more updates-school, birthdays, canning and family stats

so curtis has been going to school now since the 26th is when he actually started. he loves it, they get to color a lot of papers. they have spent lots of time learning the letter Ii. they just started the letter U. they've been practicing writing and following the dotted lines. they also practice coloring inside the lines too. curtis has come along ways with all of those. the first few days of school ari would cry when we left. now curtis tells me to leave and ari just walks out the door without much more thought. she does have a hard time at home without him here. she clings to me and i cant get anything done. she forgets how to play or maybe she doesn't know how to play without curtis here.
i am very grateful for raydene bauer, she watched ari for 5 hours and curtis for almost 2 hours today so i could get the canning done today. the kids had fun over there and were asking to go back. in a couple days probly...
monday i canned the peaches, with some help, that i got from the orchard saturday. i got a bushel of peaches and with using almost all of them i got 12 pints and 20 quarts. my dad got a bushel of peaches and with what he wanted to can, got 21 quarts done today. it went so much faster today even with 1 person less than yesterdays. we took 5 hours monday to do mine and 3 hours today to do my dads. and better yet, every jar sealed. last year there were a few that didn't.
for my birthday this year, it was a few weeks ago, vaughn bought me a new ring to add to my wedding ring. its just a small band of little diamonds. its very pretty though. i got it saudered (connected) to my other one. now i just need to wait til christmas so i can even it out with one more just like it. plus i got a kitchen aid mixer a few weeks early which has been great!!
curtis had his birthday the week after mine, his was a lot of fun too. we had my parents and sister over for lunch and cupcakes and to open his presents, after they went home we went to chuckie cheeses to play for awhile. for the majority of the 1st batch of 100 tokens they rode rides and got very few tickets. so i bought some more tokens and got lots more tickets so they could get a few prizes. they have added lots more games and rides there this year. we went several months ago and they really didn't have much to do. this time there was lots!
oh and cant forget how the family is actually doing... for the pregnancy- i'm at 31 weeks this week, i'm starting to feel like i'm towards the end because its getting harder to do things and my back and stomach are getting sore. vaughn likes to make fun of me for the way i walk.. i figure i have the right to walk funny, shes getting bigger. oh and i don't remember if i've mentioned her possible name yet. so far its macie. we haven't agreed on the middle name for sure yet. but probly something like mikay or mikayla. vaughn is working in ashton id right now. they are hoping to be done there by the end of the week and move on to idaho falls next week. hes still coming home on the weekends so i get at least 1 full day with him. curtis is just going to school like i've already mentioned and ari is having withdrawls of him like i've already mentioned as well.

curtis starts preschool while dad is out of town

curtis is starting preschool on the 24th!! i cant believe hes old enough! only by a couple days. if he were two days younger he wouldn't be starting this year. i loved school shopping for supplies, i didn't realize how expensive things get when you have to get very much. i've heard from others that have to buy a lot more for several kids instead of just pencils, a box, erasers and scissors. its crazy what they need. i found out he needs a lunch box too! i told him we get to go pick one out. i'm excited about that til i see the prices. he will be at school everyday for 4 hours. it will be good for him and ari is gonna go crazy! she hates when hes gone.

vaughn is in pocatello right now working :( at least he has a job thats paying the bills. this is the start of his 3rd week. he leaves from home sunday afternoons and stays til friday afternoon. hopefully they will get done with what they've gotta do over in east idaho soon! theres a few job locations over there.

update on the previous posts

curtis made it threw lessons without getting kicked out. he didn't pass to the next level though. which doesn't really surprise me. but the last day he did go down the slide on the teachers lap and then thanked her for it. but he insists he will never do it again. thats ok at least he tried once.

this week makes 24 weeks pregnant... that makes 3rd trimester right?? i cant remember but anyway its getting closer!!! she is moving a lot, although today not so much yet.. theres only one name that feels like it might stick so far. we don't know how long it will sound right to us. we both came up with macy. curtis will tell people now that hes getting a baby sister, or that he will have two little sisters. he always wants to feel the baby. he likes it, ari not so much. she wants nothing to do with a new baby of her own. at least not yet.

last week, me and the kids took a trip to arco. its a little tiny town out by craters of the moon. (its a little bigger than picaboo) anyway, my bro and his family live there. i decided it was a good time and good idea to take a short trip before this baby comes and makes traveling harder. we headed up friday morning once curtis was done with the last swim lesson. it took 3 1/2 to get there. not so bad. we stopped in boise for a toilet break and then in carey; only an hour left of the trip. after we got there and got lunch, we all went to idaho falls cause john (my bro) had a meeting and davian (his wife) was still at work so i had 4 kids to watch at the park where he dropped us for an hour. i'm not used to watching 4 kids so it was a little bit of a challenge. plus when i'm at the park with my kids, they don't usually get an hour to play. but it was all ok. the trip to idaho falls was another hour drive... the next day up there was atomic days, its a huge deal over there. they have a huge parade and fair and stuff. its pretty cool. just before the parade started, an airplane flew over the parade route and dropped a whole bunch of ping pong balls. each worth 50 cents if you took them to the sheriffs office. i caught one, a few minutes later a kid walked by and gave me two more and at the end of the parade one of the police cars in it gave us two more. plus lots of candy from all the floats. it was pretty great! i took my camera to get pictures of our little weekend over there but didn't manage to remember to pull it out. maybe if i go back again in a couple weeks like the kids want then i will take a few pics..

the new baby is...

