Blog Anniversary & Update

April 29 was our 1 year blog anniversary. I know it's been pretty quiet around here lately, but we've been VERY busy.

I have a couple of posts in the works, I'm trying to figure out how to add a video of Miles using YouTube.com, so bear with me. :)

Ok...what's been going on...Mackenzie was supposed to have tubes put in her ears back in early April. She woke up that morning with a fever. We went down to the hospital anyway, to have the doctor tell us her tonsils were infected and we should reschedule. So, we took her home with antibiotics, to get better. In the meantime, Marcus also went to the ENT to determine where the tube was in his right ear. He'd had tubes put in back in 2003. The doctor found it behind his eardrum. So, we scheduled surgery for him too. We took him in on May 9, had the old tube removed and a patch put on his eardrum. He recovered from that quite quickly only to get a cold right after, which he STILL has!!! We rescheduled Mackenzie for this past Wednesday, May 16. She did great!! Not even an upset stomach. We were home by 9:30am, and she was off playing like her normal self by 11am.

Miles had his first TaeKwonDo test in April. He was quite nervous, but successfully advanced from a white belt to orange. He's really having a great time, and I've already seen a nice improvement in his focus and concentration. He has 4 more weeks, then he'll test again for his yellow belt. He's almost finished with 2nd grade, their last day is May 24. He is really looking forward to being off for awhile. He recently discovered the magnifying-glass-burns-things trick, so I imagine he'll be spending a lot of time outside, but that's not unusual. His summer plans, so far, are to continue with TKD and also take swimming lessons from June 11-22.

Marcus can write his name!!!! We are SO proud of accomplishments this year, in Kindergarten. He loves school and usually tries so hard to learn new things. He knows all the letters of the alphabet and the sounds they make. He even knows that if there is an 'e' at then end of a word that the vowel before it makes the long sound. ie...mate He knows it's not 'mat' because of the silent 'e' at the end. He's learning to spell and sound out words, so he's reading!!! We have some social issues to work on, he's VERY friendly and is very fond of the junior high girls, as they are of him. lol We're still not sure how next year will go, he'll start 1st grade with the rest of his class, but at some times during the day he may go over to the public school to get some extra help with subjects that are difficult for him. That will be decided after school actually starts.

Mackenzie is great. She's so smart!! I swear she's 3 going on 13. I really wish she could start preschool this fall, but the cutoff in Iowa is September 15. She has to be 4, which she won't be until October 28. The plan for now is to try some homeschooling with her and try to find some social outlets, she loves to have friends. She has a great time playing with our new neighbors. Their backyard backs up to ours. They have 3 little girls, the oldest is 6 months older than Mackenzie. Otherwise she helps me around the house. She LOVES to help!! She helps fold and put away laundry, helps water the flowers outside, helps get the mail, etc. She plays with Nana and gets to go with her on special trips to the cafe to have a cookie and chocolate milk. She is definitely a social butterfly.

We are loving our new house. We've neglected the inside a bit, because we spend so much time outside. We planted a garden. We're growing corn, Green beans, tomatoes, hot peppers, and zucchini. We had to replant our great beans yesterday, because the first set of seeds were attacked by soil mealy worms, so they never sprouted. We were told that is because it was too cold and too wet. So, hopefully now that it's warmer they'll do better. Plus, I won't water them as much. lol Our corn is coming up great though!!!!

I'm sure I'm missing something, but that's what I get for not updating more often. I promise to get more pictures up soon too, hopefully this weekend.