Hot dog or Hamburger

Yesterday was a very good day. Drum roll please..........

It's a hot dog or as the ultrasound tech said "a third leg". Both are a little vulgur but either way it means a boy!! Shawn about jumped out of his seat, Hayden cheered, Hadley burst in to tears, Hallie was already in tears because she thought that I was being hurt. I must say that I am also very pleased because I did NOT want to have another head of hair to do every day. The ultrasound looked good- all parts there, he looked healthy and no definite markers for any deformities/diseases. He would not turn so that we could get a profile picture but we really got the information that we came for so I didn't mind. Here are a couple of picture of his face which I personally think are a little wierd but what the hey, I just posted a picture of his down under so why not one of his face.

His little fist kept grabbing at the air.

Our little alien. He was moving his lips so it looks cool on the video

Last bit of summer

Seriously, where has summer gone? School starts this week for all of us. Hayden & Hadley on Wednesday and myself on Thursday. Many of my friends are sad because their kids are back in school and they will miss them. I guess that I'm not as kind because I am estatic that my kids are going to school. I love the schedule that school provides, mostly because I don't have to make it.

Here are a few pics of us winding down our summer.

Hallie finally figured out how to pedal her tricycle.

She is hilarious! She puts on her helmet and is off.

Sometime the helmet is right, other times it is backwards.

She is really good about staying right in front of the house too.

It is always amazing to me how much kids pick up on a copy.

Hallie always puts her bike on its side like her brother & sister.

She gets off, picks it up and puts it on its side.

Hadley has kept up on her photography passion.

Here are a few pictures of summer play as seen by Hadley:

Her brother on the trampoline

We've also had fun at the "beach".

Jensen's Grove is 5 minutes from our house and the kids love to

go swimming and play in the water.

Hallie still only likes her feet in the water.

Here she is coming to tell on her sister for getting her too wet.

We've had a great time this summer. It was super short for myself with school and I am really looking forward to next year when I don't have class all summer and will even have a new family member to enjoy it with.

The baby

Here are a couple of pics from the ultrasound I had last week. It was a quickie, about 5 minutes is all, because the ultrasound lady was backed up and in a hurry. We didn't even get to check "down under" to see what we are having. No worries though, I have another one on the 26th and will find out then. The two pictures look almost exactly the same. I'm mostly just excited to see a viable baby with long legs and he/she had a strong heart beat. My due date is January 16th.

Camping w/ the fam

This week we went camping in Island Park. We were going to go to Palisades and bring the boat while sleeping in a tent. I put the kibosh on that one. While a tent sounded just wonderful, I prefer the camp trailer. So off we were. We camped at Buttermilk campground near the Island Park resevoir. Our site was just across from a set of docks. We brought Lloyd (the dog) and he had a blast fetching a stick from the water. Shawn and Hayden ordered the book The Summer of the Monkeys and Shawn brought it with us to read. It was really kind of fun sitting around and listening to him read the story.

The next day was a busy one. We first loaded up and went to Big Springs to feed the fish. There were seagulls everywhere trying to steal the food from the fish. The kids had a blast feeding both the fish and the seagulls. I, of course, left my the camera in the car during this so no pics.

We decided to unload the 4-wheelers and go for a ride. Hayden drove his and the rest of us (that's right 4 of us!) piled on Shawn's. Lloyd ran next to us. That poor dog got more exercise in this one day than he has got the entire summer. We wore him right out. He fell asleep sitting up several times that night and the next day.

It was a beautiful ride. We saw so much beauty. While on the ride, we crossed an old railroad bridge where people were putting in to float the fork. Shawn and I had made this float 10 years ago when Lloyd was just a puppy and we thought it would be fun to take the kids on it as well.

So off to Mack's Inn to rent a boat for a float trip. I forgot how long of a float it is. We started out strong. Shawn and the kids attempted fishing while I paddled the boat (we hit the shore several times-oops)

We stopped one time to try and let them fish from the shore but that didn't last long. The weeds were as tall as Hallie but that didn't stop her from exploring. Hadley was so sweet and helped her back to the boat.

We got back to camp with just enough time to make dinner and get to bed. We were all tired. Lloyd could barely it up the two steps in to the camper. The next morning, Shawn made us breakfast. That's right- I said Shawn made it. Now if I could just get him to cook at home.

The kids played and picked me some flowers while we packed up the camp site. It was a short but super fun trip. Hopefully we can do this again soon.