Back in PA

Well with our return to State College life is back to normal.  The new semester has begun so Jake is once again busily learning and working at school.  He has an extra ten hour commitment with teaching this semester, so he should be even busier then last semester, but I think it will be good.  He has some good opportunities that come with the additional time commitment, so it should be time well spent.  Jake also received a new calling. He is now the assistant ward clerk. My calling changed a little as well. I am still in the primary, but they had a new family move into the ward that has twins with autism, so I have been moved to be the primary teacher of their class.  I'm actually excited to get to use some of my rusty special education skills.  The first Sunday was a little crazy and left me feeling like I had forgotten all my training;  but after some reflection and implementation of new strategies, this Sunday went so much better. It was actually a lot of fun.  Hudson is back playing with friends every chance he gets, and doing his gym and swim class at the YMCA. He also became a Sunbeam!  I kind of can't believe that he is not only that big, but also that he can finally sit still long enough to make it through primary. He is surprisingly reverent in fact; thanks largely to great primary teachers who came up with "the reverence train".  I'm not entirely sure how it works, but I do know he gets very excited when he tells me he earned to be the reverence train driver. 

The primary gave Hudson his first Book of Mormon for Christmas with the challenge of reading the entire book this year.  We have been modifying this a little by simply telling him a summarized and maybe slightly modified story of what happened in a chapter each night.  Its been a lot of fun.  He was pretty sad that Nephi had to leave his favorite toys at his old house and move.  Although, he thinks the wilderness is actually Pennsylvania.

Also, since we have been home, I have completed what I thought would be an impossible task of finally weaning Ellie.  It was accomplished with a lot fewer tantrums then I had expected.  This picture has nothing to do with weaning I just thought think its funny.  Our Ellie girl loves to be in the buff.  When we try to get her dressed after her bath she runs away from us laughing.  It brings her such joy that we sometimes indulge her a little and let her be.  On one such occasion this week Jake had the very unfortunate experience of getting peed on.  Hudson and I both thought it was hilarious, but Jake was not very pleased.

So all in all, everyone is doing great and things are going very well.  Except for one thing.....

While home for the holidays; everyone fed us so well, and we were given so many delicious tasty treats that we thoroughly enjoyed.  Now that we are home it seems we can't control ourselves, we are still devouring them with an endless passion.  No cookie has gone untouched, no candy has gone unchewed, and no ice cream has gone unsmothered with hot fudge, caramel, and whip cream. We are a family of sugar addicts! There, it feels so good to admit it.  We cant stop!  Its no secret that we have always liked our sweets, but now I feel it has reached epidemic levels.  I'm afraid that we have no choice but to implement a session of "sugar detox".  For the rest of January we are going treatless.  Which means it might be a very grumpy few weeks in this house.   Hopefully our marriage can make it through this challenge. We are going to need a lot of prayers!


Speaking of candy, we decided to see if the kids would like Pop Rocks.  It went just as anyone who knows our kids could guess.....