Bring on Summer! (Katy Turns 3)

Of course in Arizona, typical summer temperatures start in April and really start heating up in June. But June was still a good month. I finally started feeling like a human being again much of the time, and it was nice to do more normal family things.

We got good news early in June. Since April I had been stressing about where our kids were going to go to school (since we found out Reilly's charter school was closing that campus - the next closest campus was in Gilbert, and 20 minutes with good traffic...). As soon as I found out I was able to get Jaina registered for kindergarten at our next school-of-choice, but Reilly was on a waiting list. The school was part of the Mesa Public School system, but was a magnet school with basically the same curriculum and schedule his charter school had been on. And visiting and observing there, I felt comfortable with the idea of my kids attending there, which was NOT the case with either of our neighborhood schools. Because it was one of the best choices in our area, the charter school shutting down left parents scrambling, and there was a waiting list for most grades at all 4 of the campuses of these schools within 10-15 minutes of our house. Of course our first choice was the one that's only a mile or two away, but I also had Reilly on one other waiting list if this one didn't come through. But we finally got the okay to come register him at our first choice/location, and I breathed a huge sigh of relief. Having kids at two different schools (or homeschooling) were both things I wasn't excited to deal with, along with having a new baby mid school-year. So I was quite excited!

Katy was pretty excited about her 3rd birthday, and thankfully I was up to partying. :) We had a lot of family from both sides and had a fun dinner-cake-pool party that everyone enjoyed. There were few to none meltdowns, and Katy enjoyed getting to be a little princess and twirling around in the ballerina swimsuit she inherited from her cousin. Birthday party success!

That was a few days before her actual 3rd birthday. We tried to make that day special, too, with birthday pancakes, and a trip to the mall where she got to pick out something small at the Disney store, have ice cream cones, and do a few of the fun little extras that we usually say "no" to. It's so weird having a 3-year-old and no baby (yet). I'm a fan.

May.

I am never going to catch up. Though I really should. The other day Jeremy asked me if I was "digitally nesting" because I had the sudden urge to get Katy's first-year scrapbook at least mostly done before this next baby arrives. I was scrapbooking like crazy (since I have to do our whole family scrapbook pages, then draw from that to make up Katy's book) and I'm currently in April of 2011, where she's about 10 months old, so we're getting there...

Anyway, May.

Not much happened, again. Mostly because on a good day, this is still how I looked. (You know it's a good day because I have real clothes on, and I've relocated from bed to... anywhere else.)

Now that the morning sickness is more or less (unless I eat very much salad or chocolate, or don't get enough sleep) gone, I can look back and just be relieved it's over. At the time it never feels like I'm going to survive like this for days, let alone months. Seriously my biggest fear during it all was getting through all that yuckiness and then miscarrying or something, knowing I couldn't purposefully put myself through that again anytime again in the near future. So grateful everything seems to be going fine!

I did manage to get the kids out once a week or so (and Jeremy tried to get them out 1-2 times as well). It was nice that Reilly and Jaina were still in school during most of the first trimester. Even if it was only half-day kindergarten and pre-school 3 times a week, it kept them from going too stir crazy.  We made it to the Kid's Club at Superstition Mall (Thursday mornings) a couple times, too. They loved that they got a free carousel ride. :)  (Sorry for all the phone pics - they don't turn out that great...)

We did make it down to Pima the first of May for my sister-in-law's baby shower. The car ride was fairly rough, even with all the zofran, but I'm glad we went. I haven't been there for a shower for any of my nieces and nephews yet (because we've lived out-of-state so much) until now! It was fun to see everyone. :)

I'm really struggling to remember what we did for our anniversary. It was number 8! I can't believe we've been married 8 years! (or that we have almost 4 children...) I'm sure we did SOMETHING (maybe Jeremy remembers) but I'll bet it wasn't terribly exciting. Maybe next year. :) The 10-year celebration is going to be great!

The only other big event that happened in May was Reilly's kindergarten graduation. I don't think I had one of those, but apparently it's a thing now. It was basically an end-of-the-year program with some little diplomas and hats thrown in. Quite cute. :) Jaina was at her last day of preschool during it, so she is missing in the pictures.