A Sneak Peek...

Here are a few ultrasound shots of baby sister. She has a very similar profile to Scott and Zach, I think.


Here she is completely folded in half -- toes parallel to her head!


This is one of my favorites -- a shot of the bottoms of her two tiny, tiny feet.

We love her already.

Pink Jelly Bellies

We had my 20-week ultrasound on October 27 (a memorable birthday present!) while Tyler, Scott & Tessa were at school. We thought a fun way to deliver the news would be to give them each some pink Jelly Belly candies and let them figure it out.

It was a little subtle.... (as they stared at the bags of candy), then I asked: "What color are they?"
 

                   And then the light went on!

Tessa is very excited to have a little sister to take care of and share a room with.  Ty's really glad because this means he won't have to share a room.  Scott was happy either way.  Zach was with us at the hospital.  When he and I had a moment alone, I told him that he'd be having a little sister.  His lip curled under and he stared down, "I wanted a widdle bruhver."  But once I explained how neat it would be to have 2 brothers (holding up 2 fingers) and 2 sisters (2 more fingers), he smiled big and has been happy about it ever since. : )

The Romney children, Fall 2009

Fall Photos

My friend and photographer, Shannon, took these fall pictures of the kids on a bike trail in Verona. The mosquitos were horrible, but she got some really nice, non-swatting poses of them! Thanks, Shannon!


Zachary, 3












Tessa, almost 6










Scott, 8 1/2










Tyler, 11

Zachary is 3! (Part 2)

He's been practicing the past few days so he'd be ready for shooting up the 3 fingers when he was official.



Ty and Scott came down with colds Saturday night, so we stayed home from church and Chris was the high council speaker at a branch 1 1/2 hours away in the morning. So, Tyler made tickets and we watched a movie (not a normal Sabbath activity!), of course, Cars.

After a picnic lunch on the living room floor and naps, we had our own little party. We played some games like the ever-popular fishing game (with a visit from a crocodile -- aka Dad's hand reaching out and grabbing unsuspecting fisherman which brought on fits of giggles!), and red light/green light -- Zach loved the power of this game and delighted in telling us how to drive our "cars" around.




My favorite picture of the day -- McQueen hat, spearmint gum sticking out of his teeth, and a huge smile! Zach is truly a joy -- my little sunshine. He is a happy, imaginative, and loving little boy. We're so blessed to have him in our family.

Zachary is 3! (Part 1)

Zach sleepily wandered into our room at 6:05 a.m. and asked, "Can I have some cake now?" I was able to hold him off a bit until others woke up -- then the reveal! He loved his cake, but mostly the "Mack" semi truck that he's been hoping for to hold his Lightening McQueen car.






Here's a front view of the cake -- I tried to post a picture of all the Cars guys behind as part of a diorama kind of thing.














It was definitely a Cars themed birthday -- here he is holding his Lightening McQueen backpack that had some small packages of gum (his favorite!) hidden in the pockets. Tyler gave him one of his Bakugan that Zach's always admiring (we thought that was pretty cute), Scott gave his a McQueen hat, and Tessa gave his Red the fire engine. He received some cards and money, too, that we'll have enjoy helping him use to buy something fun! Funny story: when I went to wrap the gifts the night before, I didn't have any gift boxes to wrap the oddly shaped Cars things. I used some empty food boxes that worked great. As Zach opened the first one from Tessa, the fire truck was inside a mini-cheeseburger box. He held it for a second, looked at it really closely with this look like, "huh..., but I don't even like these", but he didn't complain. It was so sad and cute at the same time. We quickly told him to look inside! By the last gift, he would look and say, "This isn't really noodles!" and open it up. : )

He enjoyed blowing out a candle on his favorite chocolate chip pancakes and "meat sticks" (sausage links) for his birthday breakfast.

Tyler's 11th Birthday Party

Tyler's birthday party was the Friday after his birthday. He invited several friends to a "private screening" of the Bionicle movie on the large screen in the TDS Training Center. They made ice cream sundaes after and played a little Capture the Flag. He had some extremely generous gifts that left Chris and I looking at eachother thinking -- "yikes, we're total cheapskates!" He had a great night.

Tyler's 11th Birthday!

I can't believe Tyler is 11! We're very proud of the young man he is. Here he is on his birthday morning.





My attempt at a Bakugan cake -- it took him a minute, but he guessed it!








The 5th grade tradition is that the birthday student's face is plastered with birthday stickers by classmates (to be worn for the afternoon) and then given a bag of goodies like this horn.






For his birthday dinner, Tyler requested dinner out with Chris and I. He chose Olive Garden -- and the Endless Pasta Bowl (of which I was the only one to go for seconds!). It was really fun to have that time just with him. We gave him our presents there: a pocketknife to use in Boy Scouts (this picture made Chris a little nervous!) and a remote control helicopter.

Here comes "Piderman"!

Zach and I made a fun purchase today on our SuperTarget run: an official "Piderman" outfit (that's how Zach pronounces his name...) Not only a great Halloween costume, but will provide hours of make-believe fun! (Currently his only other "dress-up" outfit is one he made to be Tarzan -- it requires a quick strip down to diaper/loincloth, and voila! I'm feeling much better about Spiderman!). He's seen here taking a moment to properly position his fingers for shooting his webs...


He's got the right hand down, but the left is a little trickier and he decided a "4" would work just as well. : ) It fits him perfectly and I just get a huge smile when I see him. Can you see that the pecs and biceps are totally padded and molded for muscles? And I love that it's not a full mask. My cute little crime fighter. I usually avoid buying Halloween costumes when the kids are little and just take the homemade route, but let's face it, how in the world could I have done something like this?! He LOVES it.

More 1st day of Kindergarten photos....

Tessa has her own locker outside the classroom and it also happens to be just her size! She loves this shirt and carefully laid out her clothes the night before. She looked very cute! She had absolutely no worries about her day. She's been at the school so much with the boys' activities and PTO stuff, it's very familiar. After we dropped off Zach at a friend's home, she got the giddy, excited giggles, clapping her hands as we got closer and closer to the school! She was so thrilled that it was hard to be too sad (although as we walked in and greeted her fabulous teacher, whom Scott had in K as well, the tears popped out of nowhere!).


I sneaked a quick photo of her in action. We had played a game to put all her supplies away and then they got play time. She was happy to be in the same class as twins, Avery and Maia, who were on her soccer team last spring. This playhouse area is her favorite spot during free choice time and I hear all about it each day. : )

After her short morning at kindergarten, we picked up Zach, and Tessa wondered if we could meet Dad for lunch at "a fancy place". Where was this fancy place, you ask? Yep, good old McD's. : ) (I was secretly hoping for someplace a tad fancier, but it wasn't my special day...!) Zach and Tessa enjoyed a little Playland time afterwards, while I got teary watching them spend their last "fancy lunch" weekday together for awhile....

The first day of school

Scott, the 3rd grader, looking sharp on the first day of school.





















Tyler, striking a cool, big 5th grader pose.






















Her countdown was completed today -- the first day of kindergarten! Tessa had a short first day and started later than the boys. I got to take her into school and while she played, I attended a parent meeting. She absolutely loved it and wished she could have stayed the whole day!