Update

I've been feeling prompted to return to blogging for awhile now, but I always put it on the back-burner. I guess today I'm going to try to come back to blogging. I want my family to know what's going on in my life. I want to share things with them.

I guess this post will be an update on everything that has happened in the past couple months. We moved in with Mitchell's mom, Ellen, the beginning of April. Mitchell is taking this time to work on his art so that he can progress in his career.

I am 10 weeks pregnant with an "Oops!" baby; I had applied to attend BYU in January, but now I'm having a baby in November, so that's not happening. I was on a mood stabilizer for bipolar II disorder, but had to stop because of the pregnancy. I also can't take Xanax any longer. 

I am in the process of getting into the Mental Health system here so that I can get things figured out, but I've probably got a few more weeks before I get to see a psychiatrist. With all the moving and then medication changes, I've been struggling a bit with my mood and functioning and such. I'm just trying to take things slowly right now. 

Joseph is attending school at the "same" elementary school Mitchell went to; I used the quotation marks because it's a new building with none of the same teachers, but it has the same name, mascot, and location. He is doing pretty well. Some days are better than others, but that's how things always are.

That's the biggest stuff that's happened, and the basis of my life right now!

Red Ribbon Week

It's Red Ribbon Week, and Joseph's school is having them wear silly stuff each day. Yesterday, he wore his shirt backwards. Today was crazy sock day. I pulled out my Halloween socks, but he didn't want to pick just one pair, so he came up with the idea to where one of each. It was early, so the 

light was poor, but I got a picture before we had to run out to the bus.

Crazy, Sick Kids

It has been a crazy month for our family health-wise. Mitchell had to take Joseph to the ER at the beginning of the month while I was out of town, and Joseph had some pretty bad bronchitis. He had to take antibiotics, use an inhaler and a nebulizer, and it was all pretty crazy. He is still coughing regularly, so we have to use the inhaler sometimes before school.

Annabelle and Mitchell had the same respiratory infection that started Joseph's bronchitis. And Charlie and I caught it once we were back in town. There was lots of coughing and a bit of misery for the first part of the month. Charlie is still coughing pretty badly and I'm still coughing a bit.

On Thursday, I noticed Charlie's eye looked pink and there was a lot of goop in the corners. Annabelle's 4 year well-check was the next morning, so I just had him seen at the same time. The doctor checked his lungs and his eye, but he seemed to be just fine.

Friday evening, while I was making dinner, Charlie threw up all over the little, neighbor girl, Janina, while she was playing at our house. I stripped him down and took his temperature, but he was asleep before I even finished. His temp was just around 100 degrees, so I didn't think it was a big deal. He slept on my bed for about an hour and a half. When he woke up, he was burning up, so I took his temp again and it had risen to 102.5 degrees. He seemed pretty lethargic and delirious, so I was initially very worried. I was about to take him to the ER, but I felt like I should clean him up first and try to cool him down a bit. We spent about 40 minutes in the shower, just sitting in the water, until we ran out of hot water. I kept asking him if he wanted to get out and lay in the bed, but he would just say, "uh-uh." He just laid in my lap with his eyes closed and swished his hand in the water. When we were finally out of hot water, I got him out, dried him off, and dressed him. And his fever was WAY down. He was also talking to me normally, telling me he was hungry and asking for drinks. He had apple juice and watched PBS with the kids until really late. Annabelle came into the room crying shortly after the shower because her ear was hurting. I gave her ibuprofen and a heating pad to rest on. Sometime while watching PBS, and I was washing the dishes from dinner, Charlie threw up just a little bit on the floor next to my bed. But by the time Mitchell got home from work, around 10:30, Charlie was jumping on the bed and playing as if nothing had happened. He slept on the floor next to me that night, and kept me up with his coughing. I kept thinking he was going to throw up again, but he just had so much drainage running down his throat that he was trying to cough up. He didn't even wake up for any of his coughing fits!

