Family fun

 My little James is my constant companion. In every sense of the phrase. He is there as I sit at the computer with my work from 9-12 pm at night. He is by my side all day-- I wouldn't dare leave him alone with Ben. He doesn't need to be held as much as Ben did, but he does like to be where he can see me. In fact he is 2 1/2 months old now and his eyes follow me everywhere I go around the room. He smiles when prompted and I don't know how we did it but we have another baby with a dimple. His smile just makes me melt. He is starting to grab my arm and shirt. His coordination seems to be right on track.   He loves Ben, when he is not being attacked by Ben. He is my everything. I love him so much. I feel so lucky to be his mother. 

Speaking of luck, our "fighting" phase is over. Ben and I are friends again. In fact we're best buddies. If I have to go somewhere for a minute without Will I love to take Ben with me. My errands are so much more fun with my little buddy a part of them. Ben's favorite phrase right now is "mommy do it."  When Will and I are exiting the car-- "mommy do it" I have to take him out. When Ben wants to watch a video "mommy do it" I have to turn it on. When we are eating "mommy do it" I have to load his plate. Will wondered if I was getting tired of "doing everything" _ I told him not usually. Ben wants me- he seems to need me- I love that! We're entering our Christamas season and Ben is so cute about everything. We turned the Christmas lights on our tree tonight and Ben threw his arms in the air and gasped. When we were decorating last night, it was so cute I found some of the decorations in his bedroom on his shelf-- he had taken the liberty to decorate his own room. I'm really liking this toddler phase (minus the tantrums of course ;)

Will and I are finally breathing again. We are getting used to our work schedule and to life with two kids. For now our finances are stable and we like our ward. We're still very far from where we want to be -- Aka -- Will wants  a real career again and I want a mini van. -- You know one that fits more than two kids-- I am really enjoying the two we have and can't wait for more!

We'll I better sign off. I hope you're all well and know that we are well….

Love,

Summer

James' Blessing

SO many things have happened that I am sure I will forget to mention even half of them in the past month. BUt what is worse is-- Ben says and does cute things daily. And unless I blog everyday or follow the little tike around with a recorder I'm going to miss talking about 98 percent of it. For example we told him it was time for prayer tonight and he proceeded to sit down and conduct his very own prayer without any prompting. He blessed me and Will and James. He is so cute. On top of the cute has also come a whole lot of crazy. He unfortunately has really had a hard time adjusting to our moving and James' birth and a new ward all at the same time. He has been skipping most of his weekly naps and has only fallen asleep in his own bed a couple times since moving to Centerville almost a month ago. Tired and confused the poor child has taken me to the end of my rope more than a few times in the past few months. Honestly I've felt like a bad mom- like "why is he doing this? am I not giving him enough attention?"  I think the worst is over though. He seems to be crying only five minutes at his bedroom door instead of 1 hr before he falls asleep there in front of the door. Speaking of doors I better be knocking on a wood one right now ;)

Today was James' baby blessing. It went off without a hitch!  Which is great because Ben's blessing was traumatic enough to count for four baby blessings. (Ben cried all through the blessing, I made my sister cry that day, and ran around like a crazy lady trying to make everyone in the family happy O and Ben got a cold from the whole event).  Today I decided to take it easy and guess what...people were still happy without me having to talk to them… I assigned out everything for the luncheon but the BBQ pork. We had the lunch at my brothers place which we set up the day before and the best part was James was awake and quiet through the entire blessing! This little man is becoming a very needed calm stability for me in a world that seems just out of control right now. Part of that could be that he was in my arms for 72 hours straight two weeks ago because he caught RSV and I was not about to miss out on any symptom going south so he and I stayed together and didn't leave the house for three days. His fever finally let out after the third day- I was so happy to see him smile and wiggle lots again! As a side note-- James has made Ben a little jealous at times and one of those particularly crazy toddler days where Ben refused to nap- he adorned James face with five separate scratches-- I was furious about it until two hours later when Ben just fell asleep in my arms exhausted…then I felt bad the poor kid was trying to tell me he was tired the whole time!

Now to the details of our lives. Will got a job at Fed Ex. He works nights 1-6 am in the morning… I am also holding down a stay at home writing job. So I work nights too. 9-12pm. I average about 3-5 hours of sleep -- I'm hoping now that James is older and Ben is calming down I can work during the day more to give myself more sleep at night. I have to admit to being very discouraged about Will's career right now-- I'm sure he is too. He doesn't seem to be getting interviews even though he has done a lot of volunteering, shadowing, and applications. The residency angle seems sometimes hopeless and I just don't really know where to go from here or how to encourage Will-- I feel like my advice has not necessarily been any better or more helpful than other's advice… We sold my condo and it's left a little hole in my heart-- we couldn't afford it but it had been my home for the past six years. We now live in a old apartment in Centerville- it's a little ghetto but the right size and place for us for now. Well I better get going. I've got to read my scriptures so I can get down to sleep before too late!  Sunday is my only day off ;)

Ben went tricker treating with Braden and Rachel (ya gotta love her face :)

James was Tigger for Halloween

We spent the weekend at Amy's family cabin-- it was fun!