G-Day............pictures pending

Well, we have had what has felt like a non-stop, event-filled last few weeks, including Thanksgiving, a visit from Opa, Sonja, Rachelle, Renee and David, Duquesa's 26th birthday, visits from Honey and Nonno, and, most recently, an ultrasound at which we learned the sex of our fourth child.

Our first visitors from Minnesota arrived a day before Thanksgiving after spending a solid 22 hours in the car. Jerome and Elliot were, of course, beside themselves with excitement, and they did their best to show off their new domain. Siena went straight to her Godmother, Renee, proving that she at such a tender age can remember the love in MN. We all celebrated Thanksgiving with our neighbors, the Schoppe family, who had over 60 family members and friends over. As you can imagine, it was quite a production. Fr. Clay came and said Mass for everyone outside with the incredible hill country panoramic view behind him. Che bello!

Molli came to help the kids and I celebrate Duquesa's birthday, and she made Duquesa's favorite cake - death by chocolate. I was just grateful that the kids successfully handed "their" gifts to momma without opening them. Her birthday was yet another occasion for me to be grateful for such a young, beautiful wife to love. :)

Nonno was able to swing by as part of a business trip that brought him through Texas, and he treated the kids to a Christmas-gift-finding trip to the store, which of course involved sampling just about every toy in every aisle before they would settle on one. It was so much fun, but we fear the next time we have to go to Target with the kids. Pandora's box has been opened. Thank you Gary for the pre-Christmas fun!

Today was G day, where we got to discover the gender of Agent #4. We figured that we had enjoyed the "surprise" of finding out the sex at birth quite enough with Siena. In fact, her birth pretty much filled our surprise quota for many years. So, we had a very nice ultrasound experience that discovered our baby to be totally healthy (Thank God!) and ... undeniably masculine! He was moving all over the whole time we could see him, kicking, scooting his bottom up in the air, just putting on a show. And, when it came time to do the in-between the leg check, he must have known, because he went spread eagle to make it easy for us. The funniest part was that the nurse felt she had to point out the extremely obvious to us - "This is one leg here, this is the other one, and this ..." Yeah, we know what that is. Thank you!

We can't wait to welcome him into the world! Please pray for a healthy pregnancy and delivery in early May.