4 to 2

Well, Allison and I are going to have to stick together because this family is becoming overrun with boys. Yep, this one's a little guy! Tom's first comment: "Yeah, I have my quartet!" My first thought: "Oh, does this mean we have to have another one to get Allison a sister?!" Hmm, we'll see. I've been thinking about having 3 missionaries to send off and that I'm lucky I only have to do one girl's hair. Anyway, we're excited around here!

Disappointing Results

Our whole family headed to my doctor this morning for the big ultrasound. Yeah! The kids have been so excited to see the baby "on TV." So, without delay, this is what we found out...nothing.

The technician is out of town and the doctor was stuck in an emergency surgery. We waited around for an hour because they thought he might be in, but after keeping the kids halfway entertained for that long hour, we were sent home. I'll go back tomorrow, but alone. Very anticlimactic, but it might be fun to be the only one who knows the gender until I choose to disclose it :)

Funny how with my previous pregnancy we wanted to wait to find out the gender at the delivery. Now we're bugged that we have to postpone knowing for one more day. So maybe I'll post the result tomorrow, if it all works out.

P.S. Speaking of doctors, congrats to my (as of today!) now doctor brother, Brian! Doctor of Music, to clarify.

Adventures in April

(Thought I'd follow the Magic Tree House format of titling my writing today)

Here are some random pictures to share:

Warm weather means pool parties! This was our first day at the pool this year. Gideon and his friend are seriously 2 little rascals when they get together. They are cute, but can get into some mischief when they get going.

Have you ever made homemade tootsie rolls? They are pretty good, fun and are a way to use powdered milk. They got pretty creative with their chocolate creations.

I have loved having one of these old-school watercoloring books for Allison. It's even Care Bears--takes me back to being a kid again.

A quick hike in Simi Valley. We were supposed to meet a group from Tom's work, but we were dreadfully late. But we saw a beautiful sunset.

On to Easter:

Easter was really low-key. The only egg hunt we did this year was at home. We did do two; one in the front and then a little one in the backyard when Gideon woke up. The kids had fun setting it up for him. They were supposed to just demonstrate to him how to hunt for eggs, but just ended up joining in for another shot at more eggs.

We watched General Conference with a couple from church and enjoyed an easy Easter dinner and of course a chess game for the guys. Good times.

Spring Break

So now that Jacob's in school, we had our first official "Spring Break" with him home for a week. We found some fun things to do including...

We headed with a group of friends to a bounce house party place and it was confirmed that Gideon really is a daredevil. He was climbing up all the highest walls and sliding down the scariest slides with all the big kids. They had a great time.

Allison & Jacob finishing a race through one of the inflatable obstacle courses.

The group.

One day I braved the LA Zoo alone with the kids. We found the neatest place there: the Children's Discovery Center, which is all about saving the condors. We spent a while there and then Jacob wanted to return there for more fun before we left. Allison & Gideon are cleaning up the beach sand...

Then there's this adorable operating room. The kids look at an x-ray of a condor's stomach and discover there's garbage inside. So, they begin operating and remove the metal pieces from inside the bird.

Gideon loved taking care of this baby condor.

And fighting the condor punching bags

The kids could climb on everything there. There were animals hidden all over and there was a hunt to find all of them. The best part about this place was that wasn't crowded at all; I don't think many people know about it. So while I want everyone to go check it out, don't be there when we go so we can have the place to ourselves again! :)

Thought I'd include a picture of myself. Maybe it's not the best idea when I'm pregnant, but here we are. Gideon's favorite animal is the 'mingos, so we were getting a better look at them and that's all he's been talking about. (Flamingos not pictured because our small photographer wasn't quite tall enough to get them in the picture.)

A fun and tiring day at the zoo. Spring Break was great, but I realized that I'm used to 2 kids during the day now. We'll have to learn how to welcome Jacob back into the mix come summertime! :)

It Worked!

I know everyone's lives stopped when they found out I lost my camera. Well, you can go back to normal as it really did work to announce its absence, because...I found it a few days later!! :) Annoyingly enough, it was sitting almost in plain sight under the seat of the car. I had checked under the the VAN's seats many, many times, thinking that it seemed right that it was under one of the seats. Anyway, all is well and I'll share a few of my precious pictures that were almost lost forever.

I inadvertently discovered it was quite funny to pair bad news with good news after I read the comments from my last post. It was amusing to read things like "Congratulations! I'm so sorry to hear that!" Anyway, thanks for your notes of excitement mixed with sympathy :)

These are some random captured moments from the mix, moments you just cannot recreate:

Chess night with the Wildes! It was pretty intense.

Fun in bed with Grandma Omer

Fun with a lose tooth.

I think this is lost tooth #3.

Setting off on a birthday shopping trip with Grandma. What a special time. Allison picked out a jewelry box.

Watching them wrestle is both cute and sad when it always ends in tears.

We now have a 2 year old in the house!

Reading with Grandma Tanner.

I don't remember if I've ever seen a rhino up and moving around. They are so interesting to look at. It was a BEAUTIFUL day at the zoo with my mom.