Balancing Act

I know I've been horrible at keeping the blog updated lately. It just feels like there aren't enough hours in the day right now. What have we been up to? Well, lets see. . .
Jaden started 3rd grade a few weeks ago. And I think it's the best start to a school year that he's had. He really likes his teacher, and I've been impressed with him as well (possibly since he's really an upper elementary teacher at heart so we think along those same lines). Jaden has grown up some over the summer which really helps with him remembering to bring home his homework, etc. We still spend probably more time than we should on homework each evening, but it doesn't feel like such a chore, and Jaden had a great attitude about it all. I really hope the rest of the year goes as smoothly. Jaden really does love school, and his love of story telling continues, as he always has some story playing through his head. He is playing soccer again this year, and we've had the best start to a season there as well. His first game is Sunday and he's excited about it. Cub Scouts starts up again tonight as well. So you can see we are busy just with Jaden's schedule.
Colten is now a big kindergartner, and boy is he proud of that fact! He just loves everything about school, and wishes that kindergarten was full day instead of just a half day. He works real hard on his assignments and wants to be the top of his class. His favorite part of the day has to be riding the bus home though. He's so happy that he gets to finally ride the bus like his big brother. Colten is also playing on a soccer team this fall and has a very strong kick and lots of team spirit. He's also taking a gymnastics class which he really loves as well. His best friend lives down the street and any time they are both home is spent playing together at one of the houses or in the cul-de-sac.
Ashtyn starts preschool next Monday. She is just so thrilled to finally get to go to school like her big brothers. She'll only go 2 days a week for just over 2hrs, but I think that'll be enough for me. I'm finding it hard to think of her being away from me. She's my youngest and it's hard to realize that she is growing up as well. She just started taking gymnastics and is just thrilled with it! Every morning she asks if it's Thursday yet so that she can go to gymnastics. She's been quite a handful, especially lately. I can't count the number of times in the day that she's getting in trouble, so I'm really hoping that this phase is over soon. We work very hard at trying to be consistent with her, but I must say it doesn't seem to make a whole lot of difference yet. We'll get there I'm sure. I remember Colten going through a similar stage that I was sure would never end but it has and is long forgotten.
I'm doing more work for the clinic lately. In our big Electronic Medical Records switch this summer we are still working through some issues, so I'm trying to help out by taking some of the load off the others and help get things to run smoothly again. It's been taking a lot of hours lately, so my schedule has felt really full. But hopefully it's only temporary. At least I can access the office computers, etc. from home so I don't have to go into the clinic in order to get the work done (Gotta love technology when you can remotely access another computer!!!).
Joshua of course is just busy with all the clinic stuff and trying to keep up with what is going on at home while he's gone.
So that's where we've been spending out time lately. And why I've been so bad about getting more frequent posts up. I'll try to do better as we get settled more into routines.