I had planned on taking the kids to Boo at the Zoo Saturday morning, but after the evening's ordeal, I figured that wasn't a good idea. But then all the kids seemed just fine! They played and did all their normal stuff. I figured they were all feeling better, so I started trying to get everything ready for church the next day. I let Charlie sleep next to me again, and he was coughing most of the night again. Joseph was also coughing a lot during the night, and Annabelle needed more ibuprofen for her ear.

By morning, I just felt like I should give them a little longer to get better, so Mitchell went to church without us. When Charlie got up, I noticed a patch of red bug bites on his ankle. I figured he'd rolled on a spider or something on my floor because our house is full of bugs. When Annabelle woke up, we noticed one of her eyes was pink looking. And she had a runny nose and cough. When I went to change Charlie's diaper, I found patches of the "bug bites" all over his body, and that's when I realized they were hives. He had them all over and was scratching a lot, so I gave him some Benadryl. He was also getting warm again, so Mitchell had me give him some Tylenol. About 2 hours after the Tylenol, his temp was around 100.2 degrees, so I wonder what it would have been if we hadn't given him the Tylenol. The rest of the day went fine, but at bedtime, Joseph kept saying he was itchy. I checked and he was covered with patches of hives, too! I gave him Benadryl before bed, and Annabelle needed ibuprofen again.

This morning, Joseph's hives were gone, but Charlie still had his and Annabelle had some. At 9 am, I called the doctor's office and made an appointment for all three of them. I was worried about Joseph being contagious because of the hives/rash being on all three kids, so I had him pulled out of class to wait in the nurse's office until I could get there.

They were extremely ill-behaved at the doctor's office. I couldn't believe how rowdy, loud, and disrespectful they were being! I spent the whole appointment trying to keep them under control (and failing) while trying to answer all the doctor's and nurse's questions. After looking at them, the doctor told me they all had ear infections, and Joseph had fluid in BOTH of his ears. That would also explain a lot of the other stuff going on. It's possible to get hives from viruses, so we are thinking that is what is causing their hives. They are going to all be on antibiotics, plus we are getting eye drops for the pink eye. I was instructed to continue with the inhaler for Joseph as needed, and to use Benadryl for the hives, as needed.

Right now, Joseph and Charlie are playing out on the front porch --it's 85 degrees today!-- and Annabelle is sleeping after a dose of Benadryl. I just wish all three of them were sleeping so that I could, too! The past few days have been exhausting!

Off-Day

Today was an "off" day for me. I just felt moody and frustrated most of the day. I've been working really hard to be patient with myself, and with the Lord's plan, as we try to figure out what to do. We haven't had much come up in the way of work yet. Mitchell is on his last week/paycheck for the freelance indie game he's been working on. He has been asked to do some illustrations for a friend, so that will be great. But that's all. The only time someone seems interested in hiring me, it would cost more to work there than I'd be getting paid! So we keep applying and keep praying and something will happen when it's time.

On the good side, Joseph has been doing well in school. He's going to a martial arts class several times a week, and it's really helping him with his focus, respect, and discipline, as well as getting energy out. We had a great family home evening with a good lesson and a fun activity. I'm also getting really involved in Joseph's school, so that should be fun.

Too Much On My Plate

Today was a hard day for me. I feel like I just have a lot going on right now.

The "Bad" Things:

I didn't here back about the job at Veritas, Inc.

We bug bombed our kitchen yesterday, but the infestation is so bad that we have to do it again tomorrow.

I haven't had any use of my kitchen for about 36 hours, so we've had to eat out a lot even though we're completely broke.

We don't know how we're going to pay our rent for September, but we can't move anywhere else because we can't pay a deposit. 

I think I have a UTI. 

I'm having my period for the second time in 2 weeks because I had to stop my birth control pills prematurely; they were making me feel "morning sick" all the time.

The "Good" Things:

I had a job interview at a different PetSmart. They seemed really interested in me.

Joseph is starting Kindergarten tomorrow! And we have all his stuff ready for him.

