What love is

Do you ever just have those little moments that when it's happening you know it'll be immortalized in your mind forever. It doesn't even have to be a great moment. I remember small moments from when I was little that I knew I would remember forever. Like when I was about 5 or 6 years old, a neighbor of ours had a garage sale. She was selling scarves and had them set up on a rack in her garage. There seemed to be SO many of them and I remember feeling like I was in a cave made of scarves! I remember playing near a pond at our house where an old tire sat in the middle. It was planted just low enough in the water to scare me. Every time I saw the pond I thought the tire was an alligator. Today I had another little moment that I hope will become part of my collection of forever memories. Both my little boys were filthy from playing outside and frankly, from just being boys, so they earned a much needed shower. They're both big enough now to use regular shampoo, which makes things a bit of a process when trying to clean them. I have to tell them to keep their head back to keep the shampoo out of their eyes, but for whatever reason, as soon as I pull their heads up they spring back down. With my youngest I have to have a vice grip on his head to keep it back. Then I have to try and wash the shampoo out AND keep it out of his eyes while he tries to thrash his head out of my hands. I have to be honest. It's not entirely endearing to deal with this. When he screams because he's inevitably gotten soap in his eyes, I find I have very little room in my heart to feel bad for him. Luckily, this is not the memory I will be keeping forever. It was of my oldest son letting me wash his hair. He was very good to listen. I asked him to back up toward the water and instantly he closes his eyes backs his little bum up into the water and tips his head back. With his eyes shut tight he smiles the biggest smile and at that moment it hit me that this is my son. My little boy. What an amazing blessing I have to raise this cute little person. Who is just that. His own person, with his own thoughts, emotions and ideas. What a huge amount of love I felt for him at that moment. Watching him with his eyes squeezed shut, smiling up at me, completely trusting me to help him. I love my kids!

Pregnancy, Soccer, Potty Training, and School

Oh my heck, I actually have a minute to sit down. It's crazy. We have a few announcements and updates to keep up with on here!

First of all, the biggest announcement. We are expecting!! Which right now, I don't think anyone doesn't know that. I'm a little over 4 months along right now. Due in September! It is just crazy to think that we're going to have 3 children. What an exciting, terrifying, exhilarating, and joyous experience we are going to have! I feel so blessed to have the ability to get pregnant as easily as I do and to welcome new little lives into this world. I hope that I can continue to be a better mother so that I can do what is right for my kids. I am so glad that they have the Father that they do, because without him, I would be drowning. He does so well with them and I am so grateful for that. He is such an example to me of what a great parent is. My kids are lucky.

Second bit of news, much much smaller than the first. A has just finished pre-school at BYU and he is now going to kindergarten this coming August. AHHH! I'm going to have a child in kindergarten! What is this? His teacher is sad to see him go. A loves school. He is a very pleasant student. Every time I've spoken with his teacher, he asks me, "Is he always this pleasant and happy at home?" And I can proudly say, that for the most part. Yeah he is. A is a very happy little boy. He loves to learn. He loves his brother-- most days. And he has a good, caring heart. I am lucky to have him around. He's playing soccer right now and during his last game he was such a trooper. It was windy and cold and a kid smashed their head into As ear, later in the game he got kicked close-range in the chest, and then he got hit one other time with the ball on his arm. If you've ever played soccer in the cold, you know it hurts when the ball hits you. It stings like crazy and he stayed in the game 2 of the 3 times and played it out. I was very proud of him.

Thirdly, E is finally FINALLY potty trained! Yeah yeah!!! I love my little spirited goober. He is so much fun. But... he does struggle with listening and it gets him in trouble. Potty training was one of those things he was not going to listen for. It wasn't that he didn't want to learn to go potty. He just didn't listen to the rules. MOST important rule. POOP in the toilet. Not in your undies. We told him I think at least a thousand times, along with spanked bottoms, pinched bottoms, timeouts, toys taken away, threats, bribes, before he finally realized that he needed to go poop in the toilet and not his undies. He got the peeing thing down pretty quick and now he has the pooing thing down too! I am still 100% convinced that potty training is worse than giving birth. I can honestly say I'm not all too thrilled about doing this all over again in a few years with baby #3.
     E just recently had a doctor's appointment for his ears. He had fluid in them and a double ear-infection, so we took him in to see if he needed surgery to put tubes in his ears. Luckily for him, and us, his ears were perfect! They did a hearing test for him and it also turns out that he does NOT have a hearing problem. Which makes me wonder why he acts like he is deaf when I'm talking to him. Hmmm... E you have some explaining to do, because son, you are not hard of hearing.

