Holy cow!!! I can't believe that it's been over a month and I haven't written anything!! That is really sad, considering that I don't have any school work to do right now. I do, however, have four kids, so I guess that it kind of evens out. Summer is here in Cody in full force. It officially begins when I start to get really annoyed by tourists who don't know how to drive :) Seriously folks, with inventions like GPS now, you should be able to navigate your way around our small town without going 10 miles an hour on Sheridan Ave! This summer we have several things planned. This weekend Ashlyn, Ava and I are going up to Cut Bank, Montana to celebrate my Great-Grandmother's 95th birthday. She actually turned 95 in April, but this is most convenient for everyone's travel plans. That is probably the only big trip that we'll take this summer.
Updates:
For those of you who don't know, Jame was let go from his job in March and has been doing temporary stuff to help pay the bills since then. He did have an opportunity to be the Chief of Police in Byron, but who really wants to be THAT guy?! Everyone hates him and after talking to the new Chief of Police in Powell and getting some advice from him, he decided that it wasn't worth all of the trouble and stress that he would have to go through. He would be away from us for ten to twelve hours a day six to seven days a week, he would have to work up to fourteen hour days during Byron days, they neglected to tell us that the house that they were going to provide was demolished and the land was sold earlier this year, he would be required to write a minimum of sixty citations every month and we would have to change our plates to 9 county :( So, after careful consideration and prayer, he decided not to take the job. Since then, it's been temp work and continuting to look for and apply for jobs. We're keeping our fingers crossed and saying our prayers that he hears something from somewhere soon. We've applied all around the states and right now would be more than willing to move if we found a good fit. Thank goodness we saved our tax return because that has saved our hide, that and paying our tithing :)
Ava is growing big. She is awake most of the time and has quite a sweet personality. She is a happy baby and I am so excited for my mom to meet her this weekend! Ashlyn is pretty excited to see Grandma Kathy and her cousin Hailey too!! There's also a swimming pool in our hotel, so she's looking forward to that was well :) Mugga calls Ava, Avy and I have to say that I kind of like it. I might start calling her that too, before she's old enough to get confused :) Anyway, she goes to the doctor tomorrow for her two month check up and I'm hoping that she and I both do okay when she has to have her shots :( I hate that part!
Addy is eighteen months old now and she can FINALLY go to Nursery at church! Can I get a Hallelujah?! The girl really knows how to push my buttons. She gets into stuff she's not supposed to, has quite an attitude problem and doesn't seem to grasp the concept of NO! It's a good thing that she's cute or she'd be out! Let's hope that since she entered the terrible two's early, she gets over them quickly because right now it's a battle of wits and I don't know how long I'll be winning when school starts again!
Breckin got screened and registered for kindergarten. I met with his IEP team and the team from the Children's Resource Center before his screening and we went over his IEP together. He'll be seeing the Speech and Language Pathologist for some of his pronunciation issues and the Occupational Therapist for the tremor in his hands, it's hereditary, from his dad. He has been attending the Kindergarten Readiness Camp for the past two weeks and will continue next week and the week after. They like to give the Head Start kids a little more time so that they can become better acclimated to the environment and the rules of kindergarten. So far, things have gone pretty smooth, with the exception of the incident with the bus driver this morning. I just have a very low tolerance for rude people and when he tells me that we need to be out there waiting at 7:20 and by the time I get him on the bus and back up to the apartment, it's 7:21, I kind of lose my cool. Don't worry, he'll be hearing about it either this afternoon or tomorrow morning. He should be aware of his poor attitude! This is why I don't want my kids riding the bus, every bus driver I have ever heard of has been a jerk!
Anyway, Ashlyn is bored. I told her she could clean her room, but that's boring! We have a list of things to do this summer, but it's been kind of hard to accomplish when there are naps to give, a house to clean, laundry to do, meals to plan and make, messes to clean up and a number of other things. Last week we had a water day with some of their friends and they loved it! This week we're going to Montana. I think I'll try to have a goal for each week. I would love to truck them all over to the park, but it's kind of difficult with only a one seat stroller. I need to find a double stroller so that we can get out of this house more! She is a great helper though, and I really enjoy the special time I get to spend alone with her. We have been reading some of the American Girl books for the summer reading program that the kids are doing. We went through one in a day and will probably finish another one today. That's good because we have to take our trip to the library tomorrow since we won't be here this Friday when we usually do it. Ashlyn also got new glasses! She picked some out that I really didn't think that she would like, but she loooooves them! It wasn't that big of a deal and she got a pretty good treat for being so compliant with the eye doctor :)
Here are some images from our summer so far!!
