What's Sleep??

So, I'm sitting here watching Mickey Mouse Club House, thinking how much I'd rather be in bed. Sam's been sick, and like always when he gets sick, it effects him HORRIBLY. Dave and I were both up ALL night with him as he threw up and whined...and had a CONSTANT cough in-between. There's nothing like finally settling back in bed for the tenth time, to immediately hear, "Mommy! My nose is running away!" Or *cough cough cough*. Argh. And then sometime in the middle of the night, a stupid parade went through town--honking horns and flashing lights. So upsetting.

Anyway, Sam is MISERABLE and extreemly high-maintainance when he's sick, so we are incredibly drained, but luckily Josh isn't sick....yet. Hopefully he doesn't get there.

We're Alive!

So, I know no one thought we were dead or anything because even though I haven't updated this in months, most of you have facebook and know I'm alive and well...but the title seemed fitting. :)

It's been such a long time, I'm not really sure where to start, but I guess I will just start with what's currently going on. Josh and Sam are coming up on their birthdays in a couple of week and I haven't really even given thought to what we might do for that. Josh will be the big 1 on the 10th and Sam will be 3 on the 11th (not to mention Dave's on the 14th). Any ideas?

Josh is a human vacuum, as far as food goes. He's completely opposite from his brother in the eating department, which couldn't make me happier. It is still a constant battle to get Sam to eat anything at all, while Josh inhales everything in front of him. Even when he's full (and I'm not even sure he gets full), he's begging for food. Especially the last few days. I'm assuming he's going through a growth spurt (if not, this kid will eat us out of house and home) because he's been eating non-stop and last night before bed he nursed me dry and still drank 5 ounces of formula after that.

Anyway, I'm hoping his eating habits are gaining him the weight he needs because at his last doctor's appointment (about 2 months ago) he was only in about the 10th percentile and hadn't gained any weight since he was 6 months old. It's crazy, because to me he looks so plump and chubby. But apparently he's small...closer to the size of a younger baby rather than a one-year-old. The almost-bald head doesn't help him look any older, either.

But he's doing great and so much fun. He has such a fun personality and we get such a kick out of him. Watching him and Sam play and fight and laugh together is seriously the best joy I could have ever felt. I never imagined it would tug at my heart so much. I'm so glad they have each other and that Sam has a little compadre now.

Sam is just a sassy, funny kid. He says the FUNNIEST things and we are always breaking into laughter and blown away by things he says. I had no idea he listened so much because he picks up on things I never even thought he was around to hear. One of his new favorite songs is "Pants on the Ground," and for any of you who've seen American Idol, you know what I mean...

Anyway, nursery is one of his favorite things about the week, and thanks to our WONDERFUL nursery leaders, he learns so much! They are amazing. He will come home from church singing primary songs that I didn't even know he learned and I will hear him playing with his toys sometimes, playing out little scenarios with Jesus and Joseph Smith, etc. I love my little guy and the special, wonderful spirit he has.

Unfortunately, Dave has been feeling less than perfect lately. Since November, he's had prostatitus and it's been a huge inconvenience/discomfort in his life. He's been on numerous antibiotics and drugs to help, but nothing has and it seems his urologist has even given up on him. He was told that time is really the only thing that'll heal--if it ever does. So, we are being prayerful.

I finally finished my second novel last night, final edit and all, but I won't go into that here. If anyone's curious about it, check out my other blog. But that's what's been occupying so much of my free time (free time, meaning staying up late at night till I'm dragging the next day because night is the only time to myself).

Besides everything else going on, unfortunately we've been sucked into quite a few shows this season as well. It seems there are too many this time for us to keep up with, and thanks to DVR, we have a whole list of them that still need watching. 24, House, Heroes, Chuck, and the Bachelor take up our Monday nights (after kids are in bed, of course...and no, we don't watch them all in one night. Usually it's just one show before bed). Then the rest of the week is filled with American Idol, Mercy, the new Human Target (not sure how I feel about it yet), Scrubs, Better Off Ted, Modern Family, Community, the Office, and...some others I'm sure I'm forgetting. Oh, and the beloved Lost starts again next week! :)

Between my writing and spending time with my family, I've been attempting to get some good reads in, too. It seems I'm always renewing my library books because I can't finish them too quickly, though. I've been kind of addicted to Nicholas Sparks lately, trying to get caught up with his stuff, and am currently reading Dear John. I refuse to see the movie until I'm finished with the book. Like I'd actually get a chance to see it anytime soon, anyway...

