one week ago it was 80 degrees!  today it's snowing.  and this isn't the midwest!  yesterday shane had his second baseball game snowed out and there's another one tomorrow... we're doubtfull he'll play.  he has had one game.  last sunday.  it was cold and drizzly, but not enough to call it.  he went 2 for 2 against 'the machine' - no literally, it's a machine that pitches... not some oversized little leaguer, and had a good play at first base.  he's still got a few cub scout activities going on, like the tour of theo chocolate factory we went to today.  this was a cool, local small-operation place that makes organic, free-trade chocolate.  it was interesting and shane admitted that he likes chocolate better than he thinks he does (he's never been a fan).  layla got bored half-way though the tour and entertained herself by taking pictures.  i deleted most of them, but saved the one of the tour guide from the waist down.  i thought it was pretty funny, and i know i wouldn't look that good from the waist down if i worked at a chocolate factory!  but she did point out that dark chocolate is considered health food (if it's at 70% cacao or higher).

layla is typical layla... spouting hilarous things daily... i record the really good ones in my other blog.  she's looking forward to going on a 'hairplane' to go and see lily.  she's also currently obsessed with birthday cake.  seriously, everything is birthday cake!  example: one night at dinner she took a pea off her plate and put it on top of a large-ish carrot coin.  voila.. birthday cake!  doghouses were big a while ago, but now it's mostly just birthday cake.  she still likes to look for doghouses though.  she's also developed a strange fear of imaginary lions.  she talks about them all the time and last night she had trouble going to sleep because she said she heard some sounds outside that sounded like a lion.  well at least i can assure her that there are no lions outside!  on a normal note, she's very into drawing and coloring and any kind of art stuff, loves to read books, and build things and she loves to hunt for worms in the garden.  she can't wait for preschool next year.

micah is still super-cute and generally angelic... although he now has two teeth and occasionally likes to 'use' them on me.  NOT COOL!  so hopefully he'll get over that phase soon.  he's sitting now and when he's on his tummy, he'll move his knees back and forth like he's trying to get somewhere.  occasionally he gets them under him, but never at the same time as his hands.  that's okay, i don't think i'm ready for him to be mobile.  i like all the time he spends on me now since he can't go anywhere.  we finally said goodbye to the bassinet (boo hoo) since he basically filled it head to foot.  his favorite sound right now is 'da' which makes dave happy, especially when he gets to babbling and it comes out 'dada'.  i guess i'll give him this one.

so that's our update here.  i'm totally looking forward to warmer weather... wish me luck!

things are picking up again around here.  shane started baseball and has his first game on saturday at 8am...  8AM!!!  are these people insane?  it's going to be freezing.  we'll see how many of us make it.  his team is the pirates and he's #8.  micah and layla are still suffering with 'the cold that never ends', but will most likely survive.  dave discovered last night that micah got his first tooth.  i'm actually kind of depressed about it.  all of the firsts for him are the last for me and it makes me sad that he won't be a baby forever!  i know, i'm crazy.  shane and layla have been sleeping in a tent for about a month now.  it's pretty cute and they sleep well... even keeping layla out of our bed at night about 98% of the time!  an added bonus.  their favorite hobbies right now involve bouncing around the house on their bouncy balls (hop alongs, hippity hops, whatever you want to call them), and arguing as usual.  but nobody is doing anything excessively annoying right now, so i feel like i have an unusual amount of sanity for a change!  shane got his ymca report card yesterday... he moved up a swimming level, which is great, and got a couple of 'is a pleasure to have in class' comments, which always makes a mom feel good!  we had a good easter.  my parents came over for dinner and egg hunts (my mom has taken to putting money in the eggs) so it was pretty mellow, but fun. 

there's not a ton going on right now.  shane is in a break from sports right now, but still has scouts and weekly ymca stuff.  school is going well and he's currently enjoying his week off for mid-winter break and lots of mischief with wyatt.  layla is the typical multiple personality toddler, switching from angel to pure evil with no warning, and is slowly getting less neurotic about pooping on the toilet. and micah continues to be super mellow, cute baby.  i think he just enjoys taking in all the chaos around him.  i can't believe he's 4 months old!  i'm trying to maintain some order and my own sanity and looking forward to warmer weather and getting the yard and garden ready.  our bulbs are starting to come up and i can't wait to see the tulips and daffodils!  i love spring!  dave is still enjoying work (and he just got a hefty raise!) and joined a rec soccer team with people from work.  we're starting to plan our big trip east and south this may and are really happy to not be driving this time!  that's about it.  i'll update again if there's anything interesting going on.  i also have a new blog that i update somewhat frequently when i have something to mutter about.  http://rambling-rachel.blogspot.com/ 

Well, we've nearly finished Christmas!  I say that because tomorrow is the 6th (the 12th day of Christmas) and the day that my parents have designated as the day that they will give their presents... they figured the kids would be overloaded if they did it on Christmas.  As it turned out, that's a pretty good idea since we basically had to cancel Christmas since most of us were sick.  On Sunday, the 23rd, Shane came down with a flu-type thing with a fever, bad cough and aches.  Layla got it on the 24th and I wound up with it on Christmas Day.  Fun fun.  So we never made it to Christmas Eve church, cancelled Christmas dinner with my parents, and staggered through opening presents on Christmas morning between doses of Tylenol and Ibuprofen.  We rescheduled dinner for last Sunday when my Aunt Marge and my parents came over. 

 

Shane stayed up until midnight on New Year's Eve (watching HSM 2 and random episodes of Zack and Cody and Hannah Montana) and Layla, although we put her to bed at normal time, seemed to figure out that something was going on because she kept getting back up.  The first was Dave's birthday and the Rose Bowl, so his gift was some timely Trojan wear.  We had a nice dinner at Ruby's, which was Layla's first outing in underwear.  I had to take her to the bathroom 3 times while we were there, but no accidents!