Last news, which is pretty exciting too. Daddy M is doing magnificently in school. He is the top in his audiology class and I am so proud and thrilled for him! He did so well this last semester that he is able to TA for his professor's class. It's going to keep him on his toes with all the new students asking him questions that he'll need to know. I am just so excited that he has found something that he really enjoys. I'm excited that we'll be done in 2013 with BYU. Then on to his doctorate! I have to say that I am crazy jealous of him. I wish I was in school learning the things I love, so I can DO the things I love. Someday it will be my turn.

Guess Who's Back.

I honestly thought it would be so much easier to keep up with my blogging than it has been! Work just kicks my butt!  At least the rest of my family got to enjoy a winter break. We tried to potty train E during that period of time off, but it was less than successful. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't an absolute disaster. He did go potty lots of times in his little toilet, but the little buggar would sit on that thing for 1/2 an hour and as soon as we felt like we'd tortured the kid long enough, we let him up and usually he'd just pee all over the floor. And then instead of enthusiasm about potty-training, it became hate for potty-training. So, instead of force him to pee in the potty, we're letting the idea simmer for a while. I think the source of his resistance comes from how high maintenance it is to pee in a toilet. :) Who would have thought that?

A started school again and he surprises me every day. Daddy M told me that A wants to take a shower every day now. Why? Because some of the kids in his class stank and he doesn't want to be one of those kids. Honestly didn't think a 4 year old was that self aware.

The boys also bore their testimonies in church this last Sunday. I'm sad I didn't get to be there for it, but from what I hear, they did great. A needed a little reminder of what he wanted to say and then once E saw his brother do it, he was all for it! No help whatsoever.

Daddy M is thriving in school! He's doing so well and I love it. I'm just excited that we have another semester behind us! So if this goes the way we plan, he'll be done with his University schooling in 2 years and then we'll be on to getting his doctorate!

I'm still working. Lots and lots of working. And more working. It's a little stressful. Sometimes I don't really feel like my personality is suited for office politics and annoying people. But I'm doing the best I can. Maybe one day I'll just be my own boss and then I won't have to worry about getting fired, because-- I'll be the boss. :) Or I'll just be a dynamite stay at home mom some day. It could happen!

Sorry about no photos. I'll make Daddy M take more pictures while I'm at work.

Family Pictures

I've shared these pics online already. But heck! Why not put them on here too.

Aren't we cute!!!

We're still here!

I guess I can give an update on here. Heck why not! I miss not having the time to write posts. I am not sure what I've updated you all on. So forgive me for repeating myself if I do.

Daddy M is just finishing his semester of school! I'm so proud of him and the goals he's achieving. He got all As and only 1 B+ this semester! WHOO! I finally feel like we're well on our way to getting DONE with school. Even though that's still 6-8 years away. Now we just need to get me into school so I'm not finishing when I turn 40.

A just finished school. He's on winter break now. He is truly enjoying pre-school. We're thinking about applying to BYU's Kindergarden program as well. We've been talking to some other parents and they've told us that public kindergarden is a joke. I'm beginning to feel like public school, period, is just a joke... I just wish I had the confidence/desire to home school my kids, or the know-how really.

E has been his usual self. He's a little ornery still. He's very fun. He's getting better at talking. And he's ready to potty train! Daddy M found out a way to make him want to potty train. It was an accident really, but I'm glad he did it. While on Thanksgiving vacation Daddy M was changing his diaper and told him to get "his baby diaper." E freaked out. He started crying that he's a "big boy! and he can't wear baby diapers." So now we've really been milking that until we're ready to potty train him. ie after Daddy M is done with his finals and actually has the time to give attention to training him and now that he is on break, it's been go time for us! He's poo'd maybe twice in the toilet and pees in it all the time. I think he really loves the attention he gets every time we see pee in his little toilet. I hate potty training, but seeing his big, cheesy, accomplished grin seems to make it worth it. It's really a family affair. His big brother even gets into it! A will run around the house cheering for his little brother and announcing it to us like E's just won a gold medal.

As for me. I'm still working two jobs. I love my job at the hospital. I am currently training to do c-sections. I'm a scrub in the OR. It's pretty exciting and terrifying all at the same time. I've never done anything like this before. I've never been previously trained, so it's kind of stressful for me. But overall, the docs have been nice enough, which was my main concern. I'm learning what the instruments' names are, what their nicknames are, and what hand symbols to watch for from the doc. I'm almost done with training and then I'll be on my own!

Christmas is close! It's tomorrow! I can't believe this year has gone by so quickly. I'll have to put our Christmas card on here....ok, honestly, I probably won't have the time. My apologies if I didn't get one to you. I still love you--unless I don't know you or like you, then get off my blog. You're creeping me out.

