We'll have to see about uploading pics though it seems to have worked. We don't own a good camera...I've just been using the fun saver pacs. Oh well.
Here is a picture of the boys and their cousin, Hannah (Jerry & Holly's little girl), at Christmas time.
Let's see,
Well...
We live in Rexburg again. Moved back in 2005 and have moved 4-5 times in a 2 year time period. We're currently in Hyde Park apartments (the temple is being built at the top and Madison Middle School is at the bottom). They are nice and have many ammenities...I'm very grateful for central air conditioning, a dishwasher, and washer/dryer in the apartment.
It's wonderful to have family around as well. My parents (the Hansen's) live here in Rexburg and Bryce's sister, Megan, is here at school as well. My in-laws live in Rupert and Boise and so they're not too far away either.
Bryce is currently attending BYU-Idaho. He's majoring in Automotive Technology Management. Many of you are probably saying the same thing I did...
"Hunh?!...ohhhh....so you're a mechanic, I mean, you work on cars, right?."
...it's true. He LOVES to work on cars. But he doesn't just want to be a mechanic and he doesn't want to own his own business (WHEWWW!! what a relief for me). That's where the management part comes in. He'll graduate in December 2008 at the latest...I'm hoping sooner. I guess we'll see. The man is superman! He's working 2 jobs and going to school full-time this summer. One of the jobs is actually his automotive Internship. He's been working as a general mechanic for Lister Automotive.
He's also an Intern at Wal-mart (He's been with the company for 4 years now!) but that internship doesn't count for the Business internship he needs...don't ask me why because it doesn't make much sense to me, but whatever.
Kaleb Maxwell Whitlock is now 2 years and 4 months old. We've had quite the summer with him. He was diagnosed with Sensory Processing Disorder (aka: SID, or Sensory Integration Dysfunction: it's on the autism spectrum but it's highly functioning and highly social) back in April. We've had him in Speech & Language Therapy and Occupational Therapy for a couple of months now. This week we're adding Developmental Therapy, Physical Therapy, and Social Rehabilitation.
He also recenly had his adnoids and tonsils taken out and tubes put in his ears and the blood test for allergies.
He is the happiest and cutest kid (of course I'm biased as a mother, but truly). His personality has come through so much since the surgery and the RAGES (3-4 hours of non-stop screaming and crying and mild self-violence) have all but stopped. We've been working on sign language with him and that's helped a lot and also he's started using 3 word phrases since the surgery. So he seems to be taking off and I'm sure his progress will continue to be really quick.
I don't think I've ever seen a kid so excited to watch TV. Disney Playhouse in the mornings is AMAZING. He sings and pats and knows all the songs with the Little Einsteins, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Higgleytown Heroes, and Handy Many. In fact, when Mickey Mouse comes on and says "Do you wanna come inside the clubhouse with me" and then he pauses...Kaleb will say "Surrre. Alright! Let's go!"
He LOVES going to the Park and swinging and playing on the slide. He loves to run, jump on mom's bed and the couch, go swimming at the Splash park and play in the bathtub, and he LOVVVVES to wrestle with Josh (Josh likes to, too, until he gets rolled on and squashed).
He loves to eat raisins, LIME yogurt, chicken nuggets and french fries, pepperoni pizza, and he just thinks that Reeses Pieces and ice cream and popcicles are the coolest thing. He will even point and say "Wow! Cooool! Yummm!". He wakes up every morning now saying "Hi guys!" He's really good at giving 'high 5s' and 'rock'. He's still in the 115% for his heighth....he's been wearing clothes for a 4 year old for about 3 months now. So far, it's been a VERY BUSY summer with a VERY BUSY 2 year-old!!
Joshua Bryce Whitlock, is now 10 months old.
He is SOOOOOOO smiley! He has these HUGE, WIDE grins and these big, bright blue eyes....you just melt....and what's more is he's a HUGGER!! We have so much fun cuddling! He's cutting his first tooth on the bottom front this week so he's been a grouchy boy. OUCH!Josh LOVVVVES TO EAT!!!! He started eating early on. Currently he loves preztels, potato chips, DIRT, POOH, rocks, sticks, pine cones, spiders, worms, cheese, soft tortillas, yogurts, apple-cinnamon cheerios, and pizza. He enjoys swinging, diving on to Kaleb in surprise attacks and "sqwuaking" at Kaleb, drinking out of a "big boy" cup, playing chase and peekaboo, helping mom unload the dishwasher ...
...(he even licks off the food from the dirty dishes if I'm not watching), playing on the slide and is currently learning how to walk. He can push the musical walker around everywhere really fast and he walks along every surface standing up now. He's even standing on his own in the middle of the room when he doesn't notice, but if he notices then he buckles and crawls. My only thought..."Ohhhh brother! He's so close. I'm in trouble!"
He's as active and as energetic as his 2 year old brother. He gets so frustrated that he can't do everything that Kaleb can.Josh also just finished Occupational therapy about one month and a half ago. He was born with severe torticullis (bending of the spine and neck and muscles). He's pretty straight now. Every once in a while his eye will start to droop and then I do the stretching exercises (which he hates) and things straighten up again. This will happen EVERY time he hits a growth spurt until he's much older.
ME, Beckah,...well....my life is pretty much The BOYZ (Bryce, Kaleb, and Josh). I enjoy my Pampered Chef home business immensely and have made quite a bit of money with it to help with finances. But....sadly, with Kaleb in so many appointments I'm cutting WAYYYY back for a while. I'm okay with that because I love my sons more than the money or fun time and I love being needed. I'm not sure what we'll do financially, but I felt that this was definitely an inspired decision and have felt at peace with it the past week or so. I did just hit my $15,000 in career sales which gives me a raise and I am going to the Pampered Chef's National Conference located in Chicago, Illinois for a week in July. The time will be fun I'm sure but i'm already ancey to get back to my family and I haven't even left yet....in fact, it's still two + weeks away! I'm a dork, I know. I also clean house for a friend every Wednesday AND I am one of three cleaning crew supervisors at the Colonial House Apartments (female student housing) in town. At least I'm good at something.
Well...that is our long update but there you are...what we've been doing since January. Now let's see if I can figure out how to upload some pics...if not, maybe next time.
