Whirlwind.

One of my goals this year is to keep up on the blogging better than I had been for the latter part of 2011. I could say I didn't blog for a while because I was too busy, which is somewhat true. I could say I didn't blog for a while cause I didn't have anything really exciting to blog about. Which is also somewhat true. I could also say I just kind of lost the motivation to blog which is, again, true. But when I brought my family to Reno for Thanksgiving and was asked about this blog, I was reminded that there are some people that read and like to know what has been going on in our lives. I was also reminded that this is basically our family scrapbook (since I suck at keeping up on scrapbooking too) and I don't want Kiley to think when she is old enough to read and enjoy this, that now that she isn't an infant, when everything was a first, she isn't cool anymore. The fact is, she says or does something new and cool everyday that I couldn't keep up with blogging about it if I tried. But I will try to catch you all up anyway.

We are now repeating. Everything. And she remembers a lot of the words she heard once.
She loves to clean (score!) and will help me put away laundry, pull rags out of the drawer and go around scrubbing the tops that she can reach and the floors (and sometimes Shadow and us).
She knows what is Daddy's and Mommy's and Shadow's and makes sure we know too.
She thinks my shiny new iPad is her personal Elmo watching machine (thanks to the pbs kids app I loaded onto it) and we are constantly rotating between what book she wants us to read now and the Elmo machine.
Baths are cool once again, ever since we incorporated "bubows" (bubbles).
I have "lost" her a few times. In the house. I leave a room for a minute and she's gone, only to come popping out of the sink cabinet seconds later "Hello!" And now she can reach and knows how to open and close doors, including the main doors to the garage and outside. Yikes!
She eats ALOT! Her teachers all laugh about how she can out eat anyone in the class, including them.
If there is music on, there will be dancing, including but not limited to moon-walking, head shaking, spinning in circles, and "gettin low".
Oh yeah and now she hits. Just me and the dog. Ugh... let the power struggle begin.

On top of chasing around my adorable toddler, we have been hit by the stress bomb lately.
The day before Christmas we had Roto Rooter come out to do some routine maintanence on our septic tank. $350 later, we have to dig a bigger hole to allow them to get to our baffle so they can see why our drainfield isn't working (by the way I don't know what any of these terms mean still). Another $200 later still no answer to the drainfield question but we could pay another $600 ish dollars for them to tear up more of our yard and do some more research, or we could tear up even more of our back yard AND front yard and tap into the city sewer for something to the tune of $3500. Oh and by the way, "don't do laundry or do much showering until you have it fixed either way. Merry Christmas!" It was a stinky holiday to say the least. We decided to bite the bullet and tap into the city sewer as opposed to paying $600 AND having to tap into the city sewer. So now we are back to being clean and flushing, but we have a yard full of dirt and basically need to replace the whole lawn, including the destroyed sprinkler system. YAY!!!!!!
But wait there's more....
This also comes at a time when I couldn't be more stressed out. Last month Chad and I decided that I should go back to school to pursue my passion and get a Masters degree in Elementary Education. I am extremely excited about this but it will be a long road which has already been a tough one. In order to start school I am supposed to take 3 tests. All of which had been scheduled for Jan. So on top of the holidays, and the septic situation, I had to try to focus on studying. The first test was last Saturday. (BTW having to wake up at 4 to drive 2 hours to the testing facillity, for a 5 hour test, and then drive 2 hours home-with a pit stop at work because, you know, on top of everything I have a job too....NOT FUN!) I have another test (the most difficult one) on the 21st, and the third the week after that.
This is not going to be easy but will be so worth it in a couple years. Lets just hope there are no more (literal) s*** storms ahead.
On a happy note here are some of our holiday pics from the talented Kena Helen Photography.