right now...

Curt and Carmen: Same old, same old, but here's current pictures.

 

 {piano substitute in primary one Sunday}

{my hair is shorter}

Des:

-has lost a lot of teeth

-got a summer buzz cut

-is still our music/rhythm expert

-is bossy, but the other kids still love to play with him

Evie:

-has a second tooth that is very loose

-is a storyteller/artist/performer extraordinaire 

McKay:

-also got a buzz cut

-has started to love working in his pre-k workbook

Edison:

-is saying phrases now

'here it is', 'there you are', 'hi', a disgusted 'ugh', and my favorite 'thank you' 

-had a few molars work their way in

-will someday have real hair

right now...

Curt: 

-finance manager in the on board services department at Delta

-works with the teenage boys and plays the organ at church

Carmen:

-primary president at church

-doing the mom thing

Des:

-is finishing up first grade

-has a bunch of new teeth coming in every which way...braces for sure

-is getting taller and taller.

he's up to my armpit, his clothes are almost as big as mine.

-learns academic things lightning fast, struggles a bit on the social skills.

-loves legos and puzzles and is rigid about his schedule

Evie:

-will start kindergarten in the fall

-is truly an amazing reader, can and does read anything

-is a creative and lively performer

-is fairly clumsy

McKay:

-will start pre-school in the fall

-knows all the letters and their sounds, counts to 100 and beyond

-has such a strong independent streak

-has to be put in bed approximately 1000 times before he'll go to sleep

Edison:

-is choosing to walk more and more

-has 5 teeth, but 3 more are on the cusp of coming in

-is my first kid who is kind of a miserable teether

-thinks he's a big kid

right now...

Curt: 

-is working with the young men at church (plus, as always, playing the organ)

-has been the initiator on us preparing to do a Whole30, we start after we get back from a trip next week, wish us luck

Carmen: 

-still the primary president at church

-working on a scanning project of Curt's grandpa's pictures

Des:

-finishing up kindergarten

-reads anything and everything (including chapter books and scriptures)

-lost one top front tooth and is about to lose the other

-is loud and dramatic and intense

Evie: 

-loves her new baby brother and calls herself his 'protector'

-is reading books of small words (bob books, simple Dr. Seuss)

-is amazing with numbers, counts all the time, does double digit addition

does a weird/cool thing and calls each letter its corresponding number (for example 'the 20 letter' is T) 

-is going to be so bored, she still has another year of preschool as she's not old enough for kindergarten

-is an easy going sweetheart most of the time, but has a naughty streak (still with a smile on her face), and then has the occasional inconsolable weepy waily meltdown

{every time I do her hair she wants me to take a picture of the back to show her}

McKay:

-knows his letters, their sounds, and can count to 20

-is happy and sweet but is two, meaning he gets into absolutely everything

-is a little monkey, jumping, climbing, doing somersaults

-wants to do everything on his own, 'I do it'

I worry about him more than my other kids at this age because he just gets an independent thought of something he wants to do and just does it. It's scary because he's clever enough that he knows how to get out of the house, open the garage, etc. 

My dad as a two year old went out on his own and started the tractor but somehow avoided getting seriously hurt or killed, McKay is reminiscent of that...hopefully he has the same guardian angels. 

Edison:

-has gotten his cute chub on

-smiles like crazy and tries so hard to talk to you in his little baby voice

-is kind of a spit up monster

Major projects going on or on the horizon: 

-we'll be fencing in a portion of the back yard soon

-we had 10 tons of topsoil delivered and have been working on shaping the contours of the back yard

-I'm contemplating ripping out our run down deck and having a large concrete patio poured

-at some point I'm going to give the kitchen a mini refresh (new back splash, etc)

-I've finished painting the exterior field color of the house gray, but now need to replace or patch some water damaged spots and paint the white trim.

right now...

Curt:

-got a promotion and is really enjoying the new department he's working with
-reads and mows the lawn and is the fun parent

{went up to Curt's work to have lunch at a nearby park one day back in April}

Carmen:

-just got called as the Primary President at church. (For those unfamiliar with Mormon lingo, our church is run by members, we each get jobs called callings that usually last a couple years. The Primary is the children's organization, we have almost 90 kids in our ward.) 

It's a little bit daunting, but it will be good.
-thought I was done with house projects, but have concluded that it's just a way of life for me.
I will find new projects always.
Doing now: piano room, powder room, starting to mess with the yard.

{we've had several bonfires to clear out yard stuff}

Des:
-finished up pre-k and will be starting kindergarten in the Fall, he's so ready
-doing swimming lessons
-is in the 97th percentile for height.
Where the heck that came from I don't know, Curt and I are both short.
He gets mistaken for being several years older than he is all the time.

