16 weeks.

We're 16 weeks with baby #2. Everything is still going very very smoothly with the exception of restless legs and a little "trouble" bending over, I barely notice I'm pregnant, oh and there is this bump that's getting bigger!

The Talented Mr. Hales.

The Hale men have many talents. Here is the jewelry box Phil's dad Neil made for me. I've never seen anything like it! Isn't it beautiful?

And Phil has been beaming about the "box" he made to attach to a speaker to amplify the sound on my computer and ipod. I'll let him explain....

"In technical language we call this an amplifier. I had an old kit with all the components in it that I had never put together. I sodered the components and cut up an old set of computer speakers."

Beaming.

"This is the printed circuit board. It has an integrated circuit which does the real work. There are a few capacitors and resistors too. The white knob is part of the potentiometer, which is a variable resistor used to control the volume of the amplifier output (otherwise known as a volume knob)."

"I found a battery holder for 2 AA's and wired everything together. The 1/8th in male adapter plugs into any headphone output. I put the circuit in an aluminum box which I folded together like a cardboard box. I drilled a hole for the volume knob. It works pretty well, though turned up it sounds bad because it is too much power (max 1.2 watt) for a such a little speaker (rated .5 watt). But it works nicely to amplify audio. It was also fun to do a bit of engineering and get it to work. We have used it a few times since Aubri's MacBook has a puny integrated speaker which can not be heard over background noise."

To which I replied..."Um thanks for the speaker."

Christmas.

"For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord."

Merry Christmas to you all! We were happy to have our first Christmas with Lily Ruth. She and I enjoyed the children's program at church on Christmas Eve. We even got to sit with Daddy!

After church on Christmas morning we put our Christmas pajamas back on and stayed in them all day!

My niece Sara wrote a special poem for us. I thought I would share it with you all. (Hope you don't mind Boo Boo!)

Winter is coming and it is just now here.
We are cuddling up and I wish you were near!

We are putting on big jackets and going out to slide.
You are putting on sweaters and going out side.

We are boiling the water and making hot soup.
You're cooking some food and Phil's shooting a hoop.

You're going sledding down the park hills.
We are cold and still have the chills.

We have to cover our plants to make them not freeze.
You're looking through your cabinets for choices of teas.

I wish we could come up for Christmas you see.
Someday we will have presents under your tree!

Don't be alarmed, that's not a real puppy. Good thing too, it was in a box for a very long time.

For supper Phil donned his "grilling wear" and braved the outdoors to cook the biggest steak either of us have ever seen. It was great!

Snow, snow, snow, snow, snow.

So I think now we've really had the "Great snow of '08". It looks like Jesus dumped bags of powdered sugar on Bancroft. We got about 8 more inches over night. Now the snow is close to 2 feet deep in some places. I don't think I've ever seen this much snow piled all over town! One of our snow plows got stuck across the street from our house this morning. It caused quite a scene getting it out. Very exciting!
We're expecting more snow tomorrow, then possibly a blizzard on Sunday. It will be gross in a few days, but today it really was beautiful. So we got out while we could to "enjoy" the "crisp" (zero degree) air.

Phil gets giddy when he has a reason to get the snow blower out!

Of course Lily had to see what all the fuss was about but not without her snow bag!



Our poor pickup misses its "garage days".

The plows were out all day.

Snow anyone? We know you Southerners would like some of this, so we'll be driving it down to y'all.



More snow blowing.

Mr. Mom.

Phil's at it again, "feeding" Lily. When the bottle gets toward the end, a bag of Snickers is perfect to prop it up a bit more.

Christmas photo shoot.

It's getting harder to take good pictures of Lily. She's getting too busy to be bothered with sitting still, not falling over and smiling at the right second. Where'd that floppy baby that hardly moved go? Dare I try a family photo? What would that be like with Lily AND Phil?
Here's the best I managed. Next year we're going to Sears!

Merrill Anne is here!

My brother is the proud papa of my new niece Merrill Anne! Why is Texas so far away?

Great snow of '08...so far.

It snowed all morning yesterday. We couldn't even see our street. And to commemorate the occasion, here's a special "Outdoor Song which Has To Be Sung In The Snow" (if you're brave enough to actually go out in the snow) by Winnie T. Pooh which Lily and I ran across while reading today.

The more it snows-tiddely-pom, The more it goes-tiddely-pom The more it goes-tiddely-pom On snowing. And nobody knows-tiddely-pom, How cold my toes-tiddely-pom How cold my toes-tiddely-pom Are growing.

The drift on our back porch!

A local celebrity.

Lily made the paper again. I think this brings her up to 5 times now, way more than her Daddy, it's getting a little competitive around here. Her friends Audra and Alix made it in too.

Why we're staying in today.

Some days aren't a "Snow globe winter paradise" up here like I know you all think. It's 2 degrees out with a windchill of -21 and wind gusts up to 45 mph. A real winter wonderland.

Our second Christmas tree!

Well, we did it again. We located this year's tree just North of town in a ditch. The road was busy yesterday but only one passerby slowed to see just what we were up to. This one's a lot bigger than last year and a little less brown. Phil was proud very proud of it.

He even helped with the lights! Yes, we're risking lights this year.

Lily was confused the whole time. She did start to look at the tree with a little more acceptance today.

All done except for the topper. No topper yet. Hopefully I can get one soon. Maybe that's why Lily's still a bit wary of this intruder.

Snow and Santa!

Lots more snow for Bancroft. I hate to say it but it was actually really pretty this day. We had large flakes falling. And yes, I said "It looks like a snow globe!" again. But hey, it did.

We had to let Lily see (and taste behind my back)...thanks Daddy.

Last Saturday Santa came to town. We put Lily on his lap and Phil told him she wants a large screen TV for Christmas. I'm not sure how Lily felt about the whole experience, she didn't cry but made sure we weren't going anywhere.

Cloth Diapers!

We've decided to take on the challenges and benefits of cloth diapering our babies. We got our first round of "prefolds" last week. They're too small, but do the trick until we can get bigger ones. Lily doesn't seem to notice the change, probably because I've managed not to stick her with a pin yet. They're a little more work, but sooo cute!!

Daddy "feeding" Lily.