Continuing on ..

Ok, so I figured I'd better continue the story of my long journey to Idaho (and back).

Let it be known, that one should not have one's wisdom tooth pulled as their very first experience seeing a dentist. Shudder. Oh, and ideally, don't do it on vacation when you are visiting somewhere that you want to enjoy the foody places.... On the bright side, it's gone now... on the not so bright side, I will never get those hours of sleep I missed back ;)

So, I go to leave my Dad's house to head over to Seattle and my In-law's house, only to get halfway there and here a discouraging pass report. It'd been snowing off the whole time, and when the crackling radio informed me that the pass was currently closed and would "probably" be opened in an hour or two I thought better of waiting in the 10+ mile line of cars that would be accumulating before the pass opened again. As much as I wanted to go over the pass at 8-9 pm after being in the car 9+ hours with 3 little kids, with 2000 other Seattle drivers on snow covered roads. I, uh, went back.






I did eventually make it over the pass about 3 days later, free of chains, praise the Lord. Ironically several days later as snow fell with a vengeance on Seattle, my poor hubby got stuck one night while he was out getting me a milkshake. Now that's LOVE!!

Just thought I'd share

There's not really a story behind this picture, other than I took it while we were on our way to North Idaho from Missouri (all 2000+ miles of it). Yes, me, a woman, driving by myself with three kids under 4 :) Yes we made it, and yes I still have all of my hair. Well, minus the bit that my friend cut off to make it more stylish (Thank you LeAnn). Hmm, maybe I took this picture as proof that my kids were actually happy and congenial on the trip. Who knows? But is sure is cute, no?

Welcome Home!

First off, Happy New Year!! Praise God, I know He has so much in store for us this year. Things are changing around here, and I'm curious to see what God is doing.

For starters, we just got back from a month, yes, that's right, a full MONTH of vacation. What a blessing. Geoffrey's parents blessed us with this trip as our Christmas present. And Geoffrey blessed us by allowing us to go and be away from him for nearly three weeks before he could fly up himself. I can't even tell how wonderful it was to see all of my wonderful family and friends after nearly a year. Absence certainly makes the heart grow fonder. Oh and how my heart did swell driving over the crest of the hill into Spokane and seeing all of my old favorite sites. Can you tell I miss my old home? Quenton and Arianna certainly enjoyed seeing everyone as well.


It was such a joy to see how Ari bonded (again) with her two cousins, Colton and Hailey. She absolutely loved sitting in Colton's (8) lap, and would do so whenever he sat down. He seemed slightly embarrassed, but flattered as well.






We stayed at my Dad's while we were there. Poor guy. He's used to living alone. I'm pretty sure it was culture shock for him to have 3 young kids in his house for more than two weeks. He took it well though, and was a wonderful gymnasium for the kids ;)
We actually started to leave his house once, and made it all the way to Moses Lake, Wa., which is about halfway between North Idaho and Seattle. Unfortunately, there was a huge storm traveling over the mountains at that time and they closed the pass for a while. So, back to Grandpa Bill's we went. We waited a couple more days and then made the trip for real.

Just Checkin' In

This year is flying by!! Can you believe we're almost to the end of 2008!!!! Wow! At the end of this month Quenton will be FOUR. My goodness, it seems like only yesterday ;) I really really need to scan some pictures of Quen when he was a baby; he and Caleb look identical other than Quen has the darkest brown eyes and Caleb has the brightest blue eyes. My guess is that their personalities will NOT be the same though. Caleb is far more layed back, very easy come easy go. He loves to just lay and watch what's going on around him. Quenton was and is a busy dude. He likes to be on the go and he likes to be in charge. I'm sure we'll have some interesting times here in about a year or so :D
Following are some pictures of my two little guys together, see if you can see the resemblance before I scan in a picture of Quenton as a baby.




This one was taken to commemorate Grandma Vicki sending these adorable hats for everyone. Ari was eating lunch at the time or she would have been pictured sporting her pink one. Caleb was going to his happy place. Have you ever met a baby that likes hats?








I HAD to include this picture cause it's SO stinkin' cute, and though you can't SEE Quenton in it, he's the one that Caleb's smiling at. Some of Caleb's first and biggest smiles were for his big bro.

LOVE those baby cheeks!!!










Now don't wet yourself, but yes, that is my not quite 4 year old holding, without any support (!!) his 16+ lb baby brother. And he even looks happy about it. I tried it out with him before hand, seeing if he was strong enough and then I HAD to get a picture. How cute is that?

My precious worker man!

I couldn't bring myself to close my blog tonight without showing off what a wonderful helper I have in my precious Quenton. He is a very hard worker, with a wonderful attitude. I've been blown away by how much he can already do. He's not yet four, and as you will see, he can pretty much do the laundry completely by himself!!

Here we have a Quenton dangling precariously off of the edge of the washing machine, taking wet clothes out and putting them in the dryer. Did I mention he has extraordinary balance (and there's a stool down there out of the view of the camera)?

Usually Arianna (his two year old sister)
is in there pushing the clothes into the dryer for
him so he doesn't have to get up and down,
but for the sake of the documentary, it seemed
fitting that he should be doing the pushing himself. lol!








