2012 So Far

An update on what we've been up to so far this year...

Paul is excited that race season is staring again. This includes NASCAR and dirt track racing for him. He's still sponsored by the company he works for and he's hoping to race a little more this year. The kids are older now so I think I may brave it and take them out to a race. It really has been a loooong time since I've been to see him race. I want to say the last time was when I was pregnant with Audrey. As I recall that was the time he flipped his race car and I FREAKED out, of course. He hasn't raced as much post kids as he did pre-kids, but it's a good thing for him. He works so hard and needs to have more time for a hobby he loves. He's also getting a company truck next week which will be great as his 11 year old truck is starting to show it's age a little.
Paul also got one project done that he's had on his list. When he first told me he wanted to put "fake" grass...you know like fake putting green type grass...in our backyard I was not too excited. It's not our whole yard or anything, just an area on the side of our house with sand/dirt and rocks that all kids loved digging and playing it in, but it was kinda yucky. Now it's nice and clean and he's going to build a nice sandbox with a cover that we can put over here for the kids too. I actually think it turned out nice!

I've been working 2-3 days a week since the semester starting in January with the exception of last week {Feb. 13-17}, and have at least 2-3 jobs a week already scheduled through mid-April. One week I even worked all 5 days...1 at preschool and 4 in a self contained 2nd/3rd grade Specific Learning Disabled class, I felt like a real teacher again! {Except for that I didn't have to plan or take anything home!} It was a nice feeling, but I know being a sub is NOTHING like the real thing. Even 5 years hasn't let me forget that! A lot of my jobs are for gals at a preschool I used to work for, so it's usually just 9-1. It's nice because I can take Audrey to school and pick her up. When I work for the Mesa school district I have to arrange rides to and from school for her, which I have great family and friends so it's not too rough. But I like being able to drop her off and pick her up. I've also been having quite a few meetings for church as we start out a new year in the Young Women's program...I'm guessing the beginning and end of the year are the busiest as far as the job of Secretary goes. Just before this post I wrote about the went on a walk from our church building in Gilbert to the Mesa Temple that I did this morning. {read that post here}
I've also gotten in a lot of friend time as I celebrated with different friends for the few weeks surrounding my 32nd birthday. I'm also planning to go to CA again...I know, I just went 3 months ago. But I'm not pregnant yet, so I figured I should jump at the chance again while it's still available! And since I've mentioned hoping to be blessed with kiddo #3 a few times on the blog...and since it's not like a ton of people read this...I can just update you with that in April it will have been a year since we've been trying to get pregnant. By far the longest compared to my other 3 pregnancies {I miscarried my first pregnancy}. I have my annual check up in April and will discuss it with my doctor if I'm still not pregnant by then. I do have to say that I think I am FINALLY at the point where I am content with the thought of not having another child and can manage it without bawling my eyes out. I think Paul isn't quite there yet, though he says he is. We are still hoping it will happen, but we've decided we most likely won't go through the process of any pill taking or shots, etc to try and get pregnant.

Audrey got her second report card and is doing well in all areas at school, her teacher has no concerns. She's also doing a LOT better with her talking and not having to be reminded about doing it so much at the wrong times in class. :o) She is reading longer books now besides the basic 3-4 word sentence decodable ones. It's soooo adorable!!! She still loves school and I am so glad she's having an awesome Kindergarten experience. I can't believe my little girl is 5 1/2 and only has about 11 weeks left of Kindergarten!!!
Audrey was the "Someone Special" for her class the week of Feb. 6-10. The first picture she asked me to take on the first day of her "Someone Special" week. The 2nd one is the last day when she got to bring her poster home that we made for her to keep up in her classroom all week.

During her "Someone Special" week I helped chaperon their 3rd field trip. This time to the Stuffington Bear Factory in Phoenix.


Step 1: Choose Bear Step 2: Stuff Bear


Step 3: Sew Bear Up Step 4: Comb Bear


Step 5: Bathe Bear

Owen probably has the biggest news of us all...at just a couple weeks shy of being 2.5, he's potty trained! Well, it's been 2 weeks and he's done AMAZING!!! It's completely the opposite of how I trained Audrey. While I definitely think it has a LOT to do with the fact that their personalities are different, I could also probably admit that it really is the difference between only having 1 kid compared to having 2! {Any moms interested that may need PT advice, or just stories to make you feel better during PT...read a little about Audrey's PT experience here and here.} Last month Owen just started wanting to go potty, so he for a few days in a row he would ask to go in the morning when he first woke up and at night before bath time. I was very excited, but didn't want to push him. He stopped caring about it for a couple weeks and then earlier this month really started wanting to go again. So I just went along with it and saw that I didn't have any jobs Feb. 13-17 so I blocked myself off that week {but still got asked by a few people}. He's been in underwear only since Sunday the 12th after church---with the exception of overnight and at church just because I don't want them to have to deal with him having an accident if he had one. He's only had 3 accidents in 2 weeks!!! He has been dry when he wakes up almost every day, but since he still has a bad habit of showing up in our bed at night...I'm not chancing it. I've been woken up to kid peeing in my bed before and I'm not having that again! Especially since I unfortunately don't even wake up anymore when he comes to our bed. He is such a big boy I can't believe it, but he still says he's "Mama's baby"!

My Two Super-Silly Valentine Cuties