Update....

I feel like I've been failing at posting about the family. I've been so busy with life that posting hasn't really been a priority, unfortunately. I decided to give a little update about each child so you all know how we're doing!

Jaed

Jaed is doing so well in school! If very rarely comes home with negative marks and his teacher is always letting us know that he is a quite a helper in the class. He has homework every week and Thayne use to sit down with him and explain what to do, but now Jaed wants to do it on his own. If Thayne tries to explain, Jaed will say, "I know Dad, I KNOW!" and then do it. Jaed can now clean his room without any help.....YIPPEEE!!....and he actually does a great job. If I have taught my kids one thing about cleaning it's that there is a place for everything. They all have buckets in their room and each bucket is assigned a certain toy and that's where it goes. When Thayne tries to help them clean their room and he doesn't put the toy in the right bucket, he is reminded immediately and shown which bucket it goes in. His response is a roll of the eyes and a shake of the head, but I'm proud of them!
Jaed is growing into quite the mini-parent. If the girls are doing something that he doesn't want them to do, he'll say.."Josie, you can either play with me or go to your room and go to sleep!". He got this from me because I always give them choices and if I want them to do one thing then I make the other choice so bad that they won't choose it. He obviously caught on to my strategy because he's using it as well. Sometimes his "other" choice isn't bad enough and the girls will choose it, so then he says, "No, I didn't mean to say that one. Your choice is play with me or....." and then he makes up another one. It's so funny to me the way the girls will do what he says. At some point I see them catching on and saying, "You're not in charge of me!", but for now they are his followers!


Josie

Josie will be five in a month! The time has completely flew by. She loves going to school and is really bugged if it is a day where there is no school. We found out that Josie will be able to go into mainstream kindergarten next year but still may have to have some speech therapy at the school. I was so worried that she wouldn't be able to attend regular kindergarten but now the worry is over! She is the compromiser in our family. She's the first one to help the person who is crying get what they want and if it is something that she has, she'll give it up most of the time. I have started to take toys away from the girls that they are fighting over and tell them that they can't have it until the work something out. Josie is always the one that comes back and says, "Mommy, Indi can have it first then me.". Sometimes I step in and say, "No, I think Josie should have it first and then Indi can have it in two minutes.". Indi isn't thrilled with this idea but I make it clear that she will not have a turn if she cries and whines and most of the time she'll stop and wait her turn.
Josie is our negotiator as well. If we say "no" about something she always comes back with another idea, such as "How about I have it and then I won't have anymore" or "I just want one and then that's it!". We use to give in to her negotiations because she is so dang cute but we've seen that it has gotten out of hand, hehehe.
Josie is not thrilled to go to church these days. Every Sunday it's a battle to help her understand that she has to go. And every Sunday she says, "Momma, I told you that I only wanted to go one time, not lots of times!". I try to explain to her that Jesus wants us to go to church, and it works for a few minutes, but then she's back to trying to get out of it. I know it's because she got a new Sunday School teacher and Josie really has a hard time with changes. This new Sunday routine makes Thayne and I laugh, though!

Indi

Oh, Indi....what a dang cutie! She's a thrill to hang out with while the other two are in school. She keeps me company and helps me with Kai. I am constantly reminding myself that she is only three. To me, she has some facial expressions and gestures of a young lady. The way she flutters her eyes when you ask her questions about herself, or the way she is asks questions that are above and beyond a three year old (in my opinion). She also is a schedule keeper. Every morning we have the same conversation, "Mom, what are we doing this morning?" and then I have to give her run down of how the day goes. If we are going to stay home I can't just say that. I have to think of what we will be doing at home and some of it better be to her liking. If I can't think of anything fun (that I want to do) then I just say, "We're staying home and you can watch a princess movie" and that immediately puts a grin on her face and she's off to pick the movie.
Indi loves to have "jobs". If you send her to do a task, she'll always return and say, "What's my next job, Mom?". She does tend to get distracted when we're cleaning though. It's like we find tons of new (to them) toys when we clean and she just can't wait to play with them. I have found her, a couple of times, in her closet, out in the hall or somewhere else playing with a toy she was so excited to find.

Kai

Well the one year old attitude has shown up again! She's not even one yet but she sure knows what she wants and what she doesn't want. The snuggles are out the window and the "Move out of my way" has come to stay. She is walking everywhere and absolutely hates to be picked up by her siblings. She'll look over my way as she screams in protest to see if I'm going to help her. She does not give kisses freely so I just end up grabbing her face and kissing her. She doesn't ever cry or get mad but you can tell that she's a bit bugged if I do it more than once. Even though she has a bit of an attitude her smile will melt your heart and her sense of humor will keep you smiling. She is truly a joy to have in our family!!