Easter Activities

We have had lots of fun activities this Easter season!! The weather is perfect and it is so much fun to play with my boys.

First, we had an church activity for Easter. We made cute bunny baskets out of milk jugs and had an egg hunt.

Second, we had an Easter Egg hunt with Ethan's school. Each kid probably got about 30 eggs and way to much candy for us to ever eat but we had fun.

Third, we got to watch a conference on Easter morning. Here are my boys trying to follow Mom's rules of staying awake and paying attention.

And Finally we had lunch and another Easter egg hunt at Grandma Connie's. Again we got many, many eggs, lots of candy and a few dollars that the boys used to buy a hungry hungry hippos game.

My "Heart" Ache

Many have been asking us when our next baby will be coming or if we are thinking of having one soon. The answer is we have been trying for 1 1/2 years now with not good results. We do have two sweet boys already that I became pregnant with quickly and easily, so it was somewhat surprising that we were unable to get pregnant after a few months of trying. After trying for almost a year I went to my OB doctor and told him what was going on. He did an ultrasound and found several small cysts on each of my ovaries. It seems that since my last pregnancy I have developed poly cystic ovarian syndrome. My doctor was very optimistic and put me on Clomid for 3 months stating that most people have success on that. Well we didn't. So then my option was to go to a fertility specialist and pay out of pocket or go to another doctor that does surgery for women with PCOS. So we decided to try surgery before going to a fertility specialist. In preparation for surgery this doctor wanted to have another ultrasound done. This ultrasound done last week showed that I only have a few cysts now, but that I have a another problem. A heart shaped uterus that makes it more difficult to get pregnant and stay pregnant. The other down side to this condition is that it is more risky for me to pursue fertility treatments. If I became pregnant with twins there would most likely not be enough room for them both to grow. I am still having surgery next, hoping that it might still help. But I am starting to think that we might not have another baby come to our family. I am so thankful for the two wonderful boys I have. My Ethan is so smart and sensitive, it amazes me to see so much of my personal traits in him. My Joshua is full of energy and still lets his mom hold him like a baby sometimes. No matter what the future brings I feel so blessed for the family that I have and pray for all those have or are experiencing the trial of not being able to get pregnant.

My 2010 Books

*Just Ignore this post* I'm just keeping track of the books I read, so I can remember later if I liked them or not.

1. Nefertiti- Michelle Moran

Good, made me want to know more Egyptian history. Descriptions beautiful and story intriguing

2. The Heretic Queen - Michelle Moran

Excellent, sparked an interest in Egyptian history.

3. Handle With Care- Jodie Picoult

Ok, too similar to my sister's keeper, did not like ending.

4. Innocent Traitor- Alison Weir

Pretty good about Lady Jane Grey. Cried at the end.

5. The Lady Elizabeth- Alison Weir
Good account of Elizabeth and her early life.

6. The Lady in the Tower- Jean Plaidy

My last Plaidy novel was pretty dull, so I wasn't excited about reading this one however it was much better. It gave a new perspective on Anne Boleynn, and made her a somewhat sympathetic character. It also presented the possiblity that she really did not do any of the crimes she was accused of, whereas other accounts usually hint that she probably did.

7. Fishers of Men- Gerald Lund

I was not excited to read a church book, since these are my leisure reads however this book was excellent. The storyline was entertaining and left the reader wanting to pick up the next book in the series to see what is going to happen. My only criticism is that some of the lanuage was a littly wordy and more dramatic than real life. Overall loved it.

8. Rachel and Leah- Orson Scott Card
It was ok. As a story I found it interesting however as a literary work it wasn't much beyond simple. I also felt that the language and rhetoric used was much closer to modern times rather than how it would have been in the old testament time period it covered.

9. Come Unto Me- Gerald Lund

Really enjoyed the plot and the development of the characters in the story, however I find the dialouge a little over dramatic and corny. I'm sure people even living in Jesus' day didn't quite speak like that.

10. Memoirs of Cleopatra- Margaret George

This almost 1000 page book was great. I loved learning about Cleopatra from the beginning and learned so much. I always enjoy when authors include an appendix outline any parts of the story that are fictional and review the facts they made their story from. The last 200 pages got long, or maybe it was just not wanting to read that Cleopatra and Antony get defeated.

11. The Secret Confessions of Anne Shakespeare- Arliss Ryan

Great! I loved this story. The novel is definetly fiction since there is not any information on Anne's life, but it is a wonderful imagination of how her story could have gone. I was really sucked in by the story and wanted to finish. There are some PG-13 moments in the beginning but the rest of the book goes smoothly and reads fast.

12. Faith of Our Fathers- Lynn Austin
Good book with a lot of excitement and anticipation. Easy to read quickly. It really brought to life Old Testament times and made the people seem real.

13. Behold the Man- Gerald Lund
Similar to the first two in the series, good story and plot. Rhetoric and conversation too corny at times. Really enjoyed the footnotes at the end of each chapter providing insight to the scriptures.

14. Gods and Kings- Lynn Austin
Loved the story and the setting in old testament times. Really made me think about how hard it would have been to serve Jehovah, with wicked kings in place.

Anniversaries

Besides Valentines Day, this week has some important days for me.

