June Scrap Swap photos

Here are my June Scrap Swap photos for those who need them!

Madyson's Birthday!

I am such a terrible mommy! I forgot to write yesterday for Madyson's birthday. Better late then never I guess. I can't believe my baby girl is 3! She is NOT a baby anymore. Aughhhh. those days were nice! But she is growing and learning so much! She has flourished this past year! I can't believe how much she has learned. Madyson really started talking this past year. For about 6 months after she turned 2 I was beginning to wonder if she had some speech problems! Well not anymore!!! She is as verbal as can be! She says complete sentences and has learned many new words this year. Including a new word for her yesterday..."ours." It was so sweet to hear her sharing with her big sister! Another big milestone for Madyson was learning to go to the bathroom. We started training her around 2. It did not happen as quickly for her as it did for Elyse. In fact it was awful! She finally became pee pee potty trained just after Christmas. She hasn't had an accident in a while. For a while there it was a more than a couple of times a week. Now it is very rare for her to have an accident. Noticed I said that she was completely pee pee potty trained. The other has been a struggle. She would wait until her pull up was put on at night and then do her business. But something FINALLY clicked!!! She is now officially potty trained! Yay!!!!
Mady had a great day! I am really sad that I have gone back to work and have missed spending the day with the girls on their special day. It is frustrating for me yet at the same time I know I am doing what I need to be doing at this time.

Madyson...Mommy loves you! I love your laugh and your smile. I love how you talk about all of your primary and church friends when you come home. I love your prayers. You are thankful for everything! That makes mommy's heart swell with pride. I have loved you since the day you were brought to me. I know that you are a sweet daughter of Heavenly Father. I love you for who you are and the brightness you have surrounding you!

Love, Mommy!

The big 5!

April Fool's Day is here again! This date honestly had no significance to me until 5 years ago when we welcomed a brand new baby girl into this world. She was beautiful! She was so tiny and I was so afraid that I would drop her. I loved wrapping my fingers around her small fragile hands. She was a gift given to us by our Heavenly Father to keep and cherish FOREVER. How I miss the little girl that I could hold and rock to sleep. The little girl that would lay down and take a nap with me when I got home from school. I miss those days when she was a baby, yet...I love that she can clean up her own toys, go to the bathroom by herself, play with her little sister, be concerned when I am sick in the mornings with every smell known to man bothering me. I love the little girl that she has become! My Elyse Bryanne has sure grown up so fast. And I love her just as much today as I did when she was given to me to hold for the first time.
Elyse has accomplished much this year. She started preschool here in San Angelo. She has made so many friends and I have seen her blossom from September until now. She has learned to read...although I can't say she is a proficient reader she is doing really well learning how to and I admire her courage for trying something new. Elyse is learning how to ride a bike with training wheels. It is a little scary for her and I admire her willingness to try something new even when it may not be comfortable for her. The GREATEST accomplishment Elyse had this year was the will power to STOP sucking her thumb. She has been sucking her thumb since she was a year old and it was really hard on her, but with lots of prayers and perserverance it paid off for her. I will tell that story in another entry at some point.
My baby girl is growing up...I guess that is what they have to do no matter if we as parents like it or not. I love my Elyse with my heart. She is the little girl that reminds me of myself and I LOVE her for that!
Happy Birthday Elyse Bryanne! I love you so much!

I will post pictures soon!

Shame on Me!!!

I have been so bad about posting since I have gone back to work. I have thought about the things that I could blog about, but I just have not had the energy. I am really enjoying my job. I am teaching a 7th grade math class as well as helping other teachers. I am hoping to get a full time teaching job in the fall. Clay is really liking his job. He is working tons of overtime which is good for our pocket book.
We are having Clay's family in town this weekend. We are really excited! The girls are super excited to see their cousins and Grandma and Grandpa!!! We are going to have a fun weekend!
The girls are growing up so fast. Elyse has started reading and is loving it! I am so proud of that girl...it's not even funny! I can't believe that my little girl turns 5 in less then a month now. She is enjoying preschool. This week is Dr. Seuss week and they have being doing a lot of fun things. I wish I were better at taking pictures!!! Elyse also started soccer two weeks ago. She is showing some athletic potential that I honestly thought that she wouldn't have. She is doing great!
Madyson continues to make us laugh. Last night I took the girls to the park before Elyse's soccer practice. A lady from church was their with her daughter and gradaughter so the girls had fun playing with them. When it was time to go I told Madyson that we were leaving and Madyson turns and shouts at me, "I'm not finished, Mommy!!!" It was hilarious. If looks could kill you from laughter I would have done that last night! She is a doll.
I will try and be better at posting. I think it is a great outlet for me and a way to remember what is happening in our lives!
Our last piece of news that I am sharing is that we are expecting baby # 3 sometime in November/December. I am honestly not sure when because this is very recent. We are excited yet at the same time I am really worried about having to work with 3 kids. We now need my job for the insurance not the money (who would have thought?)

