Here comes baby number 3!!!

That's right...I'm pregnant again! The new addition to the family will be arriving around January 18th. So many possibilities with this one. We've learned we have a genetic gambling machine going. Will they be dark or light? Above average growth or below? Calm or hyper? The first two seem to be polar opposites in so many ways. It will be interesting to see what the third is like. I will keep everyone up to date with progress. I'm excited about posting ultrasounds! woohoo! I can't wait to find out if it's a boy or a girl, but that will be another 10 weeks or so.

The day of the wedding

This is one of my favorite pictures of JuJu. We had to hold her down to get her into the dress, then she cried for 15 mins. She then refused to walk down the aisle and I had to carry her. Then at the reception, the dress got covered with chocolate, strawberries, dirt from playing out side and a vanilla shake on the way home. She is doing her ballerina impression here. She's such an elegant dancer!

The day after the wedding

Tubing at Belton Lake

Yesterday we went to Belton Lake with some friends from church, it was kind of a farewell get- together for us and two of the other residents that are graduating and leaving also. We played at the playground, went tubing, had hot dogs and s'mores and had water balloon fights. The kids loved it. Donna and Barbara (our neighbors) were also able to come with us.Juliette at the top of the climbing wall

Donna, Barbara and Christina went on first.

I think this was after the first time we had gotten thrown off. Jay, Christina's dad, tried very hard to knock us off, and he succeeded! We were pretty tough though, if I say so myself.

Donna being hauled in. I wish I would have gotten pictures of the scenery. It's beautiful out there. The water was the perfect temp and pretty clear. There was a waterfall, and it's all very hilly and pretty.

Shamu!

Sea World is all about Shamu. Unfortunately, I didn't get to see about half of the show because JuJu had to go potty. That's life!

I love my new camera, it has a great zoom function.

Awwww...she loves her orca.

Sea World

We went to Sea World this weekend! Active duty military and their families get a free pass each year. Donna was able to come with us too.

Mesmerized by the sea horses

The dolphins were very active and they were right in front of us. We got pretty wet from them splashing.

Juliette's Birthday party

My baby's growing up!
She's 4!

The birthday girl...you gotta love Hello Kitty cupcakes

The dads...Ray, Ryan, and Dave (3 of the 5 third year FP residents)

Why yes, I am enjoying this cupcake

So many presents! Happy birthday!

Gideon's birthday pics

Lots of kids! We had about 24 people at the party

Ca-chow! (what Gideon calls Lightning McQueen)

The classic cake on the mouth picture

Our neighbor Barbara painted "Ca-chow" and we played pin the lucky sticker (the lightning bolt)

The first time he met his favorite shoes. :)

Five inches!

This was the mound of snow piled up against the deck gate.

Say goodbye to my petunias!

• 

Oops! I didn't think there was that much snow...he's got Crocs on underneath that.

The snowman in the neighbor's yard, complete with a six pack.

Snow in April!!!

Isn't that crazy?!

And the next assignment is...

Fort Polk!

As of the beginning of July, we will once again be Louisianians.

Bataan Memorial Death March

Last weekend, Ray marched in the Bataan Memorial Death March. It's a 26 mile march in the desert near White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. He went with three of the other residents that are graduating with him this year, and some other colleagues from the Darnall Family Practice clinic. You have to have a group of five and all have to finish within 20 seconds of each other. If one gets injured or disqualified or can't make it, you all get disqualified. A quarter of those who start don't finish. They finished it in 8 hours and 40 minutes. Ray said his feet never hurt that bad in his life. A lot of the march was uphill, and some through sand. The scenerty was beautiful though. This is Dave's back, by the end his entire heels were blisters and bleeding. He's still recovering.
The two in front here with linked arms are married, she's one of the other residents, Katie. Mike got back from Iraq a few months ago. She had to have two toenails removed afterwards.

