thanks

yup, that's my website for the pilates biz.  glad you all like it.  I took the pictures myself with my laptop using photobooth, and made the site on iweb.  Don't you just love macs?  i know i do.  they make rookies look like web designers.

Maigan it would be Wild-er ... and thanks for the amazingly sweet comments on my dancing.  You really made my day.  Just so you know I think you are pretty special too.  I think about you all so often and think it is amazing that I know people who live in Idaho and Iowa, New Orleans and South Carolina and Georgia, Wisconsin and Canada and India.  wow.  and what special, smart and fantastic women too...

Kri it is so good to hear from you.  You are not a bad mother you nut.  You know as well as I do that every child develops differently.  It is hard with a precocious and super early first child I think, because it skews the perspective about what is normal.  A girlfriend of mine was telling me that her first taught herself to read when she was four, just seemed to figure it out all on her own... but her second is just learning now at 6, which seems late but is in fact totally normal.  Don't give yourself a hard time.  Avery will come to things in her own time.  Bummer about the potty training resistance though, I am sure you would love to be out of diapers.  Are you really thinking of a third?  Good for you!  Congrats on the new car.

ok I have to go to sleep now...

MaryStarr

LOVE the names

LOVE the name wilder - it has a certain flare that i think will fit in with your family. that is also a great website. although i really think you should start holding sessions in new orleans. southern girls want firm butts too !
regarding reading, i can only get in about a book a week. a drastic decrease from my six-a-week average 4yrs ago. my problem is that once i get into a book, i can't put it down until i am finished. drives dan crazy.
also, we finally bought another car. having only one car was such a monumental pain in the ass and it was too much always trying to line things up. we bought a 95 Maxima that dan is in love with now. we'll keep the PT until we can afford the 4-door jeep. gas prices be damned, i love that car !
otherwise, not much to report. avery is getting better about speaking in sentences. her pronounciation is off but i can't tell if it is related to her being a late talker or if she will need speech therapy. reily was such an advanced talker that i found myself at a loss. avery is also resisting potty-training and letting go of the bottle. she's 2 1/2 yrs old now (july baby), when does this transition over from her being a late bloomer into me being a bad mom ?
i dreamt last night that i was pregnant with triplets. very disturbing. i mean honestly, how big would you get with THREE babies ? i think that i'm starting to get the itch for baby number 3. with a preschooler and toddler, i find myself thinking about newborns again.
sorry that i am not posting much about everyone else. i'm trying to type fast since i have a couple errands to run before getting the girls.
marystarr and maigan - i need your addresses. i sent out x-mas cards but yours were returned. think i still have old addresses in my book !

xoxo
kri

Name?

MaryStarr...how do you say your boy name...is it WILD-ER or WILL-DER?

Marystarr, I love the names you have. I really adore Phoebe but it just didn't ever make our final list. Have you considered Almanzo for a first name instead of Wilder? Just a suggestion. Glad to hear that you a feeling well. And wow those pictures are amazing.

I spent the weekend at my parents. My family does Christmas in January because my parents are smart enough to know that most of us do not like to travel on major holidays. Ron had guard drill so he couldn't be there. It was an interesting 8-hour car trip. Me, three children, and a dog (the person who was going to watch her backed out last minute so she came with).

We are excited because tomorrow we meet with the behavioral specialist to discuss what we can expect from treatments and what options there are for Samuels care. I have been mildly stressed lately. I just sometimes feel like there is so much to do and it is overwhelming.

Amy

Wow...

MaryStarr...I just checked out your website Reena posted...amazing. I find myself in awe every time I think about you...living in the Northwest I am not exactly surrounded by artists. It's very surreal for me when I think about the fact that I know a professional dancer...that may sound strange to you, but if you lived here you would understand. Northern Idaho and Eastern Washington and not exactly what you would call hubs for the arts!! If people have talent, they move away. I think it's really cool you are a dancer :) I know, I am a dork!!! Sucks about your mold issue...good thing you caught it before anybody got sick. Mold can pose serious health issues. Also...I really like your names! I can't remember...did you guys wait to find out with Ava or did you know she would be a girl the whole pregnancy?

