My Favorites and Thanks

I have bugged Vanessa for a long time to put together a list of blogs to add to the Favorite Links list. Seeing as I (Paul) am the one posting this you can see how successful I am at nagging. I know Vanessa loves linking from blog to blog like Tarzan swinging through the jungle, but yet our blog had one lone link, essentially creating a cyberspace dead end. So I went through the short list of blogs that I check and tried to sift through the blogs that Vanessa checks and compiled a list that are on the left.

I apologize to anyone left off the list or if I misspelled anything; that is the problem with having me put the list together, but I figured it was better attempted and incomplete than empty. Let me know and I will add you to the list.

I also wanted to send out a thank you to friends for helping us out this week. Sunday night was a stressful time to say the least. I called our friends and home teacher the Gibbs to see if they would watch our kids and without hesitation they said yes. When we dropped our kids off minutes later (~9:00pm) Michael told me, "Just pick the kids up in the morning. It doesn't matter if you are only at the hospital for 20 minutes, just pick the kids up in the morning." It was one less thing we had to worry about that long night. By the way, Michael, if you are reading this, I would have to check the home teaching equivalency chart, but I think one emergency overnight children watch counts for 6 months of visits.

Then the week wore on and the symptoms persisted and Vanessa was put on bedrest. When the Primary President called Vanessa on Primary business all it took was Vanessa mentioning bed rest and a few minutes later dinners were setup for us for that night, the rest of the week and early next week. We got tons of calls from ward members wanting to know if they could do anything for us. People helped where they could but their love and concern were really a support to us.

I would like to thank everyone by name (I even tried in a draft) but there are just too many people. So here is a generic thank you to everyone. It means so much to us. Thank you.

Well blog posts without pictures are boring, so here are some pictures from last Sunday.

Best Christmas Gift Ever!

I've neglected to mention the very best Christmas Gift we got this year! On Christmas morning we found out that we are going to have another baby!

I was going to wait to tell Asher because I didn't want him to spill the beans, but I couldn't wait any longer so I told him the next day.

"Asher, there's a baby in my tummy!"
Asher looked horrified and yelled "Mama! Don't Eat BABIES. We eat FOOD not BABIES!"

I tried to explain to him that I didn't eat a baby, but that babies grow in my tummy, but he was still too mad at me for eating a baby to listen. At least he has a good sense of right and wrong. I guess I can leave him alone with our new addition and not worry that his hunger will be too much and he'll snack on his sibling.

A few days later I tried again and told him that he was getting a new little brother or sister. He got really upset and told me that he just wanted Madeleine. He was really mad at me about our conversation. When Paul or I tried to bring it up he would say that he just wanted Madeleine and not a new brother or sister. Then it dawned on us that he thought we were trading Madeleine in for a newer model. At least he wasn't overjoyed at this concept.

We tried again and told him that Madeleine was going to get to be a big sister and that finally made him happy. We asked him if he wanted her to have a little brother or sister. He said "I want her to have a sister so I can have two Madeleines!" Awww.

I tried to make this post on Sunday, but right after I posted it, I thought I started to miscarry, so I had Paul delete it before we went to the emergency room. It turns out that our baby is healthy and wiggly and happy in there, but I am now on bed-rest at least through the weekend. I am going a little crazy and so are Asher and Madeleine, but the Dr. is pretty sure that the baby is going to be just fine.

My church is taking great care of us, and I am trying not to notice the crumbs and toys all over the floor that I am not permitted to do anything about.

Update

Sorry for the long blogging hiatus, I guess I haven't felt very bloggy lately. Paul has been home so much more and it is making my job ten times easier. The kids can really feel it when Paul is out of town or just not home as much and it makes them much more emotional and destructive than usual. I LOVE having him home.

Our kids have grown and changed a lot since I last updated.

Madeleine is talking so much! It's fun to hear her say new things every day. She speaks in sentences, although amusing sentences. She says things like:

"Shut it the door"
"Take a bath with the water"
"Pretty in the hair"

She loves meeting new friends too. A man canvassing for dog licensing came by and she started talking his ear off. "HI HI HI! My momma's right here, my momma's right here. HI! My momma's right here!" So different from Asher. Actually it was quite an event for Asher too. He couldn't wait for Paul to come home so that he could tell him 20 different times "A man came by and momma told him we didn't have a dog, daddy!"

