Things to Remember

Things my kids do right now that I want to remember:
Quincey

(pictured here with his pre-school friend Cooper)

-He says, "I am the one that......"  ie: wants you to get me juice, likes superheroes, doesn't want to go to bed.
-He loves his sister, and defends her and translates for her.  ie: 'What Maiya is trying to say is,....'
-The other day he got it in his head that he wanted to go camping and he went and got sleeping bags and pillows and put them outside, collected sticks and was roasting marshmallows on the (pretend) fire.
-He is good at applying scriptures to daily life.  For example when I was talking about not being bad and being good, he said, 'Alma was bad, but that angel came and told him to be good.' (P.S.  Maiya is good at this too.  She loves to talk about how Laban is a bad guy.)  

Maiya

-Miss Maiya's language has always been really good, and has learned to talk really well, really clearly, pretty early (which has proven to both be really cute, and a bit embarrassing)....
-She pretty much disagrees with everything.  ie: Me: Maiya you are so pretty!  Maiya: (yells, and puts her arms on her hips, and stomps her foot) No! I am not pretty!!!!  I don't want to be pretty!
-She also yells at poor innocent strangers.  For example a woman will come up to her in the grocery store and tell her what a sweet girl she is, and she starts screaming.  "No, I don't like you! You are a mean lady! Go away!"  (admittedly, a bit funny until you keep running into the same lady in the store and she ends up behind you in the checkout line).
-She says Quincey like 'Hen see'.  And calls her niece Amrylin, "Lemon"
-If you ask her to stop doing something she will get so mad and go put herself in time-out in her room, close the door, cry for a few minutes, and come out when she feels better. (I love this, saves me from putting her in time outs!)
-She loves to be outside.  She climbs through the doggy door, (so funny to see) and can sit out there and play with her toys by herself for hours at a time. 

I wouldn't trade them for anything :)

Happy Mother's Day!

I have had a great Mother's Day!  My husband and kids made this sweet apron for me, which is a perfect gift because even though I spend most of my time in the kitchen, I only had one apron... so, now I have two.  :)

And my sweet son made me this cute little flower to hang on my door. 
It says:
This little flower is special you see,
Because it was made from a part of me.
My painted thumb made each flower part,
To show I love you with all my heart!
Happy Mother's Day!

:

And, because I was missing my mommy today, I decided to make her famous Sauerkraut dinner to eat after church.  It is absolutely delicious!!!!  And reminds me of home.  Along with homemade rolls, and mashed potatoes.  If you like sauerkraut, you will need to try this!!!  I needed to record it, so that I can make it again, (and again). 

Sauerkraut Dinner
1 Pork Roast
1 30 oz. jar of Sauerkraut
1 jar Water (fill the Sauerkraut jar)
1/2 Cup pearl barley

Place it all in a Crock pot for 8-10 hours on low. 
When it's done, take roast out, and transfer the sauerkraut to a pan on the stove.  Thicken with water and flour, and season with salt and pepper to taste. Smother the gravy over your pork and potatoes, and enjoy! 

And, finally.... My friend Rachel posted this poem that is very appropriate for mother's day, and I fell in love with it.

I agree, I can never repay my mother for all she has done for me, but I do love that she humors me and is grateful for my attempts.

Ch-Ch-Changes!

So, we have had quite the changes happen recently.
I went to go get our taxes done and while I was there I got to talking to the man who was doing our taxes, who happened to be the owner.  It came up that we had been looking for a job, and so I asked if he knew of any, and he said that he had been looking for someone that he could train so that he could retire.  So, he met with Geren a couple of times, and voila!  Geren is now an accountant!  
We feel like God is so aware of us and our needs and is completely in control of our lives.  I think back to when we had both graduated BYU and we knew it was time to move on.  I remember feeling stressed because we didn't know where we were going to go, and what we were going to do.  Geren's brother gave us the opportunity to come and work for his plumbing business.  That has been a blessing to our lives, and plumbing is very handy to know how to do!   In the long run, though, G realized that he wanted to do something that wouldn't be as physically taxing.  We had been looking for a job for awhile, and nothing was working. Even though we had our doubts, we just kept feeling like when the timing was right, something would work out. The great thing is, the owner's had been praying for someone as well, and they feel like G is that answer.  Miracle!

In my mind I like to think of Joseph (and the coat of many colors... that Joseph) when he finally reveals to his brothers who he really is, he tells them to not be mad at themselves that they sent him to Egypt, because he realizes that God sent him there.  That is how we feel, that God sent us here and directs our lives.

So, there you go.  It has been 2 weeks now, and so far, we both love the new job.  I always think he looks so handsome going to work in his collared shirts. ;)
In other news, My sister in law and I are headed up to BYU Womens Conference next week!  And I am so excited!!!  It will be a kid-free trip.  I am not sure I have ever had one of those before.  Have I?  (no, I don't think I have).  It will be a very much needed break.

What's that you say?

You want an update and TONS of pictures?  Well, okay then!
A month ago, we got to go to Iowa for spring break to visit my parents house.  It was so great to see the family, especially after a very long 19 hour drive! 
On the way there both Quincey and I developed yucky colds.  So, finally on Wednesday we went to the dr to get checked.  Quincey had bronchitis, Maiya had double ear infections and bronchitis, and I had pneumonia.  Too bad we didn't go earlier, but we just kept thinking it would go away.  Oh well, if you have to be sick, it might as well be where your mommy can take care of you.  (bad thing is, we gave her the bronchitis too :( sorry!) 
But other than that minor set back, we had a very enjoyable time!  We got to go to Nauvoo, and visit the Swedeberg museum where I picked up a Swedish cookbook and some lingonberries ;) We got to see where my mom and dad work.  Got to watch movies, and go to the children museum!  The kids loved hanging out with Aunt Brianna, and Uncle Brad.  And they loved their ferret Claudio.
 (as evidenced by the following photo)

Maiya crawled into Claudio's cage, all by herself!

