Just a couple for now! Anne got some good ones on her camera so she will have to put some on. I will take some more since we are home now!
Love you all!
Kim

Adina, when do you leave? We want to play before you go. Email me your number and I will call you.

love,
Brooke

Now, that's what I'm talkin' about.....:)

Treven just called. She was born at 2 pm...weighs 7 lb 12 oz, 20 1/2 inches long. Dark hair...I'm sure they will post pictures later....

We'll be taking Melia up to meet her after her nap....

Mom

...and one of the best moments of my life probably. :) Not sure if you all know the extent of how much I love Hugh Jackman but imagine your most favorite celebrity/person ever, someone you have always wanted to meet... Now imagine you weren't expecting to see that person and they suddenly ran from behind a curtain and popped out onto the stage right in front of you!!!  

Alright Guys,

So the Gap Friends and Family Days are August 1-3 this year. I have the ability to give 9 invites. Paige Schickedanz and Adina have already reserved 2 of them, but I just need your emails so I can get the invite to you. All the rest of you there are 7 more. The coupon is for 25% off this year, they used to be 30% but Gap is taking the other 5% and giving it to charity this year. The 25% works at Gap, Old Navy, Banana Republic, Gap Outlet, and Gap Inc. Online (Tracey). Just email me with your current email address. My current email is stinch8@hotmail.com. Just Let me know.

Everything is going very well on the Noah front. He is apparently head down but has not fully dropped yet. 4 weeks to go and we can't wait. Hopefully he can wait until at least the 19th as I have other managers on vacations until then. Also if he comes on his due date I will have the two weeks off coinciding with opening weeks of College and Pro Football (YES!!!!).

Anyhow, good luck Kim tomorrow and Mom, Buffy and I will be where the family is gathering. We have no plans other then waiting for Noah to join us.

Love You All,
Brent

Brooke is on her way up to Washington today. I'll let her tell her own news but we were talking about trying to all get together (all in Vancouver) prior to her returning to CA. Not sure we'll be able to get 100% of us...as I don't get back from ID until the 7th...but David and Isaac will be at camp until the 9th...Adina will also be in CA until the 9th or 10th. I know that Brooke wants to get back down to Monterey on the 10th to get into her house...so, my suggestion is that those in Vancouver get together on the 2nd-3rd weekend...and then we can have a dinner at the house on the 8th with Kenn and me...and Brent and Buffy, hopefully, so I can see Brooke and the kids before you leave.

Hopefully, there will be more occasions to get all together since you are so much closer!

We are looking forward to McKenzie's arrival tomorrow. Kim and Treven are going out tonight to see Dark Knight while Peter, Anne and I watch the kids....but we are all going out to eat dinner now.

Love you all,

Mom

UPDATE: Well went to the doctor and I am now dilated to a 3 and 75% effaced. The doctor did make an inducement for tomorrow morning at 7:30am. So everything is good here! Ready to have McKenzie.

But it is her due date today so I am not having a hard time! I just want to have as much time as possible with her before I go back to school and start student teaching. That is going to be on August 19th by the way...
I have a doctor's appointment today at 9:00 so we will see where we are going to go from here. He said last week that we would talk about where we would go today if I wasn't in labor yet. It would be perfect to have her tomorrow for Treven's sake with work! But I have been having contractions that will be consistent for 2 hours and then stop about every day. I went to the doctor on Monday because they were about 7 minutes apart. He said I was dilated to a 2 and about 50% effaced. So anyway! Just to keep you all updated... That is what is going on at the moment. Mom, Anne, and I have been going walking every morning(well Anne runs and Mom runs before so she can walk with me. We walked 3.2 miles on Monday, 1.6 miles on Tuesday, and only 1 miles yesterday because I had a horrible cramp (Thanks Dave... it was too early!) that would not go away. But yesterday we took the kids to the Idaho Falls Zoo. It was fun and it is the perfect size zoo for them. Melia was so afraid when she actually saw real lions and other animals. It was pretty funny.
Anyway, that is what is going on in Idaho. Peter got here last night and is working with his company out of Idaho Falls so it is fun to see him! Glad he could make it over and visit.
Love you all and will definitely keep you posted,
Kimberly

Summer is breezing by - before I know it, I will be sending the kids back to school. Blows my mind. Our kids are so independent now - summer has taken on a whole new meaning. I see them when they are hungry and they are off on their own (in the vicinity) the rest of the time. We live in the perfect neighborhood for it.

