Time To Play Some Catch Up!

So, it's been about 5 months since I last posted...yikes! Gosh life has been runnin about a mile a minute for the past while! Mostly all good things though! Let's see...We'll start with Jace. He is now 18 months old and keeps me busy, busy, busy! He is now pulling to stand very well and is doing great cruising the furniture. He will walk if his hands are held, but he's not quite strong enough to stand up or walk on his own yet, but it's coming! He's got all sorts of teeth now and enjoys sharing them with his mommy's skin! :P He's now 21 lbs and is wearing 12 month size clothes and is starting to really catch up size wise, but for now, he's still our little peanut. He's also started to talk and LOVES to talk all the time! Mostly unrecognizable, but he does say "Mama"! That's my boy! He loves going outside and playing with the cats and dog, he love love loves animals! He also just started to dance to music, which just cracks us up because he just stands there and bounces his little diaper booty around. :) He definitely has his own little personality, which can be delightful at times and challenging at other times. He is very loving and affectionate and wants to flirt with everyone, but he is starting to become very attached to his mama, which while it flatters me, it also smothers me a bit. ;) We're working on gaining a little bit more independence, but it's slow going! Overall Jace's health is great! He's happy, very active and continuing to grow and develop! He's feeding himself with a spoon pretty well now and is starting to understand how to eat so that he can swallow his food. Lots of sips of water in between bites and taking his time is working pretty well for him. He was able to handle swallowing whole peas this past week, which is huge for him! He actually likes his hearing aids and doesn't fuss when I put them on him, because they help him hear. :) With his hearing aids, his hearing tests show that he is hearing at a normal level for speech! I have been learning sign language and have been trying to teach him probably for a good year now, but he's a wee bit stubborn and prefers to yell at me instead of signing. But he does seem to understand the meaning of some of the signs, because when I sign "all done" he reaches his arms up for me to take him out of his high chair. But I am still holding out hope that he will eventually embrace sign language as well as speaking. He does think that some signs are ridiculously funny though and will throw his head back laughing at them. The sign for hot really gets him going! His appointments have slowed to about 1 per month now and he has in-home therapy sessions weekly, which is wonderful! Overall Jace is really progressing and enjoying life!

Bryce has been VERY busy working full-time as well as completing his Paramedic internship which required a 48 hour shift each week. This was a very challenging program and it was difficult on us as a family, but we are soooo happy that Bryce has been signed off and now only has to pass his school exit exam, the national registry test, and his skills test and then he'll be an official Paramedic! We are hoping that he'll be able to complete all of this in February, maybe March. :) He has done a fantastic job and worked so hard! We are very proud of him! It will be nice to get to spend more time as a family and be able to do more of the things that we would like to do. He is hoping to get a fire job working as a Paramedic Fire Fighter in the somewhat near future.

I have been very busy over the last few months taking care of Jace and running my 3 businesses! My preschool and child care business wasn't taking off quite as quickly as I was hoping for, so to make ends meet I started looking into additional options and I found Melaleuca, which is a fantastic wellness company that helps me replace my harmful chemicals with safer and healthier products for my family. I'm in love with this company and their products and it allows me to make an extra income working from home helping others to do the same. I've also started participating in an online weight loss program through the company and I have lost 6 lbs so far over the holidays! :) I have also lost some inches which is very encouraging. I'd like to lose another 15 lbs maybe by the end of May, then I'd be satisfied. I have also booked some more photography jobs that I'm really looking forward to in the next little while. Also I finally got my own domain names for my preschool and photography websites, so here they are if you want to check them out:

http://www.ourplacepreschoolandfamilychildcare.com/ and http://www.crystalclearimagesphotography.com/

So now I'm all official! Haha. Anways, so I had quite an answer to prayer a few weeks ago that I wanted to share. I decided that I would fast and pray for a day that our financial situation would improve and no joke that week, I had 4 families enroll their children in my preschool! So now I am working about 48 hours per week and 5 days a week with my preschool kiddos! Can I get a Hallelujah?! It is so nice working again and still getting to see my little man grow. And Jace loves having his little friends come to play each day! I would love to get just maybe one or two more families per day and we'd be doing great! :) Regardless I am so grateful for all of the many many blessings we receive as a family and I hope that you feel blessed in your lives as well! Happy 2011 everyone, make it your best year yet!!!