Way Overdue

I know that this post is WAY OVERDUE, but I am going to give an excuse...Now,whether it is truly valid or not......I don't know, but it is still my excuse. :o) As you can plainly see by the picture below I am pregnant with baby #3. This has been my hardest pregnancy yet. I felt ill from the time I ate breakfast until I went to bed up until about a couple of weeks ago. I still have my moments, but it is definitely getting better. My other issue has been exhaustion. I have been soooo tired. I can get 8 hours at night, a 2 hour nap in the day and still feel like I haven't slept for a month. It has been really hard. I am trying to patiently await the point when I have lots of energy....it hasn't happened yet. I don't know that I am going to be able to catch up on all the posts I haven't done, but hopefully I will at least be able to keep up from here on out.

This is my ultrasound done at 12 weeks. I am 18 weeks today. I will hopefully have another ultrasound in the next few weeks that will give us a little hint as to whether this little "peanut" is a boy or girl. We will keep you posted!

Time Out For Women

I need to do something about my current blog situation. It is getting to the point where I feel I am so far behind it is overwhelming and I am trying to ignore it. That is never a good thing, I know! It is kind of like the pile of papers in the kitchen that will soon be larger than the counter. I just keep thinking that if I ignore it long enough it will go away! I know better than that, but I just haven't pulled myself out of that funk yet. So, I thought I would start with the blog. I know deep down that if I just devoted 10 minutes a day to this (and the pile of papers or whatever other disaster is waiting for me) that I could catch up and all would be good. So here is my attempt at that.


I was blessed this weekend to be able to go to Time Out For Women. For those of you who don't know what that is, it is a weekend away from kids and husbands (not that we don't miss them the whole time). It is a weekend of fabulous spiritual enrichment and enjoyment. I came home this weekend just feeling so full -spiritually and mentally. We actually had a group of about 10 go from our ward. I drove a few of us up. We left early Friday morning and went to the Temple before our classes started that night. Then we went all day on Saturday and drove home that evening. I wanted to write a couple of things that I know were meant for me.

Cheiko Okazaki spoke first. She talked about how she taught school for 20-something years. One of the things that she said that really hit me was that after you teach a correct principal to your child you must then let them govern themselves. I know that I spend too much time "helping" my children and not enough time letting them solve their own problems. Sometimes it is because I can "get it done so much faster", or because I want to show them how to "do it right". I am pretty sure that I hated that as a child. So, I have vowed to let my children make their own decisions (within reason) and do things for themselves. One thing we always struggle with is Lexy getting ready for school in the morning. We probably tell her 20 times to get dressed and 20 times to eat faster because she is running out of time. So Monday came and I told her that I know that she is old enough and responsible enough to get all ready for school without me telling her what to do. She did really good except for brushing her hair. It was really hard for me not to tell her to brush her hair. I did suggest that she look in the mirror and see if there is anything else that she needed to do to be ready for school - she got it and brushed her hair (phew). This morning she wanted to iron her shirt. She has ironed a couple of times with my supervision. I know she can do it, but I am just too afraid of what could happen. So this morning I decided to let her do it by herself. I even walked out of the room. I am making progress!

Emily Watts was the next speaker. She had two things that were really good for me to hear. 1. She posed the question, "What if the fruits of my parenting has less to do with how my children turn out than how I become as a parent?" She said when we view it this way, it doesn't matter what mistakes our children make, what matters is how we deal with it. 2. She also said, "The fruit of your life is You - not your children, your job, or your accomplishments. What matters is who we serve and who we become". I hope that I can keep this close to my heart and think about it the next time I am about to lose it with my children.

The following are a few simple statements that I liked by the other speakers...

**Don't be consumed with the Gotta-do's and the Oughta-be's - just focus on Christ.

**When we strive to walk on water by ourselves we will sink, but when we allow the Lord to hold our hand we can walk on water.

**Even when life is hard, God is good to us.

**Ingratitude is like a carnival mirror that distorts our reality.

**Gratitude opens the windows of heaven....it is a saving principle because is saves us from ourselves and our negativity.

I have a new niece!

I have a lot to catch up on, but I couldn't wait to put up some pictures of my brand new niece, Ella Madison Davis. She was born on February 24th, weighing 7 pounds, 10 oz. She and Valerie are both doing fine and hopefully they will get to go home this morning. I wish we weren't so far away so that I could love on her, but I guess I will just have to wait. :o(

Thanksgiving

This year for Thanksgiving we drove up to Tennessee. I can't believe that we actually did it after we swore that we would never do that drive again. We went up there two years ago and decided that we would drive at night so the kids would sleep and Aaron and I would take turns sleeping in the very back seat in the van. When we took that trip I took the first turn driving. This kids finally fell asleep around 10pm and then I had to pull into a gas station at around midnight to get gas. The lights were soooo bright that the kids were instantly awake and since they had had themselves a little nap they were wide awake. I was exhausted of course and wanted to sleep, but couldn't because the kids needed to be entertained. I think they ended up sleeping again from about 3:30am-7am. We swore we would NEVER do that again.

