Costa Mesa

The Hammonds gathered in Costa Mesa this year. The kids had a blast with the cousins. I only wish we could spend more time with them each year. One of Casey's sisters wasn't able to make it this year, but the other 11 cousins were there, so it was pretty much madness for a couple of days.










Casey grew up in the house his parents still live in, so his room is full of treasures and collections from his youth. Each year Andrew has more and more fun exploring his dad's treasures, and this year he selected a few things to bring back with him. He is so proud of this wallet. He's become quite the saver, checks out all kinds of books on money and budgeting from the library, and has been asking for a real leather wallet for awhile. When he found Casey's old wallet he thought he'd won the lottery. Check out that stash in it. I don't have that much cash to carry around!


We also (finally) blessed Christian while with our family. It does feel a little unusual to bless one baby when another one is already on the way.

Where have we been?

So, it's been a little while since I've updated the blog, but we've been pretty busy. In the last 3 months we:

Sold our house (and did not buy a new house);


Packed up all our belongings and put them in storage;


Went on vacation;


Celebrated our 10th anniversary;

[I have no pictures of that event]

Lived in a hotel for a month;


And found out we're having baby #4!

Big times around the Hammond house (I use that term loosely)! I'll update more below.

Big News

Okay, I'll start with the biggest news first: our vacation. Okay, okay, I know, it's baby #4. And because you'll make your own assumptions anyway, I'll just settle the facts:

Baby is due April 3, but since all my babies have been 2-3 weeks early, we're anticipating welcoming the baby home during Birthday Week.

That will make Christian and the new baby 14 months apart. And yes, I remember that Willa did not walk until she was 18 months old.

Of course we planned this. Who wouldn't want to get pregnant when they have a six month old?

We won't find out the gender until mid-November.

Willa is very excited, because she sees this as her chance for justice to be served and to finally get a sister.

The House

I'll be brief on this one, and then on to more fun and interesting topics. We decided that after 7 years it was time to sell and move up to a bigger house -- and that was before we had any idea we would soon be a family of 6! So we fixed up the house, put it on the market, and sold it. Great news, right? Except we can't seem to find a new house to buy! We're trying to stay in our ward, and found a few we liked, but weren't able to get a contract on any of them. We did ultimately sign a contract on a short sale, but as you can surmise from the post above that didn't quite go as planned (thanks Bank of America). So, our stuff was in storage for a couple of months while we were between houses, and we're currently in a rental house, still looking! Our lease is up in March -- good timing, right?

And now for the fun stuff...

6 months old

I'm constantly amazed at how fast time is flying by this year. Our little baby is 6 months old! Here's a few of the highlights so far:

He is so mellow and sweet. He will sit and watch the world go by just as quiet as a mouse, and patiently endures being carted around to his older siblings activities, even if it interferes with naps and feeding times.

Sometimes he's so mellow that you can't get him to smile or make a peep at you, no matter how hard you try.

When he's ready to play, he'll coax you over to him -- he grunts at you until you do what he wants -- and then he'll light up like a Christmas tree, laughing and talking at every move you make. His favorite thing is to be tickled, and he loves being bounced around and thrown in the air.

He sleeps great, although he still needs to wake up and eat during the night. But when it's time to sleep I just have to lay him down and walk away (still a gift after certain older siblings, who weren't so cooperative).

He looks just like Andrew, except for the times when he looks just like Willa.

He doesn't sit up or roll over yet, and won't put his legs down to stand up, but loves sitting on my lap or propped up on the couch or in the bouncer.

His brother and sister love him to death (literally in Willa's case, she loves to squeeze him around the neck), and Andrew will stop at nothing to make him smile. Whenever Christian is awake, the kids are vying for his attention (especially Andrew).

I don't have stats on his size, because everyone is out of town at our peds office and I can't get an appointment until the end of the month, but we know he's big. He's breaking my back in his car seat, and he's nearly grown out of all of Andrew's old summer clothes (he's in 9-12 mo clothes now).

The Shark

Christian has hit the big 6 month mark, and is teething like crazy. He is also Mr. Curious, and tries to grab everything and put it in his mouth. And I mean everything. Tables, mirrors on the wall, and of course, all the books and toys that Willa and Andrew leave laying around. By far his favorite is The Shark.



He loves to just gnaw on it, and gets so excited when he sees it.



The Shark is actually Willa's. She got it for her birthday. Shockingly, she's pretty willing to share with Christian. That's a big step for a girl who learned how to say "mine" before she learned to say "mama."



I probably would've had a heart attack if Andrew had gotten ahold of something so hard and sharp. Now I just take pictures of how cute he looks playing with a non-age appropriate toy while sitting unattended on the couch.

July 4th

We went to the Potomac Nationals game on Saturday and watched their fireworks display.



Willa was so terrified at the prospect of fireworks after the game that it took us about 3 innings to convince her to enter the stands and sit down with us. And then we had to put cotton balls in her ears and wrap a bandana around her head. She warmed up eventually, but still had to go out to the car before the fireworks display.





On the 4th we stayed home and did our own fireworks.



Andrew was sooo excited.




Notice how he and our neighbor reacted as the fireworks went off. Then notice Willa waaaay off in the distance, hiding as far away as she could get. Actually, the fact that she was outside at all was pretty impressive.



Christian was fascinated by the fireworks, and didn't get even the slightest bit nervous by the loud noises. In fact, he fell asleep halfway through.




Willa pretty quickly locked herself in the house, and didn't make it to the end of the show.



And Randles: notice my shirt? Yes, that was from 2001. Remember the cooler in the Capitol? Remember the extreme heat? And the torrential downpour? Good times.