Snow Day

Rocky finally got to spend some time enjoying the fresh snow.

Christmas Time in the City

We saved the news of the baby so that we could surprise our families in person. I had played the scene out in my mind hundreds of times the past few months trying to imagine their reaction to my belly. I probably should have listened to all my friends who said, "My mom would kill me if I did that." Obviously I am still alive, but I think it is only because I'm carrying her grandbaby. It seems that she is starting to forgive me, but I can guarantee that if we have another baby, she'll be the first to know.
I wore my most maternity-ish shirt so that the big bulge couldn't be mistaken for post-marathon weight gain and we just walked in. My family all found out one by one, but when we walked in the door at the Rigby's everyone was sitting in the kitchen to be surprised together. Rocky walked in first and took all the focus and then Brandon said, "Marci brought a surprise." I really wish that I would have had a video camera to catch the shock on all the faces. They all cheered and it was worth the months of being tight-lipped.
We let the Voodoo Donuts that we picked up at 3 AM in Portland announce that it's a girl.

Now it is starting to hit me that I really am going to have a baby. I was trying so hard to keep the secret that I found myself forgetting. I guess my body finally got the clue too because this past week my bump looks more like a full-scale basketball. I need it to be reminded that I'm still about 11 weeks before delivery and that it better slow down if it expects me to be able to stand on my own until March.

We've been having a nice time so far in Utah. The snow is beautiful and it has been so fun spending time with family.

After a lot of anticipation from the Rigby brothers we got together to watch Troll 2, which is widely known as the worst movie ever made. This picture is not a joke.
When the brothers are together it usually doesn't take that much to get them into crazy laughing fits, and this movie completely lived up to expectations. I think that night will live long in my favorite moments category. I do recommend watching this film, but make sure you do it with someone who has a contagious laugh...and someone who isn't interested in seeing a good movie.

Rocky is having a blast getting into everything. The other night at the Howard Christmas party we noticed that she had something in her mouth. We checked and it looked like it was a piece of cheese. About 15 minutes later Brandon noticed it was still in there and upon closer investigation he realized that it was the baby Jesus from the nativity scene.

Another time we were at the Rigby's and she was in the front room playing. It had been quiet for about 5 minutes and as any parent of a toddler knows, quiet means something is wrong. I found that she had gotten into her grandma's sewing and taken out all of the pins. There were pins sticking out of all the couch cushions, and stuck into the nativity pieces.

Last night at the Isaacson family party, which is my favorite Christmas tradition of the year, she was able to participate more fully in a nativity while playing the part of a shepherd. She and her cousin Ginny went up to the baby doll and crouched down sticking their faces right next to it sayin, "Baby." The Mary and Joseph had to protect it so that Rocky couldn't steal it like she wanted to.
No baby Jesus is safe while my baby girl is around.

We took a trip to Ogden's Christmas Village which is a personal favorite of mine. Rocky was so excited and grabbed my mom by the hand to run her all around peeking in the windows of the mini buildings.

Ever since we went Rocky wants to be with her Oma all the time.

Rocky and Indee have been catching up on all the Saturday morning cartoons.

Somethin' New

An announcement...


We are expecting a new baby girl the first week of March. My belly isn't as big as the one in the picture, but it's close.

Nothin' New

Things are calm and happy around here, which in a lot of ways is better than exciting. Rocky and I were killing time by doing her favorite activity, looking at pictures of herself. I figured that if we think it is fun to see them for the 20th time, it might be good for everyone else to at least see them once.

Here she is enjoying her new favorite book.


Another new activity she enjoys is posing as a frog, saying 'Crra' like frogs do in Spanish. She's not that good at rolling her r's yet but I'm sure with practice it will come.

She also continues to experiment with style. The Babushka look is the new black.

Thanks Again

We had a lovely Thanksgiving that started with the parade.
Then the feasting began.





We were so lucky to spend the day with the Valverdes who prepared a beautiful dinner and always make us feel like we are part of the family.

I guess that I'm just a little emotional lately and with the holiday and everything I seem to get choked up every time I think about how lucky I am. I've been counting my blessings one by one and the list gets longer every year. Even though there are some ugly things in this world, there are a lot more that are beautiful.

Rescue Mission

Rocky was taken for ransom by a couple of neighborhood ruffians. In order to get her back we had to hike all the way out into the mountains past Cottage Grove to this waterfall.

We were able to buy her back with a couple of cookies and a Cutie orange. In the end I think that the three of them planned it all out and split the booty. She seemed a little too calm during the whole thing. It was pretty good for us all because even though there was snow along the trail it was great to get outside.



Bonus Video
It is pretty common that kids who stay up past bedtime get into an ultra-hyper state of energy. My dad calls it the cat-crazies. This is what happened last night when Rocky had a pretty bad case of the cat-crazies.

Homecoming Parade

I've been looking forward to this year's homecoming parade since the day after last year's. Although there weren't as many floats (or as much drunkenness for that matter) it was a success. While there were no togas, probably because of the freezing cold evening, there was a bunch of hippies.

This might not seem like much of a stretch for Eugene, but if you look closely, it is clear that these are the funny dressed-up hippies, not the real, we-dress-like-this-daily kind that are always outside of the library. This float sported more of a disco and tie-dyed type of hybrid - a 60s/70s mix.
It is kind of interesting to see so many hippies on campus because generally it seems that there is a big divide in this city between the university crowd and the drum-circle group that run the Saturday Market. The students are usually easily recognizable by their U of O paraphernalia and cell phones. The real hippies usually haven't showered for several weeks, and carry all their belongings on their backs. Also, the female U of O students are always either wearing skin-tight stretch pants with Ugg boots or little teeny shorts. (The short shorts are also donned by the hard-core runners who may or may not be students, but who are definitely not hippies.) The main bridge that covers the gap between the hippies and the college students is that they all agree on the legalization of marijuana.
This group went with a jungle theme.



The football players were giving out calendars and I was pretty excited with mine until I realized that it was for this year instead of next. If it takes 11 months to give them out for free, it doesn't seem to be that hot of a commodity.

Brandon worked hard to keep Rocky from getting frostbite. She took courage when the frat-boy dressed like a mermaid who was only wearing a clam-shell bra and some green butcher paper saluted her from the top of the truck he rode.
Rocky was one of the only kids around and really enjoyed the spoils. (And by that I mean that Brandon and I ate most the candy and she got to keep the beads.)