Last week, at the lake, Isaac and his friend were begging Morgan to get on their backs and they would swim her out past the buoys. She was afraid and told me, "Mom - please tell them that I don't want to go past the boobies." I'm not even going to correct her - it's way too funny.

Tay & Parker did Day Camp last week - Dave and I went along for a few days (I'm pretty sure I will only be available for ONE day next year). It was amusing to watch the 14 boys clamor and fight over who got to ride in our van each morning so they could watch whatever feature we were showing. I had a mom accuse me of making her look bad, but I assured her that the movie was strictly for my sanity, not for their enjoyment. Anyway - Day Camp made me realize what good boys I have - I can see why many parents didn't volunteer for the job. Dave and Isaac have Scout Camp in August.

I am planning a trip to CA in August - while Isaac & Dave are gone. Brooke - I would love to come down to Monterey for a day to see you - I should be there the week of 4 Aug - 9 Aug. Something like that. Let me know if you are available!

Training continues for Hood to Coast and the marathon. We had a guy drop out of the relay recently, but we were lucky to replace him with a guy from our ward. The details of the experience are only now hitting me. No sleep, no shower, no privacy, no idea what I'm doing... Kenn was kind enough to endure one of our 'meetings' last week - he will be a driver for the relay this year. We figure this whole experience will either be an inspiration to him, or he'll just decide we are all crazy. We'll see.

Dave & I make a short trip to Seattle tomorrow - back on Wednesday. Love the Japan pictures - conjures some amazing memories. Anxiously awaiting the arrival of McKenzie. Hope everyone is well.

Adina

Well, I made one little error and some poor lady in Utah got a wake up call- very sorry Kenn! Here is our actual phone number:

(801)994-2355

Thanks!

Check out Human Mirror on You Tube. Maybe someone can post it on this site. Dad

More photos of our adventures- the first three are from our snorkeling trip on Saturday. The fourth is Harry's new neighbor Sally, she moved in today. Just for fun Tom has started throwing sticks at Harry's web. The sticks get stuck in the web and Harry crawls over to them and uses his fangs to cut them out of the web so they fall to the ground. It's fascinating and terrifying at the same time... I can't walk anywhere without worrying about the spiders above and snakes on the ground... nonetheless we are still having a good time and the fear will fade. The last 4 pictures are of this neat park we went to today, it's just 2 minutes outside the Camp Foster gate. There are some ancient burial tombs, but as you continue up the stairs you end up at this great old playground with a roller slide. The view was great and gives you an idea of what the city looks like!







This is the roller slide, it's got tons of little metal tubes you roll down on. They are very popular around here! Below the kids were climbing around on the playground, they are awesome old wood climbing structures that would have all been replaced with something "safer" in the states. Hayden loved it and Danica was hilarious because she's always been a climber but was getting a little nervous so she would go a little ways with a very concentrating look on her face and then stop and say "Look at me mom!"



If you look closely at the bottom picture you can see the coast off in the distance, most of the buildings in the photo are actually Camp Foster where we live. The picture above that shows the view going the other direction with all of the Japanese buildings.

The kids with their favorite aunt before we left San Diego. Today Danica was pretending the iPod was a phone and was talking to someone. I asked who she was talking to and she said it was Aunt Marnie. She was walking around the house telling Marnie about things in our house like the bath tub. Too cute!





Our house with the cool looking tree in the back yard... looks like the set of LOST



Our first trip to the China Sea Beach

We have been here nearly 3 weeks and things are going well. I think things would be great if our express shipment had arrived but none the less we are surviving. We have been in our new house for 5 days now. We decided to paint the living room a light brown with a red accent wall. The red wall looks great but we didn’t like the brown so we are going to get some new paint to redo it. The self-help hardware store will mix paint for free but it’s been closed for the last several days. Hopefully it will reopen tomorrow so we can finish before our goods arrive. I can’t wait for our shipment to come because then we will have our nice air mattress with our memory foam and our own pillows and sheets! I currently sleep with Danica on her bottom bunk and we share a pillow. Tom uses a small camping air mattress...good times. I wouldn’t mind having a few more things in the kitchen as well. We borrowed a few dishes but it’s still pretty limited! However, in the meantime we have been having a good time.

