A New Year Begins Welcome 2012

I'm really looking forward to 2012, I'm not sure why...maybe finally having this baby is one part, but also, Logan will start Kindergarten in the Fall and it's so fun to see my boys growing up. We had a fun activity for Family Night...one of these Mondays the past couple weeks and we made home made personal pizzas.
The boys got to smash out their own dough on a square of tinfoil and put on the sauce, cheese, mini pepperoni, etc. They had a blast making them. Logan even ate his, Damon, not so much.
They have been helping me in the kitchen more lately. It's easier than trying to get them distracted with something and if I can just have the patience to let them help for a few minutes, then they are satisfied and will go play on their own for a while.
They help stir the pancake mix, they help dump the ingredients to different things, and the other night they even helped me stuff and batter the chicken pillows which turned out really good despite the crazy blobs they appeared to be.
I'm so ready to have this baby though. I should look back and see if I was this comfortable with all my other pregnancies and just forgot, or if this one really has been as uncomfortable and it has been...not that pregnancy is meant to be comfortable or convenient, but still, this baby boy just seems bigger and feistier than the others were in the womb.
Tragon loves to sit at the table like a big boy now and we've actually gotten rid of his booster seat since this picture. He sits better at the table without it. And usually if I give him a bowl or spoon to play with while the boys are "helping" me make dinner he's pretty content to stay out the way.

This past week we all got hit with the flu/cold bug...(and we all got our flu shots this year too...so much for that). Logan and I got hit the hardest I think, at least we were the only ones actually up all night and the next day vomiting. I couldn't keep anything down for a couple of days and got really dehydrated to the point that I was having a lot of contractions, I was actually hoping I would really be in labor and could just recuperate in the hospital. :) but alas, it wasn't his time. We've all recovered pretty well. Damon and Tragon ended up with croup instead. Morgan's has been somewhere in between flu and ultra-indigestion. I think we are all on the mend though. Enough of the sickness though, here's some updates and things to look forward too:

-Morgan took up a post teaching 1 class a semester at Weber State for the Radiation Therapy program that he went through. One of his colleagues at Huntsman used to be the instructor, but moved away and Morgan was lucky enough to get it. He did a little teaching when we were in Oklahoma and enjoyed it, so we thought we'd give it a try and see how it goes. Right now it's been a little stressful because he's had to re-build a lot of the class structure and content, but I'm sure we'll be grateful when that first extra paycheck comes and we can pay off some of our debt. And he only teaches 1 night/month for the semester which is about 4-5 classes in all, we're not exactly sure the Summer Semester schedule yet, but for the fall it's about the same. He's still serving in the Young Men's and his quorum that he started with a couple years ago has almost all moved up and he's getting a lot more new boys in his group, so that will definitely bring some changes this year.

-Annie, me, I'm just ready to have the baby, but I already complained about that earlier. :) I'm enjoying being mom, cooking and trying to get organized. I'm still into my food storage hobby, thought limited funds have limited my speed at which I can get those things organized that I want. Little by little though as long as we're headed in the right direction. I can hardly wait to start running again, and we have indoor soccer going with some neighborhood ladies that I'm really excited about. I'm still working on having more patience with my boys, they just love to get into anything and everything (especially Tragon), but I love them for their curiosity, even if I don't show it in the nicest way some days.

-Logan is reading and loving his online pre-school that he has been doing. He's made a good transition to home pre-school too although that hasn't been super consistent yet with all the sickness we've had. This next week will prove different though. He'll start kindergarten in the fall and I know he's getting really excited for that already. A lot of his friends in the neighborhood are already in school.

-Damon is showing a lot of interest in "school" stuff, but gets frustrated pretty easy...he still has a couple years before Kindergarten so I'm not too worried. He loves to play with Logan, but has started to show a little more independence lately and will play on his own or try to teach Tragon his games. He's definitely NOT a morning person...or a person who likes to wake up at all for that matter. He's great at getting dressed by himself now which is a huge blessing not to have to dress all 3 boys, now I only have to get Tragon dressed.

-Tragon is into everything and loves to tease, whether it's me, Morgan, Logan, or Damon. He knows exactly where everyone's buttons are and he loves to push them, but he does it in such a sweet way that I can't help but play along....most of the time. Logan and Damon don't always find it so funny, but I'm surprised at their patience with their little brother sometimes. He's started to talk a lot and his vocabulary is exploding. He's in nursery now and has been doing really well, so far the best transition of all the boys, I think mostly because he just loves to be around people and to be playing.

All the boys love to read stories and we go to the library pretty regularly. Morgan loves to read to the boys, but there is something about him reading that puts him to sleep, sometimes mid-sentence. It's one of those little quirks I don't want to forget about when the boys grow up and it doesn't happen as often. They'll be reading together and suddenly I hear Morgan slurring his words a little and look over and Morgan is totally out with the boys still waiting patiently for Daddy to finish the book. hehehe, granted, it usually happens on Saturdays and Sundays when we're all recovering from a busy week and sometimes the narcolepsy isn't very convenient for me and I'll wake him up, but mostly I'm just grateful for a husband who loves his boys and will spend time with them playing and reading. I love my family and I'm looking forward to having more fun with them and enjoying them more this year!