30 minutes!

When I got my elliptical machine for Christmas I started out exercising with it for about 10-15 minutes a day. My goal has been to work up to half an hour and I'm pleased to announce that I made it to 30 minutes yesterday! It's a little bit more difficult when you're 9 months pregnant, it took me extra time to get to this point, but now I'm feeling great! The key for me is to keep my mind busy while I'm working out. For the first 15 minutes I read general conference talks and then I usually put in one of my Cosby Show DVD's (thanks Kelley!) during the last half of the workout...it's nice that the kids enjoy the Cosby Show too.

Today I read a really good talk that President Hinckley gave during the Priesthood session and since the women don't attend that, I thought I'd share a couple of my favorite quotes. The talk is titled, Slow to Anger.

"It is when we become angry that we get into trouble.....So many of us make a great fuss of matters of small consequence. We are so easily offended. Happy is the man who can brush aside the offending remarks of another and go on his way. Grudges, if left to fest, can become serious maladies. Like a painful ailment they can absorb all of our time and attention."

I know that I am guilty of being angry at times, though I'm continually praying for more patience. And I know that things that I do and say sometimes anger others, though I hope they know that I don't do this on purpose...I suppose I just have one of those personalities that others get offended by easily. I'm not easily offended and so I tend to think everyone is this way and then I express my opinions freely and I get myself into trouble. I'll see what I can do to work on that. President Hinckley shared inspirational verses written by Charles W. Penrose :

"School thy feelings, O my brother;
Train thy warm, impulsive soul.
Do not its emotions smother, But let wisdom's voice control.
School thy feelings; there is power
In the cool, collected mind.
Passion shatters reason's tower,
Makes the clearest vision blind...."

FHE funnel cakes

Last night after our Family Home Evening lesson we made funnel cakes. My mom got us a funnel cake kit a couple of months ago and we decided to pull it out and use it as our activity and treat for FHE. They were SO yummy! A little too yummy... we ate so much that a few of us had tummy aches afterwards. I suppose we needed to exercise a little more self control :). My kids (mostly Elisabeth) can be pretty picky eaters and refuse to try new things but they did and really liked them. Now I just need to find a recipe for funnel cakes because the mix that came with the kit is almost gone.

Beloved Prophet

Last night President Gordon B. Hinckley (Prophet) passed away at the age of 97. I'm so grateful for the time we've been able to have him as our Prophet, I'll miss him dearly. He was such a sweet, funny, intelligent, and loving man who did so many great things for the world. He was great for public relations, always did and said the right things, and I loved in his talks when he spoke to the women, you could tell that he loved us all. Thanks Stacie for posting this quote on your blog, I loved it too! "Do the best you can. And remember that the greatest asset you have in this world is those children who you've brought into the world, and for whose nurture and care you're responsible" (President Hinckley, News conference in Salt Lake City, March 13, 1995).

Party!

On Thursday, Scott's birthday, we had a special breakfast and dinner(thanks Angela and Scott for the Omaha steaks, Scott was excited to eat them!) and he opened his gifts. Then last night, Friday, was our scheduled date to celebrate Scott's birthday. Our friends the Arkell's watched our kids for us while Scott and I went to dinner at the Macaroni Grill (thanks mom and dad for the gift card!) and then afterwards we went back to the Arkells to sing Happy Birthday and eat the cookie cakes. This is the third year in a row that Scott has requested a cookie cake for his birthday...I think he gets sick of all the cake we eat through out the year since I like to decorate :); and he even requested that the cookie cake have peanut butter frosting on top. I wouldn't be able to decorate very well with peanut butter frosting but I was determined to use my skills some how so I decided to make 2 cookie cakes, one was plain with peanut butter frosting and the other I decorated with the Atlanta Braves logo on it which is Scott's favorite team. We don't get to go out on dates often so this was a special treat(thanks Arkell's!).

Cookie cake pictures:After eating the cookie, the kids were being pretty silly: Elisabeth, Evan and Sara

Elisabeth painted and colored this picture all by herself, minus the 'happy birthday daddy' part. She didn't even need help writing her name, which is pretty hard considering she has 9 letters! It's the first time I had seen her write her name so nice, neat and in a row!Almost brought tears to my eyes :), okay not really. And she recently learned how to draw people which you can see on the far right hand side.

Happy 27th Birthday Scott(Daddy)!