The guys taking a rest and changing socks. Since it's a march, they all had to be in combat boots.
They had a flag made up with the Darnall Family Practice crest on it, and took turns carrying it.

There were over 4000 participants. There were heavy and light divisions, the group did the light. In the heavy, you bring a 35 lb. pack. There were some of the survivors of the Bataan Death March there and they were able to meet them and shake hands. Ray's there on the bottom right. We're very proud of them!

Earl is a patient cat

...and this is how I found Earl a few days ago

Evidentally he doesn't mind much, he just lays there and purrs

Earl is a patient cat

So what's up with us?

I have not been keeping up with the blog that well. But I've got good excuses. We have been busy! Ray got back from Miami two weeks ago. He was doing a trauma rotation there. Evidentally the Army sends their doctors there to train for how to take care of gun shot wounds, etc. and they have a lot of that in Miami. He has some very interesting stories to tell, but he's very glad to be back home. While Ray was gone we went to Louisiana for a bit.

Now that we're all back in Texas, we have been working on getting the house ready to sell. I'm going to try to do "for sale by owner," I cringe to think of a realtor taking 5-6%, but if we can't sell it, we'll have to do that. And where are we going? That's a good question. We wish we knew too. We should find out any day. Fort Polk is very likely, but it still could be Europe, or anywhere else in the world.

Gideon turned two in February and we had a Cars birthday party. He has gotten to like Cars a lot. He call Lightning McQueen "Ca Chow." Of course I think it's adorable, as is everything he does. :)

Juliette has fallen in love, with a small fuzzy creature with wiskers. His name is Earl and we brought him back here from Louisiana. He was Ben's (my brother's) cat, but Ben started to have a lot of allergy problems with him, so we inherited him. He is just about the best cat ever. Juliette drags him out from under beds, and various other hiding places, carries him around sometimes by his arms, and makes beds for him, all the while almost smothering him by pushing a pillow over his head, and he just takes it. He doesn't try to scratch. He even tries to sweep the cat litter that has fallen onto the floor back to the litter box or into a little pile. I'll have to get pictures of him. It's pretty amazing since he was a wild cat. He's still a kitten but he's getting pretty big.

Ray has been extremely busy working on his research project. When he hasn't been doing that he has been preparing for the Battan Death March. He and 4 of other third year residents, as well as a staff are going to New Mexico for it. It's a 26 mile march, so they're wearing their BDU's complete with combat boots. Being in the desert, parts of it are through sand. He's been looking forward to this for quite a while and spent a lot of time on the treadmill lately.

When I'm not repainting a deck, doing yardwork or orgainizing closets, I've been selling some stuff on eBay. It's amazing what people will spend on children's clothing...$70 on one dress! It makes me not feel so bad about by own splurges. I'm trying to make money towards getting a new camera. If I succeed, you might be getting a lot more pictures and some video on here. woohoo!

So that's life right now. I'll leave you with a Julie-ism. She wraps up all sorts of things in papers and dish towels. She brought me something yesterday wrapped in a dish cloth. She said she wanted to bring it to her friends at the church. Inside she had a cookie with a glob of ice cream on top. Needless to say, we did not bring it to church that night. Hope all of you friends and readers out there are doing well! I would love to hear how y'all are doing too. You can email us at delightnjc@hotmail.com or I'm on Myspace too. (That has been fun.) I will try to post some new pictures soon, so keep checking for them.

Snow and ice

This was taken Monday morning, it was really cool because when the wind blew, the branches would make this tinkling sound.

Izzy and Frizzy playing in the snow.

View from the deck

Snow pictures!

The kids were very excited this morning to go out and play in the snow, it may not be much, but they've never seen any, at least that they were old enough to remember. Gideon was crying when I had to take him back in the house. They didn't even have hats or gloves, so I had to improvise. Juliette loves Ray's hunting cap anyway, and I put socks on her hands. Gideon didn't want the socks, but he has his fleece bee suit from Halloween on, with camo sweat pants and the big jacket...very stylish.