Time to Catch Up....

Well it has been way too long since my last post (& my only post, lol). I'll give a quick recap of the last couple of months and will have to add pics at a later time.

Luke is doing great in school! Although he tells me that it takes it much time to go there. He would rather stay home and play the wii or xbox in his pj's all day. Yes, he keeps asking for a sick day to stay home and do just that with me. Only 16 weeks left of school, maybe we'll plan for one.

When he returned back to school from Christmas break, Todd and I were worried about him adjusting back to our routine. The kids had close to 3 weeks off for the break and we just knew that the first week or two back would be a struggle. And it was. Luke did fine that first week going to bed on time, but we had to slowly ease him back into finishing his homework everynight. By the second week back, he was rockin' & rollin' again. His behavoir was quickly an issue. Nothing terrible, just not paying attention, speaking out of turn & not following instructions for class work. All issues that we had corrected the first part of the school year. Then he came home with a yellow. For his behavior each day it is a green, blue, yellow, orange or a red face. Of course green is a big ole' smile and the smile turns into a frown once it hits orange. Red is a big X. I can't remember exactly what he did. I think it was consistently not following directions that day.

Todd laid down the law and he has received a green smiley face every day since then! I think he has received a green for 22 days in a row now. He finishes his homework everynight and has already moved up to the first grade reading list. He was able to read all 50 kindergarten words in 36 seconds! Yes, he is a Wheeler had to get the best time. He was the first in his class to read all the words and move on to the first grade list. It is wonderful to see him doing so well (especially when he keeps thinking of ways to stay home each day).

He played t-ball & flag football in the fall (yes, at the same time, I will never do that again), basketball in the winter and now t-ball starts again. He is excited to have 3 friends on the team with him, Zach, AJ & Everett.

We have attended serveral baptisms since last summer. I think he is anxious, excited, nervous and happy to get baptised. He wants to serve a mission like his dad. He has asked to go to Scotland so that he can see the loch ness monster. I love his sense of adventure!

Calise is growing growing growing! She is a chatterbox (but we have known that since she was about 3 days old and found her voice). She says her own prayers, runs to nursery every Sunday & loves her family very much. Sometime ago, her lesson in nursery was about happy family's. She will come up and hug me or Todd or all of us together and say 'we are a happy family!' This past weekend we were in the car for our Super Saturday Family Fun Day (aka spending the day together) and she says 'We are a happy family. Daddy's happy. Mommy's happy. Calise is happy. But Luke is not happy.' Todd and I were trying so hard not to laugh. She said it with such love and truth only a 2 1/2 year could say. Luke quickly responded 'I am happy.' She has gone on to say how happy of a family we are and that Luke is sad or mad or not happy. Maybe we need to work on Luke's happiness?

Our Princess loves to sing. She has several disney princess songs memorized, primary songs and a few from the radio. Her favorites right now are 'I Am a Child of God,' 'Book of Mormon Stories,' 'Belle,' all the Tangled songs and Princess and the frogs songs, 'Rolling in the Deep' by Adele, and 'When The World Ends' by Britney Spears. You may be asking why on the last song, here's the story. My best friend Summer had watched Calise 2 days a week since she was 9 weeks old. On the way to work I would listen to the radio and around her 2nd birthday the song started playing on the radio. She quickly picked up on the 'oh oh oh' chorus and started singing it. I have the song on my iTunes and she will turn it on and sing along. I have got to get a video of it! I have been telling everyone for the past year that she is your next American Idol.

I can officialy say she is potty trained!! We have been working on it for quite sometime with a few weeks of doing good, followed by weeks of no interest in the big girl potty. Last summer I decided to quit pushing the training and let's work on getting those 2 fingers out of her mouth. Where as buying a prize for Luke works for him to achieve his goals. Calise could care less. Her Rapunzel doll sat on the mantle, then her room in the box for close to 8 months before she was able to open it.

But back to the story....We were trying everything to get her to stop sucking those fingers. I could see that he top teeth were beginning to shift and he gum's were changing shape. I was so worried about it that Todd and I had decided to take her to the doctor for them to put a cast on her arm. Well, I wouldn't say our prayers were answered, but Calise did have a terrible fall at the ball park and got a pink cast for 5 weeks in November. The cast covered just about her entire right arm and it was a success. Cast came off after Christmas and it's been great up till last week. We caught her in the middle of the night with fingers in mouth! It's not doing the day, only at night when she's sleeping.

When we lay her down for nite-nite, she'll put the covers over her head and we can hear her. We said something to her and she says 'You can hear me sucking my fingers?' She looked surprised and curious as to how did we know? To an almost 3 yr-old if they can't see then you can't see them, lol. As far as we know, she hasn't done it since that night.

Back to the potty...about 3 weeks we took the diapers away, only training pants. 3 days later came panties and training pants at night. And here we are only panties. I'm so proud of her! She gets so exicted everytime. A few of you of been privlidged to receive her wonderful calls to say 'I went pee pee on the potty.'

Well all in all, things are going well for us. Todd and I continue to work together so that our family can be well and happy. I love him so much and thank my Heavenly Father for those wonderful 2 1/2 years we had for waiting. We look back and think 'who let us do that?' We were so young and silly in love. As Calise would say 'We are a happy family.' And hearing her say that was worth waiting for...