Feburary 15th is the day Michael and I got engaged 7 years ago. So I wanted to share our story. We had driven down to Las Vegas to stay with his sister Rebekah for the weekend. I didn't know he had gotten a ring yet but we had already decided that we were going to get married a week before. That morning my friend Jenna and I went out to go to the bank, for whatever strange reason neither of us bothered to take our cell phones or ask how to get back to the house. That led to disaster as we were driving around trying to find our way back and the clutch in the car I was driving went out. I of course went into panic mode since we didn't know where we were, didn't have phones and now were on foot. We pushed the car off the side of the road and started walking to try and find our way back to their house. We walked around but never came close to recognizing any of the streets we were on. We even knocked on strangers doors to use their phone, but of course we didn't know Michael or his sister's number by heart so we could only call our own phones and hope that they would pick them up. No one answered our calls so we decided to pray for some much needed divine intervention and I started to become upset that this was the worst day ever. My friend tried to reassure me that it couldn't be the worst day ever (she knew Michael was going to give me my ring that evening). Finally we made it to a store and tried to use the pay phones there. While we were on the phones outside, magically Michael pulled up in a car next to us. They had gone out looking for us and ahh they found us.

That night we went out to eat In N Out burger and then drove to Hoover Dam. We parked and started walking down to where the statues and flags are. On our way a police officer stopped us, since no people were supposed to be walking around the Dam at night but, Michael went over and told him he was going to propose so the officer gave us 10 minutes. Michael got down on one knee and told me that his parents had gotten engaged in that very spot and that he wanted to have a long and happy marriage just like theirs. I of course said yes, and thats the beginning of our happily ever after.

The next important anniversary for me is Feburary 16th. This is the day I got baptized and became a member of the church of Jesus Christ of latter day saints 8 years ago. I am so grateful for my membership in the church and know I would not be in this happy place I am without the gospel. My life is so wonderful and complete with the spiritual knowledge I have gained.

To celebrate this Valentine's Day and our anniversaries Michael and I went out on a date to Melting pot. It was expensive, yet very yummy and nice to just sit and enjoyed each other over a long dinner. Here is a pic of us before we went out. Hope everyone had a wonderful Valentine's Day!

Happy, Happy Birthday to Me!

• Ok so this picture was taken on New Year's Eve, but it looks like I'm celebrating my Birtday!
  
  

Today is my birthday, another year gone by. I started thinking that maybe this last year wasn't all too exciting, I didn't have any babies or go to school or move. But I guess just living life is exciting enough, and I'm lucky our family gets to do a lot of really fun stuff! So here are some of the things I did this past year.

Trips I went on:

*Manhattan, New York
*San Diego, California
*Showlow, AZ
*Ward Campout
*St. George (5 times)
*Staycation at the Pointe

Parties I went to:
*Elizabeth's baby shower
*Courtney's baby shower
*Leti's baby shower
*Stephanie's baby shower
*Lots of birthday parties
*Rud Reunion
*Lots of ward parties
*New Year's Eve Family Party

Books I've read:

*Northanger Abbey, Persuasion, Emma, Mansfield Park all by Jane Austen

*Animal Farm- George Orwell

*The Other Boleyn Girl, The Constant Princess, The Boleyn Inheritance, The Queen's Fool, The Virgin's Lover, The Other Queen, and The White Queen all by Phillipa Gregory

*The Devil's Queen- Jeanne Kalogridis
*The Plagenet Prelude- Jeanne Plaidy
*Cleopatra's Daughter- Michelle Moran
*Cookbooks (at least 25 cover to cover, I know I'm a nerd)
*My Sister's Keeper- Jodie Picoult

This next year I hope is even more exciting. Things to look forward to Ethan going to kindergarten, Joshua to preschool, swim lessons again, getting pregnant (hopefully), and maybe a Disneyland trip sometime this year.

Merry Christmas!

So this is Christmas, I always feel sad when the day comes and goes. There is so much fun anticipation for a month and then the day is over and the radio stops playing Christmas songs and all of the decorations come down. But our memories are sure nice and next year's Christmas will come quickly. I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas season. Our family did mostly everything we had wanted to do, see temple lights, bake cookies, visit with family, see Santa, sang Christmas carols and have friends over.

Our Christmas tree after Santa came with all of his goodies!


Santa brought Joshua a little quad, some tools to work on his quad and a puzzle. He also got a stocking full of goodies and several presents from family.

Santa brought Ethan a bike (which he has yet to overcome his fear of riding), a scooter and a drum set. Ethan also got lots of other presents from family and treats in his stocking.





My Sweet Joshua is enough of a present for me this Christmas. In one more year he'll be talking clearly and not have a soft diaper bum anymore. They just get big too quickly.

Ethan learned lots of Christmas songs at preschool and is very serious about singing them all the way through.

12/16/09

I have not updated my blog for a while, I am just not good at commenting on my life when I know other people will read it, so sorry. Our family has been just keeping up with life and getting ready for Christmas. Ethan is so ready for Christmas morning, he's says he can't wait another day for his presents. Christmas for him seems like it will never come, but for me the Christmas season is going to come and go all too quickly. Joshua is also excited for Christmas and loves looking at decorations and lights everywhere, although I don't think he realizes that there will be presents on Christmas morning.

Here are couple of our Christmas photos, the boys had fun decorating the tree. We also went out to Temple Lights and enjoyed teaching our boys about the true meaning of Christmas.

Michael's Grandpa Muir past away last month, and we were able to go up to Utah for the funeral. It was a lovely funeral and our boys behaved so well at all of the events. They were always walking around with their reverent arms.