William is 1!!!

I can't believe William turned 1 on Sunday. Unfortunately he was sick on his birthday but luckily we celebrated a week early with my parents when they were in town.  He enjoyed all the attention, being sung to, opening presents and THE CAKE!  He had no problem digging right in and he needed a bath when he was all done.  I think his favorite present was the Tigger singing card Mom & Dad got him (go figure) and he wanted to hear it over and over again and he bounced all the way through it.  How fitting.  He might just be nicknamed Tigger before he gets too far into life with how much he bounces! 

He said his first word, 'ball,' on my birthday and followed it up with 'yum' and making elephant sounds.  He loves to bop to the beat of music and often tries to snap along or 'sing' along.  He is so full of energy and smiles.  As is fitting for the third child, I have no idea how much he weighs or how tall he is but I do have a Dr. appointment scheduled. . . finally!  All I know is that he's heavy and squirmy, eating like a champ and growing strong.  4 1/2 years into parenting and I'm finally ok with just knowing the big picture - that he's doing great - and I'm really letting the details go! 

Below you'll see him trying the sand at the beach.  He only did it once and he did not say 'yum' after.  :)   He loved digging around in the sand.  He used the same technique on his birthday cake. 

 My parents came to town for a week for a week when Brad was going to be traveling to Denver.   We had all sorts of fun with them hiking around the Sutro Baths with views of the Golden Gate Bridge and heading down memory lane in Danville where we lived when I was 2-6.  We even found my preschool and got a tour.  It looks the same as I remember it - 30 years later!  When Brad got home, we were able to have a birthday/Valentine's date at Ruth's Chris (Thanks Cowans!) and we had more fun at the beach and eating at our neighbor's middle eastern restaurant at Haight/Ashbury St. and celebrating Mom's, Dad's and my birthday with homemade cheesecake and then William's birthday.  It was a jam packed week of fun and it was so nice to have them around when Brad was gone.

 Our family was made for the beach!  We were joking that we've wasted the last 4 1/2 years of our life with kids pretending we were mountain people because everyone has such a great time at the beach.  We run, play Frisbee, build sand castles, and just roll around in the sand.  So much fun!  Our van looks horrible with sand in every crevice but it has been worth it!

Well, I did it. . . William's birthday post.  What a wonderful blessing that little bouncing baby boy is.  To think I cried for most of my pregnancy with him because I couldn't imagine adding another baby to our already chaotic family.  It just goes to show how good God is and how I need to purpose to trust His plan because it is good!  Now I can't imagine life without him.  He brings joy to my heart and softness to the sister competition that shows up around here.  Thank God for boys!

Off to do the dishes. . .

Happy Belated New Year!

I've been avoiding the blog since it's been so long since I've updated it and so much has happened.  Not one to let details go, I just couldn't see having enough time (or energy) to sit down and write it all down.  Well, I'm over it.  Let's just pretend I've been consistent in updating the blog and this is just a regular update.  :)

So, we're enjoying California and the beautiful and warm weather.  We go for a bike ride around our neighborhood every afternoon and depending on Elsie's mood, she either rides her bike with Addy or rides in the stroller with William.  Addy has been riding a big two wheeler (with training wheels) since her birthday in September and Elsie has mastered the Lil' Push bike.  They love going for bike rides and William loves the stroller.  I'm actually having to run to keep up with them most of the time.

We're pretty settled into our rental although it doesn't feel like home.  I can't commit to hanging anything on the walls since I don't know how long we'll be renting the place and it seems like a bummer to have to putty a bunch of holes in the wall if we're not going to be here very long.  On that note, the market here is pathetic.  There is next to nothing on the market and what is on the market in the areas we'd feel comfortable buying is not that great.  Hopefully as spring comes around so will more houses. 

William just turned 11 months old and he is quite a joy.  He has such a wonderful personality and is such an added blessing to our family.  I love the way the girls love him so much and take such good care of him.  He is practicing standing independently and he started crawling while we were in Colorado although he's not typically too motivated to go anywhere.  He loves standing holding on to the knees of someone who is sitting on the couch and he just bounces.  When we read stories he just stands there bouncing and doesn't really crawl around much (and he occasionally bites my knees).  He's impossible to hold while reading (although we're practicing with short stories) because he wiggles and tries to stand up to bounce.  But, once he's down on the rug he's pretty easy to keep track of.  He loves his food, music and chewing on anything (or anyone) he can get ahold of.  He's a total ham and has quite a few faces and sounds he likes to make.  He's started signing in the last month and is pretty good at 'all done' 'more' and 'milk.'  He loves to clap for himself after he signs. 

