A.B.C.

I was tagged too...

A - Age: I think I'm 28... I keep having to ask Jer how old I am.

B - Bed size: Queen... though I feel like it's bigger I keep spreading out after Jer gets out of bed... it's amazing how much room there is!

C - Chore you hate: Just about anything I'm "supposed" to do... if it's elective I'm more likely to do it and enjoy doing it.

D - Dogs' name: Lucy... I should have named her something else because I want to name our next daughter Lucy or Lucille... but now I'd feel like I was naming her after the dog.

E - Essential start your day item: 5 minutes alone in the bathroom (without toddlers trying to get me to read them books or anything!)

F - Favorite color: Yes... all of them in the right context.

G - Gold or Silver: Silver or even white gold...

H - Height: 5'4" if I haven't started shrinking with having kids and all.

I - Instrument(s) you play: piano, organ, cello and I can play violin a little but not well.

J - Job titles: The most recent ones... office manager, piano teacher, cleanroom lead, flooring sales, and my favorite... mom.

K - Kids: 2... Ages 1 1/2 and 2 months.

L - Living arrangements: Luckily I like living with my husband...

M - Mom's name: Moana

N - Nicknames: Zan, Zanny, Rosie, Zanny bear, and Hey You.

O - Office: If you can think of it as anything else... Jer and I both work from home and in the same office. We have three big tables/desks crammed into one bedroom of our home...

R - Right or left handed: Right... but it is fun to write with the other hand or write backwards and upside down.

S - Siblings: 2 brothers and 2 sisters... and if I follow Becca's counting 8 sister in laws and 8 brother in laws.

T - Time you wake up: Whenever Ada knocks on her door or Sammy wants to eat... They like to compete on who will be first up in the morning.

U- Underwear: I sure hope so!

V - Vegetable you dislike: Celery... I think it's the stringy texture.

W - Ways you run late: Do I have to answer this one? I don't think there isn't a way I don't run late... but somehow I don't mind being late anymore.

X - X-rays you've had done: Teeth every year, three broken arms, and a cracked tailbone.

Y -Yummy food you make: I make good soup.

Z - Zoo favorite: Elephants and the butterfly house when they have it up...

I tag Mesh, Jenny, and Sarah. Have fun!

Potty training

So I've started to potty train Ada.... two of my favorite stories...

The first time that I put her on the toilet I wasn't sure what to say to explain to her that she had to "go". I finally said that if she went poopy then she would get a treat... "Ok mom!" And she did... nice.

Since she can't go on demand... that means that she only gets a treat when she's actually used the toilet. She really wanted a treat but couldn't go... so she looks at me and says "Mom! Help!"

Home teaching

Here is an example of how doing your home teaching can bless your life.

Jer Home Teaches a family in our ward that has 5 little kids including one little boy that recently received the priesthood. The kids and I go with him often because Jer's partner is usually out of town for his job. Ada likes to play with their kids even though the one closest to her age is either 5 months old or 4 years old...
So on Sunday I got up to play the closing hymn on the organ and Jer was feeding a bottle to the baby so neither of us saw that Ada had followed me up to the organ until I had gotten there... I can't play with Ada there for several reasons... mostly because she turns the page before the end of the song and I lose the music. I didn't want to cause a huge delay or a fuss by walking her back down into the audience just for her to throw a fit... Parker... the boy that had just gotten into the priesthood quorums was the bishop's helper and was sitting next to him on the stand. I saw him and asked Ada if she wanted to sit with Parker... to my surprise she did. He held her on his lap and then for a little while after the meeting so that I could play postlude. Thank goodness that she was familiar enough with him that she was willing to do that!

What did you want to eat?

For the last couple of days Ada has been requesting what she wants to eat for breakfast... including chocolate, cake and arms... She asked Jer for arms and it took a minute to figure out that she wanted the Lucky Charms cereal.

Babies

Ada's newest thing is babies... she's had my old baby dolls for ages... but only recently has she liked to play with them. She sleeps with at least two every night, puts them in the high chair, rocks them and covers them with blankets. My favorite though is when she imitates whatever you're doing to Samuel. If I burp him, she sits next to me and burps her baby. One day she didn't have any of her dolls available... so she wrapped a rock in a hot pad holder and patted it to sleep.

