Happy Birthday Liam...

Oh Liam, Liam, Liam. Finally out of the terrible twos. Seemed like an eternity, but here you are, three years old now. You still scream like a banshee when things don't go your way. I still can't leave you alone in any part of the house for fear of what you might be doing. You are very fit and healthy, but seem to have a seemingly unhealthy addiction to food, especially all things sweet. You cry over spilt milk, harder than any other child I know. You refuse to potty train and tell me you like sitting in your "poops." You have a weird little demon voice that you often use to tell me you love me. You have a strange accent that isn't even close to the Spanish Fork accent you are surrounded by. You pronounce open like "oopen." You think you're Italian and add an extra ending to most words: "agee-en-a"(again). Your physical affection is an odd sort, making your sisters scream and cry when you hug them. Putting your arms around Gwenie, even though she is slapping you in the face. You are the loudest in the house, but plug your ears and scream when you think something is "too loud," which seems to be every noise but your own. You are still willing to eat food off of the floor, even if it was stepped on. You don't mind food from the trash. You make me want to scream and pull my hair out at times. You are the weirdest, oddest, and loudest little boy I could have ever had, but I wouldn't change a single thing. You vomited on me alot when you were first born and cried most of the time due to your discomfort, but you endured it like a champ. You are so smiley, and the most cuddley child ever. It's hard to believe you were born only 7lbs. 5 0z. and puked your way down to 6lbs. even. I can't believe I almost lost you at one point. due to your jaundice and difficulty keeping food down. Even with all the puking you managed to become my chubbiest baby ever. You knew you loved food. You are the most accident prone child, but I love that I can still always make it better. You make me laugh all the time. You have puppy dog eyes that I can't resist. You are so content playing by yourself. You love to help me with dinner and I love that. Even though you refuse to eat it once it's made. I love that you will play with anything and aren't particular about toys. I love that when I tell Duncan to say sorry for hitting you that you are the first one to say sorry to him even though you didn't do anything. You have such a sweet heart and a kind spirit. You are my Christmas baby. You love candy and "Ho Ho." This is your time of year! I love you(even if the terrible twos last a while longer)!! Happy Birthday!!

PS-Please use the toilet. I can't handle three kids in diapers much longer.

Jumping!

Gwendolyn thinks all babies are hers.

We saw Happy Feet last year and we decided that it is about Liam. We used to call him Mumble because he seriously danced like a penguin.

Rozzy enjoying the birthday festivities.

Gwenie likes frosting.

And Liam hates the Happy Birthday song.

Third Folder Tag

This tag requires one to post the third picture of their picture folders for the blog. This first picture is Mark and me when we were engaged. Awwww!! Dang we look skinny and young!

This is Duncan at three months old. He was laying in his bed eating a marshmallow ghost. Awww!Beautiful Liam at three months!! I completely understand why so many people thought he was a girl!

Gwendolyn at 3 months. She really liked television even then.

Little Rosaline at three months. Aww! Yes, she has a faux hawk. It is au naturale!!

I tag you all!! Third picture in folder!!

I Was Watching Oprah the Other Day...

The episode was about miracle children. They showed this youtube video and as soon as it started I started crying. It stirred up feelings that I hadn't felt since I had my second ultrasound with Rosaline. This was when they were concerned that she might have Trisomy 18. I immediately knew what the video would be about only seconds into it. I actually could imagine some of the pain these people must have felt. I must say though, that if anyone was going to deal with that situation and make the best of it that it would be this couple. Have a look. It's a beautiful video. I promise it's a tear jerker, Oprah and Celine Dion were bawling. It does make me realize how grateful I am that Rosaline is here and healthy. My heart still goes out to this couple.



Luckily they are expecting their second child any day now. This does make you realize that even the shortest lives lived are miraculous and precious.

A Tribute to My Chauffers!...

This post is dedicated to all those who drove me to the places I needed to be these past nine years while I didn't have a license. I don't care if you all laugh at me that it took this long. I have my reasons. I had my learner's permit in Colorado before I got married. I was going to get my license before I got married, but then I found out that I would be living in Utah. I thought it would just be cheaper to wait and get my license in Utah once I moved there. We looked up the info to get a learner's permit in Utah after finding out mine was not valid here. We then found out that in order to get a license I had to take a $200 driving course, and to just get a permit I had to be signed up for the course. We found out shortly after that I was pregnant with Duncan. We had a hard time trying to work out getting that amount of money for the course.

After lots of procrastination and 2 1/2 children my mom said that I had to get my license and that she and my dad would pay for it. I was very grateful, but nervous. I took the online course when I was pregnant with Gwendolyn. Then after she was born I took the driving lessons(I didn't want to risk her life while pregnant with her). There was one instructor who was younger than me. He was a very very large Polynesian guy who always had a bag of chips while I drove. He liked to tell me how bad I was at driving. I think this was all a power trip for him. Then I had an old man, who was very nice, but made me nervous at the same time.

I haven't had a lot of opportunity to drive, as my husband works two jobs and is rarely home. I got comfortable with the whole thing and was waiting for the right time to schedule the test. Preferably after I had the baby. Then we had to deal with her casts and driving to the children's hospital every week. I still scheduled my test, but the appointments were a month and a half out. Finally the day came. I have EXTREME test anxiety and I was incredibly nervous. I had to wait in line for a half hour just to get to the area to tell them that I was there for my test. By the time it was my turn to take the test I was so nervous I could hardly breathe, I was having constant anxiety attacks. This was also the day Rosaline got her casts off, so it was a full day with a fussy baby. I was so nervous, I don't know the area of Orem at all, and I couldn't even think straight. I failed the stupid test!! Only by two points, but it was still very upsetting. This all felt like such a huge burden. I just wanted it to be over. I knew I was a good driver, but my nerves always get in the way of everything!! The guy gave me my test results and said, "Here's a souvenir." I didn't even realize until hours later how rude that was. He got out of the car and I just started sobbing uncontrollably. I think it was actually in response to all of the stresses and bad things going on in my life this year, haha. It was a stupid thing to cry over, but I felt so defeated. The lady who helped me reschedule felt so sorry for me and had been through the same thing herself, so she found me an appointment for only two weeks after that.

