Good thing I love babies

Shortly after Kalia was born, I started thinking about how far apart I wanted my kids. Most of you know that my older sister Krystal is only 13 months older than I am. I have absolutely LOVED having a sister so close in age, and it was a blessing in every aspect in my life, from starting kindergarten, to entering Young Women's, to trying out for a sport. I had a best friend and support system every where I went.

I decided to ask my aunt Kim what she thought. She has 13 children, including two sets of twins, so I knew she'd have lots of good advice about spacing children out.

I couldn't believe it when she told me, "Twins are the easiest!" But she expounded to say, "Well, not at first, but once they can interact, they are easier from then on, because they entertain each other."

Well, that sounds nice...but I don't know what my odds are for having twins...so I asked her what her next best "space apart" age was.

18 months, she said! Again, I was a little surprised. She explained that an 18 month old seemed to handle a new sibling easier than any other age, and they could grow up with a good relationship and share lots of life experiences.

Well, it sounded pretty good to me. I didn't have Kalia until I was almost 27 years old, and if I want to have a big family, I couldn't space the babies out too far, or I'd get too old, too fast, and have to quit.

Samuel and I decided we would try to give Kalia a sibling around the time she was 18 months old. (And just to clarify, I don't intend to have a baby every 18 months, but at least for my first two, I wanted them close together.)

So, be careful what you wish for, right?? Instead of 18 months, how about 15 months apart?

I am due Novemeber 15th--ironically, that is Krystal's birthday! I think it's fitting, since this baby already is partly because of her. We are just so dang excited.

I've been incredibly tired, but thankfully not anywhere NEAR as sick as I was with Kalia (of course Samuel thinks it must be a boy). I am still nursing Kalia, but my milk supply is waning, so we'll see how long it lasts. That girl will NOT take formula so we may have a small problem on our hands.

So yes, I know it will be a challenge, but I think two children (or more for that matter) will be a challenge no matter what. I am so excited to have another little person to love, because it's the greatest joy I've ever known in my life.

P.S. "Exclusive Breastfeeding" was not an effective contraceptive for us, haha, so watch out.

St. George Fun

So, we're back in Las Vegas but we miss St. George. It was so wonderful to be with family and to wake up every morning to a cloudless sky and a beautiful park in the backyard.

Why was it so much easier to clean my mom's house than to clean my own apartment? Ughh.

Kalia had the BEST time with her cousins, and they were so sweet to her! I can tell she's kind of lonely for them. So here's a few pictures:

Just can't satisfy that need to climb...but at least she found a good quote.

Here's Malakai introducing her to his favorite pastime: Digging with his "shubble"Don't worry. She likes wrestling.

These boys are just so dang fun.

Anyway, it's almost 3 a.m. and I wish I could sleep. I took a nap from 7 p.m. til 10 p.m. (oops) and now I'm paying for it. Oh well. Thank goodness for blogging. I have lots of catching up to do.

Happy Birthday Tara!

I almost missed her birthday...some sister I am!! Happy 24th Birthday Tara dear, you are such a wonderful sister to have. Here's a few amazing things about her:

1. She is probably the funniest person in our family, and the party never gets started until she gets there.

2. She is an amazing mother. I've watched her take care of those twins, and I've NEVER heard her complain once about it being hard.

3. She is also a wonderful aunt!! Guess who can make Kalia smile the easiest? TARA of course! Guess who is Damon's favorite? TARA!! She's always been a natural with kids.

4. She has a heart of gold. I remember her going to visit the elderly in the care center, and she had this one special friend named Genevieve. Tara of course taught her how to stick out her tongue and say, "Whut's Upppppppp" (budweiser style)

5. She's kind. We went to Pizza Factory last week, and she ordered alfredo sauce to dip her breadtwist in. Before I knew it, I had eaten up most of it. She didn't get mad...she said, "Oh, I can use my ranch" (from her salad.) I was impressed, because I don't like people poaching my food when it's so dang good. She's a better woman than I am.

6. She is an amazing athlete. She was good at all sports without even trying. I had to work my butt off all those years...but she it seemed to come so natural to her.

You can't help but love that girl as so many of you know, and I hope she had a fabulous birthday, and that she got everything she wanted. We love ya!!!

Chemo Treatment #1

I am in St. George this week. My mom had her first treatment on Friday. I feel really blessed to be able to live so close and to be here to help take care of her. She is doing okay. The first treatment is supposed to be the "easiest" and it was still rough. She is having all the side effects of nausea, headaches, body aches, breathing difficulties, and other random things. She is starting to feel better every day.

