This Post Brought To You By The Number 2, 5 & 100

A few big things have happened around here lately. In order to avoid another ginormously long post like the last one, I'll keep the details as brief as possible!

On January 11, baby #2, now known as Myles Bryan, entered the world. I had to be induced, again, so I was pretty nervous after everything with TJ. (TJ was 2 weeks late, so I was induced and 40 hours later I had pushed for an hour and a half, they had to do a vaccum assisted delivery and I tore like crazy. Not fun...at all.) Things started slowly, just like TJ. Around 4:30 pm, they put me on the drip and I got an epidural. (Side note: I' m all about the epidural. My opinion is, you don't get anything extra for the extra pain, so why not make yourself slightly more comfortable!) Just after 6, I was 5 cm. Myles was born at 6:44 after only 5 pushes. The best news is that I didn't tear at all!! (Ok, the best news is that Myles was happy and healthy, but I'm still pretty happy about the whole not tearing!) Our boy was 8 pounds 9 ounces and 22 inches long with lots of hair.

Our cute little boy.

Showing his attitude already.
Just after being born.

Meeting big brother TJ for the first time the next day.
Our little family.

On the 15th, James and I celebrated our 5th anniversary. We went for dinner and a movie and had a great time together. Its hard to believe its been 5 years. I can't say I've loved every minute of it, but every minute has been worth getting to where we are today!

And some other major news. My Mom decided to leave the other guy and come home. I'm happy/nervous, but I really think she wants to work to make things right. Its going to take a lot of time and work, but we're all ready to do what we need to!

While this last thing is not nearly as exiciting as everything else, its still worth mentioning. This is my 100th post! Woo Hoo me!

So far, 2010 is off to a pretty great start!!

Merry Merry And A Few "Resolutions"

***WARNING: This post is LONG! That's what happens when you don't post in forever and there are a few major events that happen!***

Its amazing how quickly time flies. Especially when you have so much you are looking forward to/dreading. I can't lie, I was not looking forward to Christmas this year. In fact I was really dreading the whole holiday season. Christmas and New Years have always been a time when we were surrounded by Mom's family and I knew that wasn't going to be the case this year. I wasn't really sure how we were going to handle it, especially me, being ridiculously prego and emotional! I have to say, it wasn't that bad. We actually had a really great time. It was different and we all definitely missed Mom and wished she was making better choices, but we survived. No, more than that, we thrived! We didn't just muddle through, we enjoyed the season completely!

TJ was completely spoiled. Actually, we all were, but TJ was definitely the most spoiled. He was so excited to open "presinents". He had a little bit of a hard time understanding that it wasn't always his turn to open a present or that all the presents weren't for him, but all in all, he did great!

TJ admiring all the "presinents"

One of his many presents from Papa.

Enjoying his new tools.

He got a few games and he LOVES to play them. I think I played Candyland and Cooties about a hundred times on boxing day!
Enjoying Daddy's big present. Let me pause here to say, in a temporary moment of insanity, I got James a puppy for Christmas. Not a dog, a puppy. A black lab/border collie cross puppy. His name is Zeus. He's cute and relatively well behaved, but I'm sure I should be committed. I was adamant we would not get any kind of pet until we were in our own house and that when we did, it would be a small, adult, already trained dog. Apparantly, I lied on all accounts!

New Year's was pretty low key. I'd been having contractions for the week and a half leading up to New Years, so I wasn't in the mood to do much. We went to Manda's house and ate goodies and played games. New Years Day we had our traditional family fondue. It was delicious and tons of fun. That evening James and I headed out to a party hosted by some of our friends. I laughed so hard I was sure I was going to go into labor, but no such luck!

Playing games at Manda'sTJ carrying a tradition of "cheese wax lips"Adi modelling our fantastic hats from our crackers on New Year's Day.TJ enjoying chocolate fondue!

So, onto something a little more serious (I know, its hard to think of me being serious!) This past year was hard. In fact, that's an understatment. It was awful. There were many times when I was sure there was no way through it. I often wondered if and how we were going to make it. Like I said before, I was not looking forward to Christmas at all. And then it happened and we made it though rather easily. I have learned so much about myself and my family through this last year.

1. I have learned that I know what I believe. This may sound a little odd, so let me explain. For quite some time now, I have felt kind of blase about the Gospel. This doesn't mean I didn't believe it was true, I just didn't put any effort into and consequently, didn't really feel the effect of the Gospel in my life. However, I now know without a shadow of a doubt how important the Gospel is. More importantly, I know how vital it is not to get lazy about living the Gospel.

2. James and I have grown closer together through the whole mess with my Mom. I've learned to take him for granted and to voice concerns I have before they blow into huge issues.

