Family Photos

My very talented artist-of-a-brother, Kirk, agreed to take some photos of us with that jolly nice camera of his. Here are just a few highlights from the photo shoot. Perhaps there will be more to come.


Oh, and in case you're wondering, Yes. It is almost impossible to get everyone to hold still and smile at the same time. Fortunately we only needed one winner, and that one you will find displayed in all it's glory on my header.

Pics From My Phone--Part 2

Last Spring I signed The Nog up for an art class through Montgomery County.

It was just because I wanted to have an opportunity for us to do something together, just the two of us.

It was a big ordeal to arrange babysitting for my other two kids, and then drive all the way to Chevy Chase for only a 45-minute class. And I'm sure he's already forgotten it by now.

However, I still think it was worth every minute and every penny. We both enjoyed it so much. And because he is the "middle child," the moments we have to spend together one-on-one are very few and far between.
His teacher told me several times, and very enthusiastically, that my son is "VERY talented." I didn't have the heart to tell her that it just might be because he was a good 6-12 months older than everyone else in the class. But that session was the only one that fit with my schedule so that's the one we took.

I love this kid.

Pics From My Phone--Part I

Amidst the hustle and bustle of preparing to move, my phone broke. We had to replace it and were supposed to send in the broken one within 10 days.

We didn't.

That's because there were pics on my phone that I wanted to keep and we didn't have the necessary hardware to get them off. So now we are probably going to receive some astronomical bill from Verizon because we took so long to send in the broken one. But you, my friends, will be the beneficiaries because I am going to display those pics here.

And you will have to get your fill because the bad news is that our real camera is also broken, among other things including our curs-ed van. Heaven knows when someone will plug up that money drain long enough for us to replace our camera. There may be a dearth in photo postage in the near future.

But what am I carrying on about? We have a beautiful baby to talk about here!

I took these photos on one of those lazy Maryland summer afternoons. I was playing around with the color settings on the camera-phone. The boys were blowing bubbles. The baby was smiling that beautiful smile.

I miss this life so much already.

First Birthday

First cake.

First refined sugar.

First chocolate.

can I offer you some more?

Well....if you insist.

Well, we made it.

It was a very long drive, with some really late nights and then some fun visits with our peeps in Colorado. The good news is, we didn't have to clean up any vomit. Not once. Thanks to good-old, homemade, laffy-taffy-encrusted dramamine and an in-house dvd player. Truthfully the only really annoying thing about the drive was how much time we wasted looking for that blasted binky.

And while I still don't have internet access on my own computer, I decided to go ahead and post something for those of you who tell me you are repeatedly disappointed when you check for an update. But keep in mind that my photo selection is limited to what I've been sent via email in the last little while.

p.s. when I get my computer back I am going to post one wham-dinger of a photo you won't want to miss.

Speaking of missing, here are just a few things we already miss.

The Blond Guy's fiancée

We've had so much fun this year listening to TBG talk about his plans to marry H. He speaks of it very matter-of-factly. It's just the way things are. Not until a few days before we moved did she actually confirm that his plan was, indeed, accurate. When he realized we were moving he asked how he could still marry H. I told him he would have to write her letters. (He's way into letter writing lately.)

Sadly enough, only about 5 days after we arrived in Utah, I heard him say...."Mom, what's A's sister's name? The one that's 4 years old?" He was spouting out variants but couldn't quite arrive at the right name. Stone and I just looked at each other in amazement. How quickly we forget.....

I'm also missing these ladies, and all the other girlfriends I made during my 6 years in Maryland, pictured or not. My girlfriends have been my life's blood in so many ways. We swapped babysitting, carpools, freeze-ahead meals, and just about everything else you could ever think

to co-op. They also came to my rescue on so many occasions beyond the long recoveries I had with each new baby. In fact, I was amazed by how much help I received just with the whole moving process. I had enough offers for help that I had 2 playdates a day for almost every day of the week we moved so that I could focus on packing and cleaning. I could hardly believe it. I also had 3 angels of mercy come to me on Thursday night to help clean my house when I wasn't ready to do it and was also struggling with a very sad, feverish baby. Thank you so much, ladies. I really can not thank you enough! I love you and hope we will always stay in touch.

A Child's Prayer

Dear Heavenly Father,

Thankyouforthisfood. Bless mom and dad, bless them to be not sick.

In the name of Jesus Christ,

Amen

That is The Nogster's rote prayer. It's strong and steady, and has been repeated verbatim at every opportunity for several months now. First it started out by naming every person in the family. Then it got pared down to just mom and dad. As part of the daily routine, we didn't put much stock in it.