We've been the recipients of many charitable acts over the past month.

Our landlord is providing all the supplies to take care of our roach problem.

I'm hoping and praying really hard that everything evens out soon.

Vacation

Yesterday, we got home from a week-and-a-half in Virginia visiting Mitchell's family. The main reason we went up was so Mitchell could attend his grandfather's funeral with his mom. We ended up staying longer than we originally planned and enjoyed some nice time relaxing and hanging out with family. The kids and I stayed with Mitchell's brother, Sam, and his family, while Mitchell, his mom, and his brother, Grant, were in Indiana for the funeral. Joseph and Annabelle got to meet and spend time with all of their Ellis cousins for the first time ever. And they loved it! Joseph loved playing with Sam's two boys, who are both older than him. And Annabelle enjoyed playing girly things with her only girl Ellis cousin, Celina, who is only 2 months younger than her. Mitchell and I took advantage of the time to relax, enjoy ourselves, and not worry about the future too much. We were able to go to Busch Gardens and watch the show London Rocks, which Mitchell's brother, Ross, is the lead guitarist in. I also rode a roller coaster for the first time in about 7 years. I was so anxious right before getting on, but I loved it just as much as I used to. I'm really grateful that we had that time to rejuvenate before getting into the stress of trying to figure out what's going to happen next. 

         From left to right: Back Row - Mitchell, Ross, Grant, Eden, Joseph. 

Front Row - Zeke, Annabelle, Charlie, Julian, Celena, Ben.

Annabelle, Celina, and Charlie playing with Disney Princess Little People!

Charlie playing in the hose with Grammy.

Play Group and Too Much Sun

The Stupid:
So, I read this article in Psychology Today that talked about the link between depression and vitamin D deficiency. And it said that sunscreen prevents the body from absorbing vitamin D. So, like the smart woman I am, I decided to not wear any sunscreen while we were at play group today. Play group was 3 hours at the pool. My back, shoulders, and upper arms are completely pink and sore. It's annoying, but it's really my own fault.

The Awesome:
I have been feeling surprisingly great this week. I thought I'd be bed-ridden with the "discontinuation syndrome" that usually comes if I miss my Cymbalta. But the Prozac and Wellbutrin have helped me get past any problems. I'm just so grateful for how well I've been dealing with this.

The Fun: 
The kids and I went to play group today. It was hosted at the neighborhood pool of a friend in the ward. It was SO much fun! I didn't take a single picture because I was too busy having fun and enjoying the kids. There were a couple times that I thought about getting the iPad out, but I felt like it would have ruined the special moment that we were having. It took all three of the kids a while to warm up to the water, but that was expected seeing that the last time they were in a pool Joseph was only 2 1/2 and Annabelle was about 9 months; Charlie wasn't even a thought in our minds! Eventually they all got very comfortable in the water and had tons of fun playing. Joseph ended up loving it the most, which I totally wasn't expecting. He's normally very cautious and he doesn't like water very much, so it was a surprise when he stayed in the longest and played the most. My absolute favorite part was the giggles and pure joy that came out when he was using arm floaties for the first time in the deeper water. He just loved that he could be in the water like that. I'm planning on getting them each their own floaties so they can play more next week.

A Mostly Good Day

It's so late! So I'm going to do a pretty short post tonight. 

The Downside:

I was feeling sick today, but it's the kind that's a limbo between mostly healthy and really sick. It just made me even more tired, sometimes I would get dizzy, and my throat is still sore and scratchy.

The Fun:

The kids went to bed without a fuss, so Mitchell and I were able to watch Secondhand Lions, which I had  never seen before. I really enjoyed the movie, and it was a nice boost.

The Work: 

With the help of the kids, I got the living room, dining room, and front hall straightened and vacuumed. They didn't stay completely clean, but they aren't too messy either.

