William singing Amazing Grace!

William singing Amazing Grace! William is 2 1/2 and loves to sing and dance. He has already mastered singing "Jesus Loves Me," "Sanctuary," and other kid songs! He just learned the first and last verse of "Amazing Grace." Matt and I used to sing it to him every night before bedtime and now he won't let us sing it because he wants to sing it all by himself.

About two nights ago, he was misbehaving and we had to put him in time out which is in our laundry room. Matt shut the door and about 2 minutes later he started singing "Amazing Grace" in a crying tone. Needless to say, we gave him "grace" and let him out a couple of minutes early. Boy he is only 2 1/2 and he already knows how to play you!

William is going to Preschool three mornings a week and seems to really be enjoying it. The music lady did use a jack in the box several times which caused a complete melt down by William. Lets just say he now has to sleep with a night light on and his bedroom door wide open (yes, all bc of the fear of the jack in the box). We asked the music lady not to use it for awhile since it had become such a major issue at home. She stopped using it 3 weeks ago and today I got a text from one of his teachers that said he was finally loving music day. Well of course, he now knows that the music lady won't bring the jack in the box. So I was excited that he was now enjoying music since he LOVES it at home.

Enjoy the video below of William singing "Amazing Grace."

Anyone still reading my blog???

It has been 11 months since I last wrote - wonder if anyone even checks my page anymore. Hmmm..... we will see. It's sad looking back at last year's pics and videos and realizing how much William has grown over the year. Moms - enjoy every minute of it because it goes by too fast!

Let's see - where to even begin..... I had a very busy year working. Things have slacked off a little as schools are getting out. I am offering a couple of trainings in June and July so I am staying busy throughout the summer. Luckily Matt is home so he can stay with William. I have been told I have a contract for next year (which is HUGE considering RESA was out of the state budget for awhile). I am not sure how many days I am down to work but I will take anything. I love being part-time and don't want to do anything else right now.

William has grown tremendously. He attended First United Methodist Church Preschool Tues. and Thurs. this year. He loved it and asked for his teachers every morning when he woke up. I think the interaction with other kids and adults have been so rewarding. I am so thankful we decided to put him in preschool. Next year he will go Mon., Wed., and Fri. I am amazed at his voc. He can say the complete alphabet and recognize almost all letters. He can count to 15 and knows all his colors and shapes. He loves to sing so he is constantly singing either the Blessing, the alphabet song, Itsy Bitsy Spider, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Jesus Loves Me, or Old MacDonald. These are his favorite songs. He has started sleeping in his "big boy bed" off and on. He decides between the bed and crib at this point. By summer, he will be in the "big boy bed." It amazes me how much he grows and learns WEEKLY.

Matt and I are wanting a second child. We have had 3 miscarriages since I last wrote. This has been a VERY tough year for us. Who would have thought that in a year - I would not be holding a newborn but instead seeing a Specialist in Jacksonville, Fl. My heart still aches tremendously for our loss of our babies. There are ultrasound pics of 2 of the 3 on our refrigerator. I am not sure when if ever they will come down. They are our babies and I will never stop loving them even though I never got to hold them. I pray that we get pregnant again soon and we actually get to meet the little one 9 months later. I am not sure how many losses Matt and I can emotionally take. The Specialist is doing what he can to help prevent another miscarriage but he has made it clear that I am a HIGH risk and about a 50/50 chance of a miscarriage next time. Supposedly my egg quality is not so great! I can't change my egg quality so I just have to trust the Lord that he will provide us with another healthy baby in His timing.

Okay, enough of that - I am rejoicing in Julie's new baby girl Madelyn. She is precious and was born April 30th. She is TINY and precious in every way!

No major plans this summer - not going to Wisconsin like we normally do. Matt's family from Indiana is coming into town for Father's Day weekend. We are going to the beach for 4th of July and that is about it. William is taking swim lessons so that should be interesting. Matt is doing little jobs here and there to help out with the bills so he will stay busy.

I will try and post some pics! Enjoy.

Just some videos!

Here are some videos of William. He will be 17 months old next week - hard to believe. In the second video he is singing the blessing. You probably can't interpret it but it is the one Anna Claire learned at the First Methodist Church Preschool. He even reaches out for our hands to hold when he sings it. Enjoy.

Nothing New

I realize I haven't written in awhile. I would like to say that I have SO much to share - but to be totally honest, there is not much to share. Right now I feel like I have been working a whole lot. I only work part time as a Math Consultant with SW RESA but with schools in this area about to start, we are REALLY busy. I will work 10 out of 13 days this month. Not what I call part time. Other than that, I am at home with William. He is learning so much lately. His new trick is taking his dirty diaper, putting it in the Diaper Champ, and then turning the handle. We can leave a diaper anywhere in the house and he will take it to his room and dispose of it. We are trying to teach him to pick up after himself at an early age - now if we could only get him to pick up the mess he creates around the house EVERYDAY! I can't keep the house clean before he destroys it all over again. He is definitely go go go..... ALL BOY! We are thinking about taking the pacifier away from him for good not this weekend but the next. He ONLY gets it for naps and bedtime - not around the house - but he goes for it as soon as we put him down in his crib and he cries when he can't find it. Ah..... I dread taking it away but I feel like at almost 17 months, it is time.

