It's been a month since we've posted a blog. It's been even longer since I've written one, and since Mike usually only blogs about work, there's a lot to catch up on. I'm going to skip some of the smaller stuff that I would normally have put in blogs if I had been blogging all along the way. If you wanted to know more about that kind of thing, you should have called us.
Last time I blogged, Hyrum was still in school. I wanted to brag that he was first in his class to learn to write his name (way back in April). His teacher was so proud that she called me up on the phone that afternoon, excited to tell me about the progress he was making and to congratulate me on teaching him so well at home. His teacher was wonderful that way. She was always so proud of her students, and they loved her for it. I also wanted to scan a test sheet he did in school where he had written his name for the first time without any help. However, our all-in-one printer/scanner/copier is broken and no longer hooked up, so I can't. I'll have to do that later. Here is his latest school picture.
Since he has been out of school, he loves writing all his letters and numbers and has even started reading a little bit. Besides his name, he can read and spell Mom, Dad, sometimes Emily, exit, cat, dog, box, and a few other small words with some coaching. He also knows how to read prices at stores and is learning a little bit how to read clocks. It is very frustrating to me that he can do all these things but still can't talk the way he should. He has however come a long ways in his speech.
Emily... well, where do I begin? Since my last post, Emily has started walking and talking. She walks quite well and can even go up stairs. It seems she learns at least 3 new words a day and has quite a large vocabulary now. She understands everything you tell her. She is a very smart girl and is catching up quite quickly after being behind due to low weight gain early in her life. At the rate she's going, she may talk before Hyrum. She already says a few simple 2-3 word phrases and has her favorite songs she knows the words to and likes to sing. Emily is an adorable little girl with lots of curly hair and a sweet disposition. She loves cats, babies, playing dress up, standing on her head, jumping, singing, dancing, and eating.
For Father's Day, we went to an airshow here in Nampa. It was just an amateur show, but it had sky divers, and stunt pilots. There were even some military jets that flew in from Mountain Home. Hyrum really enjoyed it, but Emily slept through most of it. We were all enjoying what was probably the best stunt pilot in the show when a very noisy jet flew by low and made us all jump out of our skins. Emily even slept through that. The Blue Angels are going to be doing an airshow in Twin Falls this weekend that we would love to go to if we weren't already so sick of being on the road. Maybe we'll still make the trip, but we were just in Twin Falls yesterday. (more on that later)
We got a Wii Fit a few weeks ago with a gift certificate Mike had to Game Stop. Otherwise, we probably wouldn't have spent the money on one. But it's great! It's very fun and has a good variety of activities. I enjoy the yoga and the rhythmic boxing best though I do have some favorites in strength training too. I was sore for the first two days after getting it, but the yoga really helps with sore muscles. I even started losing some inches (although not weight) right from the start. However, I've gained it all back since going on trip after trip and eating so much junk food, bbq, and fast food this month. Time to get serious about it again.
We've been to a few movies this summer. Probably more than we've been to in the past 3 years combined. We took Hyrum to see Prince Caspian, the new Narnia movie. It was great! We really enjoyed it and so did Hyrum. He was so good in the movie that we decided to take both him and Emily to Wall-E the next week. Hyrum had been asking to see Wall-E since he saw his very first preview for it on one of his DVDs nearly a year ago. Needless to say, he was very excited. We all loved it! Even Emily sat through it all quietly. It was a very sweet story. I highly recommend both of these movies.
Mike celebrated his 30th birthday on July 14th. We went out to eat and visit, but didn't do much more than that. I got Mike a case for his laptop for when he travels, picture frames with pictures of the kids in it for his work desk, and an aux cord for his MP3 player so he can listen to it in the car. Yep. Super exciting. We were trying to save some money since his birthday was sandwiched between two family reunion trips.
Well now, on to family reunions! Actually, I think I'm going to post those on seperate blogs. This one has gotten to be too long anyhow.
