Update

It's been a pretty uneventful few weeks. We have been through 3 weeks of colds, teething and the stomach flu. I have such terrible cabin fever!! At least now that everyone is healthy, the kids are also back to playing and entertaining themselves (well, for part of the day at least!)...which means I can get things done around the house!

I feel SO encouraged and so thankful that Dramamine is working as well as it is. I am now 13 weeks pregnant, which means it's my LAST WEEK in the first trimester. I always feel the urge to sing or scream when I think about how wonderful I feel this time around. I am able to DO things. My house is clean(ish). I can run errands, eat full meals, hang out with friends, go to my moms group, get OFF the couch. The Lord has truly blessed me with this gift of not only new life, but of feeling good! It brings up a little fear, wondering if the baby is healthy, etc, but thankfully I still feel queasy, which reassures me. I feel like how most pregnant women feel. Queasy, certain foods make me especially queasy, I have cravings, etc...but I'm able to function. And I love it. I didn't just survive this first trimester, I actually lived it! Ahh what a great feeling.

Feeling well has helped with my goal of learning to "pick up as we go." We are all in the habit of making messes and cleaning them up later. Even though they do get cleaned up, it makes for SO much more work, and an eternally messy house. I have been trying this for almost a month now, and with the exception of the stomach flu week, have been doing pretty 'ok! It lets me have time for other things! It probably sounds ridiculously basic and simple to those of you who were raised that way or who naturally do this already, but for Joel and I it's a big commitment!

I decided to send Elijah to preschool this fall. We still are undecided about homeschooling in the future, but we both felt that Elijah would truly love it, and flourish in a classroom setting. When life gets stressful, I tend to let him watch more PBS kids, and decided that with a new baby in the fall, I'd much rather him be at school learning then put in front of the TV. I know I have control over how much TV he watches, but I also know myself all too well. It's 2 mornings a week, and I think he'll love it! He just learned all of his letters, and we are beginning to practice letter sounds and lower case letters. He LOVES the alphabet puzzle his cousins in SD sent him (seriously, we do it probably 4-6 times a day).

My little Ella bug is growing up so fast. She is now 18months old (really!?). She has been slower to begin talking, but the past few weeks she is really trying to talk like her big brother. Once she started saying "Uh, oh!" more words have been coming. She says, "Cheese," (as in, "Say Cheese!" before a picture, haha, go figure), "Elijah," "Josh," and "Ana." (The neighbor kids). Get this, she says those names but will not say "Mama." Silly girl. She has a few more that aren't quite understandable to most, but we get what she's saying.

Elijah and Ella play so well together. I love that they are only 16 months apart. I wouldn't change it for anything. Elijah is pretty protective of his trains, but other than that he is VERY patient with her. I can tell they are ready to be out and about more again. We were spoiled with a very warm February day last week, and they played outside for almost the whole day. I'm so ready for summer :)

I should get going, sorry for the random quick update :) Time for the kiddo's to get up and to finish cleaning!