Checking In

I can not believe how terrible I have been about this blog. I had such high hopes for it. Alas, here I am with 7 months between posts. So much has happened, and yet at the same time, so little.

We are still in Salem. I am surprised by how content I have become here. Yes, I still dislike the place itself, but it has brought us so much closer to our family. I am grateful to be a daily part of my nieces and nephew's lives and grateful that my girls are able to build strong ties to their aunties, uncles, cousins, grandparents and our close friends.

Zach is still really liking Jive. He has been there almost 8 months now. It really is an awesome company and everyday, I thank Heavenly Father that he got on there. It has been a wonderful opportunity for him to grow professionally and he has enjoyed doing it! I am still a full time Mom. Some days are wonderful and others are not. Even on the bad days, I would still rather be home with the girls than anywhere else. Speaking of...

Hannah is one year old now. She is such a fun little girl. She is very very talkative and although she does not have a ton of real "words", that girl communicates. She knows what she is trying to say and will do so insistently until you figure it out. Poor thing must be so frustrated! She is generally very happy and content, although teething has put a damper on her usually cheery attitude. She began crawling around 9 and 1/2 months and was thrilled with her newly discovered freedom. She, unlike her sister, is into everything. babyproofing for Hannah was a very different experience than babyproffing for Gracie. Funny how two children with the same genes, raised in the same environment, by the same people can be so different. Anyway by about 11 months she was climbing. This has been a source of much entertainment and anxiety. Now that she is walking, which she started doing shortly after turning one, she is even more of a terror on the house and trying to scale greater heights! She recognizes Daddy in pictures and while he is at work will often go to his picture, point to it and say "daddy" over and over. When he gets home from work she will come running from wherever she is and fling herself at him saying "Daddy" repeatedly. Sometimes I wonder if I need to go away more often becasue I never get such enthusiastic greetings :0) She is a real delight and I adore having a second daughter.

My Gracie has grown so much these past months physically and mentally. She can write several letters and identify nearly all of them (all if she is actually paying attention). She is still a little singer and I get a kick out of listening to her put music to her life. She also loves dancing and has her favorite songs for dancing to. When we get in the car she always requests that we listen to "songs that I know" so she can sing along. She has been doing swim lessons the past 10 weeks and has made me very proud. The first session she was the star of her class. The only child that did everything the teachers ask, every single time. She would volunteer to go first and did so well that she was able to move up to the next level for this session (she was the only one of her class to advance). She is still doing extremely well this time around and LOVES being in the water. She is also in Sunbeams now at church (which she calls sunbeeps) instead of Nursery. I love asking her what she learned each Sunday because her answer is always so good! She has clearly listened to the lessons and really taken something from it, even if it was maybe not the intended message. She has become a little girl over the past months instead of a toddler and although I feel a little sad when I look back, I really have fun with her at this age. I remember when she was a baby, and i would tell someone how sad it made me that she was going to grow up and they would always say, every stage is so much fun and so exciting, but I just had a hard time believing it, well now i believe. She is so much fun and can do so many things now that were not interesting to her even a few months ago. We finally got her to try out her tinkerbell bike which we got her for her 3rd birthday. After taking a fall last summer she decided it was too big for her and has been holding to that ever since. Well last week we had a few nice days and brought her bike to the park for a bike ride. She got on and within a few minutes was riding beautifully (with her training wheels). I was so proud of her for giving it a try and am looking forward to going on family bike rides more as the weather gets nicer.

Well, that is a pretty good summary of our past few months. The important highlights are that we are all healthy, happy and progressing in our lives. We are grateful for all the blessing we have enjoyed over the last few years (including Zach losing his job back in 08) because everything has worked in our favor given enough time. It is my sincerest hope that I will always be able to remember that even the worst things in life can bring about unexpected blessings and that I need to trust my life to God; who is always on my side, ready to help me pick up the pieces and put them all together, and ready to fill in the wholes that are my imperfections and weaknesses.