The Kids and Their Stories , March 11 thru Sept 11

Me and the three boys are looking at a big picture of dinosaurs in the wild. Isaac explains to us that "The volcanoes explode, then the dinosaurs turned into bones, and now we have our city!"

September 2011

Titus says his first words, "where doh?" (where did they go?) when his toy is lost during play with his Grammie.

August 2, 2011

Titus is a full fledged walker.

mid July 2011

Titus is practicing walking, going back and forth between two persons. Eli decides he needs to practice too! He purposely takes wobbly steps and falls down on his bum. We all applaud his efforts.

mid July 2011

Isaac is using the restroom during the first hour of church. Grammie (my mom) goes to check on him. She asks if he is okay and he replies, "Yeah! I got a burning poop going on in here!"

July 2011

We are at the pool standing in the food line for a treat. There is a shirtless 5 year old boy next to Eli. Eli is so enamored with this boys nipples, he cannot help himself and reaches up and pokes at one of them. The digs his finger in it!

July 2011

Eli is very whinny. I tell him to go to his room because "I don't want to hear it anymore." He screams while going there and Isaac says, "Mom I still hear him!"

June 2011

A whitehead formed in the middle of my forehead. While getting Eli ready for the day he points to it over and over again, saying "eye! eye!" And later in the day Isaac asks me, "Mom, did a fire ant bite your head?"

June 2011

I give Titus a kiss on the mouth. He turns his head and gags.
June 2011

Eli is starting to copy a prayer when helped.
Me, "thank you for blessings..."
Eli, "be-he"
Me, "thank for my health..."
Eli, "he-ew"
Me, "help me sleep well tonight..."
Eli, "Me NIGHT! NIGHT!"
June 4, 2011

Titus starts taking wiggly first steps all by himself!
First week of June 2011

When Isaac says Two Face it sounds like "tooth paste." When he says his cousin's name Renee, it sounds like "grenade." When he calls for his friend Will, it sounds like "whale."
May 2011

Our plane is starting to land and I can tell Eli's ears are making him uncomfortable. Unwillingly he has a big yawn. Shocked at the pain reliefe, he looks at me with big wide eyes and simple grin.
May 2011

Deanne (Matt's mom) is trying to get Eli to say "Oh snap!" After she says this a few times we realize that Titus is copying her.
Deanne: "Oh snap!"
Titus: "Ohhhhhh nip!" or "Ohhhhhh bib!"
He does this 5 minutes of so.
May 2011

Titus when excited or happy throws his head back, causing him to fall backwards in his bed, or out of people's arms.
May 2011 

Eli is gathering up matured dandelions with white downy tuffs, say: "Bubbles! Bubbles!"
May 2011

Me, "What rhymes with hat?"
Isaac, "Cat!"
Me, "What rhymes with tress?"
Isaac, "Branches!"
May 2011

Isaac says in a happier voice, "I just want to be mad and alone right now."
May 2011

Titus loves to climb over a person's legs. If someone is on the ground he or she will be climbed over, and over, and over, and over again.
April 2011

I ask Isaac, "Do you love Nana and Mume?" (Matt's parents.)
Isaac says, "Yeah."
Me, "Why?"
Isaac, "They have lots of toys."
Me, "Do you love Grammie and Gramps?" (My parents.)
Isaac, "Yup."
Me, "Why?"
Isaac, "They have lots of toys, too."
April 2011

Isaac came out of a bath and is still wrapped in his towel. He sits on his grandma's lap for a minute. He starts to slowly unwrap himself, and when his man hood is exposed he says, "Ta-Da!"
April 2011

Isaac, "Mom, I want apple with lots of no skin on it."
Me, "Can you say please?"
Isaac, "Please."
Me, "Pretty please?"
Isaac, confused, "pretty please?"
Me, "Pretty please, with cherry on top?"
Isaac, very confused, "Cherry on top? But I don't want a cherry on top!"
April 2011

Eli is trying to find his bully-button. He finally spots it, and starts jumping excitedly. His aunt and grandma show him theirs, and he totally flips! Jumping and laughing abounds!
April 2011

Eli counts. Sort of. He points to objects and says, "e, c, e, C!"Spring 2011

I walk into Eli's room to get him from his nap. He is already awake, and is standing up playing peek-a-boo with his feet!
"Wher day go?" (Where did they go?) He covers his feet with his pants.
And lifting his pants, he says, "There e is!" (There they is.)
March 2011 

When Titus is upset or tired, he slaps himself in the face.
Spring 2011

An Announcement!

