New addition

Sorry, it may be a bit cruel to tease everyone with a headline like that, but we do want to show you Kevin's latest creation. He labored long and hard over this one. I am so proud of his magnificent talents. He designed and created this custom secretary's desk for our family to use. It is wonderful! I'm so glad that he is letting me use to house all my nursing school supplies. I'm a very spoiled wife. Thanks sweetie! This piece will be a family treasure for years to come.

Back to school

It's official...everyone has headed back to school. I started classes on August 24th. Beth, Jake and Adam all returned on the 26th. Ben had his first day of kindergarten today. Everyone is enjoying being back at school, making new friends and learning.

More travels in July

After our trip west in mid June, our family took a weekend road trip to northern Illinois to attend the Scheidegger family reunion. We look forward to this trip every June. We were so happy to be able to see so many relatives this year that typically cannot attend the reunion. It was wonderful! Our time there is always too short...it keeps us wanting more.

With only a few days to recover from our June travels, the kids and I flew down to Houston with my Mom so that we could visit Sarah. Talk about a jam packed trip. We drove to San Antonio to see the Alamo, the riverwalk and do some shopping. It was a really hot day but we enjoyed seeing all the sights. The kids enjoyed the Alamo more than I had expected, which was a great surprise. The only depressing thing for me was to realize that it had been 19 YEARS since I had been to the Alamo. 19 YEARS! Am I really old enough to have been anywhere 19 years ago and remember it vividly? Oh well.

Our Texas adventure was filled with swimming, NASA, BBQ, sight seeing, going to swim in the Gulf of Mexico and relaxing in the comfort of air conditioning. The kids loved Texas! Thank you to Sarah and Miguel for making our trip not only possible but so memorable for us.

Big fun in the Lone Star state

Long overdue -- the post not me

I've finally added something new to our family blog. This is the part of the post where I expound upon how difficult it has been to be pregnant, balance the end of another semester of school, 4 kids, a household...followed both various other excuses for not blogging sooner, but I digress. Suffice it to say, I'm just happy to finally be posting something new to our blog.

We've had one of the busiest summers on record for our family. The pictures in our slideshows won't show even a tenth of the things we have seen and done but we're happy to have a little something to share with everyone.

In June we travelled to Utah and Idaho to visit our beloved family. We were able to stay with Stephanie, Jeff and their adorable children for a short time. We loved every minute of it. We were also blessed to be able to take the kids to the Oquirrh Mountain temple open house. This was an amazing experience for our family. The Temple was breathtaking and the spirit was powerful. Definitely a day to remember.

To make things even sweeter, Krystell was able to spend our entire visit with us. It was awesome to have her join us on all our little adventures this summer. We always have so much fun with her.

We then drove to Idaho to visit Mom & Dad. It was so good to see them again. All of the kids did what they could to get Grandma's attention every moment they could. We had a special treat this visit in that Grandpa was home to visit nearly every minute of our stay. We wish that he wouldn't have been home recovering from a serious set of breaks in his right leg, but we certainly enjoyed having more time with him. Stephanie, Jeff and their kids joined us for most of our stay in Idaho which was wonderful. All of the kids enjoyed spending as much time as possible with their cousins. We played games, went to the park, laughed, celebrated Father's Day and had a great time. The crowning jewel was our annual fishing trip. Thank you to Grandpa for making it possible again this year. Our family was so excited that we could be there for it this year. It was an awesome trip. We can't wait to visit again soon.

Confucious say...

To answer a question several people have asked, I am posting the following link http://parenting.ivillage.com/ttc/ttcsigns/0,,j736,00.html. You can find the Chinese Fertility (Gender) Calendar here.

My clinical instructor for OB this semester said this was the only thing that she would ever put any stock in when trying to predict the sex of the baby prior to ultrasound. I tested the calendar for myself and it was 100% accurate. Kind of spooky, but accurate.

Oh, by the way, Confucious will not be on the short list for the baby's name.