36 Weeks Down

I wanted to have a nice portrait during this pregnancy like I did last time. Generally, I find snapshots of myself pregnant to be mostly unflattering. But I enjoyed having these records of my last pregnancy. According to my file names, I was about 34 weeks there. I missed that deadline by about a week, and was closer to 35 weeks for these pictures. You wouldn't know it- I look more like 45 weeks! This little boy might not be so little when he comes out. While I was outside, with the tripod already set up, I thought it might also be fun to have some pictures with my baby girl. She didn't necessarily agree, although a few of them came out kind of sweet. The sweetest one I got, though, was with my camera phone when I caught her doing exactly what she had seen mommy do. Yeah, that's the sound of my heart melting!

We're not in AZ anymore, Toto!

It's been four months since my last post. It's a slight under statement to say that the blog has been neglected. It's really hard to catch up once you get behind! As it turns out, moving and getting settled gets a little trickier the more kids you have. Who knew? The good news is that we are getting settled. Finally. God blessed us with a wonderful home with plenty of room inside and out. The kids love having lots of space to roam about. We have found a wonderful church and we are making lots of friends there. We've been able to keep up with our schoolwork, despite all the traveling and breaks, and will be mostly finishing on time. We've already had some guests and look forward to hosting many more in the near future. I will try my best to keep up better in the future- I know everyone loves to see pics of new babies! For now, here are some things we've been enjoying the past few months. I think they can be summed up in a few words: trees, garden, winter and beach!

Desert Camp

We went up to McDowell Regional Park last weekend for one last camping trip in the desert. (At least for a while.) Everett signed up for a Dawn to Dusk mountain bike race on Saturday so we all went along to keep him company. How is it possible that it could rain on us, two consecutive races, in the AZ desert. We haven't had rain here in months, but it decided to rain pretty much the entire weekend. Everett did great and rode about 50 miles that day, despite being cold and wet. The rest of us were a little luckier- we got to hide out in the tent while it was raining. Then, when it got too much for us to handle, we took refuge in the local starbucks for some hot drinks and snacks. Best of all, we had a serendipity! Everett's brother and family are in the process of moving cross-country and stopped in to visit us in Phoenix. They stayed at a hotel (smart people), but they did come out to hang at our campsite and roast some marshmallows. Fiona and her cousin, Violet, had fun getting to know each other. They are about a year apart in age, and will have a great time together really soon! We were so glad to get to see them and have some company while Everett was racing. As always, the boys are up for any adventure. As long as Daddy keeps the fire going and the hot chocolate coming, they're ready to handle anything.

Christmas Card Bloopers

We've been pretty busy recently. Last weekend, I suddenly realized how quickly time was slipping by and decided I needed to start working on a Christmas card. You might remember that last years card turned out to be a New Year's Card. I vowed to do better this year. So I got everyone dressed, we drove out to our location and set out to make a beautiful picture. Somehow, not everyone got the memo. Fiona was unhappy about her staging and thought the lighting was all wrong. Finally, when conditions became impossible to bear, she decided it was time to walk off the set. I don't know why I thought it would be easy with two parents standing there to entertain her. Everett said we should have had a video of me. We did finally coax her back and were able to complete the project on time and on budget. After we got home, though, I got to thinking about next year. I think know it is only going to be more challenging interesting next year with four little ones to corral. Yes, I said FOUR! We are expecting our fourth blessing to arrive in May next year! Plenty of time to get wiggly for Christmas pictures! We are all so excited and hope that you will rejoice with us. Oh, and of course, you'll have to wait for your card to see the good picture! We don't want to ruin that surprise!