Free bowling!

Last night there was free bowling for the grad students at the only bowling alley in town. Hey, who can pass up free? Not us! Than's dad had come up that afternoon to fix the Subaru, so we convinced him to spend the night and go bowling with us.

On a side note; yeah for two working cars! Than is much more relaxed about having both working, so that IF I go into labor at work, I don't have our only working car AND the car seats 25 minutes away! What would have happened is I would have to drive home, pick them up, then Than drive us all as we shuttle the kids to their assigned houses and then off to the hospital. But luckily that won't have to happen now! We are SOOOO thankful for Grandpa Huston!!!!!

So back to bowling, Than and I hadn't been bowling in 6 years, the kids had never been, and Grandpa said he hadn't been since before Than was born, 30+ years ago! And me being possibly a week from delivery, this was going to be interesting! Bowling has gotten a lot fancier then when I remember. The computer could be programed so that the bumpers pop up for certain players! Wow, technology! So between that and a funky contraption for the kids that they just have to push the ball down an elevated "runway" they scored pretty good compared to the rest of us!

Aleksia carrying her ball over

Garrick liked just throwing it. Luckily this time he let go of the ball in the alley instead of 2 feet to early!

Watching Grandpa bowl. They where great cheerleaders (especially Trestin) whether you got a strike or a gutter ball.

Than bowling for the first time in 6 years!

So with Than's good aim, he was able to help Trestin get a...

... STRIKE!

Trestin pushing the ball (which amazingly he could carry and never dropped it once) down the "runway"

A view from the back

Go Grandpa! Go!

Trestin and Dad






Sometimes Garrick used the runway, but usually he liked to throw it himself. Thank heavens for bumpers. Sometimes the ball would zig zag down the alley before hitting the pins.

The final scores. Trestin kicked our cans!

1st place: Trestin

2nd place: Grandpa

3rd place: Garrick

4th place: Aleksia

5th place: Than

6th place: Me

I can blame my performance on being pregnant right? I didn't know how much you bend at the waist to bowl. Well me being unable to bend, the ball kind of "thudded" every time, and lost a lot of it's momentum. Oh well. It was still fun. It send me into some pretty good contractions for a while after coming home, but obviously didn't progress into labor!

So this is the view out our front window. We put a bird feeder in front of the old stump, and we've started attracting the local wild life! Lots of birds of every kind (Than says we need Ira here to tell us what kind they are), squirrels, and recently rabbits. The rabbits don't eat the bird food, just the greenery around. The kids are LOVING all the different animals that come buy, and enjoy naming them. All the squirrels are Hammy (from Over the Hedge) and the bunnies are either Benny or Betty depending on if we see one or two at a time.

Here is the bird feeder, and our first bunny, Benny, in the bottom left corner.

Here is Trestin. He likes to sit on the toilet. 2-6 times a day he'll tell me "potty" and when I put him on, he goes! But I'm not ready to potty train yet, it's not a good time! Not that there is a good time, but right before we have a baby, with the potential of him regressing after she arrives doesn't sound appealing. So for now we put him on, praise him, and call it good for now. So hopefully when the real time comes, it will be easier!

Grandpa & Spring Time Fun!

FINALLY some spring weather this past weekend! Prior, even a light jacket was not enough, but on Friday and Saturday, not even a jacket was needed (unless the sun went behind the clouds)! Than's dad also came up this weekend to work on the Subaru for us, saving us a lot of $$$! Unfortunately on the test drive after the repairs, something else decided to go wrong, so he now gets to make another trip up! Yeah for spending more time with Grandpa! But we feel really bad, sorry Grandpa! Here are some pics from our fun weekend!

Trestin "helping" Grandpa. More help then he ever wanted!!!

Garrick watching in awe Grandpa working on the car.

So this is our driveway, and you can see how close the school really is. We LOVE it being so close! It was soo nice, we went and played over on the playground for a while that day too.

