Life Within the Cuckoo's Nest: LaFeber Life Lately

Busy Busy Busy! That would be us! That's how we like it though. Or how the kids and I like it. Josh prefers to sit at home and do nothing every chance he gets but then he always has fun and tells me thank you later :).

What we've been up to lately:

-Josh-

He has been doing great at work! He seriously makes us so proud! Working for Wells Fargo has been the perfect job for him and he is surpassing even his manager's expectations :). He has only been working there for a year now and is currently the #2 Consumer Loan Underwriter in the entire company! That means out of every loan underwriter in the entire United States (working for Wells Fargo) he is the second best! He would prefer to be #1 but it sounds like the lady who holds that title is insanely good at what she does and it would be almost impossible to top her.

When he isn't working he is playing with the kids, helping around the house (laundry is his specialty), or playing video games. He has started ordering old school games from his childhood and is like a kid in a candy store every time he plays them! Austin has fun playing too but is just a little too young to focus for very long. So he kinda pops in and out to see what Dad is up to and then goes back to playing with his cars or harassing his little sister.

Sword fighting with Austin.

Monday night smack down at the LaFeber household!

Playing video games.

-Ashly-

I've been having fun working on myself through yoga and the gym. The kids have started going to the gym daycare which gives me a couple hours of quiet time and I LOVE IT! I've been trying to follow a low-carb diet but have been seriously struggling with it. I can't help it, I LOVE SUGAR!!

I am obsessed with inversion poses! I have been working on my upper body strength so I can convert into pincha without falling over every time....

Evie coming for the camera...

I love this girl! I also love being able to stay at home 5 out of the 7 days of the week and relax with my family like this without a care in the world.

Work is going well! My boss told me I'm the best nurse we've got and I have been in high demand from the other managers who are constantly asking for me to come fill in at their clinics, which was really nice to hear :). I'm currently working twice a week which works perfectly for our family. It gets me out of the house and provides some extra spending money :).

I decided to not pursue Nurse Practitioner School. I was so positive it would all work out until random events/moments kept happening and I started realizing there was no way I could leave my family in the lurch right now. So much rides on me to keep this family going and to keep things in order, not to mention my kids already give me a hard time if I'm not paying attention to them 24/7! I started having panic attacks about how it would be to be fighting the kids to take naps while simultaneously trying to memorize advanced pharmacology. Josh left the decision up to me because he knew how important it was to me to further my education, but in the end, the Mommy guilt won. After I made the decision, I went through a dark time. A depression. It was so frustrating that I couldn't do something for myself that was so important to me because I would never be able to forgive myself if it damaged my children in any way. After a couple months I pushed past it though and decided to focus on other ways of self improvement (hence the exercising, blogging, gardening, etc.). By the way, our garden is looking great! We love sitting on our front porch in our little oasis the kids and I created :). I came to the conclusion that there is a time and season for everything and right now is my time to live in the moment and to not worry about the future. Right now I need to cherish the hours with my babies as I try to teach them through experiences like cooking and gardening, or reading books and bath time. Graduate school can wait.

Have I mentioned how much we love being outdoors?

We have tomatoes people!!

Searching for tomatoes and learning how to count as he goes!

-Austin and Evelyne-

They started their first swimming lessons this month! I signed them up for a parent and me class and we have loved it! Each of us take a kid and have a great time! So far we have learned how to blow bubbles, float on our backs, jump off the wall into the water, and how to doggy paddle :). Yesterday Austin learned how to put his face under the water (We didn't want to traumatize Eve so we let her skip this one)! I wasn't sure if he would actually do it, but he did! And he was so proud of himself! To anyone who doesn't have kids, these little feats would sound so stupid, but they are HUGE to us!

Walking like a champ!

Eating scrambled eggs, his favorite food!

Austin is also a big fan of jumping on Mom and Dad's bed :).

It is so rare that they fall asleep in the car at the same time! Usually Eve falls asleep and then Austin screams and yells at her until she wakes up....grrrr!