Baby Poll

Oooooh, look to your left! I learned the other day how to create a poll on the blog and how to link other blogs (thanks Brian!). Woohoo! I hope the poll works for you...vote for one of the generic answers and then if you want to be more specific, put it in my comments and we'll see who wins.

For background information...my children have been 8, 12, and 19 days early, respectively. Two have been born on Saturday, one on Wednesday. Two have been born the day before a holiday, one was born on both a holiday and his Grandpa's birthday. Two have been born on the 1st of the month, one on the 30th (nice, simple, easy numbers, right?!)

My pick is February 6th, 2008...Luke's is February 29th, 2008.

I know this post should have been about Christmas, but I want to wait until we get home and I can upload pictures! We had a wonderful Christmas Family Reunion in California, and I'll tell you all about it in a few days!

Uggggh!

One of my all-time favorite traditions is watching family home movies on Christmas Eve. I love home movies! So, today, since we are going to be gone on Christmas Eve and because I had to get the camera cued up for Christmas morning, I thought I'd watch our home movies with the kids.

Not so.

The eject button on my video camera is broken.

I can't get the current tape out. We watched Peter and Ashlyn's wedding video...all three minutes of it (Luke has ADD, I think) about seven times, and that's all the home movies I get this year.

LAME!!!

At least the video is only three minutes full, so we have it all ready for Christmas morning. Does that mean that next year I get to watch the wedding video and one Christmas and that's it?!

We've had this well-loved camera for seven years, and my birthday is in four months...I think it's time to go digital...hint, hint!


P.S. Peter and Ashlyn...if we ever do get the tape out of the camera, we will copy the three minute wedding video and give it to you. The highlight is Aunt Karen's (not G-rated) commentary, and Peter flexing, of course!

First, Last Post

Well, here we are! If you scroll down about six posts, you can see pictures dating back to Halloween. Then read the posts backwards if you want them chronologically! Hopefully now that we're a little bit settled, I'll be able to get back into the habit of posting more, complete with pictures and all the funny things that happen in our typical day! Over the last couple of weeks about a million things have happened that were blog-worthy, but of course, recalling them right now is impossible.

Speaking of recalling, it just occurred to me that I didn't post a picture of EmJ's first day in her new school. She is loving her new Kindergarten class, teacher, and taking the bus! Luke is less than thrilled that in the last week she has learned about Hanukkah and Kwaanza, but not Christmas!

Anyway, we're still here. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving and are looking forward to Christmas and all that comes with it! Enjoy the next few posts of pictures and updates from us!

ATVs and a new, old House

I couldn't leave out this picture. While in Mazatlan, we took a ferry to Stone Island and rented an ATV to tour the island. It was gorgeous, and so much fun! We could have done the cruise sponsored ATV tour, complete with goggles, helmets, waivers, and a max of 5 mph, all for $110/person. Instead, it was just the two of us, an ATV, no maximum speed, all for $30. Brilliant! I think they must have pretended not to notice that I was pregnant. Oh, and the faster you go the smoother the ride. The baby loved it!

This is what we came back to after the cruise! Our house! No more renting for us! And no more white walls...well, as soon as we get the painting done. And while I'm on the subject, let me officially announce on the blog (although I think all my loyal blog readers are already aware) that we have moved to Seattle, back into our old house, AND we're expecting baby number four, a little girl, in March.

For the kids, this move was like Christmas! Emmeline and Joshua kept unpacking toys and saying, "Remember this!?" Benjamin has been literally immersed in books since we unpacked them. It's so cute!

The boys' room, the baseball room! It looks already very lived in with messy beds and monster trucks littering the floor. Joshua is so proud of his room, and Benjamin loves sleeping on a big boy bed.

The girls' room. This room, though already a mess of stuffed animals and Polly Pockets, remains unfurnished. We're working on it! Emmeline keeps asking me to paint pink flowers on the green part of the wall. We'll see. The curtains are about as much frill as I can handle right now.

Mexican Riviera Cruise

I'm not sure if you can tell in this picture, but we lucked out and got a cabin with two twin beds and a set of bunkbeds! What?! Actually, when we first got on the ship, Luke's company had us bunking in separate rooms with three (male) roommates each. We were so excited to get our own room that we didn't even complain about the bunk bed situation.

Towel animals were a highlight of our day! We saved them all until the end of the week and took a group photo.

Puerto Villerta
Whew! You can find McDonald's anywhere! And no, we didn't actually eat here, or anywhere but the ship for that matter. We just thought it was fitting that amongst all the authentic Mexican cuisine were some greasy fries.

And, of course, the evening's towel animal!

Pictures!

It's autumntime!

Emmeline won an award for outstanding achievement in math. She was so cute marching up onto the stage to get her award!

Emmeline and her teacher, Mrs. Gallagher.

A cruise to Mexico!? You bet! Luke's really excited in this picture because we had just been told that lunch was waiting for us on board. Seeing as we don't drink or gamble, we pretty much just gorged ourselves for a week on this wonderful getaway!

And, finally, me in Cabo San Lucas...right before it started raining.

Halloween

Batman "Nanan", Superman "Nanan" (like the mask, courtesy of our latest JetBlue redeye flight?!), "Flower" Emmeline's alter-ego, Bacon, and Eggs (or rather, Egg, one really fat, pregnant one)!

Pictures!!

We went to Utah in October, and had the opportunity to visit with Luke's mission president and mission "mom." It was a wonderful evening, and I hope we'll get the chance again soon!

Let me explain. Luke was playing flyer's up with the boys and managed to get a baseball stuck in Grandma's tree. He tried to get it first by throwing a bat up there, but the bat also got stuck. Enter a frisbee. The frisbee knocked down the bat, but failed to dislodge the ball. At which point, Luke decided to climb the tree. He still couldn't reach the ball, so had to throw a broom from his spot on the branch to the ball. After about 15 attempts the ball finally fell, and Luke climbe down unscathed. I would have just left the ball up there until it rained.

Benjamin joined us for a morning of loading the moving truck in late October. (We transported our stuff before we transported ourselves.) Obviously, running up and down the truck ramp wore him out! I think that this is the first time he's ever fallen asleep without Wilson (his pink elephant).