Katie loves to fly in the sky.

Crawdad fishin' on the rocks - nobody wants to miss out on that!

The kids wind down around the fire as the sun sets.

Studio Photos

Katie was blessed in church this last Sunday, her daddy gave her a beautiful blessing. Thanks to all who came. She looked so pretty in her little dress, I just had to get her and the boys into the studio for a sitting. Here's what we came home with...

Studio Pics

Hey! A couple recent items of note -

First, Katie is smiling all the time now, so cute!




Then there's this..

Ethan asked me if he could play with Play-Doh and I groaned an "Oh alright". Usually, he just wants to play with the containers, stacking them and such. This time, he actually wanted to get the stuff out. He was occupied for a while, then said, "I made Lightning McQueen! Come see Lightning McQueen's teeth!"

It took me a secoond to respond and walk across the kitchen and when I did, I couldn't believe the cuteness!

This is what he'd made....

It's a lumpy little car, but he's only three! It's such good 3-D representation!

Hello, all! I'm always taking pictures, so here's another update....


Our goings on of late...

Tad recently took the boys camping in the Uinta Mountains. I wasn't feeling like taking a tiny baby camping yet, so I stayed home and missed them for three days and two nights. Brad, Judd & Jean, and Trevor brought their older kids too. Brad and Judd took up their RVs and Judd took up his little fishing boat. Tad reported that the fish were scarce and the drive was long, but the kids had fun. He looks forward to another Uintas jaunt in July, this time a backpacking trip. If he's camping in the Uintas or planning to be, he's a happy man! He still plays basketball once a week and goes to the gym a couple times a week in the mornings (insert wolf whistle).


Katie is healthy and happy. She loves to study faces and is very focused and interested when we make eye contact and talk to her. If we work for it, we can get a smile now. She does like to keep us up late many nights, often until about 1:00 a.m. She has her little clock set! She sleeps pretty well after that, though, waking up only once in the night to nurse. The late nights are pretty hard on us, we have a hard time watching movies anymore without falling asleep!

Ben is as brainy and athletic as ever, but lately he's a total Webkinz freak. Thank goodness for organized baseball, soccer, and swimming lessons, or the boy would be permanently welded to the chair at the computer! No, really, he plays outside regularly, just not as much as I'd like. Webkinz is far too much on his brain! It's cute how much he likes to take care of his pet, but it's also driving me a bit nuts! Golf lessons start soon. He's losing teeth left and right - it's a challenge for my vanity, but he loves cashing in to the tooth fairy! He LOVES his money and counts it often.

Ethan still has his vehicle obsessions going strong, and is as bull-headed and sassy as ever. He has a major meltdown if he spills even the smallest amount of liquid on himself. It's exasperating. However, he is also very entertaining and adorable and with his imaginative role-play & car driving/crashing scenarios. He doesn't need anyone else to entertain him, that's for sure. He's doing really well with his letters. If I write words like MOM, DAD, POP, HAT, etc., he can tell me which is which. He doesn't read them on his own yet, but if I ask, "Which word says, MOM?, he guesses right, because he knows the sound that M makes. I'm very excited about his progress. He's also finally showing an interest in writing letters, making primitive Es, Ts, and Hs on his MagnaDoodle. I couldn't be happier! And isn't he a handsome little devil?

Yesterday was our 11th anniversary! We agreed to celebrate it later this month because Tad had to work and the movie we want to see is not quite out yet, but he was sneaky and sent me a huge, beautiful flower arangement that looks a lot like our wedding flowers did. Such a sweetie!

As for me, I'm still recovering from having a baby and dealing with the effects of this last pregnancy on my body. I'm hanging in there, but it's been a tough one for me. I'm hoping to be able to start working out soon to drop these blasted 20 pounds. Three kids are a lot harder to juggle than two! I am looking forward to some kind of fun in the sun. Never got a handle on that scrapbooking I was talking about....

Here are some pics of our little Katie cutie since we've had her home. As should be expected, she sleeps plenty and eats plenty too. She's so unexpectedly little, Tad had to go buy her some newborn-size clothes since I was out of comission. I had not bought any because the boys were into 0-3 size almost right at birth. Tad's a pretty good shopper for little girl clothes! Who'd have thought? Such a good Daddy!

Hi all, Lots of catching up to do! I can't believe snow was the last big thing! First, I was big! here's a pic of me bursting at the seams at about 37 or 38 weeks.

Now our biggest news is actually quite little. Kate Miriam arrived on Wednesday, May 14, 2008 at 7:46 a.m. She surprised us by weighing in at a mere 6 lbs. 13 oz. Our boys were both bigger.

She has Daddy's beautiful olive skin, a bit of black hair, and her eyes look dark. I had hopes that she would get Daddy's gorgeous multi-color hazel eyes, and I can't rule it out, but brown is definitely possible too. It's hard to tell for certain now.

Little Katie complained with her eyes wide open for at least half an hour right after she was born. She was alert and grabbing at the nurses as she cried. Then she settled down and has cried very little since. The only thing she gets ticked about is Mom not feeding her fast enough. Maybe she knows she's got some growing to do to catch up to her brothers!