Today!

I just decided to start a family blog. Typing is way easier for me, and I don't write things in baby books anymore.. sad face! There is a lot going on with our family, and this will hopefully pan out to be an informative source of that information some time down the road. Okay! Let's begin.


We'll start with the youngest:

Hunter 

Hunter is currently 1 year old! His birthday was last month. We threw a little birthday party for him. Grammy Vicki and Grandpa Steve came over and brought a cupcake caterpillar cake. It was adorable! And really yummy. Grammy Vicki is such an excellent cook and home cooks just about everything. The cake was great and so was the frosting. Mama and Papa (Lynette and Tom) and Aunt Paige came over to enjoy the party too. Aunt Sierra was able to Skype in for the event.  Everyone demolished the cupcakes that night. Hunter got a beautiful red radio flyer wagon. It's the nice deep kind that the kids won't fall out of too easily. He got to test ride it that night with Ava and he and the wagon hit it off! The kids all really love it.

So currently, Hunter is a curious little boy! He is fully into the toddler stage. He gets into everything he can get away with! Some of his favorite places include the toilet and bathroom, Daddy's nightstand, he likes unplugging the internet that's plugged in under the kitchen table, and will put most small items into his mouth. He walks around quite well, though still a tad unsteady on his feet. His favorite word and most likely person is DADDY, or Dada. He even calls Mommy Daddy! It's infuriating for Mommy. But Daddy continues to reassure Mommy that in another month, he'll be saying Mommy like it's his favorite word too. Mommy seriously doubts this. Hunter is a very happy boy, sleeps through the night most nights now, and still takes a bottle. But he does eat a lot of table foods. Not very picky at all. His hair has still not been cut. It's about down to his ears. He's such a cute little guy, we always feel so bad for him he has two dorky sisters to have to deal with every day!

And on to the next one up:

Juliette 

Juliette is currently 2 years old. Her birthday was in October. She is very verbal these days. It doesn't seem that long ago that she really didn't say much. But now she says a lot! She is very active and loves to cuddle and wrestle! Very much into rough housing, which is so hard for me sometimes. She's knocked me in the head pretty good a few times already. I predict she may be slightly athletic when she gets older. She loves to play with Ava and about half the time, they get along. The other half of the time is spent fighting or arguing with her sister. She is also pretty good at beating up her little brother. My guess is that one day he might be bigger than her and that'll be the end of that. She's a petite little thing. Definitely skinnier that her siblings. Most of the time she has a good appetite. She loves to sing along with Ava and can be very silly sometimes. She's also 2 years old and definitely acts like it at times. She can go a long time saying "no," let's just say. But we love her and love cuddling with her when she climbs into bed with us in the morning sometimes. She is working on potty training and likes to do "big girl" things. She's got a lot of spunk and is a lot of fun to be around.

Ava

Ava is such a big girl! She will be 5 next month, I can hardly believe it. It seems like it was only a short time ago that I was holding her in the delivery room. Where to even begin.. this girl is so smart! She is very perceptive and speaks so clearly. She is a very social girl. Ava loves her friends at daycare and at church. She is constantly singing and makes up the lyrics to familiar tunes. It's quite hilarious sometimes, especially when she doesn't think you can hear her. Oh gosh, and this girl and her fashion! Ava is so particular about what she wears. Unlike Juliette, Ava can't just wear anything. Some days she chooses to wear leggings with a cute top, other days she will pick out a dress from her closet. And some days it looks like she has NO fashion sense, but then I just figure it's a fad she's starting, and in a few years, everyone will be dressing in polka dot leggings, striped red shirts, and a jean jumper with pigtails. She is ALL girl, every bit of her. Very much into doing her hair and nails and looking pretty. But she is pretty, so I don't blame her. She is gettin ready to go to her kindergarten! I'm excited and scared for her, but I know she will do just fine. She does really well with her letters so I don't think it'll be long before she starts to read. Ava is the most independent of all the kids. And she speaks her mind. She is a good girl and loves to help. I am so proud of her and excited for what's in store for her!

Paul and Stephanie 

Paul and Stephanie are doing pretty good! We really are. Paul is in the midst of a mad job hunt though. The poor guy has been at Subway for some time and it's getting old. He has the skills and drive and would be a quality employee for sure, but the problem has been getting ANY interviews at all. It's so frustrating. We both express our frustration with me having to work so much and hardly see the kids and him feeling so helpless, and at times, it comes to the surface and bum us out for a few days at a time, but he is trying his very best. We have talked about him going back to school, but don't really see how that would be possible at this time. He DID finally get an interview in Greeley..which isn't really an ideal position but I suppose if it paid well enough, we could deal with that.

I am currently still at the bank as a teller. My boss is highly pregnant. And that means grumpy. Being at work is already hard because I have to be away from my family, but throw in a fire-happy boss and that gets me sweating pretty fast. I get called into the office almost every week for something completely asinine. It'll be nice when boss maternity leave rolls around. We are all looking forward to about 4 months of that! But sadly, it's made me rethink if maybe I want to try working somewhere else at some point. We shall see. Our plan is if Paul can find a good, full time job, maybe I can go down to working part time, and that could mean working elsewhere. But I'm trying to not put the cart before the horse and just end up disappointed. I'm trying to have faith that things will work out how they are supposed to be. And also hoping very much that the way things are supposed to be is exactly what I'm hoping for! Ha.

So as of this month Paul and I will be married for 6 months! It's exciting and I can't believe how much time has passed already. He is such a great husband and father to the kids. I couldn't have asked for a better guy in my life. The kids love him to death, and that was something that I really hadn't planned on. He is after all their "step dad" but we don't think of it that way at all. He is 100% dad to the kids. They started calling him Daddy all on their own, without any insistence from either of us. I am glad that they have a complete family, and feel that love from him. I don't know what we would do without him! We look forward to many years (and eternity!) as a family!

Well, that is the recent stuff for our family. Future plans include getting a van (woo second car!) and possibly buying a house next year. It is hard to look super far into the future, so we do what we can at the moment.

Until next time,
Stephanie :-)