The Latest and Greatest

Lots going on in our little family. I've forgotten to write about some of these things since things have been crazy with the move so I'm redeeming myself tonight. First we'll start with Travis' latest achievements...

Travis took his first steps the day before we moved to St. George. Since then he's been walking more often and more steps at a time. His longest stretch was 17 steps last Sunday at church. He has also gone from 2 naps a day to just one. Travis likes to feed himself with a fork and will eat almost anything as long as it is on the end of a fork. He is constantly babbling and is saying more and more small words and learning how to communicate by pointing instead of screaming for what he wants. He LOVES water. Every time I take him out of the bathtub, he scrambles to get back in. Same with the pool; he loves it! He puts his face in willingly and tries to get out of my arms to "swim" on his own. And... today Travis officially gave up his bottle! He didn't even put up a fight. This past week I've been weaning him off of it and it was so simple and pain-free! The last few days he's only been taking one at night and since it didn't seem like a big deal I just gave him a sippy with warm milk and it didn't even phase him. What a big boy!

Braden loves the water as well. He can swim  5-10 feet with his head underwater all by himself! I'm guessing in about a week he'll be able to swim across the short side of the pool in the shallow end. Each time he tries, he goes a little farther. He can also tippy-toe in the shallow end and likes to "monkey walk" along the side of the pool. No fear in this guy! He has also been keeping me thoroughly entertained by singing Boom, Boom, Pow and shaking his booty! That boy's got rhythm! He loves music and picks up on just about everything! Guess we should listen to more kid music and less top 40/hip hop... Last month, Braden wanted to bear his testimony during testimony meeting at church. He's never done it before and didn't want any help... at first. He walked up to the pulpit the very first Sunday we were here and said in a loud, self-confident voice, "Hi. I'm Braden." Then in a whisper he said, "Mom, can you come help me?" It was the cutest thing ever! I guess the primary presidency took note of that and now he's assigned to give a talk next Sunday in primary. I'll post more on that next week...

As for me, I am going to start a medical billing and coding course at the local college pretty soon. I've decided to put cosmetology on hold until I can commit to the year or two that it would take to complete and the 10k it would cost. The course that I am going to take just takes 350 hours (compared to the 2,000 that cosmetology takes) and is only $450. I can eventually work from home doing this and can make enough to support my family. I've always loved doing hair and really want to go to school for it but its just not feasible at this point. I'm hoping to make the time for it once the boys are both in school. We are all settled in our new apartment and things are all coming together. I'll post pictures of the apartment soon.