Thankful Thursday

I heard of someone doing Thankful Thursdays on their blog and I figured it was a good idea especially with Thanskgiving coming up. Technically it is not Thursday for another hour, but I might not get to it if I wait until tomorrow.

Some Blessings I have to be Thankful for this week are:

1. I was thinking this past week with Beck breaking his leg how grateful I am that I can drive less than 10 minutes to get his leg X-rayed and splinted and that I have all the pain reliever I need for my kids at home, but if I had to I could drive less than 5 minutes and have access to quite a few different medications. I am so thankful for great medical care that is very accessable.
2. Having Beck be slightly incapacitated has made me reflect on what it would be like if I were in his situation. How awful to be a mother with two small children to take care of and not be able to walk without crutches. It would be such an ordeal just to go to the bathroom (we are in a split level home and the bathrooms are all upstairs). I just don't see how I could take care of my family and I am so glad I do not have to be in Beck's situation or have any other disabilities for that matter.
3. I am grateful for the priesthood and that my husband is able to bless our family when needed. It is something I sometimes take for granted until my son is in pain from his broken leg or some other need is present. I am thankful to have a worthy priesthood holder in my home.
4. I am teaching Sunday on a one of President Monson's first talks as the prophet. It reminds me how grateful I am to have a prophet to guide us and to be able to meet together as a world wide church twice a year to hear our prophet and other leaders speak to us. We had Stake Conference last month as well and we recently renewed our temple recommends which makes me appreciate all that our local leaders do to strengthen us.
5. I am so grateful for the priveledge of being a mother and having my two wonderful children and to be able to welcome a new baby girl soon. I am grateful that children are so forgiving because I make a lot of mistakes. I know I am being especially irritable if Kate is telling me "I love you mom" all the time. It is her way of saying "Geez mom you sure are onery, but I love you anyway." I have been especially tired and irritable this week so I am hearing that a lot.
6. I am grateful that with the difficult economic situation we are able to provide for the temporal needs of our family. I am grateful to have a husband who is a great provider that allows me to stay home to rear our children.
7. I am Thankful for the beautiful weather we have had this week. We have been able to go on some walks and play outside which has been helpful in trying to keep Beck entertained and I need the exercise anyway. All the sunshine really lifts my spirits. I love the snow too, but I hate the cold. Too bad we can't have the snow without the cold.
8. I am grateful for all my thoughtful neighbors who have been checking on me and making sure we are doing okay with Beck's injury and sharing in the excitement of our baby.
9. I am grateful for this wonderful country we have to live in and the freedoms we enjoy. I am grateful that I had the opportunity to vote recently and that we are safe from genocide, civil wars, dictators and extreme human suffering found in countries like Africa and Haiti.
10. I am most thankful for the atonement and the opportunity I have to repent, be forgiven and try again. I am grateful that it can ease my physical and emotional pains and sicknesses as well as my shortcomings and sins.

Beck's Bad Luck

Beck has had a rough week. Poor guy was up all night Thursday night throwing up. I know throw up smells bad, but I could not believe how bad it was and I am guessing it must be the pregancy enhancing the smell like 10X. I still think I am smelling throw up on occasion because I have the memory of it. Well, Friday I decided to make a special dinner which was going to take several hours and I had Beck sitting on a stool at the counter watching and eating snacks when I suddenly saw him slip out of view. I ran around to get him as quickly as possible and he screamed and screamed and screamed and fell asleep, woke up and screamed some more. I was pretty sure after about 10 minutes that he had broken something. He was so upset he could not even tell me or indicate what hurt. Finally he started protecting his leg by putting his hand in the air above his shin as I was moving my hands over his body trying to figure out where he was hurt. There was no bruising or noticable swelling. I tried to see if he could stand and he refused. As soon as I got all the food out of the oven and off the stove and the kids ready, daddy came home and we headed to the ER. After a couple hours they X-rayed the area and then after like another hour of two the Dr. came back and told us he had a compression fracture on both the Tibia and Fibula. Then about another 1/2 hour to hour later they came and splinted it. What a horrible way to spend a Friday night. We have to go back next week for a real cast. He has a splint from his toes to the mid thigh and will have to have the cast the same way for about 6 weeks. If he wasn't so young they would have given him crutches to use since he cannot walk or put any weight on the leg at all. He fell asleep in the car on the way home and amazingly slept all the way through the night. He was pretty mad when he woke up with the splint this morning. He was taking his rage out on the splint by hitting the splint saying "leg broke". Then when the medicine would start to wear off he would whine, "leg hurts". He keeps forgetting that he can't use that leg and he will try to slide off the couch and then realize he can't stand up and walk away like normal, so he just has to cry for me to come and get him. He can't really manuver very well yet, but he is starting to roll around on the groung or scootch on his bum to play with toys. He actually did pretty well in the bath even though it was only like 2 inches of water. He played with his toys and didn't want to get out.
It is going to be an interesting 6 weeks trying to keep him entertained. Hopefully he won't have any more bad luck.

