Something's different....

Is it my new hair-do?
No! This is just Lucy's new hobby. She loves doing hair, and just perfected the side-ponytail. If you ever see me in person with this special up-do, please let Lucy know how good she's getting at doing hair and don't laugh at me too much. Even if I pull it out or try to push it a little further back, she'll grab me and say "let me fix that foh you, Mom."


Here's another hint. It's a before and after picture of sorts.

That's right you clever person, you. I'm going to look like Amy in about 7 months! Oi. We had to time the passing of the maternity clothes just right. I must say though that it's not fun to see the end from the beginning, whatever I might have thought in my scripture pondering. Sometimes it's better to have to wonder how huge I'll get. But Amy looks fab, really. She's due today, by the way, and we're all betting on how long that baby can hold it's horizontal position without pushing straight out the front!

We're really excited/nervous about making the leap from 3 to 4 Barney chilluns. I expect Ben will probably rough the baby up enough before it's even out of my belly that it will be a tough little kid. Lucy's set to "make bottles, change it's diapoh (she doesn't say her r's), and hold it. So mom you bettoh eat lots of food (done) and take some naps (done and done) cuz the baby needs to sleep." I told her it's a peanut (I meant size) and the next morning she said "It's bwown! I can see it." Sam, after absorbing how this will change his life, noted that "now we need to wake up Dad at night if we're scared." Too bad he's the only kid that never wakes up. So October 7th here we come!

I also meant to post about our cool expedition down south to the Mormon Battalion church site. It's right in the Old Town area of San Diego and has recently been redone. We met Chris' bro and family down there and the kids LOVED IT! I enjoyed it too. I totally recommend going and checking it out. It's free, it's an excuse to go to beautiful San Diego, and they really put on a good show for kids of all ages (and adults) to learn what the Mormon Batallion's trek really meant for the church and for California (for more info check out mormon.org/mb). Here's what the kids loved:

The kids panned for gold and couldn't believe they actually found some (fool's gold, that is)! The sweet sister missionary let them pick two little bits from their findings to take home. They talked about how rich they would be if it were really gold.

Ben could have pumped that water spigot all day long. I suppose he'd make a good cowboy.

All of the cousins gathered at the end for this vintage photo. One of the best things about the whole tour is the sister and couple missionaries who run the place. They made sure all the kids were in it, pulling over crates and adjusting heads until we got this -- not bad from what we started with.