Matt got active duty!!

ARMY, that is. So he'll commission in May of 2012 as a second lieutenant. We still don't know what branch (job) he has, but that info should be coming within this month. And we'll find out about duty station (Hawaii! Hawaii! Hawaii!) and branch school in the Spring.

When Matt told me the news I got tears in my eyes. One, because I'm so happy for us to have a career path; and two, I'm so freaking scared. Like, how does one live outside of the school schedule? Seriously, school is such a safe place to be. I know we are as poor as dirt, but at least it's for a reason. (One, of both of us, have been is university since 2004. It's the only life we know.)

What happens if we are poor as dirt outside of school? How does that work? HAPPILY the ARMY is awesome that way and does not let their lowly officers be dirt, dirt poor. (You can find this all online, so I'm not letting anything out of the bag) A second lieutenant's base pay starts at 3,500 a month. That's not including housing (BAH) which pays an allotment to cover all of housing--and all utilities if we live on base--plus all medical insurance is covered (minus 20ish bucks a month for dental).

We'll be fine. But I'm still trying to wrap my mind around it all.... Active Duty life, moving to places unknown, etc.

But, I am excited! Really I am! I'm just a little tired and loopy at the moment because ALL 3 KIDS ARE SICK! Poo, throw up, tiredness. It's not an extreme bug but just enough to make life nasty. I've gotten a little bit of it too, but no throw up. Just tired, and, you know... poo. Before Matt left for school tonight he said he was starting to feel weird. Hey, at least it's not cholera!

Matt's 10 Years of Service

Matt joined the ARMY 10 years ago, 10 days after September 11, 2001. 

His plans to join the military were already in the works, and as he watched the live feed of the second plane hit the south tower he was unmoved in his resolve to join. 

He went to basic training in Feb of 2002 to Ft. Sill, Oklahoma. And this basic training was no joke... We are talking h-a-r-d! But the difficulty in basic training gave his testimony of Christ and desire to serve a LDS mission. 

 

Matt has had one deployment, a very difficult deployment, to Iraq in 2004-05. For one year he was a light infantrymen, walking the streets of Kirkuk and Baquba. He lived on a base with just 130 other guys, about a tenth of which were Special Forces. (He did in fact go on many raids with these Special Forces guys.) Their days were long--13 hour shifts, easy--and the streets were dangerous. He experienced car bombs, ambushes, and fire fights.

In 2008 he renewed his contact with Idaho ARMY National Guard for another 3 years, and was promoted to E-5, or sergeant.

He is now in his last year with the Idaho ARMY National Guard, and is in the ARMY ROTC program at Boise State University while he gets his Masters of Business Administration. He plans to make active duty ARMY a full time career, being a human recourse officer.  He will commission as an O-1, second lieutenant, in May of 2012.

He is grateful for all the opportunities that the ARMY has given him. Namely his US Citizenship (received in 2006), all the wonderful benefits for school, leadership experience, and long lasting friendships. 

Matt is the ARMY's man. Now, and probably forever. 

.............................

And can I just say that I am so proud of Matt? I'm so proud of Matt. 

He is currently the number one student in the ROTC program, in all of Idaho (excluding U of I). He is the cadet battalion commander of ROTC, the highest rank, and is pretty much in charge of all ROTC programs in Idaho (Boise State, BYU-I, Idaho State, and Northwest Nazarene).  

When I think of all the he has accomplished, I start to say the Nacho Libre lines: "Ramses is number one. His legs are number one. His eyes are number one. His muscles are number one. Ramses is number one."

And any day now we should find out if we get active duty or not. Ek! 

Anyway, thank you Matt for working so hard and giving so much to God and Country...

... If you are not a general in 2 years I'll be very disappointed. ;)

Titus' Traumas

Haven't I said that Titus is wiggly? That he loves to go, Go, GO! but can't figure out the whole "balance and stay up-right" thing?

So on Tuesday's park fun, Titus took some good falls. I think he fell on his face like 4 times. Running after big brothers is just too tempting for this young man! On the last fall he came up screaming, with an awesome red forehead scrape.

On Wednesday's wrestling fun with Daddy and brothers, Titus smacked his mouth on the ottoman. With this he had blood curdling screaming. 

(His face blotches like mine when I cry! Proof that he is my son--blond hair, blues eyes and all.)

Matt took a peak in his mouth and found out that there was a good reason for this screaming... He made a good tooth dent in his tongue. Ouch!

