So much to CELEBRATE!!!

I am BACK! I took a little hiatus because school was seriously intense this semester (5 upper division classes, 14 books to read, many essays to write), but now it is ALL OVER. I almost can't believe it myself! I am a college graduate!!!!! I can't believe how long this journey has been, and how much I have grown in the process. It has been difficult for all four of us, but it was worth it.

I am so happy to be done. Every day I wake up and think "I could do anything today!". The only problem with that is that I am now 36 weeks pregnant and not as full of energy as I was. Not only that but this boy has dropped already, which makes it very hard to walk. So I am not quite as productive as I planned. Also, I need him to stay in there at least one more week so we won't have to worry about preemie troubles. I feel very content and proud of what I have done. And I am so excited to embark on the next phase of my life: mother of 3 here I come! :)

Corbin turns 5!

Well in ture Corbin fashion the 2 weeks leading up to his birthday were terrible! He was very naughty and difficult. So I determined that he would have to earn his birthday presents this year. My mother thought I was being terrible, but I knew there was a lesson to be learned, and by golly, he was going to learn it! So his birthday came and we talked about how he had been so naughty, and that he was going to have to be on his best behavior to be able to get his birthday presents. I explained that his behavior was unacceptable, and that I was not going to reward him for it. He understood, and over the next 5 days he worked really hard and was really good. So we invited our friends over and he got to finally open his presents.

I do not at all regret making him earn his presents. His behavior improved dramatically after this episode. He realized that there are real consequences for his actions, and he worked very hard on it afterwards. I think it really made us closer as a family. It is important to me that my children are grateful for what they have, respectful of others, and sincerely sorry when they make mistakes. I couldn't pass up the opportunity to teach him these things, and it really worked. I love my son, and these moments only make me love him all the more. He really valued his presents since he had to earn them. I am so proud of him and how far he has come. He is such a joy to us and we are so grateful to have him in our family.

Just a Quick One

I just finished my second to last semester at UNLV! Only 16 weeks to go! :) It feels good to be done. I did very well. All A's! Unbelievable. Especially considering all that went on the last few months. Just as a quick recap:

Corbin started Kindergarten- He loves it!
Nate and I ran the Mackinac Island Great Turtle Race- I ran the whole 5.7 miles!
I had to add a 6th class to be able to finish all my classes by next May
We found out I am pregnant with our 3rd child! (That's why I had to add the 6th class)
Nate's baby brother got married
My sisters and families came out here for Thanksgiving! :) It was so fun!
We had Family pictures done for the first time since Madalyn was a year old.

I will try and catch up with the Blog over the next 4 weeks that I have off. There is so much to say and do! We are going to have the baby in June, towards the middle, hopefully after Corbin gets done with school. And a mere 4 weeks after I finish my last semester. Anyway! Pictures to follow, keep checking back!

Madalyn turns 3

It is amazing how time flies! I can't believe my baby is growing up. Madalyn's Birthday happened to fall on a Sunday this year. I bought her this dress to wear to church and to her party. She loved it. I even painted her nails a similar color. She felt like the princess she is.

Later after church we had Grandma and Papa over and we opened gifts. She got a Barbie movie with many of the songs featured in the Barbie movies she loves so much. This is a huge hit at our house. She loves to sing along with the songs and she expects me to know all the words as well.

Grandma and Papa got her this beautiful, sparkly Barbie which she loves. I love it too because the body suit is painted on. So no nakedness :)

We got her this video game to use on Corbin's Leapster. She was pretty excited that she was actually going to get to use the hallowed Leapster. Corbin wouldn't let her play with it really before he agreed to let her use it for her game.

This girl loves stickers and princesses, so wouldn't you know she was over the moon about hi gift. We sit and do it when Corbin is at school which makes it extra special.

Madalyn had been asking Grandma for months for a piggy bank. Corbin was jealous. He wanted one too. And this one happened to be his favorite color as well.

But the best present of the day was dress-ups! If there is one thing that both of my kids love to play more than anything, it is dress-up. So Grandma and I both got her an assortment of dressups clothes.

She kinda looks like a combination of Snow White and Little Red Riding Hood.

So pretty!

This one is meant to be like a mermaid, which she loves!

Happy Birthday to you!

Blow baby!

