2nd Anniversary

That's right! Today is Big Red's and my two year anniversary. I told him the other day that it feels like it has been much longer. At first he wasn't sure how to take that, lol. Then I explained that I meant that in a good way. It usually takes much longer for merging families to reach the point that ours has. Now in no way have we overcome all our issues as a merging family, but in many ways we work together as a family unit as if we have been doing so for some time. I think being blessed with the birth of Lil Red has also added to this feeling of mine. I love that our family can sit down in the living room for 30 minutes or more at a time and just laugh at Lil Red's antics. Last night he was going up and down a step ladder and acting like a dictator. We were all cracking up laughing. But back to my marriage of two years. Douglas and I were definitely prepared for each other. We see so many second marriages fall apart and in the first 6 months of our marriage, I have to admit that I had my share of worries as to whether ours would make it. However, with the pregnancy and birth of our first son together, dealing with opossum's (will be writing another post on this one), and working on getting to the temple to be sealed for all time and eternity, I would say the honeymoon has been long over. And yet I have no doubts that our sealing will come to pass. I have no doubt that my husband and I are meant to share in the eternities together. My husband is all that I have ever looked for in a mate. I appreciate his ability to cuddle me. I love his mischevious, playful attitude. He is the hardest worker I have ever known besides my Dad. I love that he knows how to play and that he has been supportive as I've fumbled around to figure out my life in a completely new role as a stay at home mom. Now I know some of you believe that I did that before for a short time period with Amadeus. But the truth was during that time period, I was a trapped at home mom. I now have the freedom, thanks to my husband, to be involved in my children's education, to run errands, to meal plan, to give service, to have complete stewardship in overseeing the care of our home. My marriage is a dream marriage, even in the midst of trials, even when things don't go exactly the way that I want them to...lol..I know that it is the biggest blessing of my life so far and I thank my Father in Heaven for my handsome prince every day. So Happy Anniversary Honey!

P.S. I have something special cookin for dinner ;)

Valentines Day

We are spending Valentines w/ Douglas's parents so they could have some fun w/ Lil Red. Lil Red is having a blast and hasn't had much time for nursing today as he has been busy exploring. I've decided that in order to wean him that we'll have to stay a week. LOL!
I just wanted to say though that on this Valentines Day, I am so glad to not be in the middle of something new. In 2007, Douglas and I were approaching our wedding which is on the 23rd. Then in 2008, I was the mother of an infant again after 11 years. This year I can lay back and relax and enjoy my chocolates. NOT! lol, I have to fight for my chocolates between Dad and Lil Red, and Lil Red leaves no time for relaxing. As I am typing this he is running around Grandma's house and creating all sorts of havoc. But I am so happy to have so many in my life to lavish love on. I adore my family and I wouldn't change their personalities for the world they make my life a rainbow of colors. So Happy Valentines Day to everyone!

Lil Red's first B-day

So the pics of Lil Red's B-day party are below. I'm a little late posting this, since we celebrated a week early, but I've been a busy bee lately. Well it was a fun day. Auntie Em and Uncle J and Lil T had stayed over b/c they were headed back to California and Grandma E came down and stayed as well. This was a big reason we celebrated early but it was also the weekend that we would have the boys, so it just worked out. Auntie Em got Lil Red the best present, a Little People barn set. We found it at good will for $2.99 and in mint condition! That's also where I found his little boots. Same price! They are so cute and I now love our Good will store! LOL. He also got a the toy car plane from Grandma, and she's promised to send him her little tikes slide. We just have to figure out how to transport it. Lil Red LOVES slides. In case your wondering his cake was a fish that was created by putting together alot of cupcakes. I really liked this idea for a first b-day cake. Lil Red was tired by the time we got to the cake and when he realized the icing wouldn't come off his fingers, he was distressed, but when we laughed he decided it was funny. We got all that on video and I'll try to down load that tomorrow. So yes my sweet baby is one now and so full of life and exploration. I was just telling Auntie Em today that the only thing I could do with out is the "mmm" stage. You know when they think you understand everything they want to say with that one sound. Drives me nuts! LOL. We are definitely blessed to have this stealer of our hearts in our home :) Oh don't forget it takes a while for all the photos to load in from photo bucket so give it a couple minutes if you don't see the cake and frosting smearing pics right away ;)

