Called to Serve

It's really hard for me to believe my little brother Brandon is now 19 years old and ready to serve a mission! I can totally remember the day my parents told us they were pregnant, the day he was born, and the first time I got to hold him in the hospital. And now he's old enough to go out into the world and serve a mission! CRAZY how fast time flies!!

I have two other siblings who have served missions, but I unfortunately didn't get to be present when either opened their call. So there was no way I was going to miss this one! His call came in the mail on Wednesday to my parents' home. They had to drive it down to Provo where my brother goes to school and because of different issues, he didn't get to open it until after 10:30 PM. Both Dan and I got to be there thanks to Marion's sweet willingness to stay with our kids at that late hour. (THANKS AGAIN!!)

The Big White Envelope!!

None of our other siblings were able to be there when he opened it, but we had all four of them on our cell phones so that they all could hear.

Reading the letter surrounded by phones

He's been called to labor in the NEW YORK NEW YORK NORTH MISSION and will teach in the SPANISH LANGUAGE!!

The shock sets in after reading "Spanish"

How many people can you talk to at once?

We're so excited for him! He'll go into the MTC mid June. Turns out his mission is getting a new mission president just before he gets there, and it's someone my dad has worked with as well as the former bishop of my mom's visiting teacher! Small world!

Thankful Friday

A lot of things combined to make me skip posting yesterday, so I hope it's okay this is a day late.

1. My little brother got his mission call!! This deserves it's own post.

2. For one night only, pigs could fly. How do I know this? Last week out of the blue Jossy slept through the night for the first time ever!! She went from 8:40 PM til 8:15 AM. Too bad I couldn't sleep as well as her (wasn't in my own bed) but I still appreciated a night of not getting up with her all night! Maybe someday pigs will fly again. :)

3. Cookie dough. Yumm-o.

4. Caring friends. It was nice to have friends (like her and her) ask if I was okay when I didn't post my Thankful Thursday yesterday. It's nice to know people care about you. :)

Idaho Trip

I've been in a funk since Monday. Rather than talk about what's wrong, I think I'll just sit here eating ice cream and share some pictures from our quick trip to Idaho last week. We went to visit Dan's family. His brother was visiting for a short while from Washington, and since it'd been 2 years since we'd seen him we had to go. We would've stayed longer but Dan couldn't take off more than a day of work and we wanted to be back before church Sunday since there was a big change for our ward. Anyway, here are a few highlights:

We spent some time at the river by the Idaho Falls temple. Matty enjoys feeding the ducks.

It was nice for Dan to get to spend some time with his siblings. It's not often they're all together.
Matty got to know his Uncle Joe better and learned why he's a favorite among the cousins. Here they are having fun together at an arcade.
Dan with his dad and brother.
Right before we left town, Dan and 2 of his siblings went to rock wall climb. The rest of us went to watch.

Thankful Thursday

100% not in the mood for this right now, but I've only missed one Thursday I believe in about a year. Bad mood won't stop me from coming up with at least a few things.

1. The kids are on the mend. Even if I feel like total crap, at least they're getting better.

2. Warmer weather. Can't be said enough. Thank goodness for spring on the way!

3. Life isn't a race. Even when it's hard not to compare myself to others, I'm glad that my Heavenly Father doesn't.

Sunday Stroll

Sunday afternoon we decided to get out of the house for a bit. It was a beautiful day so we took some cupcakes and had a little dessert picnic across the street from the Temple. Then we moseyed on over to the temple grounds and enjoyed a nice stroll. Off course the camera had to come along, which means you all have to suffer looking at some pictures.

Matty kept getting ahead of us and had to patiently wait for ol' Mom and Dad to catch up.

Such a beautiful place to go for a stroll, don't you think?

Luau

Saturday we went to a ward luau. We all dressed in our tropical best including Dan who wore his lava-lava. Dan and I had a great time (even with Matty's infinite whining.) It was wonderful to see many former ward members who had come back to visit. We miss all our friends who have moved on!
Some of the men in the ward learned and then performed the Haka. Loved watching my man do that!! Matty was demanding he dance on stage with his daddy. He didn't dance, but he sure looked cute standing there.
Love how Dan strategically got on his knee in a way that he wouldn't flash the whole ward. Don't know if anyone else had noticed, but it made me smile.

Breaking the Bank

Well, I guess I avoided the kids' illness long enough and now I'm feeling miserable. So what do you do when you're feeling too sick to move and the hubby has run out to get you some Gatorade and popsicles? Catch up on blogging of course! (Or at least as much as I can before he gets home and I get busted for being up.)

Matty's been saving money for quite a while, maybe a year or so. He takes whatever change we and his Grandma will give him. Last week he finally filled up his two little piggy banks. They were the type that had to be broken to get the money out, so we gave him a hammer and let him at it. He loved breaking those babies!!

When we added up the money from those piggy banks and his other bank (that doesn't have to be broken into) he had $9.26 in change!

So we let him pick where he wanted to go to spend his money. Of course he picked ToysRUs and chose to buy a "digger" as he calls them. He was very happy. (Mom had to chip in a couple bucks for him to get it, but I still feel like he learned a lesson about saving and buying things on his own.)
Now he wants to start saving for another toy!

