MIA = Long Update

I know I've kinda been MIA lately! I have a good reason! I have some awesome news, but wasn't able to share it until I got something taken care of today! So I knew I had to keep myself off of the blog so that I wouldn't blab! You wanna know what it is?

I got a job! An awesome job that still allows me to stay home with my kids, but also allows me to cut back on child care quite a bit. I've really been struggling with child care lately. My kids weren't enjoying the other kids, and honestly, neither was I. I think it was just childcare in general. I've been doing it for 3 years -- since Maisey was 9 months old. It was getting to be really overwhelming. My sister emailed me a few weeks ago about an opening for a blog writer at her company. She asked her boss if somebody from out of state could apply, and since most of the work is done online, he said yes. So I applied, and as you can imagine, I got the position! It really is so nice. I can do as much or as little work per week that I want to. I can work from my house, my mom's house, the airport, ANYWHERE that has Internet. So, even when on vacation this summer I can still be making a little extra money! It really is the perfect job for me!

The hardest part about all of this is letting some of my child care families go. All of the babysitting I do is part time. It's all crazy hours and I've had a hard time juggling all of it. But some of the families are our friends too. So it was hard breaking the news to them. But I did it! After days of stewing over it, I made my last phone call this morning, while staying home from church with my sick little man!

It is such a relief to have an end in sight! I am only keeping one little boy on hopefully through the end of the year, and my goal is to be completely done with child care by then! But this one boy is pretty easy and him and Maisey get along really well. I can take him anywhere with me! So it really won't be that bad! I am very confident that these decisions that Shaun and I have had to make in the last few weeks are what is best for our family! I am just so excited about it all!

Ok, on to the rest of of the updates!

I love March! Really, I love the St. Patrick's Day meal! Corned beef + cabbage = YUM! I love coming up with ideas to make an all green dinner! This year we are having the missionaries over and an investigator family. It's going to be so much fun! I made this cute little frame for our mantle. I really do feel like we are a LUCKY family!

While Maisey goes to preschool, Gagey gets to play with his friend Hudson and Hudson's baby brother Brody. (Maisey's teacher's kids!) Gage is OBSESSED with Brody. He sleeps in his car seat so I started putting him on the table so Gage couldn't bug him and Gage found a way up there! So now he goes on the counter. Don't worry, Angela! He is always supervised!

Ever since Maisey started preschool, her creativity has sprouted! It's so fun to see her come up with different ideas. They had a music week at preschool a while back and her teacher let them play her violin and guitar and clarinet. Maisey found a couple of toys to make her own violin!

Gage got this little train for Christmas that has each letter of the alphabet on each of the train cars. Maisey put the whole thing together in the right order! She is getting so smart!

This little guy hasn't been feeling too well this week. He has let us cuddle him and rub him more than ever. He is really starting to turn into a little boy and not such a baby. I can't believe he is going to be 2 next month! CRAZY!!!!

Maisey got in to my makeup! When she saw herself in the mirror she was really sad that it was all over her face, so she wiped it off and tried again! Lucky me!

Gagey does not like getting in his car seat or getting out! Getting in is seriously a wrestling match. I have to pin his legs down with a leg, push his chest back with an arm and *try* to buckle him with the other hand as quickly as possible. It's quite the process. But by the time we get home he doesn't want to get out. He just sits in there and re-buckles the top part of his seat. Well, after church last week, I left him in the car like usual so he could re-buckle and I ran our church bags inside. I came back out to get him and found him in my seat! Isn't he so handsome?

I spent the first week of the month stocking up on our food storage. Safeway had some awesome sales, so I ordered coupon off of ebay and got us all stocked back up again until next year! 80 boxes of cereal and 60 boxes of fruit snacks should do! With the cost of coupons it all cost less than $20! I even got Shaun in on it this time! It was nice to have a little help!

I'm teaching a cake decorating class to the YW this Wednesday. I'm not quite sure what I'm doing, so I decided to practice a little bit! I made this for a birthday party!

Here is part of the birthday party that we had last night! We had a Birthday Bunco Bash for Shaun and three other friends of ours that have birthdays this month! It was WAY fun!

I got each of the birthday people balloons with yummy treats tied to the bottom and their name going down the string! They turned out pretty cute!

This was the raspberry vanilla cake

And this was the chocolate cake that I made. They were both yummy! Any one want to guess how many sticks of butter is in both of these cakes combined? It's a pretty gross number, but I'm sure that's why they tasted so good!

Here were the birthday guests of honor! Shaun, Jenn, Jay, and Mike! Happy Birthday you 4!

We have a lot of stuff coming up in the next month or so. We are going to Sunriver this weekend, Shaun's going to Tennessee, we are celebrating Gage's birthday, and I am going to Utah! It's going to be crazy busy but we like having fun adventures to look forward to! Stay tuned for updates on our busy lives!