 

On the way back we decided to break the trip up a little better. We went a little bit longer route, but we got to go see some church sites.  We saw, Far West.  We stopped at Liberty Jail, and then we got to stop by Geren's sister Marche's house in Oklahoma.  The kids got to play while we had great conversation, and gave a great place to stay before the last stretch home.  (next time, we will have to stay longer) :)  

We also stopped at the Aquarium in Albuquerque, and finally made it home! Whew! What a great trip.  Hope to go again real soon!

Maiya and Izzie :)

At the Children's Museum

Waitress Maiya

She got very good tips!

Making the Pizza

Number 10? Number 10? Your Pizza is ready.

Pilot Quincey

Dress up time!

Ice Cream time!

(yes, Quincey? Do you have a Question?)

Aunt Brianna<3 eating our favorite flavor.. bubble gum ice cream :)

Geren eating bubble gum ice cream, but not enjoying it as much as Bri and I

 Maiya chose Cotton candy to match her shirt. :)

Far West

(can you tell Quincey has learned to pose?)

Liberty Jail

Entry door at the Liberty Jail

Albuquerque Aquarium

Chronic Losers Resort to Chocolate

So, as you could tell by my last post, it was a little bit of a rough weekend for me.  But, I wanted to share with you what helped me to get through it.......

TADA!

I made Molten Lava Cakes.  They were so good.  And by the way, I am saving all my pennies for this cookbook.

(because all of my efforts to win one in a giveaway have failed.)  :(
You see, there are some people in this world who always win drawings and stuff. I have met one, we were at an event together, and she explained how if there is a drawing she will always win, she just has good luck... her whole entire life.  And she really did win a prize beating hundreds of people!  Anyway, i am the opposite of her, if the drawing was between me and another person, the other person would win.  Oh well, we all have our trials in life...... but I still got my lava cakes  ;)

One Year Ago

It has been a year since my whole Molar Pregnancy crap went down.  For some reason it has been on my mind a little more lately and I am dealing with the whole tragedy more now because I am at a place where I am more able to. I wanted to record a few more details about it and I think I am ready to vent a little bit about how it has been dealing with it. 

I was 8 weeks along when I woke up in a pool of blood.  I had been so incredibly sick the month before, throwing up many times a day.  I was aware that my belly was growing really fast.  I also had been spotting throughout.  I had a blessing when I found out that I was pregnant saying that the baby would be healthy and that I would have special experiences with this pregnancy, and that I should write them down in a journal to share with the baby.  You can imagine how that made it harder to let go and believe when I found out it never was a baby at all, but a tumor of rapid growing placental tissue.  But, in time, I was able to come to terms with that. 

When I miscarried, on a Friday morning, I went to my midwife and she took some blood just to make sure all of the hormones were going down like they should.  Geren took me to IHOP and we mourned the loss but the midwives said we could try again as soon as we felt ready, and we were glad about that.  The next morning, I called the mid-wife and said that I was still as sick as ever.  Her theory was that I was pregnant with twins and that I lost one of them.  That gave us hope again.  She also mentioned that it could be a Molar Pregnancy... I looked it up, and I remember telling Geren, "Lets hope it's not that because you have to wait a year before you can try again!" Little did I know that that was the least of my worries.  She told me to go get another blood test, and so I did.  That evening I passed TONS of blood clots so much so that we gave up hope that there was still a baby in there and leaned toward the MP.  The next morning, Sunday, I got a call from my midwife saying that my hcg hormone was off the charts (1, 570,000) and that it was definitely a MP.

The doctor here was too afraid to do the D&C because it is a much riskier surgery than with a normal pregnancy because it is more difficult to stop the bleeding, so I was flown to Albuquerque.  The doctor warned me that if they couldn't stop the bleeding they would do a hysterectomy, everything went fine. 
They told me it was a very slim chance that i would have to do chemotherapy, only 30% have to.  But I had to!  For 4 months.  So, what I thought was going to be a 12 month wait became a 16 month wait.  My feelings about trying again are, I think, similar to anyone who has had an abnormal pregnancy. I am anxious, but it is scary. 

I was at Deseret Book yesterday, and was browsing the grieving section, because I have been more interested in trying to find some comforting literature, but there isn't any specifically on MP's.  I decided to read a book called 'Gone too Soon'.  I realize that it was about miscarriages and stillborn births, but the emotional impact that I had is similar, so I thought I would give it a try.  While there is no official doctrine of the church stating that miscarried babies or stillborn babies will be resurrected and they will be apart of our family in heaven, many LDS members believe this.  The author of the book believes in this, and suggested evidence to support this belief. 

Reading this book made me a little angry!  I had to go through similar emotions as any other pregnant woman who loses their baby, but I don't get to have the comforting hope that I will be able to see the baby again, because it never was a baby!  I just think it's not really fair.  (yes, I am sounding like a 2 year old). 
When I have explained to people what a Molar Pregnancy is, (the egg has no DNA in it and when it is fertilized it creates a tumor of the placental tissues),  I have gotten some responses like, " Oh, well, that makes it easier to know that it never was a baby." But, it really doesn't.

Time has gone really fast though, and I am so thankful for the health that I have enjoyed since then.  And may I just say that I have learned a lot from this experience, and it has helped me to feel closer to friends, family, and to God. 

Silly AND Pretty

         This is how I found Maiya the other day.  The hat and outfit are her own idea ;)

And here is the little model shooting me some poses.  My little girl is growing up!