Why Did I Teach My Kids to Share?

Attack of the Sleepless Kids

They may look innocent, but don't be fooled. Here's what happened last night:

8:00 Both kids in bed and asleep
11:00 Matty wakes up, says he has to tell me something, lays immediately back down and goes to sleep. Weird.
11:20 Dan and I ready to go to sleep
11:30 Jossy wakes up, rocked, put back to bed.
11:45 Repeat last step
12:15 Repeat last step
12:30 Dan and I finally get to go back to sleep.
2:30 Matty wakes up, I lay with him in his bed
3:00 Jossy's screaming, I leave Matty asleep in his bed, rock Jossy
3:30 Give up on rocking the screaming baby, bring her to bed with me just so I can rest
3:35 Matty awake, Dan goes to sleep with him
4:20 Jossy FINALLY goes back to sleep. I get Dan to bring him back to bed. I fall asleep sometime after 5.
6:00 Matty's awake, has peed through his pull-up onto his bed, we clean it up, Dan lays back down with him
6:50 Jossy awake, bring her to bed with me.
7:30 ish Both kids up

It's these nights that make me wonder why in the world I would want more kids someday.

Thankful Thursday

1. Sympathy. I didn't write my last post just to get sympathy, but that doesn't mean I don't really appreciate it. It means a lot to me to know I'm not the only one who's been through or is going through this. Hearing from all of you helps me feel like I'm not alone, so THANK YOU!!! Really, you give me strength.

2. Enrichment. Tonight was Stake Enrichment night. The biggest motivation for me going is usually just to get out of putting the kids to bed (silly, I know, but at least that gets me there.) Then I always have a wonderful time and feel so thankful I went.

3. An extremely supportive husband. Every time I find a new hobby I want to try or something I want to do, he's the first one in line to tell me how great I'd be at it and I should spend whatever I need to on it. I keep telling him he needs to not be so supportive because he's costing us a fortune!! :)

4. Matty's love for his sister. He's not always nice to her (mostly when she's getting into things that he's playing with) but he can be so sweet and caring. Today we were driving in a car with some friends when the other kids next to him were being really loud trying to keep their baby brother awake like they'd been asked to do. Matty got really upset and told me they were too loud. I said they were just trying to keep their brother awake. He said, "But their going to wake up my Jossy!" She had apparently just fallen asleep in her carseat. I love that he was so concerned about her. Today when he did something nice for her I praised him for being so good. He said, "I love her, but sometimes she makes me mad." I told him it's just like that in families. :)

Sleep Issues

I don't want to be blogging right now. What I really want is to be doing is sleeping. Unfortunately, that hasn't happened for over 9 months and tonight is no exception. I'm listening to Jossy scream her lungs out right now and I guess I need a little place to vent my frustration. I'm so sleep deprived some of this may not make much sense.

Jossy was asleep by 8, and by 9:30 had already woken up twice and needed put back to sleep. By the third time awake I felt done and decided to let her cry/scream for a while. We've always held her to sleep. I was so completely against that with Matty. I was determined from the day he came home from the hospital to make him fall asleep on his own, and he did! He was great at falling asleep by himself. We could swaddle him at church, lay him on the pew next to us, and he'd just look around quietly until he fell asleep. It was remarkable. I must've patted myself on the back too much for the great job I did getting him to sleep on his own. I think God has an interesting sense of humor giving me a baby that refuses to sleep by herself. I'm sure it's payback for taking too much credit for Matty. She's just completely different in every way.

We've tried letting her cry it out before, and it really doesn't work. It never worked with Matty either during those few spells when he had trouble sleeping. Frankly, it's hard to let her cry it out anyway because I fell bad for the neighbors since we're in the apartment. Plus, she's woken Matty more than once and there's nothing like having TWO awake kids in the middle of the night to make you appreciate having just ONE awake.

I'm totally rambling just trying not to hear her cry. The past few nights (weeks really) have been so much worse than before. She was getting up 2-3 times a night and going for a 4 hour stretch somewhere in there. It made me tired but I could handle it. Now we're lucky if we get a 2 hour stretch and she's up at least 5-6 times. It's REALLY exhausting me. Really, she's not slept through the night since she had a random stint of it at 2 months old for one week. I'm soooooooooooo tired of it. Coping with everyday life is so much harder on no sleep, and my exhaustion just feels like it's compounding week after week after week. After last night (a REALLY bad one,) I figured she needs to cry a little more. Maybe she can get a little more exhausted so that she sleeps more soundly? I don't know, I'm pulling at straws here. She's such a stubborn little girl that she really doesn't give into sleep easily even when we're holding her. She has so much energy that even as we're trying to hold her til she falls asleep, she's constantly kicking her feet or bouncing her legs right up until she's completely out.

I guess that's enough venting for now. Oh, and because I know someone is going to suggest some sleep book, just know I've read several and have few methods that I like, but I really think you have to be dedicated to a method to make it work and it's tough to have any kind of dedication when you're this exhausted. I just want some sleep!!

