One of our catches.....the ones we could keep had to be male and 6 1/4" long. All the rest got thrown back. We had a great clamming day....we caught 31 clams and our limit was 35! We had 5 pots out, the one closest to shore was never touched by anything. The other 4 looked like this every time we brought it up!
We also had to test for softness so we all took turns holding them. You want the crabs to be hard. While checking once Joseph got snapped. I hurt really bad, I felt bad for him. It made everyone very cautious!
While waiting for our second batch of crabs to be ready to lift up we did a little bit of fishing!
The kids got bored of it quickly until Peter got one! Then everyone was really excited!! Peter was a natural and caught 3 or 4 of them!
Joseph was never patient enough to actually catch one but he did enjoy playing with them! This one was to little and was going to be thrown back!
I was a great catch too! I got a couple pretty good size ones! These are the fish that have both eyes on one side with a dark side and a white side. They hide in the sand at the bottom of the ocean. They are featured on "Finding Nemo"!! The sun also decided to come out which we were so grateful for!
In one of our crab cages we caught a sunfish. It was quite prickly but it was fun to hold the slimy side and see the tentacles move.
I love this picture of Peter! It sums up our morning! What a treat it was to be able to do this. We had so much fun!
Loved this picture of the dock! With the barnacles and mussels that are attached. The ocean is a marvel to me with all of the living things and how the tides work!
Close up of the pole.
Pi(e) Day has to be one of our favorite holidays and, as tradition goes, we once again had our home filled with yummy smells and fun people.
We thought that it was going to be a little tricky with Miriam's birthday celebrations, but we were able to do that in the morning and have pie at night.
We had lots of choices including: Apple, Cherry, Blueberry, Blackberry, Cheesecake, Banana Cream, Pumpkin, Lemon Meringue, Chocolate, and Dutch Apple. Delicious!!!
Here we are in our new house with everything crazy.
Moving is never easy and things just don't go as you expect them to. We got to WA on Thursday. Alan came a few hours early and picked up our cars, then picked us up at the airport and drove around to see the area and ended up at our house. I love it....the kids love it. We then went and ate dinner and slept at our realtor's house.
The next day was the day they dropped off our stuff. It was madness. So far only a couple casualties have been found. I stayed away with the kids most of the day. We went and got their school stuff, then to Costco (of course!!). We then went home to eat with Alan. Then we got lost...literally. I did eventually find my way back, but it took us probably 1 1/2 hours to find our way. It was funny though, because when we went to dinner that night the kids wanted to go to a McDonald's with a play place. So far we hadn't seen one, and the kids began to explain to Alan that when we were lost they had seen one...so if we just got lost again we would find it!! Wouldn't be great if it truly worked that way!!
Saturday was just filled with unpacking boxes. The kids were completely bored. They had nothing to do. Joseph said that it was the most boring day EVER!! Hannah stayed in her room all day "unpacking" and "organizing" her room. Peter and Joseph helped me a couple of times unpacking boxes from the kitchen but then it got scary with paper flying everywhere and me not knowing where I was going to put things. Then a neighbor stopped by with her 4 year old son. She invited Joseph over to play for a little bit!! She could not have offered anything better!
We have been eating out or unhealthy since Friday. My body is feeling it, but what can you do when you don't have a fridge. It seems like everything that is good for you needs to be put in the fridge. We had ordered a fridge previously, but found out yesterday that it wasn't going to be delivered for another 2 weeks because it was on back order. Frustrating! We ended up finding one locally that will be delivered this Friday. Thank heavens, I never realized that you couldn't live well without a fridge.
We also just got our washer and dryer today. I am so excited about them! I have never had brand new ones. It shrinks our laundry room though. We thought we had all this room...not the case. But I would rather have a washer and dryer then more space.
The other thing that we have missed is a functioning kitchen sink. We didn't have a faucet or garbage disposal/drain pipes until this morning. Nothing like working out of one bathroom. It makes me wonder what the pioneers did. I guess I am just spoiled. But I think I will keep it that way! So we now have all of our showers installed and most of the bathroom sinks. Two of them had pedestal sinks and we decided that we wanted to have cabinets instead but we haven't picked them out yet. Alan also decided that he would install our toilets instead of paying a plumber to do it. It's easy enough....he has replaced every toilet we have ever owned except one....which was brand new.
I had a great picture shot that I thought I would get in the morning when there was more light....but the kids had it all cleaned up to surprise me by 7:30 in the morning. Sweet kids! I had filled...not just covered the ground...but FILLED my formal living room (which is empty) with 5 boxes and paper from those 5 boxes. It was amazing how much paper they used to wrap all of my china. I couldn't believe it. But my darling kids got those giant black leaf bags and filled those up until all the paper was gone. It would have been a perfect picture!!
All and all we are doing well and enjoying our new house and the area. It is beautiful and so far the weather has been perfect!!
That evening some of the group went to the Baltimore Orioles game...it was against the Seattle Mariners...who to cheer for??
On Friday we had a devotional and talked about the Book of Revelations. Then that afternoon we had two brave college girls from our ward (Jen Lougee and Marissa Neilsen...thanks gals!) come and watch the 11 children ranging from age 9 to 3 months, with all but 2 of them under the age of 5. They did quite well considering we were a lot longer than we expected to be. We went to the Washington DC Temple, and then out to dinner at Sukura’s. It was fun to be able to sit down as adults and talk and enjoy one another without kids constantly need something. 
Saturday we went up to Baltimore to Fort McHenry (this is one of my favorite pictures from the reunion) and then walked around the Inner Harbor for a bit and had dinner. 
Sunday we went to church and then took the day off!!
I love this last one....the only one missing is Eden, she was being a little turkey!! We will have to find another one for Alan's office. 
Wednesday we had Peter’s Birthday Party (Happy Birthday PETER!!), packed up and bid each other good bye. What a fabulous time we had!!
Last year the kids and I went to the H2O fest (picture above) mainly to get a tour of the Howard Duckett dam. As we were waiting for the group to gather, Eden began to cry and of course I had forgotten her binky, so we left without getting to walk on the dam. I promised them that we would go next year......
I don't know that they learned any thing from it, but they can now say they have been on a dam!Our Day of Love happened one day early, with the school parties and our Stake Valentine's Dance. The kids loved their parties, and Eden was my little helper and tagged along with me. She is adored by all of the kids. Its funny to me that she is such a novelty to most of the kids in the school, let alone the fact that I am carrying around a little one and that I am going to have another one so soon!! In Peter's class a kid yelled out, "Your going to have another one!"
This time I didn't go into Joseph's class...and he was so disappointed....His teacher came up to me when I went to pick him up to warn me that he was really upset because he kept saying that his mom was in the school and that she was going to come to class, even though I told him I wasn't going to be able to. Being the party mom for Hannah's class makes it hard to leave in the middle to go to other classes. I will have to make sure that next time we go and eat lunch with Joe before the parties start.
The kids enjoyed all the Valentines and goodies from school and home that they were able to partake of. Valentine's Day just isn't Valentine's Day without chocolate dipped strawberries!!
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Alan and I went to the Stake Dance that evening....Alan did a fabulous job DJing it! Yes it is my fault that he was doing it, but he loved it and had so much fun!! He not only enjoyed the "performance" night, but the planning that led up to it as well. The theme was "Valentine's Through the Ages." Being the ballroom dancer that Alan is, he was able to play music that people who knew how to dance could do: swing, foxtrot, waltz, salsa, Chacha, etc., but for those that didn't know how to dance, they could still get out there and move and dance around. It was really interesting seeing the songs that people danced to and the one's they didn't. And the requests that people made that didn't ever cross our minds but would have been good...oh well it was a great night and we had lots of fun dancing!!
Happy Love Day!! Thanks for all your love!!
Even ice storms can be a lot of fun when you have no school and the roads (at least the main roads) are clear! Especially when you go sledding with friends who came up from VA.
This has to be my favorite picture of the day!! This is Maggie Tippets, you can't get much more adorable than this, even if you tried!
