I'm so grateful for my life and for the wonderful opportunity it is just to be alive, to bask in the love of my family, enjoy the smiles and laughter of my beautiful children, expand my mind and heart through education and the books I read. Life truly is beautiful for me and I consider it a precious gift.
That being said, here's an update. :)
I took two online classes this summer semester and am happy to say that it's over. I passed them both, and really, that's all I care about at this point. It was rather crazy. It was really stressful, especially towards the end. John's family planned a little trip out to the Grand Canyon one day and invited me to come. I had so much school work I should have been working on, but decided to take my kids and go with them. I really enjoyed my day with them. That was my first time to the Grand Canyon, even though it's only about 150 miles from where I live.
The past two years have been a roller coaster ride in regards to having a steady source of income. John had a few interesting jobs this summer that I'm sure he'd like to forget. One, I know he never will though because he spent a 12 hour work day simply wiping off dressing packets at Litehouse Foods! He has been quite anxious to find work that is not only stable and enough to provide for our family, but also something where he can put his skills to use. Cleaning off dressing packets wasn't quite it, although we both get a good laugh at the thought of him spending 12 hours doing so! He applied at a company that just opened up shop in St. George who were looking for people with the qualifications that he has. They are a national company in the trade show industry. He was really hoping to get the job because it purportedly paid really well. Well, turns out, he landed it! They hired him as their CNC operator and he has been working there for a month now. The company is called Czarnowski. We are really grateful to have a steady income, that's for sure. Although John really misses working with his old boss and would probably go back there in a heartbeat if the work became stable again.
On July 26th my hubby celebrated his 30th birthday!
And I can't believe it. It just occurred to me that I didn't even snap one single picture!! How in the world did the thought to take a picture of him on that milestone birthday ever escape me!? wow. ANYWAY. My gift to him was a lunchbox and the promise of 30 consecutive homemade lunches to take to work with him, along with the hope that I'd develop the habit of consistently doing so for him even after that. So far, it's been going well and it isn't as hard as I had imagined it to be.
The first weekend in August, we enjoyed a little getaway at a family reunion for John's mother's side of the family up at a cabin in Fairview. Joseph absolutely loved riding the 4-wheeler and playing outside.
It was a nice weekend. I wish I had made the effort to do more star gazing at night though. The stars were spectacular up there.
The next weekend some of my family came down here to celebrate my niece's 1st birthday.
It's always so nice to get to spend time with family. We hung out at my brother's house for a bit and then went swimming.
Our past swimming experiences with Joseph have never been all that great. He would take an hour before he'd even crack a smile about being in the water. This time, thankfully, that was different. He did need a little warming up to it, but it was only like 10 minutes or so. He enjoyed jumping off the side of the pool into John's arms and going down a little kid slide all by himself.
Every few days since then he's talked about going to the pool again, so I know he really had a blast. And little Kaili just loved her first time in the pool. She went in without a hitch.
Later that same day we went to the county fair and rode some of the rides. Joseph went on a little train ride (twice) with Saydi and McKay. Oh, he really loved that!
And the weekend after that, John and I celebrated our 7th year anniversary!
For the first time we didn't stay anywhere at a hotel, but we did still do something special. We bought tickets to go see The Phantom of the Opera in Las Vegas. What an incredible show!! We both loved it. That stage and theater was so amazing. It was custom built for the show at a cost of 40 million dollars!! But really, there were times when I thought I was looking at a movie screen because there was just no way what I was seeing could be happening on a stage... it was really spectacular.
Now fall semester has started for me and I'm back at school again. Although I'm sure this is not going to be so crazy this semester because I'm on campus, and it's 4 months instead of 2! That summer was just too much! Anyway, the classes I am taking are motivation & emotion, and personality theory, both with the same professor. I already totally love both of them.
Now a quick little bit about the kids...
Joseph is a very intelligent little boy. He's been learning how to work the computer and has become quite proficient with clicking and dragging. He loves the little phonics ABC activities on
starfall.com and I would not be surprised if he begins reading within the next year. He is always surprising me with what he knows and I just love listening to his cute little voice. He's quite the talker.
He does watch more tv than I care to admit, however, it's only his favorite shows of Blue's Clues and Ni Hao Kai Lan over and over and over again. Some days I'm really ready to just throw that tv out of the house.
Joseph is such a cute big brother. Lately he goes to Kaili and smooshes her cheeks and says, "hi punkin!" And he loves it when I take pictures of him with her.
He is a HORRIBLE eater. Not only does he refuse to try ANY sort of new food, he's recently decided that he doesn't even want to eat the things that he DOES like. So I've given up on trying to feed him... I just let him tell me when he is hungry so I don't waste the time and food making something (that he DOES like) just to have him tell me he won't eat it. His diet consists of milk, yogurt, cheese, cereal, bananas, chicken nuggets, spaghetti, mac & cheese and peanut butter & honey sandwiches. That's about it. I am SO jealous of friends who have kids who will actually eat different foods and try new things. My neighbors little girl's favorite foods are fruits and vegetables. *whimper whimper* I've finally decided to really stick to it with the whole potty training thing and Joseph has been doing really great.
He's down to one, maybe two accidents a day and has even had a few days where he didn't have any accidents at all! I feel extremely brave keeping him in underwear when we'll be out of the house most of the day (like today was), but he has been doing really great.
Kaili is doing so fabulous!
I'm still breastfeeding with her and am really proud of myself for having stuck it out. I tell you what, it was a really big challenge for me and there were plenty of days I was ready to quit! But it has been really nice to be able to do it this time with her.
And she's apparently getting all that she needs cause she's basically doubled her birth weight already! She weighed 6lbs 6oz when she was born and she weighed in at 12lbs 3oz at her 4 month check up last Wednesday. She is a very smiley baby and has the cutest little giggle.
Within the past few days, Joseph has been able to be the one to get her to laugh the hardest. Kaili has also taken to sucking her two middle fingers. She
loves sucking on those fingers!!
Those happen to be the same two that John sucked when he was little too. She rolled over from her back to her tummy one and only one time so far and that was a week ago. She doesn't so much like her tummy time and always makes a lot of noise when she's there.
Kaili has this awesomely fat double chin that has a way of always really showing up when I'm trying to take her monthly picture. Although she doesn't really look like this all the time, I just though it was too cute to pass up sharing.
Well, it's getting super late, and I'm caught up. So goodbye! :)