-We're reading the Nancy Drew books for bedtime stories, he loves it.

Evie:
-is finally potty trained. I'm such a weeny at this, but the good part of waiting so long is that they have good control. No messes and a short transition time.
-loves to bug her older brother and can reliably evoke crazy rage reactions, ugh.
-is super strong willed.
I'm trying to not beat this trait out of my kids because I think it will get them places in life, but man oh man it's sometimes like riding a bucking bronco.

McKay:
-is cutting his final tooth that he has room in his mouth for, all four eye teeth just came in at once
-runs and jumps and dances and climbs, has a melt-your-heart smile
-is getting quite the simple phrase vocabulary
things I can think of off hand: catch, don't, button (as in belly button), see, ear, ut-oh, mine, let go, down, bite, mama, daddy, there you go, phone, oh there it is, got it
-can understand most things said to him and answers yes/no questions (yes is usually emphatic nodding)
-is a lot more petite than Des was at this age and has really good fine motor skills
-I'm thinking his eyes might actually stay blue?
(all the kids have started blue, Des' turned greenish, Evie's now have streaks the color of her hair, pretty neat and unusual)

{just applied for this little guy's passport, he's so cute}

{I've been making this a lot for dinner, simple and yummy}

right now...

Curt:

-about the same as last time

 

 

Carmen:

-changed callings at church, am now in the Primary presidency

-the house projects were completed as recorded here 

(yet since then I have repainted the master bath a light gray and we have rearranged the bedrooms such that Evie has her own room)

-I've been working on some family history and have been able to find some missing ancestors of Curt's. Surprisingly addicting. If you haven't explored familysearch.org, I would recommend it. 

Des:

 -starts school (pre-k) tomorrow and is so excited

-is as loud and intense as ever, but has become more helpful and in control.

 

 

Evie:

-is continuing to speak clearer and is not using many of her baby words any longer (like orange-er-ie for orange)

-is mostly even tempered, but if she does get going can sure turn on the water works

 -loves 'twirly' dresses and oatmeal

 

McKay:

-has been having lots of milestones. Got his two top teeth, has been standing by himself, and then three days ago took a couple steps on his own.

-doesn't sleep really well. I need to work on that. 

-has been imitating some word sounds

-gets into everything with his funny fast bug crawl

 

 

 

 As a family we've been spending some awesome time at the neighborhood pool, kind of regret not going more last year.

right now...

Curt:

-is still plugging away at work and as the ward cubmaster, organist, and music chair

{photo by Des}

Carmen:

-still doing cub scouts. We just had our Blue and Gold banquet, glad that's done.

-working on putting our house back together (still from the remodel and then additionally the leak)

you can see a picture from my last check in here, and then here's one of right now:

we've had carpet replaced, drywall installed (and then repaired), hardwood floors refinished

we've tiled one bathroom, installed a bunch of trim, painted the kitchen ceiling

we're in the middle of doing bathroom counter tops and caulking for paint

still need to paint. oh so much paint. and work on the last bathroom.

there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

Des:

 -turned four while we didn't have access to the kitchen (refinishing the floors), so had a really low-key celebration upstairs

-is sounding out and reading small words (bob books) and loves to draw and paint

-is filled with intense (and loud) emotion, whether happy, sad, mad, or anything else

Evie:

-is pretty easy going, especially for a two year old

-must do whatever her older brother is doing

-now shares a room with Des at night

-is talking clearer and in complete sentences

I'm pretty darn excited for the sibling friendship that is developing.

McKay:

-is a happy dude

-rolls all over the place

-just cut his two bottom teeth (crazy, he's barely 4 months old)

-is messing with my sleep, probably has something to do with the teeth

 

right now...

Curt:

-is in the midst of finishing a busy time at work.

Good thing that's going to be winding down a bit as we'll soon have a newborn again. 

-has already met his reading goal for the year so he increased the number of books in the goal

Carmen:

-is at 38 1/2 weeks of this pregnancy.

This new baby boy can make his arrival at any time now, but I'm actually hoping to go a couple days past my due date.  It'd be much more convenient to have mom already here when I go into labor.

-is working on a pretty large home project I've labeled the 'bonus room reconfiguration'.

 Here's a picture from about 2 minutes ago...

Des:

-loves to boss Evie around.

She's generally amenable to it, but when she's not it usually ends up with Des yelling/tantruming and being put in his room.

-loves to sing. or yell/sing. or just be loud in general.

Evie:

-is incessantly covered in marker.

-wants to pick out her own outfits

-loves to dance. She has some pretty hilarious moves.