Ni Hao 2017

A goal I have for 2017 is to update this lovely family journal/blog space TWICE a month. That's right, people. Rather than marathon posts once every quarter, we are shooting for more detailed snippets each month. My main reason for this is because I feel I miss out on a lot of memories and funny little tidbits by waiting so long in between posts, relying on pictures to trigger what happened, which the whole point of this is to keep family informed, as well as for our family yearbooks which act as an account of our lives. Plus, I looked back on posts from before when I did make time to write more regularly and I loved reading all the little tidbits that happened that I would have forgotten from just looking at the pictures. End personal pep talk.

JANUARY 2017! WHAT?!?! Caleb started nursery. WHAT?! We still go with him because, well, he still acts younger and needs a little support and, quite honestly, I don't know if I'm quite ready to let him be in there alone. Can you say overprotective mama syndrome? I was literally counting down the days until Luke went to nursery and happily sent him on his way. Not so much with Caleb. He's my little squishy bug...

ANYWAY, it is fun to be in there and see him sit on the chair for singing time, actually trying to do the hand motions as well as interact with all the kiddos in there. He loves to sing Happy and You Know It as well as The Wise Man and the Foolish Man. He loves all of it.

Luke moved up to "Big kid primary," as a Sunbeam. I was a little, okay a lot, worried about his transition from fun, play all day nursery to more structured Sunbeams, but he is doing so good. I mean, I sat with him one week because his teacher was in a meeting somewhere and I was bursting with pride in this little man. He was engaged, learned the songs like nobody's business, attempted to bear his testimony with no fear and hardly needed any reminders to stay in his seat. I'm sure not every Sunday is like that, but it calmed my fears a little. I envisioned complete chaos as they tried to get him to sit calmly, tantrums because church is right in the middle of nap time and the works. Just goes to show, kids are full of surprises.

Here he is after his first official day as a Sunbeam. And you wonder why I was worried...

January was COLD and snowy. We didn't go out much because of these two facts which made the month a little tough. We did, however, get a chance to go to Bountiful for a week for all of Caleb's annual appointments. He got to visit his ophthalmologist, orthopedic surgeon, ENT and pediatrician for his well-child visit. All appointments had only good news. Most of these were just to keep an eye on things that are often problems in individuals with Down Syndrome. So far, no concerns with Mr. Cornelius.

His Orthopedic Surgeon and physical therapist are at Shriner's. We always love going to these appointments because it is such a fun hospital!

s

While in Bountiful, our old neighbors, the Watts, let us take over their basement and live with them while we are there. Luke thinks it is heaven with all the cars and train tracks they have. Also, it is right around the corner from his best friend, so he gets to see him NUMEROUS times while we are there. It pretty much IS heaven for him. We are so grateful for "Aunt Tanja" and "Uncle Larry" and their daughter Sarah (who Luke still asks to be tucked in by) for letting us be their adoptive children. Luke constantly asks when we can go back.

Sarah, their youngest daughter, made cinnamon rolls for the first time. They kept saying how gooey they were because they were undercooked. Luke was a huge fan of this technique! He kept asking for Sarah's rolls.

Caleb, with his new self feeding with utensils skills, has become a little bit of a drama king if we ever take his food without him being finished...

Buddies

He also loves doing stinkbugs.

The Watts have three boys that are all grown and on missions, married or at college. They still have all their toys, though. One night, Sarah pulled out the train tracks and we didn't see Luke for 2 days. Tanja would also disappear for a few hours to play with him.

Due to being inside so much, we've been getting creative with what we do. Lego's are usually a daily activity. Luke is getting pretty good at his creations. He has learned how to build a jeep and keeps embellishing it daily. I love watching his little engineer mind at work!
 

 He calls this his "Monster truck Jeep."

We try to go on a family outing once a week since Dallin is gone in Salt Lake 3 days a week. It helps rejuvenate our souls and the family time with just us really helps us restart from the hectic week prior.

One Saturday, we went roller skating a skating rink in Pocatello that has been around since Erban was a kid. No joke. Luke did okay for one lap, but then was getting a little frustrated and just wanted to pretend play the arcade games. We may have even had a little meltdown when I told him at one point that he needed to take a lap with me if he wanted to keep pretend playing games. Tyrant of a mother, I know. I think he inherited my gene of "If I don't succeed right away, it's not for me." Sorry, kid. Hopefully, I can help him overcome that!

Caleb, on the other hand, LOVED getting pushed in the stroller and would look at us with the biggest grin, then scream with excitement, indicating that he wanted to go faster. My little thrill seeker.

Dallin and I just loved being on wheels again. One of my favorite memories as a child is going on roller blading adventures with my family. My mom is pretty skilled on the wheels, let me tell you, so we would always be out in the streets, on trails, all over, blading it up! With any luck, we can get a family set of roller blades, convince Luke it is worth his time to learn how to do it and carry on the tradition!