:) 

A little bit about us this time of year

My apologies for the lack of posts on here. Considering that I'm the only one that posts and my workweek is on average 70 hours, it's hard to find time to get on here. You can feel consoled in the fact that not posting on here means that I'm with my kids, or passed out asleep! 

Before I update about my immediate family, here's a little news about my little brother. He was admitted to the hospital about a week or two ago. At first he had a swollen knee, fever of 105, and was vomiting. His b/p went down, wouldn't come back up, so he was turfed to the PICU. Long story short. He has the same thing my dad had a year ago. . . Strep A. (It ate my dad's arm basically.) He's had 4-5 surgeries since on his leg, thigh, and ankle. His skin was so inflamed, the surgeons couldn't close his incisions. Tomorrow, he has his last surgery to close up the rest of his incisions and then he should be able to go home the next day! It's been tough for him to be in the hospital. He missed his homecoming dance, the homecoming game that he was supposed to play in, and he missed the one game they have against their rival high school. We just feel so blessed that he didn't have to lose all his skin on his leg and have grafts like my dad. We're also so grateful that the infection did not spread further up into groin. Let's hope he'll get to go home tomorrow!

On to my oldest little man!

A  boy is in school now. He's been for about a month. He loves it! His teacher says he's always happy and so helpful to the other students. I am so proud of him and who he is becoming. He has some pretty weird, crazy, and irrational parents and he still seems to be turning out alright. A's thing to do right now is sing impromptu songs about anything and everything that he sees. We love his songs. I hope that he continues to feel confident about himself, it's fantastic!

And my youngest little man!

E boy is growing so fast! He's a spitfire of energy. He's a tad bit more rough than his brother is. But maybe that's just his age. I can't remember if A was this rough at E's age, until he learned to not be, or if he's always been more laid back. We've been half-heartedly trying to potty train E. And he is just not at all interested. Joy. There's just nothing like changing a poopy diaper from an almost 3 year old. E's thing to do right now tell us "I don' love you," when he's angry with Daddy or I. Good times! I didn't know this kind of attitude began at this age! Can't wait to see what my little bundle has in store for me!

Daddy M has been keeping busy busy! He's going to school full-time and studying full-time too it would seem. Something I think we'll all be glad to be done with some day. Right now we're both just glad to be getting done! 

And I am working two full-time jobs at the moment. I just got hired on at the hospital and even though I was hired on as PRN. They train you for 3-months full-time. So, I have been pulling quite a few hours. My ultimate goal is to be full-time at the hospital and part-time at the care center. I am hoping that opportunity will come up sooner rather than later. 

For now our family feels like we're being pulling in 7 different directions, but we love being busy! Especially when it's for our future! Keep us in your prayers, we need all the help we can get. If not to finish early, at least not to kill each other on the journey there. :)

Another Great Day

When I get to be home during the day. I try to take advantage of the outside. Especially now that summer is starting to say goodbye. The boys and I live outside if we can. And to fill our time, because sometimes the fun dirt just doesn't cut it. We take pictures!

And then we take pictures of the people that are still entertained by the dirt. Which is very cute!

And if you're cool like me, you let your son take your camera and let him take some pictures.

I'm holding the camera with him here.

I was the subject of his photography for a bit. Then our car was, and the tree, and the grass. I'll spare you those photos though.

I have to share a moment of insanity with you. I was cleaning my room earlier this year- like deep cleaning- and found a piece of candy that I didn't want to eat. So I pawned it off on our son E. He was glad to take it away for me and eat it. I told him to eat it in the kitchen so he didn't make a mess. For some reason, he felt that my instructions meant, Go hide in the kitchen under the table so no one can see you and eat as fast as you can. Daddy M found him and told me to come downstairs to see what I'd created. As soon as I saw my little boy slowly turning into a leprechaun, I ran and grabbed the camera and stuck him on the counter. His fingers were green for about 4 days. 

I found the cutest leprechaun in the world! (This could be a good idea for Halloween one day. He has the hair for it)

Boys and Bugs

On one of the beautiful summer days that I had off this year, my little boys and I sat outside for hours. What did we do? We played with a bug. Not just any bug. A leaf bug. We loved this leaf bug so much that we were thinking about making it our pet. But.... we decided it might live longer in the wild. It probably got eaten by a bird the minute we went inside though. I just know it!

Here is leaf bug. He hung out with us for a good few hours. He climbed on the boys.

He found spots to just sit and chill. And for some strange reason, never flew away from us. 

