It's 2018

Well, ya crazy kids, it's 2018.  I seriously can't believe it myself, and I can't believe (or, well, I can, sort of) that it's been over a year since my last post. 

Let's see...what's going on...what's happened in the last year...hmm...

Kids first, I guess.  Laurel turned 1 on February 2nd, and she's the only one of our kids to be walking before their first birthday.  The others have been close, but she was taking actual steps and all that a few weeks before.  She'll be a 2 year old two weeks from tomorrow (eep!) and she's grown by leaps and bounds since last year, of course.  More hair. Sleeping in a crib that's not in our room. Talking. Eating just about anything that's put in front of her.  Playing with her siblings.

Then Kaitlyn...she turned four in August and she was SUPER excited to start Preschool/ELC at the boys' school.  Her class is right next door to Daniel's, which is kind of funny.  She's fully potty trained (even at night), and that's been the easiest transition all around.  She's super smart, remembers everything you tell her (even if you might not want her to) and she's learned to play video games with the boys now, too.

Jared is next.  Kindergarten was a bit rough, but 1st grade has been way better.  Not as much hiding, not listening, etc.  He's learning to read really well, too, with a huge explosion in reading over the past couple of months even.  He turned 6 and had a birthday party at Pump It Up, and this year he'll be seven.  Yikes!

Daniel turned 9 (he'll be 10 this year) and he's becoming a bit more independent and he's taking on some more responsibility.  He's really good at math, and reading is sort of coming along.  He shares a room with Laurel for the moment (even though that's going to change in the near future) and we've been letting him stay up a bit later on the weekends.  He learned to ride his bike w/o training wheels (parent bad for not having practice time with him much over the last year or two).  Swimming he's still doing really well with, and I'm sure both him and Jared will be competing with each other soon enough!

Well, that's it for the kids right now...and Laurel is crying for me, so I'll cut it off here and continue at a later time (hopefully!)