It is so incredibly hard to see someone you love suffer. I think I will just have to pray for the ability to handle it, because it's going to get a lot worse before it gets better.

She will have treatments every other Friday for 16 weeks. It's a very heavy and agressive treatment, but it's shown good outcomes in the past, and the doctor said he thinks she can handle it.

I will probably be here every other week. Even if it's just to clean the house and drive her to appointments, it's the least I can do.

Anyway, thanks again for all your love, prayers and support. We are starting a blog for her, and mostly for people who want to be updated on how she's doing (the phone calls and visits are just pouring in. It's amazing, but hard to stay on top of, so we hope the blog helps.)
Here's the address if you ever feel like stopping in and leaving a word of encouragement.
http://karenkancerkiller.blogspot.com/

You guys are the best. Thanks for being so great.

The Great and Dreadful Day

is nigh upon us... Kalia at 7.5 months, takes 6 steps.

You leave 'em home for ONE hour...

..And come home and find your baby like this:

"How sweet", you think to yourself, "Daddy fed her some baby food and forgot to wipe her face off." You try not to worry about the fact that people might have seen her that way, as she was "helping him" work on apartment stuff. Then you get close enough to see that it's really a ROCK that your baby is blissfully gnawing on. AND it stained her brand new onesie. And Dad says, "She likes it!"

Good times.

And on a slight change of subject, I really just wanted to thank Elder Ballard for his wonderful talk on Sunday. I sure needed it.

Tagged by Brener

Brener (Valerie's little boy) tagged Kalia, and so here's a few things that you may not have known about her (with pictures to spice it up a bit).

1. Her eyes are slowly turning brown and the roots of her hair are growing in blond (yay! some of my genes did get through!)

2. Her favorite food is yogurt.

3. We think she's pretty buff, because she can hold herself in a pull-up position, and does a pretty good wheelbarrow impression.

4. She is extremely wiggly. I dream of the day that she sits STILL on my lap or lays her head on my shoulder.

5. She is the most wide-eyed little baby I've ever seen. She's been like this since she was a newborn. Life is so fascinating to her that she would give up eating and sleeping to see it all.

6. Her favorite book is Chicky Chicky Chook Chook, I've read it to her so many times...it's memorized.
7. She's boy crazy. She loves baby boys, much more than baby girls.

8. Her favorite things to do, in no particular order:

**Climb, climb climb

**Pose for the camera

**Get into the bottom drawer

**Look at herself in the mirror (vain little thing)

**Climb, climb, climb some more

And now Kalia tags Kyla T., Maddux A., Andrina G., and Lincoln M.!!!

Making Marriage Work

Today as I read a friend's blog, she mentioned that her parents are getting divorced. This is such a heart-breaking situation, and I have SO much respect for ANYONE that's gone through it and/or been affected by it in any way.

There's no doubt that marriage can be hard, especially if you're as stubborn and spoiled as I can be at times. I didn't see the very WORST side of myself, until I was married. I was disappointed in myself, and I readily admit that I have a long way to go until I'm a super wonderful wife.

I can see why it's so important to GET married...Heavenly Father wants us to progress and one of the best ways to progress is to be aware of our faults. Marriage makes me aware of my faults, but it also gives me the opportunity to correct them, and I really love that chance. I'm grateful for a husband who is patient enough to deal with me, and I'm grateful that each day, week, and month helps us know each other a little better.

I'm happy we've made it 2 years, and I look forward to making it 20 years, and then 70 years, and then for eternity.

When older people get divorced, it reminds me of something very important: I BETTER NOT GET COMPLACENT! I will never, ever judge a couple who gets divorced, because NOBODY but they can really know what's going on there, but for me, I think that I better NEVER STOP WORKING on my marriage. There's always that chance that it can crumble apart. Good things take hard work, so I think that hard work will have to continue throughout life.

I'd love to talk to my Grandparents that are still living, and happily married for over 55 years...WHAT'S THEIR SECRET?

I hope there's a good conference talk on the subject!

Finally, I wanted to share this article. It's by Dr. Lynn Scoresby, a BYU professor, and amazing psychologist. He has worked with immediate members of my family and I think he's an amazing and brilliant man. His article today just happened to be about marriage:
http://leadingfamilies.com/2008/04/04/how-to-make-certain-your-marriage-succeeds/

Hope you like it.