It's Official!

We had our first appointment today - everything was great! I haven't gained any weight yet (which is hard for me to believe!) and the baby has a strong heartbeat and is moving a lot. I'm 13wks, 3days along and we're due on April 1st (that's right, April Fools Day!). Here are a couple snapshots from our first appt. We'll have another ultrasound in a month.

What we've been up to lately...

We had our friends, the Pavey's, over for dinner last night.
Gracie loves playing with Samantha and Ellie.

After the Pavey's left, Gracie had a meltdown...

Then, had to sit in time-out for a few minutes

Elli, taking a break while dove hunting with Jason last week

Helping Mom with her watering

It's not a great angle, but this is Emmett's new face. He puckers his lips, puffs up his checks and opens his eyes real wide while he's playing or when he wants something from me. When he sees us with the camera he stops making the face so we're going to have to get sneaky to catch him!

Enjoying the pool

Ballet Perfomance

Gracie had a ballet performance this afternoon. As you can see, most of the kids were a little distracted by the audience watching. :) Gracie did great - she loved the audience! We signed her up for another 4 weeks so I'm sure you'll get to see more ballet picts!

A few more pics I liked!

Emmett's haircut (yes, I had it cut again this week because I thought we left it too long the first time - now he really looks like a little boy!)

Go Cougs!  

We're staying positive, even though we had to experience the misery of two sad losses.  At least we could change the channel if we needed a break - most of you were stuck in the stadium! :( 

Gracie with her friend Ellie:

We went over to the Pavey's house last night to watch their kids so they could have a quiet dinner out.  Gracie and Ellie get along soooo well and played and played all night!  Ellie kept asking if Gracie could sleep in her bed for the night (so cute)!

Road Trip to Colorado Springs

We were anxious to see more of the Southwest, so decided to take a trip up to Colorado Springs and visit our good friends John & Beth over an extended Labor Day weekend.  I was very apprehensive about taking Emmett on a long road trip because he didn't like 3 hours on airplane or 6 hours to Uniontown, WA, in the car.  I insisted that we purchase a couple new toys and put the DVD player in the car.  I also insisted that we plan stops at least every two hours to let the kids out (finding playgrounds whenever possible!).  It took two days (over 20 hours of travel) and we made it there one piece!  We loved northern Arizona, New Mexico and especially the mountains of Colorado.  We saw lots of pronghorn antelope, mule deer, buffalo (not wild!), and lots of big open country.  I decided that even though we have come to like the rustic beauty of Yuma, we are definitely in the armpit of the state! :)  

Colorado is amazing topography - huge pinyon pine covered mountains and large open grasslands.  We had thunder and lightening every afternoon and were so relieved to be in cooler temperatures (day and night!).  Beth's parents have a condo at Keystone, in the mountains, so we spent one night up there exploring the area and enjoying even cooler temperatures!  John & Beth's house is at about 5000 feet of elevation, but the condo was at 11,000 feet!  It's a good thing we didn't attempt a long hike because I wouldn't have been able to breath!   Unfortunately, like in the Northwest, the bark beetles are devastating the pine forests in Colorado - it looks like almost 50% of the trees were dead or dying.  We hope to visit them again next summer, so it will be very interesting to see how much worse it has gotten (yes, I'm still a forester at heart!:)  

Even though I was very exhausted after our trip, we definitely want to explore more of what we saw to the north and will try to plan more trips that way - probably during the summer to escape the Yuma heat!

Thanks for a great trip John and Beth!

Pit-stop at Coronado State Monument: Ancient Indian Ruins of Kuau'a, New Mexico

Jason & kids at the Keystone village/pond with Beth

Our wonderful accommodations in Keystone

View of the village/pond

Feeding the fish and geese

Kids with Beth

Gracie with John

You're never to young to help-out!

More Pictures from our trip home in August...

Visiting with Papa Joe

Playing at the Beach....yes, the water was freeeeezing!

Emmett, not so sure about the tractor

On the tractor with Pa

Pa reading the kids a bedtime story