Baby Brother or Baby Sister?

It's a Girl!!!!!!

We had our perinatal ultra-sound today and we found out we are expecting a baby girl. She was being very shy and even kept both arms in front of her face almost the whole time.
Needless to say we didn't really get any good face shots except when her one eyeball was poking out between her arms which makes for a kind of creepy picture.

The only other really good picture we got was the one of the bottom of her foot. Soooo Cute! They checked her brain, heart, kindneys, spine, and so on and everything looked great. Her growth is right on schedule and everything was the way it is expected to be. She already weighs 10 ounces.
Kate is very excited to have a baby sister. She really wanted one of both, but we kept telling her there is only one in mommy's tummy.
I finally grew out of my last pair of pants, so it will have to be stictly maternity pants from now on. I am in the awkward stage where I just look fat and not really pregnant. I think the most pregant looking part of me is my rear end. I tried on nursing bras since mine is shot from nursing two kids already and they are too big. I don't think that is fair to be so disporportionate :(. Here is another embarasing thing about my pregnant body. The ultra sound tech thought I had had a cesearing delivery, but I just reassured her that they were only stretch marks. Pretty sad when your stretch marks are so deep, large, and dark that a stranger mistakes them for surgical scars. I guess I won't be doing any binkini modeling in the future ;). Well, I am relieved to know what we are having especially the obesessive compulsive over planner in me who has been wanting to organize all my baby clothes for weeks now. My husband's resonse after we were driving home in the car was "Well, I guess the names Desmond and Jude are out" (he is a huge Beatles fan). He won't admit it, but he is just joking. Any help with names would be great. My husband will probably just suggest some musicians name like Jewel or even worse Bjork.

The faith of little children

Kate has been so excited about the changing of the leaves and has really wanted to jump in piles of leaves. She says, "I just love to play in the leaves". We don't have any trees, but a few baby ones so we don't have much as far as leaves except what blows on to our lawn from the neighbors trees. The nice fall days seem to be fewer and farther between, but we did get one opportunity to play in the leaves. It was fun practicing with our new camera trying to catch some actions shots and the color and lighting were great.

Beck mostly enjoyed inspecting every leaf and he seemed so serious most of the time, but he finally started to understand that it is fun to throw them up into the air.

Kate has been in the "why" phase for some time now. She is always asking questions like "why does the wind blow?" and the dreaded questions like "how did the baby get in your tummy?" or "how will the baby get out of your stomach? Lately she has been asking "why do the leaves fall off the tree?" I usually give her as honest and correct of answers as I can and sometimes I encourage her to answer the questions herself. She tends to ask the same questions over and over again. I don't know how many times I have told her that the leaves need to fall off the tree so that when the snows come the trees won't break from the weight of the leaves and the snow. Kate came up with her own answer and I liked her answer much better. One day out of the blue Kate made the comment that Heavenly Father makes the leaves change colors and fall off the trees so she can play and jump in them. How true that is that He created this Earth in part for our enjoyment because HE LOVES US! He wants us to be happy and find joy in the simple things of life like the beauty of the earth and the changing seasons. I also thought it was great that she feels she is important enough to her Father in Heaven that he would do it just for her. He knows Kate personally and individually and what makes her happy. How pure the faith of the child who knows these simple truths automatically unlike many of us adults who need to constantly remind ourselves that He loves Us and we are important to him. Why is it so hard for us to believe? Why do we doubt his love for us? I think this is one reason we are commanded to become like little children.

