Adjusting

We have been in our new house for about a month and a half now. We are still enjoying the house and getting to know more and more about our neighbors and the area.

Molly jumped right into kindergarten. She was assigned morning kindergarten and her teacher is Mrs. Stark. She doesn't love it when people ask who her teacher is because she has a hard time saying her r's, so it comes out Mrs. Stock instead of Mrs. Stark. She's a bit embarrassed, so now she will usually have me say it.

She really enjoys school and has been learning a lot. She is learning lots of new sight words, like in, on, like, it, etc. We try to push her to write down words on her own instead of spelling everything out for her. But she seems to be a bit of a perfectionist, so she wants to know the right way and gets frustrated if we have her sound out every letter for too long ;) But she is doing a great job and we can tell she is doing better and better all the time.

She has made lots of new friends. There are several little boys on the street in kindergarten, but they go in the afternoon. There are a few girls in 1st grade that she is friends with, so she usually has to wait until they are home in the afternoon to play. We have some neighbors kitty corner behind us with 2 twin boys in first grade. They have a younger brother who is 3 and my girls love to play outside in the dirt with them. They also have a trampoline, which is a huge help for us since we don't have grass yet. 

Lately she has been very sensitive! Her response is often crying to any stressful situation or something not going her way. We are struggling with this a bit since she's the oldest, but we realize that 1. we are in a new place and everything for her has changed which is difficult and 2. I was super sensitive when I was young, so it's not hard to see where it comes from. She is still an excellent sister and helper and super thoughtful. Tonight we have her SEP conference with her teacher.

Ali has just been rolling with everything. She hasn't seen too phased by anything and enjoys playing with any kids who will play with her. I have her on the waiting list for a preschool in the neighborhood for next year. What I really want/need to do is do a better job of a little mommy n me type preschool. I just need to take the time and do it! 

Unfortunately she has had many accidents since moving :( I potty trained her not this past summer, but the summer before. Ahhh. It is going to be the death of me. She would have an accident every once in a great while before we moved, but it has happened on many occasions lately. Including today. Each time we put her in a cold bath, which obviously isn't severe enough of a consequence because it keeps happening!! Today I took her kitty away and I said I will give it back to her tomorrow. She usually has it with her, but not always. But at night we will see how she feels without it! That's when she makes sure to have it with her. 

We've pretty much made it through her "particular" phase where we never knew if we were doing something that she had to do (flush the toilet, pick something up, put something on a certain way, etc. etc!) Every now and again something will pop up, but she gets over it much more quickly and easily. She can be a real snuggly, sweet girl at times and we love that.

Jackson is just the sweetest boy ever. We have loved, loved, loved having a boy! He is 17 months (18 at the end of the month!) and is just starting to say words. In the past week we have heard him start to repeat words we say to him. It is so fun. He will say please, thank you, love you, get down, etc. He understands usually when we ask him to do things. He is just happy all the time. He is adjusting to one nap right now. Sometimes he still will take 2, but that is pretty few and far between lately. He LOVES to read books. He picks up a book and will bring it to me or Justin and want to read it. He does this all day. It is the cutest thing ever. My girls never did it. He just loves books. He isn't into TV at all, unless he sees an animal he likes. He loves dogs. He gets super excited to see them. He loves my broom and mop and gets them out of the closet several times a day. 

Justin is doing great. He is enjoying his job and has figured out how each partner likes things for the most part. They pair him up on his cases with one of the 3 partners and then he works with each one to finish. It has been an adjustment working this way and he would really love to have more mentoring involved, but for now he has figured out how they want things done. The commute for hi is really quick, about 15-20 minutes, so that is also nice. He leaves between 8 and 8:30 am and gets home around 6 pm, so it's really great hours as well. 

He has helped with many projects, lately our garage storage racks that hang from the ceiling. He also has put up half of our Christmas lights. He isn't too happy about doing them, but me and the kids are :) Our neighbor across the street puts them up for a living, so he gave Justin all his tips, which was really nice. So they look fantastic! He had a boys night last weekend and went and saw Thor with his brothers and my brother Todd as well.

I've been doing well. I feel like we were running around like crazy that first month and now things are slowing down a bit. But I probably did that to myself. I love to decorate and I wanted it all up and looking good, so I think I went a bit overboard. Now most everything is complete and I just have a few things here and there to finish up. But it will never be done because we have new seasons all the time, which I love. I love to change up the decorations. 

I got called into the Relief Society presidency as the secretary a couple of weeks after we moved in. My neighbor is the president. I have enjoyed it so far and really, it's the best calling! I assign prayers for RS each week and take care of the rolls. I attend meetings, but I don't have to teach! Score. Honestly, the first time I ever taught RS was 2 months ago in my last ward. I've been in YWs a lot or other callings, but that has never come my way. This ward is so different with a really small RS since our ward got new boundaries the day after we moved in. They are allowing for growth near us, so I think we lost about 40 sisters with the new change. Our ward is spread thin with callings, so we only have about 15-20 women in RS each week and most of them have a baby with them. Totally different from my previous ward!

Justin was called as the Ward Mission Leader. This is a calling he's never had, but he has totally gone full steam ahead and had meetings with the missionaries (the full time sisters in our ward/stake) as well as the ward missionaries who have recently been called. 

We have come to understand that our street gets together a lot and is sometimes called the party street. We are excited about making new friends and forming relationships with people similar to us and in the same life boat :) Everyone has been super nice and we are working really hard on getting to know our neighbors and ward members so we are more "in the know". 

While I thought I would really miss my mom and all of her help, I think I have just been so busy that I haven't had time to think about that. It has been so nice to be in our own home. I have to take all of my kids out at times, but it's really not too bad. I have also been able to make friends who have been nice enough to watch my kids for the few times that I've needed. 

I got a great recommendation on someone to do my hair and she did such a great job I was surprised! Usually there is an adjustment but she was fantastic and I have been really pleased. I've also been trying to find new doctors/dentists that our insurance covers so that's been super fun (I'm sure you can hear my sarcasm). 

Everyone is happy and well and we are liking this new adjustment in our lives!