Evening things out.

We are expecting another girl. Her due date is May 24, 2009.

Last week, we went around the table and had all the kids guess whether they thought it would be a boy or a girl and they all thought it was a girl...so...apparently we all win. I love boys, but at this point I felt like a girl would fit into the family well.

We are probably done. (I told this to a lady in my ward and she said "Yea, right!" Thanks, lady.)

Pics

Steve and Levi and Cecelia plotting Pine Wood Derby car designs. Cecelia wants one too this year.

It's hard to get pics of Israel because he hide or makes faces. I have recently discovered that I can get pictures of him when he's reading, or in the middle of a Wii contest with someone.

Francesca just might end up being neat and tidy like Grandma Morgan. After she would get a piece of paper off of a present she would walk the paper into the kitchen and throw it in the garbage. It was cute, but took a long time, so we finally moved the garbage next to her in the living room.

All my kiddos. I do like them.

Hope you all had a Merry Christmas. We did...except for the crying.

Growing like a weed

So, Charity asked for a picture to see how big Elijah's getting. Unfortunately he's getting big. He wanted to measure again just the other day, obviously feeling the tightness of the race between us. So, here's the picture. I am standing on some Sandra Boyton books because he had boots on and I didn't want to give him an unfair advantage.

So, in other news, we have been attending concerts, and programs, and concerts, and programs...and pack meetings and ward parties. Luckily I think most of that stuff is done for the year. Now we just have Christmas to survive. A few days ago Cecelia said something about getting tons of presents, so I said to her. "You know, you're not getting tons of presents this year. You're getting some presents, but not tons." She immediately burst into tears.

So much for all those Christmas lessons on the real meaning of Christmas, and giving, and all that. So far it hasn't seemed to sink in.

Good News, Bad News

Good news: Steve and I are expecting a baby

Bad news: I am pregnant

There is a lot of moaning and groaning around our house. I think most of it is coming from me as I sit around the house trying to live through the horrible yucky part of pregnancy. Occasionally, I think I hear some coming from the kids or Steve as they forage for food and clean laundry. I think the only reason that we are surviving reasonably well is that Marisa has been our angel who comes over once a week and cooks and cleans. I personally would guarantee her a place in Kingdom if it was mine to give. (Too bad it's not.)

Summer is crazy

Yes, I know it's been a while.

So, here's a little update. I have now read all the Emily and Charlotte Bronte novels. This includes Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre, as well as 3 others. Wuthering Heights gets a 2 thumbs down, I Hate you. And Jane Eyre gets a 2 thumbs up. Sorry Emily, but that's how it goes. Too bad you didn't write any more novels, maybe a good one could have quelled the fierce Hate.

We just got back from a 2 week vacation to Utah. Saw all the Bentleys except Zack, and Grandma and Grandpa Morgan. All in all a good time. Thanks to everyone who made it so fun.

Steve's job is STILL in limbo. The latest it that they might tell us something on September 2nd. At this point, I never believe them. At some point they'll tell us something, but not believing that they ever will has made me right a LOT of times so far.

Kids start school in 2 1/2 weeks. I'm not ready. I am loving the calm of summer, even though the house is a mess and seems impossible to keep clean. Cecelia starts kindergarten though, so my days are suddenly going to be very, very quiet. I'm sure this is Francesca's moment to shine and make sure it's not too quiet.







Apparently, Elijah loves the bunny, and the bunny loves the...scriptures. (Not my doing, he took those pics.)

Classic Books

Now that the kids are almost out of school, I was thinking I might like to read some classic books during the summer. So...I'm looking for suggestions. Now, I want ones that are enjoyable to read, not the horrible ones you remember hating in high school english. To give you an idea of what I'm looking for, I'm listing a few things that I'm already considering reading, and a few of the things I wouldn't consider.

Things I'm considering:
One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest
To Kill a Mockingbird
Sense and Sensibility
The Great Gatsby


Things I never want to read again:
The Grapes of Wrath
The Good Earth
Native Son

So, please comment with suggested reading material for me.

Politics...do I dare?

I have to admit, I've been having a good time watching politics lately. I have probably been having too good of a time as evidenced by my Internet Viewing History.

Don't worry, I won't bore you with all my thoughts, I really just have a request. Those of you in Oregon, Indiana , North Carolina, Pennsylvania. (Heh.) Could you guys just vote for Hillary? Cross over if you need to...I hear there is still time. At least for some of you.