I'm done complaining now. Sorry.

Tact

Today Matty told me to find a toy of his and where it would be. I looked several times and told him it wasn't there. He insisted I needed to keep looking. To my surprise, we eventually found it. He said, "I told you, Mom!" I can handle being told I told you so . . . once. But he kept saying it over and over.

Finally I said, "Matty, there's a nicer way to say it." He said, "Like how?" I said, "You could just say, 'Oh look Mom! I was right!' " That seemed nicer to me than hearing I-told-you-so's over and over. He then said, "Oh look Mom! You were wrong!"

Lovely.

The Trouble With Being Mommy

There are several things I really don't like about being a mom. I don't like cleaning poo out of carpet and clothing, and I don't appreciate the lack of sleep that comes with the job. But I think my least favorite thing about being a mom is watching one of my kids suffer. I really hate when they're sick, and I always feel pressure because I'm the one responsible for deciding what's wrong, if they need medical attention, or if they just need some time and love.

Jossy woke up soon after going to bed Saturday night throwing up and with a raging fever. Her fever has gone as high as 104 and there have been times that fever reducers have done nothing. That first night up to 6:30 AM I had had only 20 minutes of sleep because she was so miserable all night and constantly crying to be held. Thankfully, the meds seem to be working a little better now as long as we keep on top of her doses.

Here she is Saturday night. We've had to strip her down to her diaper more than once because she was so hot and Tylenol was doing nothing. It's not good when your child feels as hot as a heating pad! (I would sweat just holding her!)
She seems to be doing a bit better, though her appetite is still not normal. She's more interested in crawling around again as opposed to just cuddling all day. Her fever doesn't seem to want to go completely away though. I guess if it's still around tomorrow we'll be heading off to the doctor. Matty and I both seem to have versions of what she has, but not nearly as severe . . . I hope.

Being an aunt sure is easier than being a mommy.

Thankful Thursday

I feel bad I only listed one item last time, so I feel the need to do a nice long list this week. :)

1. GROWTH! Jossy had her 9 month appointment today. She's now just over 16 lbs, which is up over 2 lbs in the past 2 months. YAY! She's back up to the tenth percentile (whereas she had fallen to the third before.) We talked for a long time with her doctor about how picky of an eater she is and he gave us some ideas for trying to get her to take in more protein. Hopefully they work and she'll gain even more.

2. Home movies. I grew up with a video camera in my face a lot. I really hated it as a teenager and even now don't love to be on film. But I must say I'm grateful to have all those fun home movies to watch of my childhood. I'm working on a project as a gift to my dad (shhhh! don't tell him!) and it's required me to watch a TON of home movies. It's actually quite fun to watch myself and my siblings grow up. It makes me realize how quickly my own kids are going to grow.

3. Lunch with my mom and my sister Dawn. It was just an impromptu thing one day this week as I was visiting my mom's house with the kids. We all went out to Subway (Matty's choice) and enjoyed ourselves.

4. A good book. What a great escape from the world!

5. A printer. I really don't use our printer that often. Just don't have need to I guess. But I'm still grateful to have one when we spent years of our marriage without one. It was a pain having to go other places to print anything.

6. Living within our means. I'm so grateful that this became a habit early in our marriage. It has protected us from excessive debt and heartache.

7. A living prophet. What an amazing, amazing blessing I so often forget or just don't think about.

8. Matty loves his Grandma. He's been sleeping over there for a few days just to give his mom and dad a little break, and he's having such a great time. He absolutely loves playing with his Grandma. They had fun baking cupcakes yesterday and decorating them with his great-grandma's help. I'm glad he's so happy there.


Are you feeling thankful for something? Have you tried doing your own Thankful Thursday? Go for it!!

Ambition

Jossy, like Matty, LOVES the keyboard and computer. She loves to hit the buttons and make things beep on the screen. She was absolutely thrilled when I let her actually sit up in the chair today as opposed to her just trying to reach the keyboard while standing on the floor.

I guess Dan's computer gene didn't skip this little girl. :)

9 Months?!!

It's hard for me to believe my little baby girl is 9 months already. If I had to describe her in one phrase it would be "on the move!" She just can't hold still! (Which, consequently, makes it nearly impossible to take a picture of her sitting!) She loves to explore and check everything out at home. She can walk holding onto furniture or the walls. She gets hurt alot, and I feel fairly confident in predicting that once her teeth come in she'll knock them out right away. When we're somewhere besides home, she's much more shy and slower to give in to her adventurous personality. Here favorite sound without a doubt is "Mom," but she uses it for everything, not just to describe me, so it's not really a first word . . . yet.

Jossy is really starting to shun baby food and wants to eat whatever her brother is having whether he wants to share or not. She definitely drives him crazy at times since she now gets into everything of his and wants to climb up him when he's sitting like she does her mommy. She loves to be tickled, tossed, hung upside down, and danced with. If you put music on she'll start bouncing her legs to dance. When strangers smile at her she smiles back with her "stinky face" with her nose all scrunched up.

She's our wild little girl! Not sure how we'll handle this fireball in coming years! :)