33 weeks

I know I know I look like I'm ready to pop. Almost. I've got 7 weeks left. You know how you're supposed to look like you've got a basketball in your belly when you're pregnant. I look like I've got a rugby ball sticking straight out... Maybe she's in there with her fingers interlaced behind her head in my stomach area, and her ankles crossed legs straight out into my belly button area! I'm joking. I've started to get out some of Luke's little white receiving blankets (the long john kind) and washed them yesterday so they're nice and fresh :)

Official Big Boy Bike Rider

After receiving he cool bike for his Birthday, Luke wasted no time in learning how to do things his own way! It only took a tiny bit of encouragement (that is all he would allow) from his dad to get him to try out the pedals and start riding! He is quite fast and daring. I've been taking him to the park. He will ride around and I will try to keep up (which is impossible), its how I get my excercise!

....Its a Coyote...

I have been debating whether or not to share this story, but decided to after sending it to Jesse Wayne. He said he laughed. [please note some details have been slightly embelished]
On our way back to Rexburg after visitng the folks in Washington, we stopped off at the Newell's in Bonners Ferry. The first night Payton was headed outside around bedtime. and I just kind of asked him, something like, "Oh, what are you doin?" and he was like, "I never sleep inside..." or something like that, so I was like, "ok cool." Anyway, I had no idea where he was sleeping but i knew it was outside. Then in the middle of the night i was laying there awake in aly's room, and all of the sudden I hear a dog barking. I didn't think much of it, I just thought it was their dog barking for... some reason. Then all of the sudden i heard a coyote howl, and it sounded like it was right outside the window. Ken was awake by now and neither of us had ever heard a coyote that close. While it's howling continued, all the sudden we hear payton who also sounded like he was right outside of our window say in an audible, calm, matter of fact tone, "its a coyote..... its a coyote" I thought this over in my mind for a while afterwards when the varmit was gone and everything was quiet again, and i had no idea why he said that.. especially the way he said it. I finally concluded that he was talking to the dog who i guess just needed to be reassured that it was just "...a coyote.... its a coyote" nothing like "stop barking riley!" or "don't worry he won't get ya" no, just a monotone "its a coyote" it still didn't make much sense to me but i tried my best to piece it together, eager to wake up in the morning and find out the real story. I eventually did, after hearing everyone else's theories. I thought it was funny that Ken only heard, "Coyote.... Coyote" no "its a." At first they were all sure that he was talking in his sleep, then they started to try to warm up to my idea of him calming down the dog, then payton swooped in and the real story was related thus: payton was sleeping out on the trampoline... which i found out was right outside our window. a coyote came by, started barking (so, poor riley was not even a part of the tale), aly yells out the window (from meg's room) "stop it riley" or something like that, and so in response to aly, payton informs her "...its a coyote..... its a ocyote" riely was in the garage the whole time. the wierdest part of this story is that I didn't even hear aly..... at all. and that... will forever remain a mystery. joking. But anyway even as I was laying in bed hearing the coyote, i laughed to myself and thought, what better place than at payton and aly's to hear for the first time up close, a real 'cateeyoh.' (When they were little, they were always worried about the cateeyohs getting them at night, especially when we would sleep outside.)