Merry Christmas!!

We have opened presents, had breakfast and the dinner cooking madness has begun! The girls were so much fun and we all had a special morning together. Katie and Amanda are both such sweet. beautiful girls and Josh arives tommorow!! This year has been full of ups and downs, but this morning I feel like an incredibly blessed mother. Love to everyone and MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Julie & Alex!

Here is my beautiful friend Julie with her son, Alex. I took this picture at Julie & her hubby Ty's house after a really lovely devotional service I attended there that morning. Thanks for hosting and it was soooo great to see you guys!

Santa Claus/Grandpa =)

My dad plays Santa every year at the Union Hall Christmas party for kids. The kids love him and he loves doing it (I think). We had a lot of fun with Katie, Amanda, Nye, Asia and little D.

Supermodel Katie

Here is our little poser at work. You go girl!

Katie finally Meets cousin Lucy!!

Nat, Steve & Lucy came over last night for dinner and it was so great to meet little Lucy-and have them meet Katie. It was a fun night & I hope we see them again soon!

Yeah, Im cute =)

Blast from the past

Missy, Nikki & Paul in 1990. Love the "Cant Touch This" and "LA Gear" t-shirts. Funny stuff.

Prayers for The Cullen Family

This is a picture of a close family friend (cousin by marriage) Dominic and his Daughter Savannah from October 2005. On Thursday night, November 2nd, 2006 Savannah passed away in her sleep. An autopsy hasnt revealed a reason, and the whole family is obviously devsitated. Please say a prayer for Savannah and her family.

3.67 GPA?!?!?!?!?!

Check out Amanda's first quarter report card! We are so proud of her-she is working hard and it is paying off big time. Good job Amanda!!!!!

Happy Halloween!

We had a lot of fun trick or treating with Sarah, Ashley and Briana. Our little giraffe slept right through it!

Sleepy Head

She is just so damn cute when she first gets up! This is Katie on her changing table-still in her nightgown-being as cute as she can be.

Mav's Birthday!

We had so much fun at the beach for Maverick's first birthday! Katie slept the whole time and Amanda got to be the beach bum she is at heart (just like her mommy).

3months!?!

I promise to get some pics of all of us up soon. Here is Katie last week-smiling away!

2 months old already!! =)

Katie started smiling last week and has really started to show some personality. We love it. She finally hit 8lbs at her 2 month checkup last week. She is strong and healthy and getting cuter daily =)

Monterey

July 14-16

Such a fun trip-this picture was taken by Terrance. Looks like a postcard!

Taking BART to lunch with Grandma

July 14th-Super fun! Ever the charmer, JOsh made friends with a group of 4th-6th graders on the way home, drawing sketches of each of them and signing them like the masterpieces they were. They had just finished touring KRON channel 4 and gave Josh a bunch of souveniers in exchange. Between the fun lunch with Grandma and that it was quite an excursion!

The Exploratorium Rocks!

Josh & Little D had a blast Tuesday at the Exploratorium.

Getting bigger and prettier every day!

She is here!

After a rough weekend in and out of the hospital, Kaitlyn Nicole Bates was born Sunday, May 28th at 10:36pm-5 weeks early. She weighed 5lb, 4oz and was 19" long. She is about the most beautiful thing we have ever seen!

Belly Pics!

Taken last night with Mr. Bing sniffing away (he smells Bella, Bentley & Oscar-our friend's dogs). We are 1 week away from 7 months-can you believe it? I am getting so excited to meet Katie! I will try to post a good one soon with Terrance in it too. Whats a good belly picture without dad there?

World's Worst Blogger

I know, I know. It's been a month since we've updated. I have no new pictures. I suck. LOL Im over it.

We are in serious prep mode now. Trying to get Katie's room ready-lots of organizing, a little painting of furniture, putting up curtains, etc. We have her art wall started-so far we have drawings or paintings up by Joshua, Little D, myself and we know we have one coming from grandpa John. (submissions requested, please). We went to Turlock to pick up my prized possession in the room-Terrance's mom gave us a beautiful rocking chair she used with Terrance. I even washed my first load of baby clothes in many moons. After the drawers were lined and the clothes folded and put away it started to feel like someone might wear them someday. How strange is that? I am hoping to have a big part of the prep work done in that room by the end of this weekend, so I can relax until the baby shower in a few weeks.

I take my real estate exam soon, so everyone please cross your fingers for me! And, now that there is a belly to show off I promise to post a belly pic soon.

They are SO grown-up!

Here is the latest picture of Josh & Amanda-taken this weekend on our trip to see Josh. It is amazing how old they look! We wanted one good shot of them together before baby Katie takes over the world..... (our world, anyway).

Level 2 Ultrasound-She is Beautiful!!

We had our big ultrasound today and the baby looks great. There is no question she is a girl-confirmed by 3 people now! We cant wait to meet her!

It's a........

GIRL!!!

More info to come soon, but baby girl Bates looks right on target!!

The Belly is Rising

So, here we are at week 17 of the pregnancy, and all is going well. Baby is starting to really make himself/herself noticed more. It's nice to feel like I'm not just endlessly sick and tired and weepy for no reason at all. We are both getting really excited. Only 3 more weeks until our level 2 ultrasound to check peanut's anatomy-make sure all is as well as I think it is. But, we all know the real reason for the excitement-I AM SICK OF GUESSING THE SEX OF THIS CHILD!!! I want to know for SURE. So, everyone cross your fingers that we'll find out......

Congrats, Big Sister Mandy!!

This morning, Amanda's step-mom Heather gave birth to a beautiful 8lb 2oz boy-Spencer Charles. This is her 3rd little brother!!! Josh is 9 (on this side-duh), Zach is 17 months, and now little Spence. What a babysitter Im getting! =) Congratulations to Eric & Heather, too! We can't wait to meet him. Everyone else can check him out at the Capps Family Blog:

http://cappsfamily.blogspot.com

(cut & paste or click the link on the right that is called "Capps Family"

Thanks Grandma Linda!!

This is Chandler Bing with his favorite Christmas present-a purple cat from Grandma Linda. He loves this thing. A little too much if anything. Let's hope this one sticks around a while! This dog is only 13" tall, but has the jaws of an alligator! Watch out Jaws!