So, what have we been up to? Well, we're back in Missouri again for school [if our plans would stop falling apart that would be GREAT] and back to the good 'ol employment hunt [ugh]. I have been battling depression the past couple of months and it was pretty bad. You can read a little about my struggle on my personal blog. Luckily I have been back on some working medicine again so I seem to be getting back to normal. I am doing well with my new jewelry businesses I have started. I make and sell my own metal stamped jewelry for fun [I call that business Funky Jean] and I also signed up with Paparazzi last year. It's been a lot of fun and has definitely helped bring in some extra money which is always a plus!
We started homeschooling this past fall with Madison since she's officially in Kindergarten. It started out a little slow and I was starting to get nervous, but I finally feel like we are making some real progress with her. She's learning how to read and can do her addition and subtraction problems really well! I taught her the touch points system and I'm so glad I did! It's helped me with math so much and now I'm glad I could pass it along to her. Knowing she can do basic math without having to rely on her fingers is such a great feeling! I'm going to blog about it on my personal blog at some point. If anyone here is interested in learning about it, follow my other blog and be on the lookout. Also, Madison just turned 6 last month and lost her first two teeth! I can't believe how big she is getting!
Katelyn is still Katelyn. Nothing has really changed with her to be honest except she just keeps growing. She's exactly 1 inch and 1 pound less than Madison. The girls get asked if they are twins all the time! I've been also doing some home school stuff with Katelyn and she does really good as well. She's learning to write all of her letters and learning their sounds at the same time. I wish I would have done this with Madison but ... you live and you learn, right? Katelyn will be 5 this year and I can't believe it! Her favorite things to do right now are watch movies and re-enact them. Her main pick as of right now is The Lion King. She loves to pretend she's a lion and has this awful sounding roar that sounds more like a sick animal. But, I guess its closer to the real sound than your generic child sounding "roar". She's also pretty darn sneaky and I find myself having a pretty hard time with her sometimes. She's going to be the one who challenges me the most.. at least so far!
Allyson is growing so fast and it makes me so sad. My baby girl isn't a baby anymore! She's just recently started singing along to songs with me and saying two or three words together. She's also answering my questions and actually telling me what she wants. Last night she even used a spoon the right way for the first time! She probably would have learned that quicker but I've been lazy. That's what they say about having kids though right? You get lazier and more laid back with each one? That's definitely been the case with Allyson. Plus, we're just tired. She's definitely going to take the cake when it comes to who had the worst "terrible two's" stage. This girl gets into everything! We like to joke around all the time that she's are little wrecking ball, bulldozer, or football player. She's so funny though, you never know what she's going to do next!
Nathan has been absolutely AMAZING and helping me soo much with the kids. On the days where I couldn't get out of bed, he was up being Mr. Mom. I can't even begin to tell you how grateful I am for him! The kids have discovered a love for video games [Madison with Mario and Katelyn with Star Wars] so he's pretty much in heaven right now. I guess I don't really need a little boy anymore - he's got my girls wrapped around his finger! I still have hope with Allyson since she's still so little though [haha]. Nate has also been dealing with his own depression problems that have been difficult, but I'll leave them off of the blog. It's not my place to put his personal business out there for everyone. We're hoping he gets back to work again in the very near future.
That's the "nutshell" version of our latest news as of right now. I'll try to be more detailed in future posts. For now it's time to run. I am helping a sister in our ward pack her house for her upcoming move. We all know I have plenty of experience in that department!
