Happy Easter

The kids were so cute in their Easter clothes, we had to take pictures. We had a lovely day and enjoyed celebrating the resurrection of our Savior.

Easter Eggs

We decided to dye easter eggs this year. The kids had a lot of fun with it, especially with the part where they got to decorate the eggs with car stickers and drive them on their little car bases. Unfortunately, Anna drove the bus off the table and cracked it. It wasn't pretty.

Brush with Greatness

Becca had a brush with greatness last night. She was kissed by David Ogden Stiers, or Charles Emerson Winchester, III, as I think of him.


It happened at my orchestra concert. I didn't play in this session. Rebecca was born two weeks before rehearsals started and, knowing I tend to get sick during the first 2-3 months, I opted out. When I got the program flyer I wanted to cry. David Ogden Stiers was narrating Peter and the Wolf. Oh, that would have been wonderful to play! Of course, there's only one flute part so I wouldn't have been in it, but I still could have been there. And he conducted 2 encore pieces. I would have been in those. What fun it would have been! But it really was better that I chose not to be in this concert. I did end up sick and wouldn't have wanted to try to learn the crazy piccolo part on the Liszt Hungarian Rhapsody while feeling like I wanted to die.

Kip and I showed our support to the orchestra by attending the concert. During the intermission we went down to the stage so I could say hello to my subs, Marc and Adrian. Well, one was my sub, one was covering a third part. When we reached the stage, they were in the wings talking with Mr. Stiers. I hadn't intended to talk to him. What would I say that wouldn't leave me looking like an idiot? "Hey, you were great in MASH"? Everyone knows that. But there he was, so I introduced myself as the regular piccolo player, skipping out on that concert to recover from having a baby. He admired Rebecca (of course - she is adorable) and even gave her a kiss on her cute little head.

I'll admit, I was a little shaken by the experience. It's wasn't that he was a scary person to talk to; he seemed quite nice. But after years of watching MASH reruns, I see him and feel like I know him almost as wells as part of my own family. I see him and think of the years of watching MASH with my siblings late at night and the talks we had during commercials (back when we couldn't skip them), the quiet conversations we shared and how it brought us closer together. He was a part of that, but not really. And there he was in real life as a real person in front of me not aware he connected with all those things I remembered. It was an odd sensation.

The concert was really good and I enjoyed being able to watch it instead of playing in it. I was impressed with how the orchestra sounded. I feel very lucky to be a part of such a great group. And I look forward to starting rehearsals again in April.

Baby Rebecca Smiles

Baby Rebecca has figured out how to smile. I think it's so cute, I had to post some pics for you all to enjoy.

Anna is convinced that Rebecca is her little toy. Wherever Rebecca is, Anna wants to be in her face yelling "Hi Rebecca" with all her might or grabbing her head or arms. William generally leaves her alone, although he tries to help her out whenever she gets upset. "Rebecca," he says, "there's no need to cry. You love us!"


Rebecca smiling for us all.


The Three Killpacks: William, Rebecca and Anna enjoying the blanket Grandma made.

Grammy's Visit

Grammy came to see us the first week of February, 2 weeks after Rebecca was born. We had a good visit, although we didn't do much other than sit around and enjoy the baby and her big brother and sister.


Grammy and Rebecca.


Grammy and all the kiddos.


Grammy, Becca and Will.

Snowman!

It snowed just a little on the 30th of January. Kip helped the kids gather the little bit of snow off the lawn to make a cute little snowman. They had a lot of fun.

Pregnant stick figures

This is my favorite part of the whole birthing experience

Less than 12 hours old and HUNGRY!

The new babe is 3 days early!

Rebecca Jo Killpack was born around 4 AM Jan 26, 2008. She is 7 pounds 15.9 ounces... not even 8 pounds :) She's 21 inches long, with HUGE feet and LONG legs.

Kristin looks great! She's getting bored at the hospital and will come home Sunday or Monday. She took a shower at 10 PM during labor and she was the nicest looking woman in labor I have ever seen!


William and Anna were very cute with the baby!


Actually we had surprise twins...


Almost cracking a smile

Grandma and Tasha's Visit - Zoo Lights

We waited until Friday night, the 28th of December, to visit the Zoo Lights because it wasn't supposed to rain as much then. It was very cold, but it didn't rain during the first part of our tour. We appreciated that.

We all enjoyed a ride on the zoo train.

And the lights really were very pretty.

Grandma was helpful and pushed Anna in our friend's stroller when their little boy didn't want to be in it.

And here's the family on the way out next to the "Bremen Town Musicians". Anna may be crying in this picture...

We really enjoyed having Grandma and Aunt Tasha with us. We hope they can come again!

Grandma and Tasha's Visit - the Children's Museum

The second day of their visit (December 27th), we took Tasha and Grandma to the Chrildren's Museum. Anna wasn't very thrilled with her penguin costume.

Kip, on the other hand, really got into the raccoon puppets.

Using our height and number advantage, we managed to build a complete foam block archway - which promptly fell down. But we heard from some other museum attendees that no one else had been able to do it at all, so we felt better.

And Grandma and William had fun building earthquake-proof block structures together.

Grandma and Tasha's Visit - at home

We were all excited to have Grandma and Aunt Tasha visit after Christmas. Anna was thrilled to get yet another pink dress AND a pink dress-up princess dress!