Garrick FINALLY getting to climb the tree he's been dying to climb since we moved in. I told him when it got warmer. Well, it got warmer!

As you can see, it is an awesome climbing tree. It reminds me of the Whomping Willow on Harry Potter, but ours doesn't move.

Trestin briefly perched on a branch. He was very unsteady, so he was more then ready to get down after the pic.

Daddy's Bus

So yesterday I had a brain fart after breakfast, and thought, "Hey, let's ride the bus to work with Than!" In the past Garrick and Aleksia have ridden with him, then I've gone and picked them up once they all arrive at his office. So we got Garrick off to school, poor kid didn't get to go, but he didn't mind, because he gets to go to school himself! So here are a couple pics of our little adventure, that was a cheap way of entertainment! Only $.50 for me, A & T where free!

Waiting at the bus stop with Daddy. The kids where VERY excited!

Trestin was unsure of actually riding on the bus at first. We sat on a sideways seat, and with no car seat to keep him secure, he was a bit nervous and cuddled into Than. But he relaxed as the ride went on.

Trestin getting to pull the cord for Daddy's stop!

Playing catch up...

Wow I have been slacking! But I have been busy. Between the normal housework, kids, and work... then the "nesting" of wanting to get all these boxes unpacked (plus STILL trying to find the hardware to the bunkbed, it's somewhere around here) we've been busy. So here is what we have been up to, and how we are doing:

One weekend we went down to Tri-Cities to visit with Than's cousin, Owen, and his family that was visiting from New Hampshire. We haven't seen them in over 4 years, so it was fun to visit. We went to Chuck E. Cheeses, and the kids (little and the big ones) had fun.

Kylee (pobably spelled wrong, sorry Steph), Owen's oldest, and Trestin playing on the Spider Stomp

Go Aleksia!



Garrick having fun playing air hockey with Dad, despite getting the pants beat off him.

Father and son time

Aleksia meeting Chuck E. Cheese. Trestin on the otherhand, was alittle braver in my arms, but not much. He wasn't a big fan of him close up. He liked him at a distance.

With about one day of kinda nice weather, the kids FINALLY got to go out and ride bikes. It's really nice having no one living in the house next door, so the kids can ride bikes in their drive way for now.

Garrick, and his new Transformers helmet he's been dying to "try out."

Aleksia and her new princess helmet. Their old ones got too small.

Some of the playground at Garrick's school. It's SOOO incredibly nice to be SOOOO close. The kids are always asking to go play, but luckily it was kinda nice enough to go play briefly.

Swings, one of their favorites.

"Playing ball" they call it

You can tell by his red cheeks and fingers that it's still kinda chilly!

Trestin having a blast!

So this is what it's been doing for the past twoish days. Although now we're up to several inches of snow out there. So much for spring!

We are hanging in there. I'm 34 weeks and counting! I've been early with all three (I know, lucky me), so I wouldn't be surprised to have her around 38 weeks again. Which only leaves maybe 4 weeks left! I'm down to two days a week at work instead of three, which makes a HUGE difference. Especially since I am now on a every Friday & Saturday schedule. In a way it's nice because then when I come home I can sleep 'cause Than's home, but it kinda shoots our weekends. Luckily we aren't planning on going anywhere!

Some more exciting news, is that we have found and ordered furniture! We are members of a company called Network Direct, that buys strait from the manufacturer. So after looking around we found what we want, and we got everything (reclining sofa, reclining loveseat, reclining rocker, table, and 8 chairs) for $600 less then just the sofa, loveseat, and chair at the Ashely Store! So we where totally excited. But, the won't be delivered for 8-12 weeks, with 8 weeks will be around when I am due. But hopefully they will come earlier, or at least not while we are at the hospital! Here are the pictures from the Ashely website:

They are a chocolate color, leather (we've heard is good with kids), and they all recline!

This table, with the leaf in it will be HUGE, and more then fit our needs. It will expand to 90 inches! Now we will have to start having people over for dinner with all the space!