Sunday, August 31, 2008

Amazement

Last night Mallory told us that she wanted to sleep in her little bed (toddler bed). Since we already had it in storage the idea didn't really appeal to us. Then she mentioned that she would sleep the whole night in her bed and not get out to climb in bed with us. That did it, we were sold. John had the bed put together in about 10 minutes and Mallory was so excited to go to bed. She fell asleep quickly and we were really happy about that. Mallory woke up once but didn't climb into bed with us so we count that as a plus. This morning when we walked past her room she had made her bed by herself. She even wanted to help make our bed look "all nice." I only wish this keeps up. Sometimes I wonder where this kid gets this stuff.

Thursday, August 28, 2008

Forgot...

To those who read our blog..family and friends...you are welcome to come to the Big party Mallory can't stop talking about. It is an open house type of party. It is on September 6 from 5pm-7:30pm at our house (if you need to know where it is email us). Please don't feel obligated to come I just wanted to get the word out in case someone did want to come. We will have food and if I get my way LOADS of it. John hates that I do pampered chef now because I can't seem to get enough of their recipes and cook them. Let me know if you would like to come and I will wrestle the crowd for a piece of cake to save. Have a great Labor Day weekend.

School Days

School is back in session for John and I as of yesterday. I was really excited thinking it would give me something to do with my time when the girls are in bed. Then I realized, what about the cleaning, laundry, getting ready for the next day...so on and so on. I am still very much dedicated to my schooling but have now decided I am only going to go half time, that is until I am done with kids or the older ones are in school all day.

Mallory starts preschool on Tuesday and can't seem to talk about anything else. Well I guess that and her Cinderella birthday party. At least 4 hours a week I will have only one child that claims all my attention and I am REALLY looking forward to it. Besides Mallory thinking she is smarter than I am, she has also decided that she is going to tell me what she wants to do as her activity. Everyday she pulls out her leotard and says "Mom I want to take dance." I give her "the look" and she adds "please oh please!" I don't understand where she gets her dramatics. :) John please don't comment on that because, yes, I realize it is from me.

Sadie is in her independent stage. Everything Mallory does she has to do also. The other day at the park Mallory was climbing up a slide so Sadie defiantly walks up to the same slide climbs up and proceeds to climb it. It wasn't until she was sliding back down on her tummy did she realize that it wasn't going to happen. I came over and picked up and told her she can do it when she is older. Sadie squirmed out of my arms and threw herself on the ground to throw a gigantic tantrum. I walked away, once I checked to make sure she couldn't hurt herself, and acted as though she was someone else's child. I love being a Mom!

Saturday, August 16, 2008

Back Home Again

Well, I'm glad to be done with that training. It has normal Army training - lack of sleep, some cool things made not as fun (except the Helicopter ride). I did some really good things there, but also some not so good things. Well, one not good thing anyways. I had to take the pt test twice before passing, which is not good. But I did do perfectly on the land nav, and shot better then I ever have - 35 out of 40. It doesn't quite classify as an expert, but it was only one away. So it is the highest sharpshooter score you can get. I've never shot above a 27 before that. There were some other things that we did, like repelling, a few obstacle courses, and other such things. We did have a ten day period in which we got around 3-5 hours of sleep a night while camping. The 5 was if you were extremely lucky, none of it was continuous sleep. That was interesting sleep. Now I just have to get back into the swing of things for work as well as get ready for school. There is a lot to do there. So I'm back to get ready for a more hectic life. One step closer to getting on with my life after school. ( I would really rather that be now, but I guess I must have patience.)

Mallory starts preschool in two weeks as well as Kathy starting a new semester at UVU. She has finally picked her major and is working hard towards it. Her degree of choice is a BA in History emphasis in Public History which is more U.S. History than World History. Sadie is walking or should I say running everywhere and is a very happy toddler.

We are still trying to buy a house but with me being gone for 5 weeks and missing pay our savings has gone down so we are working on building it up again. We are hoping to be able to buy a house in January if not sooner.

(Written by both John and Kathy)

Friday, July 18, 2008

Life without John

As some of you know John is gone at an ROTC camp called Warrior Forge. He is gone for 5 weeks and sadly for him the kids won't stop growing. Mallory has decided that she wanted to be potty trained. Thankfully for me it only took 1 week and it has stuck. Sadie has learned to run now and is losing much of her baby weight. I spend my time quilting, crocheting, and chasing after the 2 girls. I though that staying so busy would make the time go by faster, until I looked at the calendar today and realized John has only been gone for 6 days. This is going to be a LONG 5 weeks.

My parents are living with us now. Well I guess it would be we are living with my parents since this is their house. We took care of it for them while they were on their mission. When they got back they decided they wanted to live in St. George, but that only lasted about a month. Now we have a full house and lots of helpers when it comes to the girls. I don't mind the few extra minutes of sleep I get until Mallory comes in and says, "Sorry for waking you up but I NEED pancakes." I guess Grandma doesn't make them as good as I do.

My goal is to get some pictures up on the blog so you can see how big Mallory and Sadie have gotten. I hope I can get that done before John gets home.

Sunday, June 22, 2008

Follow Up News and a normal occuring life.

Well, I guess this time just wasn't meant to be. Kathy Miscarried, so we won't be having a baby in February. But we are young and more babies will come (we hope).

On another note, the flapper in the toilet in our bathroom had a rubber "chain" on it. Well that "chain" broke, so I got a new flapper and put it in. Well, that flapper didn't flush right. So we got a whole new flush set, the tube, the flapper, and the part that goes between the tank and the bowl. Well I was installing the new stuff, I saw a year stamped into the tank - 1977. The guts looked to be of about the same age. I also noticed some cracks in the porcelain. I didn't think much of it put the new stuff in and reinstalled the tank, and flushed a few times. It was leaking water all along the bottom. I tried tightening the bolts. but that only made things worse. It was leaking out of the cracks. So, we had to get at least a new tank. Since I don't own the house, my wife called the owner, my father-in-law. He wanted to replace the whole toilet. So I went out and mowed the lawn, and Kathy and I ran some errands, and we get a new toilet, in addition to a 1/4 turn shut off valve. We get home, got the girls to bed, and I go to town on getting the rest of the old toilet removed and the new one installed. As I go to replace the shut-off valve, I find out that they have copper pipe stubbed up through the floor, not a nipple. This stinks quite a bit because the current shutoff valve has some problems and really needs to be replaced. Unfortunately I can't go get one to fit because by this time, of course Home Depot/Lowe's is closed. The rest of the Toilet installed flawlessly, and it is definitely better than what was there before (no forceful jet on the old to help things move along = lots of clogs). That was the bulk of my day. The typical one to one and a half hour job turns into a 3 hour affair.

Sunday, June 8, 2008

News for those who don't know

Pregnancy Wonders
Well, number three is on the way. Hurray! Kathy is currently 7 weeks along. We are excited for this one. We had a little scare because Kathy had some light bleeding during the time she was supposed to, but everything seems fine now after confirmation with her doctor. She is showing most normal signs of pregnancy, except sickness. So far for names we have Jackson John and Meagan or Jenna Suzanne. That is the news of the family.