Time for a Family Update

I thought I would give a little paragraph on each one of us and what we have been up to recently.

Dan
Dan has been pretty good. He really enjoyed his trip home for Labor Day Weekend and his time that he got to spend with Katelynn before Junior and I got to Minnesota. I think it was really good for them. He did some farming with my dad to in Hawley for a few days which probably just made him want to move home that much more and be a farmer. (I am trying to hold him off at least a few more years before we really look at the situation.) Dan's work is starting to pick up again for him, so he has been much happier about that recently. He has been doing a lot of bidding on jobs with his contractors, but most of the jobs were not starting until February or March. Finally, a few of them are throwing caution to the wind and digging some holes and building a few houses. Most recent for Dan has been taking one for the team (our marriage and family) and going in and having the deed done. Our family is complete with a Mommy, Daddy, a daughter, and a son and as of last Friday there will be no more for us. He has been pretty good about this ordeal and really did it for me. The doctors had told him that is was much healthier for me not to be on birth control for the rest of my life and he made the decision that he would then do this for us, what a nice way to show his love for me.

Katelynn
Katelynn had her 4 year wellness check today, she did great! It put butterflies in my stomach to see and hear her interact with the nurses and the doctor. They asked her a bunch of questions and her face would light up when she knew that she was getting them right (and so did mine!) She had her eyes checked and did pretty good for the first time of holding something over one eye and then the other, although by the end I'm pretty sure she was bored with what she thought was a game and just started throwing out answers. Katelynn is big for her age. The doctor said that she is measuring at the same as an average 5 year old and that most strangers that meet her would assume that she is 5 1/2 years old.

The funniest thing of today was while the doctor was examining her, he would ask her questions.
First Question: "What is your name?" Answer: Katelynn Rose Davids
Second Question: "Does your mom have a name? Do you know it?" Answer: Mom (she wasn't sure she said what other name I had).
Third Question: "Do you know your Dad's name?" Answer: Dan
Later again with the Second Question: "Have you remembered your Mom's name?" Answer: No.
Doctor: "Okay, well, what does your dad call your mom?" Answer: Wife
That answer got her a pretty good chuckle and he told me and Katelynn, ya know your mom used to be a person too before she was mom and wife!

After her exams then she had to get 2 shots and her flu shot, she did pretty good and only a couple of tears. The doctor's office gave her a new book and a prescription for 1 free scoop of ice cream at an ice cream shop, which happened to be open at 10:30 am (it's a coffee shop too) so, we went after her appointment and each had a scoop of ice cream in a bowl and enjoyed some time just me and her.

Katelynn still has her little posse of friends waiting for her as soon as mine or Dan's vehicles pull up at the end of the day. Today she had 6 friends waiting for her car door to open when we got home and she couldn't wait to tell them how brave she was that she got 3 shots in her arm and then she got ice cream!

Junior
Junior is going to be 8 months old at the end of this week. Seriously, where has 8 months gone? This last weekend he has become mobile. He started getting rather frustrated, which is unusual for him, last week and now has started dragging himself across the floor to get to where he needs to go, or whatever toy of Katelynn's he thinks that he needs. I have a feeling it won't be much longer and he will be crawling. This is going to be quite a change for Dan and I, we never had to deal with Katelynn crawling and things being at that level in the house because she never crawled. This weekend we will need to start baby proofing, not easily done with all of Katelynn's things! Junior is still eating like a champ and has now mastered the graham cracker as well as pancakes and blueberry muffins for breakfast. Slowly I am starting to share tiny pieces of my supper with him and so far he has gobbled them all up. He also has his 2 bottom front teeth and we are waiting for more to come. He recently also has started to have a little separation anxiety over being left (or unseen) in a room. Poor little guy gives the saddest cry like he just lost his world if you leave him alone for a second. I haven't yet figured out if it's just me or with everyone. He is still sleeping like a champ, bedtime by 7:30pm and up around 6am-6:30am, although this last week with all of his little changes he has been trying to have his wake up time be 5:30am, but that doesn't work in our house, so you can talk in your crib or go by to sleep little man! (He usually opts to go back to sleep, which makes for a happy daddy during the week when he has to get up with him.)

Taryn
Work -
Work is going good. The transition / training into my Business Analyst position is finally starting to pick up speed. I have cleared my work schedule and have asked for 40 hours of BA duties (hoping for 30 since I guess I do have a few things on my plate still). I am going to be getting a few more projects in October and will hopefully be wrapping up my first project in the next month or two depending on the developers. I am still training on writing Crystal Reports and have now schedule 3 hours at home in the morning once a week to work on it. I will also be taking a 5 day training in Denver in November, they are even going to put me up in a hotel for the week, because it would cost almost the same to pay my mileage there and back every day. My soon to be boss, also said that I will probably need time to review what I learned and prepare for the next day, so time alone is going to be key, we'll see how Dan deals with that for 5 days?! I am looking at the first of the year to write my re-classification and finally be and be paid as a Business Analyst for the county!

