It's been so fun being at my parents house I haven't found much time to blog, but I've gotten some heckling (mostly my dad and Grandpa) so I'm going to try to do better. We've been without a laundry machine for the past week, which really stinks. That is one thing I NEVER take for granted. Every day I feel grateful for a washing machine (I think it's because I've lived without one for so long), but Casey being the sweetheart that he is has been taking on the responsibility of taking the wash to the Laundromat.
In other news Miles is really starting to talk. Well, I guess I should clarify, he likes to repeats words, but there is a little list of words he'll say on his own. Some of his most frequently used words are "Juice", "Nana" (meaning banana, much to the dismay of Nana - my mom), "Hot", "Shoes", "Belly", "Shoot", "Ball", and "Bath". He's learned to climb out of his crib (grrr), I'm not sure why my boys insist on being so adventurous at such a young age, but I'm just telling myself it's only a phase. He'll also start Nursery this week which should make church much more enjoyable (YIPPIE).
Bennett is enjoying the peace and quiet of the days when the kids are at school. He's quite the square eyes and wants to watch TV every chance he gets. I think we got into quite a bad habit because for the past 3 weeks we've been passing sicknesses back and forth, and since we can't leave the house with sick kids we've been relying on the TV a bit too much. Bennett really wishes he could go to school like Porter and Maya, but I'm just not ready to give him up yet. He's still at that age where he really loves his Momma and I love that he will cuddle with me throughout the day.
Maya is loving school and although she seems to be a bit behind in math she does well with reading and spelling. She is such a pleasant kid and like Bennett would be happy to sit in front of the TV all day. I'm really grateful to have Maya in our family. She is so easy to get along with. She is still dying to get a pet, and sometimes we have to put up with tears because she doesn't have one. They had the 100th day of school on Friday and in her 100th day of school book she wrote "I wish I had 100 pets". I keep thinking I should just get her a hamster and be done with it, but I remember when we were kids my Grandpa got us two hamsters which turned into more hamsters! Then the mom hamster went crazy and ate the babies and starved the dad to death. It wasn't the cute little happy hamster family you imagine. I'm just not sure I'm willing to gamble on my ability to pick a non-pregnant hamster.
Porter is also loving school (he's been kicking butt on his spelling tests) although he almost always puts up a fight about waking up. Recently we've discovered he'll wake up pretty willingly for one of Nana's egg sandwiches. That boy loves his Nana. She took him to the church for the scout pinewood derby race the other night and he was absolutely in heaven. He's getting really excited for his eighth birthday. We've been talking about baptism in Family Home Evening and trying to prepare him for that, but I think after the Pinewood Derby he's more excited for Scouts. We are really excited that Casey's parents will be able to come out for the baptism! It'll be so fun to see Grammy and Poppy again. Porter and Maya were putting together a puzzle of the United States, and I was showing them all the places Casey has sent portfolio's to (Washington D.C., Mass., Ohio, Indiana, Texas, Utah, and Washington). I asked them which place they would like to live the most. Maya picked Utah "So we can see Benji" and Porter picked Indiana, Ohio, or Pennsylvania "Because Utah is too far from Nana".
