Christmas Letter 2017

This past year has been another fun-filled year for our family. Here are some highlights for each of us:

Joseph:
Joseph is coming up on his five-year mark with Dow Chemical and now works as a process control engineer for a plant. His fantasy football team is doing very well this year and he hopes to win the league. He continues to serve as the Young Men's President in the Spanish congregation in town.

Casie:
Casie continues to teach for BYU-Idaho in the child development department. Aside from teaching, Casie stays home with Ashton and Tanner. Some hobbies include playing volleyball with the church league, sewing clothes and things for the kids, planning events for her calling as Young Woman's President, and trying new recipes.

Ashton:
Ashton turned four in September and continues to learn and grow quickly. Her current favorites include Disney princesses, dress-up, writing letters to people, and riding her two-wheeler. Her reading skills are picking up and she looks forward to being able to read books by herself. Ashton attends a local preschool and thoroughly enjoys playing with her friends there. She is our social butterfly and knows all the neighborhood dogs and kids by name. She aspires to be a space astronaut and pet trainer (preferably to train pets to go to outer space).

Tanner:
Tanner is approaching 2 next month and is all boy! This kid is constantly moving, climbing, running, etc. Nothing slows him down. He loves riding his tricycle outside and is about ready to move to a balance bike. His verbal skills are starting to pick up and he has about 20-30 words he uses intermittently. Over the last few weeks, he's worked hard to put a few words together. Often, it is, "River, out" or "Molly, NO!" He loves doing anything that annoys his big sister. Tanner also enjoys food, building towers, reading football books, playing at the park, and making his family laugh.

Baby #3:
We are welcoming our third child into our family in March. It's a little girl and Ashton is over the moon about that. We're getting ready (as much as we can) to be outnumbered as parents. It will be fun to get all of Ashton's baby clothes out and see them on another girl. We're praying she delays her arrival until her due date so Joseph can finish his chemical plant's turnaround (where he works 12 hour shifts, 6-7 days a week for about 4-6 weeks). We'll see how well she does at listening considering both her siblings arrived 2-3 weeks early.

October and November

Here's a photo recap of October and November for our family.

This kid falls asleep almost anywhere.

Lots of sweet potato fries to freeze!

We finished out Ashton's first soccer season. We'll see if she does it again.

Dinner during a Laurel/Priest mutual activity. These two kids loved eating the fancy meal together.

We visited College Station one weekend to meet up with Joe's brother and his family from Utah. We still miss them living in Texas but survive with yearly visits. Cousins played well, which is always nice! Can't wait until next time!

Four cousins together!

Tanner had his surgery at the end of October at a children's hospital in Houston. It went well aside from the fact that the surgery wasn't until noon. This meant no food from midnight on! The surgery lasted about 1.5 hours and went according to plan. Tanner woke up pretty groggy and irritable but once he could eat, he felt much better. He received a caudal block on top of general anesthesia, which made him walk pretty wobbly again. He loved the nurses and all the doctors. Birth defect was repaired and we're hoping no more surgeries for this kid. He has two good size scars but that's the only effect of the surgery.

Dressed up for the mutual Halloween Dance. I made all of the costumes this year (aside from Joseph's white shirt).

Trick or treating was a hit with the kids. They still have candy leftover since my rule is one piece a day.

With my sister so close, we've been enjoying spending the weekends with her. We met up at the Space Center and had a great time there.

Made fake snow since Ashton begs for snow. We spent 10 minutes playing with it and about 30 minutes cleaning it all up from Tanner throwing it.

Thanksgiving program at preschool.

Riding a pony at the Festival of Lights festival in town. It was the one ride they picked out.

Exhausted after the Festival of Lights parade later that night.

Turkey for Thanksgiving. Our deal with our neighbors is that if I make the turkey, they'll make everything else. I love that agreement!

Spent the day at the zoo with my sister too.

Was so excited to make the Christmas train gingerbread thing. I despise them as I end up doing most of the work.

We hit 25 weeks! Baby girl is doing well and Tanner now says Baby. We're just hoping Tanner doesn't sit on the baby.

Baby #3 Halfway Mark!

We're just over 20 weeks into this pregnancy. If this baby follows suit with the others, we'll meet her in about 17-18 weeks in late February or early March.

This pregnancy has been pretty easy so far. I had a little nausea in the first trimester but nothing compared to Tanner's pregnancy. That was my big hint that it was another girl. I'm tired a lot but it's hard to say what comes from being pregnant and what comes from running after Tanner.

Here's me at 20 weeks with Ashton, Tanner, and baby #3. I've gained just over five pounds so far so I'm on track to gain about the same as I did with the others. No maternity clothes yet so I am enjoying that while it lasts.

