I found a clever way to get oliver into the jogging stroller with his bumbo chair
The basement... a work in progress at the moment. Did I mention we're going to be moving into our basement? Yes, I know it looks awful right now and is about 800 square feet- if that. We've talking about the concept of "living simply." A year and a half ago, when we lived in Edinburgh for 3 months we lived in a 500 square foot flat and loved it. Needless to say our plan has been to renovate the basement and then rent it out. That is until i came up with the idea of living in the basement for a year and renting out the main house. Whelp, very quickly my idea has come to fruition- friends of ours have committed to rent out our house for a year starting in May. It's kind of one of those things where i know it's not going to be easy or convenient but i think it will be good. I kind of feel like when things are less then comfortable and little more challenging is when i hear God the most, so in that respect I'm looking forward to this crazy trial and am excited to see what God's going to teach us. Another reason i wanted to do this was to save money. As Aaron's been working on his PhD we've incurred some school debt and as some of you may know- there is a burden that debt brings. Our hope is to be more deliberate about aggressively paying off these school loans. Lastly, I want to write a journal/book of our experience as a family of 5 living simply for a year... We'll keep you posted on it.
Just finished the Hunger Games trilogy- so good. Can't wait to see the movie on March 23rd- I'm going with a bunch of girls i'm in a book club with.
Grandma and Grandpa went to Hawaii- can you tell :)
I think Tally now wants to be a Hula dancer when she grows up
5 months already! Oliver is at such a fun stage he's giggling, grabbing his toes, rolling over both ways, and smiles all the time. February was rough for our little guy. He got Hand, Foot, and Mouth disease (from Tally) and passed it on to his daddy. He also got a bad Respiratory Infection that the doctor thought may have been RSV- luckily he's doing much better now.
We threw a travel themed baby shower for our friend's (The Browns) who are pregnant with twins (a boy and a girl)
I threw my 4th annual Panty party and it was a blast. About 14 ladies showed up for the super fun party- each gal bought and brought a fun pair of panties for a white elephant exchange we did right before Valentines Day. Above is my good friend Jen- We are soo like minded it's scary.
Valentines Day
We got a bunch of snow... Daddy throwing Aricin into the powder...
Aricin landing in the powder :(
Daddy throwing Tally in the powder...
Tally landing and trying to eat the powder :)
Building Ice caves with daddy in the front yard...
Fun lunch- they went fishing for their food. With a celery stock they had to dip it in peanut butter and then fish for the gold fish crackers- they loved it!
Aricin's Valentine this year.
February flew by and it seems like most of the month someone in our house was sick- I'm happy to say that we are all getting better and things are almost back to normal. I had a physical and learned that I have something called Gilbert's Syndrome- basically all it means is that i have an elevated
Billyrubin- no other side effects but, when i got the blood test results back on the weekend before my physical i freaked out. All and all it was a good lesson and reminder that i need to have more faith and that God's in control. We had quite a few snow days in February and I was able to escape with a couple of girl friends and go snow shoeing on the back country trails in Highlands Ranch- soo soo fun! If you ever come visit- we have to sets so ask and we can take you. Aaron and I met with a job coach/counselor which was soo much fun. Aaron and his partners for Impact have been meeting with a job coach to try to figure out which areas each of the guys should be in charge of- anyways they decided to pay a little extra and let the wives join in the personality tests part.
I am a ENFJ (Extrovert, Intuitive, Feelings, and Judging.
Aaron's a ENTP (Extrovert, Intuitive, Thinking, and Perceiving.
It was interesting to find out that only like 12% of the population are Extrovert- Intuitives like us. We are the dreamers that tend to be optimistic. This explains a lot about us, our crazy dreams, and well just us in general. In the two areas where we differ...i'm more accepting
where he's more logical- this is typical for males and females. And in the last area where i'm more Systematic, planful, scheduled, and methodical- Aaron is more Casual, open-ended, and spontaneous. So fun to learn more about yourself. The counselor also said that these personality traits are something that we were born with and that they are hereditary- we often have similar personalities to our families. Fun stuff!
Other big news is that I got a job. I am the Director of Children's Ministry at our church, Adullam. It's only 3-5 hours of work a week, which is perfect for me. I've had a blast creating a handbook on our policies and procedures, starting a check in system, and shopping for the nursery and toddler rooms. As much as I love being a mommy, I love this new job and am excited about this new role because i get to use my brain in different ways.
Aricin said to me the other day "Hey mom i have a sling shot like David." I looked at him and said "you don't have any friends named David. Do you mean Davis?" He said "No mom. David. In the bible that took down Goliath." I love the way he puts me in check. He's also been asking a lot lately about his Grandma June that's in Heaven. I love to tell him about her as he fires back theological questions that i'm not always sure how to answer. He still loves pre-school, we are looking at putting him in a music academy once a week this spring. I actually just found out next year he will go Monday, Wednesdays, and Fridays while Tally will go Mondays and Fridays- this will be a nice break for mommy. Tally just finished her second round of her Toddler Tumbling class and soon i'm going to be enrolling her in a ballet class. We've been swimming a lot at the rec centers and now that the snow is melted (for now) we've been hitting up the parks again. We've also had lots of trips to the Denver Aquarium. Aaron continues to stay busy with Valor and Impact. Big news for him is that he flew to Edinburgh for his progression board- this is where he has to present his work thus far and the direction he wants to go in with his research and dissertation. He passed and is now officially ABD (all but dissertation). I imagine he won't officially be done with his PhD for another couple years. While he was gone my mom came out and helped with the kids- it was soo good to have her out. I loved hanging out and talking with her while the kids loved getting spoiled by her and they way she reads to them all the time. Do you ever wish you could push a button and slow life down? I feel like we're not that busy but as i look back just a few months it's amazing to see how much our kids have grown and developed. As challenging as it is having 3 kiddos 3 and under- i really do love this toddler phase. I love the giggles, the chubby little hands, the hugs, the random comments, slurred words, baby dolls everywhere, stepping on matchbox cars, and the curiosity and questions. I won't deny it's chaotic but it's also so fun.
