Two Steps Forward

The theme of life lately feels like two steps forward, one step back. Some days it feels like two or three steps back. I’ve been pretty absorbed in this little dance that it feels like I fell off the face of the planet. The dishwasher died yesterday (oh wow, another unexpected expense) so I’m fed up and decided to blog instead of doing a large pile of dishes by hand. Here is what’s been going on in our life.

Our New Home:

 

For months, I’ve been meaning to post pictures of our new home. It’s just not going to happen for a while.

We love Lehi. We love living in what feels like the country; we live in a subdivision, but there are still lots of fields and horses in the area Before, we lived so close to state street, we got used to the loud rush of cars all day/night long. It’s so quiet here. We still conveniently close to things in downtown Lehi and shopping.

I love my new view of the mountains from a distance. The sunrises and sunsets are amazing with the full view of the sky.

 

 

 

I love having a yard. We haven’t been able to play like I would like because of the crunchy old snow we got from storms at the beginning of year, but I have great hope. The other day, we took out four large rose bushes that had been planted too close to the fence and were starting to damage the fence. It was a warmer day and the dirt smelled so good—like spring. I have missed doing physical work in a yard and how much better I feel afterward mentally and physically. The previous owner did very little with landscaping so we basically have .3 acre lot of a blank canvass of lawn for me to work on. Some preliminary thoughts—I want a large shade tree in the back, lilac bushes (love because they bloom near my birthday), bulb flowers, a few fruit trees, and a respectable vegetable garden.

Our home was built in 2000 and I don’t think much if anything has been updated since then. We will definitely be replacing flooring and doing painting—the house is still painted mostly contractor white. I don’t know when this will happen—apparently you need money to do stuff like that.

My mom gave us a lovely housewarming gift. This dinning set belonged to my grandma. My mom had the chairs reupholstered (they were a yellow/brown pattern). It’s neat to have something that belonged to my grandma and the table my mom ate at growing up. I’d love to go with the retro theme for the entire kitchen (again money!).

 

 

Colin:

Colin’s company got the I-15 remodel in South Davis County. He’s been extremely busy as they rush to get the project going. (Geotech work has to happen before the other parts can be designed.) He’s definitely been given more responsibility at this new company. We are hoping things slow down and are less stressful by the time baby comes.

 

Annie:

 

Annie has been just terrible lately. She is living up to the expectation of terrible-twos. She’s defiant and destructive and then she gives you a hug and says “I love you”. My biggest battles with her are to get her to ask for things in a happy, pleasant voice instead of resorting to whining/screaming/crying the very first time she asks for anything. Also working on her listening. And not throwing a fit when we say “no”. And not playing/destroying things that aren’t toys. And not coloring on walls/chairs/toys/everything. She doesn’t listen and is constantly feeding Rosie her food. Rosie is always right next to Annie when Annie eats.

Otherwise she’s delightful. She goes to nursery happily and talks enough and clear enough to fool people into thinking she’s much older than she is. She’s obsessed with princesses which I will tolerate for a little while and then I hope she’ll move on. We’re well on our way into moving her out of the crib. She sleeps on the bottom bunk with Jackson most nights without problem. Every once in a while she just can’t settle down to go to sleep and she sleeps in the crib.

Potty training isn’t happening because she does not comprehend the concept of making herself go. She can be dry for 6 hours straight so that makes having her sit on the potty for long periods of time pointless. I’m waiting a while and then I’m going to pump her full of liquids one day so she we have a better chance to get something in the potty. It’s so different from Jackson who went potty the first time we put him on there—boys must pee much more frequently. 

I’m amazed at 2 years old, how much Annie cares about how she looks and her interest in clothes, hair, things that are pretty. She changes her clothes several times a day as she finds something new she wants to wear in her drawer. She gets compliments often that she’s pretty—I try not to let it go to my head.

Someone mentioned her doing preschool (joy school) and I was caught off guard. I honestly never thought about what I was doing for her school and I felt guilty—she’s the middle child that’s going to fall through the cracks. I guess we did joy school for Jackson at age 3, so I should probably do it for her. She just seems to learn things on her own; I’ve never once sat down to teach her to count or her colors, but she can sing parts of the alphabet song and can count to 11 (I think…). Ugh, I guess I should do better.

 

Annie loves “parrots” (pears).

