Chris & Naomi Hathaway Home

We've decided to make a pretty significant change in our lives this year. Since last summer, I've been able to work full time from home on AggData, which has been amazing. The added benefit is that we are no longer tied down to any location, and as much as I love Texas, we've decided to move up to Washington state, closer to Naomi's family. I told Naomi that the two things keeping me from going up there were house prices and traffic. Well, working from home solved both of those things, since I don't have to commute and we can get a home farther away from the outrageous Seattle market.

We knew we wanted to make the move sometime this year, and we were fairly certain we wanted to build a new house in Dupont, where Naomi's parents live, but we didn't plan out anything more detailed than that. Well, in February we were visiting Washington and looking around at houses and lots like we always do when we're up there, and we found out a lot had just opened up in a neighborhood we liked, so we took a look, and this is what we saw:

That's a nature preserve in the backyard, and you can actually see the Puget Sound through the trees. Naomi and I heard angel choirs and dove in right away, probably a bit sooner than we expected. And, after some finagling with the loan (considering the market and my self-employment), we got approved and started building in the last week or two. They already have the first floor framing up:

We've also been working like dogs to get our current house ready for market, and we're pretty proud of the results. We had the outside painted, added new countertops, shoved about 80% of our stuff in the garage or sold it at a garage sale, a new back fence, and a lot more little things to spruce it up. Here's the listing with our realtor , but click here for better quality pictures. And if you know anyone looking for a really nice house in Texas, let us know!

Finally, my somewhat excited mother-in-law has been keeping us updated with pictures of our new house as it's being built. She created a blog out of it in fact: http://lincolnsnewhome.blogspot.com/. It's really exciting to see the progress; thanks Mom!

We are planning to move this July, and the house should be finished the first week of August. Oh, and here's a map of where we're building:

View Larger Map

Well, things didn't go quite as we planned. Fiona decided she didn't want to be induced, so Naomi started having contractions last night, and Fiona Marie Hathaway was born at 6:08am this morning, April 28th, 2009. We'll put a more detailed account soon, but basically, she came so fast that it only took one good push, and the epidural hadn't even kicked in yet. She was 6 lbs. 8 oz., 20 inches, with curly light brown hair. Naomi is doing wonderfully, no complications at all. So, here are some pictures, and our favorite video of the morning:

For the full album of pictures and video, click here.

Okay, so we went to the zoo a couple of weeks ago, and I've been meaning to blog about it for a while, but you know how busy things get. I'm telling you, you'll get much more up to date news if you follow us on Twitter :). I really shouldn't be blogging about it now; I should be getting rest since we're having a baby tomorrow. But I wanted to post a couple of pictures anyway. One of the main reasons we went to the zoo was out of tradition, and we've taken a picture of Lincoln sitting on this statue of a lizard every year. Well, of course, they had to replace it with a kangaroo and ruin everything. Okay, he was still pretty cute. Here's the progression:

2007

2008

2009

For the rest of the photos, click here, videos forthcoming.

So, once again, I just wanted to remind anyone who is interested in Fiona's birth tomorrow (today by the time anyone reads this), keep up with our Twitter account at http://www.twitter.com/fionahathaway. This will probably be the first place a picture shows up. I'll try and put up a picture on the blog as soon as I can, but it will probably be hours (I know) after the birth. You should notice, however, that the right hand side of this page has a running twitter feed, so you'll be able to just visit this page and see new updates as well. Wish us luck!

Yea, that's what her name is going to be, if you haven't heard. Fiona Marie Hathaway (not sure if that's how Naomi wants to spell it, though). Anyway, Naomi's doctor thought she wasn't quite growing at the rate she ought to be, so we got a very late in the game ultrasound today. As you can see, our little girl is starting to get pretty cute...

Her measurements all seemed good, and her head is about 2-3 weeks larger than the rest of her. I'm afraid all of our kids are destined to have big heads. Can you see those chubby cheeks starting to come through? And is that a curly lock I see? :) There are a few more shots in this gallery.

Lincoln turned three last Saturday! Happy Birthday Lincoln!

To celebrate, we had party at our house, very similar to last year's party. It even had an almost identical guest list (we're not that creative on short notice). Everyone played in the backyard for the first while, and Lincoln was able to show off his mad soccer and baseball skills to the other kids and parents. And, we got some decent use out of the plane we got him last year, since there were actually a lot of kids there:

After play we went in and had food and cake. One novelty about the party was our food. I was inspired by my new job's cafeteria, and we did a build-your-own-quesadilla bar. You could add cheese, meat, peppers, onions, mushrooms, olives, etc, and then grill it up (okay, fry it). It was very popular with the kids and adults, but then some of the kids went back outside and started dumping flower pots. We had cupcakes, and Lincoln actually successfully blew out one of the candles. Mom had to help with the other two, because he was starting to spit on them.

Lincoln got lots of great presents, but his favorite was definitely the lightsaber. Not necessarily our favorite...

For a slideshow of photos of the party, click here.
For some video, click here.

Oof, it's been exactly a month since our last update. Well, we've been in Washington for a week now, and really enjoy the weather. People around here think it's too hot, but they have no idea. Here's our trip with Kate to the beach about 10 minutes away:

But the best reason for coming was seeing Naomi's sister, Emily, sealed to her husband Steven and their adorable 5-month old, Ethan. Here's us at the temple:

and afterwards at Azteca with the rest of the family and a few friends:

It was pretty cool because we actually had all 6 Allan kids there for the first time since Naomi and I were married 4 years ago. Thanks so much to all who came (especially Joseph :) ). We've had a wonderful time here and are sad to leave tomorrow.

We went on a little trip to Washington this last weekend, mostly to see our new nephew, Ethan, but also just because it's been so long since we've been with Naomi's family (besides Kate). We've been talking with them almost weekly on the web-cam, so Lincoln recognized them right away, and ran up and gave Grandma a big hug when we got to the airport, I think making her weekend. I'm not sure I've ever seen Lincoln so happy for such a long period of time. He was just so excited to have so much attention; he loved to act very silly, and keep tags on everyone. As soon as someone left the room, he would start yelling for them. Oh, and for the record, here's a translation of all the names Lincoln has for everyone (I'll try and spell like he pronounces them):

• Grandpa Allan - 'papa'
• Grandma Allan - 'ahm'
• Kate - 'aiy'
• Scott - 'gock'
• Emily - 'ahmyee'
• Steven - 'deeaah'
• Sarah (Scott's girlfriend) - 'weah'

Oh, and he can say his own name, too, but it sounds like 'winkie' instead of Lincoln. It's very cute. Anyway, here are some good photos from the trip, with a link to them all:

Full Gallery
Kate's Photos