We were very nice to leaf bug. I made sure of that. There were some close calls in the tiny hands of E, but he made it out alright.

The silliest thing leaf bug did was crawl up E's head. Every time he found his shoulder, he climbed and climbed until he found E's fantastic red hair. And then he did not let go. E would shake his head back and forth as fast as he could and the bug just hung on. We had great fun with this! A got to have the bug on his head too. As soon as the creature got to his neck, A would laugh and laugh and laugh from being tickled by its little legs. I don't know if they'll remember this moment, but it was a good one for me.

Where'd he go? Where'd he go? *THERE he IS!*

Soccer

I need to make a new goal. Here it is: Post a new blog at least... every two weeks. That might be possible. I am so busy now, that I do not get the chance to get on here. But I still feel it's important to write about my kids' lives and what we are doing.

This fall A started playing soccer. He is one of the youngest on his team, so he does struggle a bit more, but I think now that he's almost done with his season, the coach has found out where he belongs. A is all DEFENDER! He does such a great job at staying back and protecting the goal. Although this year, he has scored a few goals. Some in the wrong net, but he was still absolutely thrilled. :) His favorite part of the games could arguably be the treats he got after the game. There were moments when we caught him doing somersaults on the grass. Picking the flowers. Running behind his team, smiling at us and not paying attention at all to what was going on. He is very fun to watch.

First day of practice

Go A!!

We did have a moment where he had a little melt down. A is very serious about rules. We told him that he had to run --> this way for the goal and when the other team went <--- this way... he kind of lost it and started yelling at the kids on the field. So he got to have a nice little Daddy talk. Apparently, he was very sad as well because he wanted to score a goal so bad.

He finally cheered up, played with his team. AND scored a goal! In the wrong one.... but he was still SOOO happy. :) He's #2 below.

The fan club

Talking strategy

The coach was so nice. A was having a tough time this game and the coach let him do the kick off a few times so he could actually touch the ball. Remember, he's one of the youngest kids out there. The oldest are six. He hung in there with them though and next year he'll be more prepared!

Belated News

It's been a little crazy around here. I've been working more than I ever thought I would in my life. For a while there it was like work was where I lived and home was just a place to sleep. But, I've finally managed to find some time to post a few things!

As birthday-
He turned 4 this year! It was such an exciting  birthday. We just had a BBQ outside with friends and family. And it was perfect! Here's just a few photos from the event. It was Cars themed this year.

 A has the perfect reactions to receiving gifts! If you want to borrow him for a party, it'll be $20/hour.

 E celebrated his big brothers' birthday party by stealing one of his presents- a cool talking sucker- and ate it. He looks like he had a tough fight with it aaaaand eventually won. . . barely.

 This was our little man's last gift from Mommy and Daddy. He was pretty excited about it, until he realized he had to ride on it. He's a bit scared of the bike, but we'll change that one of these days. His little brother.... absolutely loves it. We actually caught E later that day sitting on the seat leaning against the wall eating food.

 After the party, A tried his new bike. He was very excited until it started moving too fast for him.... a slow adult walk.

After the party, both boys crashed on our bed. There's just nothing like walking into a sheet ravaged bed to find the cutest little bed bugs on the planet!

Our first Hogle Zoo Trip-
We've never felt the need to drive 45 minutes to a Zoo, but we had our friend from France visiting us and figured that we could make that a little event with him.

 "Enough pictures Mommy." Is what this little face says to me. :)

 I'm not sure who really belongs in the zoo. The animals we saw or the little animals I'm raising! They might actually like living in the zoo though. I'd better not give them the idea that they can stay.

 This elephant sprayed water out it's trunk. There were too many excited people by it's head to actually get a picture up there, but I don't think my kids minded. A in the picture above, is actually happy. . . I think. I don't remember him being mad. I just think he's trying to copy a dinosaur we saw earlier. Yes, it was real dinosaur, they still exist at the Hogle Zoo!

 Daddy looked at this picture and asked us why we had to take a photo next to the creepy gorilla. Looking at the photo now, I'm not really sure why we thought this would be a good place for a photo. I just can't stop staring at that monkey's nipples.

 See! I told you they still existed. This one was domestic enough to let us ride on it's back. E and him got along very well actually. :P

 We thought this Camel's humps looked sooo strange. It looks to me like he used to have one big hump and then it got split in half. By this time, we were about ready to leave. So Mr. Camel was our last photo of the day.

Moving day!-
We also moved in July. I found some cute photos I took while we were packing the truck.

Here's my little helper boys.

One of my helper boys eventually crashed from exhaustion right on our lawn. It's tough being 2 1/2 and moving boxes.