Yes. Don't faint.... but number five is on the way and due to arrive in May. We are so happy and will be even more excited when I get over this "morning" sickness and get back to being a real mom.
Until then, we'll just keep on surviving the best we can.
After months of asking if he could be a vampire, the night before Henry's preschool program, I was able to convince him that he should be a pirate. Luckily he agreed, because I had done nothing to get a vampire costume ready and had no back up plan if he refused. Henry really made a cute pirate and he grew awfully fond of the old pair of red shoes he wore. (Maybe too fond of those shoes.)
It was beautiful mid October weather. In fact the kids were very disappointed in me for not packing swim suits because I told them the pool would be closed. I was wrong, it was so warm that after our hike to delicate arch they insisted in swimming in their clothes. Big deal, just shorts, and a shirt for Abby. Why the drama?
Henry finds a window on the west. Then points to it.
Abby and Rex scaling the slickrock.
Double Arch. Isaac's favorite.
There are three backpack bound kids missing from this picture. Quite a parade up to delicate arch, and everywhere we went. Isaac, Rex, Lucy, Anna, Maggie, Abby, Henry.
Isaac surveys our first look at Delicate Arch
Isaac, Rex, Lucy and Abby at the base of Delicate Arch.
Peter wolfs down the remainder of the footlong turkey sandwich Abby insisted she could polish as she had the day before.
Having just been launched from a makeshift cannon, Abby rests on very comfortable sandstone at the top of the hike. As they used to say, "Take only pictures, leave only full body indentations."
The taking of this picture almost caused Steph Hougaard to have a heart attack. She thought it was a 200 foot immediate drop and that Peter couldn't maneuver the ledge on his own. It was actually only a gradual slope and then a 50 foot drop. I agree, he should have had his helmet on.
Henry, giving into the universal urge: once at delicate arch, raise both hands and snap one's fingers. This picture did not cause anyone to have a heart attack because no one was watching. Plus it was only a gradual slope and then a 50 foot drop.
Peter asleep on the way down, with his helmetless head glistening in the sun. 2 more months then he gets it off for good. 
A couple of nights ago, Andrew went in and found Henry asleep with a balloon tied to his binky. Henry had the binky held firmly in his mouth as the balloon floated a few feet overhead. And while I'm talking about binkies, let me just say that yes, I am embarrassed and ashamed that my three-year-old still has a binky - but when we have tried to get rid of it, he ends up just stealing Peter's during the course of the night. So, I guess he gets to hold on to it for awhile. 
For the past two nights, I have awakened to find Henry asleep on the floor of my room right next to my bed. At some point during the night unbeknownst to me, he had moved his blanket, pillow, stuffed animal, backpack and binky into my room and had put himself to bed in there. 
East High's Biggest (smallest) Fan
From the time she was a baby, she has been a total sports fan. When she was tiny, she would put on baseball hats to watch baseball games and football helmets to watch football games. (With five older brothers there was always plenty of sports paraphanalia lying around.) She never went to one of our brother's football games without wearing a jersey and she's always been a total athlete herself - golf, tennis, soccer, skiing and basketball - she can do it all, and she can do it really well.
Emily & Abby June 2001
Emily is such a fun aunt to my kids. When Abby was born she came back to Washington with my mom so she could be the first to meet her niece. All my kids love her, and she is so cute with them. She is also a great example to my kids. She works hard in school. She has so many good friends and she really strives to make good choices. I am so grateful for that example.
Lately I have gone in later to find him finally asleep, having pulled off his pajama bottoms and thrown them accross the room. Last night I caught the act on tape. I was trying to just capture his jumping so we could work on his technique for Olympic Trampolining, when I witnessed his new trick. Notice his hands never leave the handles of his pogo-stick. Flawless execution.
.... And then of course the exhilerating feeling of freedom.
Isaac started Kindergarten this year. He started school a week after Abby - and that week was the longest of his life. When the first day of school finally arrived, there was a little apprehension, but he has embraced life as a Kindergartener and loves going to school everyday. I think his favorite thing is that he is able to walk home with Abby and her friends at the end of the day.
As for me, I am enjoying having the kids in school and I am relishing my afternoons when Abby and Isaac are in school and Henry and Peter are asleep and I have my afternoons to myself. I should be doing something really productive, but so far, I have been pretty lazy. Being able to curl up on the couch and read a good book or a magazine, is just too tempting to pass up. Luckily, after a couple of blissful hours, school is over and the kids come home to jolt me out of my fantasy life and back to reality - which isn't a bad place to be either.
The US was up by 4 points with only 3 minutes left in the game... My cell phone rang...
Ready for the balance beam?
Last night while we were at a swim party, I looked over and saw Isaac warming up to get in the pool. He stretched his arms behind his back and then bent over and swung them back and forth three times - just like Michael Phelps. Afterwards, he jumped in the pool with his goggles on and started swimming butterfly. He's never learned to swim butterfly before, (he can barely do the front crawl) but after watching swimming this past week, he knew what to do - and believed in himself enough to give it a try. I stood on the edge of the pool watching with as much pride as Michael Phelps mom has watching her son race.
The next great American swimmer?
I don't really think my children will someday be great Olympic athletes. I doubt that I personally have the discipline it would require to even try to help them reach that goal. But I do love that the Olympics inspire each of us - my brother-in-law, my children and me - to dream of what may be possible.
I'm not sure swimming is his sport.
Future Olympic downhill skier?
