Joy

Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Zoo Day

Last week we had the pleasure of going to the zoo with Jenni Jacks and her girls, and Jenni's mom who helped corral everybody! 

 It has been quite  awhile since we've been to the zoo.  
 
It was the first time that Joy has been able to appreciate it.  They liked it very much and we were so happy that the day was cool and cloudy.  All of the animals were out and we stayed much longer than originally planned.

Snack break!

This is the first time ever that Paige fed herself something.  We have been baffled at her inability to self feed but the day before I had worked with her on it all throughout the day and it payed off! It was a joyous moment.


Milking the fake cow

Joy didn't mind the goats!  It was quite a different reaction from the last time we saw goats.

 When we left all the girls felt like this.
 What a fun time we all had!



Monday, April 14, 2014

Getting Back on Track

Here is a post to get caught up so I won't be overwhelmed and will be able to start blogging again.

Our lives have been full the past few months.

Full of Frustration:  Paige is 9 months old.   It seems like 9 years.

  This little girl makes sure my arms are never empty and that every moment of silence is broken by fussing.  She is draining.
She does smile and laugh occasionally and it seems that she is just starting to not hate life.

 Praise the Lord she started crawling last month and trucks herself wherever she wants to go, on her terms.  This has made her a bit more tolerable - as long as you don't go out of the room!  She will sit up, flap her arms and scream and cry if you move away from her too fast.  She likes to eat her mush food - which was a step the other two girls bypassed so I am always making baby food her and hand feeding her cheerios as she is spastic with her hands and doesn't even try to put them in her mouth herself.


Full of School:  Claire's school is going swimmingly.   She likes it after the initial protest every morning. Her reading suddenly clicked and she can read practically anything.
We have yet to cover silent k, gh and a couple other odd balls rules. Yesterday she took her assessment test in reading and scored 96% and then cried and cried because she missed 3 and didn't get a perfect score. 
Math is going well too, besides her everyday math lesson,
we do a few Kumon book pages for extra practice.  She loves to do them and they have REALLY helped her with telling time and counting coins.

 The other subjects are too easy and take all of 3 minutes to complete but she enjoys them.

Full of Joy:  Joy has her moments of 2 year oldness but she is mostly as sweet as can be. She is so fun and carefree!

I love the upper 2 through 4 period of life and she is just starting it.  I wish all three of the girls could be this age all at the same time so we could see how they would all look together and interact.  Joy gets taken advantage of and manipulated often by Claire.  She is starting to realize this and stand up for herself so they are not as harmonious together as they had been.


 
They love each other though and if one is napping or banished to their room, the other misses her terribly.

Full of New Beginnings:  In January my brother Bryan, got engaged to the sweetest girl, Rachel Johnson.  Their wedding was the end of March. With Josh officiating, Claire the flower girl and myself a bridesmaid, we were busy.  I am glad to have a new sister-in-law and friend.

Photo: The couple that dances together...

Full of Work:
Three days after Rachel moved out here, a job opened up at my work.  My job is to sort and mail invoices and statements to all of the customers in Arizona and the job that opened up was to do the same for California customers.  It worked out perfectly for Rachel to get the job and now she can enjoy the benefits of working from home which will be great when she and Bryan have kids.  I also lobbied to have the invoices sent directly to my house instead of having to drive into the office in the ghetto of Phoenix to get them.  We started that procedure a few weeks ago and it has been going great! Rachel and Bryan bought a house 2 miles from ours so it is perfect for helping each other and dropping of paperwork.


Full of Old Friends: Jenni Jacks and I have been friends since early high school but after I moved to Laveen and she moved to San Tan Valley we never saw each other anymore.  Since we are a lot closer distance wise now, we make a point to get together every other week and let our girls play together.

What are the odds that we would both have 3 girls in a row?  It's a lot of fun and chaos when you get 8 females together.

 We typically get together in the evening since our husbands both work late and we have dinner together and make freezer meals for ourselves and each other.  I very much enjoy our time together.

Full of Dates:  With family close by to baby-sit and things to do close by, Josh and I have been on more dates the past few months than in the first 8 years of marriage.   We even took dancing lessons with a groupon I purchased. I never knew how complex dancing is!  Even with our lessons we still need a lot of help. We BOTH enjoyed them though and are looking forward to opportunities to try it out.

All right,  now that I gave an overview I will able to go back to my weekly blogging.  Here is another picture of Paige being happy - just because they are so rare.