Family News!!!

So, most anybody (all three of you) who reads our blog probably knows by now that we are expecting a new Baby West in January. Allie has been asking for a baby sister for her birthday for quite a while now and my due date is actually Allies birthday, January 28th. We did what we could for the birthday present part, but as for it being a sister, I'm not sure if I can help you out on that one Allie.

We have had a couple of scares so far with the baby's heartbeat. At our first ultrasound (at 7 weeks) the baby measured right on for its age, but the heart beat was pretty slow. The doctor said that could mean nothing at all or it could end up in a miscarriage, only time would tell. That was on Friday and she scheduled us to come back in on Monday to do another ultrasound. The baby had grown over the weekend (amazing that they can tell that) and the heartbeat was normal. In fact the doctor said that the baby showed much more movement than normal at that age. I was just happy that the baby was moving, but when I told Adam that he said something like "uh oh, another wild child for us."

This past week I went in for another appointment at 11 weeks. Normally I wouldn't have come back until 12 weeks, but my doctor was getting ready to have her third baby and wanted me to come in before her induction to have another ultrasound to check the heart again. I had to see a different doctor (She broke my water when I was in the hospital delivering Jack) and she wasn't going to do another ultrasound until she tried to hear the heartbeat on the Doppler and couldn't. She looked for a heartbeat for what seemed like forever before she finally said "looks like we need to do an ultrasound." Of course I was thinking no wonder I've been feeling so much better than the last two pregnancies. It's because something happened to the baby. Then I had to wait a very long 15 minutes in the ultrasound room until she came back in. When she finally did the ultrasound everything was fine and once again the baby was very active. So, for now we are just keeping our fingers crossed and saying lots of prayers that everything will turn out OK. We'll keep you posted.

A New Ride

Now that we are expecting a new addition to the fam, we thought we should try to upgrade the space for transporting these various kids and their luggage around town. Actually, Jen has been keeping an eye out for larger vehicles for quite a while, just so she could be prepared for the time when we actually pull the trigger.


Some might wonder, "How can these poor saps (literally and figuratively) afford another vehicle. Well, you can thank our Uncle Sam for that. We decided to use our tax refund from last tax year, the government stimulus checks from a couple of months ago, next years estimated tax refund, and a special county rebate program to purchase a new 7-passenger van.


The rebate program involved "trading-in" a car that is either over 10 years old or has failed the most recent emissions testing. Adam was driving a 1993 Dodge Shadow with a few miles on it.

So, we applied to take the "Purple Plum" off the road. The rebate program basically counted the car as a trade-in valued at $3000. Of course, the car was worth about $25 in parts, so we thought it was a good idea to look at getting in on the rebate program.



Jen, who never thought of herself as a "mini-van gal," has been researching vans since Allie was born. So she settled on looking at a Honda Odessey or a Toyota Sienna. The Toyota's are a little cheaper on the used car market, which we were in, but none-the-less still have great track records. So Jen found a small local car wholesaler who also sells a few cars to the public. Their gimmick is that you pay the price on the sticker (i.e., no haggling), but they also don't really dolly-up the cars or put add-ons to increase the resale value (often a tactic of other car dealers). When we got to the dealer, we could tell that the cars were washed and vacuumed, but nothing much else.



Jen was originally looking at an 2007 8-passenger Sienna LX (middle-tier van). All of the LXs on the lot were previous rentals with about 20,000 miles or so on them. Some of them sure seemed like rentals, with stains on the carpets and funny smells from the interior. But they were 8-passengers and had an automatic sliding door (just one door is auto on the LX-you have to get the top-tier van for two side auto doors). We couldn't decide which of the three or four we liked.



While we were mulling it over, we decided to check out a 2008 Sienna CE, which is the low-tier van of the line. Basically, it doesn't have auto doors or color-keyed side mirror, but it has the same engine, safety features, and interior setup. We took it for a test drive and noticed that it had only 4500 miles on it and it smelled brand new. It even looked as if it was hardly driven. It had a price tag of a $1,000 or so more than what we were expecting with the 2007, but it was basically brand new.



So, now we have a new van to think about, although it didn't have the two things Jen was looking at: 8-passenger and auto-sliding door. We thought, however, that while it was being sold used, it seemed too new to pass up. We also thought there was some catch as to why this almost new, hardly driven van was being sold as used. We don't know the back story of the van, but a carfax check showed no problems, just that it was sold at an auction to the dealer we were visiting.



Anyway, we decided to get the 2008, which happens to be the same exterior color as our 2005 Toyota Corolla (thanks Grandpa West for helping us get that car!). So, now we don't have to worry about where to put a third car seat, because there is plenty of room for even two or three more car seats in our new ride (don't get any ideas).