Dear baby,

I saw you today on the ultrasound screen. With your feet up over your head. Kicking and squirming around. And now we know you're definitely a girl. Although I always knew you'd be a girl, from the beginning. I just knew.

I'm giddy with happiness every time I think about you. Which is all the time. Because you're always with me, reminding me you're there with all your kicks & somersaults. And I'm pretty sure your older brothers & sister didn't move around in my tummy as much as you do!

You are already so big and you still have more than 2 months of growing. I don't know how you're going to fit!

I've been working on your nursery. We painted it light pink. I think you'll like it. And I've been having alot of fun buying you sweet, soft girl things. I even have a tiny swimsuit with ruffles for you when we take you to the beach in July.

Your brothers and sister are so excited to meet you. They've been hoping & wishing for a baby sister for so long. They're going to help me take good care of you. And I can't wait to watch them hold you & love you. You're probably going to get more loving than you can handle!

And your Daddy is so excited. You're going to be his little princess. We've been dreaming of you for years & can hardly believe our dream is coming true!

I hope you won't mind that I'm going to probably take a zillion pictures of you. But it's because I love you & I don't want to ever forget how you looked & what you did at every step in your life. Your brothers and sister have had to get used to this too.

Each night as I try to go to sleep, laying on one side, then to the other, and then back to the other side........I dream of having you in my arms.......wondering what you're going to look like.......so excited to snuggle you & smell your sweet baby smell.

I can't wait for you to join our crazy family. It won't be complete without you.

Love, Mom

Hampton Court, England

No, we didn't just take a little trip to England.
These are from our trip back in May.
So I'm a little behind.
But it is so fun to go through these & reminisce........another reason why I love taking pictures.

We took a day trip out of London to Hampton Court Palace.
Built in the 1500's, it was King Henry VIII's favorite country estate & where he spent alot of time with Anne Boleyn.


And it was a GORGEOUS day!
Being the enthusiastic tourists that we are, we wore the Medieval cloaks they offered while we toured the palace.
We kind of got into it.

And now looking back at these pictures, I'm realizing we were the only ones wearing them......

The Grand Staircase up to the King's Apartments.

I've always said that Brian & I would have made a great English king & queen.........

I mean, look at us.

And we're so good at producing boys! And that's really all that mattered anyway.

Mars is already a total princess.

When you're on these big sight-seeing trips, all the stand-and-smile pictures just get so boring !

Luckily, Brian is really good at mixing it up a bit and would come up with some great poses.....

King Henry VIII's bed. Wowza!

But the best part of this amazing place was the gardens!

They were unreal!

I was absolutely beside myself. And trying to figure out some way I could some how snap my fingers & have all my kids there for some amazing family pictures!!!

But instead I just had Marlee........

...........and Brian.............(who is going to kill me for posting this picture, but I just had to)

I really want some of these in my front yard.

Isn't that the most fabulous fairy-tale princess backdrop?

And then we happened upon a full-on English maze.

The goal was to try to find the center where there was a fountain & benches.

It was actually not very easy & took us awhile........

This is when we were really lost & got scared.

Just another little 'secret' garden. Sigh.

And the walkways looked like this.

And I love it when Brian licks me like this.

And I was in love with all the wisteria, like this.

I wonder if it will grow in Arizona................doubtful.

A view from the back.

Such an incredible place, full of history and beauty.

And such a fun, memorable day. We loved it !

Max is a tree-climber.

He's my little monkey. Always has been.

He would scale the shelves in the pantry when he was barely one year old.

At the older kids' baseball games, I'd turn my head for a second & he would be on top of the backstop fence......other parents would be gasping & asking who's child that was & ready to call the fire dept. or something. And I'd very calmly say, "Max, climb back down right now." Never really worried. He wasn't going to fall.

He has mad climbing skills.

It's spring in our backyard.

I love spring. And I love our backyard.

The peach & pear blossoms are in full swing.