 

That's about it.  Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

okay, so here we are in december already.  life is psychotic as usual and holiday events only make it more so.  we'll do a brief update this time.. i promise.  i know i get longwinded sometimes.

 

we'll start with the oldest this time to be different.

 

shane is happily busy right now.  i know i've spouted plenty of hot air about over-scheduled kids, but he seems to be one who is much happier when he's got places to be.  his homeschool and class schedule keeps plenty of gas flowing through the van, but he seems to enjoy his classes and is making good progress with his academics.  he seems to have a gift for spelling and gets very mad at himself if he doesn't ace his weekly spelling tests.  his reading is picking up a lot too and actually seems to enjoy it.  he's taken to reading to me at night instead of the other way around.  he's also busy with cub scouts and is in the middle of a short season of indoor soccer.  the rest of his time is taken up playing with his buddy wyatt or running around to random birthday parties and the like.

 

layla is hilarious as always, but also very frustrating (she's 2, duh).  posessiveness is a very big thing for her lately and likes to say that everything is 'mine'.  including the snow we had last week.  she talks nonstop and loves to sing.  i'm getting a little more serious about the potty training thing, partly as an effort to get rid of a nasty diaper rash that we've been dealing with for months.  she's been doing really well with staying in her own bed lately, only coming to visit us on occasion and goes back to her room agreeably.  that's nice.  i think we've also finally convinced her not to take the ornaments off the christmas tree.  she has an advent calendar she's in charge of and has a really hard time just moving the star once each day.  it's torture!

 

micah is 7 weeks old now and weighed 10 pounds and 15 and a half ounces at his dr. appointment on tuesday.  he's in the 50th percentile for weight and 75th for length.  it's amusing to have a kid this big already since the other 2 were so little.  i guess we broke the tradition of shrimpy october dapelo boys!  he's getting stronger and lifts his head up good now and really likes to 'stand'.  he generally only wakes up once a night which is great!  oh, and he's also super cute!  he was baptized on november 25th and had a bunch of visitors from california.  it was a fun weekend, but we apparently sent everyone home sick.  there's some horrible stomach bug going around here now.  i think we're done with it finally and we're really sorry we passed it along to so many people!

 

dave and i are trying hard to keep up with everything, get enough sleep and not stress out too much!  and now, since i have been apparently tagged, i guess i have to tell 7 things about myself...

1)  nothing makes me feel better than having a clean house... unfortunately, i hate to do it so it isn't clean nearly as often as i'd like it.

2)  i love children's books!  i'd rather read books for kids than those for adults any day.  picture books are great, but i love chapter books as well.  i recently read all the henry huggins books to shane and was probably more sad than he was when we were done.

3)  although i try to be healthy and natural and all that, i LOVE hot dogs!  i don't know what it is, but i can't seem to get over it.

4)  i'm sure i don't say it enough, but i consider myself to be one of the luckiest people in the world to have such a great husband.  he's the best!

5)  having kids is a great excuse for me to express my fascination with big cool stuff like trains and construction machines.  i like having a good reason to drive by construction sites.

6)  my least favorite thing about day to day parenting is feeding the kids.  for some reason that's the thing that i could really do without.  changing diapers is fine, dressing, bathing, running around, but i just wish they didn't have to eat!  not the baby, nursing is fine... it's when i have to come up with some sort of nurishment to stick on a plate that is a drag.

 

7)  i love doing laundry.  this is by far my favorite household chore... the rest of the house could be buried in clutter and dust and grime, but we've got clean clothes to wear... however, the 5th family member may have pushed me over the edge because i seem to have a really hard time getting the clothes put away once their washed lately.

 

okay, there you have it.  you can quit bugging me about it now, mary!

 

well, micah is officially 2 weeks old now.  he's a great baby.  eats well, sleeps well, fills his diapers well... those are pretty much the three categories of baby behavior, right?  we had a great visit from gramma laurie who was a big help with all the kids, especially in keeping layla out of our bed at night and letting me get a shower in more often than once a week!  she took shane and layla on a field trip to visit a friend in sequim who had horses.  they got to ride... shane even got to ride by himself with no lead!  he was very excited.  she also got to take in one of shane's soccer games.

 

we are slowly adjusting to being a family of 5 (that sounds crazy!).  shane is doing well and being a super big brother to micah.  he asked me last night if i thought micah would like monster trucks when he gets older.  layla likes having a baby brother and every morning, she's excited to see him, but it's definitely bringing out some of her own issues, especially around dinner and bed time.  but it could certainly be a lot worse so i shouldn't complain.

 

dave and i are sometimes overwhelmed by the fact that we are now outnumbered.  just getting out of the house and trying to be anywhere on time without forgetting anything or anyone is an exercise in insanity.  shane is done with soccer now, so that frees up two evenings and saturdays.  hooray!  but his team finished the season 7-1, and he's excited to come back and play again next year.  that leaves him with just scouts and homeschool activities, which is plenty for now.  i think we'll add more swimming after christmas, but for the time being, i just don't want to have to do any more chauffeuring than is absolutely necessary.  dave is relieving me of my cub scout duties and has actually volunteered to be the assistant den leader.  go dave! 

 

i'm sure we'll have new pictures up shortly, as micah is changing so fast now and tonight is halloween, so check back soon!

