Best Friends and Cousins

Judson, Garrett and Renton are not only cousins, but best friends. Garrett and Renton are twins and were born 19 days before Judson. Once these boys got through the biting stage (around 18 months) they have been inseparable. Judson asks at least 5 times a week if they can come over and play. Good thing they only live 6 minutes away.

So it is time for these boys to get baptized and we decided it would be so extra special for them to share this important occasion. (which will be Aug 30... email me if you would like to attend ..you know I am a paranoid freak about information on the web). They were, of course, thrilled!! I am so excited I can hardly stand it and can't believe these boys are almost baptized. Has it really been EIGHT years??? Where does the time go.

They were such good sports go get in their Sunday best and let me take pictures for their invitation. Rachelle and I were going nuts trying to get them to smile with out looking fake or scary. It was so funny. Rachelle finally had to start doing tricks that you we have seen aunt Cynthia use at Kiddie Kandids.... bbbbbbbbb.... bbooo booo! They finally laughed.. guess you had to be there! The important thing is that after about 50 pictures we finally got 3 cute ones to use...hahaha arghhhhhhh But seriously, aren't these boys THE CUTEST BOYS IN THE WORLD!!! I just want to eat them up!!!

I am still alive....

I can not believe I have gone this long without posting. I have had a rough couple of week with being so tired and depressed. This was just something I had to put on the back burner.

We haven't been too busy.. I have been too tired to have an exciting life. My poor kids... they have to find fun with other people. Well Judson does... Carma is fine playing with a paper box. But Judson needs much more stimulation. So he plays with friends... a lot. Mario is his BEST FRIEND who he can barely breathe without. Pinky, Mario's mom, took these adorable pictures and I stole them from her blog. I just LOVE these pictures!!! Aren't these boys adorable???!!!!

I have an appointment with the Paranatologist (spelling?) today. I am excited and LOVE getting ultrasounds as much as possible. Nothing is wrong.. that I know of... they are just checking to see how large the fibroids are and making sure they are not effecting the growth of the little guy.

Speaking of the "little guy"; we still don't have a name. We can't agree on anything. I like Warren Eli, but Michael doesn't. He likes Zachary Eli, and I don't. We only have 11 weeks or less left since I have c-sections a week early. ahhhh There is so much to do in 11 weeks, but I think I will just make sure I have diapers, a co-sleeper bed and do everything after the delivery. Hopefully I will feel better after. I have WAY too much stuff to do with Judson's baptism, birthday, school starting, my parents and sister are coming (HURRAY!) and I made a promise to Judson to paint his room and buy him a cool new bed. YIKES... too much. I guess I will have to read "Breaking Dawn" next month.

I will try to do better with posting more regularly. I missed it. I will also have to spend an entire day catching up on all the blogs I haven't read in a month.

Dana, my sister, who we affectionately call Nonnie (Judson named her that when he was around 18 months or so) is visiting from Louisiana. We have been somewhat busy, and have had lots of fun!
We went on a picnic to the canyon, we took them to the park (OK, well I slept and she took them :), we went to see Wall-e, we played laser tag.. (our favorite tradition), we played Settlers (our other tradition.. and Michael won AGAIN!! He is no longer allowed to play!), we went out for dinner to celebrate her bday. I am sure we did more than that but I am too tired to think. Which is why I haven't posted.. I am always SO DANG TIRED!
OH yeah, we celebrated Independence day. It was so fun. We went to Jaren and April's and then to the T's. Dana took so many cute picture another slide show is needed. So for those of you who hate looking at slides I will have to choose some favorites.. it will be difficult.

A letter from my Sister and Brother in law

Dear friends and family,

As many of you know Stewart and I have been trying to start our family for
quite a while now. We want to thank you for the many prayers that have
been offered in our behalf as we’ve undergone fertility treatments during
the past few years. It has been difficult for us, but we have felt
extremely blessed and feel that the Lord has heard our prayers. We feel
strongly that we will be blessed with children in our home, but we
understand that this may not happen the traditional way. We recently
turned in our adoption papers to LDS family services and we are excited to
have another door open as a means of bringing children into our home. We
feel that adoption is wonderful and we would be absolutely delighted if
this opportunity does come our way. Many adoptions happen through word
of mouth and we have been advised to let as many people as possible know
of our desire to adopt. So, we are asking for your support in our effort
to share our story. We have an online profile that can be viewed @
itsaboutlove.org, go to search adoption profiles, and enter
“StewartAndCynthia” as the profile name. Please feel free to forward this
email or to share our profile with others.

