Sista before Mista...

While the boys were away, the women played! D and the boys left on Wednesday night and came home Saturday morning. In the meantime, 2 of the sister-in-laws, and Grandma Helen came up for Women's Weekend with me and two of my sister-in-laws, Susie and Heidi, who live nearby. We had a great time! Hit a comedy show, visited a bunch of fruit orchards, did crafts, shopped, got pedicures (Christine's first ever real pedicure - you were so brave!!!) , and just hung out, being silly. Always fun to have some girl time, but really appreciated sleeping in my own bed when they all left! Love you guys!

P.S. Happy Birthday Heidi!

More L.A. photos...

The Force is With Us...

Well, the older boys of the family at least!

Derrick, Chad and Luke flew to LA last weekend for the Star Wars Convention. They were so excited! Chad had a countdown going on. It was the 4th Star Wars Celebration and the 1st time that it's been in Los Angeles - of course, right after we move out of Los Angeles. They had a super time! Ate at In-n-Out, bought lots of Star Wars toys, swimming at Grandma & Grandpa's house and even caught a Dodger game - a clincher one - Dodgers against Chicago Cubs. Dodgers were winning like 7-1 and in the 7th inning the Cubbies got like 8 runs. Dodgers still won! Pretty impressive.

Hi Chris!

That's all! Now you're famous!

Hi Debbie!

Ok, so as previously mentioned, I used to work at The WB (now The CW), which I loved, and that is in part how I became such a fan of the Gilmore Girls. So, the other day I was surprised and delighted to find a small package delivered by UPS which had a copy of the season finale of Gilmore Girls on DVD sent by my friend, Debbie, who still works at The WB. She saw my blog, and figured that if she sent me a copy I could watch it over and over and over again. Not quite the same, the story will never change, but still love it! Can still get my Gilmore fix. Thanks for thinking of me Debbie! Love you!

The End of an Era..

So, call me crazy (you know that you already do!), but I was very sad to see the end of Gilmore Girls last night. I was even a bit teary-eyed! D laughs at me because he knows exactly when I am watching things on tv I will become emotional. Consider it the mom in me. Anyways, I saw Lauren Graham on Ellen last week and she was talking about the show ending. Saying that they just found out the night before that it was going to end, and that they had already filmed their season ending. I tell you, watching that show last night, someone knew it was going to end. The writers' probably. They did a very good job of wrapping things up, but I was still sad to see it end. Ok, Lorelei kisses Luke, but then what? And what happens to Rory? Do her and Logan get back together? And what about everyone else? Lane and Zack... Sukie and Jackson... Ms. Patty and Babette? Now what am I going to watch on Tuesday nights? I kept waiting for the "next week... on the Gilmore Girls"... but alas, it wasn't too happen. The WB (dumb CW) has really gone down hill since I left. See, it really is all about me! :O) Have a super day... Gilmore-less. Thanks for seven years Gilmore Girls!

And the rest...

Luke turned 9 in March, but due to the fact I was really pregnant (can we say REALLY pregnant!), and uncomfortable... Lukie didn't get a party until last week. He wanted another bowling party, so we had a party at Big Al's (just love the name!). He had 5 friends - mainly girls, of course - and us, which makes quite a party, and had a great time.

Then, later that night, we celebrated Haley's 3rd birthday with an outing to Build-a-Bear, with just our family, again a party in and of itself. And then Monday night found us at Outback for D's birthday - thanks Bob and Susie for D's birthday dinner! And then on to Red Robin for Haley's actual birthday on Tuesday Night. There were 5 other people there celebrating their birthdays that night as well! Crazy!

The littlest Huckvale...

turned one month old yesterday! Can you believe it??? He's getting so big... and we just love him tons! So far, he sleeps a lot, toots a lot (definately a Huckvale), and is such a joy! He's also battling acne right now! Better now than as a teenager!

Today...

Today started out great! I got to go to a "Mommies, Muffins and Manicures" party in Macy's 1st grade class - in honor of Mother's Day! We got muffins - obviously! - the kids gave us manicures - let me tell you, my nails are very sparkly and pretty! - and there were lots of mommies! It was lots of fun!

Then, got the car washed (always good!), and came home with about 1/2 an hour to pick up the kids, to find out that the dog had been sick while I was gone. Spent the time giving the dog a bath in the front yard, cleaning his crate, cleaning the floor, and trying to get the smell out of the house. I leave him in the backyard in a fenced-in thing so his crate and him can dry out. The kids get home and we have to leave to drop Macy and Haley off at a friends' house, and take the Scouts to the Zoo. Zoo is fun, except we have about 25 Scouts, with 5 leaders and we keep losing them - a lot of the time on purpose. Not us losing them, but them leaving just to bug. So anyways, on the way home, in crazy traffic, one of the kids decides to throw up in the car. Lovely! Talk about a bodily-function day! (His mom cleaned it up... and she did an excellent job, I must say!) And then when I talk to D, he asks me where I left Cooper (the dog). I told him that I left him in the thing in the backyard, and he tells me that when he got home the dog was tied up on our front porch with a note to return the rope to the neighbor. Apparently, he got thru (let me say, "chewed thru"!) the crate in the backyard and spent most of the day at the neighbor's house, but then they had to go to baseball and didn't want us freaking out because we couldn't find him. I tell you, want to meet your neighbors?... get a dog whose an escape artist!

So, tomorrow has to be better... right?

Good and Bad...

I have been so bad at blogging! Blame it on the new baby - he keeps me pretty busy! That, and trying to remember that there are now 5 kids in the house! I keep trying to forget one of them - no one in particular, just one of them - but people are always reminding me that I've left someone behind. I would figure it out sooner or later!

So anyways, the good and bad of yesterday include...

Good - my friend, Caleb, called! I met Caleb in the 8th grade, when he was the new kid at school. We hit it off right away and became very good friends, but haven't talked in at least 10 years. I've tried to look him up a bunch of times and finally just took a chance and mailed a birth announcement to an address I found on the internet, and it ended up being right! Lucky me! And, the amazing thing is, him and his family are moving within the next few months, so I got really lucky. He sounded great - for everyone that knows Caleb, he's married and has a 2-year-old son named Jackson! - and we are going to get together to chat. He lives in Portland, where he's been for a very long time, and was amazed that we've moved up to the Northwest, so I am excited to see him.

Bad - Hello!!! They cancelled Gilmore Girls! Ever since I left The WB, it's totally gone downhill! First, joining with UPN to form The CW (Can I just say, that's a dumb name!), and now, cancelling Gilmore Girls! I just love that show! OK, so I think Luke and Lorelei are going to get together - they showed something on the trailer for next week - but what about Rory? What's going to happen to her? She turned down Logan's proposal and doesn't have a job... so now what? D told me that I wouldn't like Gilmore Girls anymore once it was cancelled, but I don't think he expected it to be cancelled now, when I still do like it.

So, those are my things for yesterday... now I'll do a post for today, a whole other story unto itself!

Random thoughts for Friday...

• I've already lost 21 pounds! Amazing! I'm even wearing some pre-pregnancy pants! So exciting! As long as they can go below the belly (belly is still pretty swollen), all is well! He, He, He!


• Grandma Paula and Uncle Billy are coming tomorrow! It's their first time here and we are very excited to see them! Hopefully Grandma Paula can make some sense out of all the bulbs that are growing all over our yard!


• We LOVE baby Reed! He is just so cute and so sweet! We are so happy to have his sweet spirit in our family! And the kids are loving him! Macy has turned into the best babysitter ever - and she's only 6. Not like we leave them alone or anything. But I can be in other parts of the house and leave him in her care and she is just all over him.


• Derrick is finishing painting the entryway - something I started when we first moved in. Our entryway is two stories high, so I painted as high as I could go and now he is finishing it. It's really nice to get some of the projects done around here. Now all we have left to paint are the kids' bedrooms, our bathroom, and the dining room - but we're really not too sure what room that is - it might become my scrapbook room/office. Then there's always finishing off the basement. I hope that will be our summer project.

Easter Surprise

Well, we're done! (Sorry we didn't post earlier - for some reason we couldn't get onto our blog space the whole time we were in the hospital.) We got an early Easter delivery of baby Reed (Derrick Reed Huckvale), who decided to beat the Easter Bunny for arrival. He showed up Easter morning at 8:28 am (still by C-Section, just unplanned), weighing in at a whopping 9 pounds, 8 ounces. Really don't know where I was hiding him! He's very sweet and has a head full of red hair - also don't know where that came from. All of our other kids have been bald! And his is like a dark reddish-auburn! Auburn? Don't they know we have blonde kids? We are loving him, trying to adjust to having a baby in the house again, and the kids are all over him!

Almost done...

3 more days to go... not like I'm counting or anything! The car seat is in the car, D has almost figured out the new camera, the Easter Bunny is kind of ready to come on Sunday, and Chad and Luke have taught Grandma how to bowl on the Wii (there is a championship going on right now!). Life is good at our house (especially once my feet are back to their normal size!). Now, if only we could pick out a name.

Happy Easter everyone!!!

Other people do care...

So D went out yesterday and bought me a new camera - some high-falutin' Nikon that I now have to figure out how to use. I'm excited about it! I love cameras! But it's big, and has lots of buttons and knobs and stuff, and you have to actually look thru the view thingy to see what you're taking a picture of. It's an SLR camera (still not too sure what that means... even though D told me), so more to figure out, but I'm excited!

And yes, Ira, I did paint the bathroom (well, most of it!) blue yesterday - 9+ months pregnant! And it went ok. I've done a lot of painting while pregnant... if you consider that we moved into this very white house while I was already pregnant.... and I'm not such a fan of very white houses. Consider it my form of nesting! Doctor said it was ok as long as I was in well-ventilated areas. Thanks for the love Ira! Appreciate it!!! :O)

Some people just don't care...

So, as mentioned in a previous post, Haley broke my camera back in the beginning of March. I sent it to Canon, to get fixed, thinking that I was doing the right thing. It said it would take 7-10 business days and they would send it back all better. So, it's now been about a month, and they still have my camera. I just called them, and they were like, "oh, we had to order a part from overseas and we don't know when it will come in...". I'm like, "I'm having a baby next week, and now don't have a camera. Anything you can do for me?" They tell me that they can refund the money that I've already paid ($137.03) for my "fixed" camera, and then pay to get the next camera, an upgrade ($175) which really isn't a bad idea, except that they won't even mail it out to me for 3-5 business days. Do they not care that I'm having a baby in 5 days? Apparently not! I asked them if they could email me a voucher or something so that I could just go out and buy the upgraded camera, and they're like, "no, we don't have that capability". So now, I'm camera-less. I will have a camera... just not too sure where it's going to come from. Just wanted to vent a bit! Have to go and paint a bathroom now before my energy completely wears out! Grandma Helen is coming tomorrow and we are excited to see her!

Showered with love...

So, last night my sister-in-law, Susie, and a friend from church had a baby shower for me. I was really nervous about it for some reason. We've lived here for about 7 months, and my sister-in-law invited all these people I don't know really well. It was making me feel weird - like they were only invited so they would bring me presents. She kept saying they were all nice people and I should get to know them, and only those that wanted to come would come anyway so not to worry about it. Well, there turned out to be about 10 people there (including a college friend, Lori, who I haven't seen in about 10 years - Hi Lori!) - and I was perfect with that. They were all people that I knew and liked! Much more comfortable for me!

So anyways, I got lots of cute outfits and other stuff, which was really nice. I'm having a hard time with boy clothes too, because they're not pink, ruffly or have bows. After only having baby girls for the last nine years, baby boy clothes are an adjustment for me. My friends proved to me that there are cute baby boy clothes out there... I just have to keep an open mind about it!

The car seat went into the car the other day. Crazy! Trying to get Haley to adjust to sitting on the other side of the car. She doesn't seem to care, but it makes me a little sad.

One final note, wanted to say hi to my mom! Found out she reads my blog, so "hi, mom! Looking forward to seeing you in a few weeks!"

Happy Birthday to Me!!!

So, today is my birthday - 36! Gosh, I'm getting old... and having baby #5 in a week and a half! Crazy! I woke up this morning to the house decorated with streamers and balloons, and breakfast being made by wonderful D! Now, I just have to ignore the mess left from the whole thing because I refuse to clean on my birthday! Then, on to the doctor's office, and the hospital for some testing, then a scrapbook store, and now I'm just hanging with the kids. Tonight we are going to P.F. Changs - a FAV! - and I told the doctor that I was eating whatever I wanted to!!! Gotta enjoy it sometime! Have a super my birthday!

Ok, so I so wish that my camera was back from the camera doctor, because the more I look at Chad, the more I am sure that he is part Leprechaun! Between his crazy hair, the freckles going across his nose, and his strange sense of humor with all his funny accents (including a really good Irish one), he could totally be a Leprechaun! Just gotta get him to wear a whole lotta more green!

Happy St. Patty's Day! everyone

Top o' the morning to you all! We just finished eating our green eggs, green pancakes, grapes and bacon for breakfast. Everyone was a bit turned off by the eggs, but they tasted pretty darn good. This is what happens when you have a giant leprechaun living in your house. We also set our "leprechaun trap" last night and were very happy to find a huge pot of gold - reese's peanut butter cups, rolos and almond kisses - turned upside down in our trap this morning with a note stating that we would never catch the leprechaun but he would share some of his gold with us. It's always fun to have some magic in your house... and a WalMart that's open 24 hours a day nearby so that you can go out and buy some gold when you don't have any already at home! Have a super St. Patrick's Day! Remember some of the magic!

Scrapped to death!

So on Saturday, and part of Friday morning, I went to a huge Scrapbook show in Portland - CKC-Portland. It was a lot of fun! But, when I originally signed up, back in November, I think, I didn't realize that I would be in my 9th month of pregnancy and not such a happy camper. After being cooped up, sick, in the house all week, I was so excited to go and spend some "me" time taking some scrapbook classes and making fun projects. I lasted til about 3:00 on Saturday, with still 2 more classes to go. I pretty much crashed in one of their hallways, then waited for the remaining two classes to start, went in, got my kits, and then left. Got home about an hour early, and was so wiped out and grumpy, I just wanted to be left alone! And then on Sunday, we went to church and I spent the rest of the day pretty much in bed sooooo, soooo tired! Just wanted to vent a bit (again)! Back to normalcy today - cleaning, doing laundry, chasing after Haley and Cooper. Have a super day!

Get your own countdown at BlingyBlob.com

Ok, so kill me now!

So, being in my 9th month of pregnancy, I'm already achy, uncomfortable and grouchy, but now add bronchitis to it, and I am one really unhappy camper! Sorry... just wanted to vent a bit. I hurt all over my back and hips, and now I am constantly holding my belly because I am coughing so much that I'm going to pop my overwhelming belly button and this baby is just going to come flying out! Somebody better be ready to catch him!

And poor little Haley isn't feeling so hot either, and Macy's been running a fever off and on. All the poor girls in our household are just having a rough time right now. If you're a girl, I'd stay away!

Oh, and random side note, Haley broke my camera last week so I had to send it to the Canon factory to get it fixed. Yikes! Lukie had a fun birthday dinner on Sunday with some family, and no pics to speak of! That's ok, we'll get some when we have his birthday party!

Scouting for fun?

First off, Happy March everyone! March is good. The year is already into swing a bit, hopefully the rain will be ending, or at least slowing down a bit, the flowers are starting to bloom - which I LOVE, Luke will be 9 on Sunday!!!, and I only have 5 weeks to go!!!

So, I spent my early afternoon at QFC which is an upperscale grocery store up here, sitting at a table selling girl scout cookies. Never done that before. I was there all by myself, because those silly Girl Scout people scheduled us to be there from 1-8pm, and the girls don't even get out of school until 3:30. So, now there are lots of girls there, hopefully, and they will sell more cookies - I sold about 30 boxes in 2 hours. Not too bad, but not great.

So then tonight we have the Blue & Gold Dinner for the Boy Scouts. It has a Hawaiian theme and they want us to dress up in Hawaiian gear, flip flops, the whole deal. A little hard when it's like 40 degrees outside and raining. Luke will be advancing to Bears, so that's exciting, and Chad will be getting a bunch of awards.

As far as Hawaii goes, we decided not to go. Darnit! Too pregnant! Funny thing is though, I had a scheduled C-Section on April 6th, the last day of our Spring Break, and then the Drs. office called the other day to say that the dr. decided to go out of town that week, so they are moving my C-Section to April 9th. How inconvenient for me! And I really don't like that date! Oh well! I tried to talk them out of it, but they were determined.

Get your own countdown at BlingyBlob.com

To Hawaii or not...

Ok, so totally random. First, sorry I haven't blogged in a while, just been busy, crazy, tired, achy, very pregnant. Those are all of my excuses! Only about 6 weeks to go! Yee Haw! Not sure I want him out, but really want my body back!

Anyways, back to the point of this blog. D came home last night and said that he found a deal on the internet - Portland to Maui, only $150 each way per person!!! Only problem is, you have to travel before March 22, about 2 weeks before our C-Section. Well, I asked the doctor if I could go, and he said it would be ok, so we might be heading to Hawaii in the next few weeks. Probably not, but the thought is nice!

Hair today... gone tomorrow!

The side she didn't get.
After

So, while she was supposed to be taking a nap, Haley was really playing "beauty shop" with her own hair. She found some scissors and managed to cut off half of it (and leave it all over our bedroom floor!), before she was done. Needless to say, I was very upset when I saw her (she's never had her hair cut before - other than her bangs by grandma) and I cried. She told me that she would put the hair back on later. Yeah, if only it was that easy. So much for having her pictures taken next week.

How many names does one dog need?

So, after a week of pretty much being nameless, while actually, having a different name every day (Joshua - that was the name the pound gave him; Barley, Murphy, Copper, Colby, Riley... ) we finally settled on (DRUMROLL PLEASE...) Cooper!!! Much to Luke's annoyance (he really didn't like it!), D went to WalMart and had a name tag made, so now the dog is officially named Coooper. YeeHaw! Hopefully the baby won't have to wait a whole week to have a name!

Only 8 more weeks to go! Planned C-Section on Friday, April 6th!!!

Now, back to the dog, if only I could potty-train him. Haley was a lot easier. The dog loves to be outside, will take long walks, smell everything, but hardly ever goes potty outside. Then, once we get back inside, he pees on the floor. It's driving me crazy! So, if anyone has any great suggestions (besides getting rid of him - he really is cute!), please let me know!

OK, so call me crazy...

(I'm sure you already do...), but meet the newest member of our family! Yet to be named, we can't decide, but he is a 2 1/2 month-old Yellow Lab, who already weighs 30 pounds (he's bigger than Haley whose almost 3!) and is going to be huge. Other than that whole potty training thing (finally got Haley potty-trained! WhoHoo!!! Now just gotta figure out how to do it to a dog), he's great! He's sweet and clumsy and totally puppy and the kids love him. He came as a surprise to D, not necessarily one that he was happy about (he wanted a medium-sized dog, not a GIANT!), but we are all loving him and are happy to have him in our home.

Our dog Baloo, is happily living in LA with Uncle Billy and his dog, Kiki. Baloo is getting older, and was starting to have a rough time with the kids, so even though it broke our hearts, we knew that it was for the best, and Kiki loves her new friend, so it's worked out for all.

Almost made it...

Well, with only about 2 1/2 months of pregnancy left, it happened again. I am once again diabetic (gestational). Could be the fault of all the potato chips, coffee ice cream, and m&ms that I've been living on... g, ya think? Oh well. The benefit (if there is one) to being diabetic during pregnancy is that they put me on a diet which really controls what I eat. I will have to eat TONS of protein - and that's about it! - but at least in Haley's case, she was much smaller (7'7" compared to 9'3", 9'4" and 8'8")than the other kids when they were babies, and I only gained about half the weight (20 pounds compared to 40)... so gotta love that part! Hate the needle poking 3 times a day (and no SUGAR!!!), but as long as the baby and I stay healthy, that's all that matters!

YeeHaw!!!

They're finally going back to school!!! After having Monday off, then Tuesday, Wednesday AND Thursday were Snow Days... they go back TODAY!!! They're driving me crazy (only Macy really - she gets bored so easily and needs to be entertained. And for some reason, my suggestions to clean her room just don't cut it!)!!! Even then though, they have late start, which means school doesn't even begin until 11! So after a week of no school, the only day they'll go will only be for 4.5 hours! Crazy! I never had a snow day as a kid. Rumor has it though, that they will have to make up the days in the summer. Then we'll see who's laughing!

Again????

Ok, so I know you are probably getting pretty bugged with all my snow, and for that matter, I am almost done blogging about it, but, I needed to say, IT'S A SNOW DAY AGAIN!!! After all the snow yesterday, it's still not safe to drive all the buses and stuff to get the kids. I had a hard time with D going to work today, but he promised to call when he got there. So, I wanted to post some pictures of a funny thing to me - D shoveling the sidewalk so that he could get his car out!

SNOW DAY Part II

Ok, so after having last Thursday be a Snow Day, and then Friday have 2-hour late start so the buses could get to all the kids, and then holiday yesterday, we got another SNOW DAY today!!! Let me tell you, a bunch of happy kids in our house! The boys went up to Mt. Hood with their scout troop yesterday and spent the whole day sledding, and today, they did pretty much the same thing, in front of our house. Even D was called from work and told he had a SNOW DAY!!! Gotta love it!

SNOW DAY!!!

The creek next to our house.


School just got cancelled! The kids are ecstatic! This is what happens when a group of kids from California have school cancelled due to SNOW!!! They are headed to WalMart right now with D looking for some sleds. Hopefully, there's not a run on sleds. Probably is though. Yesterday, it was a bit cool, with some light snow flurries off and on, but then bright sunshine. We went to Scouts at 3:30, and by the time we got out at 4:30, the sky was black and it was snowing! I got pulled over by a cop on the way home (he didn't give me a ticket thankfully!), but while he was talking to me the kids got out and were playing in the snow on the sidewalk next to the car. Talk about support from them!

We live at the base of a hill, and after about an hour of this, our road got closed right past our house. When D got home, all these cars were parked in front of our house because people had to park their cars and walk home. Crazy!

I did it!

Ok, so it might not seem like much, but I was on my elliptical machine for 2 WHOLE MINUTES this morning!!! And then, totally out of breath. That's what happens when you've tried very hard not to move for the last couple of months. Made me feel good to do it though!

Talk about indulgences...

So no, I have yet to exercise... it's only day 1 after all, but after a long day of first going to the Washington DMV to get my official Washington license (oh my gosh... I have never not had a California license!), I then spent the entire day painting our bedroom. Yikes!!! Not so bad, and I'm getting to be a pretty good painter, but it sure does take me a lot longer than it takes D, and it makes my back hurt! Besides that, I can't move furniture very well, so I painted all but behind the bed, and then made D finish that up when he got home.

So anyways, back to the indulgent part... I just took like an hour and a half bubble bath! I watched a video about this lady I know and she said that she takes a bubble bath EVERY night - it helps her unwind from her day. Totally not my kind of thing, but we moved into this house with this big jetted tub and so far only the kids are getting any use out of it (Haley seriously took like 6 baths today! She would get out, without letting the water out, and then would come back like an hour later and get back in - all while I'm painting, so I could watch her)! So, I decided to try it out. I can totally lie in it, all the way flat, and then have to use my tip toes to prevent myself from going under. Crazy. Never had such a big tub before. So, I just sat there, reading a book, staring at all the Little People lined up on the end that Haley likes to play with. Let me tell you, tomorrow I'm headed to Target to get one of those bath pillow thingys and some good bubble bath, other than the kids' stuff!

Random thoughts...

I have not blogged in a while, and Derrick, who in no way is involved in my blogging, told me that I need to update more often. Where's he? He is more than welcome to update the blog. Anyone is for that matter! (He claims he doesn't know how to blog... but really, it's not hard at all!)

Anyways, done with the venting. The holidays were crazy, as I'm sure they were for everyone else. We stayed home, in our new house, which was really nice. We have two (gas) fireplaces in our house, but no chimneys, so the kids were concerned about how Santa would get in to leave presents. He didn't seem to have any problems! There were lots of presents when we woke up on Christmas morning. As I said, Santa has his ways! We spent Christmas Eve at my sister-in-law's, Heidi's, house, then had everyone over to our house for Christmas brunch, and then on to Bob and Susie's house for Christmas dinner. Let me tell you, a lot of eating was had by all!

We were also very fortunate to have Grandma Helen and Grandpa Fred here with us for the holidays which the kids loved. They really miss all their family from California that they are so used to seeing all the time! Grandma Paula is coming in April, and they are excited for that too!