That day came. I went. I said to myself, "You can do this and if you fail again, third time's the charm, right?" I just did it. I passed! I actually did really really well. I am so proud of myself!!

Now I must thank all of those people who helped me over the years! Haha! Thank you Mom for driving me to work, school and other such places. Thank you Dad for taking me to look for a job and picking me up from it when I got one. Thank you Jennie, Julianne, Lindsay, and Stephanie for giving me rides to and from school all those times. Thank you Dylan for the rides and for the driving lesson in the 15-seater van in the parking lot of the Quail building. Thank you Andrea, Jon-Michael, and Geoff for the various rides that you gave me. Thank you Stefan for the ride to Arctic Circle that day. Thank you Amber for taking me everywhere with you and picking me up from work. Thank you Logan for driving me everywhere when we dated and teaching me the streets of Colorado. Thank you Val for all those rides to and from work and to and from activities! Thank you Mary for giving me driving lessons. Thank you Julie for giving me a ride to the dentist that day. Thank you Sheryl for the ride to the hospital. Thank you Mildenhalls, Jeanette, and Lori for watching my kids so that Mark could take me where I needed to go without the stress of all the kids being with us. Most importantly thank you Mark for your patience(when you had it, haha) and for teaching me the bulk of my driving. Thank you to those of you who didn't make fun of me(to my face) or nag me about not driving. I love you all! If there is anyone I have forgotten thank you, thank you!!

Boo hiss you to all those who nagged me and asked me about my license all the time, asking me why I don't have it nearly every time to talked to me. It was really none of your business and not your place to ask me or tell me what to do. You didn't have to drive me anywhere! I never have the guts to say it to your face because I worry what you'll think of me. But I hated it, I don't like being treated like a child! I deserved more respect than that! Honestly, it just made me more nervous and stressed about it in end. I needed to do it at my own pace to feel confident in it. Gosh! Okay, I'm done!

Good job to all my siblings who got their licenses before me! Good job to all my neices and nephews who got theirs before me! Well done! Hahaha!!

I get to go grocery shopping by myself! Dang!! Anyone want to babysit?

Pumpkin Patching and Halloweening...

We went to the pumkin patch about two days before Halloween. We get the best deals on pumkins that way, haha. I decided to take a bunch of pictures. This is proof of how difficult it is to get really good pictures of everyone at once. If you look closely at Liam you can notice the almost healed black eye from the beating I gave him a week before this...JK.

These were taken before Halloween, but I assure you they didn't look that different on the actual Halloween. We went trick-or-treating on Mark's sister Sheryl's street. Their ward had a "trunk-or-treat" on her street. All of the cars were lined along the street in a row. It was very quick and "fun." Clarin and her husband Jake joined us. They took the baby and the boys and I was left to try and wrangle Gwenie. She liked the part when she got treats, but would start to go the wrong way. Then I would try to re-direct her and she would throw herself on the ground and throw a tantrum. Then someone would shake their bowl of candy at her and say "treat?" and she would "come to" and take some candy and the whole process would start all over again. We had some soup and sat on Sheryl's porch and chatted until 9 o'clock.

Duncan prefers to be called "Spiderman Zebra"

This is Liam as "Froggy"

Gwendolyn as "The Grouchy Ladybug"

The cutest Halloween baby ever!!

All of the chillins!

It's Feet Time!!!...

The end of the casts!! Rosaline ended up doing much better than average, so she was able to get her casts off a lot sooner. Initially they told us she would have her casts on for 7-8weeks, then have the tendon cut then 2-3 more weeks of casts. Instead she had 4 weeks of casts, then the tendon cut, then 3 weeks of casts(one set on for 1 week the 2nd set on for 2). We were very pleased. She has had to go through some rough rehab since her legs haven't moved or been touched in approximately 2 months. I have had to take her foot braces off every few hours and exercise her legs and get her legs and feet used to touch. She was sore and very very sensitive. The first couple of days were especially rough with her screaming in pain and shaking as I would barely move her and do her exercises. She screamed through her first real bath(except when I very first layed her in there), as I had to gently scrub away all the dead skin. She hated her feet touching the side of the tub. It is still rough, but she is getting better. I don't have pictures of her foot braces, but I will post some in a couple of days when I take some good ones. Now, here are a ton of pictures showing the progress and process of the whole thing.

This is Dr. Klatt. I love this man! He was so sweet and loving with Rosaline. His nickname for her was "Gorgeous."

Casts 1

Casts 2 with signatures from family in ColoradoCasts 3 with mommy's doodlingCasts 4 with more of mommy's doodling a a bit from her brothersTendon cut day. This was taken a little bit after her wee surgery when they were casting up her legs againCasts 5 Tendon cut area after healing for a week.Casts 6(the last ones)Her feet before this whole process. After 1 week of casts
2 weeks 3 weeks5weeks(didn't get 4 weeks because that was surgery day)6 weeks. This was her first real bath ever!! This was the only happy time. I made this picture rated G for you all!!