She is really into being pretty right now. She has three different hats; a viking hat my sister brought home from her mission, a princess hat, and a fireman hat. We almost always see Madeleine wearing one of these hats, and she will come up to us and smile so that we tell her she is beautiful. She always wants a bow in her hair and wears blankets around her shoulders and sunglasses too. She just loves to dress up. It's interesting to experience having a girl after a boy. They really are so different.

Asher hasn't changed as much, but I think his imagination has developed a lot more. He has been having nightmares about monsters. I am not even sure how he knows what a monster is. I think the only monster he knows is Cookie Monster and he's not really scary, unless you have cookies that you don't want to share.

He is a sunbeam! He has struggled going to sharing time, he loved nursery and is having a hard time not playing with toys as much. Paul has taken him to Sunday school a few times and he's seemed to realize that sharing time was infinitely better than Sunday school, so he goes grudgingly. He really loves his teachers and class and loves to share what he learned that day.

Survival Mode

It has been a really long time since either of us have posted, so even though I (Paul) don't have anything exciting to write about I thought I would post anyway.

The past month has been crazy. First I had a busy week at work trying to get some reports out. Then the next week I worked 4-10 hour days and used the artificial three-day weekend to visit my family before my mom gets kidnapped by tax season. Then the next week I had to work 4-10 hour days so I could make it to my American Society of Civil Engineers conference in San Francisco. It was fun because my mom happened to be in town visiting my Gram so we all met up for dinner. Then my flight from San Francisco to Salt Lake was delayed and I missed my flight home and had to crash with my brother and his family in Sandy. That was fun but I really missed my family, and I only had Sunday afternoon to spend with them before heading back to work for another 4-10 week. Finally this week I was able to stay home for the artificial three-day weekend.

This Friday was my first day at home since Jan 11th. We were able to relax and still tackle some projects like replacing the blinds in the kids' rooms (which they destroyed) with curtains. I found these really cute curtain rods, one with footballs on the end for Asher, and one with pink butterflies for Madeleine.

Well sorry it is not all that exciting, but we have been more in a survival mode and we've made it. Hopefully now that our lives are returning to some sort of normalcy we will update our blog more often, like we used to.

Merry Christmas!

Wow, It really has been too long. I don't really have much to say, except that we had a wonderful Christmas! Asher really understood Santa for the first time this year. He still asks Paul to sing him Christmas songs at bed time.
Paul was in charge of buying Asher's presents this year and I was in charge of Madeleine's. A few Saturdays before Christmas, Paul was going to go shopping for Asher's presents and Asher begged to go. Paul missed him, so he swore up and down that Asher would still be surprised on Christmas and he would be super stealth.
He did a pretty good job with everything except Asher's football. He took Asher to the football section and asked him which one his cousin Damian would like (trying to be tricky) Asher picked one out and they got it for "Damian". Christmas morning came and Asher zeroed in on a present and said "My football is in this one Daddy!" and ran and opened it. We were really surprised that he could tell since the package wasn't even football shaped, but I think Paul learned his lesson :)
Paul's parents bought Asher and Maddie a table and they opened most of their presents on it.
Madeleine is a candy cane fiend. She seriously could not get enough. It was like Halloween all over again. She kept begging for CANDY all day long, it was really funny.

Ho Ho Ho! Happy Birthday!

Merry Christmas! Asher and Madeleine (mostly Asher) are really excited for Christmas this year! Asher keeps making Paul sing Christmas songs to him at bed time. Madeleine likes to say Ho Ho Ho! Happy Birthday, which makes me laugh every time; she also sings Jingle Bells which is hilarious. I have to get it on tape. If you are a member of Pasco 3rd ward you've probably heard her when she's trying to liven up sacrament meeting. On Sunday, She kept calling a man behind us Grandpa, and he isn't even Grandpa age, but she made him feel old. I was hoping he wouldn't understand, but she kept saying, Grandpa! Grandpa!

In an effort to be festive I cut Asher and Maddie's cheesy tortillas out with cookie cutters today. Asher is now concerned because he has a Christmas tree in his tummy, which he doesn't think is appropriate. He's a bit out of sorts today. He is excited about Christmas, but he doesn't really like his routine altered. Hopefully he's over it when he gets to open all of his presents.

We are also dealing with unusual weather for our area. It usually only snows a handful of times every winter and the snow rarely stays around for long. It's been here for a week and a half and more just keeps coming. It's a little fun, but I hope it all melts immediately after Christmas.