Have I mentioned how much Jordan LOVES grad school? I ask him all the time what his favorite thing about it is, and he always says "Everything!" And thats good since it requires SO much of his time! I'm happy with the routine that we have going though. We usually drop him off on campus between 6:30-7:30am and pick him up for dinner around 6:00. He'll stay home for a couple hours, then heads back to campus till 11pm-1am. That's our routine Mon-Sat. And it seems to be working especially since he ACED all three of his test this week!!
Last night the PT classes had a BBQ & families were invited. I finally got to meet some other wives from his PT class. There are a handful of us with kids, and tonight some of us are heading to dinner at a Korean BBQ restaurant in Chandler. I really miss living close to family, but it has really motivated me to make some good friends and I'm excited for that. I go walking most mornings with a girl who lives down the street, and I started a meal swap with another girl in the ward. We just finished our first week of the meal swap, and it's awesome! I make dinner Monday and Wednesday and take 1/2 to them, and she makes dinner Tuesdays and Thursdays and drops 1/2 off to us. I usually have a hard time getting back in the swing of cooking after summer sales, so this has been a good motivator for me :)
I've been trying to decide on Halloween costumes for the kids this year. I want to do something simple, and something Disney related. Calin told me he wanted to be Hook, but he's a little too fancy for me (ruffled shirt, coat, hat, etc) so he finally settled for Jake.
And I would love to have Capri be a princess, but I figured those would be more fun when she's older (and has hair) so now I'm thinking about Minnie.
Capri looks so upset in this picture, but she's sitting with me right now looking at the picture and I couldn't resist taking a video of her reaction
We'll see if I ever get around to making them though, I'll probably settle for some Costco costumes (have you see those? They are SO dang cute! I wish Capri would just fit into those princess ones already!!!)
I feel so far behind on our blog that I don't know how to catch up. But I need to.
We were only in Mesa for a week before Calin's 3rd birthday so we celebrated as a family and went to one of the aquatic centers down the street. It was the last weekend it was open, so I'm glad we went before they closed. (why do the pools close so early?! It's a month later and still in the 90's. They should at least open on the weekends right?!)
This one makes me laugh. I don't remember why he was crying. Probably because we were getting ready to leave and he didn't want to.
Lets see if I can do an update on Calin...
We started potty-training him about a month before his 3rd birthday. If we didn't live at Disney World this summer, I'm sure we would have done it earlier, but I didn't want to be potty training a 2yr old at WDW. So I kept putting it off until I couldn't any longer. He was ready and it's been easy. He rarely had accidents, but he would almost always "test" it out to see if he really had to go, so he would usually get a drop on his underwear and we would still end up going through 4 pairs a day. Recently he's been super good about it though, and I rarely have to remind him to go to the bathroom. We still put diapers on him at night, but he has only had 3 or 4 accidents at night in the past couple months, and he never wets his bed during naps.
He's been able to recognize all the letters in the alphabet for almost a year. And recently I realized he can sing his ABC's and only miss a few. I've heard him count as high as 14 by himself, but it's usually 10. For shapes he can identify square, circle, rectangle, triangle, diamond, and trapezoid. He knows all the basic colors, plus a few others (like chartreuse, magenta, marigold, and a few more thanks to Blue's Clues, haha).
He likes to talk. And he talks a lot. And most of the time you can't understand him. Jordan and I are really good at deciphering, but he pronounces many consonants incorrectly. We've been working on it, and he can make the sounds, so I think it's more of just getting him to break the habit. For example, instead of cat he says tat. We practice pronouncing a hard c, but when we put it with the word, he says c-tat. He has changed some words though, like yellow. He used to say ye-ho, now he says yellow. So he'll get it someday :)
Here's a video of him talking to us after going to Lowes (they had some Halloween decorations up. The robot was a grim reaper, I didn't feel like getting into all that with him, I told him it was just a robot :)
His favorite foods are noodles with parmesan cheese on top, cheerios, frozen go-gurts, carrots, bananas, strawberries, grapes, peas, broccoli, nachos, string cheese, saltine crackers, smoothies, hamburger patties (no bun), apples.
He's not a big sweets fan. Sometimes he'll eat a cookie, but usually he'll say no. He does love candy and fruit snacks though. Maybe because we don't have those as often as we have baked cookies and brownies and stuff like that around the house?
He LOVES puzzles. And he's very good at them. We have lots of wooden 24pc puzzles (the disney ones from Costco) that he started being able to do all by himself about 6 months ago.
He loves to learn, and I wish I could have started him in preschool or joy school this year. Instead we try to do "school" at home each day. Right now his favorite thing is learning how to cut.
This is his first cut & paste project.
Here's a video of Calin trying to raise his eyebrows. Just because I think it's funny :)
It's our Fifth anniversary today! I love celebrating the happiest day of my life! The day I had each of my kids was a pretty great day, but my wedding day still remains #1 in my book of happiest days ever! I don't think I ever stopped smiling that day. I was filled with so much joy and love that nothing could bring me down!
We have had a fun 5 years of marriage! Our two cute kids are a blast. They are always making us laugh. And did you know we have moved TWELVE times these past 5 years? And lived in 7 different states! California, Idaho, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Arkansas, Florida, and Arizona! That sounds totally crazy, but it's been so much fun!! Together we have been to New York, San Francisco, Disneyland, Disney World, Jersey Shore (actually, we lived on it!), Washington DC, Philadelphia, Mt. Rushmore, most of the church history sites, Cancun, and lots more fun places and sites. I love life with Jordan! He makes it fun, and adventurous, and no matter where we are, he makes me feel safe. I know he will always take care of me and our family. He has big goals, and he will work his tail off to achieve them!
Happy Anniversary Jordan! I love you!!
Ok, and since I haven't posted in a while. Here is a quick update. We are in Mesa. Jordan started school, and LOVES it! He's studying all the time, and the kids and I have spent a lot of time exploring the area. So far, we LOVE it here. We feel like it's the right place for us to be right now, and we are SO happy to be here! We already have family coming out this way in the next couple months and we can't wait to see them!! Our ward is wonderful! We have already made quite a few friends, and I'm sure we will make even more soon!
So here are some pics of the house we are renting here. We like it a lot. It's quite spacious, especially compared to the tiny apartments we are used to. It has 3 bdrm, 2.5 bath, with a big loft upstairs, and a den downstairs. Plus a 2 car garage, which is wonderful, and a small yard in the back :) It's in a gated community with 3 nice parks. I love all the space, and the open floor plan is wonderful! There are lots of windows, and I love the natural light! It has nice high ceilings. And the appliances are pretty good. We've never had an ice-maker before, let alone a fridge that dispenses ice and water from the door!! I love having a den downstairs for a toy room, and I'm sure I will like the loft upstairs once we do something with it. Oh, and the laundry is upstairs which is nice too. We still have lots to do around here as far as organizing and decorating go. I'll get to it eventually :) But don't you love the decor that is up right now?! Jordan stayed up all night last night to surprise me with it! So sweet huh!
Sorry, no pictures of the rooms today. They are boring anyway. I haven't done a single thing to decorate them, and Capri's crib isn't even put together yet. She still sleeps in her pack and play :) Hope you enjoyed the mini tour.
