Family Update May 2013

Josh is having quite the exciting month. He turned 30 this month and we have invited 100 people over to our house this saturday for a BBQ in celebration of such an occasion. He has been working towards a promotion for quite a while now (like 2 years) and on his birthday the postmaster called to tell him he was the new supervisor at Holladay. To say he was thrilled was an understatement. The man couldn't stop smiling, all day. For his birthday we went to the Sand Dunes and has so much fun. Josh took the girls and I on 4 wheeler rides, played in the sand, and hung out with some great friends. He's still serving in Scouts and so usually on Wednesday nights he's gone but they've called a new guy in our ward to work with Josh and they seem to get along really well so he's excited. Josh spent most of the last two weeks putting in our yard and although it's not totally complete it looks amazing.

Amber is currently trying to save money and pay off debt. I spend time each week going over our debt payoff plan and trying to stick religiously to our budget. So far things are on track and going well. My attempts to spend more time working on myself are getting spoiled by kids who need to much attention and a baby that refuses to sleep through the night. So I'm usually functioning on less than 5-6 hours of sleep (not consecutively either). I've signed the girls up for swimming lessons again and we are trying to spend as much time during the day with friends at playgroups as we can. I'm trying to put together a "plan" for our weeks so that I can start teaching the girls things again (since I fell off the teaching wagon when Jaycie was born) and we can have a more structured day. I'm excited for summer and although I was planning to get going on my garden that isn't going to happen since we are out of money for the yard. That will most likely have to wait until next year. Bummer.

Madisyn got a hair cut this month. Nothing drastic, just a couple inches. I was starting to notice her hair getting into everything and never looking super healthy and clean towards the bottom. We chopped a little off and now it looks amazing. She has started to throw fits everytime we go to a store because she thinks she has to get something (I love my Mom but I blame her for this) and I have had to leave no less than 3 stores in the past week because of a meltdown. She's looking forward to preschool and she seems to enjoy swimming lessons although she's affraid to put her face in the water. I feel like we will be on level 1 FOREVER. She is extremely observant and isn't affraid to talk to adults about the things she knows or observes. She's quite obsessed with the bathroom sink and I'm constantly finding things wet that shouldn't be (like play dishes or mini dorito bags). She loves to sing primary songs and insists on saying the prayer for every meal and at bedtime.

Katie is a sweet sassy thing. She's started this thing where she likes to contradict, talk back to me, and use her "selective hearing" to ignore me when I'm speaking to her. I bust out the "do you want hot sauce on your tongue" at least 2 times a day, and although I've never done it, she's affraid of it. She's very into her friends right now and is constantly talking about her best friend Jane or Maisie but when she sees them she barely talks to them. Whatever. Katie loves swimming lessons and I'm pretty sure she'll pass this time around I can't move her up without Maddie so we shall see in a couple weeks where we are with that. She loves playing outside and has a really great tan right now. Everyone notices it and comments how brown her skin is. I guess that comes from her Dad's 1/64 indian blood or something. Kate is loving her primary teacher and she's doing better with staying in her seat during sharing time.

Jaycie turned 9 months old this month. I can't believe my baby is almost not a baby anymore. She's still not sleeping through the night but I have her down to approximately 2 feedings a night and she's spending the first half in her crib. I just don't have the heart to let her cry it out. I mean, no ones 10 year old still sleeps with them right? She's crawling all over and pulling up to everything. I swear she thinks she can do whatever her sisters can. She's started waving upsidedown and saying "HI" to every baby or little kid she sees. She's on a baby food strike still and so I've pretty much given up on it. She eats mostly finger foods and breastmilk. No mushy baby food for her, and don't even think about Oatmeal. She cries like you poisened her. I'm thinking we are going to need to get her a new car seat soon. At her well child check she was 18 lbs and 28 inches long. Her hair is still not growing very fast no matter how much I will it to but we work with what we have and although she hates the flower headbands I still put them on her.