sleeping baby

mantis

We found this on the girls' bedroom wall at bed time the other day. Rory told us that she wasn't going to bed until it was out of the house.

trampoline

We had a storm on Tuesday. It started with about three minutes of really high winds. During those three minutes the trampoline blew up against the porch then around the side of the house and over Adam's car. Then it blew across the driveway and got stuck against the neighbors' fence and tree. We had all kinds of toys and things from the porch and one off the deck and the trash can and recycling bin blowing everywhere - things that never blow away. After those first few minutes it died down to a normal storm with normal high winds (I found out afterward that we had a storm warning that included winds over 70 mph), and the kids sat in a terrified huddle on the couch while Adam and I ran around outside collecting everything before it blew out into the road. And so the trampoline that we've had for six weeks now looks like this:

It's totally destroyed. It turns out that we have the one insurance company that allows trampolines and they will even cover the damage. Except that it is a $300 trampoline and we have a $1000 deductible. We haven't decided if we are replacing it or not yet. We don't really want to pay for a second trampoline after we just bought one, but it was the kids' birthday present. If we do get a new one we'll be buying some stakes for it.

rory and crosby again

baby

 I had an ultrasound yesterday to determine a due date since we were unsure. It is January 14th. Here is a really terrible picture of the baby. Our scanner isn't a big fan of scanning things so this is a photo of the ultrasound picture. The baby's head is on the left with it's arm up near it's face. The man who did the ultrasound thought it looked like a boy. It was too soon to be completely sure and the baby was doing backflips the entire time, but it looks like we may end up with a little boy. If we do his name will be Brock Rowan. If our little boy ends up being little girl, her name will be Emerson Fern (yes, we know every one hates the name Emerson, but we like it).

coloring

radishes