Ten things we love about our man:

1. "I love to play with daddy. I love to ride on him."-Elisabeth
Wherever I am in the house, I always know when Scott walks in the door from work because the kids go wild with excitement! He takes them into his arms and gives them lots of love and then he gets on his hands and knees and plays with them.
2. Scott is very smart and is a hard worker. We met in college at BYU and he just got his masters degree from UW this past June, and during this whole time he has also worked to support our family.
3. He is definitely a family man. Even with all the school work and job work that he has to do, he always manages to have plenty of time for us and we love every minute of it! When daddy is home, it's heaven on earth!
4. He's a good example to us in many ways. He's always improving himself and never finds fault with the rest of us so of course we are very willing to follow his loving example.
5. Scott served a mission in Italy and the Elders mostly cooked for themselves which is a blessing to us because he is great in the kitchen! He's a terrific cook and baker.
6. When Scott is home, he's always helping me out with things. He helps take out the trash, change diapers, get the kids bathed and ready for bed, cooks, helps with dishes, happily folds laundry (I think he uses this more of an excuse to watch a little sports on tv while folding, but that's okay with me:)), and much more.
7. He is loving. He can be so tender and sweet and he loves to see us happy. He supports me and the kids with our different projects and activities.
8. He starts and finishes projects. This goes along with him being a hard worker, he's not one to just sit around and do nothing. He likes to have projects to keep him busy when he has free time, he likes to improve our surroundings which we also benefit from.
9. He's patient. This is part of what makes him a good teacher and loving father and husband.
10. He took me to the temple and gave me a beautiful and eternal family.

Snow, again

Sometime between late last night and early this morning we got about 10 inches of snow. We've had so much snow this year already it's crazy! And no one from the city came to plow our neighborhood, so all day I watched as cars struggled to get out and about. Our sweet neighbors came by in the morning and cleared our driveway and sidewalks which was so nice, but it's still hard to get cars over the mounds of snow. The kids and I went out a couple of times today and played, cleared more snow, and played some more.

Wolverine? What!?

I saw X-Men quite some time ago. Hugh Jackman played Wolverine and that's pretty much all I'd ever seen of the actor. Last year when we had netflix, I rented Oklahoma thinking it was the movie that I'd seen years before but it was actually a broadway musical turned into a movie....when I realized this I was a bit disappointed until the opening scene when, to my surprise, Hugh Jackman stepped out and started singing, and really well! This was my favorite number:

Healings

Yesterday was a terrible day. I woke up around 430am feeling so sick. Scott went to work around 7am and then Charles and I got up around 8am and I threw up, a lot. I got the kids some cereal and then laid on the couch. After an hour or two I was able to get down about a half a piece of toast but then within the hour it came back out again. I called Scott and let him know what was going on and he decided to leave work early. He got home around noon, just in time to make the kids lunch and put them down for naps. I had been resting before Scott got home; I just let the kids make a mess with all their toys and then thankfully Elisabeth decided to turn on Polar Express (I was wondering awhile ago if I never should have taught her how to get a DVD going by herself, but yesterday that skill came in handy :)).

While the kids were napping Scott started to get chills and his body was really achy so he laid down as well. The kids woke up and played with their toys while their sad parents miserably laid down on the bed and couch. Charles had a huge diarrhea that went out his diaper and all up his back, so I got up and cleaned him and while I was up I warmed them up some chicken for dinner. As Charles was finishing his dinner he started to cry and then threw everything up all over the table. I knew this was going to put me over the edge again so I called to Scott for help and went back to bed. All day I had been thinking, 'I need to try and keep some of this food down because if I can't by tomorrow then I'm going to have to get an IV(because of the baby) and I really don't want to do that...' I was a bit doubtful with all of my 'if' questions. Just after the kids went to bed I asked Scott if he could call someone to give us a priesthood blessing because I didn't see how we were going to make it through another day like this with sick Charles and a sick Mommy and Daddy. He did, and about 20 minutes later Brian and Greg (a couple of our neighbors) showed up and they gave us each a blessing. After the blessing Greg shared a couple of stories with us on blessings and he also shared his testimony with us on faith and healings. When they left something happened. I no longer had those 'if' questions but instead I knew that I would be better tomorrow morning after I had rested. Just before I went to sleep I took a half a unisom and a B6(something I did to help with nausea in the beginning of pregnancy), and then I said my prayers and went to sleep.

