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Sweet little thing

Yesterday I was headed down to the car with my two boys in tow. We made our way down the Elevator making a couple stops before we hit the ground level. Micah quickly made friends with two of the people that rode down with us, our new friend Marge and the self proclaimed Man with a cane. Marge walked with us down the long hallway and held the big double doors open for us. I walked to the second elevator that we need to take to get to our car and I noticed Micah was still at the double doors. I beckoned and bribed for Micah to catch up to me so we could catch the elevator. The whole time I could hear Micah calling out to someone in his sweet little voice, "Come on man, come on, I'm waiting for you, I'm holding the door for you man." I walked back to the doors to see who Micah was talking to. It was our new friend "The Man with the cane." Micah was patiently holding the big heavy door for his friend who was going as fast as he could (which wasn't very fast) to get down the hall. I was so touched by Micah's kindness. I couldn't help but think that this was such a beautiful Christ-like moment, Micah was showing love to his neighbor.

The Truth

Okay, everyone keeps asking me how I like it out here in Virginia. The truth is I LOVE all of the friends I have made. If I didn't have them I would be miserable. With that said, I am SO HOMESICK! I feel that I have had one too many encounters with the rude people of Virginia.

I feel as though this area is not very child friendly. Just the other day Micah was running down a long, wide hallway in our building and a man started yelling at him telling him he shouldn't be running inside. I felt really angry because I told Micah he could run, besides us and the man the hall was empty. One more story for venting purposes. I had to take Sam to the department of heath to get his next round of immunizations. While we were waiting for our turn, I let Micah look out the window down at the cars. It was time for us to be seen and Micah was not interested in leaving his spot at the window. After failing to persuade him to come with me, I just scooped him up and took him to the back with me. He was obviously angry with me, he began to yell at me and hit me. I looked at him and sternly said, "Micah, I don't hit you, please don't hit me." After waiting in the patient room a little longer, the nurse finally came back with Sam's vaccines. Once the door opened Micah booked it out. She told me not to worry about Micah and to hold Sam while she administered the vaccines. I am sure this nurse has done hundreds of vaccines, but I was very distressed by her technique. There were four vaccines, after she took her time with the first one (poking Sam, cleaning the blood applying the bandage). I asked her to just get it over with and handle the blood and bandaging at the very end. As you might imagine, she did not appreciate me telling her how to do her job :-). After a little spat (very little) she took my suggestion. Sam was a wreck once it was all over, I could not console him. I was feeling very stressed out because I couldn't comfort Sam and Micah was up to who knows what!? The Nurse told me to just take a seat and try to feed Sam, and She would keep an eye on Micah for me. While I did this, I could here her outside chastising Micah,

Nurse: DID YOU DO THIS?, DID YOU DO THIS? ( I have no idea what was going on outside).
Micah: NO!
Nurse: Your Mama says she doesn't spank you, if you were my baby I'd spank you!

The Nurse came back in and told me that I need to change my parenting techniques. She continued to tell me that Micah was the one in control, not me, and I should start spanking. I felt that her judgments were harsh and unfair. The situation was more than I could handle. I don't mind so much that she was criticizing my parenting, after all I probably deserved it for trying to critique her. But she was completely out of line for yelling at Micah. I was so angry that I left nearly in tears. At This point I am planning on writing the department of health about their less than friendly employees (this is only one of several experiences there).

Thanks for letting me vent a little.


My little trouble maker and his sure to be partner in crime :-)

Guess what? It's Ryan's Birthday!

Happy Birthday to Ryan. I wan the whole world to know how wonderful Ryan is, it's really hard for me to be specific, I'm not very good at being gushy. All I can say he is a great husband, Friend and father. Happy Birthday Ryan.

For Ryan's Birthday we spent the day at home enjoying each others company and trying to enjoy General Conference. Micah woke me up bright and early, so we decorated our apartment and made a yummy stuffed french toast breakfast for Ryan. Micah keeps running up to Ryan saying, "guess what daddy?... It's your Birthday!"

How I spend my days

It isn't uncommon for people to ask me or other stay at home moms what we do all day. I wondered the same thing before I stepped into this role. And some days I still ask myself that same question (usually it is with a more exasperated tone "what did I do all day!?"). Thankfully, I have photos that serve as a great reminder of how I spend my time.

The photo booth pictures are from the last time Micah and I went to the Living Planet Aquarium. Micah and I spend a lot of time reading books, going to the park, playing with trains or building with his blocks. Micah is also a really great help around the house.

This is a photo shoot during tummy time with Sam. Sam and I spend a lot of time cuddling, looking at our reflection in the mirror, and babbling to each other. Sam loves to be a part of all the action going on around him, he is practically attached to my hip. :-)

My Sunbeams

I have more to post, which I will do soon, here are some fun pictures from the last week. :)

Sam reminds me of a Sunbeam, he is so cute!

Micah is in awe of the Washing Wamingment aka Washington Monument

Mindy Gledhill - Anchor

Maybe some of you out there already know Mindy Gledhill, I just heard of her. I saw this video a few days ago and I can't get enough, she is so talented!

We love our little Sam

Here are some photos we took (Ryan and I took turns). I wanted to get some nice pictures of Sam before he grew out of his blessing clothes. I think they turned out pretty cute.

One Year older and Wiser too!

Thank you to everyone who made me feel so much love on my Birthday, I had a very *wonderful day. Thank you especially to Ryan. He got me everything I wanted and didn't even spend a dime! How great is that!? I asked Ryan if we could have a few friends over (a few of the people we have met since we have been out here, but already great friends) for dinner and games. One of my friends offered to make my birthday cake. She made the most amazing German Chocolate Cake, it was so tasty. I also asked Ryan if I could have this head board and base board that someone in our building threw out. We found it on the loading dock (to be taken with the trash). He was a champ and got that for me too. I can't wait to paint it so that it will match our bedroom. And last of all I asked for Family pictures. We still haven't done them but he has promised them to me, I am so excited to have them done. They will be a self portrait, so we are getting great pictures and saving a bundle!



You know the movie That Thing You Do? Well there is a part in the movie when the Wonders are trying to come up with their band name and one of the band member wants them to be called the One-ders. I just spelled wonderful with an O-N-E, oops. :)

Bath TIme

Last Friday while giving Micah a Bath I decided to throw Sam in too. I was skeptical about how it might go but both boys needed a bath and I might as well get it done in one shot right? Much to my surprise, Sam was loving bath time. every time Micah would splash Sam would burst out a good gutty ha ha laugh, It was the best!