 

The long process is finally over and we get to finally introduce you to the newest member of our family.  Dave, Rachel, Shane and Layla are proud to introduce you to:

 

Name: Micah Darrell Dapelo

Born: October 17, 2007 - 9:36am

Weight: 7lbs 15oz

Length: 21-1/4 inches

 

Micah was born at Puget Sound Birth Center with our midwife Val and student midwife Nicole helping us each step of the way.  Rachel is feeling good and glad to be finally done with her last pregnancy ever!  Shane and Layla were both present to watch their new baby brother be born.  Layla wanted to sit right next to the tub(water birth) but we moved her back to Grandma's lap when Rachel began to push.

 

Thanks to all for the prayers.  Micah will be baptized the Sunday following Thanksgiving at Pilgrim Lutheran Church in Bellevue.  We hope as many of you possible can come.

 

Dave, Rachel, Shane, Layla, and Micah!

so, here we are more than half-way through august.  it's hard to believe that september and school and fall and all that is coming up just around the corner.  our summer has been crazy and it's kind of nice to have this month to stick around home and feel like we have a chance to chill.  june was full of moving in and the trip to the oregon coast.  july brought a visit from nolan, birthdays, california and vbs.  the trip to california was crazy!  we left early on the day after shane's birthday and drove all day.  it was a long drive, but the kids were amazingly well-behaved and having nolan along to help drive was great.  we were the last ones to arrive and it was cool to have josh waiting at the end of the street to race us down the block when we finally got there.  disneyland was good except layla wound up sick.  shane had a really good time and even went on the upside-down roller coaster at california adventure, twice!  layla loved the bug's town rides and even refused to get out of a few.  she thought rides were great, but had no patience for lines (neither did i).  a word of advice, though, don't go pregnant!  you can't go on any of the cool rides.  they both thought swimming at the hotel was great too.  it was really nice to see everyone and so much fun to see all the cousins playing together.  i wish we could do that more often.

 

so other than that, i'll do a quick update on everyone....

 

shane turned 8 last month (shocking!) and is generally happy as long as he has something to do, best if he has someone to play with.  he's had a couple of sleepovers with his friend sean, and rides over to wyatt's house just about every day to see if he's home.  soccer practices start next week, and although he keeps saying he doesn't really want to play, he's all stoked about the 'gear' aspect of it and puts on his new cleats and shin guards every chance he gets.  they have their first game on sept. 8th.  september will also start up school for him again.  we've decided to stick with the homeschooling, but with some school district options thrown in.  he'll be going to 3 or 4 classes a week with other homeschoolers, plus a ymca program designed for homeschoolers that includes swimming, gym and art.  he's really looking forward to getting back in the water.  his latest endeavors this summer have involved insects... we just released 9 painted lady butterflies that we got as tiny caterpillars.  he's also got an ant farm.  we're currently pet sitting some guinea pigs for a friend of mine, and he's all excited about them, although i think he would prefer that we just let them run all over the house.  he got a big kick out of seafair.  we got to go watch the hydroplane races up close and had a good view of the blue angels.

 

layla turned 2 the day before shane turned 8 and is quite the toddler.  her opinions are never ending... about what she wears, what she eats, what she plays with, etc, etc...  she likes to sing, especially 'row row row your boat'.  she has an intersting rendition of it.  she's totally fearless; liked the fireworks this year too, as well as the super loud blue angels at seafair, loves climbing higher than i'm comfortable with at playgrounds.  she keeps me agile chasing her.  she loves to draw, especially people (circles with eyes), dad, mom, 'yane', 'la-la' and josh!  she's been obsessed with her cousin ever since california.  talks about josh all the time.  her favorite toys right now are the 3 babies she got for her birthday.  she's constantly putting them to bed, feeding them, taking their clothes off and then making me put new ones on.  right now she's got one in a stroller, but ususally there's at least one in a dump truck somewhere.  she keeps wanting to put her diapers on them, so we need to find some doll sized diapers.  speaking of diapers, we're desperate to get rid of them, but so far unsuccessful.  she'll tell us she has to go, or that she just went, she's willing to sit on the toilet (as long as you sit and sing songs with her), but so far, won't do anything in the toilet.  oh well, it's a start!  i just wish we could have only 1 in diapers at a time, but that might be a little too optimistic.

 

that brings us to in utero child (fondly known as psycho baby lately) is less than 2 months away from arrival (2 months way too long).  as much as i'm trying to savor the last pregnancy and all that stuff, i'm really just sick of it.  we're still ambiguous on the gender as we haven't had an ultrasound...  and dave is trying to  back out on his end of the deal to find out this time.  we'll see...

 

so other than being sick of being pregnant, i'm keeping  busy.  trying to keep up with the house and yard are definitely too much right now.  my attempts at gardening are weak, but we've successfully harvested some of the thousands and thousands of potatoes we didn't plant.  they're pretty good.  we've had a few tomatoes, and will have about a million more when they get ripe.  several cucumbers are about an inch long right now, so hopefully they'll get big enough before summer's over.  no pumpkins yet, but plenty of flowers, so that might be a bust.  a deer ate all the leaves off my green bean plants, but they're flowering anyway, so we may have some beans yet.  i hope so!  other than that, i recently joined a MOMS club and am having a blast with that.  they've got a lot of cool activities, lots of friends for me and layla and a few older boys for shane too.  i actually had to buy a day planner recently to keep track of all the stuff going on.  between shane's activities and school stuff, MOMS club stuff, midwife appointments, and other random stuff that comes up, i can't keep it all in my head anymore.  we're officially busy!

 

dave is enjoying work, for the most part.  he's currently working on a remodel of my high school (actually they're completely demolishing it and starting over, but in phases).  i think he's getting tired of this project because it's the first he's ever complained about.  he's always got funny stories about the people he works with, so it seems to be a good environment.   especially with the lunch time poker games, beer fridays and office parties complete with pinatas!  he's still trying to get out to the most recent harry potter movie, but since i've only just started book 4, he doesn't have a date.

