okay, so here we are in december already.  life is psychotic as usual and holiday events only make it more so.  we'll do a brief update this time.. i promise.  i know i get longwinded sometimes.

 

we'll start with the oldest this time to be different.

 

shane is happily busy right now.  i know i've spouted plenty of hot air about over-scheduled kids, but he seems to be one who is much happier when he's got places to be.  his homeschool and class schedule keeps plenty of gas flowing through the van, but he seems to enjoy his classes and is making good progress with his academics.  he seems to have a gift for spelling and gets very mad at himself if he doesn't ace his weekly spelling tests.  his reading is picking up a lot too and actually seems to enjoy it.  he's taken to reading to me at night instead of the other way around.  he's also busy with cub scouts and is in the middle of a short season of indoor soccer.  the rest of his time is taken up playing with his buddy wyatt or running around to random birthday parties and the like.

 

layla is hilarious as always, but also very frustrating (she's 2, duh).  posessiveness is a very big thing for her lately and likes to say that everything is 'mine'.  including the snow we had last week.  she talks nonstop and loves to sing.  i'm getting a little more serious about the potty training thing, partly as an effort to get rid of a nasty diaper rash that we've been dealing with for months.  she's been doing really well with staying in her own bed lately, only coming to visit us on occasion and goes back to her room agreeably.  that's nice.  i think we've also finally convinced her not to take the ornaments off the christmas tree.  she has an advent calendar she's in charge of and has a really hard time just moving the star once each day.  it's torture!

 

micah is 7 weeks old now and weighed 10 pounds and 15 and a half ounces at his dr. appointment on tuesday.  he's in the 50th percentile for weight and 75th for length.  it's amusing to have a kid this big already since the other 2 were so little.  i guess we broke the tradition of shrimpy october dapelo boys!  he's getting stronger and lifts his head up good now and really likes to 'stand'.  he generally only wakes up once a night which is great!  oh, and he's also super cute!  he was baptized on november 25th and had a bunch of visitors from california.  it was a fun weekend, but we apparently sent everyone home sick.  there's some horrible stomach bug going around here now.  i think we're done with it finally and we're really sorry we passed it along to so many people!

 

dave and i are trying hard to keep up with everything, get enough sleep and not stress out too much!  and now, since i have been apparently tagged, i guess i have to tell 7 things about myself...

1)  nothing makes me feel better than having a clean house... unfortunately, i hate to do it so it isn't clean nearly as often as i'd like it.

2)  i love children's books!  i'd rather read books for kids than those for adults any day.  picture books are great, but i love chapter books as well.  i recently read all the henry huggins books to shane and was probably more sad than he was when we were done.

3)  although i try to be healthy and natural and all that, i LOVE hot dogs!  i don't know what it is, but i can't seem to get over it.

4)  i'm sure i don't say it enough, but i consider myself to be one of the luckiest people in the world to have such a great husband.  he's the best!

5)  having kids is a great excuse for me to express my fascination with big cool stuff like trains and construction machines.  i like having a good reason to drive by construction sites.

6)  my least favorite thing about day to day parenting is feeding the kids.  for some reason that's the thing that i could really do without.  changing diapers is fine, dressing, bathing, running around, but i just wish they didn't have to eat!  not the baby, nursing is fine... it's when i have to come up with some sort of nurishment to stick on a plate that is a drag.

 

7)  i love doing laundry.  this is by far my favorite household chore... the rest of the house could be buried in clutter and dust and grime, but we've got clean clothes to wear... however, the 5th family member may have pushed me over the edge because i seem to have a really hard time getting the clothes put away once their washed lately.

 

okay, there you have it.  you can quit bugging me about it now, mary!