Gone Mental

My brain has snapped, and I've lost my capacity to think and judge.
But Heavenly Father loves me and gently guides me when this inability to think/judge creates chaos in my life.

.........................

It's Friday afternoon, and I need to get things together for Isaac's Saturday birthday party. I take the 4runner to WinnCo, gather my items, pay for the items, and head to the truck. It is then I realize, as my arms are full with grocery bags, that my keys are gone. Totally and completely gone. Oh, I still have my key ring, just the keys are not on my key ring. That's right, my car keys fell off the key ring!

I sit on the curb, unsure of what to do. I call Matt, we talk about a plan of action, and I go inside the store to see if any keys have been returned. "Nope, none are here."

I walk around the store and retrace my steps. No keys.

I go outside, call Matt to come get me, the wait once more on the curb. I say a little prayer in my heart and feel that I need to walk back to the truck. I start to cross the meridian between the cars, and I have this little urge to look down...

... There are my keys. Laying in a pile of black rocks, two feet away from the truck, and in between my feet.

......................

It's Monday (yesterday) and I'm looking frantically for my wallet. I haven't been able to locate it all weekend. Nothing too unusual for me to misplace it for a few days, but still I'd like to know where it is. You know, driving with a license might be more legal than driving without one.

Matt joins the search. We look in all my bags, in both vehicles, and every cabinet draw we can think of. It is simply not around.

I think to myself, "I wouldn't have left it at Fred Meyer on Friday, right?" Just to be sure I call Fred Meyer, another local grocery store here in Boise.

Me, "Hey, is a wallet there in the lost and found?"
Fred Meyer phone person, "What does it look like?"
Me, "Big and black, from Shannon."
Fred Meyer phone person, "Yes, it's here."
Me, "Oh thank goodness!"

I then drive to Fred Meyer, license-less, and pick it up.

......................

Monday afternoon I decided that I have enough time to give plasma. There is hardly a line, and I'm in and out under an hour and a half.

On the way back to the car I realize the I don't know where my sunglasses are. I panic a little. These sunglasses were given to me by Matt for Mother's Day of this year, and are worth more than any sunglasses that I have ever owned--combined.

I compose myself, look thoroughly through my bag and van, and decide that they must have been left in the plasma center. I go back, ask if anything has been left, and told that no glasses have been found. I go home a little blue, pretty sure someone must have snatched them up for his/herself.

That evening, while the kids are in bed and I'm sitting on the couch reading, I feel around in my bag for my reading glasses. I feel them, but start to comprehend that I'm feeling not one set of glasses, but two sets of glasses. That's right, my sunglasses have been in my bag the whole time right under my nose.

....................

To sum up: I'm losing it.
Not only my mind, but everything I own.

I lost my keys and my wallet in the same day. And I totally looked over my sunglasses a few days later.

I hope Heavenly Father continues to look over me, cause I'm in a world of hurt if I'm in this life on my own.  

Isaac Is 5!

I'm shocked. I just can't believe it. Isaac is 5! A whole hand of numbers!

His current weight is 38 pounds, and his current height is 3 feet 7 inches.
Favorite book: "Shy Creatures"
Favorite movie: "Transformers"
Favorite thing to play: "Play transformers and star wars lego."
Favorite thing to play with brothers: "Play music and run around."
Favorite song: "About the temple."
Favorite food: "Mac-ronni cheese."
Favorite dessert: "Brownies."
Favorite bug: "Lady bug."
What do you want to be when you grow up? "A Marine."

.............................

For his birthday we celebrated with an Army/baseball theme at Matt's parents' home (Thanks Darren and Deanne!). Isaac wanted an Army cake (even though he's going to be a Marine) and then play baseball with his friends. And that is just what we did. 

Andes Mint cupcakes were made from a recipe from here: www.yourcupofcake.com

Chocolate cake was made from a recipe from here: www.melskitchencafe.com/the-best-recipe

Baseball tee made from a pvc pipe, and bases were spray painted cardboard 

Isaac is really lucky to have some great friends. 6 little people showed up (Carter, Jillian, Ben, Sam, Oscar, Angus, and two babies, Aaron and Bryan), and we all had a great time. We didn't stress over too many things to do, and it seemed just perfect. 