Soon to be followed by all the orange blossoms.

My favorite !

Right now our oranges are ripe & there's oodles of them......since we have 9 mature navel trees.

Please feel free to stop by if you want some. We have way more than we could ever eat or juice.

But it makes me so happy to look out our windows to see our trees polka-dotted with oranges.

They are super-yum.

It's raining right now as I type this, and I love it! Like most Arizonans, we all love it when it rains, because it's such a treat.

It doesn't happen that often.

Something about gray skies & raindrops makes me want to bake bread.....or brownies.

That's why Brian & I were so excited to go to Seattle for Dental School. It rains like 95 % of the time! It sounded absolutely dreamy. The complete opposite of Arizona!

And it was. For the first year or two......

I made alot of soup & bread in our tiny apartment's kitchen.

And then it got old.

Really old.

We craved the sunshine.

Brian would practically have a panic attack when a sunny day would come along when he was stuck inside at school!

We had Marlee & one of her first words was 'wet', and the very first phrase she learned to say was 'its' cold out there'. We spent alot of time at indoor playgrounds like the mall & McDonalds.

It was raining the day we packed up our U-Haul & left for our next adventure in Los Angeles. So happy to be leaving the miserable rain behind us.

Then our first year in California ended up being an El Nino year & L.A. got more rain than Seattle! Go figure.

So that was a long time ago & we're desert people again......and loving the rain again.

Bring it on!


The Stapley Talent Show

We were a little surprised when Mars told us she & her friend were going to sing & play the guitar in the talent show.

Because she doesn't know how to play the guitar.

She just got it for Christmas & hasn't had any lessons!

They practiced mostly at her friend's house, so I had no idea what they were going to sound like.

We were a little worried, I must admit.

So we go to the Talent Show and......

they

were

AWESOME !

I really believe I'm being objective here.

They sang & played 'Jesus Take the Wheel' by Carrie Underwood.

We were so proud.


I never posted this picture of what Marlee got for me for Christmas.......

The belly's alot bigger now.

Gus turns 4 !

Holy Cow!

I don't think there's ever been a kid more excited for his birthday party!

A train party, of course. At the park. Right before Preschool.

With all his cute little Preschool buddies.

Apparently I didn't quite learn my lesson the last time I decorated a cake like this.
About 10 years ago...... when I wanted to slit my wrists before I was even half-way done.

Just like a pregnancy, I guess. You forget the pain & misery, and then one day you find yourself doing it again!!

I barely finished it in time!

Cursing myself.

And I don't think Gus really truly appreciated it.

Of course he loved his train cake...... but I think he would have been just as happy if I had stuck a couple plastic trains on a sheet cake.


It was a big day for this little guy.

Who's not so little anymore (sniff).

Happy Birthday Gus!

Happy Valentine's Day!

I thought I'd put a little more effort into the kids' Valentines this year & my friend Leigh found this cute idea, so we did it.
Do you love? We did.


And we always have to make Valentine's sugar cookies (my fave), since I can't ever pass up all the pink & heart sprinkles at the grocery store......and I was extra excited since I'm pregnant & am eating for two!!

YUM!

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY !!!

They're almost home......

.........the kids.

from school.

and I wanted to take a picture of the cute Valentine's M&M jar before it's attacked......

......like that scene in 'The Christmas Story' where the Bumpus's dogs get into the kitchen & attack the Christmas turkey. Just like that.

I don't know why I even did this!



And here's our FHE project last week........

......showing our love for each other.

Loved this one from Zane.

Gus really got into it. His all had drawings on them & most of his are taped on the lower cupboards & weird random places.

We thought the pets would like one.

But I don't think they really cared.

They really only want a can of tuna.

We've thrown them too much people food, so that's all they care about.

The cats are especially disappointing. They don't want us to touch them.

Only give them a can of tuna.

Good for nothing.

Anyone want a cat for Valentine's Day?