Finally, I have turned 29. I am officially going to enter my 30th year of life. I have been married for eight years, I have four children, I have moved a total of seen times in my life, I have taken trips across the country and I have had a very blessed life experience so far. I am so grateful for all of the family and friends that I am priviledged to have. I have learned so much from all of them. I am also very grateful for all of the experiences that I have had in my life, they have helped make me who I am. Through the trials of this life, I have found that I have become more optimisitc and hopeful. I feel that this is one of the divine gifts that my Heavenly Father has given me. I have always thought of spiritual gifts as more temporal things, but I have learned that my bright outlook and attitude in the midst of difficulty is something that I have been truly blessed with. I wouldn't give up this gift for anything! This year I was inspired by another blog to come up with a word of the year, a word that I would live by for the year, so until next June, my word for the year is DREAM! I have a lot of dreams and aspirations that I would love to see fulfilled, many of my dreams I have already seen come to pass. I have a beautiful family that I am close to and I love, I am able to live in a place that I enjoy and that I am comfortable in being in, I am able to continue my education in a field that I enjoy and I have passion for and I have a great support system around me to bouye me up when I feel low. However, there are still many dreams (big and small) that I have yet to fulfill and that is what this year is about! So wish me luck and come back here to join me on my journey to follow and fulfil my dreams!
So, I think it's pretty good that it's only been 10 days between posts as opposed to more than 30 :) This past Friday, the Cody Rec Center celebrated their 11th anniversary, so I took the kids up there to have some good, clean fun. We started out with some of the outdoor games and I am proud to say that both kids hit the target on the dunk tank! They both have their mommy's athletic abilities! Then we did a little bit of slipping and sliding. When we went inside I was a little apprehensive to let them get into the water by themselves, but they begged and begged and they both know how to swim pretty well and they both were ready to wear live vests so, I went ahead and let them play in the shallow end while Ava and I supervised. They had so much fun. Breckin waited under one of the water toys that pour water out when it is full and there was a little incident involving a full moon of half of the pool. However, he did recognize what had just happened and pulled his pants up quickly and returned to playing. Ashlyn grabbed a floating lily pad and was kicking her little heart out. I see a future in competative swimming for her :) Ava slept, watched the kids, ate, and slept some more :) Later, the kids participated in some of the games they had out to play. They one some small prizes that are now lost in the deep recesses of their mess of a room! I'm sure that my vacuum cleaner will find them eventually.
Last weekend, Ashlyn, Ava and I made a weekend trip up to Cut Bank, Montana for my great-grandma's 95th birthday celebration. My mom finally got to meet Ava and play with Ashlyn some. The first day,we picked my mom up from Great Falls and we just spent some time with family and then I took the girls back to the hotel so that they could get some sleep before the party the next day. The next morning Ashlyn and I both woke up at about 7:00 and Ashlyn (who was sharing a bed with Grandma Kathy) informed me that her bedmate snored. I busted out laughing, so did my mom. We got ourselves ready, ate breakfast at a cute, old restaurant in Cut Bank and then went over to see how we could help. We set everything up for the party and then entertained guests for a few hours, visited with family and had a really great family dinner prepared, in most part, by my grandma and my uncle. Later that evening, the kids wanted to go swimming and so my mom got in with Ashlyn and my aunt and cousin got in with my cousin's daughter. I opted out because of the questionable color of the water. No body contracted any disease though, so I guess I could have risked it :) Ashlyn saw the 11th hour, that last evening and my mom and I stayed up until 2:00 am just talking and catching up. I really miss her :( The next morning we had breakfast that my great-grandma made for us, which was great, and I took my mom to airport. Ashlyn and I stopped at Sonic and sugared up for the drive ahead. We finally came home, exhasted, at about 7:00. It was a fast but happy trip. Oh, and did I mention that we went to Sonic? :)
Today, with the help of some really great tunes, I have gotten the fridge cleaned out and some much needed housework done. I did, however, sleep in until 9:00 which was really nice. I haven't slept that late in probably a year. I feel well rested and ready to tackle the day as well as some of the projects that I've pinned on Pintrest. I started in the kitchen by chopping up some veggies and whatnot for the jar salads I found on there. They are for next week when I'll be washing some windows and just want to be able to grab something really quick for lunch. Here's a pic of some of those.
The rest of the day consists of painting Ashlyn's toenails to look like lady bugs and repainting my own finger nails a pale pink with black french tips, also Pintrest finds! There are also some little projects I have in the works. So, here's to sleeping in!
P.S. Just for fun, I took this picture of my brother as a baby while we were at my great-grandma's house. Have you ever seen a cuter, fatter baby?!
