Smiles

Phoenix is my 2 year old. I describe him as quiet and subdued, mellow, somber, and serious. Taking all of that into consideration, he is a flat out diva. We call him our drama queen. He puts on quite a show of emotions. But most of the time, he doesn't. He's either at one extreme or the other. He doesn't smile much, that's for sure. When I was his age I did. It wasn't til I got a little older that I didn't. As of now I think I smile enough, but it's true, I usually prefer a reason to. In my relaxed mode, in my neutral face, I'm not smiling. My comfortable face is a slight frown probably so who knows, the kid probably got it from me. I take full responsibility. I'm generally not a smiley person. I'm getting better, but not because I think it's necessary. Smiles and laughs are given or earned. They are part of opposition, and thus should not be spent every moment. That makes them less special. If I smile or laugh, there's usually a good reason.

Phoenix has been hard to catch. It's hard to make him smile and laugh. But when he does....it's pure joy. His smiles are so great and huge! I remember when he was a baby. He would give them freely. The same big, dimply, pear shaped smile. Now I have to earn them. That's fine. Like I said, he takes after his mom. When I saw him looking so cute in the tub I thought I'd get a couple pictures. I was thrilled that he was all smiles for me.
Marcelus

Temple Work

Sharrid has been working on his family history most of our marriage. He is the first and only baptized member of his family, so he's starting from scratch with no help. He's been able to get enough information to start his pedigree and go back a couple generations. We have been working on his names lately with the new family search. We had all the information, we just needed to plug it in. I signed us up for a new family search Sunday school class for extra motivation and to keep it on our minds.

This past Saturday we were able to go and perform 4 male baptisms and 3 female baptisms. We have 2 more names that are ready but need permission from his dad. Sharrid will be working on that but we took the ones we could do. We also did the confirmations for his people. The next time we go, we'll be able to do the initiatory work and endowments.

This time around Sharrid was baptized for the 4 males he had, then he baptized my cousin Karena for the 3 females we had. I wasn't baptized because I'm pregnant and didn't know if it was okay or not to be in the font. I stood against the railing and watched them all. Then Sharrid confirmed me for the females and he was confirmed for the males.

It all happened so fast that they just seemed like other names that have been in the temple waiting just like the rest but Sharrid knew some of these people we did the names for. It was great to get it all started. We'll have to start researching to fill up the rest of the pedigree and work on getting permission for the other two names that are ready.

I don't know why Sharrid didn't smile in these pictures. He was having an "off" day though. He wasn't really himself and I knew it when we ate in the cafeteria and he didn't eat anything! That's not Sharrid! Temple food...YUM!

Saying Funny Things

Marcelus (when opening the front door to no one): "There were no costumers."

Marcelus: Mom, I don't want to be brown. I want to be white.
Me: But Phoenix is brown and daddy is brown....Mommy's white.
Marcelus: No, daddy is black. Wait a minute! ...I want to be brown.

Marcelus to me: "You have to go to the doctor if you want a baby."

Marce is funny. After my first appointment, we got in the car and he said "Where's the baby?" I had to try and tell him how long it takes. Poor kid is so confused! It'll be an interesting pregnancy with a 4 1/2 year old!

Here We Go Again

It's been really up and down, but the fact is I'm pregnant. I thought I was going to lose the pregnancy early on because I went boating. Long story short, after a couple weeks of no symptoms of miscarriage I knew that I was past that and that if I miscarried, it was for other reasons. I just had my first Ultrasound and another twist in the game is that they told me that I am 2 weeks behind what they originally told me. Meaning, my due date is not April 20th but rather May 2nd...bummer. Also they told me that I had probably originally conceived twins but lost one because there is only one baby but I have some "bleeds" inside. For a split second there the doctor mentioned twins and I had to wrap my mind around that before he then told us that we only have one baby in there now. You have to keep in mind that during my ultrasound I can't see the screens because of my eyesight. And, because I am only 7 1/2 weeks rather than 9 1/2 weeks, it was too early to even hear the heartbeat. You could see it, but not me. I have been telling the people that knew I was pregnant before now that I had a feeling I was having twins because of the way my body was already changing at 5 and 6 weeks. Even for a 4th pregnancy, it was not normal to me. Now I know my hunch was right, but at the end of the day, we are so far, having one baby. The thought of twins is a bit exciting, but for me it would mean 2 things. #1 It is hard enough for our family to function as is with my handicap - adding one child is hard enough, adding 2 at the same time, horrendous. #2 I am pretty strong and do really well with my babies even though it takes me to the limits. But I know that my babies would be in danger right from the start because of my size. They'd have to take them early and would it be too early? And what about me, it would scar my body beyond repair probably. We'd probably definitely be done after that automatically. Needless to say, it is a blessing we are having one baby!

