Get You Some Goals End

Review of my goals in 2012. I know it's going to be sad. 

1. Take a family picture (I know, you are all laughing, aren't you?)

You had good reason to laugh if you did. It didn't happen. 

2. Have an organized move come June

Thanks to all the help we had and being able to leave Henry for two nights with my mom, we were able to get everything done fairly smoothly.

3. Attend the temple 12 times in the year

I didn't keep track but I think we went closer to 6 or 7 times before Thea came. 

4. Be a better visiting teacher

I am sure I could have been better than I was, but I think I did improve. 

5. Magnify my calling

I tried, but honestly, I am not sure I can feel I did this very well. It was difficult especially since I felt like I didn't have much support. But I learned some things and hopefully if I ever have that calling again I will know how to go at it better. I have been subbing since we moved but got a calling last week but won't start until the second Sunday of the month. 

6. Read Daughters in My Kingdom: The History and Work of the Relief Society

Yay, one I can definitively say I did do. 

7. Read 10 books (plays and short story collections can count too, maybe a few plays to count as 'a book')

All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot

All Things Wise and Wonderful by James Herriot

All Things Bright and Beautiful by James Herriot

Bleak House by Charles Dickens 

Daughters in my Kingdom

Short Stories of Oscar Wilde

Silas Marner 

I guess if I count two or three of the Oscar Wilde stories as one a piece I can make it to 10...But wow, I really need to read more this yearc. 

8. Finish all of MI-5 (kind of a stupid one, but a doable one, plus I won't be able to handle it when the post-partum hormones come)

Yes! This was how Johann and I de-stressed at night.  

9. Have one-on-one time with Henry

I should have defined this goal better. We have been together a lot, obviously, but I am not even sure what I meant by one-on-one time now exactly. Sooo probably didn't do this as well as I should have. 

10. Go on 6 actual dates with Johann (ie-not dates we have at home)

Didn't keep track. But I'd say we did at least 3 or 4.

11. Continue working out daily

Yeah, around 4 months I sissied out. 

12. Work on family history (transcribing my dad's journal, taking names to the temple, they also just called a couple to teach a family history class so we'll attend that)

I've transcribed a bit of my dad's first journal and taken some names to the temple. That family history class never started up in our old ward either. Last night I distributed some names to my brothers so hopefully I will soon have all the printed names done. Next I need to learn how to research and find ancestors to add. My brother is going to take some family history courses and I'll just have to have him teach me the ways. 

13. Send out birth announcements for the little one

I did it! If you didn't get one don't be offended, I only had enough for family since we were still living off savings. 

Hey, that turned out better than I thought it would. I guess past me knew that 2012 me wouldn't be able to get much done and made some reasonable goals. Here's to the end of 2012 and looking forward to a new year. 

Don't mess

Sound asleep. 

Christmas Time

Twas a nice Christmas this year. It would have been nice for Johann and my mom to have more than 2 days off before Christmas but we were mostly prepared and able to enjoy it.

Speaking of preparing, I tried to start a new family tradition this year as we don't really have any currently. I saw a pin about doing a Christmas Eve box and gave it a go. Bad go.
Firstly, he was mortified that I told him to open the box (elves dropped it off on the doorstep) since no one is allowed the open presents until Christmas day.
Secondly, he was personally affronted by the contents of the box. He has an on again, off a again hatred of movies. When he saw "Arthur Christmas" he threw his hand up in the air, said, "THIS IS RIDICULOUS" and went to his room.
Later he finally came out and said we needed to leave cookies, milk and carrots for Santa and the reindeer.

Apparently I chose the wrong to tradition to start.

So while Christmas Eve was not that great, Christmas day was nice.

We woke up and heard Henry's excitement then he ran into our room and yelled, "Santa wrote me a letter!!!", had breakfast and opened stockings and gifts here in AV and then got ready and headed to Riverside to spend Christmas day with the Simonds side of the family.

Santa's gifts to Thea and Henry

waking up to stockings

proof Santa came

Thea's stocking 

mmm. mama's cinnamon rolls. 

Uncle Aaron not only got him another sword but also Hulk hands. Pretty sure his favorite gift.

Johann's new shirt 

Yay to sparing my poor knees!

Miss Thea

Learning to open the presents 

And the cutest little Christmas girl ever

Henry loved all the presents he received and is so lucky to have so many people in his life who love him. The same goes for Thea and it was so much fun to watch her holding the presents or trying to tear the paper.

 Mr. Max opening presents

 Kailee helping baby Apollo open gifts

 With Aunt Nani and Thea

With the cutest little Christmas bear ever

cousin Jeremy and Henry are a dynamic duo

 Thea practicing her sitting up and playing with toys 

Playing Rock 'Em Sock 'Em with Nani

Merry Christmas! 

Of Note

WARNING: BIG POST

Follow up from the last post--No, still haven't decided what to do about school for Henry. I think I'll just wait it out, keep exploring options, and when it comes time if I feel like putting him in, I will. If I don't, I won't. Since K isn't required anyway, I've decided not to worry about it anymore. I did take him out of the community center preschool--it was too expensive for what it was and I didn't love the teacher. Glad he isn't doing it anymore.

