There are times when sharing is NOT a good thing!

Reagan had a great first day in nursery (even if it was about 3-4 weeks early) and apparently brought a little something home with her. Two days later she woke up snotty and grumpy. Her face was SOOOOO red from all the wiping. I had to put some heavy duty lotion on her little nose and cheeks to help her poor skin. Two days later I woke up with a head full of goo and a sore throat. One day later it got both Theron and Ryan. The next day it got Grandpa too. I hate being sick, even more I hate the cascade effect it seems to have on households. Poor Theron woke up yesterday with a barking cough, yep croup has reared it's ugly head again! Poor kid gets the croup so easy, any cold seems to throw him right back into it. So now he is medicated but two grumpy kids is NO fun! Not an hour seemed to go by yesterday without someone having a complete meltdown. It also seems that my kids who typically get along really well together just cannot seem to be nice to each other while sick. As if they were not grumpy enough! I am glad to see that at least this morning I can breath out both nostrils, Reagan's nose is barely running and Ryan is feeling much better. Grandpa seems to be better too. Now it is just Theron that is still miserable and if everyone else is any indication then tomorrow should be a better day! Here's to crossed fingers and toes, and anything else I can get to cross!!!

Oh the world of potty training.......

Seeing as Theron will be 3 come April 11th, we decided now was a good time to try potty training. We had let him play around at it before but he showed that at the time he really wasn't ready. I figured I would get some treats that he would really want (Dum Dum suckers) and we would just see where it went. I gave his one sucker to "get a taste". Sure enough he asked for more so I told him it would cost him a successful potty trip. To my astonishment, he earned 3 suckers in about 4 hours, each time he made sure his Sissy got a sucker too (sweet boy)! Things went really well for a week. In fact he would tell me he had to go and off we would run. On the second day he did not even bother asking for a reward anymore. He was quite proud of himself! He was a big boy like Daddy! Reagan of course had to be in on every bit of this. We cannot go into the bathroom without her. We ended up getting her her very own potty seat just so she would leave her brother alone to do his thing. She loves to sit on her potty and since we were already in there anyway, sometimes I let her sit on hers "nakey" too. In fact these days it is not at all unusual for her to wear a pair of her brothers underwear over her pants. Sunday she went to church with a pair of "Go Diego Go" underwear as bloomers under her dresss! I told you before, she has to be in on EVERYTHING that her brother does! I cross my fingers that this means she will PT soon too! Anyway, things were going awesome, then the kids got a stomach bug:P We decided it was too dangerous letting him run around in underwear with a "sick booty" (as Theron called it). Now all is back to normal so we are on round two of PT. This round is not going nearly as well as round one. We had more accidents yesterday that we did in the whole first week. I guess it is time to pull out the Dum Dums again. I dream of the days when a Costco visit does not include $80 in diapers and another $15 in wipes! Of course I will get these two out only to eventually have another and be back at square one again!

And then there were two....

January of 2008 we found that once again our family was growing. We were shocked since Theron was only 8 months at the time. I was a little scared of having two kids so close in age. I felt like I was only just getting used to being a new mom. It did not take long for the initial shock and fear to fade and the anticipation and excitement to kick in. Ryan was preparing for an internship that would take him away from us for four months so I opted to find out the gender so that I could be prepared as much as possible once Ryan left. We found out that my gut intuition was correct and that we would be welcoming a baby girl into our family! I was very excited! Theron was excited to be getting a baby too. He loved to rub my belly. He thought it was funny to lay his head on my belly and to let his sister kick him is the head. He loved it so much that I think he was a little disappointed when he realized my tummy was gone. On September 8th of 2008 we welcomed Reagan Mahala (ma-hay-la)to the family. I was excited to find that she had been blessed with her fathers beautiful tan skin! From the start she was a completely different baby than Theron. She slept so much at first that she worried me. Once I got over it and realized that that was how most babies are, I enjoyed it. Theron could not get enough of her, he constantly asked to hold her. Anytime someone walked off with her he would have to follow to make sure that they were taking care of "his baby". To this day they are best of friends and both look out for each other. Reagan has turned out to be just as energetic as her brother, she has to be to keep up. She excels in areas that took her brother longer, like speech. She is 17 months and uses 3 word sentences, yet she took 5 months longer than her brother to walk. She is a climber! We cannot keep her off of anything! She can scale our bookcases! She is a pretty rough and tumble girl but she loves shoes and wearing bows in her hair. She will ask for bows if I forget to do her hair. She can also be a bit of a drama queen, she has a pretty good fake cry for 17 months! She loves to snuggle and is a happy and busy child. We could not imagine life without her. I love watching her and Theron together. Sure they fight occasionally, but overall they are best of buds! I pray everyday that this closeness continues throughout their lives!

