The Girls

Blast from the past: This is Cecelia. I can't believe how much Marguerite looks like Cecelia did at about the same age. It seems like every time we look at old pictures, she looks like someone different. (It also reminds me that I need to get out this sweater. I love it, and it should fit Maggie now.)

Francesca loves pistachios. Seems weird for a little girl, but she does. Unfortunately, she can't open them by herself and has to have me do it.

Little Buddha baby Marguerite. I love when they are so cute and chubby. She is really happy and fun right now except for at night when she wakes up every 2 hours or less. Poor kid, it seems to be my children's typical stomach issues.

Steve, Elijah, and Israel went skiiing yesterday since it was Boy Scout day and there were discount tickets. They had a great time, although apparently Elijah just likes to lie in the snow and not get up. Israel loved it. I'm not sure if Eli wants to ever go again, but I hope so....

The boys

This is my blast from the past. Isn't my little bitty Israel a sweetheart? I can't believe he used to be so tiny.

Here's Elijah how we usually see him. Computer in hand. He looks so happy, doesn't he? He has adopted Steve's laptop, I think he thinks it's his now. It's better than a dog. (But not as good as a bunny.)

And Levi....all my boys are Star Trek geeks. I started them watching Star Trek Next Generation when I realized that they had never watched a TV series before. I thought it would be fun for them to have something with a continuing storyline. After they finished with that they wanted to watch Voyager, then Deep Space Nine, and now that they are almost through with that they've starting watching the original series that streams on Netflix...I think that things might have gone too far.


Christmas time has been good so far this year. We got our tree, we put up decorations, we watched the Christmas devotional, and we've been listening to Christmas music. Although one word of warning. We have apparently had 2 different things from Amazon stolen from off our front porch. One just never seemed to show up, and the other we found the empty packaging just lying around.

So watch out. (Luckily Amazon is being very good about replacing the things that we did not receive.)

Merry Christmas, everyone!!!!!!!!!

Some of my kids, well...

On the way home from school this week Israel asked me if I wanted a friend. I said sure, wondering all the time where this was going. He then presented me with a small flat fuzzy brownish-rust colored object about the size of a silver dollar. Luckily I was smart enough not to touch it because when I asked him about it he said, "Oh, I got it off the floor in the bathroom at school. It was just growing there so I thought someone should take it home as a friend."

The good news is that he didn't touch it either (apparently he used a pencil to pick it up). The bad news is that my son think he should collect fuzzy things he finds in bathrooms.

Blech!



The girls.


She's getting big too fast.


Israel, posing instead of hiding...yea!



Cute Marguerite in her daddy's arms.

Epic Fail...Fall

Elijah edited his first video. I think he did a pretty good job for his first time....there's music and everything. (Don't worry, it's not too long.)

Although this video may look staged, let me assure you, it was not.

We are doing great here. We are over the swine flu and we are all healthy. I got a new camera, and as soon as I figure out how to hook it up and download pics, I'll post some new ones, especially since Maggie thinks she's about to crawl. (Stop growing up, babygirl!)

the Oink Oink

So, our family has been having the never ending experience with the swine flu. Never. Ending. Really. It has now been 6 weeks of nonstop fun.

It's like a merry-go-round. One person gets off, and another gets on and we go around and around and around. Today Elijah has the dubious distinction of being the first one in our family to get it for the 4th time. I was hoping there was no 4th time. Steve, Francesca, Cecelia, and I have had it twice, Israel has had it 3 times, and Levi twice, although once was his stint in the hospital so I feel like it should count double, and Maggie has had it once.

The Oink Oink needs to go away, and never come back.

We hateses it.

12

Today is Israel's birthday. He's 12 this year.

So the other day he's talking to Levi:

Israel: It's really gross when you barf, I remember one time, I barfed and there were beans in it.

Levi: Ewww.

Israel: The wierd thing was that I hadn't eaten any beans.

Me: Israel, if you barfed beans then you must have been eating beans.

Israel: But I hadn't...maybe they were the children of my kidneys.

Me: **What??**




...Anyway. Here are some pictures that I took for Grandma Bentley's wall. They aren't that great, but Grandma Morgan wanted to see them, so here they are.

New Job!

Eli and Maggie.


Eli sleeping with Maggie



Grandma Morgan doing the grandma bounce

Grandpa Morgan with a terrified Francesca

Peek!

Steve started his new job today. Did I tell you, Steve got a new job??

Yea! He did!

He is now employed at Spectranectics. They develop and manufacture medical devices like laser catheters that go in and clean out blocked arteries. It is here in Colorado Springs, so we get to stay here. (The kids are pretty excited about that part.....me too actually.) We feel very blessed, this job situation has worked out better than we could have even imagined.

It is really nice to know what our plans are. I feel like it has been a long time since we've had an idea of what was coming next. It is good to feel settled again.

And time flies...

Maggie is already getting bigger. Hardly seems fair after how long it took to get her here.

After a rocky c-section (for me, not her) things are going better. I got my bionic bladder (catheter) removed this week. I had it in as my bladder was healing from a suture that was put through it while they were sewing me up. I am thrilled, it has made life MUCH easier getting that taken care of. I am starting to get some strength back and things are good here.

Steve is still on the job hunt. No success yet, but he keeps turning in resumes and something will turn up eventually.

Marguerite Magdalene

Maggie, the one-eye bandit.

I love first baths!

Loooove them!

She's almost smiling.

And she's dressed again.

She's healthy and beautiful and we are all enjoying her.

Leisure time

Today Steve was released from his calling as bishop of our ward. It has been 4 years and 2 months since he was called. The Stake was redoing the boundaries in Colorado Springs and they kind of combined our ward with another ward while chopping off a few pieces around the edges. The bishop of the other ward hasn't been in as long as Steve, plus with the possibility of us moving soon, they thought it would be best for the other bishop to take over.

Needless to say we are thrilled. We have gotten used to Steve serving and it really didn't feel like that big of a sacrifice most of the time, but we are looking forward to having him home more. It will also give him more time for the job search.

I have to say, that I am so grateful that I have a husband who is willing to serve the Lord, whatever he is asked to do. What a blessing. I see too many people in my ward who don't have that and it is easy to see how any sacrifice that our family made was worth having that kind of a husband and father.

I feel very blessed today in everything that I have today. The Lord is good.

Too Big for the Car

No, not me! I may feel like I'm too big to fit into a car, but in reality I'm not THAT big. But our family will be soon enough, so we bought a new car. New to us, that is. We now have an 8 passenger 2006 Toyota Sienna. It is boring gold color, but who cares, it's not a sports car or anything. Now we have a car that will fit our family when the baby is born.

Strangely enough, Francesca is most excited about the new car. She is constantly yelling about it when she sees it outside the window. Now we just have to sell the old one.

Here is a few pics of our cute Ches. As she won't be the baby for too much longer.

90 Days

Steve got his 90 Day notice yesterday. That means that his work will officially end on May 2, and then he has one month to try to find a job, etc. in which he is still an Intel employee. On June 2 his Intel employment will end unless he decides to forgo the separation package in order to try to find a job within Intel.

So, we are looking into jobs, and COBRAing insurance, and where we might move and stuff like that. All in all, I think Steve and I are both ready to do this just so our lives won’t be so up in the air, like they have been for the past 2 years. Unfortunately, the job market isn’t so good right now.