This month's randomness

Miranda had a recorder concert at the school. All the third graders played songs that were incorporated into a play. It was actually not bad! On Saturday, Spencer got his reward for finishing all 100 lessons in his reading book. We had a "puzzle party", which meant that we did all the puzzles that we could find in our house in about 1 1/2 hours. I did not realize how many we had! I think the official count is 38 in this photo. Of course, we didn't attempt any puzzles over 150 peices for the pictures- it wouldn't look as impressive. Spencer loved it all. He also got to pick what we had for dinner and dessert that night.

A week or so ago, we went to a robotics competition at the Memorial Collesium. Larry's dad took us around to see all the robots and watch them play soccer. It was cool, and the kids loved collecting the buttons and free stuff from each of the teams.

I think this picture deserves an explanation. Every so often Larry and I have a reward treat for those willing to try a new food. This night it was Asian BBQ Chicken. I gave them each about a pinkie's size of chicken to try. Most of them plug their noses or try to wash it down with milk after each little bite. Poor kids! All that suffering for a popcicle! Derek chewed but could not force himself to swallow the chicken for about 5 minutes. (I had to say that chicken was absolutely DELICIOUS!- in my opinion...)

And our final randomness...We caught Kara jumping back into the tub after her bath. Silly!

It's a Girl-- for sure!

It's been confirmed- it's another girl for us. I'm not sure how three girls in a row is going to be, but I am excited. Since I've strongly suspected this since the last ultrasound, it wasn't big news to me. Mostly it means that I need to start thinking of girl names!
Miranda came to the ultrasound to see the baby. It was fun to see her- we got some great profile pictures and could even see her tongue moving around in her mouth a little! It will be exciting to see how she turns out to be when we see her next- in July. I would say that I can't wait, but I really am not ready yet!

January/February

Hello all! It has been ages since I've updated the blog, so here are some random pictures and updates from us. One of Spencer's major accomplishments in January was completing the 500 peice Chicken puzzle he got for Christmas. Spencer is still obsessed with puzzles, loves Chess, and has recently rediscovered how much he likes to play outside, ride bikes, and run. He also loves school, especially PE.

Lindsey is enjoying preschool with her three little friends. She still zonks out at least 4 days a week. She loves falling asleep during church, and I think she's only made it twice through church without sleeping in class or even right in front of the primary conductor! She is also loving the outdoors. She loves to throw rocks into my flowerbeds and ride her bike. She is also playing quite a bit with Kara- which is SO wonderful for me. (You mean, I can do something for 20 minutes without being interrupted???) She likes to trap the cats in her room so they are forced to play with her.

Shadow and Penny (the cats): Shadow has at least doubled in size and now both of them have the softest fur ever. They are great and have free reign of the house/garage for most of the day. We're starting to ease them into being outside. Shadow, who Miranda thinks we should rename "Mischief", especially relishes his time outside.

Kara is growing up. She is almost 18 months old and says a few random words here and there. In this photo, she decided that one bath just wasn't enough and jumped back in fully dressed. Kara is so cute and often has a big open-mouthed grin. She recently hit two milestones- NO pacifier at all, and NO more highchair! She is really quite good at the table and uses her utensils most of the time. Now I've just got to get her sleeping in Lindsey's room!

Derek's passion for Star Wars is on the back-burner as he is into Legos, chess, and other random pastimes. He recently decided that he wanted to get back to piano lessons and retaught himself the first couple levels of lessons- I guess I will have to participate within the next week or so. He also likes to ride bikes down our street with Spencer and Miranda.

Miranda LOVES having our cats and loves to steal Shadow away to cuddle with her while she reads. She still loves to cook, make crafts, watch Tom and Jerry, and play with everyone. She is currently doing a Youth Theatre group and they will put on a play with songs and choreography in a few weeks. She has really enjoyed the practices and going to Activity Days.

Me- Life is going good in the second trimester. I am offically 20 weeks- half way. We find out for sure the sex of the baby this Thursday, so I will make sure to post again soon. It has been SO nice to work on projects inside and outside of the house and have more energy lately. I was also called to be Beehive advisor, so that has been fun and new recently.

Larry continues to be his busy self with training for the Hood to Coast run, basketball, Blazers, chess coaching, and just being an awesome husband and father- not to mention, work. I don't know how he stays sane.

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!