Priorities

Happy birthday Ogden!

Even Paige likes the Scooter

Typical summer Kaelyn

Riding the birthday scooter at the new splash park in Spanish Fork

The house we're renting

Bacon

Girls in the tub

The treehouse

I've been wanting to update this blog for quite a while, but I have kept pushing it aside, feeling like there were too many other priorities that take place of the blog. Here's an update on each of the children:

Ogden

Frog is having a great year so far in 1st grade: 1st year of all day school. 8:00-4:00 (when taking into account bus ride to and from school) is a loooonng day. He loves it though and it seems to have encouraged quite a bit of independence in him. He already is fairly independent, but we are at a new level now.

Last year, I realized Ogden wasn't learning a whole lot in Kindergarten. I don't know if it was the class environment or what, but we were WAY behind. So, we started working on this book called, "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons." I love this book! It was quite the journey and we had our struggles, but it has made the hugest difference in his learning. He knows what is going on in class now and doesn't "tune out." This year he is at the top of his class (says his teacher at PTC), and I am amazed at how fast and how much he is learning.

Ogden turned 7 a couple weeks ago! He had a fun birthday. He got a Razor scooter for his birthday and has spent many hours on it since. This summer, I finally allowed Ogden to climb a non-sap-producing tree and he has turned into a monkey. Now he loves climbing trees, playgrounds, door jams, and just about anything he can. Julian just made him a treehouse and now he frequently disappears for long periods of time. He also lost his 2 front teeth and likes to call himself "Bucktooth Wally."

Kaelyn

Kaelyn is my little homebody and is often the other mommy in the house. She loves taking care of her little sister and even offers to take out the diapers. Sometimes as a consequence, I'll find a "mommy job" for the kids to do, and Kaelyn usually ends up loving it. I learned if I hand her a rag and a bottle of Windex, I'll finally have to tell her she's done cleaning the mirror after 20 minutes. (Is that bad? Could she be inhaling too many fumes?) Or if I have her help me with the laundry, she'll want to fold ALL the clothes.

I'm amazed at what a sponge she is. When we started reading lessons with Ogden she was way into it, so I started with her too. Of course we're going at a VERRYY slow rate, but she enjoys it. She can write all of her letters and knows most of their sounds and is now learning to read some short words. It must be a girl thing. One day when I helped out in Ogden's class, I took Kaelyn with me. I had her sit in one of the empty desks and helped the kids with an art project. She sat there the whole time and colored it. Then, right when we got home, she cut it out and glued it together. I know she can't wait to be in school.

Paige

Paigey, Paigey. She is so much fun and quite the handful. Her little personality is starting to show itself. She LOvES to eat, which is funny because she is so tiny. At her last appointment, we found out she is in the 1st-5th percentile for her height and weight. The doctor wasn't too concerned, but I'm concerned enough that I'm loading her up. I'm not sure if she knows when she's full though. It seems she can go forever! Sometimes I think she eats more than me. She can let out quite the monster scream if we don't keep it comin' fast enough. She no longer is interested in baby food. It seems after she started eating Julian food, she realized the difference and won't go back.

Paige is crawling around and pulling herself up now. She doesn't try to scurry anywhere fast, she just gracefully moves around as needed. I've noticed she's not much of a dare devil either. THank goodness! If I set her on the bed with me, she won't even go to the edge. She has yet to show interest in the stairs. And if I put her on a blanket in the grass, she'll stay on the blanket the whole time.

She cracks us up, because ever since she was a couple months old, she has had this grace about her. If she sees a bowl of milk on the table, and it is barely in reach, she will gracefully spill it over with her sticky fingers. She can grasp anything with those little hands without any effort.

And Us

We sold our condo! It's been a rollercoaster these last few months and I know it will continue until we get settled in a home. One of my favorite moments during the moving process was when we were having family prayer and Ogden asked, "Please bless that we can get this buttload of stuff out of our house." Our kids have been quite the troopers! We are now renting a home from a lady in our ward, so we're actually just down the street from where we used to live. We did this mostly to keep some consistency in our kids lives with friends, school, and church, before we move into our new house. Our new house. We still don't know where that will be. I can't remember if I blogged about what ended up happening with the Spanish Fork home, but the owner ended up taking it off the market, so we were back to square one. It's actually turned out to be kind of a good thing, because after all the searching we've done, we've found out about other options that would be even better. Currently, we're looking to build a home. It's crazy how affordable building is right now. Probably because there's little demand for it. In the meantime, we're enjoying the simple life--no cable, no microwave, no decor. The Elder's Quorum nailed it the other day when he stopped by. He said, "It's like a newlywed apartment. . .only you have 3 kids." I'm sure we will have lots of good memories! Right? As unsettled as we are, it is nice to be completely debt-free (thanks Dave Ramsey) and saving for a new place.