As proof from this picture...the kids had a great time!
This was a great day to go sledding because it was pure ice, I know it looks like snow but that's not the case. It snowed first and then turned to a freezing rain during the night, turning the snow into ice. It put a couple of inches of ice everywhere. Nice and slick to go super fast, even down little hills!
There was about 2-3 inches of solid ice on the driveway which made a great slide for all the kids to just sit down and go!
Eden didn't know what to think.....look at those beautiful eyes!
I really wanted to go to Times Square in NYC to watch the big apple drop this year, but I didn't have a willing companion to go with me. After seeing the weather report I was glad that he didn't want to go. Being outside for a long period of time in 1 degree weather doesn't sound too appealing. Instead we made our own apple drop (literally). We counted down, and when we got to one, I dropped an apple. We do what we can to live our dreams!
We counted down with England (7:00p.m.) at a friends party for the kids. It was fun to be able to spend that time with friends, and to let our kids enjoy themselves. Plus we had them to bed by 9:00 p.m. having celebrated New Year's Eve!!
What a wonderful day we had!! We gathered bright and early to Dad and Mom's bed to read the account of the birth of the Savior Jesus Christ (of course after discovering that Santa did in fact come....we were contemplating not having him come, becuase we have had such a hard time being good this December). Then it was off to open presents.....Santa could not be more real in the lives of our children and he did it just right once again! We had so many wonderful gifts given to us and had fun unwrapping and seeing all of our surprises!! We even had a couple of intermissions. Eden wanted to go back to bed, plus we need to eat breakfast (cherry turnovers and cinnamon muffins). We also just couldn't wait to get some of the fun gifts out of the packages fast enough!!
The kids were a dream....It was a fabulous relaxing day full of joy and love!
.......we don't know, but will find out in the spring!
We decided to wait on this last one. We went to the ultrasound appointment and the baby was being difficult and didn't want to be seen. It took almost an hour just to get the pictures they needed to satisfy the doctor. They won't let me look at the screen during that time and they only invite the husband or significant other in at the end so that the technicians aren't distracted by questions. Alan had a moment where he almost caved in. I left it up to him, but he held strong.
So the things we found out from the ultrasound are that the baby is constantly moving and is swimming around, flip flopping, and just being happy. It's head was already down when they first looked, but like I said it wouldn't stay in one position long. I told them that I just hope it's getting all of the wiggles out now! But looking at my other kids, I don't think that is the case. It may have a shy streak in its fibers because it kept covering its face and kept its legs crossed almost the whole time. The baby is measuring at 20 weeks and 4 days which would put my due date at April 5, but knowing the doctors, it won't change my due date. It has ten fingers and ten toes (this has always been important to me). I saw no distress on the techs face which always makes me feel more comfortable. I have a doctor's appointment next week that will give me more information about whether everything is developing right.
Depending on whether the radiologist is happy with the pictures that the techs took, I may or may not have another ultrasound. They were really struggling to get some of their shots and they were the more important ones, like a particular view of the heart, and one of the head.
I wanted to thank everyone who reads the blog for all of your comments and stories. I had so much fun reading them and hearing what you had to say. I think the deciding factor for me to wait was Alan. He really wanted to wait and I thought it would be fun to give him that since we won't have another opportunity to do this again. If I have to have another ultrasound though.....I don't know if I can be strong enough to resist knowing. It bothers me though that there is someone in this world that knows what I am having, and it is not me!! Alan had to ask the tech as we were leaving if she knew. Of course she did. I wanted to say, "I think it's a boy am I on the right track?"
I am going to scan in the pictures and will post them soon!
Among all of our sickness and ups and downs of the last couple of weeks, a ray of sunshine has come through....Starting with Alan and ending with Hannah, all but Eden have felt the baby kick and/or roll. Those are sweet tender moments when I am able to share the movements of this little one with those who love this little person just as much as I do.
Eden, of course, is not patient enough to sit there and wait. She will probably feel it the first moment that she actually snuggles with me. I am not holding my breath for that moment, so most likely she will never feel it!
