The Summer Begins!

We got one and only one chance to make a snowman this winter. It occured in the middle of April! So I took the evening off of school work (I was NOT going to miss this chance!), picked up Lucas from daycare and we made a snowman! It was fun.

The summer if officially here and I have officially completed my teacher certification program! It was the hardest year of my life...James was amazing and basically took care of the house and the kids on his own this spring. A huge THANK YOU goes out to my sister, Kerri, for coming up and giving us 3 weeks of her life to help us out. I felt so much better that my hubby would not go completely insane with Katie, a toddler and a baby to take care of by himself for at least those few weeks. We seem to enjoy the challenges!?!

It's pretty sweet that I have the whole summer off! We've got our neice coming in for 2 weeks in June - Liz. Then I'll be taking Lucas and Alana down to Oregon for 3 1/2 weeks to visit the parents and my grandma and extended family in Idaho. We will be gone for a week to the coast, so I am very excited about that! I keep talking to Lucas about it and he seems to want to go. Then 4 days after we return, James' parents are coming in for 3 weeks! Busy summer! But this is the first summer I won't be busy with work, but with more fun things.

Katie is staying up here this summer and will be working half days in June as part of a work program. She'll even earn money, so we'll be able to teach her about saving, etc, for long-term investments and short-term goals. We hope she likes it. She is also turning 15 this Saturday! Can you believe it?

Lucas is definitely a two-year old. We took him a few cookies into school today (this is his last week before he gets to stay home with me!) and he was apparently under the impression that he would get the eat them when he got there. I initially said no (before the 1st melt-down), then said he could have a small one (he took out the biggest one), then since he would not put the big one back I said he could have half of the big one and I proceded to break the cookie in half. #1 lesson: NEVER break a cookie in half. #2 lesson: NEVER let your toddler know you are taking cookies to school for him to eat later. #3 lesson: I need to learn to master the art of saying no and sticking with it (But my excuse is that he was in a mood...). Lucas still has his allergies...but I finally made a chocolate cake that was really good (...from a mix in the non-wheat section). We are still hoping he grows out of some of them...Oh, he LOVES tractors (anything big) and loves to jump off pretty much anything (pretty scary for the parents!).

Alana is as sweet as can be. She's already walking holding onto our hands and wants to really be running around with Lucas all over the place. Lucas makes her laugh all the time and sometimes he doesn't see what is so funny and says to Alana "No, Alana, it's not funny." Alana has been pretty needy lately...we think she is getting her eye teeth in. Other than that she is a happy girl! One oddity to note...Alana does not like grass. She cried the first time we put her on it. If we put her on a blanket on the grass she's ok with it, but she will not crawl off the blanket into the grass...even if I'm out there and she wants to come to me. If she's going to be in this family, she's going to have to get over this daintiness! It won't exactly work when we start going camping!

James will finish up his Bachelor's this summer! Yeah! He is so excited and ready to get it over with. He's also really looking forward to getting out of the military. Basically a little over a year left! Then he'll got through the teacher certification program as well. I'm still waiting for jobs to open up in the school district for either math or chemistry. I'm hoping to teach math...I think I would be better at that them chem. Until next time...