It's a boy!

Update on Friday, June 13th: His name is Kyle Thomas Dralle-Hogue

Kristin (Zachary's mom) had her baby this morning. He is a healthy little boy and I can't wait to meet him! I am visiting my parents right now, but I'm leaving to go home around noon. We'll go see him once Andy is home from his retreat.

She was supposed to be induced this morning, but couldn't decide if she wanted to be or not, so she called and planned to go in at 7 to discuss options with the Dr. 5 minutes after she got off of the phone, her water broke! With very quick, painful contractions she made it to the hospital and he was born about a 1/2 hour later after only 8 minutes of pushing!!! Way to go Kristin!!

I'll post some pictures once we go visit.

***
Thank you Lord for a safe, quick labor and birth for my friend. Please bless this family with a smooth, peaceful transition and help Zachary to love his new little brother.
Amen
***

Camping 2008

We went camping in Anacortes this week. It was really fun. Theo was much bigger than he was last year when we went camping. This is the 2nd time we've camped at Washington Park on the Thursday and Friday before Memorial Day. I guess it's a new tradition. We all had a great time and it didn't rain much. Setting up was a little bit difficult since it was late in the evening, Theo didn't know the boundaries of where he could and couldn't wander off, and we were all tired from riding in the car. We finally got Theo to sleep around 10 and everyone slept great. Penny was her usual, low-key self and rolled with the punches the whole time we were there. Theo loved hiking, kicking a soccer ball down the hill of our neighbor's campsite (don't worry. They were there for a dive trip, so they basically just slept there and were gone during the day), and throwing rocks in the water. My favorite part of the trip was the nice hike we took up to the cliffs over the water. It was beautiful and just nice enough to hike without getting cold or too hot.

P.S. Just for comparison's sake, I included a picture of Theo from this camping trip last year.

Fun with Rory and Jonah!

Rory and Jonah came over today for a few hours and we had a great time! We played in the yard, ate goldfish crackers, and made some playdough. I think Theo would've loved being a triplet. I loved watching them follow eachother around the house like a miniature conga line. They were all pretty tired when they left and it only took Theo about 2 minutes to fall asleep for his nap. Here are a few highlights from our time outside.

He is a mover and a shaker!

Theo's 1st real "big boy" haircut

It's been hot here the past couple of days, so we figured it was time to give Theo a real summer haircut. He looks even more like his daddy now than he normally does. He liked pretending to cut his hair with the clippers, but wasn't a big fan of them actually being used at first. He got used to it and was able to stand still long enough for me to cut all of his very long (about 2 1/2") hair (now 1/2" long). It helped that we were out on the patio and that he was already naked! He looks pretty cute if you ask me!

Fun in the Yard!

We have the greatest yard! Yards are not super common here in Bellingham and especially not yards with grass to play in. We love our yard. It was something we felt we definitely needed when we bought our house. I love having it now that Theo is old enough to play outdoors and he loves it too. We planted our vegetable and flower garden yesterday. The vegetables are in a bed right next to Theo's new playarea....except for the zucchini. They needed more space, so we planted them across the yard in the previous fish pond area. Andy got up early this morning and watered everything. I think that morning watering will have to be our new routine since it's supposed to be so hot for the next few days.

Here are a few pictures of us (attempting) flying our kite and giving Penny a swing on the swingset.

Yeah! Spring is finally here!

She would NOT look at the camera

Last weekend, my folks, Andy's mom & dad, my brother, and our neice and nephew came up to help put together my parents' old swing set for Theo. It was a lot of hard work.....digging up our garden area, putting timbers around the area for the swing set, actually assembling the swing set (Thanks again, everybody!), and filling the area with cedar chips. It was an enormous success and now Theo asks to go "ow-side, ow-side" a little more often and a little bit louder.

On Sunday afternoon, the four of us went outside to swing and go down the slide. Penny really liked the baby swing (at 4 months...weird) and I think she would have been happy to swing there all day long. I grabbed the camera to capture the fun, but I could not get her to look at me. I'd make faces at her and get her to smile and just as I clicked the button on the camera, she would look away.

Enjoy the pictures of her not looking at me. Funny.