Not quite a year

Good thing nobody depends on this to keep up with our family.  I've clearly not been keeping up with it.  Here's what you missed:

Izzy turned 5 in July and started Kindergarten last week.  By Wednesday I was already stressed out b/c she thought reading was hard and dinner took too long to heat in the oven.  By Friday, she had 5 (or so) words in her "word bank" and I started feeling better about her being in school.

Our evenings have always been short and busy.  With both of us working full time, our dinners are later and our time with the girls is shortened.  With school comes homework and we want Izzy to know that homework is serious business and it has to be done.  It's "easy" stuff now, things she did in preschool, but we are also learning to read and soon it will be math.  Playing outside or taking walks after dinner are pretty much not possible now because we just have so much other stuff to get done in those 2.5 hours between when we get home and when they go to bed.

Izzy took dance last year and loved it.  She is doing it again this year with a combo class of Jazz and Tap. That will probably start up in the next 2 weeks or so.

Maggie turned 2 in May and is really testing the terrible 2 theory.  She throws a fit pretty much every night at bed time.  She is hard-headed and just doesn't listen sometimes.  She eats dinner MAYBE 3 nights a week.  We have been potty training since the beginning of June and it seems to work 50% of the time.  We (it's a joint effort between us and my Mom) tried to put her in cotton underwear and she just continued to pee in them over and over.  It took us a while to get Izzy potty trained and it's looking like Maggie is on the same path.  We've eased off a little, not yelling at her when she goes in her pull-up, lots of praise when she goes in the potty.  She'll tell us she has to go, usually after she's already done it.  We'll get there!  On the other hand, she is a sweet as she can be.  She loves to walk any where while holding your hand.  She loves to give kisses and hugs.  She's a great shopping partner.  She has been sleeping better theses days, but will still wake up sometimes in the night.  She talks in her sleep!

The adults in the house are working, working, and working.  Luke has been fixing his car pretty much every weekend.  But, thankfully he is handy at that sort of thing and while I scream on the inside of the price of this part or the thought of what will break next, he is out in the garage fixing it himself and saving us TONS of money on labor costs.  We bought a zoo pass this summer, which is good for an entire year.  We've used it twice, which is kind of sad, but the weather on the weekends has been either too hot, rainy, or we've had other things to do.  The girls LOVE going and the good thing is that we will get in for the holiday "specials" on that pass.  I've been thankful of having a job to go to (this economy stinks) and day dreaming of being a stay-at-home-mom and joining the PTO. 

I'm gonna try to update more often.  But, who are we kidding?  All 2 of you reading know what's happening already, sometimes before it even happens.