A New Job, New State, and New Adventure

 There was a time that I was pretty good about keeping this thing up-to-date, but that time has come and gone.  This post is just to let you all know that we are still alive and well, while giving you a very brief update on what has happened with us since the last post.

Alyssa and Ambrey got their ears pierced.  I don't have a picture of Ambrey because she was with Janna when she had it done.  From what I heard she did great with it.  For Alyssa this was the second time that we've had her ears pierced, and just like last time she dealt with some swelling afterwards that prompted us to take the earrings out and let the ears heal.

Summer was horribly hot again, which was really no surprise.  The biggest shock was when we got in the pool near the end of June and found that the water 95 degrees!  That would be awesome during the wintertime, but when it's 115 degrees outside a 95 degree pool doesn't do a whole lot of good.

In part because of the heat, as well as some changes with my schedule at work we decided that it was again time to move our family elsewhere.

 But since the move wasn't until December 14th, some within our family insisted that we had to have a Christmas tree up before the move.  So we got a small one.  But that's not even the most troubling part.  Before we got this tree we had already put up two other Christmas trees.  Yes, there may be some insanity within our family.

 While dealing with about two weeks worth of delays on the close of our home in Arizona, Janna and the kids moved to our new place in New Mexico.  Moving sucks.

 This is a picture of my trip from Arizona on the 21st of December.  Janna didn't take any pictures of her trip.  When I asked her why she didn't take any pictures she said something about screaming kids, icy roads, a blizzard, and stress.  I don't know what that has to do with a camera, but whatever.

 We were supposed to leave for Utah the day after I arrived in New Mexico, but when I arrived I found a house full of sick invalids.  After considering cancelling our trip to Utah for Christmas, which was to be our first Christmas there in about five years, we spontaneously decided to leave on the afternoon of the 23rd, equipped with trash cans to catch any overflowing sickness that might appear.  We stopped in Moab after about six hours of continual screaming from Westley.  In the morning we traveled the remaining three and a half hours with a little less screaming, but this time in dense snow that at times provided as little as 75 feet of visibility.

Though the trip was difficult, it was well worth it.  The kids got to spend time with their cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents, and we got to see what Christmas would be like if we had never left.  The picture shown above is of the girls receiving gifts that my mother asked my grandma to make.  The girls were very excited to receive the handmade dolls.

 Since returning we have settled in nicely here.  The picture above is from something that came out of the bathroom sink in the master bath.  We're not sure what it was, but I'm not ruling out the possibility that the Loch Ness Monster may have tried to escape down the drain.

 The Two oldest have settled in with school.  Alyssa is in Junior High, and Ambrey will soon be finishing third grade.  Anna is excited about starting school after the summer.

 This is my birthday gift from Janna.  I confess it's pretty awesome.  I'm spoiled.

And this is a picture of Westley eating second breakfast this morning.  I think we may have a rather large hobbit on our hands.



Let the Swimming Season Begin!

With the weather warming up it means that we can finally start using the pool.  That's not to say that it hasn't been used before these pictures were taken, but not all of us like to freeze.

I'm not sure if I've got something on my face, or if Westley's just trying to figure out the easiest way to drown me.

Staycation

I had vacation time in February that we were having a difficult time deciding what to do with.  We were debating about whether we should head to the beach in southern California for the weekend or drive to Utah to visit family.  In the end we decided that we didn't want the girls to miss any school we decided that we would stay here and discover our own town.

The first night we went camping... in our backyard.  This was the first time that Anna had ever slept in a tent.  Alyssa and Ambrey have actually camped (for real) on two other occasions.  Once while we were in Buffalo, and the other time was up at Payson Lakes before we left Utah.

After our camping adventure we went to the Phoenix zoo.  Ambrey, Anna, and Janna all got to ride on camel's, which they thought was pretty cool.

I have to honest, I thought it was a pretty hot day.  And it was only February.  I don't know how people can stand to visit this place later on in the summer.

We also went to the Children's Museum of Phoenix.

Now this place was pretty cool, and not just because it was indoor.

The girls spent most of their time at the play market.  They spent time playing as a shopper, as well as a worker.

This was Alyssa playing with one of the vacuum things.

This was my favorite part.  It was like a HUGE jungle gym.

This last picture was on Lucky Charms Day.  I mean St. Patrick's Day.  Don't they look magically delicious?

