Our Little Mary Loo

Guess who's trying to sit up on her own? 

This is a fun little thing called a "Bumbo". It helps babies learn to sit on their own, once they're able to support their head. 

We got pics taken of her a week ago and they're so cute. Check out the photographers blog for samples. Half of them were taken in the front seat of the car cause it was so cold outside, but they still turned out adorable!

Mary Loo?

Tessa pics

I will not eat them with a mouse...

So, Rob and I have been playing World of Warcraft a lot lately since the expansion came out. We stay up late since Tessa's awake anyway. It's been a lot of fun to play together. 

The other night I heard a rustling against the chip bag on the kitchen counter while we were playing. I looked over just in time to see a mouse run down the hole of the left back burner on our stove. I yelled at Rob through my headphones to get up here and kill it. We had a sticky trap in the cupboard from the previous owner so we set it on the counter and threw away any open food things that the mouse could possible have gotten into. The next morning we still hadn't caught it, but Rob saw it on the floor by the stove, so he moved the trap to the floor and came to tell me about it. As soon as he went back to the kitchen, there was a little friend waiting for him on the sticky pad. "Squeak squeak!"... Too bad it was so cute. Too bad they're dirty, disgusting little things. Rob "took care of it" outside and we haven't seen another one since, but I'm making sure we don't leave stuff on the counter just in case.

Blog-o-rama

Well, this will be a multi-post day since I haven't posted for so long. I've been trying to keep my sanity while the kids are off track. I've decided that next year we're going to put the girls on one track and the boys on another, cause I'm having a hard time with the five-kids-at-a-time thing. Do you know how hard it is to go from one child to five within a year?!?

So, first here are some pics of our anniversary retreat. On November 7th we had family pics taken, then dropped the kids (except for Tess) off at my mom's house and went to dinner at Tepanyaki. It was fun - one of those places where the chef cooks right at your table. The food was great. We shared an entree of steak and salmon and got a plate of sushi and with the veggies as a side, we were stuffed. 

Afterward we drove out to Park City to spend the night at the Marriott Summit Watch timeshare property. My sister hooked us up with the reservation. It was a very nice place - I wish we could have spent a week there like the skiers who frequent the place do. Here are some pictures of our suite. It was nice to have some time alone together!

It's hard to believe its been a year. A lot has happened, but I'm grateful to be where I am in my life, and to have a wonderful companion to share it with.

Trick or Treat!

The kids and I went to visit Grandma Michelle right after school yesterday. She had a special treat bag for each of them. So we trick or treated and took a couple of pictures out in her yard. Then Kaleb, Elise, and Isaak went with their mom and we finished getting Macy ready while trying to watch our scratched version of "Haunted Mansion."

Kaleb = Ninja

Elise = Witch

Isaak = Ninja Turtle

Macy = Snow Princess

Tessa = Monkey

Rob and Macy and Tessa and I went to Mom and Dad's for dinner. Mom made a wonderful stew that we enjoyed with salad and genuine San Francisco sourdough bread that Mom brought back from her trip this week. She was out there representing UTA at a convention.

Rob made a really cool Knight costume. I thought his helmet made him look like the black knight from Monty Python and the Holy Grail, so I was determined that we should watch it after the kids went to bed. Luckily Ethan had it for us to borrow, and Rob picked it up on his way home. Rob kept quoting the Black Knight to people as we trick-or-treated with Macy. It was fun. I found a Snow Queen costume just like Macy's and she was thrilled. I was happy it was on sale. Costumes are so ridiculously priced, especially for how poorly some of them are made! No wonder my parents always made ours from scratch.Mom and Dad watched Tessa for about an hour while we went out with Macy. At first she didn't want to go. She hasn't been feeling very well the last couple of days. I convinced her to go to just a couple of houses. After seeing the Great Pumpkin at our neighbor's house, and visiting another friend, Macy said, "Mom, I want to go trick-or-treating now." So we went to a neighborhood with some friends in it and went down three streets. Then Macy said, "Ok Mom, I'm done trick-or-treating now." Her bucket was about half full and she was content. We went back to my parents' house for a few minutes before Michelle called to tell us the kids were ready to come home. It was a fun night for all. The rest of the kids had pretty full buckets. I'm not particularly looking forward to the massive candy consumption over the next few days. But kids will be kids, so sugar high here we come!