Last Wednesday we went down to the beach and ending up snorkeling! I have never snorkeled before and it was awesome! The tide was out and there were so many fish in the remaining pools all you had to do was take one step on shore and go under water to see a huge variety of fish! We ended up buying our own gear and going out again yesterday. Hayden was willing to try it yesterday and we had a great time. It’s so easy since the girls can just swim by us or sit on the beach 3 feet away while we do it. Yesterday we ventured out in town to a furniture store and had some fun. The store was a lot like IKEA and had some great stuff. The kids were hyper and running everywhere so you can imagine the looks we received. I was pretty nervous trying to buy stuff and asking for help getting a carpet I wanted to buy but they were very understanding with language inabilities and it all worked well. We are hoping to learn Japanese but for now all I knew to say to them was thank you, over and over. I just handed them the money at the check out and smiled. I let Alyssa wave at them and that seemed to help. :) It was fun and I like the carpet we bought for the girls room.

We had some success this week buying stuff on a website like Craigslist. We got a nice playground with swings for the backyard and little picnic table with a sandbox/pool attached. Now we are trying to score a small cheap TV since ours won’t be here for another month and we’re trying to get some padding to under the carpet since we don’t have a couch and our getting tired of the hard wood floor.

Tom starts work tomorrow and is excited to get back to dentistry. The kids and I are excited to try to get back to our routine. We’ll see how it goes, I have on my list things like going to the commissary, the park, swimming, etc. They have been getting a little edgy lately because we have been spending so much time painting and running errands.

We got a new pet, his name is Harry and he is the banana spider that lives in our back yard. Look closely at the picture and you can tell how big he is based on the fact that his web is full of other spiders who are not tiny- yuck! We also continue to get gecko’s regularly in the house, but they aren’t nearly so menacing looking! We caught one in a clear box the other day and Danica wanted to hold it and show it to Alyssa and such.

Well, the girls are napping so I think I may go lay on the air mattress for a few minutes while I have the chance. We would love to hear from anyone. We have vonage for our phone so it’s easy to call. The easiest rule of thumb is to call us before you go to bed or when you get up in the morning. When it’s the afternoon for you we are likely sleeping here. Here is our contact info:

PSC 557 Box 976
FPO AP 96379

(801)994-2355

Take care!



Like I said, those little dots are other normal size large spiders, this things is huge and lives in the tree in our backyard. Tom and Hayden went exploring the neighborhood and said that every tree they looked in had at least one...


I went to order a snocone at a stand at a Japanese park and thought about changing my order to this.


We went to this great park on the beach with a remake of a ship wrecked pirate ship. The kids had a blast. Danica especially loved the zip line. She would zoom down it looking terrified and then jump off, laugh and want to go again!

Danica finally has enough hair for braids! The day after I did this Tom was brushing her hair and she said "Dad, will you do my pretty braids?" It's fun to have a girl!

Kim graduated today from BYU Idaho over a period from 1730 to 2100. It had to be the longest recorded graduation ceremony on the books. Yes, it was in two parts...but, why? Anyway, the first session was in a full gym, HOT, and miserable. At least the second one (Departmental) was cool and a bit quicker. Anyway, she has done it. Just has some student teaching to finish. Congratulations, Kim. And now, Mackenzie or McKenzie or however you decide to spell her name..can come on down.

I will fully review the movie and give all my thoughts at some point in the future...when I have fully woken up...I'm running on 3 hours of sleep right now. Thank goodness for half-days on Fridays! But all I will say for now is:

1. This movie is ABSOLUTELY amazing!!!!!!
2. You should all go see it this weekend...because it is amazing...and also because this is the kind of movie that deserves to hold the record for the biggest opening weekend ever so let's all make that happen!!!