July 17th Oh My!

The other big news going on right now is that we are expecting our fifth and final baby. Yes, this is it we are done. And really the timing couldn't be better (ha ha). It's a good thing I have such a great husband who takes everything in stride and always manages to make time for a family dinner.

We are moving! Craig finally got the military approval to finish an Emergency Medicine Residency! We are very excited and very nervous - due mostly to twice as many kids and half as much money...

No Christmas Cards

Just to let everyone know... I will not be sending christmas cards out this year. Though I really enjoy making them and getting a family picture taken I decided that since the rest of the family was complaining about 'taking another picture' (As you can see by the attitude demonstrated in the photo above) I would forgo the whole thing. Instead I will treat every one to a spring card...with all our updated information. Which leads to several exciting announcments!

Just to clarify, yes Anna has lost 4 teeth. She just lost her first one all natural, (the bottom one) The tooth fairy made another visit (though a visit not riddled with guilt) and the dentist assures me that she will indeed get her 'big teeth' when the time is right. it really is amazing that she doesn't need more accomadations made when eating, she really only requires that I peel her apples.

Anna's Birthday

Anna turned 5 this year, and since her birthday is on Thanksgiving, we celebrated on Saturday. I've never had such a quiet, calm, sweet, clean birthday party before! (Boy, she and Bekah sure have opposite ideas of fun...) I attempted to make the birthday cake for Anna this year. Not too bad, but I was sure nervous about it. All the little girls dressed up like princesses and had to earn their jewels by playing games. Their fairy god mothers came and helped them along the way. Anna said it was the best party ever! I just love her positive attitude about everything.

One of the best things we did lately was take the kids out of school and head for the beach. We spent 2 weeks just playing in the sand (and managed to see a good number of our friends too! Who wouldn't want to come to San Diego to say hi!) We stayed at the military hotel on the beach and practically had it all to ourselves.

we have lived here in Rapid City for 12 months. Of that 12 months craig has been deployed for 8 of them. At least he finally got to do one of the great things there are to do around here! Climb devils tower!

Kaid got cornered at old macdonalds farm this summer!

We enjoyed a beautiful hike up spearfish canyon after Craig returned home in Aug.!

THese are from Kaids birthday in July. Isn't it interesting the how each kid approaches the big slide!

These are some of the 'attitudes' present today as we were trying to get a nice family picture for christmas cards...

And....Craig's smiley face!

Bekah's skeleton

Kaids pirate ship

Anna's Cat

Kaid wasn't as excited as the girls. After he had some pizza and realized that he got candy he got much happier. Unfortunatly, this was the best we could get for pictures.

more pics. Kaid really wasn't that interested in dressing up...

hallloween 2007

Anna has been talking about, preparing, and anticipating the day she could wear her cinderella costume to school. Here it is. She is the only one who got to wear her costume a day early. Everyone else has to wait for tomorrow. Notice the hair! I was trying to make it look exactly like cinderellas (which is a little goofy on a real person - after all she is an animated figure). Anyway, I did it and she says, "mom, that just looks stupid." I had to agree - so we modified her hairdo a little.

Well we finally got there. Craig is home! July 27, 2007 (of course I'm finally getting back into the swing of things Sept 16, 2007)

Kaid cought his first fish. We were at Legion Lake in Custer State Park hiking around, when Kaid decided he wanted to fish with Uncle Brad. He threw his line in and sat very quietly and patiently and it didn't take long before he was yelling, 'I got a fish, I got a fish.' He caught a decent sized rainbow trout. Then Uncle Brad showed him how to clean it and eat it. Kaid was amazed that you don't eat the fish heads and that there are bones in them. It was a lot of fun.

I am the proud parent to a new set of super duty - super big - super efficient - super duty set of washer and dryer. This is just one more thing to add to the list of things that have broke since Craig has been gone. Even though it was a pain to shop (Craig did all the research and told me what to look for and that made it much easier) it is still lots of fun to have a new appliance. And these should last us until the kids leave home for collage.

Craig has sent home several dresses for the girls. They have had fun dressing up as 'arabians?' Bekah seems to know alot about the culutre. Apparantly they have been studing and reading about the middle eastern cultures. Either way they have done a lot of dancing!

Anna kept climbing on rocks and would pose. Then she would want me to take 50 pictures of 50 different poses on the same rock. Eventually, I had to cut her off!

This would be one of his many shooters!

Bekah and her friend Rebekah on the top of a 'tall tall' rock!