Sorry to those of you who have been reading and re-reading the "What's new" section, only to see the same old stuff. Rob has been bugging me to update it forever, so the blame is on me… although he could have done himself, eh?

I know it's quite a jolt if you've recently read this section and thought we were happily living and traveling around Europe, but we've been home in the states for about a year and a half now. Sadly, the days of that much travel and excitement are long behind, although Rob and Lanie (that's right, no kids!) did just visit London in November, which was fairly fun and exciting.

Since being back in the US, we've made the most of all our lovely conveniences - full size washers, shopping after 6pm and on Sundays, parking in front of our destination - driving in general. It was all very exciting for about a week, and then it was just normal again. All manners of life are back to normal now. We are back in Orange County, where Colton started kindergarten in the fall and Livie started preschool. They've each made loads of new friends (as our entire playgroup moved away while we were gone - Alta Vista is no longer in OC) and are happy and settled.

Colton is a big boy now - he's swimming and reading and, unfortunately (but very amusingly), understanding and using sarcasm. Not only does he look like Rob, but he also inherited his smart-alec gene. He's still in tae kwon do twice a week, and, it will be a tight fit, but we'll add t-ball to the schedule in January.

Livie is struggling hard to keep up with her big brother, and doing a pretty good job of it. If he can ride a bike with big kid breaks, she'll do it, he can hold his breath underwater, she'll do it, he's reading, so she "reads" while you point her finger at the words and she tells you the story she has committed to memory. When not mimicking and annoying her big brother, she's practicing ballet in her many tutus, tending her many babies and having tea parties in her many princess dresses - and not a day goes by when she's not pleading to have her nails painted. She is such a girl!

New from what's new, but he's been there a year+, Rob is no longer with Alta Vista. He's working for a company called Trestle Corp., which does remote microscopy. It's bio med stuff that utilizes the internet; really very interesting and complicated.

Lanie is spending lots of time in Colton's classroom and room mothering Liv's class. She figured she may as well immerse herself in the stay at home mom role since she's lucky enough to have it.

That about sums us up. Thanks for keeping up with us.