Trying to Recommit

I haven't blogged in ages. Facebook has sort of become my "unpersonal" blog, but this one is where I'd like to put more details and such for our memories. Especially mine. My brain does NOT remember things well at ALL, so I need stories and pictures to jog my memory from time to time.

Savannah will be 10 months old on July 22nd. I can't believe it. It feels like I just brought her home. It has been very bittersweet for me to see her grow up so quickly. She's gorgeous, healthy (so chubby!) and strong. I love her with all my heart. I've been terrible about keeping track of her baby "firsts," but she's been saying "da da" for a long time now. It's really funny bc you can say, "say ma ma!" and she immediately responds "da da da da da" EVERY time. Cracks me up. Just as well, because I already hear "mom" about 300x/day from the boys, heh heh. But of course who am I kidding--I'd love to hear her say "ma ma"! I try to take moments and just look at her and cuddle on her and savor my time with her being small. She's our last baby, and pair that with the fact that she's our first girl, makes for one emotional me! My last pregnancy was pretty tough on me (blood sugar scare which I ended up passing, as well as UTI and kidney stone stuff requiring a trip to the urologist after delivery and CAT scan of my abdomen. Found out I have a small umbellical hernia and some kind of calcified "fleck" in my kidney, both for which I was advised not to worry. Hmm). As lame as that was, I was almost grateful for that because it helped solidify my choice (and Reuben's too) to get my tubes tied during my cesarean. I felt like it was God's way of helping me know it was the right time for us. I turned 38 a few months after I had her, so that meant if I had a 4th child I'd be at least 40! Yikes! No thanks. I'm too old for this, haha. I do think if I had married younger, I may have gone for a 4th (they say after you have 3, it's not too bad from that point on bc your oldest can help/do things for himself). Guess I'll never know that! For now it's 3 kids under 5 and it's pretty tough some days. Ok I'm getting off on a tangent again! Back to Savannah. She has 2 of her bottom teeth, right in the middle, and they are stinkin' adorable. She is already a tiny diva. She will NOT eat something if she doesn't like it. She STILL refuses to take formula, although after MONTHS of offering binkies, bottles, and sippy cups, she will finally drink water out of a bottle or a sippy. This has only been going on for maybe a month? I tried sneaking formula into her bottle during her lunch the other day. She took 2 gulps, then realized it wasn't water and refused to drink ANY more. Argh! This girl! I am ready to start weaning her but so far, I'm not able to! I never had this trouble with the boys, ever. She has been able to sit up unassisted for a while now, and is awesome at rolling around to get to wherever she wants to go. It is so cute seeing her little rolly self all over the floor. Just in the last week or so she's been figuring out the army crawling thing...using elbows and toes to sort of scoot around on the floor. I think she weighs about 19 pounds (I need to go find her 9 month doctor stats), and is larger than average for her weight and height.

Ian is 3 and is either the cutest, sweetest boy you've ever seen or a complete emotional mess! LOL! For both he and Jase, it wasn't terrible 2's, it's terrible 3's! He makes the best grumpy faces you've ever seen! I wish I could get a picture of one because it's pretty freaking hilarious. I'm trying to put a stop to toy-throwing and hitting, though! He and Jase loooove to wrestle, run around screaming, fight, etc. They do have cute moments of playing well together, too. But I'd say they fight more than they play! It's a competition, man! Ok back to Ian. He's my small baby. We just had his 3 year old well-child visit and he was in the 30 percentile for his weight, hee hee. But he's grown taller! He still has moments where he wants mommy and still loves to cuddle up in my lap (while watching TV, while I'm eating, etc). Lately he'll come up to me and hug on me and tell me that he loves me. Ahhh, those are the moments I love. He did that to me last night while I was putting him to bed and I wanted to stay in that moment even longer. He's growing up, too. He loves anything with wheels, and if you get him separated from Jase he will play with cars/trucks for a long time! It's so cute. He's really loving the Disney movie CARS, and his favorite is Mater. He is also way into baseball caps. He won't leave the house without one on!

