Still trying

Okay, one of my new year's resolutions is to lose weight, which I haven't been doing very good at. I'm down, but only a few pounds and way off my goal. So I was searching around this morning and I found this REALLY cool webpage that gives you not only the caloric content of food, but a breakdown of percentages of carbs, protein and fat. It also gives you a visual representation of the nutritional content and gives it a score for how satiating it is by calorie. Pretty cool info and a really neat site for dieters. The site is NutritionData.com. Check it out and tell me what you think.

Ahhh, very nice...

Man did it pour last night. I went to the store to get Brandi some decaf green tea. It wasn't raining too hard at the time so I just took an umbrella and walked. When I came out it was pouring, so needless to say, even with the umbrella I got a little wet, but I was excited because I knew exactly what it would be like this morning. When I woke up I wasn't dissapointed. I came into work this morning with the windows down and smelling the amazing smell of the desert after a storm. There is no other smell like it in the whole world and it is one of my favorite things about living in AZ. If you've never smelled it you are missing out on something spectacular (and rare). If you have smelled it you know exactly what I'm talking about. What a perfect way to start the day! God is good.

Brandi has had two better days in a row. Much fewer trips to the bathroom. She's still been feeling awful, but... if she isn't actually vomiting, then we have hope that she will improve and have more energy.

I tell you this week has been something else. We have had our Christian family reach out to us in a wonderful and amazing way. The concern and service have been both humbling and very touching. I haven't cooked a meal all week (maybe that could be contributing to Brandi's improvement), sweet women from Gateway have been cooking us meals, watching kids and cleaning the house. I've really been blown away. I don't know if any of them actually read this, but if they do, thank you very much. I don't know how people make it through difficult times without Christian family, it truly is a blessing.

The big velociraptor! (by Hunter Jones)

This is Hunter Jones, back in my secret place. The velociraptors led me to this cliff. I did not know that there is an ankylosaurous under neath the cliff. And I did not know that there was tons of water already from rain when it just started. As you can see, there is a big rock that is holding most of the water away, while a lot of it is from the rain. After the ankylosaurous has whipped a velociraptor it tries to climb a rock and knock the big rock out of place so that the water will raise and the velociraptors will drown. Gotta run, there's a big wave of water behind me.... gurgle, gurgle, gurgle... whew, glad I'm safe in my home now. Sorry I have to go clean up my toy room.

Dinos in the Light (by Hunter Jones)

Hi, my name is Hunter, I am in a secret place where you can find dinosaurs. I found a T-rex that is eating another dinosaur. This dinosaur is a good prey because it has no weapon. It is a smart dinosaur because it knows if it kicks its eggs out of the nest they will stay safe from egg raptors. The blue flower in this land (lower right hand corner) is a poisonous dart flower because it can shoot poison. As you can see I found a waterfall in this island and a volcano. And I found terradactyls in the sky. This secret place is very unusual because I have velociraptors chasing after me right now! Gotta go! Ahhh!!

Who is the idiot who...!?

I don't have a picture for this one, because it's just not something you take a picture of, but I would just like to know who the idiot is who named it "morning sickness". I mean, come on! Are there really people that only have this in the morning? Because my wife is not one of those people.

If you aren't already praying for her, please take a moment to pray for my wife. She is having a really hard time with this pregnancy. So far it's not as bad as the first (I mean, after all she's still alive) but it's a lot worse than the second and looks to be as bad or worse than the third. Not just because of the vomiting, but she has had headaches almost everyday. Several of them have been severe, including at least three migraines.

This is just further reason why God was so wise to have the women have the children. Women tend to downplay there pain and suffering over time. "It really wasn't that bad," my wife has said on many occassions. While men on the other hand tend to... shall we say exagerate, maybe... even embelish our pain just a little bit. If you have heard the story of my in-grown-toe nail proceedu... I mean, surgery, you will know exactly what I am talking about. I mean, come on it was touch and go there for a while!

Anyway, keep her in your prayers if you would. I mean, if I throw up, it will be at least 24 hours before I get out of that bed, let alone 4-5 times a day for two months now. Yuck. Historically speaking she has 2 or 3 more months to go.

On that same note, keep my kids in your prayers. They have been eating a lot of MY cooking... poor little guys.

What do you think?

Well, there is the trouble maker! Hunter got to go in with mama for the ultrasound. Due date is Oct 6th and everything looks great. BTW these are just three pictures of ONE baby, not twins (Kristen). Of course, everyone wants to know what it is...

The answer of course is that it's a baby! It's too early to tell what the sex is, B will have another ultrasound in about 10 weeks to find out if we have another little hooligan to tear the house to pieces, or if we will finally have a little girl. Only time will tell...

Morning sickness has taken a rough turn. It's looking at least as bad as it was with Kyle, not quite up to the first pregnancy, but definitely not the easiest. The migraines have been an unwelcome addition however. Brandi has at least her third migraine of the pregnancy today.

Ugh. Gotta go finish the laundry and check on the kids. They are supposed to be 'cleaning' up their toy room. Right.

...you guessed it. Here's Kyle!

The conversation went something like this:

Daddy: "Kyle, what do you want to write about your picture?"
Kyle: "I want it on bog."
Daddy: "No, what do you want to write ABOUT the picture?"
Kyle: "My two names by my self, I don't need help. I be right back. I clean up payroom."
Daddy: "Kyle, what do you want me to write on the blog about your picture?"
Kyle: "My picture right here! I want write bout Cammie and Tywer. Hey guys! grrrrrr!"
Daddy: "Kyle, come back! What do you want to write."
Kyle: "My fammy! Cammie and Tywer! Jacob n Cammie... Tywer. I have be right back."

The rest is unintelligible noise. In any case, I can say I put in on the blog with his brothers.

Kids...

Jacob's turn...

This girl she's... uh very evil, she fights everybody. This guy is named Jacob, he's trying to block the bomb. He tried to stab the girl, but he couldn't. He saved the princess. He tried to kill the bad guy but he couldn't, she was very powerful. She um, uh. He was the biggest fan, he was great at drawing. He played the violin till he was thirteen and he did the sword fighting till he was eleven. He fighted when he was eighty. He was young when he first started. He started out feeding dinosaurs and laying baby eggs. He had no confidence in her. She had no detail on her drawing, she just scribble scrabble scribble scrabble. She started to fight when she was one. She had green hair and she had no, no, no, uh a thousand men, Jacob fight all of them and killed all of them. He was a very good fighter. He was in kindergarten when he, he helped people in kindergarten. He had very good confidence and he liked to draw. The end.

The funny thing is that when I read it back he corrected me on some of the content. This is exactly how he wanted it to sound.

We're B-A-C-K!

Back by popular demand (meaning that my kids demanded it) we are blogging again. Here is a picture of a Kiki fossil. From what I understand there was confusion in the scientific ranks when this fossil was discovered. In the upper left hand corner you can see the image of what the kiki was thought to look like with a bone protruding from the kiki's head. However the great fossil hunter, Hunter discovered that this was actually part of the tail. A picture of Hunter can be seen at the top, scolding scientists for not figuring it out earlier.

(being dictated to...) Here is another good fact about the kiki: it would eat other dinosaur's eggs.