Arizona or Alaska?

I don't know where I live anymore.

The top temperature is inside our house and the bottom temp is outside.

July 6th, 2009

Do you see that? Does it really say 97 DEGREES!!!

July 5th, 2009

This is the result of a gorgeous day mixed with fires burning all over the state and the haze drifting into town and not letting the heat escape. Check out the news article from the
Anchorage Daily News here.

Here's the results (in case you didn't know already)

Wow...time flew and I got very behind in posting. Sorry about that. So much has happened too.

Eleven people took our poll and twice as many people thought we'd have another girl. Y'all must be psychic. We found out at the end of May that we indeed are adding another girl to our family. Don't get me wrong. There is not a lack of enthusiasm accompanying this declaration. It just seems that we've already told practically everyone. So, here's to you Loki, serving your time in the Peace Corp in Azerbajain, quite possibly the one person we haven't been able to tell:

IT'S A GIRL!!!

I look at my little girl now, growing up sooo fast right before my eyes and picture her playing dress up with her baby sister. Hailey is in a huge baby phase right now, which is so perfect for this new little one to come into. She hugs all her dolls. Points out every kid, baby or not, that we pass on the street and says "baby". She gives kisses to the picture of babies on the wipes package and anything Gerber. And best of all is watching her interact with the real little babies of our friends. She is very gentle (for the most part, as much as an 18 month old can be) and loves to give loves, kisses, and tickle feet. It's reassuring that she somehow knows to dote on them, but not to "play" with them. I've heard that is sometimes the biggest struggle introducing a new baby into the family is that the older sibling wants to play with the baby and has a hard time understanding the baby cannot play yet.

I didn't expect all that to come streaming out of my finger tips. I guess I had more on my mind than I realized. I have so much more to share, but really am feeling the need to go one at a time (and really, I just want to go eat my lunch now). So thanks for reading the ramble and ta ta for now.

Finding Out Soon!

So not this weekend, but next we go in for another ultrasoud. This will be our third viewing of our new little squirt. We're hoping (cross your fingers) that this could be the big showing and we'll find out what we're having. As well as seeing that everything is going ok, of course. I can't wait because we'll be having our viewing with the nicest woman ever. Gretchen has been doing ultrasounds for 30 years and knows her stuff. She talks to the baby like it's the only one she's ever seen. We know she loves what she does and knows what she's doing.

SO...hurry up and take the gender poll to the right of the postings.
I honestly have no incling to what the baby is. I swore up and down that Hailey was a boy, but this time...nothing. Let us know what you think!

From Monkey to Rodeo Star

My darling daughter has graduated from being a little monkey to being a full fledged, buckle-winning rodeo star. Ty Murray would be proud of her. Her daddy sure was. He begged that I skip the last month of neglected posts to get this video clip on right away.

She rocked her horsey like this for at least 5 minutes. I wish I had half of her energy. I have to keep reminding myself that I'm almost half way through this pregnancy and that is a valid excuse to be dragging a bit.

Keep in mind, even though she has mastered a new profession, she has not given up her one true passion of monkey madness. Her latest monkey adventure is that she learned how to jump on the couch and the bed. And by jump, I mean kick her legs out from under herself in order to fall down. I really don't want to encourage that behavior, but it is just so darn cute that I have a hard time stopping her. I haven't had the camera handy to catch that one yet--but that might encourage her even more, so maybe that is a good thing. "No more monkeys jumping on the bed" must have been the easiest nursery rhyme to create; it couldn't be more obvious.

My First Attempt at iMovie

When we went to Oregon back in June 2008, my cousin took the time to teach me the basics of iMovie. I honestly never got around to messing with it. Finally, with a little extra time on my hands with a broken foot, I thought I'd give it a whirl. Our video camcorder uses mini DVDs -which are not compatible with our Mac at the moment. (I'm sure there is some special cord that I could plug in to transfer the movies, but I'd have to watch them all while it would be downloading and I just don't have time for that right now.) So I thought that for my first attempt I'd make a show out of stills. It is definitely not Hollywood quality, but I was pretty proud of myself. The subtitles show up smaller than I was hoping for, so you may have to squint or get your glasses. Pay attention for the special twist at the end of the production.

Without further ado, here is "Hailey's New Accomplishment"....

Other big accomplishments this little monkey child had made in the past two weeks are

• climbing into the recliner chair...and from there up onto the end table
• climbing onto her Leap Frog activity table
• climbing into her high chair...when it is on the highest level
• deciding it's more fun to stand on her giddy-up horsey than to sit on it and bounce
• she finally stacked her colored pyramid rings in the right order all by herself'
• and she found $0.30 on the ground with dad. She's rich!