 

wow.  i just realized how much i've written.  you probably quit reading this a long time ago, so i'm going to quit writing!

 

okay, so here we are in the summer already!  yes, we've moved...  as you can see by the pictures, it's a major upgrade!!!  we were really blessed to find this place.  NO MORE CONDOS!!!  we love it and it's so nice to have a garage to keep all your unpacked boxes in until you finish unpacking them!  unfortunately, it's too conveniently hidden, so it might never happen.  so here's our update for this time.

 

july is a busy month for us with 3 birthdays coming up and a trip to california.  next week layla will turn 2 and shane will turn 8.  the day after shane's birthday, we're heading south to elk grove for the big ole family gathering.  it should be loads of fun and we're really looking forward to seeing everyone since we're kind of left out of stuff being way out here in WA now.  it's been too long and it will be so nice to catch up.  in june, we had a trip to the beach in oregon, courtesy of my parents.  it was a nice time even though the weather kind of stunk at the end.

 

as for people updates...

 

'the bump' is now 25(?) weeks along and really not giving me too much trouble.  we still do not have a gender announcement as we haven't yet had the ultrasound, but should soon and will promptly pass that info along... although dave is still trying to talk me out of it.  it is ridiculously active... hardly ever still, which is scaring me a little since i already have 2 that are never still.

 

layla is absolutely hilarious right now, if not aggrivating at times.  she suddenly has an opinion about everything.  she's never quiet or still and is in the midst of a major language explosion right now.  recognizable words are a welcome addition to her attempts at communication, since we've been guessing for a long time.  she's learning new words and signs right and left.  right now she's big into animal sounds, although dogs apparently say 'oh!' and there's no way to convince her that horses do not also say 'moo'.  she wants to be outside just about all the time, and will practice her newest skill everywhere;  jumping.  first it was just jumping in place, but that isn't exciting enough anymore, she has to jump off of stuff.  it's a little scary.

 

shane is excited about the new house too.  it's been like christmas for him to dig through all the boxes that got moved from napoleon and never unpacked because they were useless at the condo.  we've had croquet and badmitton out already, and we've reclaimed some other stuff from my parents' house like his bike and red wagon, which he has decided is his 'work wagon' so he's got it full of tools he might need to fix stuff around the house (these include a snow shovel and a bike pump).  he's a good helper in the garden too, having had lots of practice helping my dad.  the best part of our new house, for shane comes in the form of a 7 year old named wyatt who lives down the road.  he's actually the son of the people who own the house.  they have lots of fun together and find good mischief... exactly how it should be.  he's on a break from swimming right now, because of our vacations, but we hope to have him back in by the end of summer so he can pick up where he left off.  he passed level 3 in only 2 sessions and is looking forward to level 4 since "level 3 was really easy".

 

dave is doing well at his new job.  so well actually, that he got a raise today.  halleluia!  we really need it.  unfortunately he's working ridiculously long hours, but for the time being, it's necessary and he's being a really good sport about it.  they're willing to let him work as much overtime as he wants and it's time and a half after 40 hours, so he's taking advantage of that.

 

i'm enjoying being done with work.  i feel a little frustrated since i'm not getting paid anymore and can't help the financial situation, but between being pregnant, my pathetic salary and the childcare situation, it just doesn't make any sense for me to keep working.  i'm managing to keep plenty busy getting us settled, chasing kids and trying to keep our house from being the typical sty!  i'm looking for a local playgroup for layla and contemplating what i could do that would make money while staying home. 

 

that's it in a very big nutshell.  we'll update again soon and should have more pictures since it seems like there's more stuff to take pictures of now.

 

Rachel, Dave, Shane, Layla and the bump!

well, here we are in april...  what's going on?  well, dave starts a new job on monday.  i have to go back to my job on monday.  shane is busy with homeschooling.  layla is all over as usual.  and 'the bump' is nearly 14 weeks along.  and since Rachel has developed writers block, I am starting over from here.  So life in our household is crazy...but we are trying to get a hold on it, and we better or else we're in for a lot of trouble once our family expands in October.  In case anyone who views this website did not know yet...we are expecting again, thus the comment about "the bump".  It was a suprise for sure, but we are excited to have another little one running around making lots of noise that doesn't exactly make any sense.  It will kind of be hard for the baby not to make a lot of pointless noise because their brother and sister will teach them the art very well. 

 

So, what to elaborate on...Like Rachel said, I start a new job on Monday.  I spent the last two and a half months working for an architect learning CAD(computer aided drafting).  He lined me up an interview with an engineering firm in downtown Seattle that he use to work for and I am excited to begin working for them. 

 

Rachel is finishing up spring break and then she is into the home stretch before school is out at the end of may.  Once she's done, she may be done for a while as we figure it's better for her to be home with the kids than it is to put all the money she makes into child care.  I think she's looking forward to being a stay at home mom.  We may still try and see if there is any work she can do over the summer to gain a little extra income.

 

Shane has an insane amount of energy and needs as much outside time as he can get in a day.  Like Rachel said, he's busy with homeschool which he does with Rachel's mom.  He spends school time with her and recess time working out in the yard with Grandpa or playing with Layla as she spends her days there too.  He has caught up quite a bit on his reading and writing since he started homeschool.  He even has learned a little cursive and can write his name quite well using it.  He loves to swim, so we have signed him up for his second consecutive set of lessons.  He trys to get us to take him every friday to the community pool to swim, and it's usually a fun family affair as Layla seems to love the water. 

