Perpetual Unexpected Twists

Zacher has gone from a baby to a little boy. Right now his favorite thing to say is "so so funny" (always 2 sos) - about 1 month ago, he would ask for a snack, but when he said it he would say "sna" (leaving off the "ck") - so I started trying to get him say "snack" by saying "sna ck ck ck". Now everytime he wants a snack (which refers ONLY to a fruit snack, by the way) he says "sna ck ck ck". And just recently (literally in the last few days) he has started transferring it. Now he says "Daddy at "work k k k".
He just started joining us for family prayer too, and when I help him pray I have to help him one word at a time. Otherwise, if I say "Dear Heavenly Father" he says "Father" or I say "Thank you for this day" he says "day", etc. So when Zach prays it is one word at a time... "Dear" "Dear" "Heavenly" "Heavenly", etc. LOL It takes a little longer to say the least.
He also got a toddler bed this week. Sunny gave me "the family one", and he is doing MUCH better than I expected. So far only one time he has gotten up at 3am and wandered into our room. YAY!

He still says "Holly went bye-bye" whenever he goes into the playroom (her former room).

Audesi is still not potty trained. She just isn't interested. I figure that she is MUCH too stubborn to fight with, and that when she is ready she'll pretty much just do it. The cool thing is that right now when she sits on the toilet (and she tinkles every time, little monster), Zach wants to go next. He does nothing, but it's a start... So maybe I'll get lucky and they will both potty train at the same time. LOL

Ciana is still smart as a whip. I'd love it if Holly would start writing her in Spanish (probably keep it simple still) and insist that she do the same back. I'll bet she already knows more Spanish than I know German! She is still stressing over the baptism thing. She told her dad and he said if she got baptized he would take me to court. I told her that was fine with me but she just has to decide to do it. We'll see what comes. She still totally believes in Santa Claus. It's amazing really, because she said that none of her friends do. She told me that she knows he is real, because there is no way we could afford to buy everyone presents. (How bittersweet is that?)

Brett and Mark are best friends. I can not even begin to tell you how FREAKING awesome Mark is. He brought us 4 loads of topsoil about 2 weeks ago, and then came today (while Brett was at work, so he could surprise him) and hauled off all the piles of rocks (that Brett had made with the tractor in Sept), dug out all of the stumps in the backyard and spread the topsoil (as far as it would go, which is pretty much just the front yard). He did that all while Brett was at work, so he would come home to a big surprise. How cool is that? I told Liberty today that if she divorces him, I am keeping him!

Josh and Jules have both really blossomed here. It's hard to believe the difference in these kids. Julianna has straight A's (Julianna!!!!) - her math is up from a D- last semester. And all it can be accredited to is her actually making an effort. She also has friends, at least 5 that I know of, and they come to her house and play and she goes to their houses and plays. SHE HAS FRIENDS! Regardless of anything, I know that having these kids move down here was absolutely the right thing to do.

Josh has good friends, and even though he is still a bit of a follower, he is following the crowd that goes every Thursday at 5am to do baptisms for the dead, etc etc. I am so stoked.