we just got back from our trip to illinois for hannah's baptism.  it was great to see everyone and finally meet our newest niece and godchild.  she's so sweet!  two new albums are up.  one is just some silly stuff from at home, the other is from the trip.

the pictures from micah's birthday are up.  how prompt am i???!!

we have a ton going on right now, but nothing too significant to report.  just crazy, busy as usual.  dave is taking classes twice a week, which means he leaves before the kids get up and gets home after they go to bed.  layla is taking it the worst (major daddy issues there), but only slightly worse than i am.  he's also helping coach shane's soccer team - fun for both of them. 

shane is playing on the same team as last year and totally loving it.  they're doing great, lost the first game, but none since.  that's the same pattern as last year and they ended the season with only the one loss.  his playing has improved so much since last year it's amazing.  it's like watching a different kid.  he looks like he knows what he's doing, like he actually wants to get the ball, and like he's having fun!  he scored the first goal of the game last saturday.  he's also doing 3 HSN classes and the YMCA homezone program again this year.  we decided to drop cub scouts this year.  he wasn't that excited about it and it's one less thing.  he was a little overloaded i think. 

layla started preschool in september.  she seems to like it a lot.  it's 3 days a week, which sometimes is too much for her, but mostly it seems okay.  socially and academically and all that, she's totally ready for it, but she doesn't always handle it well.  meaning the rest of the time.  it's hard to describe, but she's kind of a pain after because she's so tired.  a few times i've managed to get her to take a nap, but that's a disaster too, because then she won't sleep at night.  hopefully we'll even out soon. 

micah is quickly approaching his first birthday (waaaa!).  he'll be 1 on friday and i'm not handling it so well.  i don't want him to not be a baby anymore.  he's not walking yet - fine by me, but it doesn't stop him from running away and chasing shane and layla down.  he's close, but who knows what that means.  he's been close for like 2 months.  he's getting a little bit naughty, but he's still mostly angel.  yes, he has beautiful curls and eyelashes.  yes, people ask me a lot if he's a boy or a girl.  no, i won't be cutting them anytime soon.  it's not like i dress him questionably.  blue sweats and shirts with trucks on them usually indicate a boy, do they not?

i'm same old, same old.  (but not OLD, of course.)  still just trying to get everyone where they need to be on time, remember to feed people, try to keep the mess at a minimum and maintain my sanity all at the same time.  that's plenty for me, thanks.

we're looking forward to seeing family (and meeting our newest niece) in a couple weeks.  i'm sad that shane and layla can't go, but at least dave and micah and i can make it.

that's our update for now.

the pics from shane's birthday party are up... plus swimming in the cold weather.

ok, so i now have the pictures from layla's party up there too.

we have some new pics up here of random household happenings and shane and layla's birthdays.  i have pics from layla's party that someone else took that i need to figure out how to get up here.  she had a 'finding nemo' themed party on sunday.  shane's party is in a few days and i'll post those pics then.

so we're apparently horrible at taking pictures lately... what's over there are the only pictures we have from our 2 week trip to ohio and california.  oh well, i know dave has some pics on his phone that i'll have him add to this.

 

we had a good trip.  ohio was a bit chaotic between doing family stuff and trying to see friends we haven't seen in 2 years, and shane wanting to get out on the tractor with fred as much as possible... a week was definitely too short.  if you want to see what really went on, look on joe and mary's site since mary is a responsible mother and actually takes pictures of her kids and family gatherings and momentous occasions like ordinations and birthdays... not to mention trips to the zoo!  our trip to EG was a little more relaxing, with less obligations while there.  we went to anthony and chalane's wedding and the next day went to san francisco (without any kids!!!) to see a giants game.  while in the bay area, we had dinner with grandpa dick and then swung over to pick up nana and brought her back with us for a few days' visit.  the kids, meanwhile, had fun with the godparents (well, micah's at least), amy and nolan.  it was a nice time, but for the most part, it was nice to get back home, even if the weather here stinks!  it's not even 60 around here. 

 

since then, things are winding up around here for the summer.  shane's hsn classes are done now, baseball finished last weekend, his last ymca class was yesterday, and the end of year picnic for cub scouts is next monday.  what are we going to do with him all summer??? he's got another week of regular school and he's really come a long way since last year.  his reading is great, does good in math and spelling, amazes me with his drawings and seems to have a bit of a poetic side lately.  he's looking forward to soccer in the fall and possibly starting some music lessons.  he still says he wants to be a farmer, more than ever now, since a return to farm country and more time out in the fields with fred planting the soybeans and doing 'chores'.  i wish he were that excited about his chores around here!

 

layla is still crazy layla.  she's cute, hilarious, fearless, and insanely frustrating.  she's looking forward to her birthday and is already telling people that she's 3.  we're still trying to figure out what we're doing for birthdays.  she still watches cars and finding nemo on an all too regular basis, although the cars dvd is currently lost, so we get a little break from that.  she's always pretending.. ususally that she's some sort of animal (lately it's been a lion, but very often it's a dog or a cat) and spends a good share of her time drawing.  she still is looking forward to preschool and tells me at least once a week that she wants to go.

 

micah is on the move!  he's doing the commando crawl.  he's not up on his hands and knees, but he sure can get where he wants to go and he can get there fast!  he's still adorable and incredibly well behaved and mellow.  but he's a typical male when it comes to food.  when he decides he's hungry, you better start shoveling something in soon or he'll let you hear about it!  i can't believe he's almost 8 months old!  his 3rd tooth came in the other day and i'm sure #4 isn't far behind.

 

i think for the most part, we are sticking around here for the summer.  our big trip is done for the year and we don't have anywhere else we have to be until labor day weekend when we'll be going to portland for my aunt and uncle's 50th anniversary party.  don't tell shane, but i think we'll be staying in a hotel - with a swimming pool!  that is the ultimate in excitement for him!  hopefully the water won't be toxic like at the best western in napoleon.

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