Unfortunately (or fortunately, however you choose to look at it) that trip was kind of like child birth. As time goes by you start to forget the horrible pain and anguish that you went through and think, "Hmmm, maybe, just maybe, I could do it again". Combine that with outrageous airfare and you find yourself driving 16 hours to Tennessee again and doing it at night! So I know you are all wondering how it went??? It actually went really well. The kids slept from 10:30-ish to about 5:30. We were much smarter this time though, and pulled over to fill the tank just before the kids fell asleep. Then any time that we needed gas after that I held a blanket over Nathan's head so that the bright lights of the gas station did not wake him up. I think it was helpful that the kids were older, too.

It was very cold up there. As usual we had to go out and buy a hole new wardrobe with pants and long-sleeved shirts before we took the trip. Grandma was able to borrow a jacket for Lexy and we had a hand-me-down for Nathan. I am so grateful for my nice warm winters down here in sunny Florida. I was not enjoying the cold weather at all. I did, however, really enjoy sitting around and having nothing on my mind - no cleaning, no groceries, no work, no laundry - nothing. Aaron's mom taught me how to crochet a pot holder. I know that doesn't sound very exciting, but I was really excited and I was able to do it in a day!

The kids got to play with some of their cousins (pictured above holding the gingerbread men they made at Grandma's house). We were able to spend Aaron's birthday up there with two of his brothers and his best friend from his youth. We took a trip to the Apple Barn in Gatlinburg (which has really yummy food). It is one of our favorite places to go. They have neat Christmas shops open all year. In the picture below this kids are sitting on a wooden Santa. Overall it was a great trip.

What a tongue!

This is one of those pictures that I think Lexy will hate when she gets older, but I had to post it because it grosses me out and makes me laugh all at the same time!

We were eating bacon (turkey bacon) one morning and some how it turned into dangling turkey bacon tongues. Lexy's looked so real that we had to grab the camera and take a picture.

Doesn't this picture freak you out a bit?

Halloween

We had a fun Halloween. It was the first time that we actually went out knocking on doors. We have always just gone to the ward Trunk-or-Treat party (which we did also). This year we went to our friends the Montierth's for some pizza first and then went up and down the streets in their neighborhood. It was really crowded! The kids had a great time and got way too much candy! Lexy was a black cat and Nathan was a member of the SWAT team!

Two little boys at church

Everyone knows that when one baby is born in a ward (this is what we call one congregation in our church) there are usually three or four more babies coming soon after. That was the case when Nathan was born - actually he was following the other boys who had been born just a few months before. We had five boys all about the same age - Jeremy, A.J., Cody, Nathan and Jack. They all played in nursery together and for the most part were good buds. Being in such a transient place, though, we are watching all of Nathan's buddies slowly leaving. Jack Watkins was the first to leave a couple of years ago. A.J. and his family, the Whitney's left us almost a year ago. Cody and his family still live in Naples, but we had some boundary changes and they are no longer in our ward and it doesn't seem to matter how hard we try we just don't see them as much as we would like. That left Jeremy. Although they have their arguments at times, they are good friends.

Yesterday was the Brower's (Jeremy's family) last day at church before they move back to Arizona. We are going to miss them. And now it just leaves Nathan out of the original group. I know that he will make new friends. We have already had some new families move into the ward with kids close to his age. But I could just picture those five boys growing up together and all being best friends. Anyway, I watched the cutest exchange between Jeremy and Nathan during sacrament meeting yesterday. It was the Primary program and Jeremy was suppose to be up in the stand with the other kids, but I think he had gotten a little shy so he was sitting with his family. We were a couple of rows behind the Browers. I could tell that Jeremy was trying to see Nathan and get his attention. Nathan however, had two small trucks that had his full attention. After a small struggle between Bro. Brower and Jeremy for some reverence Jeremy returned to his post looking for Nathan. By this time Nathan had moved down to the floor and was driving his trucks on the carpet. Once Jeremy realized that he could not see Nathan by standing on the seat he figured out he should go below. So he went down to the floor and this is what came next:

Jeremy: (in a loud whisper under the pew) "Nafan! Nafan!"

Nathan: (bending over to try to see where that was coming from and finally seeing Jeremy two rows up) "What?" (also in a loud whisper)

Then I couldn't hear what Jeremy was saying, but this was Nathan's response (in a loud whisper, of course) "No.... I can't.... I have to stay here.... No.... No." Then he looks up and me, at which point I shake my head 'no'.

The next thing I know Nathan pulls his arm back, with truck in hand, and then chucks the truck under the pew to Jeremy. What could I do, but ask if Jeremy got it, hoping that it hadn't hit the feet of the couple in front of us who were visiting from Utah. Jeremy had gotten the truck and he quickly popped up, back to his original post on the pew, with a big, happy, 'mission accomplished', grin on his face.

It was one of the the cutest things I have ever seen. I am sure that Nathan will probably not remember that as time goes by, but it is something that I don't think I will ever forget.