 

Layla is a nut...she's noisy, all over the place and way to lovable for her own good.  The things that you know will one day drive you crazy are things that we can't seem to keep ourselves from laughing at.  She is becoming more verbal, but doesn't really use words to communicate yet.  Her lastest word is flower.  She is fearless and likes to show it by climbing onto anything that she can get a hand or foot hold on.  One of her favorite hobbies is getting out of the bath and doing what we call the naked run.  she gets her hooded towel on her head, bolts out of the bathroom and runs out looking for whoever she might be able to entertain.  We then try to wrangle her into a diaper which is quite the ordeal on some nights.

 

So, that's our life right now...hope you enjoy the pictures...and for anyone still making comments about the date in some of the pictures, would you reset the date everyday you turned it on?

Hi all.  nothing too eventful to report.... which is probably why we haven't updated in so long.  we'll do a quick recap of the last few months.

 

december was interesting.  just before christmas, we had a HUGE wind storm that basically knocked out half the state.  we had our power out for 4 days.  loads of fun!  we did fine.  it was pretty cold, but we used our fireplace, ate out a lot and showered at my parents' (gas water heater).  we finally got our power back at about 1am and it was so exciting.  we were like the last place around here to get it back.  then we had to go throw out everything in the freezer.

 

christmas was pretty mellow.  we had dinner at my parents' for christmas day and opened presents there.  then a few days later, we headed south to california to spend some time with dave's family.  it was a nice trip (tiring, since we drove all night to get there) and it was nice for the kids to have some 1 on 1 gramma and papa time.  we also got to see nana and grandpa dick and met up with sue and darrel and jordan and sophia at in-n-out on our way out of town.  we drove back on the 1st (happy birthday, dave) and were pleasantly surprised that layla slept basically all day!  we had a LOVELY dinner at a truck stop somewhere in oregon and got home around 1am.  unfortunately, later that night, layla come down with the stomach flu.  fun fun.

 

so january was pretty much just filled with stomach flu and snow.  shane was the lone survivor from this bout.  and in the middle of all that, we had another snow storm and more days off of school.  the end of january brought shane's first pinewood derby for cub scouts.  we were all very proud of his car, which he designed totally himself, and painted it himself too (which is the way i thought it was supposed to be, but apparently no one else followed this rule).  it was definitely a fun day.  there were a lot of very inventive cars, including a twinkie, a hot dog, a wedge of swiss cheese and an ipod, not to mention a couple lightning mcqueen's.  shane's was a bright red pickup truck with flames painted on it.

 

layla is still very much a 'toddler'.  we've decided that she's basically just a tornado.  she picks up something in one place, takes it somewhere else, puts it down and picks up something else, etc. etc. etc.  it makes our feeble housekeeping efforts futile.  she's finally starting to say words!!!  she now says mom, dad, and shane ('ane' or 'yane') on her own, and will repeat a lot of other words; nose, eye, toes, ball, boat, and 'go dog go' of all things.  we had her 18 month (okay, well 19 month) pictures taken last weekend.  we get those back this week and we'll send them out, along with shane's latest, for those of you who haven't got them yet (sorry).  we're trying really hard not to be such bad slackers.

 

dave quit target at the end of january and now working for a guy doing CAD stuff and hoping to become rich and famous sooner rather than later by doing this.  he seems to enjoy his work and it is definitely keeping him busy.  we're still trying to figure out our long range plans as far as location and all that, but we're doing okay for the time being.

 

i'm still bouncing back and forth about whether or not i hate my job or if it's really not so bad.  thursday was the absolute day from you know where, so i'm kind of back on the hating side of things.  i just have to keep in mind that a lot of what is making things so bad this year will not be factors next year.  so if i can survive this year, things might be a lot better.  mostly, i just hate how hectic life feels right now with everyone running everywhere and feeling tired out all the time.  i definitely miss the slower paced life we had in napoleon.

 

well, i think that's it for now.  we'll try to be better, i promise.  maybe more exciting things will happen soon and we'll have more of a reason to update.

 

rachel, dave, shane and layla.

 

 

The only other news we have to report at this time is that Layla has moved into her toddler bed.  This was an effort to get her to spend less time at night with us!  For the most part it seems to have worked and if she does wake up, it's much easier to get her to go back to bed.

 

So that's our exciting news for now.  Now I get to try and figure out how to add pictures.  If you see some, you'll know I figured it out!

 

The Oh/Wa Dapelos

Okay, so it's been far to long since we last updated this thing...but we've had a lot going on.  So where to start...well, we are no longer the Ohio Dapelo's as we have moved to Washington, but since you can't change you web address without completely starting over, we aren't going to change just yet.

So since I last updated we have had several birthday's in the family(all but one of us that is) and we have again moved, started new jobs, new schools and new routines, if you could call it a routine.

So let's start with the youngest...Layla is now 15 months old and is a little monkey...where she got that from, I have no idea...she climbs on everything she possibly can and has hardly an ounce of fear.  Of course with climbing comes a couple of falls and she has some bumps and bruises to prove it, but that doesn't stop her.  She likes to make a lot of noise, but still doesn't really talk yet, although she can sign several words including, more, please, all done, cup and dog.  As you can tell, most have to do with eating other than Dog.

As for Shane, he seems to be adjusting pretty well and seems to really be enjoying school.  He loves to ride the bus to school and gets upset when I try to pick him up at school instead of letting the bus take him home.  He recently started cub scouts and seems to really be enjoying that.  Maybe someday he'll get his eagle scout, or maybe not...whatever he wants to do. 

Rachel is trying to adjust to full-time work, but she really misses being with her own kids all day everyday.  She has finally and officially finished college and is glad to finally have that monkey off her back.  She finished all of her coursework at Concordia St. Paul at the end of September.  She recently got her final project back and was glad to see she got an A.