HOA -
The HOA has again become a little busy. I am now going up against the Town Planning Commission Board and the Town Planner. I have been to one meeting and riled up a bunch of people in my subdivision regarding the town planner wanting to change our land use code to allow manufactured homes in any area and subdivision in our town. We feel that this is not a good decision for our town or our home values. The next meeting is October 7th and I will be there again after getting the last vote continued. This is some pretty good experience for me, for what, I'm not sure yet. So, here is my complaint about this ordeal: Nobody really knew, except for a few neighbors, that I was the president of the HOA or what I looked like, after attending the town planning board meeting and getting a lot of our residents there, now they know. The very next day after the meeting Dan had walked outside for a minute and there was a lady standing in our driveway, "Is your wife home?" - Dan came in and said someone was asking for me (he thought it was the mayor, it wasn't). I walked outside and it was an older lady from down the block that met me the night before at the meeting all riled up about the situation and wanting to talk or vent or who knows what. As soon as she opened her mouth about the HOA, I stopped her and asked her if it could wait because it was 6:10pm and I was eating supper and feeding my children supper. I walked down to her house, with both children in tow (just to let her know she was imposing on my family time) to ask her what she needed. She wanted me to call the local newspaper and put in an article regarding the changes to the code. I am probably not her favorite person anymore and was probably slightly rude or aggressive with her, but told her she could call the paper, but if she was looking for me to do it on behalf of the HOA that wasn't going to happen and explained to her that I have to deal with the town staff and boards on other issues besides just this one and basically I am not going to piss them off. My issue with this is, I have never seen or heard from this resident before on any issue and now that I let her know about this one, she is up in arms stating that the town is trying to hide things and such, uh, no lady, it's posted on their website every month what their agendas are and the minutes after - hello! Well, enough of that, hopefully the meeting goes well, I have my notes on what I want to state to persuade the board not to pass the code changes, but also have a few things regarding my HOA and covenants to protect us in case they do.

Life
Everything else is running pretty smoothly right now. Some days of course are a little dejavu, but I can deal with that. If anyone would like to come and mop my floors or even better buy me a new Scooba to do it for me, I would love you forever! The laundry never seems to be done and I have still given in a little more that my house will just never be completely in place and clean for awhile, lately I even feel that I have been just moving stuff from one room to another room only to then have to move something from that room to another room, what the hell?
We are enjoying our Sundays watching the Vikings Football games as well, there's nothing like Football Season!

4 Years Old and Counting

To start off I want to comment on this picture - I think it is now my favorite picture of my little girl, what a beauty she is.

Can she really be 4 years old already? I look at Junior and then at Katelynn and think back to when Katelynn was his age, it seems ages ago and at the same time, it has gone by so fast and it's hard to believe that I have a four year old daughter.
I think that this will be a pretty good year for Katelynn. Our goal as parents is going to be keeping her busy and entertained (I guess this has not changed from the day she was born)! She is constantly on the move and definitely has her moments when she gets bored, but when we are playing and doing projects she is an absolute joy to be with.
She is truly enjoying her dance class she is taking. Last week we were a few minutes early for class and sat in the lobby area while the previous class was finishing and she stood and listened to the teacher and was even practicing in the lobby the steps that they were doing knowing that it would be her turn next and she wanted to do a good job. I really wish that we could have gotten her into a preschool class this year with the 4 year old's that will be attending kindergarten next year. She is going to be ready next year, but because of the cut off dates will have to wait an additional year to get into kindergarten. She currently knows all of alphabet letters and their sounds, is doing really well with rhyming and knows her numbers and has been counting everything! She needs to work on her writing skills a little more, but I figure if we work with her this year that will come. Katelynn got a new bike for her birthday and is determined to learn how to ride it and keep up with the neighborhood kids. We had a couple of great weather days and were able to go for a couple of rides and she's catching on quick, hopefully this weekend we will get some more practice time in!

So here is to another year of learning for myself and for Katelynn - year four here we come!

Nature Valley Granola Nut Clusters are a bite size blend of 100% natural ingredients that include select roasted nuts, whole grain oats and a touch of honey - a wholesome and delicious pick-me-up any time of the day. If you love nuts, you´ll enjoy this flavorful little snack featuring the perfect combination of sweet & salty flavors paired with a crunchy texture that you can see and taste. And with the first unique cluster-shaped granola packaged in a handy re-sealable pouch, it´s perfect for sharing on the trails or in your living room!

New Nature Valley Granola Nut Clusters come in four easy-to-crave flavors: Nut Lovers, Roasted Almond, Roasted Cashew and Honey Roasted Peanut.

