Spring is Coming!

Wow, time flies! Adalyn celebrated her first birthday February 13th. She finally decided it was time to crawl just a week before her birthday. Now she is all over the place and quite pleased that she is so capable. We now keep gates at the top and bottom of the stairs, as she can crawl up the stairs but can also fall down them. (Luckily she has not fallen down more than a step :-) She enjoyed playing in her own little birthday cake (see pictures) and probably got more of it on her head than in her mouth. We have found that the red-eye-reducing flash only reduces red-eye in Adalyn by getting her to close her eyes for every picture. She is so funny!

We've had a few weeks of mild weather, with a few snow storms here and there as well. We had one day that our power was out for about ten hours, and another day where half of the power was out in our house. At first I thought we had blown a fuse or two, but after doing some re-wiring in the breaker box my neighbor called and told me they were having the same problem. By the end of the day all the power was again functioning normally.

I was struggling with a cold for a week and as I was unable to knock it out completely, my congestion developed into a sinus infection. I finally went to the doctor and got a prescription and I am feeling much better now and thankfully I can taste my food again!!

My work has been crazy busy for quite awhile and I have had a hard time just trying to get little things done around here, like REGISTER AUSTYN FOR KINDERGARTEN! I finally got his paper work filled out and turned in the day before the deadline. Andrew had his junior high registration last week and I had parent/teacher conferences the week before as well. Luckily Andrew's registration was quick and easy and all the kids are doing well in their classes.

I am trying to spend a little more time feeding Adalyn real foods and finding more of a variety of things she can eat. I think it has helped her sleep better at night, she's only been waking up once a night. She has about four new teeth breaking in this week, two on top and two on the bottom, so she is chewing on everything and not always a happy camper :-(.

Ashley lost one of her stud earrings at school so I went to buy her a new pair, as her ears are pretty sensitive to other metals. When I opened the package of studs at home, I found that each of them came in their own little spring loaded piercer, so I asked Alexia if she wanted her ears pierced. She said yes and after a little numbing with ice I pierced her ears. She didn't even flinch, in fact she said she didn't even feel it. So now she is pretty excited to show everyone her newly pierced ears.

We had a weekend of baby blessings to attend, first on Saturday for my cousin Tiffany's baby boy, then on Sunday for Ryan's sister Emily's baby boy.

Early in February we had to take the van to the shop because it was having problems. Austyn came home from a friend's house and wants to go to WalMart. I ask him how we are going to get there. He says we can take the green car. I ask him where it is, he says it's right there, I tell him to look out the window. He looks out and says "Oh man . . . . mom, what have you done?". Just this past weekend I spent Friday afternoon/evening running errands until after seven. When I got home I was trying to think of a quick dinner I could throw together and I asked Austyn if he would like grilled cheese sandwiches and soup for dinner. He responded "no . . . . could we have boy-cheese sandwiches instead?". I got a good laugh from that, but it took Ryan a minute to understand what he was talking about, so I explained that Austyn must have thought I said girl-cheese sandwiches.

Ashley has decided she wants her hair cut, and Ryan has convinced her to go for an A-line cut. He found out that there is a salon in the Layton Hills Mall where they use a razor blade to get a really smooth cut, so that is where he wants to take Ashley. Although I think there would probably be a closer place he could take her, it might be fun for them to take the 30 minute drive and make a fun daddy/daughter afternoon out of it.

Ryan and I spent the Saturday afternoon before Valentine's Day out with Adalyn. Since Andrew is almost of legal baby-sitting age, we have decided to start taking advantage of that every other week and get out for a couple of hours. We had fun with Adalyn, just running a few errands and going out to eat. While we were walking through Costco Adalyn pulled of one of her socks and dropped it on the floor. Ryan picked it up and was holding it. Adalyn saw this and subsequently pulled off her other sock and handed it to Ryan to hold. All was well when we arrived back home and the kids only called us about four times while we were out, mostly to ask us when we were going to be home.

The kids had a fun Valentine's Day with little parties at school. Austyn picked Pirates of the Caribbean valentines, but is afraid of that particular movie so he didn't want to keep the box of valentines in his room. He later decided to trade Andrew for some Spider-Man and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle valentines for his friends instead. Ashley, Alexia and Austyn all wanted me to help with their Valentine's Day parties, but luckily they were all satisfied with just a contribution of juice or treats for their class.

Andrew is giving wrestling a try for a short six week league. He has been going for two weeks now and still really likes it, though after his first tournament he wasn't so sure. He came home to tell us how his opponent had three years of experience and easily won the match by repeatedly picking up Andrew and throwing him down on the ground. Andrew still has a few bruises to show for it, but he still wants to keep trying. I think he has the strength, he just needs to learn the moves and holds to be able to do well. Hopefully after a few more practices he will be more prepared to compete. Andrew has also just started to learn to play the organ. We are lucky to live so close to the church so he can easily walk there and practice often.

I have just started working on a new account at work which has enabled me to have a little more time to get things done on Monday morning, since there isn't work available until later in the afternoon. I am not really excited about the change as it means more time and less money. I am now working on vascular, which seems to be pretty much totally opposite of what I have been doing the last couple of years on pediatrics ER. I am still getting used to it, so hopefully it will get better. I may also be doing some orthopedics transcription, which will give me a little more variety.

Anyway, I better get the laundry switched and Adalyn changed. The kids will be getting home from school in about a half-an-hour. Thanks for your emails and updates, I love to hear from everyone! Julie :-)