Lil Red's First B-day party photos

Getting Rid of Excess Baggage

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE...craigs list! I have gotten rid of Amadeus's guniea pig cage and stuff, the naked lady statue, and now our old dining room set. I am makin room! Woo Hoo! Auntie Em and I had a really successful garage sale together and I got rid of most of the junk cluttering the garage then. However, surprisingly the big items didn't sale, so those are on craigs list. I'm also trying to get rid of my Toyota Corolla. I figure if I can sale it for 7000. Which is what we have left on it then we will be able to be rid of one debt and the maintenance of a vehicle that we hardly use. So here's hoping!
I've also made my goal this month to get down to 145 pounds. Woo Hoo! 10 more to go and I'll be completely happy! This is down from my original 175, about two months after the baby was born. So my home and I are really slimmin and trimmin down. And even better, I think we made budget this month. But if we did miss it, it wasn't by much which is a huge improvement for us! So yay yay yay!
K I'm done. For now, lol.
Bye!

The Blessings of Exercising w/ a Toddler

So John has taken to attacking me when I try to do my abs routine. He crawls across my chest and quite often gets caught as he is half way across. It cracks me up but at the same time drives me crazy! So I am counting the blessing that I will get a better stomach work out than the norm because of his h e a v y little body :)

School and Weaning

My two big decisions as a Mom lately have been....1) What to do about Amadeus's schooling after this year and 2) How and when I wanted to go about weaning John.
Well I kept hoping that we would hear that the charter school they currently attend would be opening up a High School, but no such luck. I found a charter school down the road that will suffice, but I'm not super excited about it and there are no guarantees that he will get in. We turned in our application, but the selection process is through a lottery, so if he gets in it won't be on merit. Which can be a good thing and a bad thing, I suppose. So after I started trying to get together the paperwork to apply to this school, The principle at their current school approached me to ask if private schools were an option. I told her that I had checked into the ones in the area and they were way to expensive for us. She said she realized that, so she has gone to the school board and asked them to approve her starting a private high school till they can get through the red tape to add a high school. She said they approved it as not a conflict of interest, so if I can manage to secure $370 a month I will be able to keep Amadeus in a school that is teaching classical curriculum! I will also be able to keep his foot in the door to attending his current school when they open a high school. So I've talked to Marco that I need him to be consistent with the child support and how important it is. But I don't want to be dependent on his payments because I can't control his circumstances, so I have come up with the plan that if I can have eight students next year, I will be able to afford the school no matter what. And be able to put Marco's money to Isaac getting braces. Which is also a need. I thought I was losing a student over this past month but the mom decided to keep her in, but we had a long discussion today and I'm actually thinking of starting a second class that will be held only on Thursdays but will be 1 hour long. I have had some interest from 2 other parties to have their children start taking lessons and I might move this one girl over to that class. So if it all pans out I will have 6 of my 8 before the end of the year! Yay! But I talked to the principal that my vision is to eventually have a beginner, intermediate, and advanced class. I would be mainly an advisory position for the advanced class. She seemed really excited about my ideas and very supportive.
Now back to John. I was ready to wean him cold turkey because he was not sleeping well through the night which meant that I wasn't getting sleep either. But then I read an article and listened to my younger sister to much and decided that wasn't the best idea either. So I'd decided that I was going to slowly substitute regular milk for different periods over the course of 6 months. But John got sick and I didn't want to give him regular milk at all. The good news is that he's back to nursing twice in the night. I think I've just decided to nurse on demand and let him wean himself. He's already weaned himself quite a bit and really only nurses alot when he's sick. He turns one on Friday. We celebrated his birthday early with my mom and sister and brother-in-law and his brothers, but we will celebrate some more this weekend with Douglas's parents. So will be posting pics later maybe Sunday. Hugz, to all. Please pray for me that my twirling classes will work out in the way that I need them to.
Thanks! :)