Elsie Mae is quite a character.  She's just 3 months shy of 3 years old and she's fully entered into the 'why' stage.  She asks a million questions a day but usually she doesn't stick around to hear the answer.  That girl is constant motion.  She is a little ball of muscle and is really into doing 'tricks' these days like summersaults, clicking her tongue, trying to snap her fingers and twirling in circles.  She always says "want to watch me?"  Oh boy do we have a performer!  Elsie is really enjoying doing our ABCJesusLovesMe preschool curriculum 3 times each week.  She's getting really good at quantifying things beyond just repeating numbers in sequence.  She loves the Bible verses and songs we do and the felt board Bible stories.  She's so enthusiastic about doing anything with me during her mommy time for school.  It's great!

Addy is almost 4 1/2, I can't believe it!  She's really changed since we left Salt Lake City.  She looks and acts more like a little girl now.  She can do most things by herself and loves helping me on Wednesday Workday do chores after her schoolwork.  She can clean a good portion of the bathroom, vacuum and mop the floor and clear the table after meals (and wipe it down!).  I'm serious, this is about to get good around here where I'll finally have some help!  :)  She is enjoying her Character Concepts preschool curriculum and is learning letters (how to write them and say them), she is getting a lot better and more interested in coloring and she loves reading her science books.  She is also really good at memorizing her character traits and corresponding Bible verses.  Now we're just trying to work in applying them and understanding them, not just memorizing them.  :)  Addy also asked Jesus into her heart to save her from her sins on Martin Luther King day!  She is really growing in her understanding of sin and the joy of forgiveness because of Jesus dying on the cross for her sins.  It's neat to see her understanding grow.

Brad has been working quite a bit and traveling more than he expected to.  He's been selected for some projects and leadership groups and has been able to work with each of his claims associates all over Northern California.  He's enjoying his new job and he's really good at it.  He's pretty tired from all the travel but he knows it's worth it to get his team turned around.  He loves being in California and getting to wear flip flops and shorts in the winter.  He is sure he has the most beautiful territory in the country and getting to drive all over the state allows him to really experience it.

 We've taught the girls to play 'go fish' and 'hungry hippos' so we have been having fun with game nights (William watches very enthusiastically from the confines of his exersaucer!).  The kids and I go to MOPS and Bible Study Fellowship here and we are really enjoying both of those.  The BSF group here is especially great and the kids are doing really well in their classes.  I've also enjoyed reconnecting with one of my oldest friends, Audrey, who recently relocated here with her family too.  We've done several playdates and get togethers and it's been fun to have our kids play together.  I still can't believe we've been friends for 28 years!  We've spent a lot of weekends house hunting but we did get to visit some old friends of mine where I grew up and I got to show Brad and the kids my old town, schools and house.  It was a long day but it was so neat to see the whole Rucker family and all 6 kids between Jen & Janelle. 

In addition to adjusting to regular life here, we've had company a few times.  Mom & Dad were here at the beginning to help us get settled and then Bill & Judy Slease spent Christmas with us and then my cousin Shannon & Guy met up with us on their San Fran vacation.  We're gearing up for visit number 2 of my parents to celebrate all the February birthdays and William's 1st.  We've visited a few different beaches, Muir Woods, Pier 39 several times, Golden Gate Park and several neighborhood parks.  We've also visited several churches of which we particularly like one that we'll probably attend until we move again.  Likely our new house won't be in the East Bay so we'll be starting life all over again somewhere else.  Oh well, it's fun being here for now and getting to be so close to San Fran.

Here's some pictures of a bit of what we've been up to. . . Happy belated New Year!

William's 'cute' face

William bouncing with Bill

This is one of my favorite pictures of the kids so far.  Christmas Eve.





BIG News!

No, we're not pregnant.  Let me just start there.  And for many of you this isn't big news because you already know what's going on  But I was thinking this morning that some of you have no idea the adventure we're on right now.  

2 1/2 weeks ago Brad quit his job of 13 years at Farmer's Insurance because he accepted a job with Nationwide Insurance as an Auto Claims Manager for Northern California.  Yep, that's right.  So, starting 2 1/2 weeks ago we started on logistics.  We met with our realtor in SLC, got our house ready to list, said goodbye to our friends and then last Thursday we packed up the van and headed to my friend's house to stay our last night in SLC.  The house was spotless and it looked really good!  No wonder we bought it 3 1/2 years ago!  :)  We were actually pretty proud of ourselves that we could get it all done with 3 under 4 but we did resort to a Boz the Bear video for the girls and William on my back as we loaded the van and did the last floor cleaning.