I recently realized I haven't mentioned some of the big things that have happened. So this post is a quick catch up of the big and some of the little too.

End of September-Johann stopped working in Las Vegas and started working in Palmdale, Ca.

He had been commuting to LV starting the end of August, staying during the week at hotels and then back on the weekends. Henry, Thea and I stayed in Apple Valley with my mom while he was gone all week. It was sad.We started looking for a place to rent, found one we really liked and then it was no longer available. After that I struggled to be happy about any aspect of moving to LV. We really just couldn't find anywhere we wanted to move. We had a bad experience with where we lived during the internship (neighbor drug dealer, narcotics raids, girl kidnapped in the complex over and the area was made into section 8 housing) and really wanted to avoid that.
Johann continued to look for positions in CA and saw one open in Palmdale. He applied. Then he met a new hire psych in LV who had just left from Palmdale, and it was his position that was open. Douglas (the LV psych) made some calls, gave Johann a great recommendation, and after some paper work and figuring out how to get Johann an emergency CA credential, he was officially hired at Palmdale. We are incredibly grateful to Douglas for all he did and for the Palmdale hiring for being willing to work with him through the credentialing process.
Now he commutes an hour both way to Palmdale daily, which is hard, but it is so much better than LV. We are staying with my mom so we can pay down loans and save up. We are also so thankful to her for allowing us to stay and make some goals for us possible much sooner than they otherwise would be.

October-Halloween

Pictures of the kids. Henry was The Flash. Thea was an Owl. We had lots of things going on here at the house so I ended up not getting her costume done until just before the ward party. My mom helped with cutting and we finished in about an hour. It wasn't fantastic but I have to start somewhere and she's still a cute face.

November-Thanksgiving break. We went to Northern Ca to be with my Aunt Virginia and fam for Thanksgiving. We stayed in a hotel in Pleasanton and had our first family vacation planned and paid for by us and as a family of 4--woot! We also switched rooms and are in the house instead of in the guest room off the garage. We have a new nephew! Apollo! Congrats to Johann's brother and wife. 

 Cousins

 Monterey. Favorite day of break. So much fun and so beautiful. 

Thanksgiving day. So much to be Thankful for this year!

December-We got all of our stuff out of storage in LV and are officially done with that city! We are still working on getting everything put together and organized and have taken a temporary break to try and enjoy Christmas time. Oh and Thea turned 5 months! I probably should do a whole post just on all the Thea catch-up but if I'm honest with myself, it's incredible I am even doing this post! Had our ward Christmas party. The Santa did SUCH a good job. We also got to see our new nephew, Apollo, blessed! 

 Thea is 5 months!

 Ward Christmas party

 Baby Apollo looking handsome!

Cousins and mommies=)

I need to do some more individual posts with things I mentioned, but it may not happen, so this will do for now.

ON TO CHRISTMAS!!!

=)

It's time for another match up:

PUBLIC SCHOOL VS. HOME SCHOOL 

Hopefully some of you find this interesting. I need to write this all out, hopefully hear a few thoughts I haven't thought myself and take some more time on it. This is round 3 of my never ending fight to come to a decision about how I feel about home schooling my children (in particular Henry, since he could start kindergarten 10 months from now eep) versus sending them to public school. I've actually wondered about this since I was pregnant with Henry. 

First, a few notes: 

-When I say public school, read anything outside of the home. I realize that now especially there are many options in public, private and charter schools, but for the sake of where I'm going today, lets just glom all those into one until I get a little further on the path here. 

-When I say home school, please try your hardest not to think about that one kid or that one family who home schooled and they were all so weird.  One of my friends put it well when she said, "It's true, a lot of weird people are drawn to home schooling, but they would still be weird whether they home schooled or not." 

-I was home schooled until I started public school in 5th grade. It may not be true, but I feel this gives me a little better understanding than your average bear on the topic. I had positive experiences in both settings. The only negative I remember from being home schooled was being treated like the weird kid from certain girls at church who when I went to public school were still that way, and gee whiz, I found out they had all kinds of kids to be mean to, not just the home schooled kid. Negatives from public school, too many to recount. Then again, I was a teenager during the time, so it is a bit of an unfair comparison in that respect.  Additionally my mom was and is a teacher (she had to go back to work which is why we went to school) and Johann is a school psych. So, I get the good, the bad and the ugly about public education and the kids that are there. 

To get an idea of what's been going on in my head, lets do some pros and cons for each:

HOME SCHOOL

CONS 

-Stereotyped as the weird kid

-less socialization (between sports and church I never felt this though)

-different curriculum from peers 

-(this is kind of a pro and a con) having to create and prepare curriculum (I know you can get some through homeschool programs) and teach the kids every day, esp considering Henry and my personality can butt heads frequently. 

