So I usually get on here (every few months or so) with the usual excuse of being extremely busy yada yada yada... This time it's no different - only this time I've had the added busy-ness of a lot of visitors, traveling and of course all of the holidays in between! All in all - it has been a VERY busy and fun 2+ months and I am completely exhausted!!
So first of all - we have big news...many of you already know - since my Christmas newsletters went out before I had a chance to update my blog - that we're expecting our 4th baby! Yay! We found out October 1st! Luckily Caleb (our third) didn't go into total animal mode until after we found out I was pregnant, so I didn't have a chance to second-guess whether I was ready for another baby. ;) It has made me question whether I can handle any more babies though. Since I was pregnant with Caleb, I thought I wanted 6 kiddos, but...I'm wondering now if 4 might be just the right size. Enough to make me go crazy, but not tooooo crazy. That's what I'm thinking anyways. :) I just want to make sure we can give the four kids we have enough attention. Time has been flying by so fast - I don't want to be so crazy and insanely busy that I miss all of our kiddie-poos growing up years!! :( We'll see. I'm more than willing to go along with whatever God has planned for our family, so I'm not worried about it. I'm just saying'...for now - 4 sounds nice to me. :)
Uh-oh...What just happened?? ;)
October- Jason left for another weekend conference/workshop - this time in Denver.
- Started and finished the first season of Glee on netflix. I love netflix. :)
- Uncle Doug, Gala and kids came to visit the weekend Jason was in Denver. The following afternoon, we left all the kids home and went to a yummy Mongolian restaurant where Gala and I enjoyed watching Uncle Doug sweat (most profusely) from all of the spicy food. ;) Mmmm...spicy food... :)
- Jason's sister, Rachel, flew in with her sweet little baby girl Charlotte to visit for a week. It was lots of fun! Lots of cackling episodes...in between long stretches of nauseousness (on my part). Ugh... But I tried not too be too annoying (as far as whining and complaining goes). We watched a lot of netflix movies, went to a couple of restaurants, the mall (gymboree in particular), a Christian bookstore and Pier 39 in San Francisco to walk around a bit and eat lunch at Bubba Gump...Mmmm. I was sad to see my little midget girl go. :( Back to school and the usual...
Our visit with Rachel and Charlotte
At Pier 39
- After Rachel left, the kids and I finished out the rest of October up in WA State where we visited with my Mom, Dadroo and Grandma. We stayed for about 2 weeks while Jason worked through a wretched 2-week rotation at the hospital where he was either working, on call or being paged every 5 minutes all day and all night for 2 weeks straight. Blah! I felt so bad for my family since they had to listen to me whine and complain (and gag every now and then) our entire visit because I was extremely nauseous the whole time! Surprisingly the kids did really well on the 12 hour trip! I was nervous driving that far without Jason, but the kids were easy on me! Thank you Jesus! :)
Ahhh...I know I'm almost there when I start getting into all of the beautiful scenery!!
At the Pumpkin Patch with Grandma Christie...alas there were no good pumpkins good for picking though...
We warmed up later at Chuck E Cheese's for dinner and games.
The kids were all dressed up to go to Haleluia Night at my parents church (the one we used to go to when we were going to college in Portland), but for some weird reason they changed the date to the following week, so we missed it. :( Oh well - they still enjoyed dressing up...except for Caleb apparently... ;)
While we were there, I had to (gulp) pull one of Kristin's loose teeth!! Eek!! I would have let it alone and let Jason deal with it when we got back, but her gums were all red and inflamed, so I had to do something! It wasn't as horribly nasty as I thought it would be, but it still gave me the heebie jeebies!! ;)
My Mom and Grandma took me and the girls out to Tillamook, Oregon to have tea at La Tea Da. It was fun and really yummy!! Meanwhile, my Dad took Caleb and went to the Tillamook Cheese Factory for a few rounds of free cheese samples. :) We also made sure to stop
While we were in WA, we had the privilege of watching my pro-bowler Dadroo bowl on his bowling league (well okay - he's not REALLY a pro-bowler, but he's dang good!! It's not uncommon for him to get scores in the 260s-290s. 298 has been his best score so far...300 being the highest score possible! Yeah - he's that good. :)
November- Left my parents' house after Jason's horrendous hospital rotation was over.
- Jason and I were disappointed that the hospital didn't give their employees the day off on Veteran's Day. He has decided that he will be going in to work on Martin Luther King Day in silent protest (since they are given that day off). That's just what he's been saying anyways. ;) Both days are important days to reflect on and appreciate - I can't believe Veteran's Day wasn't seen as important enough to have the day off. Tisk tisk. :(
- My Mom, Dad and Grandma drove down for one week to go to Disneyland with us for 3 days, celebrate Kristin's 7th Birthday an celebrate an early Thanksgiving dinner together. Jason (of course) went to another workshop - this time in Arizona, so luckily for him he missed the 6-hour drive down to Disneyland. My parents, Grandma, the kids and I went to Disneyland the first day by ourselves while Jason was in Arizona and then he flew into Orange County that night and took the shuttle over to the Disneyland Hotel where he met up with us and then he went with us to Disneyland for the last two days. It was lots of fun - and much to my surprise they had already decorated the whole park for Christmas!! Yay!
1st day at Disneyland!!
Daddy made it!!
Day 2 at Disney on the Finding Nemo Submarines
Waiting for our reservation at Goofy's Kitchen
Goofy's Kitchen...a lot of the characters were missing since it wasn't a busy day, but we got a lot of attention from the few characters that were there, so that was fun. Only they visited us so much - I didn't end up eating a whole lot...which made it seem even more expensive than it already was since I didn't get my money's worth in food (which saved me some calories...I suppose...) ;)
Meeting Rapunzel and Flynn Ryder and Buzz Lightyear
Fake snow falling at the end of the fireworks display
So pretty...if only my camera was better at capturing it (or maybe it's just the photographer...)
3rd Day at Disney - meeting Pluto and Tinkerbell and friends/Dumbo ride
Spending a little time over at CA Adventure
Bye Disneyland! See you in the summer when we're on our way out of California!
Early Thanksgiving with Mom and Dad
Celebrating Kristin's 7th Birthday - I can't believe how fast the time has gone by!!! My big baby is getting SO big SO fast! :( (Unfortunately, my camera battery died and I had to use my phone camera for the rest of her pictures...definitely not as nice...)
- The same day my parents left, Jason's brother Jake came out to visit us over the Thanksgiving break. Over the 4 day weekend, we went to Stanford, did some shopping, ate my Mom's Thanksgiving leftovers, went to San Francisco, tailgated and went to the last football game of the season, watched Tangled at the drive-in theater (which was really cute BTW) and got Jake a much-needed haircut at Jason's favorite barber.
- Praise God my nauseousness ended around Thanksgiving - if that's not an answer to prayer - I don't know what is!! Pregnancy is much more enjoyable when you're not feeling terrible! :) And I am very thankful it only lasted about 4-5 weeks! Whew!
Spending some time over at the Stanford campus with Jake - mostly so Jason and Jake could get some filmage for Jason's next running/dancing video... :)
In San Francisco to do the same old same old...Pier 39 view of Alcatraz and the Golden Gate bridge, seal watching, window shopping and lunch at Bubba Gump. :)
December- Took family pictures with the self-timer, so I could have something to send out with my Christmas cards. It didn't make for an enjoyable afternoon... Jason was grumpy by the end of our "session", Katie couldn't take it anymore and Caleb made a run for the fountain between every shot...and got dirtier and dirtier by the minute! We will definitely be having our pictures done professionally next year!! :)
This was as good as it was going to get... ;)
Caleb and our first ultrasound picture of baby #4! :)
- Jason went to ANOTHER conference/workshop...this time in Las Vegas. It's too bad Las Vegas has to be so trashy. It has so much potential. It's so pretty (at least at night) and it almost seems like an adult-version of Disneyland (or something equally far from reality), but then it has to have that trashy component thrown into it. Jason said there were so many posters of half-naked women every where you look and then - if that wasn't enough - there are also crazies on the street shoving flyers in your face (literally) of half-naked women. It's just sad...and gross. I've heard over and over again that Las Vegas has become so much more family friendly over the years (which I'm sure it has), but literally shoving sex-related material in people's faces hardly seems family friendly to me! Yikes! The only good thing that ever came out of Las Vegas was my sister's and my births at Nellis AFB!! :) Other than that - I'm happy I didn't have to live there past the age of 4!!