Then just yesterday, Stone and I both had the simultaneous realization that since he has been praying for us to not be sick, we really haven't been sick.

And we're talking about the family that ALWAYS seems to be sick. So much always that it's embarrassing. I won't bore you with details. But to have had a steady couple of months with no illness has actually been very nice.

It has left us free to concentrate on other things. Like moving.

Packing, selling, planning, moving.

That's right, folks. We've decided to move across the country. It has been a long, drawn-out decision making process and there are several reasons why we finally arrived at this decision. The two most significant reasons are:

1) We want to spend some time living closer to our families. We've grown so tired of all the hassle associated with living so terribly far away.

2) We want to buy a house, and we don't want it to be in Maryland. Even though the buyers' market has tamed down significantly and we could probably force our way into a house if we wanted to, we're not willing to make any of the concessions it would take. Dual income? nope. Hours-long commute? nopers. Fixer-upper? not if we can help it. Teensy-weensy house we've already outgrown? not.

There are so many great things about living here in DC. We have loved our time here so much. However, even with all the wonderful things there are to love about it, I guess you could say the cons have finally caught up with us.

So, with Stone having finished his MBA, there's really no reason to stay. I wish that the dear friends we are going to leave behind could be a valid reason. Unfortunately, life must go on and we can only try to preserve and cherish the friendships we have made.

I know what you're thinking now. You know how I know? It's the question everyone asks when we tell them we're moving.

DOES STONE HAVE A JOB?

Well.....no. Not yet. But we have been praying for a door to open for quite a long time and we felt it was time to open the door ourselves, even though we don't know what's on the other side yet. And guess what? The doors are opening for us now. Only after we made the decision to move. One example--NIH may allow Stone to telecommute through the end of the year. This is a huge blessing for us! Stone calls it "lengthening the runway" to give him more time to find a job before surrendering his income.

So now we are really trying to have enough faith and trust that when the time comes, we will be shown the way, one step at a time. And putting a lot of stock now in our other child's prayer:

Dear Heavenly Father,

Thank you for this day.

Please help us to have a new house and a new job.

Please help us to have the word of God.

In the name of Jesus Christ,

Amen

Westward Ho! (part two)

We had a fabulous time in Idaho with all our extended family. This is just a small sampling of the things we did, the people we were with, and the pictures we took.
When we arrived on Grandma's (but really Uncle Boyd's) farm, one of the first things we did was take the kids over to see the horses. I love both of these photos: Stone with the boys (above) and his dad walking down the lane in his awesome hat. I think I could win a photo contest with this one.
Another benefit of hanging out on the farm--going for rides on the 4-wheeler.

Here's Grandpa taking on the kids in a wrestling match. At times, I couldn't tell which side didn't stand a chance. It got to the point where the kids realized they would need something more so they resorted to weaponry. It started out with wooden spoons...then something went awry and The Nog came out of the kitchen with a very big, very sharp knife. He looked me sweetly in the eyes and said, "Mom, can I have this?" I can just imagine if that had been allowed to go any further. He turns to grandpa and says, "I'm gonna cut ya!"

We managed to spend a day in Yellowstone and meet up with the Tolks at Old Faithful. We had a fun day. Below is Nogster's reaction to Old Faithful erupting. He held this Superman flying stance from beginning to end. Awesome.

We went to the Rexburg, ID Temple with Shannon and Ky.

We managed to visit Stone's grandma Ricks a couple of times while we were in Rexburg. She's 99 and going strong at The Homestead assisted living center. I was really pleased when we arrived at the homestead to see that it seemed like a pleasant place to live. The staff was friendly, the home smelled nice and had a real-home feel to it, including a nice kitchen with beautiful cabinets and dining area. Grandma said it wasn't a bad place to live and the staff was kind to her. I even saw a staff member (or volunteer) painting the fingernails of another resident in the lobby while we were walking through. To me it was just a relief to know that she's in such a pleasant home.

Here is our family of 5 on the steps of Grandma Howard's house. Last time we took this photo was in 2005 as a family of 3.

4th of July.

I have had more and more people comment that Goldilocks looks like me. Do you think she does? I think she looks like her brothers.

4 generations.....kind of. I think Stone was supposed to be in my place but then...with a guy in there it doesn't really work it's magic and I guess that's how he felt about it. So just pretend for a second that I genetically belong in this photo. Isn't it sweet?