I received a prize pack (shown above) and they will provide one additional prize pack to give away to one of my readers. Comment on what you would like about Natures Clusters and I will pick a winner!

We thought they were pretty tasty. Dan thought they would be good for a hunting trip or hiking. Probably more suitable for adults than younger children, but a great snack for us to have at work or at home.

This was provided from www.MyBlogSpark.com

First Night of Labor Day Weekend - Time for Fun

Golf Tourney 2009

My dad has come out the last 3 years and John the last 2 years for a golf tournament that Dan's wholesale shop puts on. We have such a good time when they come out to visit. They got here this year by plane, which I'm sure was so much more relaxing then driving for 2 days and then turning around and driving back to Minnesota. Friday they started off their morning with a "Mulligan" breakfast for the tournament and then had to go shopping for their "outfits". Due to them having matching attire last year for their team the tournament added a new category of "Best Dressed Team" this year and the guys were determined to win. They went and played a round of golf to practice for Saturday. Upon returning from golfing and the store we determined that the green socks they bought to match their shirts just didn't match and my dad decided to bleach them all to try and get to the right shade of green (his efforts paid off on Saturday). The rest of Friday was pretty low key,we grilled out for supper and did some visiting and off to bed. The guys left the next morning around 6:30am. After the tournament they headed over to Joe and Paula's for some victory drinks because they did win best dressed and everyone was commenting on the socks. They stopped at a biker bar on their way to our house and got home around 9:30pm. Our neighbors came over to visit as well that night. Upon their return I found out that they did very well in the raffle drawings too that day. My dad couldn't have been any higher on cloud 9 - he won a 22" flat screen samsung TV and he hung on to that TV most of the night. Dan also won the grand prize of a 3 day, 2 night stay at a Spa Resort in Estes Park - now that is something that we are both looking forward too (and I heard that Paula and Joe already offered to babysit for the weekend! Woohoo). It was a pretty fun night and last late into the wee hours of morning. I wanted to get pictures of all 4 of them together, but it didn't happen. Dan had tried to scamper off to bed at some point in the night before I had taken any pictures and the guys chased him down and made him put his shirt and socks back on because they did want pictures. This is why Dan is missing a sock, he couldn't find it when he went back to change into his clothes. Sunday we lazied around the house, went out for some Mexican food and the guys flew home Sunday night.

My dad and his prize - the TV!John and his prize for the day - a hat.

Dan and my dad and their prizes.

Junior - 6 months

Junior had his 6 month baby check-up on Aug. 10th. He was such a good boy and took his shots like a little trooper with no real side affects.
Here are his stats:
Height: 27 1/4 - 75%
Weight: 20.2 oz - 90%
Head: 45.3 - 85%

There is no double that he is a big boy. A lot of people ask how old he his and get this surprised look on there face when I tell them and the first comment is always "wow, he's a big boy", yes, that is how we like them! He is still such a joy to have in the family. He loves his sister probably the most and is always looking around for her (because she doesn't sit still for long) and always has giggles and smiles for her. Anytime that Dan walks in the room his face just lights up, he is definitely going to be a daddy's boy. He is now eating the #2 foods and some of the puffs that you can buy. Last week we discovered that he had cut through his first tooth and now today his second bottom front one cut through as well. He had no complaints about the teeth and loves the teething biscuits, but man are they messy, it's straight to the bathtub after chomping on one of them. He is loving the excersaucer and the jumperoo now as well. He now is going to bed by 7:30pm. We start bedtime at 7:15 with a nighttime diaper, pj's and 4 oz. and then he is content to be put in the crib and turns the side and gives the thumb some sucking and is snoozing away a few minutes later. What more could we ask for!
At Juniors six month appointment the doctor noticed that he still had a slight heart murmer and decided that for precautionary reasons we should have an ultrasound done to check it out. We went to the Greeley hospital this morning bright and early. When I made the appointment they told me that it was pretty much in and out, so I didn't even bring a diaper bag with me, I just figured we'd be in and done and I'd drop him off at daycare and head to work, this was not the case. We get there and the ultrasound tech tells me that he has to lay still in order to take the pictures and that I was supposed to bring a favorite "lovey" or toy with and a bottle and such to keep him still, well, that wasn't going to happen. Another tech/nurse came in and tried to keep his attention so they could take some pictures, but after awhile he had enough of her and me and Junior are laying on the gurney and he's tugging at the wires and the ultrasound tool. The tech was none to happy with us, but Junior started to fuss and it was his nap time so they left us in the room alone for a little while and he finally curled into me and fell asleep. The tech came back in and was able to complete the pictures and told me that I should probably take a rest too with him (hmm...did I look tired?) well, I did anyways, what else was I gonna do? So, now we await the results from the doctor on that.