Things here are good. Our 6 feet of snow from December melted away and we haven't had much more than an occasional dusting the entire month of January. It's been really cold though, so I have been grumpy. I love winter, but I need snow if it's going to be cold...when it's just cold and you can't go out and play it seems pointless. Eli is working at FedEx and it's going as good as can be expected. He's very depressed about walking away from flying, but we really didn't know what else to do. He wasn't getting enough hours and he didn't want to take an airline job that would take him away from our family...it is just a bad situation overall. Now we are working thru the reality that we spent years of our lives and many many thousands of dollars working towards a career that he had to abandon...he is still applying for local flight positions, but they are far and few between and the competition is fierce. I am confident it will all work out in the end, but it's not much fun right now.

Hugs to all!

Marystarr...

is this you:
http://www.movementforevolution.com/

If it is- WOW!!!

hi gals

hope everyone is well.  things have been crazy here because we found a mold infestation in our apartment three weeks ago... forgive me for being fairly absent.  after week one being a cleaning crew in the house and sleeping on the living room floor ( mold was mostly in the bedroom), week  two being painters in the house repainting the bedroom with mold resistant material, week three being removal and replacement of the bay windows in the entire front of our place (bedroom and living room) and all of the necessary moving and removing of furniture, I have been a busy lady.  thankfully it is finally wrapping itself up.

how is everybody else?  I am 23 weeks now, I have gained 13.5 pounds, and am feeling pretty well.  The baby is a little acrobat, super active.  Much moreso than Ava was at this stage I think.  Matt has been able to feel the baby moving around for almost three weeks, and now you can see it move through my clothes.  I am suddenly showing a lot too, I will try to take a picture for you all.  Don't know if I have mentioned but we have names all picked out.  This baby will have my last name, Hope, since Ava has Matt's last name, Gaughan.  That is fun.  We are looking forward to our family being complete.

Names are:

girl ~ Phoebe Brigid Hope

boy ~ Wilder Condon Hope

Now, no telling pregnant people you know.  I don't want to end up starting a nationwide baby name trend ;p  Anyways, Phoebe is a little bird and Ava means little bird so we like that.  Brigid is Matt's mothers name, and a very important Irish saint.  And I love how it looks written, with all the P's and B's and O's and E's.  Ava's name is all A's and N's and H's.  they look and sound nice together I think.  Wilder is a little nod to my favorite Author of all time, Laura Ingalls Wilder and her hunky hearthrob husband Almanzo Wilder who was always my childhood dream man.  It is uncommon yet still classic and a real name.  Definitely good for a boy and a man.  Condon means "dark haired wise man" in gaelic, it is a surname from Matt's family.  And if he is anything like his daddy he will be a dark haired wise man, and if he is like me he will be a wild child, so we love the name together.  Actually, I love them both so much I wich I could have them both.  just not enough to have three kids or go through pregnancy again.  This is definitely my last time around.

ok

love you all

MaryStarr

Reading

I mostly get a few pages in before bed, unless I get really obsessed with a book like the Harry Potter and Twilight series. Then I neglect many things to read :) I planned for babysitters the nights the last 2 Harry Potter books were released so I could get them at midnight and read all night long. And I got the Stephenie Meyer books for Christmas, which worked out well because the kids and I were all relaxing for that week. They were playing with their new toys while I was playing with mine :) We stayed indoors in pajamas most of that week. Remember Caleb my September baby is my youngest, and the three of them are at an awesome age for playing together!

I did not watch the inaugeration on TV but I caught up with some online articles. I found it interesting that stocks went down that day, and back up the next day.

Gen, I hope you are doing well. Let us know how things are when you get the chance. I did reply to that one post as a comment, but I realize that we haven't been utilizing the comment feature on the blog, so it might have been missed.

Hope everyone else is doing good! I just had some first time home buyers who closed on a house and now they are having problems with snow melting and leaking through an upstairs window, down the wall, and out the living room ceiling. We have reasons to think it was a pre-existing condition that the sellers didn't disclose as is required by law. Who knows, this may be my first time in court. I feel awful about it, and I loathe the other agent involved.

Inaugeration

I am sitting on the couch kind of vegging and watching the inauguration while Theodore plays watching the inauguration. I am truly moved by this all. Just exciting.

Amy

Good Morning

Reading with kids - I manage to, but it is kind of difficult for me. I tend to get wrapped up in reading and forget to do other things. Obviously if the kids needed something they would get it, but I would forget to make supper or clean the house (lots of nights of grilled cheese and apple slices for supper because it is quick and easy). I do miss nursing simply because I could read while nursing.

Gotta go get ready for work.

Amy