Settled In

We are finally settled in the house. We had our first garage sale, first day did well; second day not so much. A lot went to Goodwill at the end of the day. Ethan keeps saying he does not like having such a big house; I think it is from having to walk up and down the stairs so much going to time out .. just my opinion! ;-) Kaeli has found every crack and crevice that she is not supposed to find, mastered the stairs the first week and loves to play outside. She brings us her shoes now when she wants to go out. Mike has been enjoying it whenever he can, he has had some long days lately. I have been busy fixing up the front garden and making the house look up to its potential, and to match the neighbor's nice yards. The previous owners really let some easy things go. There are a few upgrades we would like to make, but nothing is absolute or necessary for comfortable living .. just what we are used to doing. Knowing we have only 2 years here, it is hard to invest much money into it. We have lots of family and friend's pictures up all over the house and enjoy seeing everyone daily; since we can't see everyone in person.

Ethan starts school next month, pre-K. They were able to get him into the elementary school up the street so Kaeli and I will be walking him to school the 4 days a week he will be going. I am looking forward to that! He is doing lots of writing and drawing and does a great job of letter recognition. He has been working really hard on manners and attitude and doing a great job. Mike has been doing more with him such as taking him to work and to the store for quick runs, which makes Ethan's day. He loves spending time with daddy. He has been doing wonderful at Tball and loves it! His coach mentioned at practice one day "I know you can throw the ball Ethan" and Ethan followed it with "I know, cause I am awesome". It was cute, but we are working on teaching him to swallow some humble pie and say thank you instead! haha

Kaeli is saying a few more words, of course none of them are Mommy! She says daddy, doggy, up, uh-oh, hi, E. She calls me daddy, and I have heard her slip up with mommy but then catches herself and calls me daddy .. she is a stinker and knows that it gets to me! :-) She is very active and loves to eat! Her 18month check up is in a couple weeks, so I will be interested to see her stats. She is such a great little girl and brings us MANY MANY laughs! Her new favorite thing to do is pull her chair over to the sink and play with dirty dishes and water ... several times a day! Have I mentioned how strong willed and mischevious she is? Both of the kids are big helpers and love to help mike and I do things around the house, it is pretty neat.

We took the kids camping in our camper for the first time in a long time! The kids had a great time and cannot wait to do it again! We have a few kinks to work out with the camper and things to get fixed, but will hopefully have that done in time to go a bit further for Labor Day weekend. It is a great pop-up and very glad we made that purchase .. I see lots of family fun ahead with that. Ethan's highlight of course would be making Smores!

I am having wrist surgery on July 28 to repair the ligaments. I am lucky enough that my sister Jme is able to come visit for 10days and help me out with the kids. It is going to be a 6-8 week full recovery, but hopefully all will be better and I won't be in so much discomfort. I will keep you posted on recovery. Plan on shorter entries, as I will be typing with 1 hand :-)

Wish you all well and hope you are having a fabulous summer.