We feel so blessed to be a part of such an amazing network of family &
friends, and look forward to the day when we can expand the joy we find
in family with the children that will come into our home. Thanks again
for your continued love and support!

Love,
Stewart and Cynthia

here is the video that went along with the Potty Training Post. It is kind of long, but funny.

Potty Training Update

Some of you know I have been trying to potty train Carma for several months. On and off.. it seems when I would start something would happen and we would have to quit. So now that I am no longer having morning sickness, her surgery is over and she is well and healthy, I am back from New Orleans, and we are back from Yellowstone.. NOW IS THE TIME.

I started on Monday and I just had her wear big girl panties. She would sit on the potty for 10 minutes get off and pee seconds later. The same thing yesterday. Only I put the mini-dvd player in the bathroom bought her a potty toy (meaning she can only play with it when she is sitting on the potty). She sat in there and watched the ENTIRE Little Mermaid.. I felt kind of bad when she still never went, so I made her give up Ariel (the polly pocket potty toy).. she FREAKED. I told her the only thing that can release Ariel is for her to poop in the potty. Poor kid, she pushed, she tried. I cried and prayed and got REALLY frustrated. I almost quit at LEAST 3 times... I knew it would be hard, but DANG! My dear friend Pinky came over and stayed most of the day... she saved me and saved the potty training effort. It helps that her daughter is potty training as well, mind you Ruby is 20 months. (I WILL NOT COMPARE, I WILL NOT COMPARE!) So, I noticed Carma pushing.. I put her on the toilet, and Pinky and I sat in the toilet teaching her how to push.. we sat for AT LEAST 30 minutes. HURRAY SHE POOPED. Cinderella (aka my sister Dana) called to congratulate her. I have it on video, only it is on Pinky's and she is trying to figure out hot to get it to me.

I was still kind of bummed b/c she never peed and it was less than an hour before bed. We watched her like a hawk and Pinky noticed that she was leaving (I realized that she would go and hide even to pee). So Pinky put her on the toilet and w/in a minute SUCCESS. I honestly got teery eyed!!! I was SO HAPPY. She did it! I know we have a long road, but at least I KNOW she can do it. Wish me luck in the days (and weeks, Months?? ) to come.

We survived Yellowstone

OK, well, we wimped out and came home a day early. I have decided that I am WAY too high strung to bring a CRAZY child to Yellowstone. She just wants to run off everywhere and she doesn't care about anything. I drove myself nuts from the worry. Not to mention that my allergies were HORRENDOUS! My whole face was swollen! So, anyway, I don't regret going, but next time no kids under the age of 8!! And I will never go pregnant again either ~What WERE we thinking??, that should be easy since I decided to have my uterus removed... OK, not really, but that is up for SERIOUS consideration.

OK, other than the above mentioned annoyances, the trip was great.. hahaha
Really, I have never seen such beautiful creations.. well, Bryce Canyon and Zions are equally as beautiful with less green. But the Yellowstone "grand Canyon".. AMAZING!! Scared the CRAP out of me to have Carma any where NEAR cliffs and rocks. So we only stayed a second at each site. Old Faithful was cool, but not my favorite thing. The Lake was AMAZING! So was the Hotel we stayed. That area has to be the prettiest! All of the green and the trees. We couldn't do much exploring b/c all of the trails were closed due to "Bear Activity". LOAD of CRAP! I didn't see ONE STINKIN BEAR! We drove to places we thought we would see one, but nope. I don't believe Yellowstone has bears.. or Moose. Liars!

Judson LOVED the beach on the Lake. He found lots of cool rocks, (although we didn't take any home..wink wink). He was really sad to go home, but I told him he could go there anytime he wanted when he grows up and take his kids as much as his heart desires.

We did see a plethora of Bison. At first we were all, eww stop, lets take a picture. Oh, there is one on the road, lets stop and take a picture. Ohh, look at the baby bison. By the time we were leaving the park we noticed all the people stopping to gawk at the bison and Michael said "they will get over that by the time they leave". We were like ohhh, another bison... big deal. I know, we are rotten and hard to impress:)
We DID see, 3 chipmunks, a coyote, 2 elk, 1 antelope thing, a bazillion bison, lots of ducks and Geese. So it wasn't all for nothing. I really want to go back and camp this time.. we stayed in hotels b/c I can't imagine camping being pregnant and tired. Too much work. But I think we missed out. And next time no kids under 8!! That is for sure! And I am sure Michael would add
"And no grumpy Pregnant Women!".

So here are our pics: