Life with the Four of Us

Well we are adjusting to four-dom life pretty well, I think. Ethan is an awesome baby and he actually lets me get some sleep at night most days (nights?). He is probably close to 10 pounds now, which his sister did not achieve until probably close to 4 months or so. He's definitely an eater. Which is probably why he's more of a sleeper than Audrey was too. He's had some spit-up troubles, but I started feeding him in more of a sitting-up position and he is doing remarkably better- it's nice not to have to change both our outfits 5 times every day. Audrey is getting so big and so close to terrible twos. It's crazy to realize in just a few months my baby girl will be two. She really doesn't have so many problems with tantrums right now, it's mostly just she ignores when we ask her to do things or to stop doing things. She really is a good girl- it's just interesting to me how all children go through this phase. It's nice to remember it's just a phase... and it will pass... but my patience is extremely tried in the meantime! She counted to ten all by herself, unprompted just the other day- I think it was Saturday. It blows me away how big and grown-up she is getting.

Summer is finally here! Sort of... it froze last week and killed a bunch of people's gardens and stuff. We were lucky and procrastinated our garden-planting until this week when it got warm again! We planted peas, green beans, carrots, lettuce, beets, and cucumbers! We are so excited to grow things again! We also cleaned out our raspberry bushes and rescued them from the tangles of evil grass that besieged them so last summer. They look much happier already! However we shamefully neglected our tulips this spring, and they didn't last very long. They fell into the clutches of the aforementioned evil grass. :( We aren't sure what to do with that corner of our yard now... I kinda just wanna run over it with the lawn mower, but... yeah.

Things are going well for us- Thomas graduated (YAY!) and is working still at Allstate here in Rexburg. He has been putting out his resume and applying for different jobs. We've got a couple of rejection letters, but mostly we are still waiting to hear back from places. There is one here in Rexburg we are particularly excited about- we are hoping he will get an interview set up for this week. It's an exciting thing to explore so many options and to imagine what the future will be like, but also kind of stressful/scary.

Now that Ethan is getting older, I'm trying to get back into the swing of things. I have started my long-lost love of Pilates once again, and we go for walks most evenings with our AMAZING double jogging stroller... which I plan to make great use of this summer! I love the feeling of exercising and using my body again since it's been a little while since I have been able to do that! I've also started to get back into my calling (1st counselor in the Primary Presidency) and get crackin' on that Sacrament meeting Program that I'm in charge of... wahoo! And... yikes! But I'm actually starting to get really excited about it. It kind of reminds me of when I used to be in college and have homework and have to write essays and stuff... and that's kind of fun to remember nostalgically, while it's not quite the same cuz I get to play with the primary kids! Yeah! I really love Primary! Oddly enough a great source of stress in my calling is actually the President I serve under. I love her so much and I love working with her and she is so effective... but she is one of those ladies that is ALWAYS busy doing something and serving and is so involved in everything, and when she is given a task or sets her mind to do something, it's done before you can turn around and say "what?" It kind of stresses me out, because I feel this pressure to be just like her and be amazing and wildly productive. I knew that I felt stressed sometimes after talking to her (even just on the phone) but I didn't realize how much it stresses me out until this last Sunday when she was out of town and we ran things in Primary by ourselves. I realized I didn't get stressed about ANYTHING Primary-related that day- which is rare. I'm glad to realize this so I can figure out how to fix it.

I have a lot more I want to blog (as always)... I also wanted to get pictures up on this to go with this post but if I wait to post this til I have all the pictures then it will never get posted... and both children are sleeping... and I am tired! Why am I still awake?! Hi-ho, hi-ho, it's off to bed I go!