Last Friday our house went on the market and we drove to Gunnison, CO.  Praise God, our house sold that day for full price!  Whew!  And, the drive to CO went well.  Brad spent the weekend with us in CO and then flew Sunday night to Sacramento to start his new job.

So this is the plan:  the kids and I will be living at my parents' house until we close on a house in California and Brad is living in a hotel until then.  :(  We have some back and forth trips planned (for house hunting, Thanksgiving and maybe Christmas) but until further notice, we're doing family time over Skype and speaker phone.  Our house in SLC closes in a few weeks so Brad will head back there to meet the packers/movers to empty our house.

Brad is enjoying his new job so far and he can't believe how beautiful his new territory is!  His area stretches from San Francisco to the Oregon border as far East as Sacramento.  Yeah, talk about spoiled.

So the plan is to find a house somewhere just North of San Francisco in the next few months.  At least, that's our plan.  God has orchestrated the details of this adventure so far so we'll see what He has in store for us.

Our mail is being forwarded to my parents' and I probably won't send out Christmas cards until after we move into our new house but send yours our way!  My cell phone (303) still works but Brad's has changed.  Email us if you want that.

The kids are doing really well so far with the transition but time is going SO SLOWLY!  I can't believe it's only been 3 days since Brad left.  William is sitting up now and has both bottom teeth and one top one has poked through (the other is just below the gum).  He has a passionate love for food and he loves to be read to.  He laughs a lot but that boy has a serious mad cry.  He screams like nothing I've ever heard before when he's upset about something.  It literally makes me crazy.  So, he's getting held a lot these days to avoid screaming.  :)

Addy and Elsie are loving spending time with Grammy B (Ba B is hunting in Western Colorado this week) and while they miss their daddy, I think the distraction of being here is helping ease the fall out of him being gone.

We attended the Gunnison MOPS group this morning and it was nice for the kids to get to do something 'normal' for them.  I enjoyed interacting with other young moms and getting a break from the intensity of 3 under 4.

So that's it for now.  We're on to our next adventure.  It was so hard to leave SLC as we've made amazing friends and love our church there.  I cried most of the 2 weeks between when we decided we were leaving and when we actually left.  I could hardly tell our friends we were going without crying.  But I know that God will provide a community and great friends for us in CA like He did in SLC.  I'm just having to remind myself that. . . a lot!

So we'd appreciate your prayers for a house, for peace in the transition and for the kids as they are missing their Daddy.

Thank you!  We'll be in touch!

Summer

Some highlights since it's been two months. . .

 



We've been having fun family adventures since Brad took last week off.  We went swimming, hiking, to the splash pad, biking, picnicking and took really good naps.   :)  The not so fun part was that our computer crashed and Brad spent countless hours trying to get that fixed!  We're mostly functional now.    

We dedicated William at church at the end of August and he certainly stole the stage.  He was squawking and climbing up my stomach, grabbing my glasses and drooling everywhere.  It was funny but I was sweating to death trying to keep him under control.  When Pastor Steve prayed for William, he held him and luckily he didn't spit up on him.  The girls did great standing in front of the church and Elsie liked that she could stay in big church for a little bit.  But, the best part for her was that William got to go to her class afterward for the first time! 

Elsie is almost 2 1/2 and she is a piece of work!  Just check out that face.  Can't you just see her as a teenager already?  :)  She's had a big month because she started pre-school with Mommy and started potty training!  She's doing great and is really motivated by the cookies she gets for staying clean and dry!  :)  She's showing off her potty party chain that counted down the days until we started potty training and her potty party treats to the left.  School with Mommy is going really well and she loves it.  She's really into the songs and crafts and loves that she has her own Bible verse to memorize and Bible stories to learn.  She also loves books, imaginative play and going FAST!  She loves to do her balance bike and swing 'so fast' on the swings. 

William is 6 months old now.  He loves: being outside, drooling (check out the drool in the swing photo!), chewing on things, spitting up, sticking his tongue out and smacking his lips together (all because his 2 bottom teeth are poking through the gums now), trying to eat whatever I'm eating and moving!  He is not a fan of:  diaper changes, naps, or being left alone for too long. 












I did start solids with William a couple of weeks ago because he was just going crazy when we were eating.  He would try muscling my hand of food to his mouth while I was eating.  It was hilarious!  But I decided after a week that I was wasting my time feeding him.  He just wasn't keeping any of it in with his tongue thrusting out constantly.  So developmentally, he's not there yet even though he's motivated.  And since I don't have time to waste, that adventure is on hold for him.