The doctor did tell me that even though I have "bleeds" and I lost the so called twin, that the baby that is in there has no extra danger or chance of miscarry than normal. The baby has a heart rate of 149 which they said was great. I figure since I'm announcing it on the blog and FB, the only people who won't know is my ward, but I'm not worried about it because at the rate I'm going I'll be showing enough to tell very soon anyway. It's early on but we hope for a healthy pregnancy. If all goes well, we'll be finding the gender at Thanksgiving time. I'm hoping for a girl, for Marce...and to even things out a bit.

After I decided not to pursue treatment in China for many reasons that deserve their own post, we knew that we had to move on with life. As difficult as it is for us, we have to keep going, and make it work. The fact is we're not done having kids and I'm not going to wait around for treatment that doesn't exist right now. If we can have our kids and hang on and try and give them every opportunity they deserve, and their happy with it, that's what we want to do because in the end it's going to be them that are probably going to help me more than anyone.

Levi's Birthday

My youngest nephew turns 3 today! He had a Tyrone (Backyardigans) party on Saturday night. Connie made the coolest Tyrone cake! I have got to get me a cake decorating kit!

She also made him a birthday crown. Levi really likes the episode where Tyrone is a brave knight so it says "Sir Levi" on it and has Tyrone the knight. Awesome. Grandma Willard (Me & Connie's mom) got him the Prince Phillip plush doll and the sword. He is obsessed with Prince Phillip so it was a perfect gift! He wouldn't let go of Prince Phillip, even for Tyrone cake. So Prince Phillip ate Tyrone cake with us. :) I got him star wars action figures and a star wars book. Plus a little skateboard. I knew both her boys would like the loot :) The kids got cute hats and masks. It was a great party for the kids and a great get together for the adults. Happy Birthday Levi. At one point my sister had 3 kids under the age of 3. Now, her youngest is 3. Time flies when you're having fun!

Preschool

Marcelus started Preschool on Aug. 16th but then missed almost 2 weeks worth of class (5 days total). He had to catch up on the academic side and on the schedule/routine/rules side. I was so happy when his teacher told me she needed to talk to me today when we picked him up. Well, actually at first I was nervous that Marce had misbehaved. She wanted to tell me how awesome Marce did today with everything. His work, rule keeping, and participation. I was a pretty happy mom. I often remind Marcelus to be good, be obedient to his teacher and follow the rules. I don't want my boy being the one whose misbehaving and being a bad example in school or church. Marce is listening to me and doing great. He is funny and will tell me the bad things the other kids do. Like, so and so yelled too loud today and had to sit in the thinking chair. Or so and so was wrestling today but I didn't wrestle. I wish I could go into his class and observe invisibly. But I just talk to him about being good and trust him. He has always been very smart in certain areas. He always seems older and more mature to me than his age tells.

Here he is with his book bag they made in class, and his folder that was issued. This was Marcelus' first homework sheet. We've had a great time with his homework! I am so impressed with how much he's learning already, and how his writing is improving. I noticed him counting his chore chart stars the other day. He counted 14 with no problem at all. He used to mix them all up past 10. What impressed me most was him writing his name for the first time at home! He wrote the "M" but then needed to look at his folder to see the other letters. He looked at them and then wrote them. He had a little trouble with the "C" but overall I was so surprised at how well he did. He is learning a lot and I'm really happy with his Preschool and teacher. Since school started we have been doing the kids' chore charts. They get stars for each chore they do, and then when the chart is pretty much full, I take them off and count them. Marce gets money for his stars so he can buy his own toys. He'll have to save up for bigger toys but he saw a pair of $3 white star wars sunglasses at Payless last week and really wanted them. Since he already has a pair of sunglasses that he doesn't wear very often I said no and that if he really wanted them he'd have to wait til he had some money from chores. He has remembered those glasses and I'm sure we'll be back to get them soon! I'm glad I am teaching them to work and about earning money and being responsible for buying their own toys.

Summer stinks compared to this. I am really liking the schedule and routine we have going with his schooling. Plus it will start cooling off the next couple of months. I am ready for Fall!