Baby Olivia makes her debut

This was yesterday afternoon, less than 24 hours before Olivia arrived. Howie was very excited and happy that our little baby girl was about to be born. He has been asking for his little sister for a while now. Too cute!
Epidural---I totally recommend it.
I am a much happier camper than labor with Howie. I love drugs.
Dr. Lunt, Olivia, Mommy and Daddy

Yea! She is finally here! Born at 10:21am, 7lb 12oz, and 20 inches long. She is alert and awake, hasn't closed her eyes yet, just checking everything out and looking around. After her bath, we will post more photos of our little bug.

Labor Day Weekend

For Labor Day Weekend, we decided to take a trip. This would be the last venture before the baby would be here. We went to Logan, UT to visit Juliene and the family. Becky and Mohammed had returned from Morocco and were staying with her. We ran up there to see the family before Becky and Mohammed moved to Portland, OR and before I had the baby and wouldn't be traveling for a while. While we were there, Juliene and Dale borrowed some canoes from their neighbors. We took them down on the swamps and the family had a blast paddling around. Then the boys got brave and started to jump off the bridge into the water. Yes, this is the bridge from the main road into Logan. All I can say is that our family is CRAZY! But they seemed to have a good time. Howie liked to hang onto the canoe and drag along side it while they paddled along. Sorry if we didn't get everyone's photo. Becky and I stayed home and made the most wonderful Moroccan food ever. Okay, Becky made it and I just helped. I love it so much, but it is very time intensive. Thanks for the yummy treat!

Then we headed back down to SLC and stayed with Julie, Tommy's sister for some time. We visited the (new to us) aquarium in Sandy. It was pretty fun, small and limited animals, but still fun. The highlight was the octopus (which howie calls octoplist). Tommy got some pretty great shots and wondered why everyone kept staring at him with death stares. Later did he realize that there was no flash photography. Sorry animals, hope we didn't blind you octopus. We saw lots of fish from the movie "Nemo" and also the cutest little seahorses. They had a pond where you could pet the stingrays. Tommy and I were able to pet them, but howie's arm wasn't long enough. They were on the bottom of a two foot pond of water. Howie couldn't reach! Maybe next time. This one tank had some beautiful colored fish that played around with you. Tommy enjoyed getting them to stare back at him. Some of them stood with their nose facing his. It was fun to go to the aquarium with howie's cousin seth and aunt Julie.Of course, no trip would be complete without a stop to IKEA. We love that store. We did find some lovely barstools for our house and of course had to eat a cinnamon roll. We were going to get some take-out food from Bombay House in Provo (our favorite place for Indian food) but they weren't open until dinner and we were passing through at lunch time. Maybe next time. Or maybe if some of our relatives are headed down for the weekend they would be so kind to bring us some!! **hint hint** Well, anyway, it was a very fun weekend and we were glad to be able to see so much family.

oUr bIrThDaY's

My birthday was August 20. Tommy's is Sept 1. We usually celebrate together since they aren't so far apart. This year, my boys gave me a stunning bouquet of roses that were printed on the words, "I love you" and "Happy Birthday". I got them at my work and was envied by all.

Howie and I decided to surprise Tommy for his "30th" birthday. It was a big year for Tommy. We decided to get him an over the hill cake and surprise him at school with all of his nursing classmates. His cake says, " '40' is turning 30 Happy Birthday Tommy" (With his classmates, his nickname is 40.) Howie enjoyed eating the cake and his face was black afterwards.



Then, while visiting family in Logan, Becky and Mohammed gave Tommy his birthday present: an Italian tailored suit. He LOVED it, can't you tell?

And lastly, acutally on his official birthday day, Sept 1, we had french toast for breakfast and had him blow out the a candle as we sang to him. We love you daddy and hope 30 is a great year for you. You are a wonderul husband, friend, father, and the best playmate howie LOVES/BEGS to spend time with. We love you lots.

FHE Bowling Night (back in August)

So Howie really wanted to go bowling. He had been asking for quite a while. We finally broke down and took the family bowling. Okay, mom didn't bowl, the tummy in front kind of through off my balance. Howie did really well for his first time bowling. The ball would make a huge crack sound as it hit the floor and then would take minutes to get down to the pins. We always had to reset it, but he started to pick this bowling thing up. I love the shot with him and hit foot up. He thought he was pretty hot stuff too!

9 Month photo

This is for all of you who have been dying to see how big I am with this pregnancy. I am nine months yesterday and am starting my weekly dr. visits now. She is due on the 28th of Sept, so we are on the downhill slide. I am feeling good and doing okay, but starting to waddle when I walk. I feel about the same size as with howie and I have done well not to gain very much weight! (Well, I had some extra holiday weight that I hid under for a long time.) Not much longer and Howie will have the baby sister he has been talking about for so long. He is really excited and cute about the whole thing. Usually in the morning when I leave for work, Howie has to give me a kiss and if I leave with out the next part, he yells at me that he didn't get to kiss the baby and then proceeds to kiss my tummy. Same routine at night, after our bedtime routine and tommy is taking him to his room to sleep, has to kiss mom and then the baby in the tummy. We are very excited and awaiting our little baby girl's arrival. We will keep you posted.

p.s. yes, the scab on my elbow is from this unbalanced woman, who is quite clumsy. I went out to the car to grab a bag and rolled my ankle and biffed it quite nicely on the cement sidewalk. My only thought as I was falling was to turn to the side to protect the baby. I did and my whole right side is bruised and sore today (happened two days ago.) I don't want to show you the other battle scars, probably not appropriate. :)