"My Three Sons" or "Brothers and Sisters"?

Kacie Olivia Alan made her first appearance today. Yep... it's a GIRL!

I was so surprised I kept asking the doctor, "Are you sure? I am pretty certain we're having a boy!". But she showed us the telltale three white dots (labia) and the clearly absent penis. (Don't even try to make out the details in the above picture- if you really want to- picture her doing a cannonball with a camera shooting from underneath. That's her butt in the picture. Just trust us!). Typical girl...she was already refusing to be photographed and kept her little face covered with her hands the entire time, so no headshots of our daughter yet.

Most importantly, however, Kacie appears perfectly healthy and is growing right on target. Jake had a huge grin when we picked him up at school and told him the news and when we even mentioned thinking about other names he became quite indignant and said, "My sister's name is Kacie Olivia!". In keeping with tradition we ran straight to the nearest baby store and bought a little newborn outfit- it was so much fun to browse the girl's side of Baby Gap this time :)

I had prepared in my head my post if it was a boy: The Top 10 Reasons We Are Glad to Have All Boys. Included on this list were things like: "We'll never have to pay for a wedding". "Ages 11-17" and "No Barbies!". I guess we'd better start a new list: "Two Boys and a Girl: How Great is That??"

Love to everyone.

World Series Nightmare

These are just some recent photos of the boys and us. We took Jake minitaure golfing and to the batting cages last weekend and had a really nice time, but that's not what this post is about.

Let me just start by saying that I remember watching the '75 world series with my Dad. Yankees v. Dodgers (the Reggie Jackson series). My Dad was rooting for the Dodgers, so just to be a pain in the ass, I'm sure, I started rooting for the Yankees (I stayed a Yankees fan until the 80's when I learned better). I remember staying up late, watching the games and enjoying the games themselves as well as the time with my Dad. This is what started me on a lifetime of being a baseball fan, my Dad had nothing to do with my picking the Giants eventually, that was just me being an idiot. Jake watched some of the series last year and has always been a huge baseball fan, so we set out a reward for him a few weeks ago, that if he could go to bed (always, and still, a challenge) without crying and throwing a fit, he could stay up late and watch the World Series games with us. We told him we would have snacks, play games, you know just make a big deal of it. Well, THAT part worked. He went to bed easily every night for the last two weeks and every morning would get up and ask, "Dad, do I still get the series?". So last night was a big deal. We shopped yesterday morning, let him pick out snacks and bought some new games to play.

He didn't want to nap during the day at naptime (MAJOR red flag, that we missed), but we worked around it and sat down at first pitch to watch the Tigers and the Cardinals (Jake wants the Tigers to win, I am ambivielent as long as it's a good series). We had our dinner in front of the TV, mini-pizza's for me, mac and cheese with corn and fruit snacks for him (Marisa had soup, you know, sometimes I am just not sure about her...). Then we had some chex mix, some candy and soda (yes, I know it sounds stupid NOW) and watched the game. We played his new BINGO game, we colored and watched the Cardinals win Game 1. Now for the true or false portion of our post; after not napping, staying up way past his bedtime, eating candy, soda and snacks and being generally hyped up over the course of a four hour baseball game, Jake went to bed with no problems. TRUE or FALSE.

FALSE, FALSE, FALSE, seriously F%&@*ing FALSE. We don't need to recount all of the specifics, but the most revealing point of the whole ordeal occurred at 3:30 in the morning as Jake stood, fully clothed, in our shower with freezing cold water spraying on him, because he was hysterical and we couldn't get him to stop screaming (for those who are wondering, no, that didn't work either). Needless to say, VERY bad night. He is napping now, so we shall see how things go tonight, but no candy or soda after the game starts and I am thinking about a "couch only" game, if you want to get off the couch, the only other option is bed.

Let this serve as a lesson for other parents out there, if we tell you one of our great ideas for our kids; 1) please desparately try to talk us out of it, 2) under no circumstances follow our example with your own children, and 3) try to read posts like this with a little bit of sympathy (we need all of the help we can get....)


Other quick updates; we got Jakes new bunk beds yesterday and set them up in his room; now he has bunk beds in his room and Tanner has bunk beds in his room (seriously, not so much a house, as a barracks now....). We go to the Dr. tomorrow for our 20 week ultrasound to find out if we are having a boy or a girl (we will do another post tomorrow night). Jake is sure that we are having a girl. Marisa is welching on her deal with the names (in spite of them being publically posted on the internet months ago). Jake had a play date with his friend Cole today and they both had a great time. I am traveling to Columbus, OH this week, Las Vegas NV, next week and the Salt Lake City, UT the week after that for two to three day at a time trips (yes, feel VERY sorry for my wife!). The new Buffett album is good. It's getting cold here and the leaves are falling. Tanner has about 50 new teeth and I need to go finish the laundry. - Talk to you soon........

