Catch up

Sometimes the days seem to drag, but the weeks and even months always seem to pass so quickly. The last month has been busy with life. We have taken advantage of every chance we have had to be outside and enjoy the super mild winter we have had. We have been busy with a trip to California, a trip to Phoenix, and little things each day that not only keep life fun, but are continually added to Thatcher's list of things he is thankful for in his prayers each night.

Here are cute James, Thatcher, and Crew trying to find an animal that was hiding at the Phoenix zoo. We got to go together to the zoo when we were down in Phoenix for a doctor's appointment.

Thatcher has had a lot of fun learning new things and going on field trips with his preschool (the fire station and the ice cream cone factory are two recent field trips that he has loved).

Thatcher has loved celebrating Valentine's day. Here are some heart apple pie tarts that Thatcher and I made and Thatcher showing off his Valentines for his preschool class. He had fun making Valentines for his grandparents and dad too, and had even more fun receiving Valentines from all his friends.

Thatcher:

Has the most impressive imagination. He is a very good story teller and comes up with some pretty funny ideas. He is excited about everything which makes even the most mundane things more fun. He is still super obedient, though we have had a higher number of emotional breakdowns and disciplining needs than normal. Thatcher loves to read. He always has a plan in his head about the proper order in which we should do things and even though he is willing to compromise, what we end up doing usually is his version of a plan.

Thatcher was sick a few weeks ago and he is the best sick kid ever. After throwing up all over his room, we brought him in our room to sleep with us. I gave him a bowl just in case he felt sick again and a few hours later in the pitch black he was at it again. I turned on the lights and ran over to him and he had thrown up right in the bowl I had left for him. He was such a sweet heart through all of it.

He has such a funny personality and always makes me laugh whether he puts his bug net on his head and says, "I caught a Thatcher" or tells me stories about, "When I was a little boy...". Thatcher has gotten really good at saying his own prayers and he is very thankful each night to his Heavenly Father about all the fun things he gets to do. Lastly, Thatcher has started a little soccer class that is once a week for an hour and he is loving it. I love seeing him start to do little things that are his own. He won a game the first week and was very excited.

James:

James is still James. He always wants to be held, touched or tickled. He always wants to be naked and holding his blankets and pit. He is so snuggly and sweet and so naughty on a consistent basis. Things that he is saying lately that crack me up are: "My try", "excuse me, I burp", "I did it!", "I caught you", "Don't catch me!", "Wait me!", "Bless you" (when I sneeze), and "Yes." The 'yes' is the funniest of them all because of the intonation he uses and it is always a very perfect and emphatic 'yes.' He loves to play hiding games with anything. He loves to hide himself or just hide his hands or his feet and say, "Where'd they go?" and then say, "Peekaboo." He is still a hoarder and I have been finding funny surprises in funny places like a toy from Kristi's house in his big raisin box.

Yesterday he had a number of successful trips to the bathroom. He is so stubborn and naughty I knew I probably wouldn't try until well after the baby and the move and that he would probably close to 3 before anything happened, but yesterday he was naked all afternoon and initiated climbing on the potty three times and went by himself. He peed 3 times and pooped as well one of the times. He ended up wearing underpants all afternoon and seemed pretty excited about all of it too.

Me and Ty:

A few weeks ago I was feeling like I wanted nothing more than to jump ahead three months in time so I wouldn't have to face the end of my pregnancy, moving, finding a new place to live, potentially finding a new job for Ty, and studying for and taking this certification exam for aerobics. I am still kind of wishing the time away, but I feel like I am in better spirits. My back has been hurting a little less and even though I am uncomfortable and tired the majority of the time, I am proud of myself for continuing to teach and exercise. I am hoping it helps once the baby is born like I believe it did with the boys. Things with the house are coming along and even though we still don't know when we will be moving, Ty and I both feel like it is going to be a good thing and that things will work out. I am still dreading my test and have spent much more time thinking about how I should study for it than doing studying of any kind. Ty has decided to look for another job, but choosing a place to start applying has been a hard thing for us. We need to be more prayerful and rely more on the spirit to make a decision, but we both feel like the time is right to be somewhere else. Hopefully we are right and we will have all these big changes sorted out sooner than later!

Ty and I went out on a very nice Valentine's date which was a lot of fun and something we don't really make a point to do every year.

Oh, and the last two weeks Ty and I have entirely devoted our evenings to watching Downton Abbey. It is a series we have loved and after Sunday night we will have to wait a year for another season which will be a bummer (but a blessing too since I will hopefully have more motivation to study).