Ashton

Tanner

Baby #3

We had our ultrasound earlier this week and got to see the little one. She had the hiccups and was moving all over the place. I was a little nervous that this baby didn't have any legs or arms as I had a hard time feeling her move before this ultrasound. My fears were subsided when I saw her move. And now I feel her all the time. This time around, the tech was confident it was a girl (with Ashton, the tech was about 70% certain). Ashton was thrilled to find out that a baby sister is coming to our family. She wants to name her Melody or Emily. We haven't told her yet that those names are not on our list. Speaking of list of names, if you have any wonderful girl names, we'd love to hear them. We have no idea for this baby.

September

There's a reason I try to write about each month before it's get too far into the next month. I'm having a hard time remembering all that happened in September.

We were finally allowed back into our home on September 8th. September was filled with a lot of service. Joseph went out every day he had off of work to help muck out houses. I wanted to go but with risk of mold and nasty water, it doesn't bode well for pregnant women. Ashton got to come along a few times with me to serve in other capacities.

A little treat for working so hard.

We took another trip to the zoo since Tanner had another doctor appointment in Houston. We got a second opinion for a birth defect and the doctor recommended surgery. I was much happier with the second doctor we went to and feel at peace with surgery (coming up next week!). The kids always love a trip to the zoo and this time, we had some gift money from a wonderful aunt so the kids got to buy something at the gift store. Tanner was asleep by that point so Ashton helped pick his gift out. We also used the money to buy popsicles on such a warm day.

The toy she chose from the gift shop. Within an hour of getting home, the stick/leash was put away because Tanner kept hitting Ashton.

Ashton's birthday came and went. We had a party for her with some friends from church and the neighborhood. It was a castle/prince/princess themed party and she had a blast. I made a deal with her that if she was okay with not asking for presents from her friends, I would take her to paint pottery in Houston. She went for it and I was very happy. We did this last year too and I enjoy that rather than getting a bunch of toys that our home doesn't really need. Ashton got her new pedal bike with no training wheels.

The kids got sick one week. Tanner got bronchitis and Ashton ended up with strep. Ugh... our paycheck went straight to the doctor and the pharmacy that week. Good thing my kids like the doctor. And Tanner became a pro at the nebulizer.

Taking a selfie with the PA.

All smiles the next day!

Ashton started soccer this fall. The first Saturday of games was a double header, which meant about three hours of soccer. She barely made it and was bribed with ice cream. I had to play on the field with her for the end of the second game. Thankfully, it's gotten better since then. But she sure looks cute in her pink shoes and socks.

This was the first weekend my sister came to visit as well. She is now living in Texas as a traveling speech therapist so we look forward to seeing her a lot over the next few months before she moves on to another job in the US.

Fall semester began at BYU-Idaho in September so I am teaching again. This semester has been frustrating as there are a lot of issues with the online course. Aside from that, I am enjoying teaching child development still.

I finally finished Tanner's room too. He moved into his crib and does great in that.

Our Little Four Year Old

Ashton is now four years old! She was very excited about turning 4 and in the weeks prior to her special day, she would tell me all the things 4 year olds did and did not do. "Mom, 4 year olds don't climb up slides. Four year olds sit quietly at church", etc. We tried to take advantage as much as possible of her self-imposed rules about turning four.

She continues to be very social and willing to make friends wherever she goes. Since the flood/hurricane, our neighborhood is pretty empty and she's bummed her friends aren't outside more often. There aren't many social situations that she hesitates with.

Learning-wise, Ashton enjoys learning. We started working on sight words a few weeks ago and she loves spending time with me writing words and practicing reading. I have the goal to read the entire Book of Mormon just with her (and each subsequent child) before they turn eight. I look forward to seeing her reading skills pick up as we continue reading a few verses each day. She also likes to write letters to people and just needs me to spell the words for her. It's a bummer she misses the kindergarten cut off date by 12 days as I know she would love to go to school next year.

Ashton loves attending church and would love to go to every single meeting possible. Primary is her favorite and she was sad to not have it for a month due to our stake serving on Sundays during hurricane clean up. She's happy to be back in primary and hopefully she is learning something.

Stats from her 4 year old appointment
Weighs about 34 lbs. 50th percentile
Height: Just over 40 inches. 65th percentile
Her eyesight is good, which I was a little nervous about since Joseph has glasses/contacts.


Typical Day:
Wake up around 7:20 (that's when her clock lights up so she knows she can come out of her room)
Morning activities (either preschool, playgroup, grocery shopping, rec center, etc.)
Lunch around noon and show time
Nap from 1:30-4ish. She either naps or plays in her room quietly while Tanner naps. If I'm ahead on schoolwork and housework, I spend some time working on sight words with her.
Bedtime around 8/8:30. Dropping her nap most days helps her fall asleep really fast now.

Here's a quick review of Ashton over the past 4 years.

A week old or so

1 Year Old

Two Years Old (wearing the same shirt apparently)

Three Years Old

The newest four year old in our house