AWOL

I know I have been a terrible blogger lately. I have great intentions of getting pictures on the computer and telling you more than you care to hear about our family... but as it is for now, its just not happening.  Let me give you a brief update on everyone sans pictures.  And next week, once the house is really on the market maybe I'll have a moment to sit and upload/edit/post pictures.

Bolton~ This sweeter than honey boy is so much fun!  He is so full of life and energy.  He loves to be outside and if anyone in the family is outside he thinks he needs to be too.  He is saying a lot of words these days, "mom, dad, no, ow!", have been around for a long time... but he's adding things like "Dora and Boots, snack, banana" to the mix now too.  I should record all the words he's saying, but don't want to take the time right now. He still loves to snuggle and I love that.  He has become the 19 month old terror at church, making Sacrament meeting quite a joke for Ethan or me.  And he loves to watch TV.  Unfortunately, he's had lots of practice at it lately and now he asks for it every morning after breakfast.  He drags me over to the computer, turns his yellow chair to face it and climbs in making the eager sounds of happy baby boy.  We sure love him.  He is growing and changing a lot.

Eliza~ She is the funniest little thing!  She has such an adorable voice with a slight twang in her talk.  When I describe it, it totally sounds like a Texan accent, but it doesn't really sound Texan coming out of her mouth.  She does similar things to words as Texans, but in a different way so its her own.  She elongates the second syllable of lots of words.  Such as, "Da-ad" and "Sna-ack."  It makes me giggle every time.  I love it!  Paired with her voice (which is just indescribable) she could say anything and make it funny!  She gets to sit with a lovely couple during Sacrament meeting these days because we just were unable to get any reverence out of our kids when she was sitting with us.  I know there are other people who could use the help more than us, but if they aren't willing to ask or accept I'll be glad for the help!  She still sings all day and she loves to dance. She is very girly and only likes the girls in shows and only likes cats (or ca-ats, as she would say) because they are girls.  But she does like all the colors, though pink and purple are her favorites. We're doing our best to keep the girly factor low at our house and she keeps up with the boys with her crazy antics and love of all things rough, tumble and dirty.  We sure love her.

Levi~ Ethan and I were watching a home movie the other night and we could hardly believe how hard it used to be to understand him. We're so used to being able to understand him now that it came as quite a shock!  He is still emotional, but I think he's a lot happier since we can understand him.  He's just built like his momma and feels things passionately, whether good or bad.  He is loving school (for the most part) and has such a great teacher, we really feel blessed.  He is reading really well and doing great with math.  His handwriting is great.  Now if I could only get him to be happy about doing homework.  He already fights me on it anytime he has math homework.  We let the boys all choose a sport to play this spring, either soccer, baseball or swimming.  He is in swim lessons and doing pretty well, getting very comfortable in the water.  He and Bryant are great friends, most of the time, but he still plays pretend with Jonas a lot when Bryant isn't around.  He's got the best of both worlds with those two big brothers.  We're still working on the thumb sucking problem, but love all the snuggles that come with it for now.  He is a sweetheart with lots of love to share! We're happy he's ours.

Jonas~ I am so excited that he is finally getting really, really comfortable reading!!!  I have been worried about him for the past year or so.  It has been a struggle but something clicked in the past couple months and he is a reading star!  He still doesn't have much attention span for sitting and reading if anything else is going on, but that may never change.  He's an easily distracted kid. :)  When we gave the kids their choice of sports he was elated that he got to choose baseball. He's been wanting to play it for the last 2 years and we finally didn't miss the sign up! Down side, he hasn't started yet.  They can't start until March 1, so only a couple more days!  He is still Mr. Imagination and oozes creativity.  This world must be so boring to him, the one he lives in in his mind is much cooler, I'm sure.  He's become a little more sensitive lately, feeling bad about hurting people or crying about others hurting him.  One morning I went in to wake him up and said, "Time to get up Jo." To which he shouted/sobbed, "Why don't you ever say please when you say that?!?!?!"  It was hilarious.  Poor guy takes after his momma in his love of sleep.  First one asleep at night, last one awake in the morning.  He is good friends with Bryant and good friends with Levi, but when they're all three together he tends to get picked on.  I don't know what to do about it.  Jonas is the life of the party and he brings us all a lot of joy.

