B3

Guess you can't really see from the uploaded image the four letters that announce our baby girl, but she, like her siblings before her, was very cooperative in letting her light shine! We have 3 more months before she makes her debut. We've started on a nursery. Now for a name . . .

It was only a matter of time

We were moving furniture around in our upstairs living room yesterday and guess what we found . . . our FIRST new camera. It was under a piece of furniture. I KNEW it was here somewhere. We actually took quite a few pics on it in the one month we owned it before losing it. I'm glad we recovered them. And now, we have a back-up!

Meal Time with Honey & Cutter (my parents)

Honey: Would you all like ketchup with your chicken nuggets?

Will: No, it smells like cat food.

Honey: Is there something else you would prefer for dipping?

Will: Hot chocolate.

Kids Say the Darndest Things

Will is really into making up stories right now, which is fine for those of us who know him/his world, but it definitely keeps others on their toes. The other day, he told his preschool teacher that his sister died. She mentioned it to me when I picked him up and she said she didn't know how to respond to him. I told her to watch out for him because he makes stuff up. Last week, he told me that his son was a firefighter who got caught in a fire and they tried to use a tall ladder to get him out, but they couldn't so he died. Apparently this warrior phase has him really into death and dying. No easy subject for a 3 year-old!

On a side note, what is it about my 3 year-olds and their stories about firefighters?

Kids Say the Darndest Things

Brad and I were in Seattle the weekend of the torrential downpours in Austin seen nationwide on CNN. When it stopped raining, Will was excited to go outside with my mom, but he was very timid about the wet grass. When my mom asked him why, he told her that the animals might come out and eat him.

Maybe he meant the fire ants and earthworms that come out after the rain??

Elementary School Early Release Mischief

I knew something was up when Abby asked me if she and Olivia could put makeup on Will! When I came in with the camera, Abby said "Oh let's take a picture so we can sell it on eBay." Where does she come up with these things?

Our Hotel's Courtyard

Along the Waterfront

Seattle

Brad and I went to Seattle for a friend's wedding in mid-September. The kids stayed home with my parents, so it was a chance for a mini-break. We were there for our 5-year anniversary and this will likely end up being our 10-year trip since baby is due the week of our anniversary in January. It's a good thing we love the city!

We got tickets to fly out of San Antonio because they were MUCH cheaper than those from Austin. We had a 6 a.m. flight, so we stayed with my brother Greg and his wife Jennelle in SA the night before. We logged in to print our boarding passes to find out we didn't have seats on one of our return flights. They'd overbooked the flight and we'd have to show up early at the airport in Seattle (for a 7 a.m. flight) to see if we could get seats the day of. Nice. We only booked 7 months in advance and they hadn't bothered to tell us! So, out of 4 mornings getting to "sleep in" without the kids, we had to get up before 5 a.m. on 2 of them! How restful!

We flew through Dallas (of course). On our flight from Dallas to Seattle, we were surrounded by an entire college volleyball team. It's amazing what "kids" talk about these days--a whole bunch of nothing with no other descriptive words than those with four letters. A testament to our education system! I tried really hard to drown them out, but then the captain came on the PA about an hour into the flight to tell us that we had lost one of our electric generators and we had to return to Dallas, but we had too much fuel (weight) to land so we had to fly around a while to burn it off. Then the fever pitch of the din behind us rose to an almost intolerable level. "Why can't we just land in Amarillo?" "Oh no, we're going to miss our game." "Coach is gonna be so pissed." And my personal favorite, "Oh my God we're all going to die!" Seriously? On that one, I turned around to look at the girl who said it and she said "Sorry ma'am, I didn't mean to freak you out." So, now I'm a "ma'am" to someone ten years my junior. Sigh. Anyway, once we landed, they found us a new plane (a lot easier to do at their hub in Dallas than it would have been in Amarillo!) and we were in the air an hour later. This time, the chatterboxes had had enough excitement to make them sleep the entire 3.5 hour flight. Amazing!!

Once we arrived, we had a wonderful time and did A LOT of walking before figuring out the free downtown bus system. Man those hills are steep! The wedding was fun and we got to catch up with old friends and spend a relaxing Saturday at the Seattle Center. A good time was had by all.

Wedding at Olympic Sculpture Park

When we went to check in at the airport on Sunday morning, we explained that we didn't have seats on our second flight and we needed to book them. The ticket agent immediately got defensive: "We've been doing this for 25+ years and we know what we're doing. This system works." Obviously it works for them. Too bad it doesn't work so well for their passengers. At least we got seats.