James got a job!!!

We are so excited to announce that James is employed and even better it is in the field he graduated in! As most of you know James spent last semester student teaching and graduated with his bachelors in Music Education last month. Well today was his first day as a contracted teacher! He's working as an Assistant Choir Director at a local middle school. We are so excited!!! The best part is that the school he is working at doesn't change semesters until the 20th of January so right now all he is doing is helping the choir director. So if we can get this baby out before the 20th James won't even need to get a substitute because he doesn't have any real responsibilities but yet they are paying him full salary with 5 days of paid time off! Did I mention we're extatic to have him employed?!

Waiting...

Now that the holidays are over we are just waiting for little Samuel to join us. I'm not due until the 27th but I'm hoping to have him on the 14th if I can talk him into it. If I get desperate enough I'm gonna track down some good 'ol caster oil. I had a doctor's appointment on Tuesday and the doctor did an ultrasound which predicted him to currently weigh 6 lbs. 13 oz. which means if he gains the half a pound a week that he is supposed to and he goes to his due date he'll weigh over 8 lbs. 13 oz! Did I mention I'm kicking him out early?!

Christmas Morning!

We didn't actually start Christmas morning until around 10:00 AM because both of the girls were sick. Eliza had a cold and Charity was puking on Christmas Eve so they both slept in. But once they realized that they got to open presents they were pretty happy.

We spent over an hour opening presents because once the girls got one opened all they wanted to do was play with it. We had to force them to put each gift down and open another. I expect next year they'll understand it better and burn through their presents like normal children.



This is the kitchen set we got the girls for Christmas. We bought it from a friend for $30 and the girls just love it.

Christmas Decorations

I know Christmas was last week but for those who were curious this is how are house is decorated this year.

James got me this vase for Christmas and the girls bought me the flowers.

Christmas Party!

On Friday, we went to a ward Christmas Party that was really fun. We had dinner and James sang in the program and the girls got to see Santa! I was quite surprised that neither of the girls were afraid of Santa so we were able to get some pretty good pictures.

We failed :(

So the potty training didn't last. Maybe I just suck because that was like our third attempt and it still crashed and burned within a few days. Maybe we'll try again over Christmas break when daddy will be here to help. Oh and for those of you that don't know James is now done Student Teaching and is working as a substitute teacher for the rest of this and next semester. We are so excited to finally have an income again.

Potty Training?

We were at Target today and Charity saw this "Diego" potty and was asking to pee in the "Diego" potty so James and I looked at each other like "Oh my gosh! We can totally use this to our advantage." So we asked her if she wanted "Diego" panties and of course she gave a resounding yes. So we went and found "Diego" panties (okay so they're actually boy panties but who cares) and explained to her that she would have to pee in her potty in order to wear them. After that she wouldn't let the panties out of her sight and as soon as we got home she started stripping down to put them on but I told her she had to potty first so she sat down and tried but nothing happened and by that time we had the tub filled for bath time so she took a bath. The second she got out she started asking for her "Diego" panties so we told her to try to potty first and oh my gosh she peed in her potty!!! She has never peed in the potty before so we were a little excited and we all sang and danced the "We Did It!" dance from "Dora the Explorer"! Needless-to-say I am really hoping this is evidence of what is to come and not just a flook.