State of the House

I haven't updated this for a while because things have been a little crazy here, and not the good kind of crazy we usually have. Instead of a Happy New Year 2011, ours was a Crappy New Year. Without warning, on New Year's Day, Shane's work decided to "go another direction." We still don't know why and they wouldn't give him any reason. So, we started off the year unemployed. Lame.

Luckily, Shane had been thinking he wanted to find something else, and had made a couple calls at the end of the year. We were pretty nervous to be unemployed in this market. Scary times. We also pondered the option of Shane finding a job out of the car business so he could have a more family friendly schedule.  His pay would be obviously less to start something different and, with little ones still at home, I was hoping to not have to go back to work. We were blessed to find out that one of those calls Shane made really panned out. We are so blessed to have only been out of work for two weeks. There were many prayers on our behalf from family and friends and we are so grateful for the love and support.  There have also been many prayers of gratitude from us.

That was a long intro to the post I was actually going to write. Since this past week brought us the sadness of tv that was preempted by the State of the Union, and the State of the State addresses, I thought I would give you a state of the house address. Just a little idea of where we are now and some usual things that are happening daily around these parts. Mostly so I have it documented.

Shane is working for Ken Garff Fiat and Mitsubishi. Fiat cars are not in this country yet, so Shane is getting a new store put together, staffed, and trained to have this new line of cars. I am glad we had him home for a couple weeks, because he will be living at that store for a while.

We cut back on some of our extra activities and changed some around. Hallie is no longer in gymnastics. Abbie is taking a break from dance. It is nice to not have so many things to run to after school every day. Abbie will probably get back to dancing at some point. I think Hallie is done with gymnastics.

Hallie is doing her first year of Jr Jazz basketball. she gets better every week. she started the season never having seen a game, and she is getting really good. she has work to do on shooting, but her coaches are keeping here in for most of the game because she is picking it up quick.

Jace breaks into dancing anytime a good song is on. He loves it. He is pretty decent. When we watch any dancing show on TV he is always trying the moves he sees.

When Jace grows up he wants to be "a dancer, a hunter, or a policeman." good luck bud.

We are losing teeth around here like crazy. Abbie especially. she can hardly eat. for a while there she looked like Nanny Mcphee, but now she just has an empty mouth. Hallie is still losing her last baby teeth. There have been many nights when the tooth fairy is visiting more than one kid at our house. last night jace's tooth looked weird and it was super loose when I touched it. Here we go again!

Natalie is loving her cell phone. she is texting her friends all the time and seeming more grown up every day.

Natalie loves to get dropped off at the District to watch a movie with her friends. She even let Hallie tag along last night. They sure felt cool to go to the movies "alone." (but really with a friend and her big sister)

We still love to spend an evening together watching a movie and having popcorn.

The kids love to play super mario bros and mario kart on the wii with dad. They really love to play mario kart with me and laugh at my inabilities.

I am helping out in Nursery at church. There are some real screamers in there, but the majority of kids are cute and fun.

Natalie is the beehive president, so she spends a lot of time calling people and helping the leaders. She sang a solo and a duet at different young women's programs lately. It is fun to see her talents growing.

Lots of time is spent dragging tons of stuffed animals around the house. I tried to limit the number to 5 on their bed at a time. You would think I was torturing them.

The kids love to spend time riding their scooters, sledding down the back yard, and doing lots of things together. I love when they are doing something with just the 4 of them.

The kids are getting better at cleaning. Not doing it on their own of course, but at doing the job right. We have days where they get their "list" on the counter and they work until it is done. Those days are usually followed with a trip to the gas station, or a fun lunch.

We hit the Holiday gas station almost daily. My ice addiction gets the best of me. my kids get something off the "bottom row" of the candy isle. (those things are 25 cents or less. my ice habit cant be a budget buster)

We spent much of the last year going to training table every Wednesday. They know us there and they know our table.

We have been trying some new recipes and trying to have better dinners at home. The kids also love to help cook.

We all put a puzzle together. It was a tough one. It was fun to see everyone stop at the puzzle when they walked by to see if they could find a piece or two.

I am loving where we are with the kids right now. We have a lot of fun. They are old enough to do most things with and to be helpful, but they aren't so old that they don't want to spend time as a family. I am going to soak it all in before it changes.

Those are just a  few things I can think of. The state of our house is sound.