The Biggest Loser

We all know that the military is meticulous about keeping its members in tip top shape--except it seems for the navy. I've been to Air Force bases where they have closings of many buildings for an hour for everyone to go do mandatory work outs. I remember when Kriss and Camille lived nearby one summer in VA and he ran 5 miles every morning (he's in the National Guard reserves). It just seems like all the other branches of the military appear well built until you drive onto a navy base. Then I see all kinds of guys walking around in their utilities (their work uniforms) that are super tight and with a belly and love handles hanging over their belts. Jeremy tells me that they do have regularly scheduled physical fitness tests but that no one seems to care if people are passing them. Anyways, Jeremy has recently left for a 2-4 month deployment on his submarine. He just wrote me an email to tell me of the 'Biggest Loser' competition he has organized on his boat. He has required those that compete to submit $5 and then get weighed in. Over the course of the deployment they will each try to lose the most weight with the winner receiving the jackpot. He has successfully recruited 40 guys from the boat. How do you exercise on a submarine? Jeremy tells me there are about 3 cardio machines located somewhere in the boat that they have access to. How sad is it that 40 guys on a crew of about 120 each think that they have so much weight to lose to be able to win the competition?

Teething and throwing up

What a fun week we've had! Corinne started us off with a runny nose and a few days later of unusually ill temper I noticed 3 new teeth peeking through which brings her grand total to 7 teeth! Then Jeremy and I both noticed we were coming down with colds also. He left to go out to sea on Wednesday, or so we thought. I guess they were just practicing on Wednesday and then he had duty Thursday and were supposed to leave Friday but couldn't due to high waves. Then they were supposed to leave Saturday but something broke and they couldn't leave until today. I was hoping that the thunderstorms this morning would delay them one more day, but I guess not. Anyways, Thursday evening Matthew started laying around which is very unusual for him. Shortly after dinner he started throwing up. This continued until this morning when he woke up playing around in his room and I knew he was finally feeling better. Corinne and I were suffering from severe cabin fever and badly needed to go to church especially since we couldn't go anywhere else with the rain and with it being the sabbath. Now Corinne is getting another runny nose. Maybe another tooth is on the way...

Boy or girl?

Thanks to all who participated in the poll. The majority was right--it's a girl! The ultrasound technician said she wasn't 100% sure but she says she never is when it's a girl--you never know... She also told me that the baby was measuring 2 weeks larger. I received a phone call from the doctor last night saying he wanted to refer me to get another ultrasound to better estimate my due date. So I guess I'll get another confirmation that it's a girl, if it truly is. Now on to baby names...

Matthew is 3...almost

Matthew's real birthday isn't until August 12; but since Jeremy's last day with us is Tuesday, we decided to celebrate a little early. He's too young to know the difference anyways. He was so excited when we brought out the cake and started singing "happy birthday" that he sang along too.
He missed one candle while blowing.
He's reading the card from Grandma and Grandpa Strong.
Tearing open the present from Grandma and Grandpa Strong and discovering the magnet book underneath! He still talks about parties a lot especially after the fun party we had for Will while in AZ. Imagine his excitement when we brought out the balloons, birthday cake complete with candles, and presents--all for him this time!

Any guesses?

Let's see who can guess the gender of baby #3 if you haven't already. I know the answer but I'd like to see what you think! Vote on my poll to the right.

Visiting the Hedges

While in Arizona, we were able to visit our friends, the Hedges. They were in our first ward after we were married and they were married just a week before we were. We became good friends while living in Arizona since they lived in the same apartment complex as us and we were sad when they moved to Maricopa. But thanks to blogs, we've been able to keep in touch and now they have 2 girls that are almost exactly a year younger than our kids. This is Matthew hugging Shaylin.


...and trying to give her a kiss. She doesn't look too sure about this. It's too bad since we've already arranged their marriage.
Shaylin, Emmalyn, Matthew and Corinne posing for a picture. Aren't they cute?

Will's birthday party

Matthew has been talking about parties for the past few weeks. So when Will had a birthday party while we were visiting Arizona, Matthew was ecstatic.
Matthew watching with a smile while we sing to Will and he blows out his candles.
After the cake, the cousins decided to try kneewalking like Corinne.

They brought out balloons for the party and the kids loved them! It was a madhouse until we finally put hte balloons away. Amazingly, there weren't any fights and nobody was hurt during the chaos.
Grandma Strong had some awesome letter blocks bigger than the ones Matthew has at home. As you can see, he was in heaven.

Riverview fountains

While in Arizona, we went to the water fountains at Riverview to let the kids cool off. Matthew loved copying his cousins and running around touching the water from each of the fountains.
Corinne wasn't so sure about getting wet. She mostly just sat and watched the water from a distance. I did put her in the water once because she was looking hot and she got so mad and screamed and cried until she kneewalked out of the water. She is definitely a girl.
Here she is just watching her cousins have a good time.
Hannah smiling while watching everyone else get wet. It took her awhile to want to get wet too, but she eventually did.

The Ronya Union

My brother Justin, aka Ronny, was married this past weekend to Tanya Green--the daughter of our friends the Greens. This is the only picture I got of them since they were usually MIA. You know how couples are before they get married.


Here's Doug and Anita Green, or as Matthew affectionately calls them, Grandpa and Grandma Green.
All of the grandkids on my side of the family. Medford baby #3 will be the fifteenth grandchild. It was very difficult to get them all to stand together and pose. Candy helped some.
Maya and Matthew--Matthew just adored her.
Corinne is checking out baby Talmage. We tried to get her accustomed to babies while we were there. She mostly just looked at him and then gently touched him for a second before quickly pulling her hand away. She'll get used to babies soon enough.

Subfest 2008

Every year for Independence Day the New London Submarine Base opens up to the public for Subfest. This lasts several days and consists of carnival rides and booths as well as fireworks. We did the carnival stuff today and will watch fireworks tomorrow.

This was Matthew's first experience with carnival rides and he loved it. He almost wouldn't let us go home. We couldn't really tell that he enjoyed himself because he didn't ever smile. Here's Matthew and Daddy at the top of the slide.
















While going down, Matthew lost a shoe and Daddy had to make a quick grab on the way down.
















Matthew's "excited face."



















The first time he went on this ride he stood at the top of the slide looking down for a few minutes before he finally decided to go down. He was causing quite a backup.










He finally decided to go down.













This is his first experience on a rollercoaster. He looked pretty scared to me but Jeremy assured me he was having a good time.










I took it easy with Matthew and took him on the ferris wheel. I think he got bored with it after awhile--I know I did.











He was talking about this ride while we were on the ferris wheel so we let him go on it solo. Again with the "excited face." We sure had fun! Maybe we'll go again next year and Corinne can ride some rides too!

New house pictures

I've had many requests for pictures of the house and now that we have our rugs and our guest bedroom furnished, I thought it was about time to post them.

This is the front of our house--the blue color is not my favorite but we can't have everything! It is townhouse style so we do share walls with neighbors on both sides.

This is our dining room

and our kitchen...

our living room...

our computer room/piano room

our guest bedroom

Matthew's room

the master suite

and poor Corinne has to have the smallest bedroom without any decorations on the wall. So far she seems to have managed fine and sleeps the most of any of us!