Christmas.

I usually love this time of year (aside from the snow, I think I could honestly never see snow again and be perfectly content). This year is a little bit different though. I feel like I have about a bijillion things that I need to do and just about zero time to get them done. Yesterday Ben and I spent all day Christmas shopping and I think we are about done, at least I hope. I love that our family seems to be growing every year but man, with so many people to buy for, Christmas is EXPENSIVE!  I planned on making most of the gifts this year but with my increasing work schedule and my unrelenting migraines, it just hasn't seemed to happen. And Christmas cards, well I have just about given up on that front. Maybe you all should just expect New Year's card (heck, I probably won't even have them ready by then).







I hope that sometime between all of this business that I am able to sit back and ponder on the true meaning of Christmas. I am really excited this year that Cora will be able to be a more active participant and look forward to teaching her as much as an almost-two-year-old can know about what Christmas is really all about.

Santa.

It has been many years since Santa has visited my house. My youngest sibling is only 17 months younger than me and we both pretty much figured out Santa wasn't real (sorry for the spoiler if you are reading this and haven't already gotten the memo about Santa, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, etc.) when we were about 8.

I guess I need to learn up on Santa. This year all of the presents are already under the tree, labeled from mommy and daddy. Luckily for us Cora is not old enough to know about Santa yet and we have got about a year to figure out how this whole thing works.

How do kids find out about Santa anyway?

I'm in desperate need of some advice on how to play Santa.

I used to blog...

until I found Pinterest. When I have a minute for myself (when I am free of mommy duties, work, and migraines consecutively) I would much rather peruse Pinterest than blog.

Anyway life for this Spalding has been B-U-S-Y. Just when we think life is as busy as its going to get, we seem to some how get busier. I have recently taken on more responsibilities at work (which also come with a pay raise!) which means Ben is busier too. Now instead of just his hectic, already stressful enough job he gets to have lots of one-on-one time with Cora. He comes straight from work to my office and picks up Cora. This is great for me because I am able to get a few hours of uninterrupted work done; truly a miracle! I am not sure how this is going to work out when Ben starts school in January. In January I am set to assume even more responsibility at work. Ben will be busy playing college student. I am worried Cora is going to be stuck in the middle of two busy parents. This would not be so bad if she had siblings (which we are not planning on for a while longer) so I we are really going to have to work to make sure Cora has all of her needs met.

Cora is getting bigger and smarter everyday. Seriously I don't know how it is possible that she gets more and more fun as the days go by (I am not sure if this trend will hold true through the teenage years...). This isn't to say that everything is always fun and games. I have been having a hard time lately with Cora. She has a real problem communicating and she gets really frustrated because she knows what she wants but cant communicate it (can you blame her?). Luckily for us she is starting speech therapy next week and we have heard nothing about good things from the program she is starting. Needless to say, I am hopeful.

Also I can tell that Cora is getting close to being two:
1. Although she doesn't talk much she does know how to say NO!
2. She's a super picky eater (Ben blames this on me, but I don't believe it).
3. She likes to ignore.
4. She gets called a boy all the time because she has no hair (even when she is dressed very girl-y). 

Ok, maybe that last one has nothing to do with being a terrible two...except the bigger she gets, the more people seem to assume she is a boy. It doesn't help that she will not wear a single bow/headband/hat/ponytail/anything to save her life.

Cora still sleeps through the night. Hallelujah. Life is good!

UVU

GOOD NEWS! We {finally} got Ben signed up for school again! This time it should be much more relaxed (I hope). Ben will be returning to school at Utah Valley University in January...assuming we get all of the little kinks figured out including deciding what he wants to study, schedules, financial aid, and whatever else. I am really excited for Ben to go back to school and finish his degree, but at the same time I am a little bit intimidated. I know all of the ins and outs of BYU but with UVU I don't even know where to start (and I will be the one figuring out most of the details as that is not one of Ben's priorities!). Luckily, finding classes that don't conflict with Ben's work schedule should be a breeze (fingers-crossed) and UVU should be a lot more laid back and less stressful for Ben.





Pros of leaving BYU:
*Flexible classes including night, weekend, and online courses (I know BYU has these too but not even close to the extent of UVU)
*Less stressful classes for Ben
*UVU is super close to Ben's work!
*No more jumping through hoops and dealing with the academic advisement center (hallelujah for me)

Cons of leaving BYU
*NO MORE HALF TUITION! :(
* I have no idea how UVU works

If anyone has any helpful advice about UVU, we would appreciate any input! At this point we are just trying to find something that Ben can graduate in relatively quickly (he has tons of credit, but not really in one specific area of study).

Here's to our new adventure of juggling two full time jobs, Cora, and college!

Paci-broken.

We've done the {seemingly} impossible. Cora is officially paci-broken (yeah I may have just made that term up). Can I just say that I am pretty freaking excited about this? After only a few days of screaming *torture* we can finally leave the house without a pacifer. Unless you have had a paci-addict, you cannot understand how great this is, so just trust me on this one. What a relief it is!

*Also, I now see why people let their 3 and 4 year old children continue to use binkies! What a hard habit to break!

Up next...POTTY TRAINING (soon I hope)!

I'm Still Alive and Kickin'

I am embarrassed by how long it has taken me to update this blog! I was about ready to ditch it completely when finally I decided I need to keep it up! Let me assure you that life has been a little crazy over her at the Spalding house. In July I started working (from home) making tutus for poshlittletutus.com. As if that didn't keep me busy enough in August I started my second job as an office assistant for my cousins' transportation company. I love it but most of all I love the fact that I am able to take Cora to work with me! It is a little hard getting work done with her running around but she usually naps for two hours and she is pretty good at finding things to get into while I am distracted!

Ben has been pretty busy with work. We are still trying to get his school situation figured out since back in July his employer gave him an ultimatum...to continue his employment or continue his education. Hopefully he will be able to start night or online classes at UVU come January! Ben is also getting ready to run the St. George Marathon this Saturday. He has been training all summer and I am excited to see his hard work pay off as he accomplishes his goal!

Cora is growing like a weed! She is now 18 months old and is old enough to go to Nursery at church! Hallelujah! At her doctors appointment she measured in the 65 percentile for her height at weight! She isn't talking as much as she should so the doctor suggested speech therapy starting in three months if things haven't improved by then. We are not too concerned as she seems to understand what we are saying, she just hasn't really started using her language skills yet other than to say, "hi dog, hi cat, meow meow, and thank you". Yes, she is a little obsessed with animals of any kind, especially dogs and cats!

Cora Cools Off