She actually enjoyed eating the frosting off of the candle more than eating the cupcake. Next year I will remember she doesn't like cake and get an ice cream cake instead. Overall it was a wonderful day full of love and excitement. We are so in love with this sweet girl and so glad she is a part of our lives and our family. She is a treasure.

Such wonderful blessings!

I just want to take this moment to reflect upon the wonderful blessings of my family. I have the most amazing husband in the world. He is my supporter, my cheerleader, my strength. I love him with all of my heart. I am so grateful for him each and every day. We have been together for 10 years and I love him more and more each and every day. I am also very grateful for two loving children. They are the best of friends. They look out for and take care of each other. They are inseparable and I love it. We definately have our hard times, but I still love them so much. It has been such a joy to watch them learn and grow and become little people. I couldn't be more grateful and I wouldn't trade them for anything. No matter what you may have heard ;)

I am so blessed to have such a wonderful family who loves me and whom I love. Thank you Heavenly Father!

Family Traditions

Every year for gifts we make something called Christmas rolls. They are similar to cinnamon rolls and they are yummy! This year we let the kids help out and we all had a great time. They are fun to make and fun to give away.

What are some of your family traditions??? I am always looking for fun ways to celebrate the Christmas season.

It is a little sticky, and Corbin is using his big muscles from eating his vegetables :)

Sticky fingers!

Animal Crackers

When I was little I had a tape with children's songs on it and one of them went like this: "Animal crackers in my soup, monkeys and rabbits, loop the loop, gosh o gee but I have fun, swallowing animals one by one". And another line went something like this "When they're inside me when it's dark, I walk around like Noah's Ark". I like that line :) It is an interesting mental image. So my kids were having lunch and I gave them some animal crackers and they started playing together and singing with their animal crackers. It was so cute! This was when Corbin was still recovering from his hives so it was a while ago. Sorry, school has been eating up my time.

His poor cheeks! But at least he wasn't suffering.

What a cute kid!

He looked so bad with those hives. Poor itchy kid.

My beautiful princess! We just love her :)

The Spotsies

Do you ever have those weeks where everything seems to go badly? Well, we had that this past week. It all ended up working out fine, but there was no end of frustration while it was happening. So here is what happened to us on Thursday. I had plans to work on some preschool things with my friends and have a playdate. I was having it here because our dishwasher was supposed to be delivered and installed. So the kids got up a little late, around 7 (aren't you jealous?!) and I had to get their milk from the downstairs refridgerator because we were all out upstairs. So I put a box of butter and a bag of bread out to take upstairs with the milk, and then I proceeded to put a movie on for the kids. While I was setting up the movie Corbin tells me that he is kind of itchy. So I turn around and I look where he is scratching. His wrist is all covered in red spots. Then I see that they go all the way up his arm. I followed the spots up to his face where they were much darker and scarier. At first I thought they were mosquito bites, but there were far too many of them for that. And they didn't look anything like mosquito bites on his cheeks. My next thought propelled me to action. Could they possibly be chicken pox???
Oh no! Please no! He had only been to school for ONE day! How could he have chicken pox? So I immediatley rushed upstairs and called Nate, and then the Pediatrician. Of course, neither one was available to chat. So I got online and tried to figure out what they were. Well, some of them kind of looked like the beginnings of chicken pox, but others not so much. They didn't look anything like a rach caused by poisonous plants either. So I called the Dr again and made an appointment. Luckily they could fit us in that very morning. But I had to cancel my playdate plans.
Oh and do you remember the milk and bread and butter I left out downstairs? Well it would have been nice if I had remembered them. They got left out for 2 hours while I was running around like a crazy person. In fact the kids found them and put them away in their toy kitchen which was pretty cute, and if I hadn't been so stressed out I would have taken a picture. They even put the milk in the play dishwasher :) So cute.
So we go to the Dr and she says that she thinks it is an allergic reaction to the pennicillin he's been on for more than a week for his strep throat. I was floored. He's allergic to pennicillin??? That's really annoying. I just hope I can remember to tell all the right people that now. Oh dear.
But at least it wasn't chicken pox! I was already starting to calculate how much money it was going to cost us to keep him home from school for 2 weeks. So I was very grateful for that. Here are some pictures from that morning and when we were at the Dr's office. I know the close ups aren't too good, I'm still learning how to work this camera :)

I wish you could have seen this in person. It looked much worse than the pictures convey.

