Bored?

The other day, Rion and I were talking about the baby. (of course) He asked the cutest thing, and it totally makes sense with Rion's age. He asked, "Isn't the baby bored in there?" I told him that no, the baby doesn't know any better, and she is just growing right now. He replied, "Can't you just swallow a game system for her or something?" Too cute. Yeah, cause she'll know exactly what to do with that, huh?

It's a Girl!

Yes, baby #4 is a GIRL! We are all so excited...except for Chase, but he'll get over it when he sees how cute she is. As of right now, her name will be Avery Janae. Hailey's middle name is Janae as well. Eric's sisters have the same middle name (Joy), so we thought we'd carry on the tradition.

Here are some fun pics of our precious girl!

If you look carefully, you can see that she has her feet crossed. What looks like a hand above the leg is actually the bottom of her other foot!

Face picture. These are always kind of creepy. :-)


This one is one of the favorites! Thumbs up to you too!

Now bring on the next 20 weeks!

Mama's Little Helper

Especially when it comes to power tools!

Missionary Activity

The Primary Presidency really outdid themselves on this one! They had everyone gather in the chapel (the "MTC) for their instructions, then they split up into their respective countries, borded their planes after going through the metal detector, had an in-flight movie and peanuts, and then off to their country. Eric walked around and visited all of the different countries that were taught by those that serverd their missions there. I stayed with Chase as he experienced Hong Kong. It was so fun to see souveniers and photos Brother Barclay had, and he even made fried rice! Yum! Eric had many different foods since he was walking around. I can't wait to get the rest of the pictures from the presidency. I'll post them once I receive them.

All in all, it was such a powerful experience. I hope the kids remember it always and remember the sweet spirit that was with us. What a wonderful day to remember!

Accessorize!

Hailey color-coordinates well, doesn't she? Hee hee hee

Family Pictures 2010

While we were in Fresno for Gerrit's baptism, we took the opportunity to get some family pictures taken with Angie and Tamara. I am still waiting for the full disk to arrive, but these are some of our family that Angie was able to email me. I can't wait to see the rest!

This one of Chase was the last photo that Stephanie took...and is probably the best one of Chase she was able to get. I'm so glad!

Friends

Savanna and Wesley are two of Chase's best friends.

This whole group of friends finds some way of playing as often as possible! It's so fun to have friends that live so close.

Easter Weekend

We had a wonderful Easter weekend. With General Conference this weekend too, it really made celebrating the Resurrection our Lord and Savior a special one. The conference addresses were very powerful, and I think I lost count how many times I actually started crying. I can't wait for the Ensign to come out!

On Saturday, we had lunch at the Bradshaw's inbetween conference sessions. The kids had an Easter egg hunt out in the backyard. Chase and Wesley kept watch to see where the best places to go were. So cute.


Today, we watched conference and had Easter lunch at my parent's house. Larry's family, Richard, Lori's family, and our cousin Jeni and her family joined us. I haven't seen Jeni since before Eric and I got married. It's been a while. It sure was nice to catch up. After we ate, we had an Easter egg hunt in the house (in case it started raining), and then had these strawberries for dessert. Mmmmm. I'll take these over Easter candy any day!

All in all, it was a wonderful Easter. I hope everyone felt the Spirit as strongly as we did. I am truly grateful for the Atonement in my life, and for a Savior that has prepared the way for me and my family to return home to our Father in Heaven.

My Favorites

Chase LOVES the camera and taking pictures. These are some of my favorites that he has taken recently. Maybe we should get him a camera for his birthday.

Last snow of the season?

....I sure hope so! I think I spoke too soon about those peach blossoms!

Peach Trees

Yay! My peach trees are still alive! Let's hope for continued warm weather so the blossoms get pollinated and we get peaches this year!

Braces

New braces for Rion! Complete with purple and black bands. Here's to the fun it will be for the next year!

It Must be the Water

Yes, we are adding to bazillion women already expecting out there! I did make the official announcement on Facebook a couple of weeks ago, but thought I'd better finally put it on the blog. We are expecting child #4 on September 14, 2010. Hopefully sooner. :-) We are excited, expecially the kids. Now, let's hope it's a girl!

Peek-a-Boo!

What?...doesn't EVERYONE take a bath with their hat on?

A Mermaid or a Whale?

Recently, in a large city in Australia, a poster featuring a young, thin and tan woman appeared in the window of a gym.
It said, "This summer, do you want to be a mermaid or a whale?"

A middle-aged woman, whose physical characteristics did not match those of the woman on the poster, responded publicly to the question posed by the gym.

To Whom It May Concern,
Whales are always surrounded by friends (dolphins, sea lions, curious humans).
They have an active sex life, get pregnant and have adorable baby whales. They have a wonderful time with dolphins stuffing themselves with shrimp.
They play and swim in the seas, seeing wonderful places like Patagonia, the Bering Sea and the coral reefs of Polynesia. Whales are wonderful singers and have even recorded CDs. They are incredible creatures and virtually have no predators other than humans. They are loved, protected and admired by almost everyone in the world.

Mermaids don't exist. If they did exist, they would be lining up outside the offices of Argentinean psychoanalysts due to identity crisis. Fish or human?
They don't have a sex life because they kill men who get close to them, not to mention how could they have sex? Just look at them...where is IT? Therefore, they don't have kids either. Not to mention, who wants to get close to a girl who smells like a fish store?

The choice is perfectly clear to me:
I want to be a whale.

P.S. We are in an age when media puts into our heads the idea that only skinny people are beautiful, but I prefer to enjoy an ice cream with my kids, a good dinner with a man who makes me shiver, and a piece of chocolate with my friends. With time, we gain weight
because we accumulate so much information and wisdom in our heads that when there is no more room, it distributes out to the rest of our bodies. So we aren't heavy,
we are enormously cultured, educated and happy. Beginning today,
when I look at my butt in the mirror I will think, ¨Good grief, look how smart I am!¨

New Quotes

Yesterday:

Chase: "I hungwy! I want a fwoot snack! Pweety Pweese? Pweety Pweese? Pweety Pweese? I want too!"



Today:

Hailey: "I'm not very good at drawing diamonds."

Me: "No, but I bet you'll be good at wearing them."

Hailey: "Got that right!"

Riddle

Question: How do you know when your 3 year old is using the camera?

Answer: You get photos like these....

...and videos like this.

Christmas Festivities

We had our Annual Christmas Party tonight. What a ball! This year's Festivities brought about 42 people. Not too bad at all! We ate, laughed, sang, and exchanged presents. Can't wait until next year!

The Happy Hosts

Winners of the Ugly Christmas Sweater Contest

The funniest presents. We combined them for comic relief.

The fabulous guests!

...and the renowned singing. What fun we had!

Difference

I've heard that the Auto feature on digital cameras is not the best way to take a photo, and using the flash can make the image loose some quality as well. I thought I'd test it out on the tree. It's really hard to capture the beauty of an object with lights, so here is the experiment...

with the flash...

without the flash...

What a difference! I'm going to have to learn more about this!