3. One of the biggest things I've learned is how true it is the Heavenly Father will never give us more than we can handle. I've prayed for strength and understanding more this past year than I have since my divorce, and I have felt the strength and peace only He can give.

4. I have learned how important an eternal perspective is. Right now, Mom is making some really stupid choices, but I have no control over it. I can only control my choices and how I react to her choices. I can (and do) pray daily for her to see what she is doing and how misguided she is, but I also have to realize that, as much as I may want it to happen tomorrow, it probably won't and I have to have patience. This is true with all the things in life.

5. Maybe most important of all, I have learned that we have to learn to be happy no matter the circumstances we are given. I truly believe the scriptures when they say "Men are that they might have joy." Heavenly Father wants us to be happy, but that doesn't mean He can take away any hardships or challenges in our life. Its up to us to figure out how to be happy, even in the worst of circumstances.

This New Year is full of promise and opportunity. I'm looking forward to the chance I have to improve myself and my situation and to make the most of the time I'm given!

Happy New Year!

My Dirty Little Secret...

Ok, so you know how some people have a little secret like the don't make their famous "Grandma's Apple Pie" from scratch, its actually from a box and a can.... Well, my secret is not nearly as dreadful as that. But it is a juicy one. Ready...

I rarely have my own creative ideas. Really, its true. Sad, but true. I can take someone else's idea and tweak it, but to come up with something completely my own is not something that happens often! I am actually super jealous of people who are able to create the things their brains come up with. I acknowledge that I have been blessed with many creative talents, but actually coming up with something unique is not one of them.

Well, there it is, now you know. On a side note, I'm going Black Friday shopping this weekend and I'm SO excited!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Bring on the deals!

Halloween

I've got so many thoughts rolling around in my head right now, but for this post I'm just going to focus on Halloween. I'll get my thoughts together and write more later!

So to start, Halloween was really fun! On Friday morning, we had a party for the kiddos at Amanda's house. She had her dayhome kids, we invited our cousin and her girls and Amanda invited a few of her friends and their kids. We had mummies (crescent wrapped hotdogs) with blood (ketchup) to dip them in, monster eyeballs (grapes) and pumpkin juice. Sorry, no pictures of our lunch, but the mummies were super cute and the kids ate tons! We also did some halloween crafts and watched The Great Pumpkin. Here are a few random pics of the party...

Then Friday night, James and I went to a murder mystery party at our friends place. It was SO fun, but there were tons of people and it got SO hot and I got pretty sick. I didn't get to do nearly as much as I wanted because I was outside cooling down a lot, but it was still fun! It was called an "Immortal Murder" because it dealt with a bunch of immortal beings from around the King Aurthur story. James was a "watcher" who is a mortal that protects the secrets of the immortals. I was the lake fairy. There were also vampires, werewolves, and wizards.

(You can tell in the picture that I was super toasty cause I'm all red!)

Saturday, we took TJ trick or treating at the mall and to his Grandma & Grandpa Gilbert's house. That evening, our ward did a trunk or treat and we took him there. Amanda brought Adi out and helped "guard" our trunk! Ok, blogger won't accept the rotated version of this, but Manda had Adi propped up in a chip box in the back of the truck!

Soon...

I will post about halloween and other stuff soon, but for now, just know that this last week has been crap and to top it all off, I've now got a head cold. If I knew how to make a tounge sticking out face/noise in type-ese, I would. Oh well!

Help!

Ok, so I am almost 100% computer illiterate. I know how to use word processor, the internet and thats about it. Its sad, but true. I would really love to be able to touch up my pictures, but have no idea what program to get. Suggestions? Remember, the more user friendly, the better!

And since I've posted too many times without a picture, here's one that cracked me up the other day. This is what happens when TJ dresses himself....

Thankful

I wanted to post sooner, but life happened! Oh well. Yesterday was a really big day around our house. After everything with my Mom happened, things got pretty testy between her side of the family and us. A few weeks ago, my Dad suggested that we invite Grandma and the rest of the family for Thanksgiving. I will admit, I was hesitant. Not because I didn't want to see them, but because I was afraid they would say no. Even when Mom was around, getting together at our house didn't happen. I was super happy when they all said yes! I love any excuse to throw a party and Dad and James were nice enough to let me take over and plan it. So, the last week, I made some of these...

Some fun little jars for the kiddos...

Some little turkey finger puppets to entertain the kids (sorry about the picture, I didn't take one of just the puppets!)...

Drawing on the kids table (fear not, it was covered in paper) so they could use the crayon bundles in the picture above...Making a centerpiece (I actually got the idea from U Create)...Yesterday I did some cooking and a little bit of last minute cleaning. Then it was time to set the tables...

For the adults...

And for the kids...I'm afraid I don't have any pictures with everyone here. I put James in charge of the camera (something I should know by now not to do!) All in all, it was a great day! Hope you all had a great day, too!