First Day of school for Caleb. :)

It was dark out.  We leave pretty early each morning. No fun for us.  

It was also FREEZING out.  I think it's the coldest day we've had since spring.

He LOVES school.  It was a great decision to send him to school this year instead of waiting till next year.  I'm really happy with the decision we made.  He's already grown and learned so much in only a few weeks. We sure love him, and are proud of the handsome,smart, loving little man he is.

Gone Private Again. Sorry

Had a regular odd visitor.  So here we are private again.  Sorry everyone.  But thanks for still reading even though it's private.  We love you!

First Day of First grade.

Yesterday was her first day of school.  It was a LONG day without her.  I am still missing her today.  Hope we get used to this! :)  

Break between semesters. :)

We have been keeping very busy having fun while we can during Josh's break between semesters. :)  And we still have one more week left before he goes back. Hurray!  

We hiked to Lake Mary. 

Sunset on night hike to Broken Arch.

Moon and Mars(I think?). Picture can't do the real thing justice.

Delicate arch again.  But this was at about 8 am. :)

Cool perspective shots of Delicate Arch.  Grandma Err Err and Auntie Jessica made the hike with us this time. 

This was on the way to Lake Mary.

We found this little friend while Geocaching. :) But didn't find the geo-cache this time.

Pickle started Preschool :)  He's too big! But was so excited to be a big kid finally.

Hopefully we'll get some more adventure in this next week before Josh is back to the grind.  The kids start school next week, and I'll finally be back to doing Crossing guard again. Although I don't love being crazy busy.  I suppose it will be nice to a regular schedule.  And with any luck the kids will start going to bed at the time they are supposed to. :)

It's a.......

healthy baby!  We are not going to find out the gender of our baby until he or she decides to be delivered.  But the ultrasound went great!  I'm really happy with my new Dr. for this baby, and feel relieved to have seen all the pictures and dvd of a cute little baby.  I'm still a pound down from my first visit, but so far that's ok.  I'm only 17 weeks(by the way for those of you wondering the baby's due date is 1.11.11), so as long as I start gaining in the second half of the pregnancy there will be no worries.  :)

Josh has his last final of the semester tomorrow, and then we are officially half way done with the RN nursing program.  Hurray! It's been tough, but nice to know we really can make it through this.  I'm sure it's going to be a LONG and busy year, but at least we're to the half way mark.

We found a fabulous place to take some photo's while geochaching a few weeks ago, and last night we finally went to test it out.  Now I just need to practice up so I catch the lighting just right, instead of having it blur/make the photo's fuzzy.

Our soon to be family of 6.

Yep.  I'm 16 weeks along.  And paranoid because I'm really not showing yet and haven't felt the baby as much as I'd like.  I feel sick every day, have heard the heartbeat, had the first ultrasound and saw the cute little peanut, but I'm very ready for our big ultrasound next week.  My Dr wanted to try and get it done even at 17 weeks because he'll be in the middle of moving offices when I'm actually 20 weeks.  Can't wait!! :)  

To facebook, or not to facebook?

Our facebook account is currently de-activated.  It's not that we don't love you all, but really- had you even noticed we were gone?   I guess I just have felt a little overwhelmed caring so much about the 300+ people on our account. (call it my pregnancy hormones?)  And honestly it makes me feel like a lazy/bad friend that the best I can do is post a hello on your wall from time to time. I also know that I spent way too much time on the thing wasting time away playing bejeweled, family feud, or checking up on all 300 people. (Not literally, but yeah).  We'll probably be back at some point.  I thought I'd be missing it horribly after a couple days, but it's been really refreshing not to have it to turn to to burn a few minutes of spare time here and there. Hopefully with some time to re-focus on our little family and our needs, I'll be able to find a healthy balance of 'social networking' and enjoying our little kids(Who are growing up way too fast!)      