I will try to do a better job of keeping this updated with family info and pictures, I promise! I also just want to give a shout out to all my long-lost Bagdad friends, because I feel like it's been ages since I have seen or hung out with anyone. I seriously feel like a recluse and that I've been shut off from the world. It doesn't help that we've been gone a lot, too. But thanks to facebook and blogs, I feel I can still be a part of your lives. I have such amazing friends here--the best, strongest examples of women there could ever be. You guys are all wonderful and amazing, and even though I haven't seen anyone in a while, I love you guys!

And now for the pictures. I'm not putting up all the holiday ones because that would take FOREVER and I've already put them up on facebook, so I'll start fresh with this month.

Here's Josh trying to get my attention while I sat in bed writing...


This was the result of our freak rain storm in Bagdad. This river bed is usually bone dry and we had to get a picture for evidence that sometimes AZ can be normal!

The boys in their snazzy suites! Love it! Too bad Josh was so mad. It was after church and he was ready for a nap.

The many faces of Joshua... He loves smirking at the camera. :)

411

I figured I should also write a quick blurb about how we are doing and what's going on with us right now, since my kids are being good and everything. Ha. Yeah right. Josh is sitting here screaming, so it'll be quick.

We are still in Bagdad, obviously, Dave is still working in the same job, and not much is new, but I'll go youngest to oldest...

Josh is growing like a weed and is chubby and wonderful and cuddly. He is almost 9 months old now, but still doesn't sleep through the night. :) Fun for me. He loves his older brother and they have so much fun together. He is a total mama's boy, by every explanation. I leave the room, he cries. I put him down, he cries. But it's okay because I love him. :) He is so cheerful and happy and fun and probably the most photogenic baby I've ever seen. He has his first tooth on the bottom, which has been fun for me dealing with his extra grumpiness. He has his next checkup in a week, so I'll report stats then.

Sam is doing new things every day and is becoming so grown up. He is very smart and defiant and starting to get a sarcastic sense of humor. :) He is also very stubborn and can be a REAL pain in my butt, but then a second later he can turn around and be the sweetest boy I've ever seen. He started "preschool" with Christa a couple months ago and is LOVING it (though it will probably not continue anymore). He loves learning and interacting with other kids and is GREAT for other people. :)

The only new thing with me is that I finally finished my book--the final edit and everything! Woo hoo! So, I'm working on my grueling query letters and synopsis, mini synopsis, etc. etc. etc. so I can start researching agents to send it in to. Writing the book was definitely the fun, easy part. This part feels like homework--homework that I actually care about and want to be perfect. LOL. Anyway, thanks to those of who who currently have copies of my final manuscript and are reading them. I started reading it to Dave the other day, feeling SOOO lame because he isn't in to romances, but I have been very very pleasantly surprised that he actually really likes it so far and is anxious to know what happens to the characters.

Anyway, Dave had a health fair a few weeks ago here in Bagdad that he ran, and in that process, he had his blood taken and it was high. He always new it was high, but this time worried him more. Thinking about his dad and seeing his life go in that same path gave him a brutal wake-up call, so for the past few weeks he has been EXTREMELY strict with his diet, determined not to end up that way. I have been sooo proud of him. He is eating smaller portions (and still always starving), eliminating as much carbs and refined sugar as possible, and he is working out every single day--even when we are out of town on the weekends, he'll get up early enough to run. Anyway, he's been taking his blood every morning and the results have been extremely depressing. He finally has an appointment today to see what the deal is, though the numbers we see scream diabetes. We are still hoping for something more positive, and praying, but we wont know till we go in and get checked for sure. We will keep everyone updated.

Our prayers go out to everyone in our family (and outside of it) who are struggling. It seems there is a lot of that going on right now and the list of people to pray for just grows each day. I just thank the Lord for our blessings and hope everyone else can receive the same kind of blessings we get.

We are excited to be going to Colorado for Christmas! And we were excited that Braxton and Cindi might be coming for Thanksgiving, but Brax lost his job and we aren't too sure it's gonna happen anymore. :( We are praying for you guys and hopefully you still can come!!

Halloween was great. We spent it with the Stewarts in the valley and went trick-or-treating with the kids, had a little shin-dig, the usual. Unfortunately, Brand was sick, but still made an appearance as Darth Maul so that their Star Wars family could be complete. They all looked so amazing! Tiff did an amazing job sewing the costumes and they found killer masks. Dave still didn't know until that day what he would be but through together a last minute viking costume that actually looked pretty amazing. I was a witch, thanks to Tiff having the things on hand, Sam was a cowboy, and Josh was a monkey. It was lots of fun, but now Sam wont stop asking for candy. He will randomly say things to me like, "Mom, I love candy."

