Three days in

Lachlyn is 3 days old today. Here is a picture of her today. To show you how much she looks like her older sisters, compare this picture with the ones below of Carina and Natalie.

Carina:

Natalie:

And, for fun, here is a picture of Natalie today after her bath making a "silly" face:

Introducing Lachlyn Ann Glasgow

We are very pleased to introduce our new daughter, Lachlyn Ann Glasgow. Lachlyn arrived on February 12. The labor went smoothly, and she and Laura are both doing great. Carina fell head over heals for her the moment she saw her. I've heard Carina say several times: "She is soooooo adorable!" and "I'm so glad we have a new baby!" Natalie, on the other hand, was initially a little skeptical about this new addition to our family, but she is warming up to her. Laura and I still feel like Natalie is our baby (in fact, we've each slipped up and called Lachlyn "Natalie" several times), so I guess we have a little adjusting to do as well.

If you are wondering, Lachlyn would be written phonetically as "Lock - lynn". We wanted a name that was beautiful and uncommon, and we both felt strongly that Lachlyn was the right name. It is the female variation of the name "Lachlan," which is a little more common (at least in Scotland). "Ann" is probably the most common female name in both Laura's genealogical lines and mine (at least over the past 150 years). We didn't give Carina or Natalie middle names, but this just felt right with Lachlyn. When Carina heard that we'd given the baby a middle name, she said: "What?! You gave the baby another name! I'm going to call her Ann!" We let Carina know that, no, she'll call her sister Lachlyn.

Lachlyn weighed in at 7 pounds, 9 ounces and was 20.5 inches. Here she is:

A day in Seattle

We decided to spend a day in downtown Seattle before the baby comes. We started off by visiting the Olympic sculpture park, which is a brand new park right next to Elliot Bay (just down from the space needle) that is filled with sculptures.

The girls in front of "The Wake"

Natalie in front of two of the Eye Benches, made of black granite

"Split," a tree made out of stainless steel

A view of Elliot Bay and the Olympics

We then went to Ivars, which is a fish 'n chips joint on the waterfront. We were swarmed by seagulls begging for french fries. The girls were more than happy to indulge them.


Carina looking happy and sassy after lunch.

We finished off the outing with a visit to Pike Place Market. We bought some fresh rainbow trout at the Pike Place Fish Market and enjoyed watching them hurl the fish from the iced display to the counter for filleting.

What we said, what she heard

Another anecdote of kids not hearing what you are saying:

The family was in the car together headed to Seattle for the afternoon, and Laura and I got talking about the dead sea scrolls. Carina is listening in on the conversation in the back seat and then, in a confused voice, pipes up:

"What are sea squirrels?"

I can only imagine what she was thinking: Mom and Dad went to see an exhibit at a museum about dead Sea Squirrels?!!?

Christmas

We spent Christmas with Laura's parents and Boyd and Amy's families in Bellevue. Christmas Eve featured a Christmas talent show, which is becoming an annual tradition, and lots of good food. The kids spread out sleeping bags in one room and we all squeezed into the house for the night. Christmas day for Carina began at 6:45am when she came into our room to wake us up. Unfortunately, Christmas for Natalie started at 2:30am when she woke up coughing -- she has been fighting a fever for several days now. Natalie was awake for about two hours in the night and was not ready to get up at 6:45 with everyone else. She was cheerful for a few minutes and got through her stocking and a couple presents (a new easel and an easy bake oven), but then her fever spiked to 104.5 and she melted down and fell asleep on Laura for a couple of hours. Natalie's fever dropped later in the morning, and she perked up enough to finish opening her presents in the afternoon. (And she is feeling much better today.)

This is what Christmas morning looked like inside:

This is what Christmas morning looked like outside; it snowed most of the day!

Carina and Natalie opening their stockings:




Carina's first artwork on the easel she and Natalie received from Santa. She wrote "I Love Crismis and My Famle."


Carina enjoying her new bean bag chair:

Natalie passed out on Laura:

Carina and her cousing Emma dueling with Easy Bake Oven tools:

Carina showing off some gifts from her Grandma Linda and Granda Terry:

Carina's thoughts on Christmas, after having opened all of her presents:

Natalie taking her medicine with "magic sparkles" added:

Natalie, feeling much better, admiring a musical doll from Santa:

Doctor Natalie enjoying her new doctor dress up clothes and tools. Laura made the lab coat. And, yes, she is taking the camel's temperature.

Natalie in her Go, Diego, Go animal rescue outfit. Laura made the jacket.

Natalie opening a present from her cousin Luke:

We're Having A White Christmas

It has snowed 5 or 6 inches in the last few days. We are enjoying the snow and I'm enjoying the time off from work. People in Seattle generally go into hysterics at the thought of snow, which is why Carina's school was cancelled on Wednesday because "it might snow," even though it never did on Wednesday. Last night the forecast was actually for a blizzard with sustained winds of 50-75mph and gusts of up to 90 mph, but the forecasters were wrong: a few inches of snow fell and there was a light breeze.

The weather should stay under freezing for the upcoming week and more snow is in the forecast, so it's looking like a white Christmas! Here are some shots of us sledding in the front yard and building a 7 foot tall snowman .

Natalie is wearing rain boots. We don't get much snow here...

Natalie "looking for snow"

The masterpiece

Christmas Party

We had our ward Christmas party last night. Santa made his annual appearance and unlike last year, Natalie was delighted to see him. She ran to him with both arms outstretched and hopped onto his lap. When he asked her what she wanted for Christmas, she pointed to the basket of candy canes sitting next to him and asked for one. Easy to please.