Jackson:

Jackson spends most of his days playing with Legos. When he’s not playing Legos, he looking at the Lego catalog and asking if he can get different sets. When he’s not doing that, he enjoys playing house with Annie, which if you ask me is the messiest thing they play because they get so many different things out (books, dress up, play food, stuffed animals, blankets and pillows) and usually their house is far from the toy room. When he’s not doing that, he’s playing with his new friend Rosie. It’s an interesting relationship—he’s way too rough on Rosie and Rosie acts in kind and likes to put her mouth on him in that playful puppy way which can hurt. They play chase and wrestle. I’m sure Rosie see’s Jackson as another puppy. I can see their relationship being very strong someday as they grow up together. All I can say is that Rosie is a very patient dog—I almost wish she’d react more when he’s doing things that are probably hurting her so he’d learn to stop. It will be wonderful when winter is over and we can get out of the house more.

Poor Jackson is the only boy in his preschool class now. He still likes going but I really wish his class was bigger. He’s registered for Kindergarten and I would take him there right now if I could.

Jackson is very interested in designs and building (got that from Colin) and lists and organization (got that from me). I’ve never seen a kid who could keep track of time like he does. He always wants to know what happens each day/week/month. And he can remember if you say something is going to happen on Saturday, he’ll remember, do the math and say “so and so in coming in three days”. He loves notebooks and binders and backpacks and ways to store things. 

Baby Girl:

I’m 27 weeks (tomorrow) or about 6 months pregnant. I still haven’t been feeling growing pains—perhaps I’m already all stretched out. She’s not a very active little girl and I can go all day with not feeling her much—don’t worry my placenta is up front and I do feel her daily.

I still feel like I can run and be active but I can tell that’s going to get harder real quick. Last week I ran 2 miles without stopping (slowly 14 minute mile pace). I have been feeling isolated so I figured out where I could play basketball with some women. Our stake doesn’t do it so it took some doing to figure out when/where a nearby stake does. They welcomed me and were very friendly (why I love playing church basketball) but I was disappointed I really couldn’t keep up. These women weren’t overly competitive, but they knew what they were doing and were in good shape. I think I overdid it and was pretty sore the next few days. I really, really want to go back this week but I can’t imagine it being any easier. Maybe I’ll just go and hang out with them and keep score.

I have been in denial about having a 3rd child—kind of overwhelmed by what’s on my plate already. But I’m starting to get used to the idea (it’s about time!). Some of our baby stuff was too old/no good so we have to buy some things to get ready. I bought a new car seat and double stroller (a sit and stand). I bought a new bouncer seat and monitor. I think we need a dresser for the baby and diaper and wipes and we’re probably good to go. Grateful to have girls born in the same season so I’m not going to need to buy any girl clothes.

The carseat/stroller I bought because it was on clearance and the stroller seat can support a kid up to 50 lbs (most are only to 40 lbs.).

 

Our callings at church:

Our new ward is fine. People are friendly. Like our last ward, demographically it’s very young with few elderly people. The big difference is that it is all houses, no apartments, so the turnover rate is low. Also, there aren’t many young married couples without kids. So lots of kids.

Colin and I area sunbeam teachers. I was a little disappointed because this is what my calling was before we moved. I thought I’d done my time with the little monsters. I admit I had a sting of jealousy when they called a new assistant camp director.

I do love little kids, but trying to teach/control/wrangle eight 3 year olds is really hard. I’m trying to remember if I made the mistake and prayed for more patience recently. When it comes to callings, the most important thing to me is that I feel like I am needed, that I’m doing some good and that’s easy for this calling. It’s hard to get/keep primary teachers that are reliable and kids this little desperately need consistency.

Our batch of kids seem to have a very difficult time sitting and listening or cooperating. At all. I have this sinking suspicion that these kids can’t sit and listen to my very age-appropriate and fun lessons because they are used to TV/tablets/computers to entertain them. Sigh. I think I might have to start rewarding kids for sitting by giving them chocolate chips throughout the lesson and train them like a dog. Colin keeps saying he doesn’t know how we are going to handle this class after the baby comes. It’s a valid question. Hopefully in the next three months they will mature a little and listen better.

 

Me:

 

I have been doing so much better since December and January are over. I still have a small cough/running nose from my marathon of colds that started Christmas eve. The trade off for me not getting nauseated during pregnancy is that my immune system goes wacko. So now that I’m not sick and that I can see spring coming, I feel much more hopeful about life.

Now if we could stop getting sick, stop having little child or dog created emergencies, stop having inversion or cold fronts, and stop having unexpected expenses we might be able to get ahead in life.