Bad News

Gosh, this whole blogging things seems foreign to me now because of how long it's been. I got outta the mode and then events started piling up and blogging seemed a chore to me because of how much I'd have to update everyone on. But I need to start anew. I just wanted to express my feelings at the moment.

I can't even thank the Lord for how blessed me and my family are. We complain, and especially lately because of Dave's health (we go in today to find out whether he has diabetes for sure or not...we are pretty sure he does, but I'll let you all know when we know for sure), but yesterday changed our thinking completely. Our good friend, Christa Johnson (Miss Christa, as Sam calls her...she's his "preschool" teacher), was diagnosed with breast cancer yesterday, and possibly lymphnode. I feel overwhelmed with sorrow for her. She is such an amazing person, so willing to give of herself and her time, and she deserves a life full of great things! I love her and my heart aches for her and what she is going to have to go through now. I feel as though I can't pray enough for her, and I hope the power of prayer is strong enough to lift some of her load and make it possible for her to get through this with as much ease as possible!

We love you Christa and you will be in our prayers!

Pics Again

Here are a few recent pics. Oh, and nothing new with Josh. Still has diarrhea a bit, so I'm going to give it a couple more days and then I'm thinking about starting him on the prevacid again because I don't think he would still have diahrrea after 9 days of being off of it. Argh. It's all so frustrating...

Sam found a pen...

I just loved this picture of my beautiful boy.

The boys watching a Brainy Baby video.

Hahahaha....this one is just funny. I'm not sure what he was scared of.

This Weekend...

...was great! Dave and I actually got to go on a date on Saturday (with the baby of course...)! Thanks again so much to Christa for watching Sam! What we thought would only be about a 5-6 hour babysitting job (we were just planning on driving to Prescott Valley and seeing a movie), turned out to be an all day thing. We did see a movie, but we ended up thinking of all these other things that we had to get done while we were there. That's the thing about living so far away from town. When you're there, you have to take advantage of it and get everything done you can.

Anyway, we saw Wolverine, which I absolutely loved and it made me want to watch the first and second X-Men movies when we got home. So we had a good time out, and as he always is, Joshua was great in the movie.

Yesterday, Mother's Day, was good, but not really any different than any other day. I wanted a laptop, but we want to wait until we find the perfect deal, so instead Dave (well...I guess it would really be from Josh and Sam) got me 2 movies I love: P.S. I Love You and 27 Dresses. He also got me a really funny Michael Scott card that plays sound of him talking about children. Except it's kind of annoying now that I have it memorized, because Sam opens it plays it all the time.

On Friday night Dave took Sam to the Father and Sons, though they didn't camp over night. It's just too difficult and not worth it for Dave to camp with Sam at this age because of how difficult he can be. But they had a lot of fun! And I got to hang out with just me and Josh. You know what I did? I watched Twilight with the comentary by Catherine, Kristen, and Rob (yeah....I know them so well that I refer to them only by their first names, haha). Yeah, don't make fun. I usually would never sit through a movie while listening to a boring comentary, but the the Twilight one is actually pretty funny...actually, pretty hillarious. There were parts where I was laughing out loud by myself. It was just funny to hear them all talking about stuff and getting a feel of the experience they had making the movie. And Rob Pattinson is actually pretty darn funny. He kept making fun on himself as Edward and I got a kick out of it. Anywho....

So Joshua hasn't changed much. He still has diarrhea, though not as bad as before, so I don't know if it was actually the Prevacid causing it or not, since it's now been 6 days since he's been off of it. It's so hard to say. I'm still not sure whether I made the right decision or not. He had one really good eating session at church yesterday, where he ate for about 10 minutes on each side, like a normal baby, and I thought that would be a positive turn, but it was only a one-time thing. I'm still not sure what to do. He has an appointment on June 11 with the G.I. doctor (I'm going to have them put us on the cancellation list though) so we'll see how that goes.

That's it for now!

Sam's First Sentence

So yesterday at church I started to smell something gross - something that smelled just like Sam when he's poopy - and I leaned over to him sitting next to me, and whispered, "Did you poo?" Well, usually he doesn't answewr me more than a "no," or somtimes not at all. This time he looked up at me with his beautiful big blue eyes and big pouty lips, and in his sweet sweet voice replied, "No, I didn't poopoo. I just farted." Haha...it was pretty funny....