The longer this goes on the better for me and my slightly sick hobby. I like watching a train wreck.

: )

Silliest Ches ever! And...the elder children.

I thought I'd post a couple more pics of the kids. The first one is one Levi took of Ches. It doesn't even look like her that much, but it makes me laugh whenever I see it. (It's my desktop background right now.

Update...finally!

Wow, it's been a long time since I've updated, it's been a crazy time this past month. First we had S and I and their kids visit, it was really fun, and actually relaxing. Me and S (Bad grammar intentional) watched lots of movies at night after the kids had gone to bed, and during the day we ran around chasing children. That was the two weeks in the middle of Feb. It was great to have them here.

The day they left we started emptying out the rooms in the basement, taking out the carpet (half of which was glued down) and then stacking all the basement stuff in one room in anticipation of new carpet. Of course, we figured it was good to do some of the stuff like painting that needed to be done before the carpet went in, so we spent the next two weeks frantically painting and fixing. We took down wallpaper in one room, and realized after starting that they had put the wallpaper straight over drywall, so the drywall paper tore off and we had to mud, prime and then paint those walls. Steve also wanted to fix the panelling in the family room that the boys had put holes in, so that was another wall that had to be pulled apart, drywalled, mudded, primed, and painted. We fixed the holes in the floor where tile had come out, we replaced a bunch of outlets, we took down shelves and cleaned out closets, and we even borrowed a big ladder to paint the stairwell. I painted the boys room, 2 walls of the family room, two walls of the play room, and 3 ceilings, too.

Then, I died.

The carpet guys came last week. They did all the rooms but one on Tuesday, and then came back to finish the room that had had all the stuff in it on Thursday. IT'S DONE! I'm so happy that it's actually done. This week I've been lounging around not doing all the other stuff I should do 'cause I'm recovering from last week. I've been reading. Oops. That's a bad thing for me. I stay up too late and I neglect stuff.

That's what's been going on around here. I'll post pics of the new carpet sometime, but it really won't be that exciting to anyone else.

Ignore anyone not a baby in these pics

I was just wondering to myself how much alike Cecelia and Francesca looked at the same age. So I found a pic of Cecelia from Feb 2004. She was almost exactly Ches' age. Wow, I didn't actually realize how much they looked the same.

At least they do to me. (Although somebody has more hair than somebody else.)

Quit giving my kids stuff!

No, not you. Or you. Or you. It's all the other people. Today I spent the morning trying to clean out the playroom that had become such a disaster that you couldn't walk through it. I had filled one garbage bag to throw out and one garbage bag to give away and I was winding down. It wasn't finished, but I knew that Ches would be waking up soon. So...I said to myself, I wonder if I could find 100 more things to throw away. They didn't have to be big things, just anything. And so I spent a little more time and, yes, I managed to find 100 more thing to throw away. Some were small, like a bead sitting on the floor. Some were big, like a dump truck that my kids haven't played with for forever, but much of it was little things that my kids bring home from scouts, birthday parties, pre-school, church, Burger King kids meals, etc.

You see, everyone seems to think they need to give my kids stuff. Little erasers and pencils, ultra cheap toys in little party bags, and handouts and popiscle stick people and stuff. My kids like these things and are sure that they should get to keep them, but they play with them for a few minutes and then they end up in some corner of the playroom with lots of other junk.

Today, there are over one hundred things sitting in my trash can that I will never have to pick up again...and it's making me very happy. Now, how do I keep from ending up with 1oo more things?

Why do I try to do these things?

Why do I try to start a blog when I can't seem to keep doing anything else consistantly? Who knows?

Christmas season was hectic as usual, but we had a fun trip to Utah and some nice time at home too. As is typical, we spent a lot of the trip home discussing what we should be doing to our house. This time, in case we end up selling it this summer when Intel closes its door. So now, instead of leasurely blogging, I'm half way through painting my bedroom, Steve is working on putting a ceiling light in the little room of of our bedroom, we are seriously considering putting new carpet downstairs, and I have been looking at toilets and sinks to replace the yellow porcelain ones in the downstairs bathroom.

And here's a pic of Francesca and Cecelia, since I had a request. We forgot to take our traditional Christmas Eve family pic this year, so I still need to get a current pic of our family. When I do, I'll share.