Let It Snow!!!

It is so cold that this snow won't pack into snowballs. We got about 5 inches last night, and maybe another inch today!

Jack-O-Lanterns

For FHE we carved up our pumkins. Unfortunately, the batteries in our real camera died, so we are stuck with these cell phone pics. These pictures don't do justice to the kids' creations. Lizzy's is the moon, a bat, and the outline of a bat. Eric's is a funny, scowling face. Jimmy's has a ton of crazy, crooked teeth.

Fair

We went to the fair on Friday. It was a lot of fun. We went on tons of rides and ate lots of tasty food. Lexi slept most of the time. We were there for almost nine hours, so that's pretty impressive.

Alexis Marie

The latest addition to our family came on Saturday, 9/13 at 9:14 am. She's a real cutie. Mom and baby are both doing great. We're excited to have her home! The pre-existing kids can't get enough of her. All they want to do is take turns holding her.





Eric likes to give his little sister kisses on the cheek.

Go Cougars!!!

Uncle Alan scored 10 tickets to the BYU game at UW. We had to make the trip!
Playing with the cousins the night before the big roadtrip.
Signs by Jimmy.
Pregame planning - and fantasy football research.
As we got onto the 520 floating bridge, there was a TON of traffic. It took us about an hour to go the last five miles. Eric kept the mood light. After we'd been sitting in gridlock for about five minutes he said, "I guess Dino Rossi is right! We do need better roads. There is a lot of traffic over here." (Dino Rossi is the Republican candidate running for governor against the incumbent Democrat, Christine Gregoire. Rossi has been running ads on tv asking why Gregoire has spent so much money on roads, but they still aren't any better.) All the adults in the car got a good laugh.




A controversial ending, but we think they got it right!

Spokane Trip

A couple of weeks ago, we took a minivacation. We went to Alan and Laura's house in Spokane. On the way, we stopped at the waterpark in Moses Lake. The trip was a blast.

Genetic Disorder

I don't know if this is the proper forum to announce to the world that I have a genetic disorder,but I do. It is called autosomal dominant compelling helioophthalmic outburst syndrome. Fortunately, this illness is not generally life threatening (though I guess it could be if it struck at an inopportune time). Unfortunately, there is no evidence that it gets any better or less noticeable as a person ages.

Many of you have probably noticed how this syndrome affects me but probably without even being aware that it was a manifestation of my genetic disorder. If you've ever been around me when I have transitioned from indoors to outdoors, you may have noticed that I often sneeze upon entering the sunlight. ACHOO!!!

I never thought much of this. I just thought it was some kind of allergy or that I was just a weirdo in general. Then a few days ago, as I was pulling out of the parking lot from work, I saw one of my co-workers do the same thing. I asked her about it at work a few days later, and she said that this always happens to her too. A quick google search revealed that we both suffer from ACHOO syndrome.

It is basically a "disorder characterized by nearly uncontrollable paroxysms of sneezing provoked in a reflex fashion by the sudden exposure of a dark-adapted subject to intensely bright light, usually sunlight. The number of successive sneezes was usually 2 or 3."

You can learn more about my disability at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/dispomim.cgi?id=100820 The quote in the paragraph above was taken from this website.