PROS

-Freedom of time

-more time together as a family

-tailoring education to fit child's need 

-greater ability to influence child's understanding of right and wrong

-able to teach the gospel hand in hand with education 

PUBLIC SCHOOL 

PROS

-time for me to organize, have more one on one time with whichever child or children are at home

-getting to feel a part of an institution that the majority of your neighbors are a part of 

-teachers who have received degrees in the subject(s) taught. 

CONS

-time restrictions on family time, vacation time etc 

-homework (again, a time issue in the evenings and weekends)

-more highly concentrated time and space for peer pressure 

This is just a bare bones beginning but I am tired and need to hit the hay. Any constructive thoughts be appreciated and then probably there will be some more posting from there. Also, did you make a big decision to put your kids in school over home schooling them or was enrolling them, "just what you/everyone do/does"? THANKS, THE INTERNET. 

Dorothea at 3 months

I adore this little face. 

At 3 months Dorothea is a BIG baby. It's hard looking at her and seeing what looks like a 6 month old baby (she's 15lbs and 24in currently!) and feeling that little twinge of sadness that she is growing up so fast. Not as fast as it looks, of course, but I'm saddened about her getting older just as much as I am excited to see her develop. 

Speaking of which, I think the relationship between these two is developing nicely. She is no longer mostly terrified of him. She likes him enough now that I can put her on the play mat or in the bumbo seat and ask Henry to play with her and she'll stay distracted by him for a bit. 

 As far as developmental milestones, she is still a much more relaxed baby than Henry. He was rolling around at 2 months but she is just now willing to be on the mat long enough to tip her booty up and turn herself 90 to 160 degrees. I did see her make it from her back to her side once but then she freaked out, cried and went back to her back. It's understandable though, she's got a lot to roll!

She is obsessed with this quaking duck. 

 She still wants to be in the upright sitting position all the time, or standing. She bobs her little head when she's in her car seat, trying to get up.

Trying to sit up while 'cheering' daddy on

Aside from being much bigger than Henry was, she is also A LOT more talkative than I remember him being. When Johann comes home from work, she will chat with him (loudly) for 15 minutes straight. 

She continues to be a very happy girl, so long as she is fed and has slept (both of which she is still doing really well, though there are days she won't sleep unless I hold her), even if she hasn't she still can't keep herself from smiling when you smile at her. It's hilarious to see her red crying face with a big goofy smile on it then a frown then a smile. The main cause of the grumpies lately though seems to come from a very drooly baby with bumps on the bottom gums. Chomp, chomp time soon, or maybe she'll teeth for months like Henry did. We'll see. 

I love having Dorothea in our family and find so much joy in that feeling that she's never not been apart of out family. Here's to 3 great months and many more to come! 

Happy 1st Day of Fall!

If I could marry a season, I'd marry Fall. 

Hooray for it's arrival!

Summer A.D.

After Dorothea arrived this summer...

Johann's uncle Jorge, cousin Mariana and 2nd cousine Juan Manuel visited from Uruguay

Mariana and Thea 

Juanma and Henry. Henry ADORED Juanma and still asks about him

He got to go with them to SeaWorld

Getting ready to feed the seals 

The animal show there. His favorite part of the day, he said, was seeing the silly piggy at this show.

And since SeaWorld just isn't enough, he got to go to Disneyland too...

Jorge, Juanma, Henry, Johann and Grandpa

Loved Star Tours, was scared of Haunted Mansion but loves talking about it still 

Buzz Lightyear ride, his favorite, with Mariana 

 

Pickpocketing Juanma?

My favorite story that Johann shared from their trip was that some asian girls asked to take a picture with Henry and then every time they were in line with any asian girls they would catch them taking pictures of Henry or they would ask to touch his hair. Bah-ha! I should take him over there and set up shop, make a pretty penny and just hope his hair doesn't darken. 

It was really fun to meet some more of Johann's family from Uruguay and this winter Gaby (cousin)is coming again. I just love her and am so excited to see her again and have her meet Thea. Everyone I have met from his extended family from there has been extremely kind, thoughtful and they are especially good at playing with Henry. Even though Juanma is a teenager he let Henry be his shadow everywhere they went and Mariana and Jorge were so good to him too. Hopefully they'll be able to come out again in the not too distant future. 

Then there were swimming lessons

And blowing up soap (thanks pinterest)

lots of visits, of which I got some pics

Kelly's little girl Clara and Thea

Henry as Wolverine, Eizen as Batman and Ozzy as Superman

Catrina and Thea (and they even matched). I was SO happy to see and spend time with them!

Uncle Hamp and Aunt Anna came for Thea's blessing

so did Uncle Jakey

Got a haircut

made some playdough

 did lots of crafts

worked on his burping the baby skills

lots of drawing-this is a vampire talking to a spider

fed the fishies at the fish hatchery

 got to see Paranorman in 3D and kept the glasses to thug it up

So having a baby sure didn't make the summer slow down. 

And now that the summer has officially ended we might need a little time to catch up, right kiddos?