Baby Carnes

Jill and I had the best day ever today. We went to the baby doc to hear the heartbeat for the first time today, and it couldn't be found with the Doppler device. Our doctor then said, "Let's just go do an ultrasound." We were very excited since we thought we would have to wait until week 18 or so to see the baby for the first time. Sure enough, about 5 seconds after turning the machine on, the doc was able to find the baby, squirming around inside mommy. It looked like he/she was doing backflips in there. Luckily we were able to walk away with some pictures from the ultrasound machine, and the doc pointed out some of the bodyparts on the screen. It was exhilarating to see this little person for the first time. What a great thing.

Indy Car Show - 26th Birthday Fun

For my birthday this year Jill took me to the Indianapolis Car Show. Before we went there we tried PF Chang's in the Circle Center Mall, and it was great. Two of Jill's former 3 Purdue roomies met up with us there, and then the four of us went to the show.
Porsche 911 Carrera - Randy's favorite.
Chrysler concept W12. Pretty much a ridiculous car.
The perfect family car - 2006 Corvette. I think a carseat would fit in there...
Jill and Christa riding the Circle Center escalator after lunch.

Christmas in South Bend

This is what a cookie looks like when it falls through the grates in the oven. Not real good. Christmas with the McKees was on Christmas Day, and marked our 3rd and final Christmas get together. We spent the day with Jill's grandparents, her Mom and Dave, Randi, Joe and Rachel, Uncle Brian and Tracy, and Tracy's parents, who were in town from Kentucky. Unfortunately Jill's Uncle Greg got hung up at work in Little Rock due to an IT catastrophe at his office, so he and Suzy, Sara, Kelsey and Steven couldn't make it to South Bend.
Brian and Tracy, covered in gifts :) They recently built a house in Elkhart, and we had a chance to go over and take the tour for the first time. It's very nice, and well decorated I must say (nice Harley accents Brian), and we were glad to be able to check it out and spend some more time with them.
Rachel was helping to open Grammy and Dave's presents. She's holding the shade to a lamp that Julie just opened, but as you can see Rachel thinks it makes a great toy.
Randi, Great-Grandma and Rachel - laughing it up. Rachel stood up to the endurance marathon that is McKee gift opening - I think it took about 5 hours, give or take 30 minutes, but she played, crawled, and ate right through it without any whining. What a trooper.
A picture of Jill and I and Rachel, Randi and Joe in front of Gran and Pap's Christmas tree. It was a fun day and night (playing DVD Family Fued - thanks Brian and Tracey) with everyone, and of course filled with many great gifts, but the greatest gift was all being together...man, it's getting a little sappy in here....:)

Christmas in Elkhart

Christmas with the Carnes-es was celebrated this year on Christmas Eve. Every year we take a picture like this, to make sure that I'm still the shortest - lucky me. We started the day off right with breakfast at Perkins in Elkhart (lunch anytime). It was then that we broke the baby news to the family. It was really great to see everyone's reaction in person. I think Mom and Dad are excited about grandkid #4, and by the time he or she is here they should be very experienced at spoiling them :)
Chase is very thoughtful. There was a gift under the tree marked "To: Chuck and Jill, From: Chase". Apparently he went to the mall with Dad and picked up a 2006 Shelties calendar. What a nice little dog.
These pictures are always fun to look at in the coming years. Next Christmas will bring some more human kids (we're holding Chase since he's all we got so far). Pictured here are, from left to right: Kayla Carnes, Brandi Carnes, Chris Carnes, Zack Carnes, Chase Robin Hood Prince of Theives III Carnes (seriously - we have the papers), Chuck Carnes, Jill Carnes, Meredithe Carnes, Brenna Carnes and Randy Carnes. I guess one nice thing about having 3 sons is that the last names are easy to remember.

Ah yes, my 8th birthday cake (actually a group of 2 and a group of 6 candles - to make 26, get it?). Since my birthday is December 27th, and we would be back in Indy then, we celebrated with cake and some gifts. I was able to get all of the candles blown out - no trick ones this year.

Christmas in Indy

Pictured above is the new SnowStang, by Ford. Driving around town was a bit tricky, to say the least. At least our Christmas would be a white one this year. Unfortunately the wintry weather hit when Mike and Roberta were coming down from Grand Rapids for Christmas in Indy. I think the Gormongs had a bit better weather coming from Terre Haute, but no one was completely free from the blizzard. Ok, so it wasn't a blizzard, but it snowed for more than an hour, which is a lot for us...:) (Jill will be giving me a hard time about putting the car on here, but it's probably worth it:)
What a pair. As always, Jill and Randi had a great time getting together to exchange Christmas gifts and goof around.
Seen above is Phase 1 of Rachel's training for the next lunar lander. You know, more astronauts came from Purdue than any other university..., er, back to the picture, this is Aunt Jill and Rachel monkeying around in the living room.
Rachel did great opening her first Christmas gift. It was a "Baby Tad" (a talking activity frog).
Mike getting in on the gift action.
The worst part about getting together is probably having to say goodbye. Everyone had a great time exchanging gifts and spending time together, and mostly watching little Rachel as she discovers the world around her.