A GIRL!!! our third is a girl. we don't have any names yet. probly not for a little while. shes very active and looks like shes developing just fine... other than that i don't know what else to say about it.

curtis is in swim lessons now and hes really not doing so great. hes afraid of the water and won't listen to a thing the teacher says for him to do. i'm hoping they dont kick him out of the class for his resistance.

curtis is growing up!!

there has been so many times during the last couple weeks curtis has really shown me that he is not a baby anymore. he is a big boy now.

he has decided he likes a clean house and hes trying to keep his room clean. he has been wanting to take the garbage out all by himself and usually we walk down to the dumpster with him to lift the bag in. i didn't go with him yesterday. the bag was full but not heavy and he carried it to the dumpster and lifted it in all by himself. i was so surprised he could reach! he also decided he likes showers. both curtis and ari got sooooo muddy and dirty. they found a mud puddle to play in. i put ari in the shower first and she screamed the entire time. curtis told her that he likes showers. hes a big boy. i left the shower running while i got her diaper on her and curtis climbed in and got right under the water to start getting rinsed and wet. after getting wet enough he stepped out of the water so i could wash him and then stepped back under to get rinsed. all without the slightest hint of fear of the water. he even rubbed his hair to get some soap out. he decided he was done so he got out and dried and dressed.

it may not seem like a lot to most but its amazing to see how my little baby has grown.

ari's "surgery"

ariana had her 2 year check up shortly after her birthday in may. it all went well she is growing like she should be. then the dr looked in her ears. he said it looked like she had a piece of plastic next to her ear drum. one of the nurses brought in a bottle of water and sprayed it in her ear to try to get the "thing" out. didn't work so he told us to make an appointment at the ENT (ear nose throat) place down the hall. when that appt came, the dr looked in her ear and asked if she had an ear infection lately. i told him it had been a couple months. he said her ear drum probly burst and in healing it left a piece of infection that mineralized and became basically an ear booger but it needed to be removed anyway. he prescribed ear drops so we used those and went back for a check up a week later. it was still in her ear so she was scheduled for "surgery". the 12th we went to the treasure valley hospital and they got all the paper work done and finally took her back to give her laughing gas and put her to sleep so they could safely pull the booger out without her squirming. it ended up being just a glob of wax and she was out for about 5 minutes and then allowed to wake up. the nurse said usually kids cry coming out of being asleep. not ari, she smiled and looked around and within a couple minutes i had her back and gave her a glass of milk since she was so hungry and theres been no problems since then. she still doesn't listen so the ear wax wasn't the problem with her listening to me ;)

may and early june updates

wow its been awhile. lots has happened since the end of april. ariana had a birthday which makes her 2 already! i can't believe shes already 2. her birthday was may 19th. we had a little birthday party for her. my dad came over that morning and brought her a couple gifts, a little later we had her cake decorated by jen. it was awesome, we looked at a picture of "my little pony" and had it drawn on the cake. vaughn got called for a job interview so he got up and left for that. a couple hours later i got a call and he told me that he has a job and is going to take a drug test and then off to work. kind of put a damper on her birthday to me a little. but a couple hours after that he called again and said he was on his way home and said he will start work in the morning instead. works for me. that evening my mom came over to see ari, didn't have much for her then but just to say hi. a little after that vaughns family came over to see her too plus have dinner and cake and watch her open presents. i think she had lots of fun.

so vaughn got a job as i mentioned earlier, its another pipe laying company. bodiford construction... hes been laying pipe for 3 years. he likes it i think. the only thing with this company is that hes getting so many hours that he may not be able to go to school during the summer. if thats the case he will try for school again this fall.

we had been hired to mow the yards at our apartments and to keep it looking nice around here. this year we got tired of spending 3 hours pushing a mower around. so we bought a riding mower from campbell tractor. its a john deere dealer. we finally had it delivered the 2nd of june. its so nice. we can get done mowing in about 2 hours now without being sooo tired. in the deal to mow, it makes is so we only owe 5 a month for rent! as long as all the mowing money goes to rent.

right now i'm about 17 1/2 weeks pregnant. almost half way!! but i feel the baby move now. vaughn can even feel it move once in awhile. its great. we will hopefully find out in a couple weeks what it is. pretty sure its a girl but i still wanna know for sure.