When I woke up this morning just before 8am I felt normal again, in fact I felt better than normal, I had so much strength and energy! I knew that the Lord had blessed me according to my faith and that today I would be able to take care of my family again. I felt like I had been taught a lesson though I wasn't exactly sure what it was, or at least how to put it in words. So this morning during my scripture study I read some scriptures from the Bible on faith and healings, especially when Jesus was among us blessing the sick and the afflicted. Then I looked up faith in the bible dictionary and in the first paragraph I read that, "Faith is kindled by hearing the testimony of those who have faith." and I knew immediately that was what happened the night before. The dictionary goes on to say that, "Faith is a principle of action...true faith always moves its possessor to some kind of physical and mental action....Although faith is a gift, it must be cultured and sought after until it grows from a tiny seed to a great tree." My increased faith and the blessing that I received changed the way I thought and because of that change I was able to get better quickly. I am so grateful for this gospel and for the power of the priesthood. I'm also grateful to those who are willing and courageous enough to share their testimonies with others so that we too can become stronger. I love the Lord with all my heart and know that He loves everyone of us and wants to bless us.

Sick Children Update

The last time Elisabeth threw up was at Charlie's doctor's appointment, so that's good news. The last time Charles threw up was around 1230am this morning so that's good news too. The bad news is that now we're on to stage two of this sickness which is diarrhea. Elisabeth doesn't have it too bad, she only went a few times today but Charles has been going every 5-10 minutes for the last few hours. Too avoid a really sore bum we're changing his diapers immediately, using water on a paper towel or toilet paper to wipe him up (instead of baby wipes) and we've been putting either vaseline or desitin on after each change...so far it doesn't look too red and painful so that's the other good news....and they're both still in pretty good spirits. We're always praying for them and we hope that all this yucky stuff ends soon.

Charlie's 2 year wellness checkup

The night before Charlie's wellness doctor appointment Elisabeth woke up at 1130pm and threw up. We brought her upstairs to our bedroom and made a little bed for her on the floor. She threw up 4 more times within an hour and a half but then was able to sleep through the rest of the night. I reviewed my doctor's website the next morning which says to only give specific liquids the first 8 hours after throwing up and then the next 8 hours you can give some bland foods. When she woke up I just gave her sips of water and then towards the early afternoon I gave her half a banana and a couple of saltines with peanut butter. Still no more vomiting so that was good. Afterwards the kids took naps and I woke them up about an hour and a half later so that we could go to Char's doctor appointment. The appointment went well, Charlie's healthy and doing great and they didn't give him any shots! He weighs 25 lbs. 12 oz. and is 33 inches tall. When we were finishing up our visit Elisabeth gets out of her chair (she'd been sitting so quietly and still the whole time because she's sick), walks over to me and makes a funny face and a little groan. I asked her what was up and she just stood there. I asked if she felt sick and she nodded her head. Then I asked if she was going to throw up and again she nodded her head. The doctor said she'd grab a throw up bowl and while she was looking I watched Elisabeth and noticed she was swallowing a lot of saliva (which is something I always do just before I throw up...it's weird how you make so much more saliva right before it happens)so I quickly picked her up facing out and rushed her over to the sink. She threw up quite a bit, luckily most of if landed in the sink though she did get some on her clothes and a little bit on the carpet as well. So we had to go back to strictly liquids again for the rest of the day. It was kind of nice that it happened at the doctor's office so that she(the doctor) could see what was going on and give a little advice without having to charge me for an extra sick visit, perhaps I shouldn't be thinking of things like that but I do, and I notice when Heavenly Father tries to help us out in little ways like this.

Early this morning Charles woke up and his pajamas and sheets were a bit wet. He had thrown up some water apparently. So now I have two sick kiddos. Elisabeth hasn't thrown up since yesterday afternoon so this morning I gave her some eggs in bed(she's too weak to walk around since she hasn't eaten much over the last day and a half) and then she went back to sleep, and she's still in bed resting now. I'm glad that this doesn't happen often, and when it does it makes me realize how grateful I am to normally have a pretty healthy family, minus runny noses :), one of us always has that. In fact Charles had a yucky nose on his birthday and the next day I decided to withhold any sugary foods from his diet to help him fight things off but that didn't work because later that afternoon while I was in the living room with Elisabeth, he pulled a chair over to the counter, climbed on top, opened up my cake carrying tupperware and grabbed a couple of big handfuls of his leftover Lightning McQueen cake and shoved them in his mouth. I grabbed my camera and took a picture to view for my later enjoyment :)

Book Reviews

Over the past couple of months I've been reading a few of Scott Westerfeld and Shannon Hale books. Scott Westerfeld wrote the Uglies series which include:
Uglies











