First Night in the New Bunkbeds

They were both very excited ... too excited. There was lots of giggling, lights being turned on, and more giggling. It was all fun and games until Jacob finally fell asleep. I think Parker felt a little nervous about his first night out of the crib and that he could no longer see Jacob. He came out and told us, "I no yike my bunk bed, I go sleep in my crib". Thankfully, Jamie tucked him back in and laid down with him for a little while to put him at ease.

Wish us luck on naptime tomorrow.

Jump Fighting

Another reason we are looking forward to having a girl.

What started as them getting pajamas on led to running through the house with Jacob being "Captain Underpants" and Parker being "Super Diaper Baby". From there, Jacob grabbed 2 light sabers and told Parker, "let's fight". They both climbed on Jacob's bed, started jumping, swinging their light sabers at each other, and telling me they were jump fighting.

...and chances are, if you ask them to put pajamas on, they will end up in their underwear jump fighting wanting weapons to go with it.

What?

This is our baby girl. Cute huh?

I am 31 weeks and while I'm surprised I only have 9 weeks left, I can't totally remember what it's like to not be pregnant. The uncomfortable is setting in more and the mundane tasks of bending over and standing or sitting up are getting harder and harder.

I did have another ultrasound just before the new year and all continues to be well. She is still measuring small (in the 25th percentile) but that seems to be normal for my babies.

It is beginning to feel more real and we just keep getting more excited. And no...we have no idea what we are going to name her, although Jamie wants to name her "What" because anytime we talk about having a girl he gets a confused look on his face and says, "a girl...what?".

Now that it is the New Year, I will tell you about Christmas

We began the Christmas season by going down to Palo Alto with Josie and crew to have lunch with Ronna and her family and then it was off the annual creche exhibit. It is always beautifully done and the boys were happy to be with friends, as were we.

Dylan and Parker laying on the floor in the children's room (it was the only pose they would both smile and look at the camera).

Jacob, Charlie, and Luke in front off the Lego nativity. It was pretty cool. I don't think I was supposed to take a picture of it, but the volunteer that was close by was good enough to look the other way. Charlie was directing the shot, telling the other boys how to stand, and of course, Jacob looking no where near the camera.

It was a short afternoon, but we had a good time. Thanks again Ronna for having us down and for making your delicious potato soup!

We go see the temple lights every year with Merrill and Lisa and have done so for 8 years. The only 2 years we didn't was when we lived in Utah. Come to think of it, one of those years, Lisa was in Salt Lake so we went to see the lights at Temple Square. By now, it is definitely a tradition.

Our ever growing group.

The 4 and 1/2 of us.

The kids, minus William, on top of the temple. Maddie was funny, she couldn't get enough of Parker and kept trying to pick him up and offering to carry him. This was another attempt.

Another tradition (though we are willing to break this one) is finding the worst place to eat after. Sometimes because the food is bad, but mostly because we always manage to find the place with the longest wait time. This year it was Fenton's. The kids actually did a pretty good job considering the wait was supposed to be 15-20 mins and it was an hour and a half. Jamie got the worst of it because he had Parker on his shoulders for a lot of the time. Parker has a tendency to pull hair, smack his face, and stick his fingers in Jamie's mouth. All of which he does over and over again.

We finally got our table and the kids were so tired and hungry they just sat and ate. It was nice to be able to have a conversation with Lisa and Merrill despite the 5 kids at the table. They even had a sorbet that was dairy free so Parker got to have a treat too.

It was another good trip and we look forward to next year. In the meantime, we will try to find a better place to go after.

We had a fantastic Christmas! We stayed home for Christmas this year, traveling great distances is getting a little harder for me. All four of us stayed in our pajamas all day and just ate and relaxed. It was nice to have such a low key day and fun to start to figure out our own traditions.

Bright and early Christmas morning in front of the tree. Jacob woke up first and climbed in bed with us. We held him off as long as we could, then finally let him wake up Parker to get on with the festivities.

The only gift Santa brought us this year was a Wii and there were no complaints. Jamie and Jacob have spent plenty of time playing the Lego Star Wars game my parents gave us. One day they actually played for 7 hours. You read right, 7 hours. It was getting annoying by the end, but I let them play on since the opportunity doesn't come along too often, or ever again.

Parker was entirely thrilled with his new Thomas set from Jamie's parents. We have such a random collection of tracks, that not all of the trains work on, we decided to streamline it and ask for one type of track that will replace the rest and all the trains will drive on. The cutest is that Jacob got excited about it too and will still help Parker set up tracks.

It was a really nice couple of weeks. It was fun do have Jacob home from school and Jamie took a week and a half off from work. The boys got along really well and their behavior was even pretty decent. We took a couple of outings to the movies, a museum with a Lego exhibit, to buy Jamie and I a new king size bed, but mostly we just hung out, together.