I can't sleep...why not one more post

I think that I am setting an all-time record for myself of amount of posts in one week. It is 11:30 and our neighbors are partying and I just can't sleep. So I was lying in bed just thinking of the wonderful week we have had and thought I should write it down so that I remember it later.

The best part of today is that Stuart returned from Scout Camp. It was so good to see him. We had been swimming and came in for a snack and all of a sudden I heard his voice walking into the door. It was wonderful. He is extremely tired and so is not having such a hard time sleeping through the noise.

For playgroup this week we went to the beach. We had about 5 families there and what a blast it was. I always love going to the beach but it was 10 times more fun going with friends. There weren't any girls Summer's age, so she made friends with 2 vacationing girls and spent the majority of the time with them. I just love how easily she makes friends. I certainly did not have that talent at that age. The boys had a blast in the sand and a little in the water.

On Thursday evening Nephi kept getting the garlic jar out, which totally disgusts me right now. I kept telling him that he wouldn't like it, but he didn't believe me. I gave him a baby spoonful of it thinking he would taste it and realize that Mom was actually right. That didn't work. He loved it and wanted more. He loves to kiss me on the lips. I love his sweet little kisses, but they have been quite stinky with his garlic breath these last couple of days because he keeps eating more of it. Boy did that "genius idea" backfire on me. He is just so dang cute though that I can't stop kissing him even with his stinky breath.

I have to brag about Nephi...he now will sit in his carseat with his seatbelt on. I know what a thing to be so excited about. He is my first child to even try to get out of his carseat. He would always take his seatbelt off while I was driving. One day I was driving and felt a bump on my head rest. I looked back and it was Nephi partially in his carseat with the car seat tipping over. He had taken off the top part of his carseat seatbelt and leaned over and took the car's seatbelt off that holds the seatbelt in place. It was so scary and luckily we were on a very slow street. He is such a strong willed, temper tantrum little guy that it took awhile for him to be obedient. I am starting to learn how to deal with his particular temper tantrums. Each kid is definitely different. Part of it was that we would all praise him and throw a little cheering party for him for leaving his seatbelt on and he just smiled with the proudest smile he could muster. He just gets so excited with praise.

There are so many things that he just wants his way. One thing is that he used to not want to wear shoes anywhere (except for Summer's, Spencer's or my shoes). He showed up to Spencer preschool class to drop Spencer off many a days in Summer's mismatched shoes. But he refused to wear shoes that actually fit him. He would much rather be barefoot. There were many times that I would just give into him and let him run around barefoot. Even when it was at a park where it hurt him to walk without shoes, he refused to wear them. I finally decided to not let him get out of the car until he got his shoes. At first it took a few minutes of him screaming and kicking in his seat, but he soon learned really quick that I meant it and he was not getting out of the car until his shoes were on. So it is another proud moment for me that he will finally wear shoes when we go out in public. It is crazy the things we have to be proud of with a 2 year old.

A couple of months ago I stopped teaching Spencer how to read because he didn't seem interested and I didn't want to force it on him. These past few weeks he has said in every prayer asking Heavenly Father to help him and Nephi to learn and to help him to learn to read. I had gotten back on track with teaching him until this week. We were just having too much fun playing the summer away (which is easy to do in San Diego). He loves to write words so I have been trying to teach him to read more through writing words. Summer hated to write at this stage so I am doing things a little different with him and it is kind of fun to switch it up a bit.

Thanks and due date

Thanks so much to you many friends for your support. I feel really stupid because everything really is OK. I just felt like blogging about it because I was in awe of Heavenly Father's tender mercies.

My official due date is December 31st. Since it is a c-section the dr. said that they schedule those a week before my due date. When I got home I looked at the calendar and noticed that that puts me at Christmas Eve. I am pretty sure that they won't schedule it for that day. We would really like to have the baby before Christmas (especially Summer). Talk about the perfect Christmas gift! We look forward to a quiet (with some baby cries) Christmas with our little family just relaxing and enjoying the new baby. Summer and Spencer are so excited about the baby. Spencer always wants to see what the baby looks like on baby center. Nephi doesn't understand yet, but really likes babies. Despite his messes and temper tantrums, he is such a sweet little boy. He has slept with me a few nights this week. He always drifts to the bottom of the bed and lays like he is a dog at the foot of the bed. It is so cute.

The kids and I have really been enjoying our summer. They have really been into earning money and are constantly asking me what they can do to make money. We have tons of stones and rocks in our yard, so I give them a penny for a rock that they pick up. Spencer is constantly going out there saying that he is going to go do his "yard sale." He is so cute. They have had to exchange a lot of money too. I made a new rule that for every hit or kick they give to their sibling, then they have to give him/her a penny. They love the rule when they get a penny, but not so much when they have to pay up.

Read with Caution: disgusting content

We have had lots going on lately, but I haven't posted anything because we actually have pictures to go with them so I am waiting until they are developed.

The kids finally got out of school on Friday. I am loving having them home. Stuart left for scout camp on Saturday and will be back next Saturday. We miss him, but are so grateful that he was able to take off work to go with them. I know it will be a wonderful experience. The kids and I have been swimming and enjoying the laziness of summertime.

Caution: Do not allow Andy or Chris to read the following as we don't want them to have 2nd thoughts about coming to visit us for the 4th of July.