This is the first place I noticed it. The spots go all the way up and around his arm. They also extend to his chest and back.

Hives, hives everywhere, and not a drop of Benadryl (ok so that isn't entirely true, I just wasn't sure I could give him any, it says on the box not to use it on chicken pox).

He looked so bad an miserable, the poor guy!

He did so good though. He only complained a tiny bit. And he still played happily the entire time. He called his hives "the spotsies". It was so cute. "When you are sick you have the spotsies right mom?" Love this kid!

Here we are at the office waiting for the results. This is also a great example of his silly rabbit smile.

Yay! It's not chicken pox! Wuhoo! We can all breathe a sigh of relief! I am also grateful to know at this point in his short life that he is allergic to pennicillin. Hives we can deal with. Anaphylactic shock? Not so much. I tell you it has been one difficult situation after another this week but the Lord has provided an easy way out every time. I am learning a lot.

Back in Business!!!

Yay!!! Our camera finally arrived! Here are the first pictures we took with our new camera!!!

Look at that handsome face! Sorry ladies. He's taken :)

What a Stressful/Amazing Day!

I know, how does that even go together? Well I will tell you :) I have to preface this story first. So my statistics class requires that I either show up on campus for the exams (4 in all) or I have them proctored. Obviously I am not going to Las Vegas to take them so I had to find a proctor. More easily said than done. So I admit I procrastinated a bit, I had no idea where to go to find a proctor. It had to be either a teacher (one who is working at a school currently), a police officer, or a librarian. Doesn't sound too bad does it? Except that I just moved here and don't know that many people :( So Nate kept bugging me to contact the public library. But I was very hesitant about that. For several reasons, first because I hate calling places and asking questions, also because the ladies at our branch are SCARY! They are rude and mean and grumpy. Why would I want to subject myself to that??? I sure didn't. So someone mentioned to me that MSU does test proctoring, so I got on their website and checked it out. It looked great until I saw how much it was going to cost...$30! Per test!!! Yikes. So that was going to be my last resort. I finally broke down and emailed my library (I really am terrified to talk to those ladies at all!). They were very prompt and wrote back within 24 hours.
So that was last Tuesday morning that I got the email. The very nice lady :), informed me that my branch doesn't do that sort of thing but there are two branches that do. Only those branches don't open for business until 3:00pm! Who ever heard of a library that doesn't open until that late in the day??? Weird. So that was out. I had to take the test Tues. Sept. 8 between 8am and 11am. BUT She did mention that Lansing Community College does proctoring. I didn't have much hope but I went to the website and looked it up.
Sure enough they do proctoring. I tried to open the link on the website but it wouldn't open, so I couldn't. But I found out that they need 7-10 days to process an exam request. I was down to 7 exactly! So I found the number and called. It took a few tries. I actually didn't get to talk to anyone until Wednesday! I finally got through, and basically they charge $15 per test which sounded like a steal next to MSU. I told them my situation, and apologized that it was so late in the game. She told me that we could still do it as long as my teacher got the test to her by Thursday. No problem right??? Well...
I emailed my teacher all of the info and told him that they needed the test to schedule me, and that he had to do it by Thursday. He told me that was no problem and I started to relax a bit.
Thursday: I waited most of the day for an email confirmation that LCC had gotten my test. No dice. But I did get a confirmation that my professor had faxed the test over, but it was late in the afternoon. I guess I should have explained that there is a 3 hour time difference we are dealing with, and the lady at the office was going to be out Friday and Monday. So I spent all weekend worrying about this test. Was I going to be able to take it?
Tuesday morning: My kids get up early so I was up at the crack of dawn. Waiting to hear. She finally called me at 8:15 or so. She said she had received the test and could I please come in at 11? ABSOLUTELY! I had already set up a babysitter, so I called her and gave her the scoop. Then I got ready. I packed all of my things, all the kids things, got the GPS ready, packed the car, got the kids in and buckled, then went back for one more thing, and in the process I left my keys sitting on the table by the front door...which I locked by hand on the way out.
Yes, I locked myself out of the house just 1 hour before having to be at my test. Yes, yes I really did. Oh man. So I tried all the windows: locked. I opened the garage and tried the door into the house: locked. I tried the back door: locked. Wouldn't you know I was super responsible about locking all the doors and windows for once? Yay me! Dumb dumb dumb.
So I called a friend and while I waited I tried to break in. I figured the best door to break down would be the one in the garage. But this handle is quite difficult just in general. Then I had an epiphany: I happened to have my wallet in the car, and inside I had an old credit card. So I ran a grabbed it. It didn't work on the garage door, but it did work on the front door! Yay! Grabbed the keys and jumped in the car. I only wasted a half hour. Called my friend to cancel on her, ran to the bank to get the money for the test, then dropped off the kids.
Well, let me just say hallelujah for GPS! There was so much construction and detouring that if I hadn't had the GPS I would have in no way made it to the test. It was ridiculous. But I did. I then had to parallel park the van: it was quite humorous I'm sure to be on the street trying to watch me do that. I ran up and took my test! It was great, I felt good about it. Sigh!
But that's not all folks! So you know my camera died. We ordered one and didn't expect it to arrive until around Thursday of this week. So that meant I would miss taking Pictures of Corbin's first day of school! Unacceptable. I was sending Nate to the store on the way home from work to pick up a disposable camera, when the doorbell rang. It was our mail delivery person. And she had our camera!!! Talk about divine intervention! I called Nate and told him to forget stopping at the store, we had our camera!!! I am soooo in love with it. It is amazing. So I tried to post pictures but something isn't working right. I will work on it and get them up soon. But what an amazing day! I know it all worked out because I fasted on Sunday that I would be able to take this test, and I read my scriptures yesterday. Thank you Heavenly Father! I couldn't be more grateful for the way things worked out. What a blessing.

