What has been going on?

Well there has been a lot going on around our household.    I have taken on a new role at the MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) community group and am loving it.  At first I was a little surprised that God put this opportunity in my lap and now I am thankful that He did.  It is growing me in SO many ways.  The position has already taught me that God has given us all different talents for a purpose . . . His purpose.  Lastly, I am so thankful for the ladies that I serve with on leadership.  They are amazing women.  Can you tell that I am excited about this???  I could go on and on, but I won't.  :) 

This year I am also attempting to read the Bible in one year.  I am using the website called You Version and it keeps track with what I have read so far.   I am doing fairly well with it.  At first I thought that reading it all in one year would be too fast of a read, but I am glad to get such an overview and I make notes of what I want to read/study again in 2012.  I am hoping that this will set a regular habit of reading the bible each and every day.  So far it has been eye opening.  I mean I have heard the stories in the bible since I was a child and sometime read them quickly since "I already know them", but whoa there are some details I didn't know.  Also, I am working on reading more books.  I follow a blog called Life as Mom and she has sort of a virtual book club called Booking It in 2011.  Here is the list of books in the plan . . .

• The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin
• Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
• Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day: The Discovery That Revolutionizes Home Baking by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois
• Finding Your Purpose as a Mom: How to Build Your Home on Holy Ground by Donna Otto
• The Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan
• Dancing with My Father: How God Leads Us into a Life of Grace and Joy by Sally Clarkson
• The Help by Kathryn Stockett
• Organized Simplicity: The Clutter-Free Approach to Intentional Living by Tsh Oxenreider
• Not Your Mother’s Casseroles by Faith Durand
• The Reluctant Entertainer by Sandy Coughlin
• The Monster in the Hollows by Andrew Peterson, the third in The Wingfeather Saga

So far I have read The Happiness Project which was a fun and light read.  I don't agree with everything in the book, but I thought it was neat to read how a women tried to make herself happier.  I am now reading The Help as I got it from the library and it was in high demand, so I must read it fast.  If you have any of these books, let me know as I would like to borrow them. 

Other things on my mind has been trying to wean myself off Facebook.  I am not on it that much, but still it has been too much for me.  I find that Facebook is so awesome in how it connects you with EVERYONE, but really should I know this much about people I haven't seen/talked to in more than a decade.  I struggle with it really and yet this post will be automatically fed into FB.  :P

Now for the rest of the family --

Jeremy
He has entered his second semester at school teaching 9th and 10th graders.  Right now he is in the midst of grading papers (minimum of six pages) he assigned . . . he has learned to never assign something that long because you got to read each one and make meaningful comments.  What a rookie!  :)  He has also been helping out with a college ministry at Rice University that is getting started up.  He is one busy man!

Jasmine being silly in the tub

She is so awesome! There are so many things I want to mention, but where do I begin?  She loves to pretend.  She plays with her trains and imagines so much (she gets this from her dad).  During the Christmas season, we stumbled onto the all female group called Celtic Woman.  She LOVES them as any three year old should.  I mean they look like princesses.  Her favorite Christmas song by Celtic Woman is Carol the Bells which is also one of my favorites.  She recently has wanted to be our helper.  Now when Jeremy cooks, she throws on her apron and helps him.  I think he just dialogs mostly about what he is doing and she watches.  She loves it!  She also helps me with putting up her laundry and matching the millions of socks.  Her daytime potty training is done for the most part.  She goes to the potty so independently now too which is AWESOME.  She still sleeps too deeply for nap and night training, but in time that too will come.  She has also been able to sound out some three letter words when she is in the mood too.  One day soon Jeremy and I won't be able to spell stuff to keep it secret from her.  She is learning to write here and there.  Grandma has given her lessons on "J" and "S" and she is liking the fun of it.  She is also coloring more on a page.  She used to only color one line on the page and be done with it.  On the 20th, we were told she had pink eye at the doctors office.  We caught it fairly early, so it didn't get too bad.  The sad thing was that the pink eye gave her some anxiety and caused her to wake up several times in the night and cry.  We felt so bad for her, but thankfully that only happened a few days.  I think it was because I told her not to touch her brother or anyone else and to not touch her own eyes.  The stuff is super contagious, but we all survived just fine and she is pink free!  Today we went to the park and Jasmine climbed up this tall rock wall with only Jeremy spotting her.  Where did that come from?  She used to be so shy and timid at the park.  Oh and her new thing is to tell you that she wants to whisper a secret in your ear and she leans over and says "I love you" or "We should go on a picnic at the playground".  She is so sweet and cute.   I just love my baby bird.

I forgot to blog that at her doctor's appointment she weighed 32 lbs (64th percentile) and was 3' 2" tall (61st percentile).  Now about the appointment.  It went well as the doctor examined her. It went decent as they gave her a shot. It went horrible when she was getting her blood taken. Blood was going everywhere, but the vial. Seth was in the stroller screaming his eyes out because his big sis was screaming.  Thankfully it all ended and we ate dessert when we got home.  We all needed it.

Seth in the "tunnel" behind the couch

Here is the rundown since I last blogged about him
Nov 29, 2010 - said "ball" and pulled up on the couch
Dec 5, 2010 - stood up in his crib
Dec 8, 2010 - weaned and onto whole milk with a splash of vanilla soy milk to ease the transition
Dec 12, 2010 -  started cruising like crazy and taking a few steps between objects
Dec 15, 2010 - top right tooth broke through (3rd one to come in)
Dec 26, 2010 - first time he let go of my hand to walk a bit himself
Dec 29, 2010 - crawled for the first time because he only scooted on his bottom before
Jan 25, 2011 - he starting walking all over the place!!!

He loves to walk now.  He is going from room to room.  It is just crazy how it happened.  He is still incredibly cute and has me wrapped around his finger.  He loves to play with his sister.  Whatever she is doing, he totally wants to do too (this is both good and bad).  When Jeremy walks in the door, he goes nuts.  Now that he walks it is even cuter.  He loves to eat food, but with three teeth I still throw some things in my magic bullet to blend a bit.  He drinks a bottle and eats three times a day (yes, I need to throw away the bottles and buy some manly sippy cups).  He still takes two naps, but they are not long ones usually.  He is really ready to go to bed at 7 p.m. and wakes up sometime before 7 a.m. to talk to himself for a bit before we come and get him.  He says some words like all done, thank you, cat, etc.  His little voice is adorable especially when he starts rambling on and on about who knows what.  I just love our little man. 

Well it is getting late.  I think I have said all that I wanted to say for now.  I hope you have a wonderful night!