A Silly Story:

I think Annabelle may be getting sick as well because she has been extra moody the past couple days. This story is evidence:

In order to get the kids to help me clean, I turned it into a game. The kids had eaten graham crackers in the room and there were crumbs everywhere, so I told them the crumbs were Kryptonite. And they would turn the whole room into Kryptonite if we didn't clean them up before the timer went off. So we got busy cleaning. When we were nearly to the point of vacuuming, Annabelle walked in with graham crackers in her hand and sat down to eat them. In my mock distressed voice I said, "Oh, no! Annabelle that's Kryptonite!" And then she burst into tears and just started sobbing. I apologized for upsetting her and had her go to the kitchen with her graham crackers, where she continued to making blubbering sounds for about 10-15 minutes. Eventually she joined back in the game as if nothing had ever happened.

                                  

This was Joseph's favorite picture of the day because it was him as Superman when we were cleaning.

The Square

So we live about half a mile from downtown Marietta, which is called The Square. There's a big park in the middle and it's surrounded by little shops and restaurants. It's such an awesome place! 

The kids and I walked there yesterday afternoon to play and look around. There is a little playground with a train and little ticket house. The kids love playing there. 

I love Joseph in this one; he looks like Superman about to take off in flight

(which is what he was pretending).

I love her smile in this one!

This one just cracks me up.

Isn't he beautiful?! He learned how to climb up and go down the slide all by himself. He would turn around at the top so he could slide feet-first on his belly. Because it's a metal slide, it's pretty fast; so he'd always get a little shock at the bottom, but he'd just stand up with a huge smile and clap his hands.

We had so much fun playing at the Train Park, and I'm excited that we live so close to it.

Annabelle's Princess Party - Arrival and First Presents

When the kids arrived, they each had a crown to decorate. With the help of one of the moms the night before, we made a Sleeping Beauty crown for each girl. Joseph and the other little boy had crowns to decorate that I got at Dollar Tree.

Here she is modeling the crown her crown after decorating it. Doesn't she look so happy? ;) She was so distracted by everything going on.

Each of the girls also had a paper "berry basket" with jewelry, tattoos, and a princess toy in it. We kept the tattoos out of reach for the party, but they were able to get dressed in their jewelry.

 I didn't have a basked for Joseph, but he had a sword and shield instead. He was very precise in decorating his crown and only put jewels in the obvious jewel spots at the top.

He was so excited to be a prince.

Before we could start the tea party, Annabelle needed to open two of her presents. We had bought her a tea and dinner set from IKEA.

Isn't she so pretty?! And I love the Sleeping Beauty dress she picked out at Kid-to-Kid.

I was so worried about her dropping the tea set on the ground.

She was better at letting me support the dinner set.

Making Friends

Joseph and Annabelle have finally made friends in the neighborhood. It took longer here than at Wymount; probably because we never went outside when we first moved here because I was uncomfortably pregnant,and then it was winter. Now, the kids beg to go outside as soon as they wake up. I think it's because they think their friends will be out there all the time, or something like that. So we go outside a lot, and, when their friends actually are out there, they get so excited. Today, when Joseph saw his friend, Daniel, he ran up to him saying, "Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey!" 

Last week, Joseph And Annabelle had a play date with their friends at the new splash pad. They had so much fun playing, and it was great for me to get a chance to hang out with other moms.

From left to right: Annabelle, Oliver, Joseph, Leah, Daniel, and Aislin. 

We were really trying to get some cute photos, but my camera is just too slow at taking pictures and the kids were too restless. It's hilarious that Joseph looks so bored, too. They are such a fun bunch of kids, and I'm excited for the fun they will have together this summer.

Splash Pad

We went to the new splash pad at Pioneer Park this evening. There was a ribbon cutting ceremony at 4:30, but we had to go find Annabelle's hat that we'd left at another park earlier in the day, so we didn't go to that part. By the time we got the hat, it was dinnertime, then Mitchell had to go to work, so the kids and I walked to the park by ourselves. It was a bit after 7 when we got there. Joseph and Annabelle were so excited to get into the water. Joseph thought it was awesome, but he's sort of afraid of water, so he mostly stayed around the perimeter. 

