A Son!!!!

Today I found out I'm going to be the proud mother of a son. A little baby boy. To say I was shocked, is to put it lightly. I just really thought I was having another little girl. But I was wrong.

The first thought that ran through my head was what a miracle this all is. I'm so blessed to be able to carry and birth children. I of course cried during the ultrasound. To see his little heart and body is overwhelming. Why does God trust us so much with these precious gifts?

The next series of thoughts was how excited I was to have the opportunity to have another priesthood holder in the house. Granted it will be awhile, but I already felt the pride of having him pass sacrament and earn his eagle award. To be a courteous gentleman who opens doors and has impeccable manners. I guess he is running a week and a half large so natural birth is out of the question. :) Do we have a football star on our hands?

Today the sky was clear of all clouds and utterly blue everywhere you looked. It was a glorious day... and he's not even here yet!!! I look forward to all the mother's suggestions on where to buy boy clothes because I'm drawing up blank. Thank-you Heavenly Father.... another blessing that is undeserved. My son, Joseph Edward Lykes. Notice how there is no suffix.... although I'm not opposed to Junior. Joseph of course is perfection, the name meaning Jehovah increases... such a rich heritage throughout the Bible and Book of Mormon. Edward means wealthy defender.... which to me you're wealthy if you have a good family, so family defender. So great name, great person he's named after..... here's to little Joe!!

F.A.M.E

This picture is what was on the front page of Ahora Spanish Newspaper. Jody represents some Hispanic parents in the community and they met with local politicians to discuss something important. I really have a hard time concentrating when Jody speaks so I don't know the details. But I am VERY proud of him for making a difference in so many different people's lives.

Reasons I have a hard time concentrating on what he is talking about:
- his left eye twitches
- volume
- sometimes he doesn't realize he's speaking Spanish and I only speak English
- he's had plastic surgery to remove a scar he had from an appendectomy/not really
- his hair has dyed 4 of our pillows, 4 pillow cases, 1 sheet purple/really
- he took steroids when he played baseball professionally for the Oakland A's/not really
- sometimes the song "Live and Let Die"/guns n' roses is just running through my head and there is nothing I can do about it

Sweet Maria Turns 2!!!

Maria is the light of my life. She is my sweet cuddly baby. She is spooked by the garbage man, battle man, and the boogie man. She sings I am a child of God and I will Go, I will Do in perfect pitch. She loves to read. She loves to say I love you and give hugs. She eats.... really well. She dances.... really well. She talks perfectly. She is everything and more.

There is something about birthdays in our home, but we tend to get sick. Really sick. I was sick Mon-Wed. (Wednesday being IV's at the hospital) Then Christina Thursday and Maria Saturday with a 103 degree fever. We were pooped by today, which is her blessed birthday.

We managed to celebrate a little on Saturday morning at the Truckee discovery museum, but then she took a turn and just needed to be held. Bless my parents. They helped out so much and always are there for us. Papa took the girls while I was in the hospital, entertaining them, feeding them... the works... and my mom even cleaned up vomit. Troopers I tell ya.

Tonight we dined on pizza and enjoyed a nice time as a family. Maria had her doggie cake and basked in birthday song glory.

Really, Heavenly Father has sent me angels for children. Maria is heaven on earth. I adore her and love her more than words could ever possibly express. She is my happiness and my smile. My heart and my soul. Happy Birthday sweet girl!!

Valentine's Day Happenings

Valentines was a busy day. We started out by reading Valentine books and then heading to Lowe's for their build-it workshop. Christina made a beautiful jewelry box. And I might add that we finished before all the dads and their children did. This guy just stared at me and said, how did you figure that out. We've been going to these every 2 weeks for a year now. Christina has like 30 patches. Practice my friend. Practice.

Next was a birthday party for our cousin Diego. It was at a gymnastics place and Christina had a blast. The teachers took quite a liking to her from what Joe said. She's a good listener and follows direction well. She's perfect, what more can I say?