Happy Hearts

Today we had an appointment for our Tenderheart with a pediatric cardiologist.  Our family physician had made us aware of a heart murmur that had been heard since his birth, but since it had not gone away in several years, it was time to get it checked out.  We had a wonderful experience at the new Primary Children's wing of the Riverton Hospital.  We learned that he actually has two heart murmurs.  Lucky for us they are both harmless and he should grow out of them by age 8-10ish.   He did get to have an ecg done before this could be comfirmed.  It was amazing to watch them take so many pictures of his little heart just beating away.  We are grateful for the advanced technology that surrounds us!  And especially thankful our little man is a healthy one.  He really is a TenderHeart.

Geo Caching

We had a great time geo caching today!  We found 4 caches, that's pretty good for us, we've never been that successful in the past!  It makes for a fun family time exploring the outdoors.  :)  Unfortunately Tenderheart is really sick as can be. Hopefully the fresh air did him some good.  If not, we'll be headed to the Dr for him- I guess we may as well knock out our medical deductible for the year, right?

Missy

She's been sick for 5 days now, We just asked her how she's feeling and she said she's good, (same answer she's given the last 3 days).  She continues, but my ears are being weird, I can hear myself really loud in them. We asked her if they hurt, she said yes, and they kinda give me a headache.  :(  Cute girl.  Guess we'll be heading into kidscare today.  Hopefully just to find an ear infection.

We're back. :)

Sorry for our gone private, now public phase.  I am constantly wondering what is the best as far as our blog goes, so don't be suprised if it goes private again one day in the future.  :)  I was clever enough to not even post once while it was private!  Yep I gotta get on the band wagon again, there is something theraputic about blogging even if I think these posts are often pointless and boring to anyone else who might read it.  So here it goes....

We have really struggled with knowing what to do with Tenderheart this fall as he is old enough to start Kindergarten, but will be one of the youngest in his class.  Missy's Kindergarten teacher gave us advice to hold him for another year to make sure he's ready socially.  While we LOVE her teacher, we know that this decision really needs to be made by Josh and I.  After LOTS of time to think and pray about it, we decided to go ahead and send him this fall.  We'd rather progress as normal and hope for no problems, rather than keep him home another year because of something that *may* happen.  Make sense?  If he does have problems we'll deal with them as they come.  Logical right?   I went ahead and 'registered' him and was relieved to have the decision made. 

Yesterday I recieved an email from the Charter school that is closest to our current home.  Tenderheart had been drawn in the lottery and is accepted to go this fall.  WOW.  We had applied for 5 last year(for Missy), and were not drawn for any of them.  When I applied for this school, it was just a side thought, I figured the chances of being drawn were so little, I didn't put much thought into what I would do if we were drawn.  There are some great benifits of Charter Schools, although everyone says it really depends on the school, but there are several pro's that are really appealing to me. ie. Traditional school year. (no year around), uniforms.   One big con is that Missy was not accepted.  She has been placed on a sibling priority list- I need to find out how that works.  It could be a crazy year of having kids at two different Elementary schools!     I feel like it is a great opportunity- What do you guys think?  It makes me sad to think of Tenderheart not having the same teacher as Missy because she is a dear friend of the family... but is it worth passing up this opportunity? 

In other news- Josh is doing GREAT at school.  He continues to be overwhelmed and stressed, but I think that helps him to excel and do well.  This semester he'll learn to give shots, and have his first clinicals at a Nursing home.  He's learning some amazing things and I couldn't be more proud of all he's accomplishing.  I hope in our own way I'm part of what is helping him succeed.  It's hard work and I'm doing the best to support and help him in any way that I can.

Pickle (our youngest) has been dealing with some asthma(reactive airway) issues since early December.  He's successfully needed an antibiotic each month and is currently working on getting rid of a sinus infection.  Poor kid, dealing with this stuff at age 3.  He's a trooper though and learning how his medication helps him breath better.  Hopefully his breathing issues will stay at ease as we come into spring.  He seems to only flare up when he gets a cold so far. After his antibiotic is gone we'll be starting him on Singular to prevent any more flare ups(hopefully)!! 

Missy still loves Kindergarten, and is doing great.  She loves loves loves to read.  I've only heard great things about her from her teacher.  And hope that she continues to have education come easily for her.  She is a great helper around our home, and often likes to help a little too much.  ;) 

Hope if anyone reads this, that you are doing well!  We think of all of our friends and family often, and wish we could see you all more often.