So then, on to New Years. We had everyone over for games, snacks (!!!) and silly string at midnight. Again, we all had a great time and no resolutions were made!!! Always fun!

So now, it's just on to cleaning up from Christmas and adjusting to a new year. Adjusting to being pregnant - oh my gosh!!! Almost 7 months along, and we're going to have a baby in our house shortly! Crazy. Every time I think of it, it makes me a bit nervous. Right now we are desperately trying to potty train Haley, and she's really not very interested. (We really don't want to have two in diapers, but it looks like it might be that way, at least for a while.) If I leave her naked, she's great at going on the potty; but as soon as I put a diaper, pull-ups, or panties on her, she goes in those. All of the other kids were potty-trained at the YMCA, so we really don't know what we're doing!

Today I was asked to come up with a goal for the coming year. I signed up for this online scrapbooking class, and it's called "A Year in Review" (with Heidi Swapp - I love her! She's one of my favorite scrapbookers!). I have to come up with some sort of a goal (not a resolution), 5 reasons why I want to accomplish this goal, someone to help support me with my goal, and photos of me working on this goal. Really hard. Especially since I am always used to thinking of things for the kids, not myself. Part of me says that my goal should be to get Haley potty-trained. Another part of me says that I need to be better at exercising. Not losing weight - back to that 7 months pregnant thing - just exercising so I'm not always so sore at the end of the day. I think I might try to do that. I HATE to exercise! So today I got Kathy Smith's Pregnancy Workout DVD in the mail from Netflix, and tomorrow we are going to work on organizing the garage, so we are going to get my elliptical machine out of there and into our room. I'm hoping between the DVD and my machine, I might be able to accomplish 20-30 minutes of something every day. Also, because I am pregnant, I am CONSTANTLY eating!!! And really, I mean potato chips and ice cream. Seriously, anyone walks over with food, and I dig in. Doesn't really matter what it is, but the worse it is for me, the better!!! So again, not to lose weight (I haven't gained that much - not sure why!), but to try and balance out all the eating!!! And try not to have such a sore back at the end of the day. So, wish me luck!

That's about it for my random thoughts today. Will try and post some pics from the holidays, and be better about blogging more consistently.

That's our boy!

Such the proud mom! The kids' school had it's mini-Olympics today and Chad had previously qualified for the push-up competition. I went... and he WON (not because I went - but because he's awesome!)!!! Can you believe it! He did 50 push-ups... and might I add, correctly! All his gymnastics training finally paying off. He got a gold medal and everything! Not that he's not athletic or anything, he cartwheels everywhere that he goes... but still! Think there's an actual push-up event in the real Olympics? I'll keep him training for it!

Color me happy!

Random side note... Want to see a very happy girl? Install her shiny new red washer and dryer and she will jump for joy! Is it possible to be in love with some major appliances?

Here's the pics...

Can't catch me, I'm the gingerbread man!

The days are spinning away like crazy. We've officially slept in our house for a week and are loving it! It's so nice to have a place of our own again. Of course, it would be lovely to get rid of all the boxes, but one thing at a time. We got new living room furniture last week, and D's plasma TV was delivered on Saturday, so now it's just a matter of getting all the white walls painted! Yikes! The laundry room is pretty much done though! Good to have priorities!

We just finished making our gingerbread house for Family Home Evening. The kids (and D) had a great time, especially Haley, who kept trying to eat everything. Turned out great! Love buying those kits at Costco! Everything included, you just have the fun of the assembly!

Also, got all the Christmas cards in the mail today! So excited! I love sending and receiving Christmas cards! It's totally the highlight for me - know it's silly... but it's totally true! I love getting caught up on everyone and what's going on in their lives.

And wanted to mention the addition of Max II, our new cat. The day that we drove back up here from California with our cat, Max, he disappeared. He's been gone for about 5 weeks. So the other day D is looking on the internet at the Oregon Humane Society and sees a cat that totally looks like Max and is even named Maxwell. So, we went to the shelter, had a really hard time deciding that it wasn't him, but decided to bring him home anyway. He needed a new home, and we needed a new cat. He's very sweet and puts up with a lot, but he is a bit skittish and hides. So, as soon as I find him, I'll post his picture.

Here's some pics from tonight...