Thunderbird Mountain

Since David is no longer really allowed to run, hike or anything of that "fun" sort (thanks to horrible knees and bad ankle), we've been talking about how I need to step it up and make sure to take the boys out to do those sort of things.  

Saturday morning turned out to be a perfect opportunity to take my two little men for a hike.

Usually when we go to Thunderbird Mountain, we just do a very simple loop.  However, this time the boys decided they wanted to go to the top of the mountain.  So, that's what we did!  The boys did SO good!  I didn't hear one single complaint, no requests for rest breaks, they did a very good job of following the "trail manners" we had talked about and they made sure they drank lots and lots of water.  We even made it without any scraped hands, elbows or knees!  We did, however, come home with a few new rocks to add to our yard (I would really appreciate it if the designers of little boys clothes would make their pockets about half of their current size.  My little boys can squeeze way too much into those pockets of theirs!!).

When we were done and headed to the car, a lady stopped and asked if Kehlton had hiked the entire mountain.  When I told her that he had, she was quite impressed.  I am so proud of both of them; they were such good little troopers.

(Fyi...our new temple is just to our right a short distance.  Had the kind man who was taking our picture taken another step backwards, you would have seen it in the photo)

Unfortunately, I think we probably only have a few weekends of decent hiking weather left before it gets too hot.  We'll have to make the most of it while we can!

Catching Up

Lately, it feels like everything in our lives has been thrown up into the air and we've just been waiting for things to fall back into place.  Finally; things feel like they are starting to settle just a bit.  The last month or so has been rough and we anticipate the next month to be bumpy as well, but we think we can now see a light at the end of the tunnel.  Or at least the reflection of the light at the end of the tunnel.

Here's the scoop.  At the beginning of the year, we decided that while David loves real estate, it is a better career choice for somebody who doesn't really need an income. Not so much for providing for a growing family. So, we started looking at Edward Jones.  We have friends here who work for Edward Jones, and they were all more than excited for David to jump aboard.  David is finally in the last steps of his interviewing process (this has taken 3 months or so) and we hope he will start his training by the end of this month.  Our initial plan was to move to Texas in August.  Phoenix is not where we want to stay permanently, so we figured that if we're going to be starting a new business, we might as well start it someplace we'd rather be long term.  However, a week or so ago we decided that we just needed to stay put for a little while longer.  We do love it here so we're not too sad about staying! :)

I am now working as an office assistant at a local Primrose School.  Initially, I was working a split shift of 6-9 am and then 3-6:30p, while David worked from home with the kids.  Starting next week, though, I will only be working the morning shift.  I couldn't be happier about that!  I was having an incredibly difficult time being away from the kids so much (I think I cried all day, every day my first week).  Now that I've settled into my routine there, I really am enjoying it.  I am contemplating getting my real estate license just to take over David's stuff when he's done.  It would be a very part time thing.  We'll see, I guess!

Brychan scared the living daylights out of me last weekend when I came home from work Friday night to find him with a fairly high fever (this kid NEVER gets sick).  While I was snuggling him, I found a lump in his arm that was slightly larger than a pea.  Saying that I freaked out is kind of an understatement.  All I could focus on was the possibility of cancer and I was close to hysterics once or twice. Anyway.  I got him into the doctor Monday morning and she said it was just a lasting side effect from his last round of immunizations and I shouldn't worry (unless it gets bigger or painful). I am still trying to figure out what we'll be doing for Kindergarten...especially since I started ignoring it once we decided to move to Texas!  We are still trying really hard to get him into the ONE available gifted program in our area, and should find out about that in a week or two.

Two weeks ago, I had a speech assessment done for Kehlton.  The kid talks non-stop, but you can't understand most of what he's saying.  It was decided at that assessment that he does seem to have a delay and so in June he  will have a full evaluation.  If it's decided that he does have a speech delay, then he will start school in the fall in the preschool class that Brychan is currently in; only as one of the "special needs" students rather than a peer model.  We love Brychan's teachers and they already know and love Kehlton, so we are happy with that option.  Other than that, I have no idea what will happen to help improve his speech.

That's a lot of catching up/journaling!!  So, in case you haven't seen all our photos on Facebook lately; here's the results of our last photo session with Jocie.

Even when she's mad she's still cute!!