So now that I am caught up until the end of November, I am only a month behind, I thought I would do an indivdual catch up post. So here goes.
We are all doing well. Mike has been laid off now for 3 weeks, but will thankfully be returning to work in 2 weeks. The kids (and I too) have enjoyed having him home. It's a much easier transition for them to handle, then going to a sitters house before/after school then coming back home etc. Much easier for all involoved. Since Mike's been home, he's been doing some dogsitting for my boss at work. She recently got a Toy Poddle, Fonzy, who is just SO adorable. He is all of maybe 4-5 lbs and a little fluff ball. the kids love him and he follows Mike around like he is god. When Mike leaves the house, the dog sits by the door and cries! We did have him for 4 days while Donna was out of town, then for the past week and this week as well, he gets dropped off in the morning and picked up in the evening. It works for everyone, and keeps Mike busy until he goes back to work. I know the boys will miss him terribly though! Once Mike goes back to work, Donna is hoping to get him into some sort of doggie day care, rather then bring him to work everyday, which is what she did until Mike came to save the day! Here's Mr. Fonzy coming out of the igloo Mike made for him.
Here's a cuter picture of the Fonz
I am going Ok too. A bit stressed with the lay off, time of year, and the fact that our babysitter quit on us due to Mike's lay off last week, but I am a firm believer that everything happens for a reason and I KNOW in the long run this will be a good thing. We'll get though it, we always do. In the mean time, the craft bug has bit me, and I've been making wreaths and garlands like crazy. Making these seems really theraputic to me for some reason and I HOPE to someday make enough to have stock and be able to do some small local craft shows or maybe have a small part of an online store etc. Other then that, Just keeping busy with work, the boys, the house, you know how it goes.
Courtney is going good too. Being a Typcial Teenage girl, whatever that might exactly consist of! She spends lots of time hanging out with her friends. During the fall/football season, she spent lots of time at the JV and Varsity Football games at school. Next year is the big move to high school, so she is still trying to mentally wrap her head around that now. We talk about it every so often. She is at the age now too, where she can babysit, so every so often, Mike or I can run to the store while the boys are napping and leave her with them. It's nice to be able to have her around for quick things like that! It gives her some extra responsibility as well. We had her cheerleading banquet last weekend too, those pictures again will again come later, But it was a really nice time. Each girl got an awesome scarf that one of the mom's made in the team colors. Courtney really improved her jumps this past season, so she got an award for that, and she also got a trophy. She had a lot of fun hanging out with the girls. Most of them won't see one another now until next August, so it's pretty sad for them as well! I know Courtney is ALREADY starting to plan her 14th birthday party for March as well! Did I mention too that Courtney and I are attending her 8th grade Class trip to Washington DC this coming Memorial Day weekend? Her and I both really excited for that! I am excited to go as an adult and learn and experience all the history that I ignored as a child. She is excited for a few nights away from home with friends in a hotel. :-) I am sure when her children go on their trip to DC she'll want to go experience it as an adult too!
Caden - Is doing really really well. He's grown TONS in his 6:1:1 class. SO much so that they are hoping to have him "visit" and interact within a typical Kindergarden class after the Christmas holiday! He just loves to learn, color, teach, play school, play work, boss around etc etc etc. his one big things, that drives me INSANE?? he is a HOARDER! He saves every gosh darn thing you can possibly imagine. He has piles, amoung piles amoung piles of things that YOU ARE NOT TO TOUCH. EVER. and if you do, oh he sure knows it. And school supplies? yea, he knows not to play in that closet, however we are now out of 8 boxes of crayons, 5 compositon notebooks, 12 folders, 3 bottles of glue, all the post its, ALL the sharpies, dry erease markers and highligters. not to mention the new found binders and loose leaf paper. *sigh* I love that he wants to learn and play, however I don't like that the $$$$ I spend in August stocking up on supplies is now GONE to NOTHING! In other news, Caden is pacifier free!!! For like 8+ days now! We had to "restart" 3 seperate times because you know he has his own secert stash. Each time got harder and harder. We had to re-convince him each night that the fairy came again to bring it to the new baby in the hospital who needed it more then he did. Each time was harder and harder, since he thought she just kept brining it back to him each Night :-). So. after over a week w/o it, he is still surviving. Before bed EACH night, he
still asks us to looks for it for him, which we tell him, of course, but I am pretty such that little baby is really grateful that you gave it to him! I am so proud of him!
Colin - our cute little devil. He is SO lucky he is so darn adorable! He is just about 80% potty trained now finally! I only say 80% becuase he still won't go #2 in the potty, and he's not night trained yet. I could care less about night time, diapers at night are fine. But going #2 will be so much better in the potty when he chooses to do so. For now, he requests a diaper, then asks where he can go and hide to do his thing. he'll then come to you, tell you he's done and you change him. Any ideas how to transition that to potty are MORE then welcome! He also has the best bladder control of any toddler. He is scared to go in any potty when we aren't there, so he won't go at school. This means, from 8am until he gets home at 2pm, he doesn't go at ALL. And he doesn't have accidents either. He does however have to go pretty bad when he does get home and then he says - whew, that was a long one mommy :-) He is doing really well in school and has been participating in group activies alot more as well. I am really quite proud of the small changes I have seen in him lately. He is sleeping through the night maybe 4/7 nights and the other 3 nights, I just set the timer for 5 mintues to lay with him, rather then staying in there like I was. I am hoping this way transitions him into sleeping a full night alone much better. Time will tell.
We are all pretty excited for Christmas this year too. it's the first year the boys have actually "got it" and are excited about Santa and opening gifts. This year has been a year of many firsts for them. On Dec 1st we got a pretty huge lake effect snow storm, that dumped 4 feet of snow on us in a 24 hour period. We couldn't get out, couldn't get to work or anything. We were in a state of emergency, had a driving ban in effect and the schools were closed for 2 days. Well my boys, who never in the past have EVER worn, boots, gloves or hats, wanted to go outside and play. We managed to get not only those items on them, but snowpants as well! If you got a christmas card from us this year, you'll see the picture of them all bundled up ready to go. It was so adorable and they had SO much fun! They've even been out a time or two since then, and Colin even wanted to go out again after he fell into our pond! It was completly covered in snow from the storm, so you had NO idea where it was, he was playing and got sucked in by the water. Mike had to rescue him and he was done that day. It took DAYS for his clothes and boots to dry. Never mind the fact that he smelled like swamp water. blah!! So with all of these exciting firsts in the past few weeks, we are more then excited to see what 2011 holds for our little guys/Courtney as well!
