A Very Happy Belated (very late) New Year to All!
Well, so far this new year has been BUSY! After enjoying family & spending over 35 hours in the car traveling to Colorado for Christmas and then to Vidor for New Year's, we are very happy to stay put for a while right here at home in McKinney! Here are some updates on the family:
Ryan
Ryan enjoyed the New Year's festivities at my parent's home. We had front yard fireworks in the driveway and Ryan got to blow stuff up. Pure satisfaction! He is still hard at work teaching art to 800 students a week at his elementary school. He has some art shows coming up in the month of February and is preparing for that. He is also looking forward to his birthday in February!! Ryan has been using his creativity and it shows in our study with all his paints and art supplies all over. He recently got back into doing air-brush painting. It is fun to see him so happy and excited over it!
Miss B
Bethany is GREAT! She has gone over into "toddler-hood" and is loving it. She talks more and gestures for what she wants or doesn't want. On top of that she has started to throw "mini-tantrums" and I call them that because I know it only gets worse as she moves towards 2 yrs.
She has learned to climb our stairs and for all those who were worried - we FINALLY got our downstairs baby gate put up. This doesn't keep Miss B from finding other mischief to get herself into. Miss also loves to move around all our furniture, especially our chairs. She pushes them all over the kitchen and downstairs with ease. I know it is only a matter of time before she learns to move the chairs and climb onto them. Pray that she doesn't learn this for at least another 10 years!
This past week she has suffered with a heavy case of allergies. I took her to the doctor but nothing can really be done for her. Poor baby has her eyes and nose running all day! I told one of my sister's that Bethany is "whinny with extra whinny on top" the past few days. We enjoy her so much and hope to have many visits this year in 2009 from family and friends so they can enjoy her too!
Lori
Me, well all I can say is whew! Our current circumstances have put me back to working full-time. I started working just about a week and a half before Christmas break and now I am full on working at a great little preschool called Applecreek Private Preschool in Frisco www.applecreekpreschool.com. A gal from my sister Angie's ward actually owns the school and there are a lot of LDS women who work there. I am co-teaching with another girl in the Pre-K classroom 5 days a week. It is a great fit for now but I am preparing to possibly start teaching again in public school SPED next school yr. I am studying now for an exam to get two more endorsements (EC-4 and ESL) put onto my TX teaching license so I can be more marketable. Wish me luck and pray for me!
After our ward split, in December I got called into the Young Women's presidency for Frisco 4th. I am serving as secretary and have already learned that this calling is A LOT of responsibility. We only have 6 girls right now in Young Women but I am sure we'll get more as the year goes on! Ryan and I chaperoned the Youth Stake Dance last weekend. It was too funny. Teenagers crack me up. Good times.
With all this came the blessing of finding a wonderful babysitter for Miss B. I put out an email and had a gal from my ward and in my neighborhood take the job of watching Miss B in her home. It is only about 2 minutes from our house and fits into our budget. It was definitely an answer to many prayers! Miss B seems happy to be there and has a playmate to keep her busy each day while mommy and daddy are both at work.
Life sure is busy but it is a GOOD life and we are so happy and blessed. We know that this year will bring more changes, ups and downs, trials and many many blessings of happiness as well! We look forward to keeping in touch with friends and family through blogs, phone calls, emails and visits! Our home and hearts are always open.
The new baby gate . . . no more stair climbing.
Poor Miss B looking miserable from allergies all week and maybe saying " Mom, why did you make me wear this pink tu-tu?" If you are wanting one I found them at Target in the $1 spot. They have pink and purple!
Just being a cutie pie on New Year's Day!
Check back often and don't forget to leave comments! They are so much fun to read and one day I hope to show them all to Bethany!!
