Valentine's Day!

Well, Happy Valentine's Day to all of you!!

We have been extremely busy! I got a job working at Stepping Stones Academy taking care of kids and teaching ages 6 weeks to 5 years. I am mainly in step five right now which is 4 and 5 year olds. I work from 6:30-11 in the morning. I am only part time right now, but I will hopefully be moving up to full time in the near future. The main objective of the academy is to ready the children for kindergarten and to give them a major head start. I really like working there. Unfortunately, a child threw up on me Monday and now I have his stomach virus. I only got sick this morning, though, so I think I am doing better. I think I'll still be able to go out this evening with Joey for V-Day.

So what have we been up to? Well, both of us are now both hard at work. My friend Maddy stays with Alden from when Joey leaves for work until I get home. She is letting us pay her at a very low rate which is an awesome help to us.

On the weekends, Joey and I mountain bike! And we splurged and bought me a REAL front suspension bike! It's in the above pictures. It is a light blue Specialized Hard Rock Sport, the same type as Joey's, but it's a woman's bike. We got a new trunk rack that will more securely hold both of our bikes. It's awesome! We went out last weekend while some of Kevin's friend's parents watched Alden. It was frigidly cold, but SO WORTH IT! We have to go early now before the frozen ground melts into a mucky mush so we don't ruin the trail.

More exciting news- As if we weren't busy enough we have made another addition to our family. No, no, it's not another baby, it's a beautiful puppy! He is an Austrailian Cattle Dog, otherwise known as a Blue Heeler in the south. He is 3 months old, and we named him Kona. He is so smart and is fitting right into our family. He sleeps with us in the bed at night and doesn't have many accidents during the day. He loves Alden, and Alden loves playing with him in the floor. We are so happy they will get to grow up together. I know we are just adding to our responsibilities, but it is worth it for us to be a happy family and enjoy life! We're just SUPER busy! But we are so happy and loving every minute of our full life together!

Something about Alden. He has many skin problems. He has gone to a dermatologist about it. He has ringworm on his head (just a fungus) that we treat with a shampoo three times a week. He has bad eczema all over his body and especially bad on his face. We are treating him with creams and lotions twice a day and as needed. He's getting better. But we had a rough night last night. Alden was just screaming and feeling bad until about 12:30 in the morning when we decided to go on a car ride. He fell asleep and then we crashed. Of course, then I was sick this morning. Lovely Valentine's Day!

Oh, I forgot to say what Alden is up to! He is crawling like crazy and can now sit up from crawling, turn around, lower himself from standing to sitting to crawling, pull up on everything and "cruise", and screams and talks a lot. He can almost feed himself, but he likes to be lazy. He likes Sweet Potatoes, Bananas, Pears, Oatmeal, Rice Cereal, and Ice Cream. He hates Applesauce, Apple Juice, Squash, Green Beans, and Peaches as well as all canned baby food meat! But he's a blast!