Many of you know that Spencer (14 months-3 years) had a bad gag reflex where he threw up all of the time. We had him tested and nothing was found wrong with him. I have found several moms whose little kids have had the same thing with their kids and really appreciated them sharing with me so that I knew that Spencer was healthy and just had a bad gag reflex. Luckily Spencer has grown out of that, but passed the torch onto Nephi. In the last week Nephi has thrown up about 6 times (thankgoodness we invested in a carpet shampooer) on different days. He is exactly like Spencer was. My doctor had told me that as long as they aren't losing weight to not worry about it. I definitely don't have to worry about that with my big boys. On top of that Nephi's favorite hobby (at least it would appear to me) is taking his stinky diaper off and finger painting with it...all over!!! He has done this AT LEAST 1/2 dozen times in the last 2 months. It seems like I am either cleaning up poop everywhere or throw up everywhere (yesterday was actually both!) I almost want to put a surveillance camera in his room during naptime and bedtime because that's his favorite time to fingerpaint.

It has been particularly hard lately since I have been so tired and feeling sick with my pregnancy. When Stuart went to scout camp I had prayed that Nephi would please hold off with this until Stuart got back so that I wouldn't be alone. Sunday one of Stuart's scouter parents invited us over for dinner. Nephi threw up there. I was mortified. As Shanna and David (scouter parents) totally took care of everything...cleaning up Nephi and the throw up....while I cleaned up myself and changed, I was reminded of my prayer to not wanting to be alone. As horrified and embarrassed as I was I was overwhelmed with gratitude for Shanna and David and a loving Heavenly Father. Shanna also took our clothes to wash. You don't get much more Christ-like than those 2. I am so grateful for their kindness. I always think that I can do it all myself, but it is much more do-able with help.

Yesterday Nephi threw up in the morning and then had his biggest fingerpainting spree of all time. I was the opposite of a calm and loving human being. After I got Nephi cleaned up, Summer watched him so that I could clean and disinfect his room. I think I probably bawled through the entire clean up. Right as I was about to be done, Stuart called from scout camp. Just hearing his sweet, kind voice helped ease my burdens. I am sad and embarrassed to admit this, but I told him over the phone that I just felt like Heavenly Father didn't love me because I have been so sick with this pregnancy and am constantly having to deal with really disgusting messes that make it all worse. Of course he was amazing and assured me that Heavenly Father did love me. That night we had FHE (a day late because with the summer break I have lost track of what day it is) and Summer said that she wanted to do the lesson. She got on the churches website and chose a conference talk by President Monson and a talk by the General Primary Presidency 1st counselor. She listened to them and took notes and then presented her lesson to us. She said, "Mom, I heard you tell Dad that you felt like Heavenly Father doesn't love you (oops on my part...she was so glued to the TV that I thought for sure that she wasn't listening), well He does. President Monson said that Heavenly Father loves us." She gave an amazing lesson and is such a sweet little girl. I need to be much more careful with what I say, but at the same time I am so grateful for Heavenly Father's tender mercies and of a child so receptive to Heavenly Father's promptings.

I really can't believe that I shared all of this because it only shows how aweful I am, but I really wanted to share it because I am so grateful that even though sometimes I feel alone Heavenly Father is always there for us, sending sweet little earthly angels to rescue us.

My Mom

I have recently been thinking a lot about the great family history work that my mother has done throughout her life. When I was a little girl I was often found complaining at a cemetary with cheese and crackers as my mom was busy collecting information for my Dad's relatives. She drug us along to so many family history conferences. I always hated it (except for the part that we were in a city and got to go out to eat!). I wish I had appreciated her efforts then as much as I do now. She has done thousands upon thousands of family branches for our relatives(along with doing their temple work).

A couple of years ago she kept having promptings to do the work for a particular woman, Mona, from Millersburg, my home town. My mother had taught this woman while serving her mission, but Mona had never joined the church. Then when my mom came back to Millersburg to marry and raise her family, she would take me to visit her. She was a darling elderly woman that passed away awhile ago. This woman never had children or any living relatives to do her work. My mom got special permission to do her work and that she did. She sent me about 125 names to do in the temple that were in Mona's family tree branches and lines. I have had some really amazing experiences with doing these names and am so grateful for my mother's sacrifice for them and for myself. Lately every time I am doing one of the names I am just

Today we had Stake Conference and it was AMAZING. Our mission president asked for older couples to serve missions and talked about how much it blesses the lives of their families back home when they serve a mission. He talked about how the temples are filled with old people that people may look at and think they should just stay home and die because they are so old (it was really funny). He talked about how much the Lord sustains them in order to accomplish what they need to. Of course this made me think of my Mom. She has had many health problems and is physically handicapped, but the Lord has made it possible for her to do her passion of family history work while living at home and while my Dad is still working. She serves in the SLC family history library a few times each week and just loves it. On her days off she is either babysitting for Derek and Tanya or doing more family history work at home. She just can't stop! I would love to see the reception she receives when she dies and is greeted by the thousands that she has helped receive the necessary ordinances that they could not have done for themselves.

Any ways, I realize this is a very sentimental post, but this has really been on my mind a lot lately because I am so grateful for my Mom!!! I love you Mom!!!!