Our Busy Life

2012 has been quite the year for us. Recently we have bought a new home right across the street from where David grew up. It is an older home built in the 1950's and sits on one and a half acres of ground. It keeps us very busy with weeding and mowing. Needless to say we look forward to the winters when the outside does not require so much work. We continue to tease David's mom that she needs a 6 foot privacy fence in front of her driveway so we don't know when she is home to send the girls over. She has taken it with good humor and can agree that we have not abused her too much with baby sitting.

With this new home Cheri got her dream pantry. It is six feet wide by 11 feet long. David was hoping this would curtail Cheri's desire to remodel the kitchen too, but she has already begun talking about it.

David spent the summer coaching Cassidy's T-ball team. They were the Cubs this year and David enjoyed coaching more this year than last year. He kept bragging their team was stacked with 6-six year olds, 3-five year olds and 2-four year olds. They were really good, but to claim the team was stacked was funny. Watching some of the other teams play brought back some bad memories of coaching last year with kids running towards the road in the middle of the game. It was still T-Ball with the kids getting distracted by butterflies in the air and wrestling with each other in the field.  It was fun!

We also took a true family vacation at the end of July. We drove through Utah, Nevada, California then to the Oregon coast. We spent time with friends and family and saw some amazing scenery and loved every minute of it.  We spent several days in Newport and enjoyed a break from the heat and loved the time in the car together. The kids loved the aquarium and the hotel room and everything about the trip. We learned that the kids are good in the car for about 10 hours before they start to get too fussy to handle it any longer.


David's older brother finally moved back West from Tennessee this summer and it was fun to spend time with with his family for a couple of weeks.  David, Scott and Ashley took Isaac, Brendan , Caydee and Cassidy hiking on one of these weekends and had a blast.  It was a small one mile hike near Cascade.  Cassidy had 2 accidents as she was afraid to go potty in the woods.  The first one was early enough in the day David was able to wash her jeans and get them dry before it got too cold.  The second happened too close to bed so she had to leave her clothes on.  David forgot any spare change of clothes a jacket and extra panties.  He will win the father of the year award.  Luckily Scott came prepared with long-sleeved shirts and jackets for his kids.  The had fun and enjoyed fishing and swimming in the lake.

Cassidy starts school next week and can't wait to ride the bus. Kennedi has decided she no longer wants to take naps and likes to tell he sisters to "leave me alone." Caydance is cute and loves to be snuggled in her blanket.

Way Overdue for An Update

Cassidy is 4 years old now and is still a live wire. She is learning how to read now and is so easy to teach. She has such and incredible desire to learn. She loves being a big sister and loves to help out with the babies. She still thinks the world revolves around her. I thought this would change when she went from the only child to having two sisters.

Kennedi is 21 months old and has so much attitude. She has looks that could kill and isn't afraid to give it to anyone that annoys her. She is leaning how to talk and is picking up words pretty quickly. She is starting to transition to the two year old phase and I am having lots of trouble keeping up with her demands and frustration level.

Caydance is 11 months old and is very sweet. However, she is finding her voice and becoming a little more demanding. She has attempted to throw a tantrum and that is pretty funny to watch. She is having trouble transitioning to solid food. She gags really easily if her food is not completely pureed. She is also resisting the switch to sippy cups. She is standing holding onto furniture and doing a little furniture walking but is not in any hurry to get walking. Tonight during dinner she was sitting in the front room drinking her bottle and was giggling. We looked over and she was tipping her bottle upside down and letting it drip and just giggling. It was really funny.

David is at UPS and liking his job. He is a full time manager and builds the routes for the drivers each day. It is a job with lots of responsibility. He is quite the nerd when it comes to crunching all the numbers. His spreadsheets are mind boggling. He is also the YM 2nd counselor so he has campouts every month with the boys. I know he enjoys it.

I am staying at home now. I am really enjoying being home but it definately has it's challenges, especailly when it comes to socialization. It helps that David's cousin lives just 3 doors down. We get together for the kids to play and for us ladies to talk occassionally. Every few months I really miss working but when I look at my children and recognize the difficulty it would place on me and my kids I am quickly reminded of how grateful I am to be able to stay home.

Love,
Cheri

WOW, I'm really Pregnant!!!!!!!!

I can't believe I am actually this big. I don't feel quite this big. This baby will be much bigger then Cassidy which is great.

Monday 2/8 will be 4 weeks since I have been put on bedrest. Some times have been difficult but with a great husband and friends it hasn't been nearly as bad as I would have imagined. Monday my doctor says we can talk about an induction date if my cervix is ready. I'm really excited.

David's professors are willing to work with him that week but the next week doesn't look quite as good so hopefully we can have a baby next week.

Love, Cheri