Pretties










Specials

These books take place in the future, some of the things Westerfeld has come up with are neat, but some are really weird and creepy. It's basically about a civilization in which everyone has an operation when they turn sixteen, making them extremely beautiful. Big eyes, full lips, no one fat or skinny.... the rationalization is that everyone is equal and there won't be any prejudices against types of people. It seems like an okay thing, but you later find out why it's not. I read these through pretty quick, wanting to know what would happen, but overall I really didn't like them. Of the three I thought the first one was the best, Uglies, it was actually pretty good. Pretties was okay, but it started to get a little dark and the Specials I didn't enjoy at all but just needed to get through it to see how the author decided to close everything. I don't think I'm a really picky or hard critic...I like most books as long as they're squeaky clean...and though the Uglies were pretty clean the last two books made me feel weird, I hated that there were 'cutters' (people who cut themselves for a rush or to think clearly) and other kinda wacko things like that.

I read Shannon Hale's Goose Girl and Princess Academy after receiving recommendations through comments on my last book review blog. I really liked these books. Between the two, I liked Goose Girl best. They were entertaining, really clean, had sweet love stories and the legends behind them were pretty interesting.

Becca and Bella

Last Friday December 28th, my sister Becca and her daughter Bella(16 months old) flew out from Seattle to visit us and they just left this morning. It was so nice to have them here. I loved having another adult around during the day to stay at home with us and just talk, especially since we no longer have much family around. The kids played so well together(besides Charles constantly wanting to lay on top of Bella, though he wasn't trying to be mean), they entertained each other and Becca and I got to talk and relax and enjoy one another's company. Becca was so sweet and was always helping me with dishes and other household chores.
Becca is a fantastic hairdresser and so whenever I see her she does something with my hair. She chopped it last week, it hasn't been this short since I was in middle school. I was really nervous about it at first but I really like it now. It's just barely long enough to fit into a ponytail though I have to use several bobby pins to keep it all back. It also is a little bit longer in the front than in the back. This is not a great picture, but it's the best I can do at 35 weeks of being pregnant(I know, my face is really wide right now).

Becca is 2 years younger than me and it's interesting because growing up people didn't really tell us that we looked alike, but since she's been out here lot's of people have said we look very much alike and in fact 3 times we were asked if we were twins! I just think that's incredible because she is this beauty and I am huge and very ordinary looking so I hope she didn't feel bad that people thought we could possibly be twins. Now Charles and Bella on the other hand look quite a bit a like, in fact they look much more like brother and sister than Charles and Elisabeth. We were so sad to see them go and today seemed to go by so much slower than from when they were with us. Also Scott has had more time off recently because of holidays but now he's back to working full time all week which we don't like, but deal with. The one thought that gives me much comfort right now is the fact that my mom will be coming to stay with us next month around the time that the baby arrives. 5 more weeks!

Happy 2nd Birthday Charles!

In honor of Charlie's second birthday I've decided to post a picture for every 6 months of his life starting from his birth:

Newborn

6 months1 year

1 and 1/2 years
2 years(today!)

Excuse the last picture, he was sick today and so his face was a bit red, he's holding his comfort blanket and he had a hard time smiling, in fact I think this is the only one of 20 where I got him to smile(probably because he was near his Lightning McQueen cake).

It's amazing to me how much they change just over these first couple years of life! He was such a jolly chunk for awhile with big gaps in between his teeth(but of course, extremely adorable to me) and now he is turning into such a handsome little boy. Happy Birthday Lovies!!!

Our first Christmas on our own

I was a little nervous about how Christmas would turn out this year since it would be our first Christmas without having other extended family around. So I made lists of activities and different traditions that we wanted to start with our family and had a plan ready for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day so that I wouldn't have much time to think about how I was missing being with other family. Our Christmas turned out wonderfully, we were all so happy to have lots of time to spend with one another doing fun things and remembering our Savior's birth. Christmas Eve (day) we made lots of treats and prepared plates to give out to our neighbors. Elisabeth and I made the deliveries and then our friends the Arkell's came by for a little while to play. After they left we had dinner and then did our live nativity; we had been leading up to the story of Jesus birth all week by retelling the story of Zacharias and Elisabeth and the angel coming to see Mary and Joseph. (Below are a couple of really short clips, mostly to show the costumes and the kids...we tried to edit ourselves out as much as we could so as not to disturb you viewers :))



