Seattle, WA!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, it's time to go WEST! After 7+ years in Maryland, it is now time to say good bye to our Friends on the East Coast and make new Friends on the West Coast.

This week, Clark accepted a management position at Harborview Medical Center in downtown Seattle, WA. It was a rather large promotion and an exciting position that will allow him to work with senior level leadership at a Harborview, local hospitals and the Seattle Emergency Medical Services (Fire & Rescue). Together they will be planning, organizing and executing a plan to reduce the overcrowding of the emergency departments at Harborview as well as 20 additional hospitals in the greater Seattle metropolitan area.

We are beginning the packing process, so you can imagine the next post will include plenty of "moving" pictures.

DisneyWorld

We just returned from our fun family vacation at DisneyWorld! We stayed at a DisneyWorld resort and spent 9 days going to the Disney waterparks, Animal Kindom, Magic Kingdom, Hollywood Studios and Epcot. We had such a fun time it was really hard to come home!
We had a fun time going on all the rides and Splash Mountain was Isabelle and Kate's favorite, they could ride that over and over. Natalie and I were somewhat limited when it came to rides. Pregnant women and kids under 35 inches can't go on most of the big rides but we still had lots of fun ( I did go on few of the milder rides that said no pregnant women allowed. Clark was waiting for some brave Disney worker to ask if I was pregnant and kick me off, but no one did!) Natalie loved the Small World ride. I love going on Small World with the girls because even though I think it's very simple and somewhat cheesey they love it and it is so fun to see them oooh and aahh over all the dolls and watch them with wonder and excitement.
When we booked our vacation Disney gave us the dining plan for free which meant that we could eat anywhere in the park for free! We did lots of character meals; we ate breakfast with Cinderella at her castle and we went to a storybook princess breakfast where we met most of the princesses. We also had a couple of meals with Mickey. By the end of the trip we were really glad that we didn't have to pay for our food because the girls hardly ate a thing! They were so into the characters at every meal that they didn't bother to eat. I would have been pretty upset if I had paid $25 a plate and those plates were hardly touched!
We planned our trip with our good friends the Clauser family which was lots of fun. We had all of our meals with them and we would meet up at the parks every now and then and go on rides together. We love having the Clausers as our travel buddies! My sister Cherie also came and joined us for the last couple of days we were at DisneyWorld. The girls loved taking Aunt Cherie on all their favorite rides.
We really enjoyed the Disney waterparks! It was great to be in sunny, warm Florida and we spent lots of time at our hotel pool and at the waterparks. Isabelle and Kate loved the wave pool, that is where they spent most of their time along with Clark. Natalie loved the water slides so I took Natalie on the water slides over and over again. We also spent some quality time in the lazy river.
We had such a fun time it was really hard to come home and get back into real life, but we're already planning our next trip to DisneyWorld!






Aunt Cherie joined us for a couple of days






The Clausers and the Hartleys

At the end of a fun filled day at the Magic Kingdom

It's a ............

So we had our ultrasound yesterday and found out that we are having a boy!!!! It's a miracle!! We had them go back and check numerous times just to make sure, but it is a boy and we have lots of ultrasound pictures to prove it. We are super excited! Clark is already busy picking out the perfect name (he thinks he gets to name this one because it's a boy). The girls are excited about having a brother, Isabelle was super excited, Kate was kind of mad..she wanted a sister (I reminded her that she had 2 sisters already)but she's excited now, and Natalie really doesn't care yet.
So, that's our big news! We just got back from DisneyWorld so we'll be posting lots of pictures soon!

#4

Most of you know this already, but just in case you missed it we are expecting baby #4!!! We are super excited to welcome the newest member of our family in February (Feb. 15 to be exact). This news also accounts for my less than stellar blogging lately. I am so tired that I am usually in bed and fast asleep by 9:30pm. But other than being tired I feel great! We don't find out the gender until Sept. 30, but we assume it's a girl until we are told otherwise.

8th Anniversary

On July 1st Clark and I celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary. Wow! 8 years! It really doesn't seem like it's been that long, it seems like just yesterday we were newlyweds living in Provo. I guess time flies when you're having fun!

So here is our anniversary in numbers, in our time together we have :

-3 weeks of dating (!!!!)

-4 months of being engaged

-8 years of marital bliss

-3 kids

-lived in 2 different states

-had 3 apartments and 1 house

-had 6 cars

-earned 2 undergraduate degrees and 1 graduate degree

-been to 10 different Caribbean islands

-6 trips to the ER

-seen the Pacific and Atlantic Ocean

-1 speeding ticket (not bad! Only 1 between the 2 of us in 8 years!)

-1,547 round trip train rides to East Baltimore

-Countless memorable moments

-Tons of fun!