We had a crazy summer. I had 3.5 weeks off total. We went to my cousin's wedding and I loved seeing all the family. We then visited Matt's dad and then Nana and Pop in the mountains. We came home for four days and then went to the beach for about a week and then Wisconsin to visit Matt's family for 4 days and then I went to work a day after getting home from WI. Not much rest but I am glad we both had the time off to see everyone.

We did have to give Indy away. He snapped at Anna Claire about a month and a half ago. We don't think he meant any harm but we couldn't just assume it wouldn't happen again and the next time he wouldn't do harm so we found him a home. He is with a great family from church. He seems to be doing great there. We miss him but not having the responsibility of the dog has been nice - I won't lie. Matt is just waiting on Kitty to do something so we have to get rid of him too but I told Matt that Kitty won't. He doesn't care to much for Kitty.

Now that I have bored you - I will go. I will try to write a little more often (notice I didn't say often but a little more often). As long as I have nothing to write about - nothing has changed so we are doing good! I do still read y'all's postings so keep it up!

Jacksonville Zoo

Well we survived the zoo - but what a trip!

5:27 am - my alarm goes off - I MUST get up to get everything done to be at Mom's house by 7:30.

6:00 am - I am at the YMCA waiting to get weighed for Team Lean (I did lose 1.7 lbs this week)

6:45 am - wake up William and feed him

7:15 am - head to Mom's house

Once at Mom's house, we had to figure out how we were all going to get in the car - a total of 7 people can fit in her car and there were only 6 of us going. The problem was fitting all the car seats in. We started off having William's car seat in the back but realized that in order to have him in securely, the two chairs in front of him had to be moved all the way up, meaning mom would have had NO leg room. So we pulled out William's car seat and then put Anna Claire's back there. This worked - except now there was NO space between the middle car seats and the front seats for me to get in the back of the car. I am definitely NOT limber but I knew I could do it - and I did do it on several occassions - and yes, I am on muscle relaxers today (joking).

We finally all get in the car - Julie is driving, mom in the passenger seat, William behind Julie, Mallory behind mom, I'm behind William and Anna Claire behind Mallory - got it?

Of course with the third row up there is NO room in the back for storage so every space is being used - William's stroller is between William and Mallory and I have William's two bags, Mallory's bag, Anna Claire's bag, the DVD player and DVD bag, and my purse ALL between Anna Claire and me. Fun times!

We leave about 8:15 - running a little behind but honestly we are lucky we were all in and on the way.

The trip down there was great until about the last 30 minutes. Mallory had had enough! And William is sensitive so when Mallory started screaming - not whinning but screaming - so did William - yeah!!!! But for a 2 1/2 hour drive - 30 minutes of crying is not that bad.

We got to the zoo about 11:00 and what a beatiful day. We all had strollers - Julie pushing Mallory, Mom pushing Anna Claire, and me pushing William. Honestly it was more like Anna Claire pushing her own stroller for most of the day!

All the animals were great! We saw elephants, giraffes, snakes, leopards, panthers, monkeys, rhinos, birds, wolves, deer, ant eaters, bairds (look this one up if you want to), kangaroos, lions, etc.

Of course the highlight was the gorilla Keto. Keto was quite the character. When we got to his space - we couldn't see him. There were two other women and a man there looking for him too. They all had their faces smashed against the window looking for him. Mom goes over there too and has her face right there on the window. All of a sudden Keto does a BODY SLAM into the window. There were screams and other words used by these two women and the man. Oh yeah - mom screamed really loud too!!! Which of course made julie and I laugh but made Anna Claire cry. The zoo keeper came by and said the Keto does this all the time. He likes to scare the viewers by smashing his 800 lbs against the window. He would be over 6 ft tall if he stood straight so we are not talking about a monkey but a GORILLA. About 5 minutes later, one of the ladies was still talking about how her heart was still racing. It totally made everyone jump. It was great - Anna Claire later said her favorite animal was the large animal that scared shug. :)

The trip home was pretty good. William was fussy a little because it was dinner time and he had a very little nap. We stopped for dinner and fed him and then everyone was great from dinner to home.

Anyway, we arrived back home about 8:15 or so. Great trip - the kids did great and we had a ball. I will post pics as I get some from Julie and mom. I didn't take any.

William sleeping sitting up!

William fought his nap this morning - he FINALLY fell asleep. I went in to make sure and he was sound asleep sitting up in the corner of his bed. I wasn't about to move him and wake him up so he slept like this for 2 1/2 hours. I actually WOKE him after 2 1/2 hours hoping I would still get a good afternoon nap from him - just so you know - it is 4:45 and he has had NO afternoon nap. He will just go to bed early tonight.



Tomorrow Julie, Mallory, Anna Claire, Shug, William, and I are all going to the Jacksonville Zoo - I can only imagine what the car trip will be like :) Keep us in your prayers - ha ha!

William trying to be an elephant!

Matt reads William a book that has an elephant in it. Matt does the elephant noise with his mouth and uses his arm as the trunk of the elephant. William LOVES it!!! Matt was doing it at the dinner table tonight and William started trying to make the noise. Now if we can just get him to use his arm too. He is teething again so the last two nights have been painful for EVERYONE! This morning we were UP at 4:30 (as in playing on the floor with him because he would NOT go to bed or quit screaming) and he didn't go back to bed until 8:00 am and that was for a 45 minute nap. He then took a good hour and a half nap at 3:00 pm. Talk about being tired. I am so glad it is the weekend and we can all rest tomorrow - hopefully!