Our little man!

Around June of 2006 we found out that life as we knew it was about to change forever! We found that we were expecting our first child. It was a very exciting time. While both of us had been around numerous babies in our lives, there is nothing like when it is your own. We were excited and a little nervous! Pregnancy was interesting to say the least! I felt our little man for the first time around 12-13 weeks. At first the doctor did not believe me, then I explained what I was feeling and she agreed with me. I knew then that we were in for it. Sure enough, as I got bigger it often felt like a whole gymnastics team was practicing inside my belly. We opted not to find out what we were having and on April 11th, 2007 a handsome baby boy entered out lives! Theron Joshua was 8 lbs 12 oz and 21.5 inches long. That day changed our lives for ever! We have loved and enjoyed this little man even more than we thought possible. Turns out the energy I felt during my pregnancy was only a sample of what was to come. I was always told that newborns sleep a lot. Not Theron, he thought that if he slept, he might miss something important! Theron was an awesome baby. He rarely cried and loved/loves to smile. He was an outside kid from the start. At 6 weeks old the best way to keep him happy was to take him outside to look at the trees. He just loved watching the breezes cut through the trees. He was in a hurry to get mobile, there seemed to be so much that he wanted to do. This little bundle of energy has blessed our lives in too many ways to count. He is now a happy and rambunctious nearly 3 year old. He loves life, sports, his sister, the outdoors and best of all DINOSAURS! He has 14 of them and knows the species of every one. I love helping him learn. He is easygoing and just a great joy. Of course he has his moments but overall is a very helpful, loving and fun toddler! We are so blessed to have him as a part of our family!

The best place to start is always the beginning......

Ryan and I met in the summer of 1999. I was introduced to him by my nephew Brad who is a year older than I am and one of Ryan's best friends. I know, it already sounds a little weird! Brad is the grandson of my foster mom, this is the family that I consider as my own so that makes him my nephew. Explanation over! I had heard about this cool friend from my siblings. Why did they think he was cool you ask? Apparently it was because he had some fingers chopped off. Yeah, I don't understand it either. Anyway, later my nieces told me about Brad's cool friend. I did not think it was possible that he was that cool. Growing up Brad and I did not get along so well (all that has since changed. I consider Brad to be a good friend now, but that was then). I was pleasantly surprised when I met him and found out that he was both attractive and a cool guy to hang out with. I was 17 then, he was 18. We dated off and on until he left for his mission in September 2000. We wrote back and forth for the majority of his mission, but I DID NOT wait for him. We knew of too many received "Dear John's" by friends and knew that two years was a long time, a lot could change. We opted to retain the friendship, but beyond that we had no expectations. I dated in those two years. I enjoyed myself, met many new people and just had fun enjoying life. I think I will always miss the bonfires on the beach until all hours of the morning, even though now I am not sure I could make it past midnight! Fast forward to 2003, Ryan was back. We hung out and found that we still enjoyed hanging out together. During a conversation on his sisters couch we decided to make it permanent. Yes, you read it right. Nothing fancy, no candle lit dinner, roses, down on one knee or any other schmoopy stuff (that is not our style anyway)! We just DECIDED that we just liked being the two of us together, and frankly since it is hard to meet anyone when you only hang out with one person (not to mention we were happy and content the way the way things were)we chose to make it official. Six years, 2 kids, a cross country move and a masters degree later, we are happy as could be! We love our life, our children and each other! We would not have it any other way!