The big trouble

Whenever Natalie does something bad she comes to me and says "Mom, I the big trouble, come look!" So the other day she came in announced that she was the big trouble and brought me into the bathroom and told me that she had put a princess toy in the toilet. I didn't see the toy so I figured she had flushed it. I noticed that when you flushed the toilet it drained really slowly, so I was pretty sure there was something down there.

When Clark got home we called the plumber. He tried all of his tricks and could not get the toy out. He took the toilet out into the front yard and tried to flush the toy out the other way with the hose. He still couldn't get it out, but we did get a glimpse of it. Natalie has a Sesame Street doctor kit with a Bert thermometer (well, it used to to have one) and it turns out she flushed the Bert thermometer down the toilet and we're pretty sure princess Belle was down there with him though we never actually saw her.

The plumber tried his best but could not get the toys out, so we got a new toilet. It needed to be replaced anyway. But poor Bert and Belle, what a way to go.

Tagged by Kristy!!

A--Attached or Single? Very attached

B--Best Friend? My husband

C-- Cake or Pie? Cake with lots of frosting....yum

D-- Day of Choice? Sunday. We spend the whole day together as a family, we don't have to be anywhere, I love it (and I get an afternoon nap!)

E-- Essential Item? My water bottle

F--Favorite Color? Red, it's always been red

G-- Gummy Bears or Worms? Bears, worms are gross!

H-- Hometown? Kennewick

I-- Indulgence(s)? Cinnamon bears, when I can get them (I have yet to find a store here in the east that sells cinnamon bears)

J-- January or July? July

K-- Kids? 3

L-- Life is Incomplete Without? My family, the gospel and a trip to Disneyworld

M-- Marriage Date? July 1

N-- Number of siblings? 3 (older sister and 2 younger brothers)

O-- Oranges or Apples? Apples, but only crunchy ones

P-- Phobias or fears? Flying, snakes and something happening to my family

Q-- Quotes? Every person's life is a fairy tale written by God's fingers

R-- Reason to Smile? I get to see my parents and all my siblings this summer

S-- Season? Fall, there is nothing more beautiful than fall on the east coast!

T-- Tag 5 People? all of my sisters-in-law

U-- Unknown Fact? I'm addicted to hot chocolate, I have to have a cup every morning.

V-- Very Favorite Store? Target

W-- Worst Habit? Ummm, I can't think of any, I guess I must be perfect! :)

X-- Xray or Ultrasound? X-ray, they just look cool

Y-- Your Favorite Food? Mexican

Z-- Zodiac? Leo (I think?)

Our beautiful girls

I have so many cute pictures of the girls I just had to

share some of them!

Other fun things we've been up to

Our neighbor plowing down our bamboo. Yay! We were so
glad to see it go!

Clark attempting to drive the tractor

We went for a walk on the NCR trail and had a picnic
along the way.

We went to the Baltimore zoo and saw the giraffes and
the new baby elephant





Isabelle with her teachers



Isabelle finished preschool and Nana and Papa were here to see her preschool graduation.

The Graduate

Dad & Mom Hartley, Clark, Lela & Everard Cox


A celebration dinner at Don Pablos




Clark can finally sign his name with the letters MBA after it. He graduated!!!! We had fun celebrating his big accomplishment with him! We are sooooo proud of him!







Isabelle and Nana at graduation

Why I hate breakfast cereal

To think I pay $3 a box to have it end up like this!

Oldest Mom ever

Isabelle filled out a questionaire about her mother for her preschool's mother's day brunch. It asked simple questions like what is her name and what is her favorite food and how old is she. Some of the kids guessed their moms were 18 or 25 or 6. Isabelle guessed that I was 72.
I think it's time for me to invest in some good anit-wrinkle cream.

On Vacation

Old San Juan

On the ship

Our taxi driver giving us the tour of St. Thomas

At the fort in Old San Juan

On our way to the pirate caves in Tortola

The fort in Old San Juan

Amanda, Matt, Clark and Laura and dinner

Clark on the ship

Our waiter Damian and assistant waiter Nhiel

On the ship

On St. Thomas

In Puerto Rico

We went snorkeling in the pirate caves in Tortola

So, I haven't posted on our blog in a while, but I have a good excuse! Clark and I were busy relaxing on the beach in the Caribbean.

Clark is graduating in a few weeks and all he wanted for graduation was a vacation, so we brought Grandma Jones and Great Grandma Kerr out to Maryland to watch the girls while Clark and I went on a cruise. Our good friends Matt and Amanda Clauser came with us and we all had a great time!

Our cruise started in Puerto Rico, then we sailed to St. Thomas, St. Maarten, Tortola and Bermuda. Here are a few pictures from our travels.