First Field Trip

To the Pumpkin Patch. It was also her first time to ride a school bus, and man was she excited. I had to buy her a lunchbox so she could take a sack lunch. When did she grow up? I'm going to blink and it's going to be us following her school bus to sports tournaments and such.

Her class. It is taught by the local H.S.'s students. There are more H.S. students than preschoolers!

Did I mention Alexa is here visiting during her Fall Break?

The Fantastic Duo: Grace and Abagayle. We LOVE this girl!

Benefits of Lance taking the split: he's home TONS more. So not only do I get a dish washer and trash man, he gets to come with us on fun stuff like this.

This was the face I got when G thought she had to go back home with us. She was fine about 3 seconds later when I explained that she was going back on the bus, and had an hour of school left before she had to come home. (the "teacher" in the background was in a fit of laughter about the situation)

I think I'm going to like having a kid in school.

In case you missed it

Special thanks to the very talented: KC Photography for the pictures and Cousin, Erin for designing!

Seattle

This is called a vacation without a camera:

thanks for Lance's phone which at least records that we were there, although quite blurry!

Proof lance was actually on the vacation with us...

this is what you get for letting a 3 year-old take your picture with a phone

the cute 3 year-old photographer on the space needle

getting better look of the clouds

"rachel" the Pike place market mascot. We got yummy donuts, confesional cheesecake, fresh pressed milk cheese, and many other goodies at the market.

one of the donuts was bigger than G's head! It was called the Texas donut, duh.

Outside the hotel. we walked everywhere so we would have to pay more than our $30/day parking at the hotel. and No, i had no idea that's how much they charged until AFTER I booked the non-changeable, non-refundable hotel room.

Morning walk with Dad and the two girls. We stayed right on the water so they got some to see lots of boats up close, including a cruise ship.

G's Fav

Probably the highlight of the trip was a spontaneous stop to eat at a place we walked a mile in the rain to get to and ate there only because we didn't want to walk anymore. The waitress was AWESOME, helping us make decisions on what to order so we would all be satisfied but not spend a bundle.

these two pics show that they cover your table with paper and literally dump your order in the middle of the table and we all have mallets and cutting boards to delve into the crab with.

Clam Chowder, and 3 types of crab. Lance was in heaven. so much so that he said he would never eat at red lobster again! (YAHOO!--it made me sick once when I was pregnant)

Long walk down the pier.

Good times and glad to be home.

8 weeks

Sydney turned 8 weeks this week. Notice anything new??

I'll give you a hint it came along with tetanus shots with all my girls at 8 weeks old...

some park pics

We went to Oxbow Park a couple of days ago. It was really fun and except for the public displays of nudity (not ours) and the annoying kids (not ours), we really enjoyed ourselves. Em prepared a really good hero sandwich and we just sat by the river and played in the sand. The water wasn't too cold, and there were big fish jumping around. It was fun. Kami is in most of these pictures as she stayed pretty close to where we were spread out at. Gracie went and made a friend and would not come out of the water most of the time.

I told Grace and Kami to wave- neither one decided to wave at the camera.

We had some rootbeer. Kami is kind of a soda fiend.

Gracie and Lance - proof that Emali was there, as Kami does not know how to use the camera yet.

Look at this adorable girl! Kami

I had to include this picture, taken the day before Sydney was born. These two fight so much but I think they are starting to come out of it. They can't seem to leave each other alone. Today they sat under the same blanket and held hands for a little bit while watching Cinderella.

Syd Smiles

So our baby girl has started smiling for the past couple of weeks. It is quite infectious! G & K still run to her every time she wakes up and smother her with loves. We LOVE her!

check another

Quarter 8 (split 1) is officially over! YAHOO!

We got to go celebrate at my all time fav restaurant, Claim Jumper. Check out Lance's delish chocolate shake--and that whipped cream--YUM! But more importantly we, I mean he made it. Ok, I really mean I made it. I made it without strangling one of my children, or something like that. I am really proud of Lance, don't get me wrong, but we survived Portland during finals week, without a Dad. I think we are going to make it. whew!

Great Job, Babe!

Now two full weeks of both of us at home! LOVE IT and can't wait!

Results of Bilateral Myringotomy with Tubes and Adenoidectomy

Thanks for all of the prayers! Gracie is recovering well. She had a previous tube with a polyp and nasty stuff behind it. That was replaced as well as the tube that had fallen out. The adenoids were HUGE and so it was necessary for her to get and IV and intubation so she could get those (adenoids) removed. She was pretty funny after she got the Versed she was hallucinating a bit, telling me that there was an ant crawling on her hand and such. The worst for me was the waking up from recovery. It's the part I dread the most for myself (for my own surgeries) so I was dreading it for her. She was very brave and settled down as soon as I got to her. Thanks to my dear friend, Kristine, I didn't have to worry about Sydney. She (K) brought the baby to me when she was hungry and then stayed with us until we went home. Thank goodness for friends! We stopped for a milkshake on the way home, and then pulled over just as we left the parking lot for a puke clean-up break. After we got home she asked for pancakes with peanut butter and asked for a second and third, we only obliged to the second for fear of puking again. Then had a million Popsicles followed by dinner of a bowl of rice krispies, 2 slices of pizza, and 2 slices of cheese. Where did this appetite come from? After a dose of the tylenol with codeine elixir we are ready for bed!

Ready to go with the cute hospital jammies

Trying to wake up...

The first of many, MANY popsicles

Surgery

My (first) baby is going in for surgery tomorrow to replace tubes in her ears and possibly remove her adenoids. Although this is a fairly routine procedure, it is still surgery and she does have to go under general anesthesia. Keep her in your prayers!

Just because

I love her