As for me, I have been working full time at Target as team leader(management) and I am really enjoying it.  I am doing whatever it takes to move up as quickly as I can so that I can move into a career with target and be able to support the family a little more.  We'll see if I can do it by the beginning of the new year.  Other than that, I just take in whatever time I have with the family, and read what I would definitely consider an addicts dose of sports information.  It drives Rachel crazy, but I just love sports info.

 

So that's it from this crazy house...hope all is well for you and yours.

Dave, Rachel, Shane, and Layla

So I realize that's its been a while since I updated this site with a written and a pictoral update...so let's catch you up on the finer things in the Ohio, soon to be Washington Dapelo house. 

 

We have a lot going on right now as we prepare to pack up our life here in Napoleon, Ohio and prepare to move west to our new home in Washington.  That's right, I said home...as in we actually have a place to live once we get there.  Now all I need to do is find a job so that we can afford this home...no worries...God is Good!  We just secured a condo to live in when we get there and that's where we will live until at least next summer.  So with that in mind we have to actually start packing our stuff to move it.  We load up the moving truck between the 20th and 24th, then Rachel, Shane and Layla leave on the 25th...then I will leave on the evening of the 30th.  So needless to say, we have plenty to do in so little time.

 

The Layla update...last time I updated I might have mentioned something about steps...well, she takes plenty of those now...she has become the adventurous one and likes to run on occasion.  It often means we must run after her and keep her out of trouble, which of course makes her move faster and laugh at the thought of trying to get away with whatever it is she must know we don't want her to get away with.  She has enjoyed the company of her cousin Lily this past month and the two of them can cause quite the bit of trouble together.  We have finally decided that she needs to no longer ride in her rear facing car seat as it just makes her miserable...so today marks her first full day of riding in a front face car seat.  Today was also her first 4th of July...and man did she love the fireworks...check out the pictures.  She was smiling and clapping and pointing.  It was so much fun to watch. She turns 1 in a little over a week

 

As for Shane...there is not much that he wants to let get in his way of having fun with his little buddy Caleb.  They spend 24/7 riding their bikes and coming up with many random activities (some that get them in trouble) as they can.  Food, nor water can really even get in his way of playing as he seems to find it more a nuisance to eat lunch than a necessity.  The two of them started a lemonade stand recently, so at least they were keeping semi-hydrated.  When we pry him away long enough he likes to play t-ball, and go to swim lessons.  Shane has taken leaps and bounds this last year in terms of coordination and seems to be so much better at so many things.  He turns seven in a little over a week.

 

As for Rachel and I...well, we keep ourselves busy by keeping up with Shane and Layla and planning this move.  When we aren't living the lives of our children, I try to work and Rachel attempts to implement a new chore system that I think she has been quite pleased with as it has allowed us to have house guests and other visitors as of late without any real need to clean(read overhaul) the house.  This week, the two us will chaperone a youth trip to an amusement park that will also include many great Christian bands.  Shane's going too...it should be plenty of good fun...We won't be of much use when we return, but it will still be fun.  We only wish Layla could go with us as well.

 

So again, that's our life in a nutshell.  Hope all is well for you and yours.  Take care.

 

The soon to be Washington Dapelo's or WaDaps!

So I just saw that I haven't updated since March and that's pretty sad.  I should try to do it once a month, but I don't...sue me.  Things in our household are hectic at best.  There seems to be always something going on with Layla and Shane around. 

 

For Layla, she is lots of fun and so active.  She's been pulling herself up on things for as long as we can remember and that is the only reason she crawls, so that she can pull herself up onto something else...well, she actually crawls after you sometimes which is funny.  She likes to crawl up to your legs and pull up on you.  She is able to stand for short amounts of time and we think she's more mentally unstable with standing than she actually is physically because normally it's her choice to sit back down when she realizes she's been standing.  Anyway...since she likes to pull herself up on things it means she has a tendency to fall over to.  Right before Easter and us going to get her pictures taken, she fell over and hit something...not exactly sure what, but she ended up with a bruise right in the middle of her forehead.  The day after easter when we took her to get her pictures taken, she got her first experience with make-up to try to hide it for pictures.  We didn't do a great job of hiding it.  Layla wore her easter dress for her pictures and she looked absolutely adorable...it's impossible for her to look anything else.  Layla liked everything she got in her easter basket as long as she could chew on it.  She is up to I believe 6 teeth.

 

Shane enjoyed easter a lot and couldn't wait to hide eggs and find them.  Grandma thought it would be a good idea to fill them with money so now he has a bunch of change.  He likes to go the arcade, so the change should do him wonders.  Shane spends almost every waking minute he has hanging out with the little boys that live around the corner from Rachel's parents.  He will ask us if he can go to Rachel's parents house and say he wants to go to help grandma clean, but we all know what it's really about and we try to tell him it's okay to want to go play with his friends.  One of Shane's little buddies just invited him to go camping with his family...the little boys mom actually invited shane...maybe we are mean parents, but we aren't letting him go.  We hardly know these people...actually, I don't know who they are at all, and shane isn't ready to go away with people he hardly knows for a weekend.  Shane's starting to get his adult teeth in where he lost his others.  Aren't full sized teeth funny looking in a mouth full of baby teeth?

 

Rachel is growing closer and closer to finished with school and can't wait til it's all over.  She wonders if she will know what to do with herself now that she is finally done with college.  The two of us are both starting to worry about moving and packing and all that stuff.  For her trying to get anything done during the day with Layla around is near impossible.  Eventually we will both have to find a will and a way to get it done.  Other than that, she has been helping out in Shane's class on wednesdays all year and is almost done with that, and she has been carting shane back and forth to defiance for indoor soccer games and flag football games which are now both over.  She's an awesome mom.

