them. If you fall into this category I would suggest purchasing the ones you like in the store.

Junior

We had an appointment on Friday and everything is going fine -- nothing new to report. There's another appoinment this Friday. We're in the homestretch now!

Allison had her baby shower this weekend over at Mike and Michelle's. We had friends in town from Fargo, Iowa, Omaha, and of course the Minneapolis metro area. Junior was very appreciative of all the nice presents he received. He's lucky to have such a great group of friends and family. I'll try to get some Junior related pictures up soon.

Good Night.