 Annabelle wasn't afraid at all and got completely soaked almost immediately. She was running around and screaming; sometimes she'd slip because it was so wet and slippery, but she didn't care because she was having so much fun.

After running around and playing for a while, Annabelle realized she was super cold and she started crying. I had to wrap her in her towel and Charlie's blanket to warm her up. I was going to take her home because I was a little worried about hypothermia, but she was ready to go back and play after a few quiet minutes in my lap.

I finally convinced them it was time to go home just before 8 when they were both drenched and shivering. We started walking home, but Joseph's little feet hurt because we did A LOT of walking yesterday and he was too cold to move quickly. So I carried Charlie and let Joseph ride. Pushing the stroller one-handed is really difficult, especially with the two heavier kids in it. I have a tendency to complain and get annoyed about things, but I wanted to be a good mom, so I let my little boy ride. He had to get out and walk right before the tracks because I couldn't push the stroller one-handed over them, but he got to ride most of the way. My arms were dead tired when I got home, but it was worth it to take care of my babies. Sometimes I forget that Joseph and Annabelle are my babies, too, and I think they are bigger/older than they really are. It's good for me to remember and let them be babies, though.

Having Fun

Today we got our tax return. It was kind of exciting to check our balance in the bank and find an extra thousand dollars that I wasn't expecting. We set about making sure that our various bills were payed and talking about what this money needed to be used for. But the best part of the day was when we went on a bit of a treasure hunt to pick out the perfect toys for the kids. Joseph has been asking, "Do we have money yet?" nearly every day for a week or two because he's had his mind on some toys he wants, so it was exciting to tell him that we do have money.

We were gone a long time today and did a lot of driving to find him something he really loved. We went to Toys R Us and searched the whole store. Then we drove to Walmart and searched that whole store. And we finally found the right thing. He got his very first LEGO set and it has "Luke with the green lightsaber" as well as Boba Fett and the Sarlac. Annabelle picked out a My Little Pony set. And we bought Charlie a Bouncy play center thing.

It's been awesome watching Joseph so fascinated with something that isn't a video game. He's been playing with the legos almost none stop since we brought them home. He even took Luke and Boba Fett to bed with him. And it's been fun to watch Mitchell and Joseph playing together. I never knew that legos were such a great father-son bonding activity. Annabelle and I were able to play ponies together, too.

I think that something I learned from today is how important it is to play with your kids, but to also try to find the things that they have a passion for. It's important to find those passions and nourish them now, so that they can grow and learn from those passions throughout their lives.

Labor Day

We had a good Labor Day weekend. We did a few fun things today since Mitchell didn't have to go to work. The kids let us sleep in pretty late, which was nice since we usually have early mornings with Mitchell working and going to school. We went and browsed around the mall for a bit and had some lunch in the food court there. We went to a park in the afternoon. The kids had fun playing while Mitchell drew for some assignments and I worked out homeschool lesson plans. We had a nice quiet time and I read a Sherlock Holmes story in my book. We were excited about getting some awesome new Star Wars shirts from Baby Gap with a 30% off code we had, but after not getting the code to apply, we realized that line is excluded from coupons. :(  Later, we took the kids to another park and they had fun playing there. We also did a mini photo shoot to get some pictures for the invitations I want to make for Annabelle's birthday party. That was pretty fun. The kids are so hard to get pictures of because they are either moving around like crazy or they are making really stupid smiley faces. It doesn't help that our camera is TERRIBLE at taking pictures. I was surprised at how many I got. We ended the day by watching new episodes of 2 of our favorites shows, which happen to be cartoons on Cartoon Network. They are Adventure Time and Regular Show; we love watching them together.

Here are a few photos that I really liked:

A Joseph List

The 3 Most Annoying Things Joseph Says Everyday:

1) "I want to see you" or "I want to see Mommy" -- It means that he is feeling very whiny and clingy and will start crying if he isn't right on top of me.

