Oct 7, 2013

So, it's been, um, awhile to say the least. Here's a rundown of where we are in life:

*Kalaya is almost 4 1/2. She is in her second year of pre school at a new school. It's a 5 day a week, afternoon Pre K and she is loving it! It's less than 5 min from our house, which is super convenient. In fact, I found a used bike trailer on Craig's List and when it's not pouring or nap time doesn't go too long, I've been riding to and from her school with the kids inside. They love it! We celebrated her fourth birthday in May with Super Why/super hero themed birthday party. She is a wonderful big sister and it's a joy to watch them becoming friends and playing together. Her favorite things these days include playing pretend and dress up, jumping on her trampoline, drawing, cooking, baking, reading stories, jumping in puddles, princesses, and Doc McStuffins. She can write all her letters, upper and lowercase and is reading!

*Jakiah is now 20 months old and busy busy busy. He is extremely active and loves to run, climb, dance, and explore. He talks so much and picks up words very quickly. I lost count around 100 words and that was several months ago!! He knows all of his uppercase letters and is quickly picking up the lowercase and numbers as well. He loves airplanes, trains, cars, trucks, balls, Thomas the Tank Engine and following Kalaya everywhere. We celebrated his 1st birthday in January with a Very Hungry Caterpillar birthday party. We are still very active in our church play group and have been on lots of fun trips this year.

*In June, Nelson took our youth group in a mission trip to San Francisco. This also ended our five year run as youth ministers. It was a great experience, but we were ready to move on. The kiss and I rode down with the group part of the way and stopped in Chico, which was where I grew up. It was very surreal to take my kids to places I went as a kid and to hang out with childhood friends and THEIR kids! It was an awesome trip.

*The kids and I had an amazing opportunity to go on a cross country trip this summer. We flew to Washington DC to visit my brother and niece. We then drove to Georgia to visit our cousins and to Alabama to visit my grandparents. We were gone for 2 weeks, which was a looong time away from Daddy, but it went so well. We met up with my mom and the kids did amazing in the trip! It was definitely stressful flying with 2 kids by myself, but they really did do phenomenally! I was about as prepared for everything as I could have been.

*While I am still home with the kids during the day, I have been working part time as a swim teacher/lifeguard since January. It has been going really well and it's nice to have something for myself and a way to contribute financially to the family. I'm still trying to find a balance between providing the income we need/want and not getting overwhelmed by hours and taking away from the family. This session I'm working both weekend days and I don't think I'm going to do it again any time soon. It's difficult to do anything as a family on weekends, since it takes a bout half of my day. I also work Tues and Thurs evenings. I may try more week days instead of weekends this winter.

*The most exciting thing in our house right now is that we are heading to Disneyland next week!! I can't wait to share our experience, I am so excited!!