Hola!

I've got pictures I need to post... again... but if I always waited for me to get around to posting pictures, I'd be like my sisters who only blog once a month... or six months... or a year... 

My children are always asking me to tell them stories from when they were a baby.  If you're anything like me, sometimes the kids' baby stages get a little blended together, or worse yet, I can't remember certain stories when put on the spot.  No fear, though.  I know I have this lovely little blog to help me out.  Keeping up with this blog has been a great blessing.  My kids grow too fast, as do most children, but I know that I have captured them in the ways that I know how. 

So, what's new with us???

Jon Mark: Got put on the Dean's list for outstanding grades (all A's).  He had some pretty awesome phone calls that led us to feel a little more certain about our job prospects... remarkably, since that day, my insomnia has been soooooo much better.  I can go to sleep later than usual and still fall asleep.  Jon Mark can go to bed the same time as me, and I can still fall asleep.  I can be the life of the party for a few hours before bedtime and still fall asleep.  Do you see a lovely pattern here?  I CAN fall ASLEEP.  Which goes to show, that perhaps the cause of my insomnia is truly stress related.  But, as glorious as that is, this is a blurb about Jon Mark, not me...  Jon Mark has a rough schedule this semester, BUT... it is his LAST semester.  He has worked so hard over the last three years, and though I will be sad to say goodbye to our Ohio friends, we're both ready to move on to the next stage of our lives.  Jon Mark took me on a real date last night.  We hired a baby sitter and everything, and I was feeling rather grown-up.  It was a fun date.  We probably won't be on another date like that in a looong time, because of a little thing called money, but we loved our evening.  It had been a very long time since we had been on a date. 

Ralae:  Ummm, some of my update is in Jon Mark's paragraph.  I'm good.  Hannah is moving a lot, which makes me feel positive about her health.  We're getting excited to meet her.  She is, however, causing me a lot of back pain.  More so than with my other pregnancies, but my mom sent me some essential oils and I am excited to use it.  I am teaching dance still, but I don't think I will last much longer.  I'm having fun teaching Joshua to read and Mercedes her letters.  We have a little "guided reading" lesson each day and I work one on one with each of them. 

Joshua: Joshua is learning how to read and keeps a good attitude about it.  He's got his "th" words down (or at least some of them).  He has a few other sight words.  He uses picture clues to help him figure out the words.  He's doing well.  He told me the other day that I was the prettiest mommy in the world, even without make-up on or my hair done, I'm still the prettiest... except when I wear make-up that makes me look like a witch (i.e. what I dressed up for on Halloween and for an 80's themed birthday party).  He doesn't dig it when my hair is pulled up either.  He comes along behind me and takes out my clip or rubber band and says, "let's get this ugly thing out of your hair, you look much prettier when your hair is down".  He's always saying funny things.  He loves rough-housing with Jon Mark and wants to be exactly like him one day (he's always telling me that).  Playing "monster" is his favorite activity.   

Mercedes: Mercedes can draw the letter "M" quite well.  She has successfully stopped sucking her thumb for almost three months now.  She is getting much better about not crying to get what she wants.  She's been praying for that in her prayers and I think it's helping.  She is the CUTEST little cherub.  She's quite animated and makes me laugh.  She loves dancing.  She will often take Luke's hands and force him to dance with her like a prince and princess.  She LOVES playing with her little princess dolls and castle and it cracks me up when I listen in.  A lot of times one of the princess is the mommy to the other princesses and I hear quite a lot of my common phrases when she plays that way.  "Oh, no, Cinderella, you didn't use your words.  Go to your room until you stop crying and are ready to use your words."  Or, "Belle, we don't get what we want when we cry, I'm so sorry Sweetheart."  Or even, "Go to time out, right now, Sleeping Beauty!  We do not hit!"  I love the way she looks when she sleeps.  It's an image I always want to remember.  She's usually in her underwear because at some point, even in her sleep, she decides to take off all of her clothes.  Her curly hair is in a cherubic mess, framing her cute little face like a sweaty halo.  And she's lightly snoring.  It's seriously cute.

Luke: Luke is learning to talk.  He can use simple sentences, but he's sometimes hard to understand.  When he has gas, he says he farted... although funny, and something he has learned from his siblings, I can't help but feel a little ashamed that he knows how to say that.  Clearly I need to give ever more reminders about no potty humor.  He says "I want candy" for every food.  I don't know how he decided that that is what food is called, but that's what he says no matter what the food is.  Everyone is also Mommy.  He will say Daddy after persuading him to do so, but every adult is Mommy.  He loves wearing his new shoes (soft leather ones) and wants them on all the time.  He brings them to me along with his socks and says, "shoes, socks, on."  And, he wants them on immediately.  He says, "huh" when he means "yes".  He loves to sing I Am A Child of God.  He tries to count.  He sings and dances to music.  He loves to take baths and is always taking his clothes off while saying "I want bath".  He's always making Jon Mark and I laugh.