Bryant~ He is growing up.  Granted, he thinks he's more mature than he is, but he is definitely maturing.  He is the opposite of Jonas on the sleep scale and is the last one to sleep (I even fall asleep before him half the time) and the first one awake.  While we were watching those home videos I mentioned earlier we noticed that Bryant never stopped moving... some things never change.  The boy has en.er.gy. Getting it directed toward a good cause is sometimes a challenge, as his idea of playing with the boys is some form of tackling/wrestling or playing wii (which means he shouts at them to do what he wants).  But once we get him on track his energy is such a blessing.  He is a super helper at cleaning up, with the little ones, and getting ready to get out the door.  He is funny, too.  He doesn't stop talking, ever. He's full of knowledge and just wants to share it with anyone willing to listen (he'll even keep talking if he's being ignored, poor kid).  Ethan is really enjoying having someone to share his sense of humor with and other fun grown up boy things.  They go to cub scouts together each week and I think they both treasure that time they get together. Bryant will join Ethan's den next month!  So exciting!  We are so thankful for him, for his good example and for his love.  Love him!

Kim~ I am up to my eyeballs in housework.  Whether its cleaning or trying to get things ready for the house to sell I eat, breathe, sleep the house right now. Its not a fun existence.  Last week I got super sick and lived between the couch and bed for four days.  It was miserable, but a nice break. The house wasn't even on my mind.  Of course, I'm regretting that now because the mess got bigger while I was "out."  I've got a couple creative projects brewing in my mind and I'm looking forward to working on them.

Ethan~ He has enjoyed the interviewing process I think.  I'm sure he's anxious to find out where we'll be headed this summer (I am!).  He feels pressure to get things done on the house too, but doesn't really have much time or energy to do much about it.  Although made extra good use of his time yesterday and trimmed our big tree a ton so our house is now fully visible.  He is really looking forward to being at the VA and being more challenged by his work.  He is the Bear Den leader for cub scouts and is doing a great job.  I think he really likes it, although it is challenging.  We both are enjoying the spring Texas weather.  Gotta enjoy being outside while we have the chance.  He keeps the family going and makes us all smile and run to give him hugs when he gets home from work.  We're so blessed to have him as the leader of our family.

Wow.  I had a lot to say.  Surprise, surprise.  Hopefully I'll have pictures (of events and the house) next time I get on here.  Until then, hope you and yours are super happy and well!

Just in case you were wondering...

At lunch today, Eliza informed me, "Jammer means jam in Spanish... I mean in sign language. Jammer means jam in sign language." She comes up with the funniest things. Just love her.

Tucson

The first of Ethan's five interviews for the residency was this past weekend.  Since it was only a 12 hour drive we decided to load up the family and make a trip of it. We were able to stay at the AF base there and it was awesome! 

Of course, it wasn't all sunshine and roses... it never is, right?  I don't remember the reason for the breakdown, but here's the evidence.  On the plus side, this was probably the biggest problem of the trip.

Our room had a playground right outside.  It was perfect!  While Ethan was at his interview we spent time playing outside and watching movies.

It was a beautiful day!

Then we walked over to the BX for some lunch.  Of course, we had to stop and climb some palm trees.

And pizza with ice cream for lunch can't be beat.

Then when Ethan finally got back to us we went in search of a mountain to climb.

Check out how huge this sahuaro is! I have to admit, as much as I wasn't impressed with the city, our hike was a highlight.

It was really nice to be in the mountains again!

And one of the Arizona's nicknames is the Sunset State... we saw first hand why.  Sorry my lens was dirty.

Ethan has his second interview today, with the Lexington VA.  Next week he's headed to CA and then off to Cleveland the following week.  We won't find out where we're headed until March when all the Residency matches are announced.  We'll be sure to let you know as soon as we know!  We're so excited!

Hanging Out

 We've been enjoying some lovely Texas winter weather.  I love when the stars all align and my kids all play nicely together.  Sometimes it just has to be captured on film... or, uh... my phone.

This was such a sweet moment watching Levi and Bolton play together.  Bolton just loves his siblings.

Of course, the sweet moment was ruined when Levi took his pile of sand and poured it on Bolton's head.

Clean up is always a good time of day.  Doesn't my cute girl look so happy in her new towel from Grandma Hoss?

Bribery never tasted so sweet...

Way back in August we started a good behavior campaign with the kids.  We made a "chart" that was basically a huge banana split.  The bowl was made of around 25 squares (think checkerboard), then there were two "scoops" of ice cream, chocolate chocolate chip and strawberry, with two bananas and a cherry on top.

The squares on the bowl, the chocolate chips, strawberries, and bananas each had to be filled in with a good behavior by one of the kids.  When they were all filled in we would take the kids to the local fro-yo joint.  It only took 5 months for them to fill it all in.  But filled it in they did!  And fro-yo we enjoyed!

Hooray for good behavior!