Look like anyone you know?

I've been meaning to post these pictures for a while. I think Kara really is the closest to a clone that I'm ever going to get!

Look at that belly! Just like Kara's.

What torture I was subjected to! I do think that my brother, Ryan, looks like my Spencer. Maybe it's just the miscevious grin.

Chess Tournament

As many of you know, Larry has been the chess coach at the kids' elementary school since October. A couple weeks ago, about 15 of the students went to a regional open chess tournament. It was basically an all-day event with each kid playing 5 games up to an hour long each. Miranda even got to use one of the fancy clocks when her game was taking too long. All the kids (and Larry) came home SO excited. Derek got second place in the K-2 division. He had 3 wins and 2 stalemates. Larry told me that Spencer was in 6th place for his divison for a while, but then lost (he had 2 wins, 2 losses, and a stalemate). Larry said that he even got 2 queens in a game.

There were about 150? kids there from local Hillsboro elementary schools.

Baby #6

Just in case you didn't already know, Larry and I are expecting baby #6 in early July! I had an early ultrasound a little while ago, and here are some the the pictures. (I'm not sure why they're sideways-sorry!) These show the baby at about 13 1/2 weeks along. Here is her profile with a hand by her face.

She stretched out for this great picture. It was fun to see her little knees and legs. Specner said they look like "crab eyes".

I say that the baby is a she because we got a pretty good look, and I'm about 90% sure it's a girl. (I was also able to figure this out with Lindsey and Kara at their early ultrasounds.) Of course, I will wait for the real ultrasound at 20 weeks to be sure.

So, I am doing well and enjoying a little more energy now that I'm in my second trimester. I felt almost no nausia during the first trimester- just heartburn and needing to eat small snacks regularly. So far I'm still wearing normal clothes, but my options are quickly dwindling away, so I'll be getting on the real maternity stuff in a week or two.

Larry and I are excited and scared for this baby. We definatly will need the time before she comes to prepare ourselves mentally for another child. I'm hoping that I will not notice the big difference I did with baby #5- it seemed like suddenly there was so much more work and responsiblity. Luckily, our house renovations make accomidating the baby pretty easy-Lindsey and Kara will transition to sharing a room in the next few months. We're going to add a bench to one side of our table, so that Kara can move to a chair and we will all fit. I'm working with Kara on weaning from a pacifier, then moving to a big bed at least a month or so before the baby arrives. She is also working on using a plate and utensils and it doing pretty well with those. As for the van, we will all squish in with no empty spots! Poor car-sick Miranda will have to endure the backseat until Derek turns eight in December, so that we can fit all the carseats.

In other words, we've got some work to do, but we're excited for another little baby in our family!

Shadow and Penny

We finally took a big step in our family and adopted two kittens. Miranda was beyond thrilled Christmas morning to learn that she could go to the shelter and pick up one or two kittens when we returned to Oregon. After two days of searching everywhere for available kittens (it seems that they were all adopted for Christmas), we finally got two last Wednesday. We got a brother and sister that are about 4 months old. They are very friendly- almost to a fault- and want to be with us all the time. The kids thoroughly abuse them by throwing blankets on them and trying to trap them in baskets, but so far they haven't retaliated. Kara even hits them, and they either just take it, or eventually run away.

This is our girl, Penny. She is quiet and likes to lay down and be petted. She is playful at times, but hasn't done anything naughty yet. On the other hand, we have our crazy boy, Shadow with his insistent meow to be let in the house. He is always trying to beat you to whatever room you are going to by a few steps- hence, he has been accidentally kicked many times. He likes to get into cupboards and onto shelves if given the chance, and always checks out the sink to see if there is anything tasty in it. Unfortunatly, he also likes to poop on people's beds, so the cats are locked out of the bedrooms until this phase passes! They spend most of their time in the garage, with a few hours of the day in the house.

Larry says that they are like birds- they will climb onto your shoulders and get right up into your face when you pet them. I don't think they realize that they will be pet if they just sit in your lap. Miranda is in heaven to be able to come home from school and play with them. They seem to like us a lot, and they are fun to have around!

November Randomness

Here is some randomness from the past couple weeks. Lindsey is sporting her gift to Larry for his birthday.

I'm not sure why Kara got so involved with her potatoe soup this time. It was fun going on, but she definatly didn't enjoy when it had to come off!

Again, Spencer cuddles up to his favorite heater. What you can't see is that there is a heater-sized hole in the middle of the box. And yes, he is asleep.

After sweeping one day, Kara triumphantly grabbed the broom and finished up where I'd left off. She thought that was the greatest thing!

Today I showed Kara the box of Megablocks. She made this entirely by herself.

We went rollerskating after Thanksgiving. The kids had a lot of fun, as usual.

Larry's birthday was a little while ago. Here is his Blazer cake.

For birthdays, I always take the kids to the dollar store to pick out things for each other. Larry got an excellent chestplate and shield, candy, Christmas decor, and a sailboat puzzle. He also got an ugly white vase that a friend gave us. It has to be displayed prominantly in our house until we give it to someone else for their birthday). Our favorite was Larry and Lori's gift- Alhambra- our new favorite game that included 5 expansions.

Larry's waterpolo season ended with a banquet for players and their families. Larry and head-coach Cam, were able to officially give the school about $3600 from Intel. Intel pays $10/hour for any volunteering you do and gives it to the school. I think Larry put in about 75 hours this year.

Here's the team!

A Random Day

On Thursday Lindsey got a black eye at preschool. One of her friends headbutted her. Apparently she cried for quite a while, but has since forgotten about it. I'm glad she hasn't looked too closely in the mirror! It is really dark purple now with some yellow. So, now begins my blog of a random Friday in our lives. After Kara takes her nap at 12:30, Spencer practises his reading with me, then he watches his cartoon. After that, Lindsey takes her nap. Since Spencer is scared of being alone, he is usually my shadow for about the next hour or so until Miranda and Derek come home. On this particular Friday he fell asleep on the heater vent. (It's his new favorite place-- since all he wants to eat is fruit and yogurt, he has a serious lack of body fat -- so he is always cold-- and he hates wearing socks, so that doesn't help either). This Friday, he was pretty worn down because he had chess club at 7:15 in the morning, so he had to get up an hour earlier.

I was enjoying my unexpected peaceful hour, when I heard Spencer come into the computer room. He plopped himself on the chair at my desk and actually fell into a deep sleep in this position!

Anyway, later that afternoon I took these pictures of the kids doing their thing sometime before dinner. The boys were playing chess...

Kara was climbing anything and everything in sight. ( Notice the kitchen chair pulled as far from the table as possible. She will climb onto them the moment they are near the table to get onto the table and scavenge for food- even if someone is still sitting on them). Lindsey was playing with the magnets. I think she was trying to make a princess castle.

Miranda was making a diorama (?) for a book report for school. Of course, the book was about a dog.

The new addition- with furniture

So here is our addition with furniture. There's nothing up on the walls yet, but the basics are there. This is looking towards the dining room and the boys room is in the back corner.

Here's our kid area. Now they have a puzze table and a place for all their books.