- Got an early Christmas present from Jason...a new treadmill!!! Yay!!!!
- Finally found a babysitter and went out alone (for the first time since we've moved here) to Jason's Christmas party. It was a lot of fun to finally meet all of his co-workers. I can't believe it was the first opportunity I've had to meet them. I'm not sure why they never had a "Let's get to know your family" party at the beginning of his training! Seriously - we've been here for 6 months already!
- Raced to get Christmas cards, pictures and newsletters together and out in the mail and all of the cookies baked while keeping up with home schooling, the kids and the house. Christmastime really shouldn't be an exhausting time of year - at least I don't like it to be! I need to come up with a better plan for next year, so I can focus on the real reason for the season! :)
- Jason had a week of leave, so we drove up to WA State together with the kids and celebrated an early Christmas with my parents and Grandma. We HAD to - we hadn't had a Christmas with them since 2000 and none before that since before we were married in 1997! Horrible - I know! :( I'm most disappointed with myself though for not taking enough pictures - I'm always a little lazy when it comes to picture-taking when I'm visiting family...because I'm too busy visiting! I'm always sad later though when I realize all of the picture-taking opportunities I missed! :( Wah!
We pulled up into my parents drive way to find they'd actually put up lights!! I don't remember my Dad putting up more than one string of lights in one window when I was growing up, so this was a lovely sight to drive up to! :) Good job Dadroo!
3-day early Christmas with Grandma Christie, Grandpa Neil and Great Great Jackson!
- We got back home the day before Christmas Eve and Jason was paged within an hour or so of us walking in the door. Boo!
- We spent Christmas Eve evening looking for/buying James and Tish' Christmas presents (since they're our Capra Christmas partner this year) and luckily they just happened to be in CA visiting Tish' family for Christmas this year, so we postponed our Christmas and they drove up the morning after Christmas and we celebrated together.
- Spent Christmas Day cleaning up the house and grocery shopping at Safeway for our day after Christmas dinner with James and Tish. Spent that night preparing lasagna and cheesecake, so I wouldn't have to waste time in the kitchen while they were here visiting.
- Celebrated our little Christmas with James and Tish (and her Daddy) the day after Christmas. It was so nice to see them - we don't see them much these days since they're always stationed in faraway places...like Germany and Italy... Spoiled brats! ;) Anyways - I'm disappointed YET AGAIN because we did not take any pictures when James and Tish were here! Maybe because it was only one day and we were so busy with presents, food and visiting. I did get one picture of James, but then I got annoyed that my camera kept taking blurry pictures, so I stopped and then forgot to try again later! Argh!
Christmas Day - opening Grandma and Grandpa Capra's presents and Aunt Shelly and Uncle Jim's presents.
The one lone picture we got of James (and a blurry one at that) opening one of our presents to him. The only evidence I have of Tish and her Dad being there is her knee and his foot on the left side of the picture! Dang it!
- James and Tish left the next morning and we went about the rest of our week as usual - work, school, etc. Then we drove down to Uncle Doug and Aunt Gala's house Friday afternoon to celebrate New Year's Eve with them. We had fun ringing in the new year with them, their kids and their friends...well - at least me and the girls did. Jason and Caleb couldn't handle the fun and they past out around 930pm. Tisk tisk tisk. ;)
So that's where I am now...spending New Year's Day at Uncle Doug's typing away on this blasted laptop whilst pondering my New Year's Resolutions. Of course - I have too many to count, so I'm going to have to go for now, so I can start working on narrowing down my list of impossibles. Don't want to let myself down too much this year, so I'm going to need to keep it somewhat simple. God, marriage, kids, health, family and friends, hobbies. There - that's my rough draft...now I'll have to go and elaborate on it somewhat. ;) Happy New Year everyone!!! I pray you all have a wonderful and blessed year ahead - full of happy memories!!! :)