Another adventure the boys and I went on while Dallin was in Salt Lake was to a trampoline warehouse with my good friend Hayley and her family. She lives in California, but was visiting her family in Idaho Falls area for a few weeks and invited us to join them. Both boys LOVED every single minute we were there. Again, Caleb had absolutely no fear, crawling head first into the foam pit, eagerly following the older kids around to jump, squealing with joy. Luke was in heaven because the kid was born to jump and was surrounded by kids. What more could you ask for?

I've known Hayley for about 8 years. Over the years I have gotten to get to know her amazing parents and siblings, as well. It was so much fun spending an afternoon with all of them.

Luke would sink down to the point you could barely see him and then just laugh. Odd duck of a boy. My claustrophobic self would have been freaking out.

 We were signing the waivers when someone came and scooped Luke up saying, "I'll just take him!" Proud mom moment right here where I didn't even look who said it, thinking it was probably someone I knew. Well, it was someone I knew, not who I was expecting, but Emma! Brad's Emma. Our new sister/aunt Emma. She was there with a friend who has a little girl. It was a crazy encountering that I'm so glad happened. Luke hung out with them for a good amount of time, which was life saving because, of course, both boys wanted to be in different places at the same time.

Of course, the only picture we got was blurry, because trying to get my children to pose for ANOTHER picture was like trying to get fish to stop swimming.

 

Grandpa is pretty great at taking Luke out with him to "work." I'm not quite sure if Luke actually helps or just adds extra work to grandpa's tasks. Either way, he keeps inviting him out, so I like to think Luke helps.  At night, I do highs, lows and hopes with Luke. We talk about what the high, or the best part of our day was as well as the low, or worst part. We then share our hopes. 98% of the time, his hope is "That I get to play outside." I feel ya, little buddy. I miss the sunshine! I think we need to move to Arizona.

When grandpa isn't working outside, you can usually find him working on his house plans for the house they are planning to build here in McCammon this summer. We are pretty excited to see this all come together since we have been able to see all the backstory! We also have decided we don't really know if it is worth it to build our own house one day...

One thing that has happened since moving here is that my boys have become HUGE cuddle bugs. I'm not sure what spurred this, but I'm not complaining. Caleb has always been a squishy snuggler, but Luke has never been a fan. However, since being here, he is constantly asking for hugs or coming up and saying, "Mom. I just need some love." I'm loving it.

His bedtime posse

For the record, Caleb gives the best hugs ever.

 Luke has become Wood boy 2.0. Growing up, Dallin's brother once threw a remote at him out of anger, causing it to shatter on the wall behind Dallin. This got him the consequence of being Wood Boy which meant whenever they had a fire, he had to go out and get the wood. Luke didn't throw a remote, but we like directing his love for life (aka endless energy) into chores anytime we can.

 Recently, Dallin moved to the Operations team at his work. He still has the same job, just works more closely with different people, now. This also means that he gets to witness the antics of the sales floors more often. For those that don't know, his company, Clearlink, is all about keeping spirits high, people motivated and doing crazy things to motivate their employees. Most recently, they had these 10 foot cakes made, filled with cash prizes, trips of lifetime vouchers, Subaru keys and little coins (one in each cake) that represented $10,000, cash. The top 20% sales reps got to dig through for the goodies. When he sent this to me, the first thought that came to mind was, "That poor baker. All their hard work and talent for the sole purpose of being completely destroyed..." Still sounds fun, though.

 Last, but certainly not least, Caleb is starting to walk! We have been working on it for so SO long and one day, he suddenly stood up and took 4 steps all on his own. I'm so grateful grandma Green was there to witness it with me because otherwise I would have thought I was dreaming. He has been doing it nonstop since. I just keep thinking, "Now, we are in big trouble!" He is just as busy and curious as his brother. Can you imagine the antics they will be up to once Caleb can keep up with him? Oye. Vey.

I've been trying to keep up doing preschool with Luke once or twice a week since moving here. He just loved it so much, that I thought it would be good to keep going with it while in Idaho. For January, our theme was Chinese New Year. We had so much fun making lanterns, learning about Chinese traditions and learning Mandarin from grandpa Green. This boy loves to learn!

One Monday, a huge storm came into town that trapped many inside their houses because not even the plows ventured out. We were low on essentials (milk, eggs, bread), so Dallin and I volunteered to take the quad downtown to get some groceries (which is actually a short stop at the gas station). It was fun little outing! As we drove down Main St., we would look over and see people peek over mountains of snow as they shoveled their way out. We passed many other quads and had to laugh at the small town country feel of it all.

That wraps up January! Here's to my new goal. Get ready to be blown away at how dedicated I'm going to be. Happy February, all! Woo hoo for winter almost being over.