Job update

So it looks like I have a request to post about our job situation. Thanks Crystalee for the reminder! Clay did the job with the air force base here in San Angelo. He started about 3 weeks ago. HUGE pay cut, but what else can we do in this economy. We will make it work. As far as my job...I had that interview in October. I did NOT get that job. I was really disappointed, but became ok with it once Clay got his job. I did get another job I applied for. It is not an official teaching job. I am a teacher's aide in a math classroom. SAISD is a really hard school district to get into for obvious reasons. The first is that there is a pretty big university in town so they hire their student teachers. The second reason is that it is such a small town with no other school districts around competing for teaching jobs. Anyway...I took this job because they told me if I did this I will have a permanent job in the fall whether it is at this jr. high or at another. It works out because Elyse will be in Kindergarten in the fall and I will only have to pay for one child to be in daycare.
In other news...we have decided we need a bigger house. Our 1100 ft2 house is not cutting it. We are moving to a much larger home for only $200 more than what we are currently paying. We are renting it from a family in our ward who is moving to San Antonio. I couldn't be happier. The only bad part of this is that I have to be out of our current house on the 1st and we can't start moving in until the 26th. It should be an interesting next few weeks!
I was in Dallas on Tuesday night. My piano teacher called and asked me if I would drive with her. She had a friend pass away that lived in Denton and didn't want to go by herself. I really felt that I needed to go so a few hours later we were on our way. I was able to go home for the night. My brother just returned home from his mission about 3 weeks ago. He gave his report to the high council on Tuesday night. I was so happy that I was able to be there for that. The Lord truly blesses us!
Anyway...sorry about my super long post. I hope that answers any questions you all have had about our family!

Nap Time

This is where Madyson wanted to take her nap today. Looks like she was serious about wanting to sleep on her bookshelf because this is how I found her when I went to check on her. Too cute!!!

Trunk or Treat

We have had a whirlwind of a week! On Monday night we carved pumpkins for Family Home Evening! The girls had a ton of fun. We got some extra funny parts on video. Elyse and Daddy carved a witch on their pumpkin. When we asked Madyson what they were carving she said..."think of a word that rhymes with witch." It was hilarious. I know we are horrible parents, but we kept getting her to say it because it was so funny. Even when we tried sounding out the w for her she still didn't say it right. Fun Times!!!


Elyse and Madyson were the cutest fairies ever!!! I made their tutus. It was fun doing because nobody had their same outfit!!! I found shirts at Michael's for under $2 each! (What a steal!) Thanks Aunt Jessica for the suggestion! They get to wear makeup once a year...only on Halloween! They were really excited about that! This is before we left to go to the Trunk or Treat at church. They had a really good time seeing their friends. They had music going for dancing. Elyse spent some time with her friend Hannah dancing in the back of their truck. It was really cute!
I LOVE this picture!!! She is such a happy little girl!

Madyson at her school's Trunk or Treat. I had so much fun being there passing out candy. They kids were all so adorable! When Madyson saw me she came running to me and gave me a hug. It made my day! I decided to dress up and have a little fun.
Elyse with her friend Lindsey from her class.
Elyse had a really good time. When she walked out to the parking lot I could tell she was looking for me. I was dressed up so I don't think she recognized me until I called her name and got her attention. I love my daughters! I am so glad I was able to help with the Trunk or Treat and see them in action at their preschool! Have a Happy Halloween!