Merry Christmas!

It's Christmas again and I love it so much! Our children are loving it too. Maggie and Henry can sing all of the lyrics to "Santa Clause is Coming to Town". That's right, it's not "Silent Night" or "Joy to the World", nothing to do with the savior or the real meaning of Christmas. They have focused their efforts on memorizing the song that lists the criteria required for receiving presents from Santa Clause. A couple of weeks ago they were in particularly naughty spirits so I called Santa (Rob) on the phone and told him that my children were being terrors and that he might reconsider bringing us any presents this year. My children sat in silence, their eyes filled with terror as I made the call. I then handed the phone over to Maggie and told her that Santa wanted to speak with her. "Santa" then proceeded to tell Maggie in a jovial voice that she needed to be nice to mommy and help her. He told her that she needed to pick up her toys and go to sleep without crying at night. He was pretty mild about the whole thing and Maggie seemed to respond well. The next few days were heavenly. Clean toy room, no fighting, to bed with no tears. I was loving my Santa scare tactic. Then we went to the mall to see Santa and Maggie was so terrified of him that she refused to sit on his lap and had to stand with daddy and watch at a distance as Henry talked to Santa and got his candy cane. That night we called "Santa" back and he told her how proud he was of her and that she was being a very good girl. That banished Maggie's fear of Santa pretty quickly. We saw him at Disneyland last week and she could barely hold herself back as we waited in line. She leaped on his lap and gave him a huge hug. She told him she wanted a "pink electric guitar" so that she can "rock". Luckily Walmart sells such things for $19.99.

My heart is so full of gratitude this Christmas season as I look at my handsome husband, my darling children, and my growing belly every day. I hope you are all having a wonderful December! Merry Christmas!

Baby Mia

So this post has to be very short and to the point because as an overly sensitive pregnant woman, I break down into tears very easily and it takes me hours to recover.

In short, my friends from college recently had a beautiful baby girl named Mia who has a severe congenital heart defect. I found this on their blog, it explains it all...

Baby Mia was born with a severe congenital heart defect and is in need of a new heart. The McDonalds have a job and insurance but after heart operations, and then a heart transplant, additional operations plus all the doctors and medicine and hospital time that this will require... it would financially destroy the best of us. Imagine the emotional rollercoaster that this would put any family on. These are the kind of people that would never ask for help like this. In fact, Mimi has done charity fund raisers for others in the past with nothing to gain for herself. That is why we are stepping in to ask on their behalf. This is what we propose: Donate a few dollars. Donate ONE dollar. It doesn't seem like much, but if you give one and then forward this on to others who donate one; well, one turns into a miracle. If you can afford to give more, please give what you can. Then, send this link to everyone you know and encourage them to make a donation and send it on to people they know. Ask yourself, "What is a heart worth, what is a life worth?"

There is a pink button on the top right of my page. If you click on it, you can go to their blog, read more about their story, and I'm hoping you will donate what you can. I know this is not a great time of year to be shelling out extra money to people you don't know, but if you can find a dollar to give, it could make all the difference for this little family and their Christmas this year.

Well, mission failed. I am bawling like a baby.

Halloween...

Better late than never.

Here we have Tinkerbell and Peter Pan frolicking in the Autumn leaves. I am especially proud of the Peter Pan costume as I made it with my own two swollen pregnant hands. I couldn't resist the green tights. This is probably one of the last years I will be able to put my darling, skinny, little Henry's legs in tights for Halloween. I will think I will cry the year he becomes "too cool" for such things.

5 Things I am Trying to Have More Patience For...

in other words, 5 things that drive me CRAZY!!

1. People who think you have to wait until after Thanksgiving to decorate for Christmas
2. Limited strength and energy during pregnancy
3. Gravity's cruel affects on the female anatomy (nursing doesn't help in this area either!)
4. Hair in the bath tub
5. How stinking fast my children are growing up

Dear Henry,

Today I can't stop thinking about what a blessing Henry is in my life. If I am ever asked about him or his disposition, I tell people that he is my sunshine. I know a parent should never be dependent on their child for anything, but I depend on the joy that he brings into my life every day. I don't know what I would do without it. The other day I was having my blood drawn and the nurse could tell I was nervous. She told me to go to my happy place and immediately my mind was filled with Henry's smile. There is something so amazing and special about him and his sweet spirit. So much of what makes me happy in this life is because of my dear little Henry. I am privileged to have him in my life even more so to be his mother.

Happy Birthday Maggie!!!

Lately Maggie has been big into the princess scene. Rob bought her a Cinderella dress and she insists on wearing it every day. I can hear her and Henry playing in the other room while she is wearing it, "We're going to be late for the ball Henry! Dance with me Hen Hen! Turn! Now twirl! Dip me Henry, dip! DIP!!" Henry puts up pretty well with the whole thing. I think he actually enjoys it since he insists on wearing a tiara and Maggie's Sunday shoes when they "go to the ball". This is when I decided that Maggie needed to have a royal ball for her Birthday. It went off without a hitch! I laughed hysterically for most of the evening along with all the other mothers. I was shocked when all the children actually danced with each other for the "ball" portion of the party. It was quite honestly one of the cutest things I have ever witnessed. Maggie had the time of her life. She talks about it every 10 minutes. I can't believe my little Maggie is already 4! Happy Birthday Mags!!

I made this little video of the event. Prepare to chuckle. Special thanks to McKenzie Deakins - my lovely photographer friend who took these beautiful images of Maggie in her dress. And also to Charlotte for filming the whole event as I had my hands totally full!

The results are in!!!

It looks as though we will be adding little baby "Water" to the mix! (Maggie's name choice for the baby if it was a BOY!!!) Hooray! We are thrilled to finally have the gender oriented organs of this child assigned. My mind can now focus on all things blue and green and red and brown!! We couldn't be happier to add a brother to the mix. Maggie and Henry can't wait to see "Water" and be "Bery gennle and kine" (very gentle and kind) to him. As Rob and I chatted about our new addition last night, we discovered that we are modeling our family after one of my very FAVORITE families from my childhood: The Darlings from Peter Pan. The funny part is that when we found out that our first would be a girl, Rob started calling her Wendy Bird as a nick name even as she was still in the womb! So there you have it. I guess this means we have to be done having children (as Michael is the last) and adopt a giant dog named Nana.

A trip to Snowflake...

This post is ridiculously long overdue, but I felt overwhelmed because there are sooo many darling pictures to choose from. For the 4th of July (that's right, the 4th of July. I warned you that this post was long overdue!) we went to Snowflake AZ (Rob's hometown) to spend some time with the fam and get family pictures taken. It was really neat to have every last member of the family there and accounted for! This is rare as we are spread out all over the place and the younger boys are doing the mission thing. Maggie was in heaven being able to spend nearly every waking moment with "Gramma", her very favorite person in the world. There were barbecues, pool parties, games and my favorite...the brother's race to keep us busy all weekend long. It was a blast! We can't wait to do it again!