Harvest Time

Autumn has arrived. The leaves are beginning to change and fall, the nights have started to get cold and dark, and the baseball playoffs have started. The Hidden Springs Harvest festival was this weekend. It was billed as the 10th annual harvest festival and was projected to attract 10,000 visitors from the Treasure Valley, so we were PUMPED to attend to say the least. We set aside the whole weekend for family fun, crafts, corn dogs and music. Grandpa Pete flew in for the weekend to join in the festivities.....

...the actual event, while not failing to live up to expectations (mine at least, Marisa expected the Thanksgiving Day parade as always), barely made it TO the expectations level. I think we bought into the hype (yes, for a harvest festival, we have two boys and a third on the way, this is MAJOR LEAGUE ENTERTAINMENT right now) and it was a little disappointing. There was good food and music, and some crafts, but if 10,000 people came, those were 10,000 boooored people.

We had a good time taking the boys, and Pete got to see a good example of the kind of community that we live in. The pumpkins were cheap and it was a fun way to fill a weekend. But for next years travel planners....really only a half-day thing.

We had a very nice visit with Pete. Jake stayed home from school on Friday with "Poppa" and proceeded to wear "Poppa" out. They played tennis, baseball and Jakes favorite hobby, asking questions. I swear that sometimes I think he forgets to breathe, he talks so much. Pete was definately ready for some adult time when Marisa and I got home from work. I think Pete was as flabbergasted as we are that we will be adding a third child to the mix. He did agree with us that Tanner is the king of low maintenence babies however. Both boys were well behaved and miss thier poppa already.

Things otherwise are going well. I like my job, it's okay, not great. Marisa likes hers not so much and is thinking about making a change, but is soldiering through. We find out in a couple of weeks whether we will be adding a boy or a girl to the madness......talk to you then.

Hospital Zone

Tanner is on his third round of antibiotics in 6 weeks (repeat ear infections) and Jake woke up with a 102 fever on Friday night. The fun never stops around our house! Tanner didn't seem bothered by his ear infection this time, but school wouldn't let him come back until he had been on his new antibiotic for 24 hours. So I spent the day at home on Wednesday. Luckily both boys are (knock on wood) healthy and happy this morning. Jake's fever spiked at 104 yesterday afternoon, but he slept great and woke up asking if we could go play miniature golf today. Brian and I are pretty sure the boys were just trying to get in as many dr. visits prior to our health insurance kicking in (as of today, thank god) as possible.

I had my overnight fall trip with my class on Thursday night. For a woman with a bird phobia, I did pretty well, I think. I will attach some photos of me holding the horrible beasts as soon as Robbie forwards them to me. It was a good trip, but I don't recommend trying to sleep outside next to an owl call that goes off continually from 7PM until 6AM. It consisted of a fake owl doing ten low pitched "whooooos" followed by ten high pitched "whoooooos" at an alarming decibel. Needless to say no one got a lot of sleep. Combine that with the fact that whenever an owl was actually caught in the nets, one of the workers would come wake everyone up to watch it be "processed and tagged" and you can guess that I would probably have gotten more sleep at home with two sick boys! Still, I returned home with as many students as I left with, which is all I could ask for, really.

I am definitely experiencing a "crisis of faith" with teaching at this school. The hours, the commitment, the "extras" that are required of the teachers, the fact that you have to find your own subs, all combine to make me realize that as much as I believe in the philosophy and feel like I fit in here, I may not realistically be able to do it next year with three kids. My sanity and family life need to come before my career-and if that means teaching somewhere less stimulating for a few years while the boys are young, then I think that may be what I need to do. I am definitely feeling "buried".

The boys, other than recovering from their respective illnesses, are doing great. Tanner is saying "da-da" now and we are pretty sure he says it with meaning, not just at random. He is pulling up to standing and itching to walk. Jake continues to be his entertaining (and demanding) self. He is loving school and his teacher. Miss Pam. I was less than thrilled when she referred to him as a "perfectionist" the other day, however. I told her I would rather hear almost anything else about my son than that! But he is happy to go to school and happy when I pick him up and is learning lots, so that's good enough for now.

We had a wonderful visit with Grandma Mary and Auntie Sue last weekend. They swept into town loaded down with treats galore for the boys. It was like a magic suitcase- they kept opening it up and bringing out new goodies. Jake was so happy to spend time with them and kept them busy from morning til night playing and singing and reading and chattering up a storm. They took the boys to Build a Bear on Sunday and Jake now has a new buddy- a stuffed frog named "Benny" that is dressed like Superman. They are so wonderful with my boys and I am so grateful to have them be a part of my life and my family's. We are now on a quest to get Auntie Sue to move here to Boise :) when she retires. They also graciously babysat one night for us so Brian and I could go out for our anniversary. We went out to a great dinner and, ironically, spent the night at a Residence Inn where we SLEPT IN, luxuriously kid-free.