A few Pictures

So these next few posts may seem a little random.  Since it has been about six months since the last one, I confess that I'm putting a little less effort into trying to keep things organized while trying to get caught up on what has been going on.  This picture was taken of Westley at about three months.

 Here's Westley in the basinet.  He has been out of this for around five months now.

I just thought that this was a cute picture of Ambrey and Westley. 

I took this picture while I was waiting for Janna to show up to our Monopoly show down.  I waited, and waited, and waited.  She finally did show up... about two or three months later.  In case you're wondering who won lets just say that Janna went down in flames, but not before pieces of the game went flying in my direction.

Westley has Grown

Apryl, this is for you.  This post is all about Westley, and how much he has grown in the last few months.

Smiling for the camera.

Little man hands.

Westley with his older sisters getting ready to do what he loves most... eat.

How cute is that?

 Hanging out in his saucer.

 The little guy sleeping at one of the girls many softball games.  He looks huge in this picture!

Playing the piano.  It doesn't sound as good as it looks.

Westley and Ambrey

We've said it before, it doesn't take much to get Ambrey to fall asleep.  She wanted to be close to Westley so she went over to him and laid down next to him.  Next thing you know she's out, and he's looking at her like: "what are you doing over there?"

Westley Update

This is just a brief update on Westley.  The above picture was taken last Thursday as we were preparing to take him home from the hospital.  Since the time that we took him home he has eaten, slept, soiled his diapers, and kept us up at night.  That's about it.

This picture was taken this morning after he finished eating.  It's amazing to watch how he changes every single day.  The two videos that you see below are both short clips from the puppet show that Anna put on for us this morning.

Baby Westley's Visit From the Girls

This post is just pictures from Westley's big sisters visit.

Anna holding Westley for the first time.

Ambrey holding Westley for the first time.

Alyssa holding Westley for the first time.

The girls admiring their little brother.

Anna serenading Westley.

Baby Westley

Before proceeding, I feel that I should warn you about the graphic nature of the first picture in this blog post.  It is a tad bloody, gooey, and well, just plain messy.  So if you have a bit of a weak stomach, you may wish to bypass this post all together.  If however, you feel that you have a bit of a stronger constitution, then by all means continue reading.

We thought that we had everything so well planned out, but sometimes even the best laid plans come to naught when we fail to consider the fact that we actually have so little control over certain things.  Westley was supposed to arrive on August 26th.  Janna was supposed to arrive at the hospital at four am that morning.  She was supposed to have a c-section at 6 am with a surgeon that I had hand picked, and her anesthesia done by an anesthesiologist that I had hand picked as well.  Baby sitting arrangements were all perfectly laid out.  I had arranged my vacation and schedule to coincide with when Westley was going to arrive so that I would have a little more then two weeks of time off after he arrived, while not missing any of my hours at work.

Then on Sunday night, Westley and Janna's body made a decision that we had not planned for.  While I was doing a 24 hour in-house shift Janna went into labor.  On Monday morning, while I was driving home from work, Janna sent a text to let me know that she thought that she was in labor.  Even though she thought that she was in labor, she still needed some convincing to get her to go to the hospital (thanks Mom).  Shortly after arriving at the hospital, the nurse confirmed that she was in labor.  About two hours after that, this is what happened:

School Programs, Mother's Day, and The Princess Bride

At the end of the school year Alyssa participated in her fourth grade program.  I don't know that she was too happy that we brought the camera.  This was the only picture that we could get with her looking in our direction.  Every time that she looked over and saw the camera pointed at her she hurried and turned away.

This is Ambrey at her first grade program.  She had a great time and was happy with her performance.

And this is what Anna thought of it all.  Apparently she wasn't as fond of the music as the other girls were.

For Mother's day I made dinner.  That's right, I cooked.  And it actually tasted pretty darn good if I say so myself.  I made BBQ steak, loaded baked potatoes, and roasted asparagus.

There was so much good food that it wore Anna out.

After watching The Princess Bride for about the millionth time, we came to the conclusion that we had found the name of our fourth child.  Janna found wooden letters at a craft store, which we have since painted, and she gave them to the girls to try to unscramble his name.  This is what they came up with.  For awhile I thought we were going to be stuck with the name Mestley.

Westley.

Ambrey's face on the big screen.  It's difficult to see, but she's definitely there.