Mayonnaise....Mustard....CATCH-UP!

I've been putting this off for so long since there is just so much to catch up on, but I'm just going to cover the basics for family history purposes and get on with blogging in real time again. That's the goal.

So here we go....

October

Meg had her tonsils and adenoids removed. She also had tubes put in her ears and a cluster of lymph nodes removed from her neck. The cluster of lymph nodes were not reacting to antibiotics and worst case scenario would have been lymphoma. Yeah, that was not funny. But, all is well. Meg's nose has cleared up since having her tonsils out and her vocabulary has exploded. I'm pretty sure she wasn't talking much cause she couldn't hear. Not to mention that her tonsils were touching and it probably hurt to say much. Poor baby.

And then, before we left for home, she tore the stitches out of her neck. NOT a happy camper.

November

My baby turned three. How did that happen? Seriously.

As soon as Meg realized her birthday was coming she started talking about her "bird-day pardee" and "Jocie and Hudson come to my bird-day pardee" so the lucky girl was spoiled with a little baby party. Neither Sirri or Connor had friend parties when they were three! Oh well. It was fun and sweet. We hda some friends over for pizza and Elmo cupcakes. I love three year olds. They are easy to please. We celebrated that night as a family at McDonalds and later at Grandma and Grandpa J's with an Elmo cake.

December

Christmas this year was so special as we spent it in Boise with all my family and were able to meet my new nephew, Luke, for the first time. It was so great for the cousins to get to hang out and get to know each other better. I think my kids' withdrawals from Sarah and Luke lasted clear through the month of January. Not to mention my withdrawals from my sisters.

January

Winter. Snow. Sledding. Cold. Hot chocolate. Cold. Snow. Kids can finally manage all their snow clothes by themselves. Cold. Snow. Hot chocolate. Winter. Snow. Cold. -25 degrees. Did I mention cold?

February

Ditto.....


And that ladies and gentlemen is why I need to post on a regular basis. Pretty lame-o!

Here's a quick rundown of each of our goings on:

Sirri:

Sirri is doing well in school and is finally catching on to reading. Reading does not come easy or naturally for her but she is really getting there through lots of practice. I'm trying to find the fine line between pushing her and letting her go at her own pace. I'd rather her have a love of reading than be the best reader. She does have a pretty good attitude most of the time and does her hoemwork and reading without much of a fuss.

One thing that does come naturally to her is being social and friendly. On Friday report cards were sent home and Sirri received an S- for both "listens attentively" and "follows classroom rules." She can't seem to follow either of these rules very well because she is always too busy chatting with her neighbor! (I know it shouldn't but this makes me giggle. And a little bit proud!) I do know she is not purposefully being rude or disrespectful and that makes me glad. And yes, we've had discussions with her. She does need to learn the right time and place for socializing and focusing. (Maybe she's a bit like her mom....) She did receive an S+ for being kind and considerate. Sirri has always had a tender heart and would never intentionally be mean to anyone. She is very empathetic and I love that about her.

Sirri's health is still well. We just reached a milestone and she only has to visit Dr. Hancock, her oncologist, every six months now. This makes Sirri very happy. (It makes me nervous.)

Sirri has reached another milestone in her life.....her hair finally fits in a pony tail! Whoopee. Six years old and wearing her first pony tails. The SIDE pony is her favorite.

Connor:

Connor is very much five and very much boy! If he isn't talking about poo, he is talking about pee. What is it with boys and potty humor? He loves to wrestle, play computer games, relentlessly tease his sisters and wakes up every morning starving.

Connor is still loving school and is looking forward to kindergarten next year. He is starting to read a little himself and loves to try sounding out words. He also loves to work with numbers. He is always counting things, adding and subtracting things, and amazing his mom with what he figures out in his head.

Now that the weather is finally starting/trying to look like spring, Connor can hardly contain himself. He asks me bright and early every day if it is warm outside yet. Even though it's not, he still bundles up and heads outside to ride his bike. It's like he has reunited with a long lost pal with that bike.

Meg:

Even though Meg is now three, she will still cuddle with me (or pretty much anyone for that matter, she just loves to snuggle.) This makes me happy. She better still be cuddling with me when she is thirteen, if I have a say so! She just has a way to make you feel so loved.

Meg is now a Sunbeam at church and she is so cute. She does pretty well most Sundays and sits (cuddling on her teachers lap) with her class and does her best to be reverent. I love to watch her sit with her arms folded singing the songs. Singing is one of her favorite things and she tries to keep up with the big kids even if she just sings nonsense. She does this in Sacrament too and it is so cute. I never tell her to be quiet cause it is so darned sweet. And I think the people siting around us like it too!

Meg is still our early bird and doesn't let anyone sleep in, ever. At least now she can climb out of the top bunk by herself so Kendon or I (mostly Kendon) don't have to get up to go get her. She climbs on down and gets right in bed with us. Don't even try to roll over and go back to sleep. She turns my head back, gets her face right in mine and says, "I can't see you."

Kendon:

Kendon is back to running. He is getting antsy for the weather to get nice so he can run outside more often. He is a fair weather runner! He is up to six miles again. He is also eating like a rabbit again, meaning lots of salads and cutting out sweets. He misses the cream filled donuts from Albertsons. He is getting skinny and even put on my size 10/12 jeans the other day. I wasn't sure if i should be proud of him or super annoyed. I think it's fair that I was a little of both! (Just so you know, and to make me feel better, the pants did fit him like stretch pants, not jeans. So, I'm still skinnier! But still.....errrrr.)

Kendon is getting excited about our garden and began ordering all our seeds the other day. It won't be long before he's out there rototilling the garden in the snow!

You can also tell Kendon is ready for spring to come by observing his new hobby. He has taken up building bird houses. I'm pretty impressed with his skills. He has a good time finding places to hang them so that we will be able to watch the birds nest from the house.

In sad news, Kendon's dog, Chuck, that he has had since before we were married, died. He was getting old but it's still sad. To Kendon it's like losing a friend. Kendon told the kids that he is happy that Chuck is running around like crazy in heaven!

Lisa-Marie:

I've been staying extremely busy with my volunteer position for Relay for Life. With every hour that I put in, I feel more and more excited and determined to fight cancer. I have an amazing committee that has made my job so much easier and I'm very thankful for them. We put on a carnival for our kick-off event and it was a huge success! We had over 150 people attend and at the end of the night had 25 teams registered! (For comparison, last year at the end of kick-off they had four teams.) We have had our first Team Captain Party and it was fun and successful as well. I've found that I love speaking to groups about how they can help fight back against cancer and it has been a great way for me to relieve some of the anxiety that I feel.

(I don't have too many local readers, but if you are, and want to form a Relay for Life team, let me know. It's a blast! Not to mention a good cause.)

Okey-dokey. I'd say that's gonna cover it. Stay tuned for more (entertaining) posts coming your way. This blog hiatus has been good for me and I'm feeling blog revitalized!