Friday, December 30, 2011

2011 Recap

Happy Holidays!!!
We have had an amazing year at the Wochnick house. 2011 has been a great year, and I figured I could not finish the year without posting (for once in several months).
Brandon is doing wonderful. In July he decided that he needed a change of pace, so he left driving and took a position as a salesman with Coca-Cola. He loves it!!!!! It has been a good change for our family. The hours are better and Brandon gets to spend more time with the family. He also enjoys it because it is more suited to his personality. Other than the new job, Brandon is up to business as usual, continually working on some home improvement project. He did finish two rooms on the basement, so Kaitlyn and Ben could move to the basement.

I, Joanna, had a blast this year. On December 9, I finally graduated from Weber State University. After many years of work and stress, I can proudly say I have a Bachelors of Psychology. It is such a blessing to be finished with college and that I was able to get a degree. I am so thankful to have a wonderful husband who has encouraged me and pushed me to continue chugging along even when I ready to quit. I am also lucky that I am still able to stay home and take care of my kids.
Kaitlyn has had an eventful year. In August, she started Kindergarten. After a rough couple of weeks, she finally settled in and loves school. She has made some fun new friends. She is doing very well in school and impresses me daily with the new skills she is learning. She loves to spell things, she constantly asks me to spell things for her so she can write them down. too cute. Also. she has lost two baby teeth, with a few more that are loose. She continues to be a happy, optimistic, silly, and tons of fun. Kaitlyn is a great helper, she is my cute little side kick.
Ben is a handful. We sure love this crazy, energetic boy. In September, he started Joy School with three other rambunctious three year olds. He loves going to school like his big sister. I was surprised at how well he behaves during Joy School, especially when I am teaching. Ben is so cute singing the songs and telling me about the things he learned at school. He still has some speech problems, and continues to see a speech therapist weekly. We really like his speech therapist. Ben has been making great progress. Finally, Ben has been working on using the potty. He has earned many Cars toys and is almost ready to switch from pull-ups to underwear!!!!!
Paul is still as cute as ever. He is my little sunshine and brings such joy to my life. He is talking a lot more, but it still sounds like he is speaking Klingon most of the time. He loves to follow the other kids around and do whatever they are doing. Currently, he likes to yell "Watch this Mama" as he jumps from the arm of the couch onto the couch and then rolls onto the floor. (Thanks to Ben) When we moved Ben downstairs in August, Paul got his own room and his own twin bed. He transitioned to the big bed better than the other kids ever did, with only a few nights of him crawling into bed with us. I love watching my kids grow and develop. They each have such fun little personalities.
Finally, in September, Brandon and I became foster parents. We welcomed two amazing children into our home. Miss S. is ten and shares a room with Kaitlyn. They are pretty good together, with the occasional fight. Kaitlyn is glad to have a girl in the house who will play dolls with her. Mr. J. is seven and shares a room with Ben. He has a twin brother in another foster home, that he gets to see about once a week. He is an energetic and silly. He plays really well with the younger boys. We do not know how long we will have S. and J. in our care. Brandon and I love being foster parents, it can be hard some days, but we enjoy providing a safe and loving home for kids who really need it. This is just a brief recap of some of the happenings of 2011. Here's to another amazing year.