 

As for me, I am actually in the state of Washington right and have been here for about 4 days now.  I left Napoleon over a week ago in the car and drove to Iowa and traded in my jeep for a mini-van.  From there I drove the rest the way to washington and have been apartment hunting and job hunting.  It's pretty stressful, and I am just ready to go home.  I will leave here on mother's day and fly home while leaving our new mini-van in rachel's parents garage.  I have had a good time hanging out with my friends in Wash, but I am ready to see my wife and kids again. 

 

That's our life in a nutshell.

Dave, Rachel, Shane and Layla

Alright, So basically our house right now is a tooth factory.  While Layla gets them in, Shane is pushing them out.  In the last week Shane has lost 2 teeth and Layla has finally gotten her first top tooth after months and months of having both her bottom teeth.  Shane spent his tooth fairy money yesterday at an arcade and I think he wants to lose more teeth to get more money for the arcade.

More on Shane...He started playing indoor soccer and flag football at the YMCA and he seems to be enjoying that.  There's pictures.  In soccer he tends to get a little oblivious(well, he's always a little oblivious) and his obliviousness doesn't make him a great goal keeper.  We have a funny video of him dancing around while in goal, then wiggling a tooth, and then a ball going right by him into goal.  In three games his team has scored 2 goals, but he was the first person to score a goal for his team...the goalie on the other team was rather oblivious.  In flag football he plays with several boys who obviously have some football IQ, and I think the coaches use that to their advantage, but not overly so.  He gets to wear a mouth guard and has a jersey.  He's on the dolphins.  I bought him a football to practice with and unfortunately it came with a kicking tee and most of what he likes to do is kick it or watch me kick it.  Maybe he will grow up to be a kicker in the nfl.  They aren't the highest paid, but it's still more in a year than I make in 20.

Layla is a terror in the sense that's she always moving and she's always into something that we neglectfully left on the couch or coffee table that we don't want her to have.  When she figures out how to get to something we put it beyond her reach only to find out she is learning how to get to that too.  We have decided that toys are utterly pointless for layla, at least her toys are.  She loves to play with Shane's toys, mainly cars, and lots of other random junk, but mostly gatorade or water bottles...it was a dr. pepper bottle that finally got her crawling.  She spends so much time on her feet holding onto stuff and she can now stand on her own momentarilly.  We just recently did the whole bit where we let her cry it out at night and amazingly it works...although the first night was making me sick to my stomach as she cried for over an hour.

As for Rachel and I, well, our life is their life.  For those of you that don't know, Rachel has received and accepted a job offer to return to Bellevue, WA as a preschool teacher and I will be ending my ministry here in July and we will be moving back the first of august.  Shane is super excited to return to washington, although we are sure he will miss here once we are leaving.  I think the reason he is most excited is the moving truck we will drive out there.  We are excited for the change, yet there is a fair amount of anxiety over it all as I don't have a job out there yet and it's going to cost more to live there.  I am sure things will work out just fine. 

So that's our life in a nutshell. 

 

Take Care...

Dave, Rachel, Shane and Layla

Well, you can get off my back for a little while now(mom), I have updated the website with pictures from the month of January.  Things for the Ohio Dapelo's are going pretty good.  After a really crazy start to winter, we are now having a mild go of it.  I don't even know if the ground hog saw his shadow today, but it really doesn't look like winter in ohio here anymore.  It's more like winter in California...well, maybe not that nice...it's been 40 degrees many times this past month.  I personally would like to see one more good snow before winter is over and to get one more round of sledding in. 

As for each of us...Layla is growing up by the day and you have to keep one eye on her at all times to make sure you don't miss something good and so that you don't miss something bad, as in her grabbing at something we need to put out of reach...she's not crawling yet, but she gets into posiition and moves her knees, but never picks up her hands, so she eventually face plants, whines a little and tries again.  As you can see from pictures, she has pulled herself up from a sitting position to standing in her crib.  She can't do it unless you put her in a sitting position.  She is usually a fantastic eater, although is very easily distracted.  She likes to whine when Rachel and I leave the room.  She recently came down with a little bout of RSV...some respiratory virus.  But she fought right through it.  She guarantees that everyday contains a smile for everyone of us. 

Shane is driving us absolutely insane...winter cannot end soon enough and you can't convince him that 45 degrees is good enough to go outside.  He loves to be with people, so unless we are going outside with him, he's not going either.  The kids got so much energy though that our house can't contain him.  We have been trying to get him on a regular schedule since he on has school in the morning 3 days a week.  We try to make sure he's up early on non school days and that he goes to sleep at a reasonable time.  We just moved his bed back upstairs into Layla's room and his old room in now a play room.  Since doing that he hardly ever try's to talk to us after he's in bed and he falls asleep in like 15 minutes.  Great move by us.  Plus Rachel doesn't worry so much about him being downstairs while we are all upstairs.

Rachel is on the final stretch of her collegiate career...she won't know what to do with herself when she finishes college...but in September she will finally have a college degree in Child Development.  She loves and hates being home everyday with Shane and Layla.  It's one of those situations where she wouldn't want to have anyone else watching the kids, yets she sometimes wishes she could give them away.  I am not the greatest help in keeping the house in order so she has less to worry about during the day.  We have been trying to get out on a date rather unsuccessfully recently since we haven't been on a date since our anniversary in September. 

As for me, I trying to become a better youth director and wondering what a better youth director looks like.  I have talked to some friends and some others I respect in the field for pointers, and am hoping that I can put their advice into action.  Things have been rather rough at my church, but they are looking up and there actually appears to be a light at the end of the tunnel, although the tunnel is very, very long.  I recently had a lock-in for the youth and I can't do those all to well anymore.  How do you plan enough to keep the jr. highers from driving you insane all night long.  I was the only one who stayed awake all night however and then took a 6 hour nap.  I am enjoying every minute of being a new dad while still trying to find my niche with Shane...we have our moments.  As for my health...I usually manage to escape every little illness that the others try to throw my way, but I have finally been unsuccessful.  I woke up yesterday and my throat was so scratchy, but I eventually gained my voice back...then in the evening I started to lose it again and today I woke and could barely talk and haven't been able to really talk all day, so I took a sick day.  Hopefully I regain my voice and form soon.