 

 

Addy is quite the little Mama and I've heard myself saying "That's not your job" a lot to her.  She just can't help herself but telling everyone else what to do.  :)  She and Elsie are getting pretty good at playing together and Addy is learning that Elsie has opinions too.  She loves playing with William, doing school with Mommy, going on dates with Daddy and riding her bike.  You can see her in the center in the lower right picture with my MOPS Fitness Friday group.  She got to ride her bike that day as we walked around the park and she had a great time.  She turns 4 next week. . . crazy! 

 

 

Well, I did it.  I updated the blog.  :)  Happy Fall!

Happy 4th of July!

 

I feel like starting off this post by saying "There and back again.  A tale by Kim Slease."  :)  In the last month and a half we've been there and back again.  To Gunnison, that is.  We were able to spend 2 weeks (at least the kids and I were there that long) at my parents' house enjoying all we could squeeze into our visit.  But, wait, before I get ahead of myself. . .

 

 

We ended May by planting our garden again - something we said we wouldn't do again so long as we have littles.  But as the sun came out, I got the itch to plant something so we bought a few plants and had the girls help us put them in the garden bed.  They had a great time helping us dig the holes, put the plants in and water them.  It was all fun and games until about 11:55am.  At that point we should have called it quits. . . the next 20 minutes before lunch were all whining and crying.  They couldn't appreciate pushing through to finish the project.  Oh well, they did pretty well.  We planted broccoli, pumpkin, cherry tomatoes, zucchini, acorn squash and a free tomato plant from the nursery.  Luckily the girls like tomatoes.

 

In early June we loaded the van and headed out to my parents so I would have some help while Brad went to Arizona for work.  The kids and I kept my parents busy and we enjoyed a visit by my Grandpa (Great Ba to the kids) and had a great time being outside.  When Brad returned from his trip, we stayed another week and welcomed the Sullivan family for a few days.  They lived down the street from us in Denver and we have both upped our kiddo count to 3 since we saw them last.  We had a great time with them and Mom & Dad were great sports to host us and our 6 kids under 6.  :)  Who knew you could put 6 car seats in a Sequoia?! 

 

 

Since being home, we've gotten back in the groove of being tired. . . oh wait, I meant life with 3 kids 3 & under.  :)  Actually, William started going 7pm-7am between feedings so that has helped a lot.  If only I could get Addy to stop waking up at 3am to go to the bathroom, I'd be all set!  But that has been another milestone for our family, Addy is completely pull-up free now.  She's sleeping in underwear and has only had 1 middle of the night accident (knock on wood!).  One down, 2 to go. 

 

 

We had my great Aunt Evie for a visit a few weekends ago and we trucked her all over for a couple of days.  She's amazing!  At 91 she is so busy and in such great shape!  Her secret?  She exercises every day and always has.  She was a physical therapist and continues to do all the exercises she used to teach her patients.  If that isn't motivation to exercise, nothing will be!

 

 

We celebrated our 8th anniversary last week and enjoyed a yummy BBQ dinner and a 'porch date' once the kids were in bed.  In case you were wondering about the last post, Brad did it for me as a gift.  It was sort of a mixed bag though because he knows I hate that second song he used.  What a stinker! 

 

We enjoyed our neighborhood 4th of July celebration again this year (all except for the 10 minutes when we lost Elsie in the masses of humanity all wearing red, white and blue!).  We enjoyed the pancake breakfast, parade and carnival before having a BBQ at a neighbors and crashing for a nap!  After our naps we went for round two and had a college student over for dinner, fireworks in our driveway and the big Sugarhouse Fireworks display.  What a great day!  It was strange for Brad to go back to work the next day and both of us were pretty beat by Friday night.  We love our neighborhood.

 

I finally (mostly) finished a project that I've wanted to do since we moved in.  Our front flower bed only had tulips in it and once those were done, we had no color in the front yard.  It has always bugged me and finally we did something about it.  We planted a bunch of little perennials and so hopefully we'll get to enjoy them next year.  I say hopefully because Brad reminded me that now that we have a church we love and we've done our flowerbed it will be time to move.  :)  I hope not but that's how it went in Denver!  I'm not quite done though since a failed experiment with my tulips means I need to get a bunch of bulbs this fall and plant them.    Once I get those in, I'll be done with the front yard.  Next spring we'll be working on the back. . .

 

 

We've had a lot of hot days in Salt Lake but recently we've started having thunderstorms with a lot of rain.  The girls (and Brad) like to go puddle stomping in their puddle shoes (on bath night) while I clean up dinner dishes.  It's pretty funny to watch and I love seeing them pour out their rain boots when they're done. 

