Things I take for Granted- Post 4

Today, I realized that I have taken advantage of having a dog.  Yep.  Our dog Koa, is taken advantage of almost everyday. 

This 100 lb Chocolate Lab is climbed on, pounded by tiny fits (petting) and is called upon at all hours of the day to clean up the floor in the kitchen and the dining room.  We force him to pick up all the macaroni noodles, the scattered cheerios and even the remnants of steak when dinner is over.  A "Suffrage for Dogs" movement needs to be started in this house.
I have knowledge of some families (even larger than ours) where they don't have a dog.  Those Mom's and Dad's get the time of their life cleaning up Jell-o and sliced hotdogs all by themselves. 
In reality, Koa is such a fixture in our home as a family member that even though I wasn't a fan of a dog the same height as my 3 year old running through the house when we brought him home, now I can't imagine not having him here to protect Sam and Dallin from the horrible Monster Mama, greet them as they get off the bus, or clean up the popcorn as we watch a family movie.

Things I take for Granted- Post Three

In our part of the world, October and Early November is hunting season.  For the months before I take for granted the fact that my husband shaves nearly every Sunday before church.  That combined with me not having a haircut day for about 3 months turned my husband into this:

                                                          Boom!  Caveman or Hobo!
In celebration of the end of hunting season as the sun set on November 9th we did a little work on this mess.  And then with a little shave (okay 30 minutes in front of the mirror and a clogged sink) I received this as a present on Sunday:

                                                                    Mr. Debonair
Too bad we didn't think of beforehand to go do some mysterious deed.  Grateful for the return of my engineer husband. :)

Things I Take for Granted- Post Two

My boys have a steady bedtime.  Every school night between 8 and 8:30 they are in bed.  For the weekends it is between 8:30 and 9.  They also always wake up at the same general time every morning.  This is a great blessing I realized I take advantage of after having some additional young children staying over the last 2 nights.  Like now.  9 pm and the only one in bed is my little Matt.  Off to go encourage the other 2 biological ones to sleep and flat out beg two not so biological ones to do the same.

Things I take for granted. Post One

I love how I can hand Sam a cookie.  And while he takes a bite I hand him a second one and say "Give this to Dallin."  As soon as the cookie touches his palm he runs to the room Dallin is in shouting "Dallin, here!"  The same is with Dallin.  I handed him 2 bowls of popcorn to bring upstairs while the boys watched a movie. "One is for you and one is for Sam."  So I have heard, it is not the same matter in other houses.  I love my boys!

Family Update!

Our year so far has been mainly uneventful.  We were all sick with the flu within the first week but since then we have been tip top.
William has been doing well at work and had his end of year performance review where his boss said that he had been an excellent employee. Not just good, but excellent.  We hope that means that he will get a raise.  William also got a calling in our new ward this month.  He is a team teacher for the CTR 7 class with another brother in the ward.  They are quite the group, 5-6 boys every week with one girl that joins them when she is having a weekend with her Mom.  It is a very... exuberant class.  In January William also turned the big Three Zero.  We had a fiesta and had a few friends and family members over.  It was quite the party.  The food was obviously the center piece with the pinata coming in second.  William got a brand new office chair for his birthday. After 10 years of his old one it was time for an upgrade.  After the party Tom, Tammy and ourselves went to Tucano's to celebrate.  It may just become the annual double date for us so that Tammy and William can get their free birthday meal. 
Erin has been working on New Year's resolutions.  She came in $10 under for the grocery budget in January.  She also is another 4 weeks further along in her goal to have a baby this year (why not have one goal that you know is going to be said and done for sure?). On Saturday she accompanied her family on a trip to Twin Falls to see her brother Justin go through the Temple for his endowments.  He is leaving for the Atlanta, Georgia North mission on Feb 22nd.  Erin has also been trying out a lot of new recipes from Pinterest. It is nice to have a few new recipes to liven up the menu.  Erin is also working on figuring out the layout of our garden now that we have ordered seeds.  We can't wait to have fresh veggies to pick and snack on at will. 
Sam started public preschool 4 days a week in January in addition to having his Montessori preschool 3 times a week.  He is a very busy boy and has adjusted to a full day with out any naps.  We can see so many improvements as he spends more time away from home learning from his trained teachers.  His words are becoming clearer.  He also is more willing to repeat words that we ask him too.  He calls William, Papa, instead of Mommy.  He is also learning how to share and follow directions better.  He is such a big helper and always wants to help us in the kitchen or with cleaning up the house.  One of his nightly tasks is helping to set the table.  He is so strong and he knows it too. 
Dallin is always in a hurry.  He runs everywhere he goes and knows when he is getting into trouble.  When Sam is gone at school he has a hard time staying out of trouble.  He just had his 18 month check up today and was a whopping 26 lbs and has a very steady growth range.  He got to shots, whined for a little bit and by the time I got his pants back on he was running down the hall giggling at the large stuffed animals.  He tends to copy cat whatever Sam does.  So when Sam runs through the kitchen and into the bedroom Dallin takes off after him.  Our dog Koa is his best friend when Sam is gone.  It is very entertaining to watch them stand at the front window together.  Dallin will start shouting and then Koa will start barking as a car passes or somebody walks by. 
Our friend that lives upstairs, Amanda, is a big part of our life.  To help us out she does the dishes and watches the boys if I need to go to an appointment or go pick up Sam from preschool.  She has been struggling with life in general for the last year, and just this weekend things started looking up.  She has gotten a job as a paralegal for a reputable LDS lawyer here in Boise.  She is the boys Aunt Amanda, and it is always fun to see them interact. 
As a family, we made a bunch of snacks and watched the Super Bowl last night.  Nobody was routing for a team, but we had fun listening to Sam as he shouted "GO!" at the T.V. while he waited for the teams to snap the ball.  Dallin was a big fan of Amanda's puppy chow (muddy buddies) and constantly had white hands and a powdery mouth.  As far as commercials go, we all got a kick out of the M&M's commercial the most.

