"We're stuck in the mud"

That was Connor's response when I asked what he and Tyler were doing in their room. Buried among their stuffed animals, I think Tyler finally gave up trying to get out and just laid down to await his rescue. Connor adores having a little brother who is finally old enough to do some real "playing". Tyler spends loads of time chasing (by crawling) Connor up and down the hallway, both giggling like crazy, and just as much time trying to evade Connor's over-exuberance at having a playmate.

As much as I tried to help Tyler become attached to a stuffed animal instead of a blanket, I think I've failed. We often find Tyler in his room trying to pull this light blue blanket through the slats. He loves it and buries his face in it every time I hand it to him. He can't talk yet but I'm sure he'd want Caralee to know how much he appreciates her making it for him!

Connor is getting pretty good with blocks. I confess I helped with this one but he loves to design all sorts of dinosaurs, tunnels, houses, cities, robots, and whatever else he can think of with these blocks. I originally though two bags was too many...silly mom.

In all honesty, this has been a tough couple of months and it's only getting tougher. Carl, to our daily disappointment, is absolutely swamped with hours and hours of homework on top of class and work. He leaves not long after waking up and returns home again sometime after 10pm and if it ended there life would be fantastic but he is often up til 1 or 2am finishing homework for the next day. He is SO dedicated and hard-working and I appreciate so much all he is doing to make the rest of our lives so wonderful. We know it will feel worth it when it's all over (about 8 and a half more weeks if you're wondering). Come mid-May he will have only 2 classes left and those can be taken remotely so we are in the grueling process of somehow finding time to also search for and apply for as many jobs as we can find in hopes we'll be able to move at the end of this semester, permanently (or at least for a few years).

In an effort to more effectively tackle the stress that nags at both of us (he's exhausted and I, well, I love my children but that's a lot of hours to be with them. Alone. By myself. Alone...) I decided to put this saying (from a talk by Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin) in a frame and put it in a very visible spot. It's helped a lot already. The stress is still there but it reminds me to not be quite so grouchy about it on occasion.