Don't think she got the point...

Ada got in trouble for thowing food on the floor. I took her food away and asked if she was going to do it again... reaching for the food with tears in her eyes she says, "Yes!"

Blessing day

Today we blessed Samuel at church. It was a very neat experience. For my fast, my main thing that I was asking was that Jer would be inspired in the blessing that Samuel would receive. We got to church and so many wonderful people came to support us. There were a lot of people willing to stand in the circle, then Jer gave the most beautiful blessing. He told him why we named him what we did, asked that he would develop as a sweet, generous, sensitive boy that would serve the Lord. Talked about having an eternal perspective... and Samuel just grinned at him most of the time. Even the bishop commented on his cute little grin after the blessing. Then we came back to our house for the big family fast dinner that we have once a month... it was our turn to host it. I loved it! It was fun to see everyone enjoying themselves (even though all our toys were downstairs and I wasn't letting anyone down there because we still haven't put the carpet back after our water heater broke and flooded the basement last Thursday.) It was an enjoyable and joy filled day!

Proud mama! I love my boy!

My cute Sammy boy!

This the Wilcox side... everyone that came except for Beth, Son, Tiff and Elisha... we didn't get a chance to take a picture of the Robertson side... but the Morrisses, Clarys, John and Diane, Grandma and Grandpa, Jay, Alan and Rachelle, and Amy and Jon came. In this picture is Janelle, Sharon, Moana and Ada, Roger, Jer and Samuel, me, Grandma Wilcox, and Brad.

I had to add one more

Just one more post for tonight... Ada NEVER lets me do more that just comb her hair. Yesterday she let me put pigtales in... they didn't last more than a couple of minutes, but they were in and look at how cute she looked!

The last couple of days

So here are the exciting things that have been going on... Margaret had her baby today! YAY! Her name is Maisy. That means that all of the 5 cousins that were due this summer are here. Good luck Grandma keeping them all straight... and I guess good luck to the parents keeping them all out of trouble! Today was also James' birthday. We got to go bowling with them and hung out a little after... as well as celebrating Jay's birthday not too long ago. We also went to the Discovery park with John and Diane's family. That's the only one I have pictures for... so here are some cute kids running around like crazy.

Here's a group picture... hard to see everyone, but it's a fun idea anyway...

This one is of everyone playing tag... look at how close John and Jer were to catching them!

And there they go!

Diane entertaining Ada and Anya while taking care of Joseph.

I'm not a decorator...

I'm not a decorator, but I was pretty proud of this one... My sister made a set of letters spelling Ada's name when Ada was born... so I decided to do something for Samuel... the stuffed animals are the Classic Pooh ones that I've been collecting for a couple of years.

PCOS

It's official... I have PCOS. Don't worry, it's not a big deal... it's no different than someone having a predisposition for this that or the other... There are different levels of severity too, and mine is not very prominent... I probably would never have known about it if my sister hadn't had a more severe case. It is Poly cystic Ovarian Syndrome. It is mostly a hormone imbalance and an insulin resistance. My sister has more of the hormone imbalance... and I have more of the insulin resistance. What that means for me is that I only ovulate every other month, I'm 45% more likely to miscarry, I have a larger possibility of having multiples, my body doesn't create milk for any kids that I have, I'm probably going to be diabetic later, and it's extremely hard to lose weight. Everyone that I've talked to has said that if I eat like a diabetic and exercise then it's less likely to affect me as much.

These are just some of the ways that it's affected me so far, none of them too weird but enough all together to make me notice...
(1) I weighed 200 lbs when I graduated high school... that is before women's bodies are finished forming, and that was despite the fact that at the time I was weight lifting 3 times a week, running 3 miles 5 times a week and biking anywhere from 12-45 miles a week. I went to the doctor to get checked for thyroid problems or anything else that would be keeping me from being able to lose weight.
(2) It took me 4 years to lose 20 lbs.
(3) Jer and I had a hard time getting pregnant for the first time... true that was not all the PCOS, but I bet it was a contributor. Jer had something going on that he had to have a surgery done for and we were pregnant 3 months later.
(4) I haven't been able to produce more than about 2 oz of breast milk at a time for either of my kids no matter what supplements I took and dried up completely within about a month both times.

I'm glad to finally understand what's going on in my body...