Growing up

Our little family is certainly growing up fast. Chloe is in second grade and doing wonderful. She is amazing at spelling and vocabulary. She is also preparing to be baptized. She is very excited about it. She is a wonderful big sister. She loves to help out with everyone else. Mostly I think she likes to be in charge and feel grown up. We are working on figuring out our roles as mother and daughter. We are so much alike that it is a long process for us that takes a lot of patience that neither of us have most days. We either get along like best friends or worst enemies.

This week she lost another tooth and Mom and Dad forgot to call the tooth fairy. It was a huge deal but the tooth fairy made up for it by writing Chloe a note. That sure is a wonderful tooth fairy!

Jared is doing really well in Kindergarten. He does really well reading but I worry that his teacher doesn't see how far along he is. The books he brings home are not a challenge for him at all. He flies through them so I just try to get him to read harder books at home to me.

Jared has more energy than all the other kids put together. He loves to wrestle with the younger kids and pin them to the ground. Unfortunately they don't like it quite as much. I wish we had enough time, money and vehicles to put him into a sport. I thought school was supposed to get some of their energy out!

Reba is working on potty training right now. She has tried in the past but she hasn't gotten the hang of it quite yet. We think she is ready physically but not mentally. She just doesn't want to go potty. Maybe this time we will be able to stick with it and get it done. I would like her potty trained before she turns three.

Reba loves to play with her little brother. She gets to be the biggest while the others are at school. She loves Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Zoe from Sesame Street. Elmo is another front runner for her.

CJ is getting so big. He now has 9 teeth. He has stopped having ear infection every few weeks. We are very grateful for that. Sleeping through the night is another milestone that we are very grateful for recently. He has started giving kisses to us too. He says Da-da very clearly. He says Mama too but it doesn't mean Mommy. It means Gramama. Its really cute.

We are very excited about next month. Colby will be 18 months and he will be "legal" to go into nursery on Sundays. That will be a relief for Ken at least. He has been taking Colby with him to classes when he can for a while now.

I have been busy with the same old stuff with a few variations. Taking care of the kids during the day and night with the added chores of the wife and housekeeper always take the spotlight. I also have been working with Chloe's teacher to fulfill my duties as a room parent. We are making a spice garden to auction off at the annual Spring Fling at their school.

I also have my calling at church of Nursery worker. That is a challenge. We now have 3 people in there but there are almost 15 kids and 12 are there regularly. We have the set up to do and the lesson and story time. We also have set up and clean up of snack. Unfortunately we have all had things that have come up and there are rarely three of us there. We have to get helpers each week.

Ken is working hard at Massage Envy. He went back to Utah a few weeks ago for a couple interviews. He got the Massage Envy job in American Fork but we are still waiting to hear from the Corrections job. That one would be the ideal one for us but we are trying not to get our hopes up. He did great on the physical though.

Ken has also been playing on the church basketball team when he is here. He has fun getting his exercise and getting to know some of the other men in the ward. The kids love to go with him. Sometimes to cheer and sometimes to play with the other kids that go to watch their dads.

We are planning our move back to Utah sometime in the next few months. It all depends on Ken's job situation and the sale of my mom's house. It has been on the market for a couple weeks now and we have had one couple come to view it. They seem like they are interested. We are just hoping and praying that they want it and make an offer.