She's here!

Suzy checking out her chart.

Suzy mostly read through her early contractions
Wow, this must have been a bad contraction. You can tell because Mike is obviously laying back in his chair as he takes this picture.

Well, it finally happened. Kate got a little sister! This is going to come as quite a shock to her current "Everyone's Attention is Centered on Kate"'s life. Case in point, I was showing her some of the recent pictures of baby Faith, and what does she say but "NO! Kate". Anyway, here's what I'm sure you've all been waiting for, the Pictures!




Baby Faith Holding Mom's Hand

Grandparents and the little one!

More Grandparent's with BOTH little ones!

Mom Seeing baby Faith for the first time!

Don't know about you, but I crave it fortnightly.

The other day we were driving by KFC when Kate excitedly pointed out the window and started yelling, "Present Hinckee! Present Hinckee!" I think she just may be on to something. Don't worry Colonel, your secret is safe with me.

Diwali

This is Mike speaking. We recently went to an Indian Festival called Diwali. I'm going to post a Video of it, if I can figure out how.

Happy Halloween! (this is for you Bob)

Please note this Halloween picture is posted WAY before Valentine's Day. Kate went trick-or-treating for the first time this year. It only took one door to get the hang of things. "I knock on the door, someone opens it and gives me candy, I say Happy Haween!" Except Kate would stand there and wait for more and more candy until we dragged her away from each door. It was fun :)

We also went to the Halloween party at Gymboree. I think there were 4 of us there, it was pretty wild.

Mike strikes again.

If you couldn't tell, Mike did that last post. Little does he know, I was the most popular girl in middle school. My mom told me.

I'm an Aerobic workout Queen

You probably can't tell who is the workout instructor, eh? Plus, I have hot bangs. I would have been the most popular girl in middle school with these bangs.

Western Idaho Fair

The Western Idaho Fair is a glorious time of year. It has been the highlight of my summer for as long as I can remember (don't forget, I'm from Idaho). I was blessed to work concessions at the fair every summer during high school. Ahh, I can still smell Jones' famous "Pound O' Fries" and "Bucket O' Onions." The smell of grease, smoke, and mullets will always fill me with nostalgia. (Do mullets have a smell? Oh yes, they do.)

I have been grooming Mike for 4+ years to be ready for his first trip to the Western Idaho Fair, and it all paid off August of '07.

Mike didn't get to ride the Zipper, but as you can see, the Merry-Go-Round really rocked his world.

Before Kate came along, I had never experienced the Live Stock aspect of the Fair. What was once only an annoying odor that interfered with the delicious smell of grease suddenly became very real, and our sole purpose for visiting the fair. (That is, until Kate is old enough to ride the Zipper)

You have most likely heard that Idahoan goats are exceptionally aggressive. By the time we were done feeding them, most of the paper cup was gone. Also, I won't need to trim Kate's fingernails for at least a month.

I had to include this picture because, let's face it, I look good.

I'm back.

You know when you have a bunch of pictures you want to put on your blog, but you realize that you cannot justifiably do so until previously taken photos are posted first (because chronological order MUST be maintained) so you just don't post anything at all? In a word, that's what happened to me. For this reason, the next few posts will not be in any particular order, but mere highlights of the last 6 months.

4th of July!

We went to Donnelly ID for the 4th and played in the water. Kate much preferred the opaque greenish yellow water (many cows graze nearby) to her grandparents' pool back home. Added buoyancy perhaps? I was excited for her to watch fireworks for the first time. Unfortunately, she was sound asleep by the time they started, and not even the finale could wake her.

Maybe next year!

Kate and Moose

Papa T built this airplane swing for the grandkids. He used to swing us on one just like it when we were little, and we LOVED it!

Roaring Springs!

Kelsey and I took Shae and Kate to Roaring Springs! It was a perfect day, and we had sooo much fun! I had no idea there was so much for toddlers to do there! I think just being around Shae makes Kate more brave in the water (Shae is 1/4 merman).

Where is this child's mother?

Alaska: Cute Cousins

Kate and baby Alison

HELP!

Alison has no problem telling us just how she feels about this photo shoot.

Alaska: fish hatchery

I think the fish hatchery was my favorite thing in Juneau, believe it or not. It was fascinating! I have never seen so many salmon in once place! We took a private tour and had a great guide who was very understanding. She was willing to follow us around and yell out information as my mom and I tried to contain our 2 out of control toddlers.

I would love to share everything I learned there, about the life cycles of the salmon and what exactly the fish hatchery does, but it would be far too demanding of my brain and fingers. So visit your local hatchery! Or look is up online. It really is cool.

This is one of those funny, non-threatening grizzlies. They're my favorite kind.

Inside the hatchery were a bunch of aquariums. Kate liked to race that big silver fish around and around the cylindric tank.

tickle tickle!

My favorite thing within the hatchery was the Touch Tank. There were open shallow tanks filled with relatively harmless sea creatures for people to hold and examine.

King Crab

If this crab looks angry, it's probably because half of his legs are missing.

Here we have a sea cucumber "releasing" (ahem) it's water onto another sea cucumber. Kate found this quite amusing. (ok, so did I)

Alaska: a day at the beach

I couldn't resist slipping in this picture that shows off Kate's mullet so marvelously.

Alaska: wicked versatile park

This was the sweetest playground I've ever seen! And the really cool thing is that it was built entirely by volunteers from the community! The pictures don't do it justice, it is enormous. An added bonus is that the ground is covered with delicious recycled rubber chunks (taste-tested by k8).

Alaska: the tram

We took a tram up almost to the top of a mountain, then hiked around when we got off. Kate followed Darin around like a puppy and had to do exactly what Darin did. She is his biggest fan :)