William was thrilled to show Grandma how much he loves playing the Game Cube games she sent him.

Everyone enjoyed playing Hullabaloo together.

And Kristin may someday forgive Grandma for taking her picture while super prego. Luckily, it only shows her from the front!

Ultrasound 2

This week we got to have another ultrasound. It was to make sure the baby was big enough, although between the time we scheduled it and the actual occurrence, the baby shifted positions and no longer seemed small at all. But the ultrasound itself answered many of our pressing questions. First, baby #3 is still a girl. In spite of the fact that I've had more dreams about baby boys than girls, this one is definitely not a boy. Second, she has long legs. I don't have the full doctor's review of the event, but the technician mentioned that her leg bones showed she would definitely be tall. She also printed me a picture of her foot and it looks long long long to me. I think she may have been trying to tell me delicately that I might want to bring baby socks that aren't the super-tiny newborn size when I go to the hospital to deliver this girly. That was a mistake we made with William and Kip had to go home to get something bigger that could actually cover his entire foot. Finally, we learned that the Killpack baby cheeks are something that develop in utero. This little baby is already blessed with super chunky cheeks. They looked pretty cute in the ultrasound images. Unfortunately, there weren't any really good pics from the ultrasound because baby 3 was balled up and refused to move (when she's asleep she's really out, but when she's awake there's no stopping her). But we trust she'll be a cutey when she comes out.

Christmas

We had a very merry Christmas. Here are the photo highlights.


William and Anna start the process of destruction.


William at work.


Anna with a few of her favorite new things.


Daddy showing the kids how to use their pull-poppers.

Christmas Eve

We had Josh, Rachel and their kids Emma and Gabe over for dinner on Christmas Eve. The meal was great, but during play time after we ate, Emma jumped off the sofa head-first into the fireplace. She had to be rushed to the ER for some super-gluing. We kept Gabe here and played until they made it back.

When they returned we had the kids open select presents and then we herded them to their homes and beds. We're sorry about Emma's accident and we hope she'll come back again to play here - just no jumping on the couch.


Kip amusing the kids with a game of launch the foam blocks by the dangerous fireplace.


Gabe, William, Anna and Mommy opening gifts.


Anna showing how nice it is to get jammies that match your favorite hat and gloves.

Gingerbread

William and I got to make 2 gingerbread houses this year. The first was at his preschool. We used pint size milk cartons and graham crackers to build our house and put on steeple/chimneys made from ice cream cones. The second one we built from a kit. The frosting was too thick so we thinned it and made it too runny, but I didn't feel like fixing it. I thought the houses both turned out great!

O Christmas Tree

This weekend we had the annual tree-getting party hosted by our realtor, Vickie Brooks. We all met at a local tree farm, ate hot dogs, and wandered off in the mud to chop down our own, Oregon-grown Christmas Tree. We went with our friends, Butch and Jo and had a good time, except that Anna and I have a cough and cold that made us a little on the cranky side.


Anna and Jared avoiding eating their food.


Meeting with Santa. He kind of scared Anna.


The tree we chopped down (well, actually this one is Butch and Jo's).


Our tree here at home, expertly decorated by the kids with minimal help from Mom and Dad. You can see all the fragile ornaments up high where Kip put them so the kids couldn't break them.

Nature Walk

Today the sun was shining. In true Oregonian fashion, this meant we simply HAD to go outdoors. I suggested a nature walk and the kids loved the idea. We headed out to Powerlines Park and William demanded that I take the camera and take pictures of the nature things we found. Here are some of the results.


A powerline, lines of which give this park its name.


A Dandelion.


Red berries on a tree.


One of the ducks from the pond hoping for a handout but only getting his photo taken.


William in the sun by the duck pond.

Costume Party

Intel's Halloween party (aka: madhouse of parents with young children vying for cheap toys and free candy at carnival-style games) was last Thursday night. We headed to Butch and Jo's for dinner first and to meet Jo's new little Rachel baby. The baby is adorable and the dinner was good. Before heading to the party, we dressed the kids and lined them up for photos. So, here's a preview of what our kiddos will be for Halloween. William chose his outfit from Value Village and, although he's never heard of a Power Ranger before, he LOVES it. Anna's I found at Goodwill. She wants to wear it all the time and feels very princess-y in it. Butch made the robot costume for Spencer and was the envy of all the Intel parents.

Apple Farm Field Trip

William's preschool went to the apple farm for a field trip last Wednesday. It was a perfect day for farm touring. It hadn't rained in a few days, so it wasn't incredibly muddy. The sky was overcast, but the rain didn't start until afternoon. William loved the hay maze. They both loved the hay ride. We got on its first run and as soon as it ended it's 15 minute tractor-pulled tour of some of the apple orchards, Anna was crying to go again. I dragged the kids to the Jumpin' Apple (big air-filled apple for kids to bounce in) but William wouldn't get in without Anna and Anna wouldn't get in at all. The kids got apple-shaped cups of cider to take home. Anna loved hers. William didn't like his at all, so I drank it. Both kids also got to take home a pumpkin from the mini pumpkin collection. I forgot the camera at the farm (unlike every other mother there), so here are some pics of the fruits of our trip. I bought a bunch of apples to take home and they are DELICIOUS!