Jase is my oldest and such a handsome boy! Gracious me. He finished up his 2nd year of preschool this spring (year 1 he did academics with our neighbor, Joanne, who I loved; year 2 he did a music/art school where each month they focused on a different country). Both were 2.5 hours/twice per week for about $70-80/mo. He's all registered for Kindergarten this fall, and I am still in shock that he'll be starting "real" school! They only have 2 kindergarten teachers here, so they did little assessments to see where the kids were at in May. Jase got every question right except one. (I think he didn't know what an Octogon was--or a hexagon). I could tell the teacher was pretty impressed.  He is one smart cookie, for real. I am thankful he is so smart but it also has its challenges! He outsmarts me all the time and sometimes I feel like he's already 15 years old instead of 5! He can do so many "boy" things that I can't do (like hook up our boat to the SUV, unlock our garage doors from the opener, etc), it is pretty funny! Reuben teaches him every chance he gets! I love that Reuben is one of those "i can fix anything or at least figure it out" guys, bc Jase is fascinated with how things work and the "whys" behind everything.  Some of my friends with kids of their own are shocked to know all the things Jase can do and what all he gets into. Like keys. Don't leave any keys lying around, heaven help us. He will figure out what they are for, start it up and drive it around! LOL. We have tried to hide them in all kinds of places and he finds ALL the hiding spots. Grrrr.... He is a pretty good helper, too. He likes to have things to do and keep busy.  Jase is one of the tallest boys in town! At the kindergarten round-up thing he was a few inches taller than everyone else (except one other boy in our ward, who's about the same exact age and height). People think he is older than he really is! He loves music (right now he is listening to my iPod and dancing around) and he also seems to enjoy singing, too (must get that from me, hee hee).

What's new with me? Two months ago I started training for a 5K using an app called "Couch to 5K." I didn't time it right and I was still 2 weeks shy of finishing my training by the time race day was here. I was nervous. The other "problem" was I had only trained on the treadmill and not on the real road! And my shoes were NOT good. Well, my goal for race day was to just keep a jogging pace, no matter how slow. The last mile was pretty tough, but I finished the race jogging the entire time! My time was a 14.8 minute mile. I was way happy with that! Especially since I haven't done a 5K in like 15 years! I am hoping to continue doing races here and there, but I really gotta get me some new shoes! By the way, Jase knew I was going to do it so he expressed interest in running the 1 mile. We let him do it and he did awesome! I can't remember his time but I think it was 12 or 13 minutes! He beat me, heh heh. We were so proud of him. Reuben actually is the guy who is in charge of the race for our town's 4th of July. He did a great job getting everything in place this year (this is his 3rd year doing it). I think he likes doing it, but having a day job that is sooo busy makes it hard for him to find the time he needs to be the race director. Not sure he will be able to do it next year, but we'll see. Lots can change by then.

Another cool thing I did this year was attend a class on Recording Studios and the music industry. I almost chickened out and didn't do it, but I'm extremely glad I did. I learned a TON of info and was able to record an official demo. We got one hour to record a song of our choice. Let me tell you it was total hell for me to choose a freaking song. I stressed out of my MIND about it. Ugh. I ended up recording "Over the Rainbow" (Katherine McPhee version). I haven't listened to it in a while bc the more I listen, I want to go back and fix a bunch of stuff I can hear...but when it was first done I was so excited sitting there hearing the playback! I had dreamed about recording a song in a real studio for years and years, and I finally was doing it! Now I want to go back and record more, when I can afford it. I think i will be less nervous the 2nd time around now that I have that under my belt. We were also given a list of people in the industry that accept demos and I haven't sent mine to one person. Not on purpose, I just have forgotten! What is my problem! Anyway, I guess I was thinking I should record one more before I start sending songs off to people??? I don't know. I'm sure it's just me being paranoid. However, I have tried out for a couple singing contests in the meantime...both online. I tried out to sing a couple demo tracks for a karaoke company and currently I'm waiting to hear back on a contest that has to do with singing an inspirational song. I didn't get the first one but maybe 2nd time's a charm? Ha ha, we'll see.