a few recent cute pics of the kiddos:

She finally rolled over!!! My little girl rolled over for the first time yesterday from her tummy to her back, and today she went from her back to her tummy- yay! :) the things we get excited over as parents, huh? It's one step closer to crawling, walking, running, dancing... well, i'm getting a little ahead of myself. I'm just so thrilled to have a little girl, and I can't wait to see what her personality will be like....
The boys have been getting really restless lately having to spend so much time indoors with Mom, so I really need to get them back into some classes. Elijah wants to take some dance classes- yes, his dad is just thrilled with that! And Rogue just loves the water. I'm going to try to take him to swim classes in the evenings after Trav gets home from work. I am so ready for the nice days again too- to venture off to the park, Silver Falls, etc. for picnic, some hiking, exploring and such. It'll be more of a challenge with 3, but I'm up for it (I think).

My Biggest Fears

I'm not scared of heights. I'm not scared of jumping off cliffs and bridges, or going through big, rocky rapids without a boat. I'm also not scared of snakes, spiders or anything of the like. I am, however scared of 4 ridiculously petty things.

4. The dark. Ok- yes, I'm a grown, adult woman and I'm afraid of the dark. Not so much the dark as it is the unknown. Usually, I can force myself not to think about it, but I have a vivid imagination and come up with all sorts of crazy ideas of what I can't see. I make it worse by watching crime shows. Everything bad happens at night. That's when all of the creeps and killers come out. I know it's ridiculous, but I just can't help myself.

3. Bees. Twice when I was young I got stung by a swarm of bees, and now my heartrate speeds up significantly at the sight of a single bee.

2. The ocean. I would love to learn to surf, but I am too afraid of the ocean. Again, it's just the unknown. I convince myself that there are sharks just below the surface waiting for me. The thought just consumes me everytime I think about venturing out to more than knee deep water. I wish that I could overcome it someday, because I really would love to learn to surf.

1. My biggest fear of all: public speaking. It scares me to death. Even at church when I've been asked to talk in the ward I've grown up in my whole life, and everyone knows me, I am terrified. I have to write out my talk word for word, I have knots in my stomach from the time I'm given the assignment until several hours after I speak. And afterwards, I just feel like crying. Yes, crying. I hardly ever cry, so why over something like giving a little talk in front of some people I've known my whole life? Haven't got a clue.

Now that I've written these, they seems even more petty than ever. I hesitate to even post this, but oh well. It's part of who I am.

friday night travis called my on his way home, and told me that he just decided that we were going to go to seattle for the weekend. he got home, he booked a hotel, and we left the next morning. last time we went up, we took the train. we discovered that trains are evil. they are meant only to torment parents that think, "oh, the kids love trains, this will be great!" 5 hours later, all you want to do is crawl into bed for a week. this time, we drove.
once we got there, we checked into our hotel, and headed out. we spent the first day at the space needle, the children's museum, riding the monorail, and finishing up with a dip in the pool. the boys are so opposite when it comes to the water. Elijah will only come out into the pool if he has a firm hold on you and you onto him. he mostly sticks to the stairs (and the baby pool if there is one). Rogue on the other hand, is going to be my rafter. he loves to go under the water, jump of the sides, and insists that you stay away while he gets into and out of the pool on his own- in the deep end. if we're not watching close enough, he'll just go jump in on his own. we have to keep and extra close eye on that one.
today, we went to pike's place market and the aquarium. i scored some awesome earrings made of bamboo that the lady actually grew in her own back yard. the kids had a great time at the aquarium. we recently realized that rogue loves sharks, and so we watched a shark presentation for a while. we need to take him back to the newport aquarium again to see the huge walk through shark tank there again. After that we headed home, and here I am writing about it. well, it was a most fabulous, wonderfully spontaneous trip, and fun was had by all. and now, i am off to bed for some much needed rest after our fun-filled weekend.

5 things i love

1. waking up to cuddling kids. the boys have a "bad" habit of coming into our bed in the middle of the night, and we've tried only half-heartedly to break them of it. why? because i love waking up to find one of my little guys have found their way into our bed and cuddled up to us. so, i don't know if they'll ever break the habit, but i'm not going to force it.

2. hawthorne district. as much as i love my kids, having 3 of them does not allow me many opportunities to focus on myself. one of my favorite ways to do this is to head on up to the hawthorne district in portland with Des. it's full of vintage shops and awesome clothes. you tend to lose yourself a little in becoming a mother, and i just feel like i'm really reconnecting with myself when i get to spend just a few hours doing some vintage shopping with my best friend from high school.

3. chocolate banana peanut butter smoothies. so, this same friend of mine introduced me to the yummiest smoothies, and i'm hooked. soy chocolate milk, fresh banana, fresh-ground peanut butter... ummmmmmmmm. my mouth is watering just thinking about it....

4. b&w photography. i used to do a lot of black and white photography. i took a class a few years ago, and i loved it. the reason i stopped was because i no longer had access to a darkroom to develop my own pictures. my professer let me continue to use the school's darkroom for a while, but it's really supposed to be for student use only, and i didn't want to keep asking. I hoped for a place nearby that offered a darkroom time rental, but no such luck. I've tried letting someone else develop them, but i'm just not happy with the result, and digital photography just isn't the same. So, my only real option is to build one inside my house, which i'm considering, because i'd love to start doing it again.

5. game nights. i love getting together with other couple friends of ours and having game nights. we don't drink or go to parties, so our idea of a good time is playing games with friends. a night of board games might sound boring to some, but you those i tell you- you have never been at one of ours. the best are when we get about 4 couples. it's enough to have a lot of personalities and therefore have a lot of fun, but still small enough to be able to play a variety of games. i look forward to these nights when we all find babysitters and gather at someone's house to get picked apart, made fun of, and laughed at until late into the night.