Life is Good

I have been in blog-hibernation. Life has been busy, and I have been blog lazy. And before life gets incredibly crazy with a newborn around, I better update on our family and what has transpired over the past three months. And that's lots. So hold on for a long update.

JACE:

Jace turned 6 years old in February. 6! Yikes, he's getting too old, which means I am too. He got some great presents and later that night we went to dinner with both sets of his grandparents to celebrate. This year he chose a Robin cake (as in Batman and Robin). He thought I was going to make Robin's face, but he had to settle for the symbol instead.

At 6, Jace is such a little smarty. He is reading at a 2nd grade level and his comprehension is incredible. His favorite books right now are The Magic Treehouse series chapter books. I was pretty impressed with him when he finished an entire book in 65 min. one day. He's an amazing speller and is doing great at learning math. He loves to learn about animals and has developed quite the love for stuffed animals and rubber insects which he has to have lined up on his bookcase every day. (Something that annoys me to no end because I can't have "clutter" but I have to walk away since it's his room and I have to allow him that.) He enjoys playing with his friends and catching lizards in our backyard.


He is such a soft-hearted little boy who has a lot of love in his heart for his family. Almost every day he tells me that he loves me the most in the family. He gets pretty jealous if Cole is getting some snuggle time and he isn't, and then the fight is on as to who gets to snuggle with mom or dad. He is extremely stubborn and he still knows how to throw quite the fit. I'm wondering when that stage is going to end.... He and I make quite the stubborn pair and we have quite the standoff at times.


COLE:

Cole just turned 4 yesterday! I can't believe he's 4, he grew up so much this year. He does so much with his brother and plays at his level that sometimes I think he should be 5! For his birthday he got a "big gun and little gun" - a rifle and a pistol-which he was absolutely thrilled about. He also got a remote control car that he played for hours with yesterday. I think we hit the jackpot with those presents. He chose to go to Incredible Pizza to play laser tag and games and then to In-N-Out for dinner.


Cole is always keeping us laughing. He has developed quite the humorous personality lately and is always saying silly things. He definitely has his father's sense of humor. For the last few months he hated Sundays. He would wake up almost every day and ask if it was Sunday: cheer when it wasn't and cry when it was. Then if it was Sunday, he would ask throughout that day if it "was still Sunday"? However, within the last month or so, this has changed and he has really started to enjoy primary. It's fun to see him transform and he now sings primary songs, knows scripture stories, gives amazing prayers, and is happy on Sundays.

Cole is also quite the smarty pants, he's just different in the way that he and Jace "display" their knowledge. He knows all of his upper and lowercase letters, knows all of their sounds, can almost count to 100, can identify all of the numbers up to 100, knows his address, phone number, and more. He also is great at writing his name and loves to spell it out loud and acknowledge that that is his name.

Something else about Cole is that he is ATTACHED to his dad. Whenever Bryan leaves the vicinity without him in public, Cole goes berserk, starts crying and screaming for Bryan, and chases after him no matter what. For example, last night at In-N-Out, Bryan got up from the table to get a refill, and Cole launched into his panic attack. Some may see it as endearing, but to Bryan and I it is extremely frustrating. He sure loves his dad.


LILY:

Lily is at such a fun stage right now. She is extremely happy and content. She lights up the room and can make ANYONE smile. Everyone is always commenting on how happy she is and how much fun she is to be around, and I must say, it's true. She has the best toothy grin and always has a smile on her face. She will wander around the house and entertain herself and play with toys for hours. She is so easy at home, but out in public it's the same story as months ago - she is a busybody and we can't keep her contained.



She loves music and loves to sing and dance. I love to hear her sing her own little sounds and words to whatever we may be listening or singing to. We think we might have some sort of entertainer on our hands, whether it be a singer or dancer. She loves shoes and will bring whoever's shoes laying around to us and say "I ont shoes," which means she wants us to put them on her. Something else she loves is to give kisses. She will make her kissing face (which means she pulls her bottom lip up over her top and raises her chin up high), says "mmmmm" and wait for anyone to kiss her. She has to give everyone in the house kisses before bedtime. And no one can deny her.



Her hair is getting curlier and curlier but not much longer-musch to my dismay. Her face is also starting to thin out, but she definitely still has her ghetto booty and awesome belly. She also still sucks her thumb and is very attached to her "Boo" - her floppy stuffed bear. She also jabbers all the time and has quite a few words and phrases that she says. We love having her around and she gets quite a bit of attention from all of us, and so I know that having this new sister around is going to be a big adjustment for her.


ME:

Me? I'm just pregnant and one year older. I turned 29 this March and had a fantastic birthday. Bryan did an amazing job at planning a birthday date where I was able to "choose my own adventure birthday". I chose my birthday activity and dinner based on clues and I was given many options for each. It was a lot of fun.




I am 34 weeks and time is getting CLOSE. I am not ready for this baby nearly as much so as I was with the others. I still have a lot to do and shop for, but I can't bring myself to do it. I guess I'll just wait for the "nesting" stage to kick in and really go to town.

I feel pretty good. I get Braxton Hicks contractions which are getting more frequent and heavier. I'm still planning on going natural and Bryan still keeps trying to talk me out of it. Now I think I'm even more stubborn about doing it just to prove him wrong.


BRYAN:

Bryan just celebrated his 33rd birthday. We were able to celebrate it in California (actually the day of his birthday we were driving home from California). We decided to take a last minute trip to visit Bryan's brother and his family. We had a ton of fun in the warm weather where we went to the park, hung out, shopped, went to a movie, and went to Six Flags, and just played. It was a great time and we love spending time with Rob, Lindsey, their girls, and also Lindsey's family (our second in-laws).

We were able to celebrate Bryan's birthday with Lindsey's family because it was her dad's birthday a couple of days before Bryan's. I made Bryan "Angry Birds" cakes since he has been addicted to that game lately. (And if you're wondering, he has 3 stars on all the levels.) Yes, he could use an Angry Birds support group. However, the last couple of days it has turned into a Solitaire addiction.







Bryan starts a new job on Monday!! About 6-7 weeks ago, Bryan lost his job. This came as a surprise but in reality it has been a blessing in disguise. He was very unhappy at his job and had actually started looking for something new when he was let go. Three weeks after he lost his job, he received a job offer with the company he wanted to work for, and it is with a company that goes hand-in-hand with what he had been doing. Since he received the offer he has just been able to hang out with the family waiting for the new job to start.

We have been so lucky to have him home with us these past several weeks. The kids have LOVED having him home and I'm pretty sure they will go through withdrawals when he starts again. I have loved having him home as well. It's been great to have the extra help around the house and with the kids, and really great to run errands without the kids. It's been fun to have him around to just be here and have fun with. There have been many hours playing games with each other, and we've turned into quite the gaming family (especially he and the kids). He will be missed greatly, but he is so ready to start and get back into a routine.





Whew! That was a lot, and probably a lot more in depth than most care to read, but hopefully it will pacify my father. Talk about nagging! ;) Now I just need to stay on top of blogging....