2) "What day it is?" -- He asks this at least 20 times a day, sometimes most of those 20 occurring within a 15 minute period. Mitchell has been working on getting him to phrase the question correctly, but he still says it wrong most of the time.

3) "I'm so thirsty!" -- This is frequently said a little bit after we have given him a drink, but he has misplaced it or he drank it so fast that it is gone already. This kid drinks RIDICULOUS amounts of liquids a day, but never wants to eat his food. In fact right now, he is asking for a drink and not eating his (very small) bowl of cereal.

I think my hopes in posting this are that I will be able to find the humor in what Joseph says and stop being so annoyed. Do you get annoyed by things your kids do everyday?

Fun on the Playground

We've been having fun playing on the playground lately. It's been nice to have a place to play outside. 

The kids like sticking their faces in the little windows on the tube of the playground.

Joseph has finally learned to push the peddles on the tricycle. We will probably be getting him his own bike this fall.

They got so tired out and just look so cute when they are sleeping.

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Happy New Year!

I know I'm two weeks late, but I guess it's better late than never. I didn't realize how busy life was going to get for me even though I am not taking classes. It's been a very big adjustment for me to be home all day again. I feel like a two sided person; one side of me wants to be the best stay-at-home mom in the world and the other side wants to do her own thing. I'm trying to make sure that I schedule time for myself as well as the kids every day ( I have to have schedules to survive...).

I'm planning on starting a little preschool next week. It will mostly be focused on Joseph, but I've invited some moms from the ward who have children that are Joseph's age. I think it's going to be really fun; I just have to make sure that I don't overboard trying to make elaborate lesson plans or anything. I've written "teacher" for What Do You Want to Be? questions for nearly my whole life, but I have to keep from getting to excited at this stage. I'm hoping to homeschool the kids, so I will get to make fancier lesson plans later on.

We took Joseph in for his 3 year old check up at the beginning of this week. He's not doing as well as he should be. He's hardly grown at all in the past year, and by "hardly" I mean less than 2 inches and less than 5 pounds, although it could be even less than that. He will be seeing a GI next month to make sure that there are no underlying problems. We've been trying to get him to eat more at his meals, but sometimes it feels like a war zone. Hopefully, we can figure things out so that he can start growing again.

Yesterday, we were able to buy a countertop dishwasher! I'm so excited! We found a listing on ksl.com for someone that was selling one in Orem. I'm so glad because now it's so much easier to do dishes. Mitchell has been really great and has been doing most of the dishes since we got it. It's such a load off of my shoulders.

Tomorrow, we are going to Ikea and buying a bed frame. For almost a year, we have been sleeping on a 4-inch memory foam topper that just lays on the ground. It's not as uncomfortable as it sounds, but it causes problems because the kids think it's a tumbling mat. A week or so ago, someone in our ward gave us a feather bed topper and we put that on top, too. So it's softer for us to sleep on AND for the kids to play on. A few days ago, I just decided that I was tired of being jumped on and somersaulted on and headstand-ed on while trying to sleep or rest, so I told Mitchell that I need a bed frame. We figure that once we have the frame, Joseph may try to do a somersault on it and get hurt and then he won't do it again (at least, that's what we hope). We went and browsed at Ikea today and decided to get something from there because we could really use the storage space that their beds provide. I love Ikea because everything is just meant for living in small spaces, which is totally what we are doing. I'm excited to get a bed tomorrow!

I made New Years' Resolutions for myself, but I think I might post them another day. I have two sleeping children, a warm bed, and a not-busy husband, so I'm done typing now.

Smart Joseph

I just wanted to say how proud I am of my cute, little boy. Joseph knows the upper- and lower-case letters about 85% of the time; he still confuses "b" with "d," "k" with "x," and "m" with "n" some of the time. He can count up to 13 and he's figuring out the actually counting of things. He copies me and Mitchell so much and it seems like he can do whatever we can do sometimes. It is definitely a challenge keeping up with him sometimes because he figures out how to get and do what he wants, whether we want him to or not. I can't wait to watch him grow and to watch his talents flourish. I'm pretty sure that I'm going to home-school the kids and I'm excited to help him expand his knowledge and develop his abilities. I'm so grateful for my little Joseph and I love him so much!