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Kaitlyn

Kaitlyn's self portrait. She loves to steal my camera and take random pictures.Kailtyn turned 5 years old in April.
Of course since Ben had such a great time at Chuck E Cheese, so we had to go there again. This time we invited more family and some friends. She had a blast and loves getting her pictures sketched in the little photo booth. She got some really fun presents and loves them all. She tells me all the time that her toys are "very special" to her. Oh I love her cute face.
She enjoys playing outside, particularly jumping on the trampoline and riding her new Barbie scooter that she got for her birthday. She also enjoys helping me plant flowers and weed the garden, I know I am lucky. She still loves all things Princess, and is currently fascinated with Rapunzel. Tangled how we love thee and must watch you at least twice a week. (It would be everyday but mommy is not that nice).
She is a great helper and assists me all the time. Here she is pushing the stroller home after taking our friend Isaac to school. And yes, Ben is in the bottom of the stroller, he was to exhausted to walk home (we live right around the corner from the elementary school, I mean like a five minute walk, seriously Ben!! oh well). Kaitlyn loves to write her name and is so cute when she tells me she has to sit at the table and do her homework. She is not even in school yet. Her homework is mostly coloring and working on writing her letters. This was a huge birthday for her because now she is old enough to go to Kindergarten, and believe me she talks about it all the time. I love her excitement to start school and am getting pretty excited myself. I promise I will not cry on her first day of school , but the second day who knows?

Happy Birthday my tough girl!!! I love you to pieces!!!!!

Benjamin

So I am way behind on posting...




Our cute family at the Ogden Temple before it was shut down for remodeling (minus me, I was of course taking the picture).




Our fun little Benjamin turned 3 years old in March.


It was a great day. We took the family to Chuck E Cheese. The kids had lots of fun playing games and riding the rides. He got so fun presents that he really enjoys playing with. He loved a Mater toy, that he got to pick out at the store on his birthday. He loves riding his cool new Cars scooter around the neighborhood. He is pretty good at it too. Also, he got several new puzzles, because Ben sure loves to do his puzzles.


We sure love having Ben in our family. He is one crazy kid. He can be so sweet and loving one second. Then the next second he is ramming people with his head and generally being mean. Ben makes the funniest faces. He is still a very independent kid; getting dressed on his own (most days), putting on his own shoes and coat, climbing to get whatever he wants out of the cupboard, and putting movies in the DVD player all by himself (Blue ray DVDs are so worth it). He is still not to excited about potty training, so I am not pushing it. Ben continues to have speech problems, so we still meet with a speech therapist once a week. He really likes his new speech therapist, John, and thank goodness for that. John is awesome and somehow has the energy to keep up with this kid. He is slowly starting to improve enough that people other than his family can understand what he is saying. Woohoo!!! We sure love Ben and I am so thankful that three years ago Heavenly Father trusted Brandon and me enough to give us this feisty little soul. I am sure He laughs a ton watching us try to figure out how to raise Ben.


Happy Birthday my crazy boy!!!