 

 

William is now 4 months old and has changed a lot since my last post.  He started rolling over both directions at 3 1/2 months (which is crazy early compared to the girls!) and consequently isn't being swaddled anymore to sleep.  Not long after that transition I stopped feeding him late at night and he's done pretty well with that too.  He occasionally wakes me up in the night because he's hungry but overall he goes 7 to 7.  He wakes up happy, too, which is so pleasant!  He's such a squeaker, and now he's screeching for fun too.  The dude needs to learn 'inside voice' already!  He weighs 14 lbs 10 oz and is almost 26 inches long.  It's funny though, he's got a pin head just like the girls did.  He's 25% for his head size.  :)  They are my kids!

 

 

Elsie is keeping up with Addy in all things physical like running and biking.  She remains my mamma's girl and always wants to be touching me.  It's cute, sometimes.  :)  Her vocabulary is growing so rapidly and she is in that stage of muddling words she uses like saying grasspopper for grasshopper.  I love that. 

 

Addy is so imaginative.  She's creating her own words to go right along with the stories she makes up.  She can play by herself for a long time just pretending.  This morning when she started playing I heard her say to her toys, "Ok, this morning I'm going to teach you to clean the floors."  You can guess what we were doing right before I put her in there.  :)  Yes, I'm trying to teach the girls to clean because I've cancelled our cleaning service and if they don't help me do it, it's just not going to get done!  We'll see how that goes.

 

So, we're doing pretty well.  We're getting in the groove of life with lots of littles and we're learning to have them help us with all the many things involved in keeping the house running.  They are helping us make Brad's shakes, cook, put laundry away and they keep their own toys and things picked up.  It's helping and it is amazing to see how much they really can do. 

 

I've started a women's Bible study where we are studying John Piper's book Battling Unbelief.  Wow.  So good.  Even if I have William with me bouncing on my lap and squealing through most of it.  I'm planning to do MOPS leadership again next year and I'm looking forward to doing Bible Study Fellowship.  I've also managed to start spin classes again since William is cooperating by taking a bottle when I'm gone.  Yeah! 

 

Brad is working on learning the liability side of claims at work and getting back into the groove of exercising.  It's hard to find time when his desperate wife will let him out of the house but he's figuring it out.  :)

 

 

I made a slide show of our last several weeks so you can see how big the kids are getting.  Enjoy!

It's the big one...

Happy 8th Anniversary Baby!  Eight years, three kids, two houses, one dog (I miss Brody) and you and me.  I love you and being married to you.  Your my best friend and biggest cheerleader.  Your smile and laughter brighten my day.  Looking back we've packed a lot into our time together.  I'm looking forward to the next eight and the eight after that.  I've put together a little slideshow for you to remember just how far we've come together (lots of smiles and laughter). 

 

Lord of the Dance starring Master William

 

So, we have always come up with songs that fit the behavior or looks of our kids.  It all started with Addy in her huge cloth diapers when we would sing the Rocky theme song and swing her little fists to the beat.  It was always when she was wearing the green diaper with white lining.  Those ones look just like boxing shorts.  We always laughed that we should make videos of it but we never did. 

 

Tonight I was getting ready to change William's diaper and he was kicking his feet all over the place and making a racket because his cloth cover is in the laundry because yesterday I got distracted emptying the diaper pail while his diaper was off.  Really?  When I finally got back to him he had peed all over and was grinning like crazy.  :)  Anyway, while I've never seen more than clips of Irish dancing or Riverdance, he seems to have it in his blood.  Maybe he's trying to tell us he does want us to call him Master William or Liam.  Anyway, here's his debut.  I think we're a little tired tonight because this was really funny to us.  I hope you enjoy it too. 



 

We did have professional photos taken of our family right after William was born.  Since we've been so busy (and our photographer is about to have her 4th baby) it's taken a bit of time to get them back.  But since I'm in such a goofy mood I'll share this one with you.  Seriously, why did we pay so much money for a picture with William cross-eyed in it?!  :)  Maybe our photographer was in a goofy mood too when she included this one in our CD.  She did get the exact same shot without his eyes crossed and was nice enough to give us that one too. 

William has been busy sleeping, eating, and you know. . . He's also been busy getting out of his swaddle.  We've tried the miracle blanket, we've tried the swaddleme, we've tried both of them together.  It doesn't matter.  If he wants to get his hands out, he gets them out and wakes himself up during his nap by eating his hands.  He won't go back to sleep unless he's re-swaddled.  Good grief!  I'm ready for him to grow out of needing to be swaddled to sleep.  Check out the serious look he has.  He's already got quite the expressive face. 

And just so you know he isn't always so serious, here's his whole body grin.  :) 



 

Ok, off to bed.  Happy Memorial Day!