If this post seems a bit... odd, it is because I adapted it from our family newsletter.  It really does do a good job of letting you know where and what our family is doing. 

Its been awhile

I would count myself among those who are not fantastic bloggers.  Seeing as I haven't wrote and published an update on our little family for many months.  Life has been crazy, just like it is supposed to be.  At points as I look toward something in the future I say, "Things will be more relaxed and much less hectic after ..." some said event like, William's graduation or the Halloween Party.  Right now at this moment, there is still a list of goals for the day, blogging not included, but I did feel that a quick view into what our life has been doing was in order.  William Graduated with his Electrical Engineering Degree in May and started work as a Software engineer 2 days later for CradlePoint Technology in Boise.  We started looking for houses shortly after and in July we found and put a bid on our "dream" home. In late August we got the keys and started with a few minor improvements that would be harder to complete once we had all of our things here.  We moved in officially on the 20th of September.  Boxes everywhere crowding and cluttering the main rooms.  But as life is crazy there was more to do.  A baby shower to plan, a jewelry party to clean the living room for and latest cleaning and decorating the entire house for a Halloween House Warming Party that came off beautifully with close friends and family invited to our home.  It is truly amazing how much life can change in 5 months!  To add to the fun, we found out in September that we are expecting.  With a May baby added to the calendar there still has not been much time to think and get to excited for the addition.  We feel very blessed.  I used to think that when William graduated from college with a degree in engineering that we would be instantly "rich".  Of course I was thinking financially.  But as of now I can testify that is not true, we still have enough for our needs, but the "rich" feeling is instead permeating our life in blessings.  Some how we had enough to replace windows.  Some how all of the house was able to be finished in time for guests to visit.  Some how I just know that life, despite its crazy twists and turns, will give us as a family the time and opportunity to learn and grow to become better people.   
This blog is obviously not at the top of my priority list, but becoming the person that can make it through each day and lay down in bed saying that my goals are done and know that my friends and family have helped me along the way is a wonderful feeling. 

The Waiting Game Begins

I am going to skipping the boring parts and just say, my Dr. has diagnosed me with mild pre-eclampsia.  He also said I am 2 cm dilated and 70% effaced.  With that diagnosis, he is going to induce me on Monday morning if I haven't gone into labor myself before then.  I had a nice talk with the baby on the way home from the appointment yesterday and told it that if it wanted to choose its birthday that it better get out of there before Monday.  

So here I am, and I just want the baby to come now, when it is more convenient.  Is that so bad? If I wait until Monday I will lose my babysitter for Sam the next day to Girl's camp, as well as the possibility that my sister that is our cameraman will still be at work.  That means I would need to go find replacements.  So on top of waiting, with the pre-eclampsia I am supposed to put my feet up and drink lots of water while taking it slow and not really doing anything.  I am already bored out of my mind, so I keep imagining that I am having contractions, which would mean that I could call William and have him come home from work.  But I can't do that when I am just imagining them out of boredom.  

Then on top of that, I still want to finish cleaning my house but I don't want to overdo it.  My carpet needs vacuumed and then cleaned so my sister can have her carpet cleaner back, the bathrooms need a little TLC and even though I just swept and mopped the kitchen it needs it again due to Sam spilling his wet cereal in little puddles as he walked across to the sink.  I need help but don't have anybody to ask because it wouldn't be appropriate.  And I can't ask William because he works 10 hours a day and how can I ask him when he gets home after 10 hours of working to go and do things around the house? 

Complaining done.  Off to watch Sam destroy the house while I wait, and then wait some more for nothing to happen. :(