It's a ...

GIRL!!

We found out today. We are hoping for a healthy, calm, and obedient little girl... because that is what all little girls are like right???

I wasn't going to post a picture but what's an announcement w/o a picture and like Luke told me today... "It's kinda cool and kinda gross." Don't know what he thought was gross but it was funny.


We are super excited to welcome a new little girl into our family. My family is going through another round of babies again. Noah was one of 5 boys born in a year. Pete had the first of the next wave in December. A little girl. There are 4 of us pregnant and so far two of those are girls... we are hoping for a perfect 5 again to even out the boy-girl ratio.

4 years

I will apologize now for the back posting but let's look on the bright side... at least I am posting right? It is hard to believe that it has been that long. We decided when we made the decision to move away from Rexburg that we would try to go back to our cemetery and visit the quads' grave every year on their birthday (January 31st). Even though it has only been a month since we left, we wanted to start things off right so we planned a weekend in Idaho.

Our trip was filled with visits with friends and family,

checking on the business, visiting the cemetery and freezing our tails off. Unfortunately we didn't get many pictures of anything but our visit to the cemetery.

We were lucky to be able to get to the grave. One year we couldn't even make it in the truck because of all the snow. This year we could drive right over, we just had to dig out the headstone. The boys had fun for a little bit trying to navigate the deep snow.


After a little bit we were all frozen and so we tried to explain to Luke why we were there and took a couple of pictures.


It is hard to describe my feeling and emotions that surround our babies. Sometimes it seems so surreal that all that happened to us and other times it is all too real. I look forward to the day that I can hold them, love them, and get to know them as I know my boys. Until then we have that one very special day where we were able to hold and love them and feel of their special spirits. They are definitely woven into the fabric of our lives.

San Francisco Part II

We decided to head back to San Francisco for our Saturday trip this weekend. We wanted to hit Fisherman's Wharf & Ghiradelli Square... can't plan too much with the munchkins along! The first thing we hit was the traffic of thousands of Giants fans going to fan appreciation day at AT&T field. Thank you GPS for taking us right by this!


Now we know where to go when baseball season starts. Finally we made it to Fisherman's Wharf and walked around we found a cool submarine and boat.


But there was no sort of railing between the dock and the water... a little to nerve racking for a mother. As I was telling Luke for the 14th time that he was too close to the edge, I realized that I had come full circle and sounded like my mom with all of us kids.

After grabbing a crab salad on sourdough sandwich for lunch, which was pretty good and I don't like sea food, we headed up to Ghirardelli Square for the dessert!


Who doesn't love a sundae? After we had got our fill of ice cream and chocolate we walked down to the water to check things out. Needless to say this was the highlight for the boys.


Noah and I walked out to the water to test how cold it was while Luke decided he hadn't done enough snow angels in Rexburg and tried to make a sand angel...


Noah, as usual, decided that he couldn't be left behind but made a slight miscalculation on how far from the step he was.


Oops! Maybe next time. Hugs from Dad make everything better.



Once again we had gorgeous weather and tons of fun. We might just get used to this place.

Is this for real?

I have never lived in a warm climate like this. I am told that this is unseasonably warm weather for San Jose but it is awesome. I am amazed every day when I look at the calendar and it says February and then I go outside to green grass, sunshine and blossoming trees. The boys and I are taking advantage of the sunny days. Snack time in the back yard = no mess inside to clean up. Win-win for everyone.



We went to Santa Cruz for an afternoon at the beach with some girls in our ward. It was so nice and the boys loved it. The water is way to cold to get in but they are more interested in the sand than the water anyhow.

We attempted sand castles but they liked the destroying better than the building and so I just left them to their own devices. Noah's was trying to explore other parts of the beach instead of the one where we were at.


I wished that some of my Rexburg friends could be with me and appreciate the warmth and beauty of it all, so I was a little homesick as I loaded the boys into the car. I turned around for one last look and saw this:

So to all my cold climate dwelling friends... Isn't this amazing? The beach in January? No snow, ice, coats or runny noses? Come on down!

San Francisco Part I

I mentioned that we were trying to use our weekends to explore what the Bay area has to offer and so after heading south we decided to go north to San Francisco. I had never been to this city and so I was excited to see what all the fuss is about.

We headed straight for one of the most famous landmarks: the Golden Gate Bridge.


We stopped at the end of the bridge and enjoyed the view across the bay.


That is Alcatraz and the far side of the bay. We decided to walk out on to the bridge because driving over is a little anti-climactic.


This was pretty cool. Tons of people and traffic but what can you expect? Luke was really excited to go up to the tall tower. (He is into towers lately) He was even more excited to see the door in the bottom of the tower.


Much to his dismay and my relief, the door was locked. We headed back to our car and drove to Sausalito for lunch. It was a charming little sea side town and lunch was good. So good we were to busy eating for any pictures. We loaded the boys back into the car and as they drifted off to sleep Ryan took me down Lombard street. I had never heard of it but it is very steep and very windy. This is as we are driving down it.


Pretty cool. I can't believe how steep the streets are. I have seen them on movies and stuff but to drive those everyday! CRAZY!