should i

what do you think of this boot in brown?

a new woman?

I know what you're thinking. "Is Elizabeth fit to be a mother?" Yes she's stuck in the grate of my stove. But this was post-removal of the kitchen stools. This child cannot be kept out of ANYTHING, despite all my childproofing efforts. So, those of you who talk to me on a regular basis know how frustrating this dilemma of outsmarting a barely two-year-old has been. But, I feel Whitney deserves some applause for recent improvements to her mischievous behavior. I'm not sure what it is, but she's been a little (and I stress "little") better lately. Hey, I'll take any bit I can get! She's not on the counter quite as much. She hasn't smeared butter on the counter or cupboards in a couple of weeks. I don't have to duck tape every diaper on. She's clothed about half the time, as opposed to a quarter of the time. I now have some use for the seat belt on the shopping cart now that Whitney chooses not to slither out of it and stays put. It's been a while since she took a bath with all her clothes on. Wait ... no. I take that back. She did that last night, but it had been a while before last night. I haven't gotten the Spot Shot out for poop-portraits in a while. I've brought the stools back into the kitchen. So it's been easier to see the sweet, loving little baby girl who is my Whitney. Mad props to Whitney. Love you baby!

pedi-pals

I think these say it all.

chubba-chub

I keep getting harrassed to put some updated pics of the wee bebe.

Here she is just over two months old. She's already changed so much, and if you can believe it, is going through an even sleepier stage. Love the cheeks!

laundry : check

6 weeks ago...

Hard to beleive it's already been six weeks since we had Devan. These are just a few of her first pictures right after she was born.

Wade's pretty proud

Sleepy Time

Nikki wanted to hold Devan and watch a cooking show. When she wants to watch a cooking show I always know that means she's tired and will soon be asleep. This is how I found them a few minutes later.

I totally forgot to post Max's first day of first grade. He loves school. I don't like him being gone ALL DAY LONG, but it makes it easier knowing he's having s great time. He comes home and says he's played all day, and then he goes on to tell me all the things he's learned about. I love you Max.

Devan is fitting right in with the rest of the Pilling kids.

Whitney loves to take care of Devan. She always wants to hold her and tuck her in and likes to make sure all her toes are still there.

She's such a good baby. All she does is eat and sleep and poop. WOuldn't we all like to live such a life?

Devan Elizabeth Pilling

She's finally here. Doesn't look too happy in this picture. We had her Tuesday night at 9:44. Things went just as planned. Fast.

She weighed in at 6 pounds 5 ounces and measured 20 1/2 inches. And she looks just like all our other kids did!

This is Wednesday morning when my mom brought the kids to see us. The first thing they said was, "She's so tiny!"

Sorry Max. Now you're REALLY outnumbered. Max doesn't seem to care that he's the only boy. He's just so excited to have a new baby. That's because he's such a sweetheart and loves everyone.

Whitney LOVES the new baby. She wants to hold her every second she can, and she's really pretty gentle and very enthralled with her. She just looks at her and points excitedly to all her parts.

I've got a lot more pictures on our other camera that are much better. I'll post them this weekend, but I thought this could tide you all over until then. We're all doing great. Came home Wednesday. Feel free to call or drop in.

So we took a camping trip earlier this month with our good friends the Terrys. We went up to the Sawtooth Mountains and camped at Alturus Lake near Stanley, Idaho. It was breathtaking. We try to go here at least once a year. This picture of Max should be at the bottom. He's trying to do a flip but he described it as a "belly-flop-flip"

This was the preferred form of entertainment among the kids. I wish I had a picture of all the kids together. I think the Terrys have a picture on their blog http://www.theterryfam.blogspot.com/ Nikki was not the dirtiest of the bunch. This is the fox that would not leave us alone the first night. And River, the Terry's dog, gave me no added comfort since he didn't even notice the fox, and when he finally did I think he was scared of it.

Kids in the lake. I think Whitney thought the whole trip was especially arranged just so she could be in the water. She is a total water baby.

Nikki and Ayden, the Terry's oldest daughter. Looks like they could be related.

Max was having a blast searching for dead fish.

Here is Wade's version of a morning bath. It was cold.

Notice how everyone is all bundled up? Now imagine jumping into the water like Wade and Brad.

Here are Brad and Jenni with their second daughter Alex, the only brown-haired kid in the whole lot. Brad was being a little grumpy and wouldn't give me a decent smile.

Apparently Whitney and Alex really really really like chips. They pretty much ate the whole bag of Dorritos by themselves before moving onto the Ruffles.

This is me and Jenni. I told Jenni we were getting in the water for sure. She didn't really want to . When we got to the lake I sat and my duff and watched Jenni swim. I had fun watching though.

This was Wade's second of three naps for the day.

Whitney's a little excited to be at the lake. Looks a little crazed to me.

According to Max this is his favorite place in the whole world. The dads took the bigger kids on the paddle boats.

This was Nikki's first day of Pre-school. I cannot tell you how excited she was to be going to school. I can't believe how fast she's growing up.

Per my mother's request I am posting some pregnant pictures of me. These were taken two and three weeks ago, so about 8 months pregnant. Mom, you're going to have to click on the pictures to enlarge them, cause' heaven knows I'm not about to put these puppies on full-size.

We spent a whole day in Old San Juan. The streets were all really narrow cobble stone and totally shadowed by huge trees and vines. It was exactly how I hoped it would be. There was this cool little sweet/coffee shop under a monstrous tree.

The whole city is surrounded by a 500-year-old wall that is dotted with these really charming lookouts. The walls come to a point at this huge fortress right on the cliffs by the ocean. It was really cool to see how this half-century structure had held up to time and the elements.

Someone shaved their dog to look like a lion. I was totally convinced. I guess they had something pretty valuable they wanted protected.

Out of nowhere it started to pour. We had to hide in a doorway while the street turned into a river. I guess we were in a tropical rain forest.

Here is another picture from Flamingo Beach near where we were snorkeling.