Just Where I Want To Be: State of the Family #43

Things are a busy as ever around here as the Christmas musical practices are in full swing which takes Mommy away from home 2 nights a week. Then you add in Wednesday night Bible Study and Kings Kids and the whole week feels shot!

Noisy Man and Miss Firecracker are still loving school. We had Parent/Teacher conferences for Noisy Man and got a great review. His teacher reported that he is a very well behaved little boy and doing well with everything in school. The only thing she had to report to us that wasn't completely positive, but not really negative either was that during reading time he seems to be self-distracting, making binoculars with his hands or playing with his chair. But when she catches him and asks him a question about what she was just teaching, he still knows the answer. Hmmm... the musings of a kindergartner. Noisy Man also hit another milestone this past week with learning how to tie his shoes!

The battle with Miss Firecracker and nap time seems to have subsided in the last week. Thanks to an awesome MOPS mentor mom who discussed the 'special time' she and her husband used to do with their children before bed time, I decided to try and implement it with MF for nap time to see if the arguing would lessen. Lo and behold, it worked! She gets to pick out whatever book she wants and I lay down in her bed with her. Then we read the book together, just the two of us. She loves the one on one time, which I think is essential for a middle child to get anyway, and I don't have to fight with her to get her to bed every afternoon!

We are diaper free at this house! It is such a blessing! Miss Thumb Sucker has figured out this potty stuff. She still has a few accidents here and there and wears pull-ups whenever we are out of the house or she is in bed, but is even figuring out how to go on 'other' toilets as well! I am so proud of her. And she doesn't turn 2 for another month.

Daddy has been quite the trooper over the past few weeks with mommy being gone quite a bit for practice, Pampered Chef shows and a few other things. Get this, I even came home to some beautiful flowers from him the other day, and he had to take all three kids into the store to buy them! He is still working on breaking some horses so the kids can ride a little bit more this summer, trying to get in a few last fishing trips (without much luck on catching anything) and started a men's Bible study as well.

Last weekend we got to trek half way across the wonderful state of Nebraska to see some wonderful college friends of ours. Julie and I have run many races together in Lincoln over the last few years, but then she moved out to beautiful Elsie. The 5 hour car ride to see them was a bit 'iffy' at times with 3 kids in tow, but once we got there, it was nothing but fun. Well, almost. The trek was made so that Mommy and Julie could take part in the Autumn River Run 1/2 marathon in North Platte. Did you know that North Platte and Eastern NE have almost 2,000 ft difference in elevation? Did you know that this difference makes a huge difference on Mommy's ability to run well (notice I didn't say fast, just well, my running far from qualifies as fast no matter how well I do)? More on the race in another post.

Our time with our friends was wonderful. They have 2 kids ages 2 and 4. You would never know that our kids had never played together before. I don't think there was a fight all weekend and they all played like they had been best friends for life. The parents had a great time as well, watching football and enjoying great conversation. Learn more about their wonderful family here. Julie and I lived in Love Memorial Hall together our first years of college and our hubbies were both Burr Hall boys those years as well! They made a great cheering section for the race too!