A House Full of Sickies

We have been a house full of sickies for the past 2 weeks. It has not been very fun, but it could have been much worse.

It started with Annabelle acting cranky around the weekend of General Conference; she even threw up twice. A few days later, we noticed her eyes were all pink and goopy. We took her to the doctor and she was diagnosed with bacterial conjuctivitis (Pink Eye) and an ear infection. We picked up her antibiotics and started her on them; she has 2 more days left of those.

Then Mitchell got a sore throat, and then a stuffy nose and a cough, all of it causing him to miss 2 days of class. Then he woke up with an ear infection. He went to the doctor and got some antibiotics. Two days later, he got Pink Eye, so he missed another day of class. He's still in the difficult process of catching up on his many art projects for his classes.

And I got sick, too, of course. I got the sore throat, the stuffy nose, the cough and the ear infection, plus the Pink Eye. I missed 3 days of class because of it. My ear is still plugged and my voice is just getting back to normal (I nearly lost it for a couple days). My mid-terms with this week, and I felt so far behind. Thanks to some quick studying and, especially, some answered prayers, I ended up getting good grades on both exams! It feels great to be done with the first block and starting fresh with the second.

Joseph has managed to get away without getting sick at all. He just had to be kept inside and bored because no one could take him out to play. He's happier now that he can play outside.

Busy, busy, busy

I am so busy right now! I haven't been this busy in so long, and it's really tiring sometimes. It's good, though, know that I am able to be busy and all of the things that I am blessed with.

Back in January, I signed up for an Independent Study class, American Heritage. When you sign up, you get one year to complete the class, with no deadlines or anything except that one. I didn't give it enough attention at the beginning of the year, so now I am working on it almost constantly. There are 23 lessons in the course and I'm just about finished with Lesson 6. That shows how very far behind I am. I think the first lessons are a little more intense than the later ones, though, because the first ones deal with the Revolution and the Constitution and all important stuff.

My other classes are just great, and easy so far. My Book of Mormon class is awesome, mostly because we are required to report on our reading as well as answer study guide questions. It really helps me make sure that I am studying regularly, and I am learning a lot more about the scriptures. My teacher did his graduate studies in Hebrew and he spend time in Israel, so he knows a lot of cool stuff. He LOVES showing us external evidences that prove that "the Book of Mormon is an ancient Near Eastern text" ( I think he says that phrase at least once per class). My other class is awesome, too. My teacher used to be in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir! And he's Australian, so he has an awesome accent. He's really funny, too. I always enjoy the time that I spend in that class.

Mitchell is super busy, too. He's working on a lot of different projects for all his classes. Currently, he redesigning Pinocchio with a Lovecraftian theme, creating a space-age clown, and drawing lots of hands and feet. He spends a lot of time researching and looking up images on Google to get ideas for all the things he is drawing. It's pretty awesome; I have to try not to brag about him whenever we are around people just because the stuff he does is so cool!

Joseph is almost potty-trained. He's gone several days without an accident during the day (although he sometimes forgets to pull his underwear and pants ALL the way down, so they get wet anyways) and he's got half-and-half as far as the nights go. At first he didn't want to wear underwear all the time, but when he realized that all of his friends wear underwear it helped a lot. And we bought him some Star Wars underwear last week and now he loves wearing underwear.

Annabelle will be a year old next month! I can't believe it. She is growing so fast. She is already wearing 12 month clothes; I think she is around 21 or 22 pounds now. She is amazing at crawling and she is practicing walking using different toys. She can say Mama, Dada (sometimes), and Baby; usually it's just baby-talk, but on occasion she uses them in reference to the things they are, with Mama being the most used.

I'm so excited for Fall and Halloween and all the other wonderful things that are coming! Life is so great right now!