Our Valentines to the girls were the 50% off books from our local grocer.... good deal. Christina got a wipe off book to practice her numbers and is doing great. Maria loved her Kung-Fu Panda sound book, although the mean kitty scares her.

Then Yaya and Papa came over graciously to watch the girls so we could go out on a date. It's been probably 5 years since we've had a valentines date together, so we..... drum roll...... went to a baptism!!! And then out to dinner. Maria just wanted to cuddle her Yaya the whole time and fell asleep snuggled up on our bed. It's funny because Papa gets the girls all hyper and screaming (in a fun way). So I know the girls were in the best hands. Thanks again Papa and Yaya!! It was funny because I had fun on our date, but it was still so hard to be away from them.

This place was fantastic. We got there and signed up for the 2 hour waiting list. We took a drive to see if we could think of anything else, but ended back here an hour later. As we walked in, "Ben #372" gave us his ticket saying he had waited 2 1/2 hours and still hadn't been called. 20 minutes later, we were in. God bless Ben. It was delicious food but quite noisy. We splurged and had virgin drinks. It was great. I love my hubster.

Lincoln Festivities

Again. Abe is awesome. We love you forever. You were the greatest president in the history of our fair country, hands down. (Nothing against the founding fathers, but they had slaves... hmmm) Hats off to Mr.Lincoln.

Grand Plans For the 12th

Image courtesy creative commons license flickr.com by loomingy1 December 2008

I Love Honest Abe. This year marks 200 years from his birth. God blessed the world the day this great man was born.

I plan on celebrating with my children and doing the following:

1. Making Log Cabins. Using small milk cartons, frosting, pretzels and little candies. (Just like gingerbread ones... )

2. Tall black construction paper hats

3. Lincoln Quote/Penny Hunt: I found the following quotes. The night before I will put pennies in the places that the quotes can be associated with. We'll go down the list of quotes and find our pennies!

Quotes-

"'A drop of honey catches more flies than a gallon of gal.' So with men. If you would win a man to your cause, first convince him that you are his sincere friend. Therein is a drop of honey which catches his heart, which, say what he will, is the highroad to his reason. " place: honey jar

"Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing." place: go outside and while kids aren't looking drop a penny in their shadow

"Die when I may, I want it said of me that I plucked a weed and planted a flower where ever I thought a flower would grow." place: flower bed

"Surely God would not have created such a being as man, with an ability to grasp the infinite, to exist only for a day! No, no, man was made for immortality." place: picture of Christ

"Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally." place: toilet scrubber

"The Lord prefers common-looking people.That is why He made so many of them."
place: a mirror (Although my children are far from common looking... beautiful babies!)

"The probability that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just." place: freezer (because Christina is a vegetarian and we'll look at the frozen meat)

"Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be." place: ask them to hold still and put a penny on their head

"I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere to go. My own wisdom, and that of all about me, seemed insufficient for the day." place:bed where we kneel for family prayer each night

"With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds. . . to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves, and with all nations." place: first aid drawer by band aids

"I regard no man as poor who has a godly mother. All that I am or hope to be I owe to my angel mother. I remember my mother's prayers and they have always followed me. They have clung to me all my life." place: mommy's pockets!

"Things may come to those who wait...but only the things left by those who hustle." place:shoe basket by front door

4. Lincoln Letter and Number Matching: I'm just taking a piece of paper and putting the letters in Lincoln's name, $5 for the bill, 12 (for the date of his birth) and 200 (for years since he was born). Then I'll let them draw the same letters and numbers from a hat and put a penny on for their match.

