The Little Family: January 2008

Update on us

Hey all, time for another family update since its been a while since the last one. Clayton has had 2 interviews for his promotion to a lead position and will have one more coming up next week. This last one is done only if they are going to offer somone the position, so we know he's got it, he's just got to decide if he's going to take it. He'll basically become in charge of the people he currently works with, but they all want him to have the lead position, so it should be a good thing. He'll get a large pay raise as well, which will be nice for us. But, it means a lot more responsibility for him, so he's a little nervous about whether he'll like it or wish he was still organizing. Either way, he's excited.

Summer is still doing great and acting like a bigger girl than she is. She likes to grump at her brother pretty often, but its sweet when her nurturing side kicks in and she tries to mother him. She is still doing awesome in school and forging lots of friendships within her class. She still sees her friend, Mackenzie from the neighborhood a few times a week as well. Its nice to see her relish kid play time-- so much more fun for her than us boring adults! Her creative side still blazes brightly! She is always in the midst of some kind of art or craft project. Her imagination is awesome as she delves into being teacher at "school", getting children in trouble and telling them all what they are doing next-- all in her pretend school world at home. She has learned the value of her weekend and loves the idea of sleeping in, but gets so excited that she rarely does it. After waking, she usually goes straight into playing and doesn't stop until bedtime. She still loves books and is starting to read some words and always recognizes her name as well as some others. She is writing as well and has an arsenal of words at her fingertips when she wants to practice, which is fairly often. Not to mention asking for help to learn how to spell all kinds of new words.

River is growing quickly and has most recently started repeating almost everything we say. His current most favorite word to say is, "chick'n." He is now convinced that everything that looks close to a chicken actually is one. Ducks have become, "duck'n" and there is noe telling him otherwise. He is often heard saying, "hi" as he walks around the house and plays. He can also say, "all done", "there you go", "night,night", "bye, bye", "poppa" (for Pop or Poppa D-- he adores them both) and a myriad of other things that I don't understand, but he is sure is something. You can catch his cutie voice on the video below, including his favorite, "chick'n."

I'm still hanging out at home with the kids and the days fly by quickly. Clayton got me a full day at a spa with 7 hours of treatments and an overnight at an organic bed and breakfast for christmas and I am really looking forward to it. He also planned a vacation for just the 2 of us in the Bahamas in the first 2 weeks of March. My awesome parents are going to come and take care of our children for us while we're gone. So, our upcoming calendar will be busy, but with alot of really excellent stuff. Clayt and I figure this may be our only time to get away just the 2 of us until the kids are both off to college, so we're going to try and enjoy every moment! Hope you all are happy and well!