Joining In

Everyone seems to have a blog today. Just this past week I received an invitation to visit a blog our ward started. I decided maybe it was time to join in. I hope to use this blog to keep in contact with friends and family. And share the fun moments in life. Hopefully I can keep up with it and it will be a useful, fun endeavor.

So to start let me give you all a run down of our family set up right now. After some unforseen changes in Unilever, Wayne just started a new job in August with ConAgra Foods. He is an Autonomous Maintainance Manager--or something. He doesn't really have a strict title. He basically travels around to plants in the midwest teaching, training, and supporting an efficiency program like the one used by Unilever. Wayne is based in Omaha, Nebraska--home of ConAgra's world wide headquarters--so he is there and the boys and I are currently still in Corona with the house.

Parker is now 5 years old. He started Kindergarten in September. He loves it and is very proud of himself for learning 10 reading sight words and being able to sound out words like dog, cat, sit, etc. He is our intellectual. He enjoys learning and picks up on things very well. He can be shy and timid at times, but once he gets warmed up he loves to play. He has made many friends at school and has therefore given me the opportunity to meet new people (moms of those friends). He is very excited about the move back to the midwest.

Aiden is our 3 year old. He started preschool the same day Parker started school. He is our Mister Personality. He is much more our athletic one. He loves to run, jump, wrestle, all the fun boy stuff. Aiden is also very open, warm and loving to anyone and everyone from the first Hello. He's usually very quick to smile and laugh. But when he chooses to be stubborn, that boy is stubborn. You have to use very different techniques to get Aiden to do as you ask.

Aiden is also my big kid. He loves to eat and though he's not fat by any means, he seems to be catching up to his big brother and I am often asked if I have twins.

But despite differences Parker and Aiden are the best of friends. They share a room and refuse to have it any other way. If one gets sent to their room for something, it's usually not long before the other wants to join.

Then there's our baby, Brenner. He just turned a year old last Sunday. (Can you see him holding up the number 1?) He took his first voluntary step the Friday before his birthday. He'll take multiple steps at a time, but doesn't really try to walk yet. He has been a very easy baby from the beginning and continues to be so. He's laid back and mellow. He loves to smile, be talked to and tickled. (Though my mom says it's cruel to tickle him because he laughs so hard.) And Brenner loves to cuddle. He is the snuggliest baby I have had.

Recently he has learned to climb. I find him climbing on anything and everything he can. Just the other day I caught him climbing onto the table.

He also just had his first butchering (haircut) by his mother. I'm stubborn enough to think it ridiculous to pay $12 for a child's haircut. 'Course then I--and my poor children--have to live with what my unskilled hands manage.

As for Marissa, me, I am anxiously awaiting the sell of this house and the find of the next. We have been a seperated family for about 2 months now and I'm ready to be together again. Wayne and I played on an adult softball league this past summer and I have continued to play a little during this fall season. It's very fun. I have also started doing family indexing and find it very fulfilling. Mostly I'm a mom of three boys that keep me on my toes and on my knees.

Since this is my first time messing with the blog, the pictures aren't exactly where I want them, but I'll get it eventually. So tell me what you think of our blog.