Well, there's the Dapelo update...we hope it finds you all well.  For those we don't see very much, we miss and love you all. 

Dave, Rachel, Shane and Layla

Hello Everyone and a Merry Christmas to you all...

 

It's been a while since we have updated this here website and I apologize to all of you who are waiting on pins and needles to see how our family is growing and changing.  Things around here have not been altogether hectic, but they haven't been a walk in the park either.  Layla amazingly enough is not really an excuse for us since she is truly the most well-behaved and pleasant babies Rachel and I have ever been around.  With my work schedule we never really have a real grasp on what nights we will have plenty of time to cook and eat dinner and what nights we won't.  Since it's Christmas time, we have just gone through the onslot of Church and School Christmas programs and now we can finally relax a little as there is not going on until after the beginning of the year.  For Christmas we had Rachel's parents and Aunt and Uncle over, and it was our first Christmas at home doing our own thing.  It was really quite weird for me and I found myself often saying, "is this Christmas?"  I have never spent a Christmas without my parents or Joe until now, so it was a new experience, yet still very enjoyable.  Shane was all into unwrapping as many presents as possible while hardly noticing what he unwrapped and Layla was very intrigued by unwrapping gifts and she unwrapped most of her own presents although she was less concerned with opening the next one cause it meant ignoring the wrapping paper she took off the last one and inserted into her mouth.  I am not sure how many Christmas Day pics we have as we were very forgetful and forgot to charge any batteries before hand.  Don't worry mom and dad, we have over an hours worth of video tape.  As for Rachel and I, I guess getting the house clean is our Christmas gift to each other along with our trip to the Olive Garden the night we went Christmas shopping.  We recommend the cheese fonduta if you are ever at the Olive Garden.  I am looking forward to celebrating another birthday this coming week and will stand true to form and spend it at home with a pile of movies.  Although an earlier than normal new years eve bed time is probably worthwhile as there is still Church in the morning.  Well, I hope you are all well.  We miss lots of you and hope to see all of you sometime in the near future. 

 

Merry Christmas,

Dave, Rachel, Shane and Layla

 

ps.  Christmas cards will go in the mail this week.

So I have definitely delayed on updating this website for far too long.  We haven't taken as many pictures in the last month or so which is probably a good thing since it means less pictures to print at the end of the month.  But still I can update this website in a little more timely fashion.  Life in this household has been a little hectic at times and even when it's not hectic, it sure is crazy.  At the end of August we had a couple of firsts that you can see in the photos.  Shane had his first day of Kindergarten and he loves it.  He wishes he could go all day everyday, but instead he goes half day on monday, then all day on wednesday and friday.  Another first is Layla went to her first football game.  She's been to almost every game I have been to this year, but has still missed a couple.  At the beginning of September, Rachel and I celebrated our 1st anniversary and we had a nice time on our night out.  We learned that we need to plan better seeing how it's typically a holiday weekend.  Towards the end of the month we went down to Cincinatti and visited a girl who was in my youth group and we also went to a Napoleon Football game while down there.  We didn't take any pictures except for one of Shane on a camel at the Cincinatti Zoo.  Rachel, Layla and I went to California so I could go to a convention in Sacramento.  It was a nice visit, but it was really tiring.  Layla was awesome on the plane and never really made a sound.  I think I prefer flying with babies over flying with 5 year olds.  They are less bouncy and cost a lot less.  It's hard to believe that it's been a month since going there, but life in Napoleon has been a little hectic at times.  Things at work are starting to feel a little better and we now have an interim Pastor in Pastor Hays.  He and I have talked quite a bit and I am looking forward to working with him, although a lot of people still need to change before work is not a drag.  I just took about 12 youth to a concert the other night and that was a blast.  So, that's life in a nutshell for us Ohio Dapelo's.  Hope you enjoy the update.  I will try to make them a little more frequent.

Well, we just got done with probably the most hectic week and a half since Layla was born.  Most of my family came into town for Layla's baptism and to spend some time with each other.  We started things off with a 30th wedding anniversary party for my parents and then followed that up the next day with Layla's baptism and party.  Then on Monday the 15th we went to the fair and had a pretty good time.  On Tuesday Shane went to Milwaukee with my parents and then returned on Thursday with his cousin Josh.  Boy am I glad those two are no longer together.  They drive each other nuts but still want to spend every second together.  On Sunday my brothers and I took our Dad to the Nascar race for his 50th birthday present.  It was awesome.  If you have never been to a Nascar race, try to go.  Add all this onto a crazy work life at a church in major flux and time just flew by.  Layla is now 6 weeks old and the summer is coming to a close.  Shane starts school this week and hopefully he will be able to go.  We just found out he has an ear infection.  I think everyone has gotten a little under the weather lately, including Layla who has a runny nose.  Rachel and I are trying to stay healthy so that the whole family isn't down and out.   It's finally starting to cool off, which I am happy about but Rachel is not as enthused.  She's afraid winter will come to soon.  I don't mind the snow, but she hates having to get bundled up everytime she wants to go outside.  Of course I went outside everyday, so it wasn't a big deal to me, and she was pregnant last winter making it very lame for her.  But winter is still 4 months away and good snow is at least 5 away.  Well, there's your update.  Take care.

 

Dave, Rachel, Shane and Layla