All's well that End's well

Just so no one gets anxious ;) there won't be any pictures for awhile. I will explain that in a minute. I want to take you all back to about two weeks ago. Let me set the scene.

It was a dreary saturday and we were all set to go to the bech with our dear friends. I was organized and on time! And I drove the Jeep that day. We went out to Lake Michigan, to Holland to be exact and had a great time playing there with our friends. Eventually I took the kids to the bathroom and that's when everything started to go wrong. When we got back our friends were moving all of our things back from the water. Apparantly a giant wave came and overtook out stuff while we were in the potty. So I quickly checked my bag and it seemed to me that the camera and the GPS were unscathed. But I was wrong. I found out later that the camera did not survive. But thankfully the GPS did. So that was the start.
On the way home was when we really started to have problems. We left the beach before our friends because it was getting colder and windier (is that a word?), and it was starting to sprinkle. I put a movie on for the kids and we headed back. It was a long drive, nearly two hours. And I was tired from the day. As we got off the freeway about 1 mile from our house, I looked at the light to check that it was green and then looked back at the kids, when I turned around there was a white Honda Civic right in front of me running perpendicular to my car. There was no time to stop and we collided. Luckily non of us was seriously injured. In fact the kids hardly noticed at all. I was really shaken up, but otherwise fine. There were three people in the other car and they all came out screaming at me. I called 911 and moved my car off the road. The man who was driving got a cut on his arm from the windshield smashing, but was otherwise fine. I told the police what happened. And called someone to pick me up. I called the insurance company when I got home and they got the car into a shop right away. The bumper was smashed in on one side, the passenger side door wouldn't open all the way, and the headlight was smashed. But it didn't seem too bad. I couldn't drive it though because the bumper was too close to the wheel and could have punctured it.
We have great insurance coverage (I have done this once before and learned my lesson), so the most we would have to pay was $500. Which sounded really good after we found out that the damage would cost $4000. Yikes! But today we were supposed to pick up the car, and they wanted the deductible when we picked it up. I've been fretting about this for 2 weeks. How would I be able to make my expenses? We don't have any credit cards so I couldn't charge it. I was getting really worried. But around 4 I received a call from our agent informing us that I was less than 50% at fault and we would not have to pay the deductible!!!! Thank you Lord! I am so incredibly blessed and thankful! This could have gone in so many different directions, and it could have been so much worse! I am so thankful for my Heavenly Father for the way this has turned out! I know he loves me, and knows me. What a huge blessing!