Alrighty, washer is empty, dryer is full. Start 'er up Bub.
Pushing the button is the favorite part you know.
Now, let's see about starting up another load!



Now, get Mom's homemade soap,
yes Mom does make her own
laundry soap at times :) ,
measure it out and throw it
in the washer.











And now the clothes go in!!














Voila! The clothes are in, the lid is shut, and my little man did an awesome job!! At this rate I will have worked myself out of a job by the time he's about 8 ;)


I'm accepting applications for marriage at this time. *Snort*

Let's see, where did I leave off

It seems to me I was posting pictures of my little doll face :)

I'm having one of those warm fuzzy, I just love my kids so much I can barely stand it nights. *Grin* God is so, so good!




Here's Caleb getting a bath. I heart bath pictures. Babies are just so stinkin' cute nekked. Love the rolls ;)

Here we have Ari, trying desperately to
be a little mother. As you can see, Caleb is having nothing to do with it.



This was taken on Ari's birthday (Sept. 23rd). That little doll in her lap has been dubbed "Baby Rachael" and she carries her everywhere. Every time Momma gets our the nursing pillow, Ari likes to carry baby Rachael over and "nurse her" from her protruding belly button *snort*. She is ALL girl. I can't wait (in some ways) to see what a terrific mother she will be.

He SMILES!!

Here we have one of Caleb's first few smiles! Too cute. You gotta love those first little baby grins.

And though he's not smiling in this one, it's one of my favorites. It just seems like it shows his sweet, gentle nature to me. For the most part, he is very mild and even tempered. He loves to watch his brother and sister play. Really, he's always been a people person. From the day he was born he has loved to be out where everyone is. He seems to relish noise and activity. Oh, and when it's not noisy in the house... meaning when the other two are in bed, *grin* he makes plenty of noise himself. He LOVES to coo, and he does it a lot. Oh Lord help me to remember and cherish these precious baby moments that are SO fleeting!!

Here's a picture of me with my little man. These, of course, are few and far between. Momma's usually the one behind the camera. It must have been a woman who developed the idea of timers eh? Hmm... sounds like a good homeschooling lesson opportunity. Digital Camera 101 for Quenton ;)

Here's another really good shot of those big blue eyes! He is SO (!!) strong too. He can hold that big noggin up for a long time on his tummy, and he's rolling over from his back to his tummy all the time. *Sigh* They do grow fast don't they?!!

As our Caleb grows!

Well, Mr. Caleb came out with very bright blue eyes, but based on past experience, I had little hope that they would stay that color. However, I've been in for a surprise. See for yourself! This is Caleb at about 2.5 months. Hopefully you can see what a gorgeous color his eyes are in this picture. If not, no worries, there are more to come!
I've kind of been waiting this whole time for his eyes to change, because his brother and sister both have VERY dark brown eyes. Both of them started out with dark blue eyes, but they changed in the first couple of months.

Here's Caleb with Quenty, who, again, is quite delighted with his brother. Hmm.. now that I'm looking at it, I wonder what I did with that outfit. Isn't it adorable? My dear friend Praise sent it to me for him. It has these precious little turtles all over it, and well, I love turtles, although not quite as much as I love the little chunk that's wearing it. *Note how dark Quenty's eyes are*Oh, and did I mention he sucks his thumb? Lol! He looks addicted already doesn't he.

Some shots of Caleb-Coo

Well, now that you know Caleb made it safely into this world, I thought it would be an opportune time to share some pictures of my handsome little man. He's an adorable little bugger, and eats well *snort*.
Here he is at just a couple of days old, with his very, very proud older brother.

Here he is about a month later. Those cheeks are just MADE for kissin', dontcha think?
He sleeps rather soundly too. I must've taken 12-13 different shots of him that night, with the flash on and everything. He didn't move a muscle. God is good!


More later... blogger is having issues and won't let me post any more pictures. :)

Well, it's only been about 5 months *Cough*

It seems to me it's high time I update my blog eh? Life got pretty wonky (that's my new word for the week) after my third child graced us with his presence. Yes, that's right! In case you've been hiding under a rock and didn't know, Mr. Caleb Benjamin Haug arrived June 5th weighing in at 8lbs 4 oz (bigger than his big brother started out as) and 21 inches long.

If you'd read my blog previously, you would know, there was some question as to the position of this little man, as well as some prolonged pre-labor. As it turned out, we wound up doing with Caleb the exact same thing we did with Ari: Manually turning him and then breaking the water. He was born about 15 minutes under 5 hours after my water was broken. Praise the Lord for speedy births. The ride from the midwife's house home (so I could birth at home) after she broke my water was not the most comfortable ride I've ever had, but it was worth it! Let me tell you, I loved my home birth. He was born in what amounted to be a cattle trough, but hey, it's easily transportable and it served its purpose well. ;)

So, life is changing and ever different now, with this added little bundle. I've saved up plenty of things to blog about in my 5 month absence, so, Lord willing, look for more posts to follow shortly.