What we've been up to

So our life has been completely crazy for the past few weeks. Steven decided to leave his law firm after deciding it just wasn't working out with the new partners they had recently joined with. He has a little bit of work and some job prospects, but we're trying to figure out what will happen next. If he is not able to get the job he applied for with Ada county, he can continue to be on his own for a while and we would probably just do fine. It has NOT been a smooth transition and there are some disagreements with the firm, so it's been a very stressful and frustrating couple of weeks.

School is going well for me and I really enjoy it. Brynley loves her babysitter (and the 2 babies that she gets to play with during the day) and even gets to go along with preschool with some of the other kids. It makes leaving her so much easier when she loves where she goes and has such a great time. She tells me that Johnny is her best friend - and they have a blast together.

Lukey will be 6 this week - on Thursday! I can't believe it! Can you believe it's been six years since the day we bombed IRAQ? (Yes, I will always remember that Luke was born about the same TIME the first bomb went off over there - it was on TV in the background and Dr. H and the rest of us would turn toward the TV during pushes to see the latest breaking news! Gotta love that epidural!) Anyway, now that you've been educated about March 19th, back to Luke. He's SO smart and his behavior has improved dramatically these past few weeks. We decided to implement the "Stamp" system. He has to behave ALL day (not just in the classroom, but at recess too), no excessive teasing or hitting, and he gets a stamp on his hand at the end of the day (much easier than him remembering to bring home a progress report) For every 4 stamps he gets, he gets his "choice" of what he wants. It may be lunch with mom or dad (at the school), Wii time or whatever he may come up with. Since starting he has really only missed 2 days. (and it's been a couple of weeks). He is so proud of himself and talks about getting that stamp all day long. This is SUCH a nice change from the behavior we had about a month ago. We got several white slips in one month and Luke is such a sensitive kid to weather change and any colds/asthma stuff that I think he needed some extra help remembering to behave himself.

Because Luke and Brynley's birthdays are just a couple weeks apart (brynley on April 6) we are just going to have a joint party for the two of them with family over Spring Break.. We'll probably just decorate the gym at the church half pink and half "mario" so they can still feel like they get their own parties! (Brynley wants a pink birthday with pink presents!) Here's the digital invite I made up this afternoon .. I love playing with photoshop and digital scrapbook kits - there is just SO much cute stuff out there, and it's quite a bit cheaper and less time consuming. I just took the kids out to snap some photos this morning, worked on the invite after church and I'll have these printed up tomorrow at costco and in the mail on tuesday!

Shake it

This was too cute not to share! Brynley is obsessed with this song by Beyonce. She walks around shakin her hips and singing all the time.

Life has been INSANELY busy since I got into the nursing program. I am finally starting to feel like I'm not quite so overwhelmed. I seem to be doing well in my classes, even though I feel like there is just so much information that I could never learn it all. I'm slowly figuring out how to manage kids/household stuff/school/ and eventually blogging will creep back into the picture. I'm definately looking forward to spring break (in just a few weeks) and then summer, when I won't have to take any classes and can do some fun stuff!

Michael is now a boy scout and he is SO excited and loving every minute of it. He finished his bobcat with dad's help in less than 2 days, and was able to "Advance" at pack meeting last thursday. He also did the flag ceremony, which made him feel pretty big! I'm really excited for all he is going to learn and do with the Scouting program

Now it's Luke's turn finally - Luke will be turning 6 on the 19th of this month. More to come on Luke later.. it seems like all posts last month have been about Michael! I think maybe we need more of Luke's art! He's doing REALLY well with trying to spell words and figuring this whole letter sounds thing out. He is reading and still loves to write and draw pictures (and make little books or random things). Today he put one of my flower shaped post-its on my door and wrote "hello" on it. It was cute! (and it's still there).