The cake was fun to create. I felt a lot of stress over it, trying to come up with a accurate battle scene like Little Round Top, or something more current from the Iraq campaign. Matt said he'd take over, and very quickly put together a plan: Beach front, men crawling in mud trying to take an objective. What's the objective? A bad Transformer! Isaac had a lot of fun putting it together with Matt. (And party favors were what I like to call "Jar Heads" or "Battle in a Bottle." Andes Mints, ARMY men, and chocolate rocks in a mason jar.) And the 5 gold stars over the cake table were to symbolize a General's Rank. Who knows, Isaac maybe a 5 star General one day... 

 

 

Today

Today I am obsessed with library books. Namely those that are in hard back and on the "new books" shelf. (Plus others that I had on "hold.") Do you think I can get through these, and the DVDs, within the next week or two?

Oh, and the green fabric to be our future bedroom curtains!  

Today Titus was too cute to not photograph. I love swollen baby tummies!

Today Eli is on his third day of "potty training," and in the middle of getting molars. (It seems as though chewing a blanket helps with the cutting of teeth.) Eli is now naked for long stretches of time while at home. He's doing really well, only a few mishaps, but we aren't going too hard core with the potty training. Just letting the nakedness take the lead. (Did this with Isaac too. Though I may start with Titus at age 18 months, as my friend Helen does with her boys. Just an hour or two of naked at a time, so hopefully by the time he's 2 no more diapers.) 

Today we were blessed with another good day. I was really worried about today. A mother of a boy in Isaac's preschool invited us for a play date, at 1pm. Kinda the two younger boys' nap time. This mother is from Korea, and went out of her way to invite and plan this thing. 

Anyway, the two younger boys took their naps starting at 11am! The woke up in good moods, and everyone played well together at the park. There was even cloud coverage so it wasn't too hot. 

Today, as we speak, Matt is taking a test. For an "international business class" which totally stresses him out. But I believe in him. And he'll do great! 

A Good Day

Thursday was a good day. Nothing spectacular happened, it truly was an ordinary good day.

But was extraordinary was that I felt at peace with my mothering ability, and I felt at peace with my children. All day... This never, ever happens. I always seem to be doubting myself, and I to put myself through an emotional roller-coster of joy and sadness. 

On Thursday I had this great realization, which was that these boys are growing up.  An epiphany, I'd say.  Next fall as Isaac enters kindergarten Eli could, if I wanted him to, go into a 3's preschool class.  Then the following year Titus could, if I wanted him to, go into a 3's preschool class. That means that in two years, if I wanted them to be, all three of my children could be in school--Isaac in 1st grade, Eli in a preschool, and Titus in a 3's preschool. 

When I realized this I took the time to hold all my boys tights, with maybe a hint of fear in my heart. I realized that my time with them, all safely in my home and under my care, is coming quickly to an end. 

So that day we read, and read, and read books. We worked, and worked, and worked on puzzles. I took a long time to put them to bed. And after prayers, and all were tucked in for the night, I just laid on their floor hoping that I could freeze time and capture the feeling of that day. 

Into the Swing

Alright, here we go. Into another semester of school and on with life.

Things have been all out of sorts for the last month with Eli's surgery, Matt starting school, Isaac starting, and I've been having a hard time trying to remember how to schedule our lives.  I mean before the month of August me and the boys were playing in Bama and swimming everyday--just doing whatever we wanted to do! But that had to end, I now have to really figure out a grocery list and I really have to stick to a bed time.

So farewell Summer of Whatever! It was so nice to just lay and do... well, whatever!

Though I may sound a little depressed that Summer of Whatever had to end, I'm actually a bit excited for our future! Can I just say how happy I am about Eli and his progress? Can I say it? Please? Okay, I will. Eli is such a happy kid. Life after the Fontan Procedure (which he had in August, which made his heart plumbing work better and the blood more separated) is truly amazing! 

We were at the doctor's office yesterday and Eli's blood saturation was 95!! 95 WITHOUT OXYGEN!! That is amazing. He hasn't been in the 90s since his birth. Eli now has such pink lips, and pink nose, and pink fingers. He runs without being weary, he walks without faint. He is a happy boy, willing to be part of activities. 

To sum up: I'm sad that we can't do whatever and now have to really work on a schedule, but I'm happy that all my children are healthy and happy. It's a good give and take. 

Here's some pictures of us within the last two weeks, trying to figure life out again as a family of 5 with multiple schedules being worked around:

Matt home from morning ROTC PT, having one on one time with Titus and the fridge.

Isaac's first day of preschool! Eli had to join in on the fun too. 

Dressing up as super heros!

When my mom was here, my sister Ashley came over for a weekend too. 

She brought her son Luke. So here are the four cousins, all of my parents' grandchildren.