The kids loved dressing up, Charles as a shepard and Elisabeth as an angel, and in fact we had a bit of a struggle later on that night trying to convince Elisabeth to change out of her angel costume and into pajamas...she would much rather have slept in her beautiful angel dress. Christmas night both the kids slept fine but Scott kept waking up because he was anxious about his big surprise for me...my elliptical machine! It was a TOTAL surprise(a complete blessing/miracle) and there's a long story behind that so I might try and post a blog about that later. The kids got up around 7am, I put the monkey buns in the oven, we opened our stockings and then got started on the gifts. We had a hard time getting Charles to open his gifts because the kids got a basketball hoop from Santa that was just sitting out and Charles just wanted to be left alone to play with it. But we got through all the unwrapping and then just relaxed in our pj's for hours and played with our new toys and watched Joy to the World. Later that afternoon we got dressed and Scott and I made some authentic enchiladas and refried beans and brought them over to our neighbors who had invited us over for a Mexican feast....we already had all the makings for mexican food because we'd been planning on doing that for Christmas dinner for awhile so when they invited us over and told us what they'd be serving we decided we'd just add to what they had. We had such a nice time with their family, they had 2 of their daughters there, one brought her fiance, and their parents came over as well (they were probably in their 80's, and I felt so at home and comfortable with them, I love the elderly and maybe part of that is due to the fact that my dad is 81). We got to talk with our families over the phone and of course we would have loved to be with them, but even on our own, Christmas was wonderful!

Merry Christmas

Josh Groban with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir

Holiday Activities Continued...

Last week we made some reindeer bell necklaces. The kids love wearing them, I'm glad Scott remembered this idea from his childhood. We bought some lofthouse cookies (my favorite store bought cookie, I know that lots of you can't stand these but I think they're great!) and I'm proud to say that it took us 3 days to finish the box of 10...I didn't know if I could control myself, but I think I did pretty good :). The kids LOVED these too (probably because they're loaded with icing, that's why I like them too)! Thursday night I drove down to my Aunt and Uncles in Orem during the middle of an awful snowstorm. We said lots of prayers and thankfully made it there safely, though it took 3 times as long as it usually does because the snow was falling down so thick and the wind was blowing so hard that no one could see out of their driver side windows(which meant no lane changing and there were only three made up lanes instead of the normal 5). While on the freeway everyone was driving from about 5-35mph, we never went faster. Scott took a bus from SLC and met us there about an hour later and then we started our family Christmas party. We had a lot of fun, ate pizza and treats, decorated a gingerbread house and did a white elephant gift exchange. Since the travel time was so much longer, we didn't get started until quite a bit later which meant we didn't get home until quite a bit later. Charles was pretty pooped by the end. Here he is waiting so patiently on the couch while we get Elisabeth ready for bed: Yesterday we had some old friends from Wymount over for a little Christmas party. It was so good to see everyone, and we missed the ones that couldn't make it out, we'll have to do it again sometime. If anyone reads this that was with us in Wymount and lives around here but that I didn't talk to about the party, let me know and next time we do something I'll be sure to include you.

Elisa wanted me to share this post from my blog

http://bigbabbo.blogspot.com/2007/12/ben-stein-on-christmas.html

Charles in Charge

Charles likes to do everything that the 'big people' are doing and more. He's nearly two, he talks and understands so much and feels like a very independent being. Most of the time I encourage him with his independence, for example he loves to help unload the dishwasher, but I don't want him helping with the breakable plates and bowls and glasses etc. so I pull out the silverware tray and let him put all those away while I quickly try and put everything else away so that we'll hopefully finish about the same time. When Daddy gets home from work, and opens the silverware drawer before dinner, he can always tell when I've had some help :).

Charles also likes to climb in our cupboards with a couple of small toys and play with them in a mostly dark area (he also closes the cupboard most of the way). I usually have to intervene fairly quickly because his favorite cupboard to play in is the one just under the sink and he loves to mess with the pipes, I know, not good. And if you look in the picture below you'll notice that the expression on his face doesn't say, 'oh no, I've been caught again doing something I know is naughty, I feel so bad.' but is actually one of happiness . Oh well, what can you do? Take a picture :), because it makes you feel better (well at least it makes me feel better, kind of lightens the mood)Another place he likes to just stand for awhile very quietly is in our fridge. He'll climb up on the first little ledge and then have the door close on him as far as it can get (which is almost completely shut) so when I'm looking for him in the house it's not a very noticeable spot and sometimes I have to search every room a couple of times before I remember this little trick of his.