Family Portrait?

Jacob drew something besides cars and houses for the first time. He decided to draw our family. From left to right it's me, David, Bridget, and Jacob. Kids are so cute.
It was all I could do not to laugh out loud when I saw his picture of Bridget. I actually had to hold my breath and bite my lip so I wouldn't laugh. She wasn't very happy that day.

Early Morning Visitor

This morning I had the windows open to let the fresh air in, when I heard some peeping. Thankful I hadn't let the cats out of the shed yet, I grabbed my glasses and looked out the window to find a baby duck running around in our yard. I have no idea how it got there, seeing how the closest canal is 4 blocks away. Thinking that it needed some redirecting, I grabbed a box and towel, and ran after it.

You wouldn't think those little things could move very fast seeing how they have teeny legs and webbed feet, but let me tell you, it could run fast. It ended up jumping into the neighbor's window well where it couldn't get out, so I was able to grab it. The kids thought it was the coolest thing ever, and loved the adventure of walking over to the canal to set it free. Jacob really wanted to keep it, but I told him we didn't have a good home for it, and our cats would probably eat it. I told him that maybe one day we'll live somewhere where we'll have the right kind of place for a duck. He seemed satisfied with that.

The 4th

We went to visit David's family for the 4th, and had a really great time. We met them at the park and had a picnic, then we went to the zoo. The next day we went to the parade where the kids had the time of their life catching candy. That evening we lit off some fireworks, and the kids thought that was pretty fun. The next day we recovered from all the excitement, and went for a walk down the road. I love walking in the country, it's so peaceful and beautiful.

Bridget and XaraKali enjoying the animals

Having fun on the merry-go-round

Jacob was so excited to get up into this old jeep and drive. He's been telling he's 13. We think it's because he has hopes that we'll let him drive soon. He was a little disappointed that it didn't actually move, but you can see that he wasn't too disappointed.

Lena performed with her Mexican dancing group after the parade. This is her costume.

Summer Fun

Jacob decided to excavate the mud out of the hole of the newly planted peach tree. I hope it survives.

The other day Jacob told me, "I would like to help you fold the laundry." So I let him fold the towels. He did a pretty good job too.

The first day of sort of summer temps (77). The kids had been begging to use the pool for about 2 months now. Bridget has no fear of the water, and kept diving in face-first.

I only put about 2 inches in it so she wouldn't get into trouble in all her exuberance. They splashed and splashed and complained bitterly when I brought them in shivering. They probably would have stayed out there until hypothermia set in if I had let them.

Another Reason to Love Idaho

This is one of my favorite news stories, second only to the one about the guy who got stuck down a vault toilet at a rest stop. It posted this evening, and made my day.

http://www.kmvt.com/news/state/96344464.html#tvg

First Camping Trip of the Season

We went camping for a few days, and had a really fun time. We went up Memorial Day, when everyone else was just coming back down out of the mountains. We like going when everyone else is leaving, and this time we pretty much had the whole forest to ourselves. It was nice not having to worry about 4-wheelers running over the kids, or hear loud partiers late at night when we're trying to sleep. I've decided that crowded camping equals exhausting camping.

We took the kids on several little hikes and walks, and they loved it. One of my favorite memories is when Bridget handed me 2 rocks, one of which turned out to be a dry deer dropping. Got to love it.

We finally grew out of our small tent that we got for our wedding. We got this a few days before we went. It's so nice to have enough room to sleep and move around in without having each other's feet in our faces.

Bridget thought running away was a really fun game, so she got to go to the time-out tree every so often.

Me falling asleep, and Bridget doing nothing of the sort.

Jacob decided to hike up this little hill with his stick.

Good times!

The Happy News

After a couple of false starts, it's really happening. Baby #3 is on it's way, kicking it's little leg buds and waving it's arm paddles. I had an ultrasound today, and honestly I didn't know they moved that much when they are so little. It was fun to see, and mostly a relief to see an actual baby in there and a heartbeat...and the wiggling was the icing on the cake.

This is the sickest I've been with any of the pregnancies, and it's been a bit rough, but I've been grateful it's been such a strong pregnancy. Every night I really look forward to going to sleep because it means that I will be unaware of my stomach for 8 hours. Hooray for sleep.

Now, I know you're not really interested in that, so I'll tell you something you do want to know. The due date is December 29, so it will be a Christmas time baby. Being a December baby myself, I swore I would never have a baby anywhere near Christmas, but after the false starts and struggles to get this baby here, I'm just grateful. I'll just have to find ways to make it's birthday special and fun.