Monday, May 2, 2011

Paul

My baby Paul turned one in February. He is such a blessing and a joy in our family. I have to admit, when I found out I was pregnant with Paul, I was very upset. It was an easy pregnancy, so I had nothing to complain about when it came to my health. I just was not prepared for another baby. I was enrolled for two semesters at full-time status. I was teaching Joy School once a month for Kaitlyn and three other three olds. We were still trying to figure out everything after Brandon's injury and adjusting to the new normal in our family. Right after I got pregnant, we lost a very special friend, Paul, the man who taught Brandon the gospel and helped so much when he was struggling. A few months later, we my maternal grnadfather, Heber "Rob" also passed away. My Grandpa Rob performed the sealing for Brandon and me. He was an great man who always gave me great advice when I was struggling. These are the two great men that we decided to name our little Paul Heber after. They left him a great legacy and I only hope I can raise him to be a great man someday.
I was induced to have Paul a week before his due date. My labor was relatively easy. A little after midnight on February 12, Paul made his entrance into the world. I hoped that after Paul was born I would stop feeling so sad. It didn't happen. I tried really hard to enjoy those first few weeks, but it was tough. Of my three children, I only experienced the baby blues after Paul was born. I think I was just feeling overwhelmed with everything that had happened during the last couple of years. Slowly, things started to get better. I know it was Paul that saved me. His sweet temperament and easy disposition made it so easy to be his mother. He slept really well, ate like a champ, and rarely cried (the occasional brother is using me as a chew toy scream), and was healthy. He was a little jaundice at first, but thankful he did not have to use the Billi lights like his older siblings. He has also be healthy most of his life, with only a few minor colds and one ear infection. Paul is still one of the easiest going kids around. He takes Ben and Kaitlyn's constant teasing in stride and just goes with the flow. He jabbers all the time, and happily Mama was his first word, followed by da (for dog) and then dada. Even at one, he still loves to cuddle me a tons and gives me the cutest grin when I go to get him out of his crib in the morning. He would scoot, crawl, and now runs to me or Brandon when ever one of us comes home. Paul is also a real ladies man, he loves to coo and smile at the ladies. If a guy starts talking to him, forget it, he wants to find a cute lady to snuggle. He even walked up to the receptionist at the doctors office and started to cuddle with her. I love that he adores Brandon. He follows him around, we often call him our little stalker because you turn around and he is likely right behind you. He also likes to just sit next to Brandon on the bed and play with Brandon's hair. It is the sweetest thing on the planet. When Brandon is carrying him, he will cuddle up really close and grab his arm. I could just eat his cuteness up.
Do you know my favorite thing about Paul? His eyes, I just want to melt every time I look into those big brown eyes. When Brandon and I were first talking about having kids, I wanted them to get Brandon's blue eyes. I always felt like my brown eyes were so boring and plain. Kaitlyn has my brown eyes and we are learning together how fun brown eyes can be. Ben varies between blue and hazel eyes, and I think they will end up being hazel, which is pretty cool. Paul on the other hand has the darkest brown eyes. Even right after he was born, he had dark blue eyes and at about two months they turned into dark brown. I could get lost in his eyes and when he flashes those beauties at me I want to give him anything he wants (luckily for me right now that is usually food). We are in big trouble with this cutie!So why do I tell the whole story about our Paul. If you would have asked me in July 2009 if I wanted another baby right then, I would have said no way. Now, I am thankful that the Lord has blessed me with such an amazing child and new better what Brandon and I really needed at the time. Paul has taught me more about how your heart can open up to more love than you ever thought possible. I am so proud to say that I am a mother to three wonderful children. I am striving to be a better mother and woman because I know that my kids deserve the best.
Happy Birthday My Precious Paul!!! I am really thankful that you came to our family.

Monday, March 28, 2011

Grandpa Joe

I have several posts to catch up on. Lots of stuff has been happening lately. I am super busy with my three cute kids, plus I watch two more cute kids five days a week. To top it off, my psychology research methods class is tons of work. Hopefully, I will finally get my bachelors degree in the fall (three classes to go)!!! So lets get started with the updates. On January 19, my wonderful Grandpa Joe passed away, he was my paternal grandfather. It was extremely sad to lose such a great man, but at the same time it was a relief. He had been declining for a while and I hope he has found some peace in heaven. I loved my Grandpa Joe very much and was always thankful for the amazing example he was to me. The most important thing that he taught me was to love others unconditionally. No matter what I did in life, I always knew that he loved me and was very proud of me. He would make sure to tell me this every time he saw me. He encouraged me to try and was always telling me how important it was for me to finish my college education. He once told me that he really loved that I decided to stay home to raise my kids, because it is not always the easiest or most popular thing to do. It is nice to know that someone recognizes and appreciates the things I do. I will miss talking to him and hearing his funny life stories. I will miss the love and support he gave me. I know he is watching over my family, and I know that one day I will get to see him again. Love ya Grandpa Joe:)

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Chris and Jasmine

I can hardly believe it my baby sister Jasmine got married on December 30, 2010. She married a wonderful man named Chris. They were married in the Salt Lake Temple. I was thrilled to be able to sit at the temple and watch them be sealed together for time and all eternity. I am so excited for them. They are super cute together (and my kids absolutely adore Chris). I was honored to be able to take pictures for them on their special day. I think I got some cute shots. It was a great day and I am pleased to welcome Chris into our crazy family.
(If you want to see more photos from the wedding, the engagement, or the bridals, check out my facebook page.)