5. Civil War Treats!! Easy to make together. The menu will include apple slices, jerky, hardtack and johnny cakes.

Hardtack: (Crackers)

2 cups of flour

1/2 to 3/4 cup water

1 tablespoon of Crisco or vegetable fat

6 pinches of salt

Mix the ingredients together into a stiff batter, knead several times, and spread the dough out flat to a thickness of 1/2 inch on a non-greased cookie sheet. Bake for one-half an hour at 400 degrees. Remove from oven, cut dough into 3-inch squares, and punch four rows of holes, four holes per row into the dough. Turn dough over, return to the oven and bake another one-half hour. Turn oven off and leave the door closed. Leave the hardtack in the oven until cool. Remove and enjoy!

Johnny Cake:

two cups of cornmeal

2/3 cup of milk

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon of salt

Mix ingredients into a stiff batter and form eight biscuit-sized "dodgers". Bake on a lightly greased sheet at 350 degrees for twenty to twenty five minutes or until brown. Or spoon the batter into hot cooking oil in a frying pan over a low flame. Remove the corn dodgers and let cool on a paper towel, spread with a little butter or molasses.

6. I also plan on reading lots of Lincoln Books and looking at plenty of pictures of Him with the ladies.

7. End the festivities with oreos and milk. Explaining that Lincoln was extraordinary in the effort for blacks to finally become free. He was instrumental in making our world a better place where people of all colors could be friends and live in harmony.

Library Native American Dancing

You know you're pregnant when you start crying over 6 Native American children dancing, thinking of the rich tradition and heritage they have. I'm so scary. It's just that nowadays we have nothing of substance to give our children... except of course for divine truth in our religion.

The girls LOVED this. It wasn't exactly living legends, but it made for a nice evening. I love exposing them to different cultures and traditions. The music was beautiful. In fact the girls really took to the dancers and were giving hugs. Maria could have held this girls hand for the rest of the night I think! I was sad there weren't more people there to enjoy this!

My only complaint was the parents of the dancers. There were only 2 mothers but they were laughing and talking through the performances that were supposed to be spiritual tributes to the earth. And they told us they got their baskets from the dollar store. I thought they were hand made.

FHE For the Past 2 weeks

Last Monday Joe was in charge of FHE. "Tim the Cutco Man" came over to do a demonstration. We clapped, we cheered, a swan penny was made... yet somehow Tim reading from his paper and being all up in drawing armor/weaponry cartoons didn't really float my boat. We managed to salvage it by comparing the word of God to knives and how the word of God is sharper. Thank you Abinadi. Tim was rambling on and I asked him if he'd really want his wife to spend $1,000 of his hard earned dollars on cutlery. He replied he'd want her to have the best and wouldn't mind.

Tim. You are the reason we are in a recession.

At bath time Christina asked if "Timmy" was spending the night. No dear. Timmy is not.

And then Joe bought a $12 cut board from him because he felt sorry he's a jobcore student and joining the Navy.

Then last night we had an excellent time going on a "love hunt". We sang As I have Loved You and held up hearts every time we heard the word love. Daddy read some scriptures and then we wore special hats and followed each other to places or things in our home that remind of us love.

Superbowl Sunday

Superbowl Sunday was eventful, but not in a football way. We had some big changes in the Primary Presidency and Joe taught primary! He did a wonderful job and I was very proud of him. Also, I had a beautiful setting apart blessing. (1st counselor still) It was one I didn't deserve and I was awed by the words my Heavenly Father chose to give me. It was a great day. We ended up going to the cemetery to pay respects to Nono.

It's like woah...Outfits

I must say, if I picked out an outfit for Christina, she'd wear it and there would be no problem. But honestly, I don't really care what she wears. Hence the picture. I guess I must be lazy.

Does this make me a bad mother?

Possibly. Skull cap and eyebrow remover cream? But really, in my defense, what else would we do with our time. I blame Reno and our lax state laws.

Sweet Baby

We recently had the pleasure of having Miss A come visit. She is such a sweet and beautiful baby. We got to go to Wal-Mart and the library together, and while she did not take her first steps to me, I claim being her birth mother... or at least her first smile in life at the hospital. She missed her mommy, but the girls and I loved having her!!!! Come back soon!!!