New Annie pics.

I've been getting some complaints that we haven't put up enough pics of Annie. So this should whet your appetite. Life is kind of returned to normal, just more crowded in the house. I'm back at work and Jackie started running again yesterday (you can't keep a good woman down). I warned her marathons were addictive.

If you can't tell, this was posted by Brandon, not Jackie

Here's Annie:

OK, Annie finally decided to join us after 40 2/7 weeks of cooking. Not without a little gentle push with induced labor, however. She was born on 11/28 at 11:29PM. We think she really didn't want a Thanksgiving birthday, because she was 31 minutes from never having a birthday on Thanksgiving, but now due to her mean parents and doctors, she will have a Thanksgiving birthday about one every 7 years. She was our biggest 8 lbs 7 oz and 20 1/4 in long. Both mom and baby are doing well and will be coming home this afternoon.



This was posted by Brandon

Smiths Cover

Here's part two of Kate singing alternative hits of the 80's:
The Smiths - Please please please let me get what I want

Cure cover

Here's Kate on youtube doing a cover of the Cure (from a few years ago):

Words of Wisdom from Ariel Tweeto

The kids love to watch the game show Wipeout. A while back there was a girl on the show named Ariel Tweeto and she did really well and was kind of silly, so the kids liked her. She said during one of the challenges "It easy, but it's so hard". I'm sure the kids haven't seen this episode in a few weeks. Well, we were at Chili's for dinner last night and Kate had Macaroni and Cheese. I told her it was hot so to check it before she ate it. Kate said "it looks cold, but it's so hot. Matt then said "Yeah, like Ariel Tweeto, it's easy, but it's so hard". He was totally serious. Maybe you had to be there, but Brandon and I thought it was hilarious.

Matt's Race

Back in June I took the kids with me to watch my friend Gina run a 1/2 marathon. We drove along the course and got out every once in a while and ran up to the race to cheer her on as she passed us. The kids really enjoyed it, they had made a sign for her and they yelled for her when ever she passed. Since then Matt has been asking to do a race, me being a runner wanted to encourage that so we signed him up for the Disneyland kid race, which was run in California Adventure at Disneyland. He was so excited and proud of himself when he finished.

Getting ready...

There were so many kids in this race, Aunt Christy came too and ran with Matt so we wouldn't lose him. He ran so fast that this is the only picture I was able to get of them :)...

Here is my fast runner at the finish....

Education Week and Wild Rivers

Here are a few things in August that I want to remember. For my birthday Brandon watched the kids for a whole week while I went to Education Week at BYU in Utah. I went with 3 friends and we had a lot of fun. I'm sure they got sick of hearing me complain because I am so uncomfortable. Monday we drove around and hit a few quilt stores and other shops, then the rest of the week we went to classes. We stayed in the dorms, and I missed my own bed and bathroom the most (next to Brandon and the kids, of course).

Later in the month we took the kids to Wild Rivers (a water park). We had free passes and thought it would be fun. It was pretty crowded and after about 30 minutes we had done everything that our kids were able to do and were ready to leave. I remember going there when I was younger and loving it. I really couldn't do anything since I am pregnant so I watched the kids play on the kiddy slides and pools. The kids really wanted to go in the hot tub so Brandon took them and I went to get something to eat. I was sitting back at our chairs when Brandon and Matt walked up and Brandon said "Don't freak out, but I can't find Kate". He said they were playing in the spa and Kate said she wanted to go on the slides again before we left so Brandon was going to go look there. I went back to the spa and waited to see if she'd come back. Brandon came back after looking at the slides and didn't find her. I started to freak out and thought that someone must have taken her. After a few minutes here she comes walking toward us with a huge smile. She said she had gone on the slides and was so proud of herself for doing it alone. I was so relieved. We talked to her about the importance of always telling us exactly where she is, but she thought she had when she said that is what she wanted to do before we leave. It is so scary how quickly they can disappear. Despite that we had a really good time, but probably won't return to Wild Rivers until our kids are old enough to go on more than 2 slides.