Shortly after this experience I overheard Kate telling her brother "Beck did you know you are a child of God?" How sweet this was for me to hear. I love to watch the special bond that is developing between Kate and Beck. Kate is a pretty good big sister and she loves having a little brother. She has even said that she wants the next baby to be another baby brother. She is always saying "Beck is so cute" or "I love Beck". They are very affectionate with each other also. I think it is funny how protective Beck is of Kate as well. When Kate is in trouble, Beck gets mad at me for disciplining her. It upsets him to see Kate upset. They fight a lot over toys, but they also really enjoy playing together and are quick to forgive each other. It will be interesting to see how Beck responds to the new baby. He is quite a momma's boy and it will be hard for him to have to share me with a new baby. I am not so worried about Kate she is already saying she loves the baby and she has even tried to help us come up with names.

Halloween

I know that it is only the first of November, but I have already come up with a new year's resolution for myself for next year. I tend to over plan and over complicate things especially holidays and that is how this halloween was for me. Way more work than necessary. I added way more stress than I really needed to and it takes away from the enjoyment of holidays and family vacations. I don't think I have the energy anymore to drag my kids to so many different relatives homes, so everyone can see them in their costumes and especially not when I have three kids. I have tried to visit my grandmas and have my family meet me there, but every year I end up having to leave as they are arriving so I can make it to my in-laws where my kids usually trick-or-treat with cousins. I love visiting my grandma, but I will just have to find other times to visit with her when things are so hectic and rushed. Here is Beck and my grandma. It was a challenge to get my kids to keep their costumes on especially Beck's spider hat.

Eli made Kate's costume it is a Japanese cartoon monster (perhaps you've seen it around Target or on line) the name is Domo Coon (I know I spelled it wrong since I spelled it phonetically and didn't bother researching the actually spelling). He also adjusted Beck's costume to give him longer spider legs and to make the legs move with his arms. I think they turned out pretty cute. Kate was originally going to be princess Belle, but then her cousin told her she needed to be something scarry so she picked Domo Coon (she had seen it as daddy's picture for his instant messager). she decided after having to walk around in the Domo Coon costume all night and falling over several times that next year she would rather be princess Belle.

Beck was very excited about all the candy and he couldn't even wait until we got back to Nana & Papa before he had to eat some. He has such a sweet tooth and loves treats and "Nandy". Everytime he sees his halloween bucket around the house he starts yelling "Nandy". He is pretty persistent when he wants something. It is much harder to say no to him than it is to Kate.

He is getting to be a pretty good talker and he is now talking in little sentences. One of the first sentences he learned was "Kate did it" and of course if we ask who wants a treat? or something like that they we hear Beck yell "I do". He is obsessed with cars and he knows which ones are "little cars" he also knows the names of many colors even though he doesn't always match up the correct name and color. I was surprised by that because I have not even attempted to teach him any colors yet. One time I was tickling and nibbling on him and he stuck his foot in my face and said "bite it". I am just amazed he is talking so much at 20 months old especially since he is a boy and they are usually a little slower with their speech. He is also becoming quite the singer and he walks around the house all day singing incomprehensible songs to himself. He even tries to sing along to songs in the car. Well, I am getting off the halloween topic, but it seems like I never have enough time to blog about all the things I want or need to blog about.

My youngest brother-in-law who will be 16 next month and some of my nephews decided to do a haunted house in the back yard. I think they all really enjoyed it even in the rain and wind. Halloween was exhausting for me, but I think the kids had fun and that is the most important thing. Next year I am going to relax and simplify things. I think I will have to with the addition of a third child (only seven months old by next halloween). I did go shopping the day after Halloween and I noticed that the stores and radio stations are already playing christmas music. I also noticed the stores didn't even have the school supplies put away and all the halloween stuff up before they started putting up a few Christmas things. I guess the retail industry doesn't want to even give you a break to breathe after halloween before they start stressing you out with the worry of being ready for Christmas.