Let's see if this puppy works..

.. or perhaps I should say baby? After 6 years of enjoying our marriage, Jackie and I (Bernie) decided to give it all up and start a family. The picture above is of Jackie trying out some maternity clothes that her mother gave her for Christmas (with a pillow as a belly)... she really hasn't gained any weight yet. She's 14 weeks along today with an arrival date of July 26th, 2009.

This is a 3-peat for the Klos family. So far we've hit July babies 2007, 2008 and now 2009. I'm not sure who's going to step up for 2010, but we're working hard to aim for just one big cousin summer birthday bash... so don't screw it up.

Aside from that, nothing too exciting from Jackie and I. We're still employed, so that's good - I drove Jackie to the airport at 4:30am today. She's headed to WV for a couple days for work and I couldn't send her off into the dark & snow with a clear conscience. Work is keeping both of us quite busy, but we're not complaining.

What else? What else? We're in the process of refinancing our 1.5 year old house.. which I'm kind of excited about. Rates are pretty low, so we're jumping on it. I went skiing last night with Uncle Larry and that was a lot of fun. After years of hearing how good Larry and John are at skiing, it was fun to finally see it first hand (I was able to keep up).

Okay, that's it from us. Just wanted to test this blog out.

Bernie & Jackie & closed fist (that's how big the books all say the baby is at this point)

From John

Dear Family;

It’s been way, way too long since Judy and I contributed to the family letter. Regarding the Decker Boys; they’re old enough to submit on their own, plus the fact that we really couldn’t keep track of their daily activities if we tried.

Here’s a nuts, nutshell sketch and short, short microburst of all the family letter time we’ve missed;

We packed-up and moved from San Diego to Charleston, SC over the holidays in 2006.

Lived in a downtown carriage house then bought a home.

Judy started-up and headed the program management office for SAIC on the SPAWAR contract.

John went to work for EMA integrating C4I comm gear on MRAP vehicles.

In 2007 John went to work with LCE on a SPAWAR contract

In November 2008 John and Judy packed-up and headed back to San Diego

There’s a lot more pieces to the puzzle but that’s the basic sketch. We did some traveling, we met lots of people and different characters and came to realize that San Diego is like no other. Home is a relative thing but mostly it’s where one feels most comfortable…. and San Diego is a very comfortable place to be.


Besides, Judy likes the California beaches best.

Swing family

Hi family! This is my first official post! We just celebrated Craig's birthday on Friday. (the big 33) Currently little Sarah is downstairs taking her nap. She has had a bad cold for 6 days. I just got it and it's not fun! She will be 7 months old in a week and has just started to crawl and is crawling all over the place. (Mommy's life has started to become a lot more complicated!) She likes to play with the dvd player, dvr unit and our dvd collection. Looks like we need to start childproofing! She is also getting her third tooth. Ok, that's enough of me bragging.

Kristen

Vote for Matt

Baker Artist Awards

Hey Family! I am requesting your votes! The award money for this is substantial and you need a certain number of votes to be considered for the grand prize award. Just read the directions below and follow the link. You have to set up an account and then you can vote. The deadline for voting is in February 1st so there isn't much time. You could help me win 25k! Feel free to forward this message and I'll keep you posted!

Thanks so much! -Matt

The Baker Artists Awards celebrate Baltimore's artists on the Web with an ongoing exhibition of its diverse artistic practice, and the Mary Sawyer Baker Prize will establish Baltimore’s reputation as a creatively rich and vital place to live with a civic commitment to value its individual artists.
Please take a minute to visit my work on the Baker Artist Awards web site. As a Baltimore artist, I am eligible to win the significant Mary Sawyers Baker Prize or maybe bragging rights as Baltimore’s Choice. Either way, please follow the link and vote for me... and, if you live in Baltimore, you could also Nominate your own work! Now GO sign-up and vote www.bakerartistawards.org

Visit my nomination at http://www.bakerartistawards.org/nomination/view/matt_klos

Our blog

Welcome Decker family! This is our new family blog to update each other on the happenings in our lives. It will be a great way for the family to keep in contact with one another. The good news is that there will be no deadlines forcing you to write. If you are interested in contributing just send your submissions (written, photo, video) to deckerfamilyletter@yahoo.com or e-mail them to me. They will be posted within a few days. Send a title for your submission or I will label it with your first name. There is a password to this site and currently I am the only one who is able to post. If you want to post your own stuff, let me know and I'll give you the password. It's very user friendly. Make sure to bookmark http://decker9.blogspot.com/ and check it every so often!

Welcome to the online world of communication!

Love,
Kristen