Selim Family

Baptism

2011-01-16T16:13:00.000-08:00

On December 4th, Andrew was baptized. It was such a sweet day with our little man. He was a little nervous, but very excited. He listened so intently during the talks and was so aware of the choice he was making. We were so proud of him. After the baptism, he was eating his cake and he said - I feel really happy. I hope that he will always remember that. We were so glad that family came into town to be with us on this special day. My parents and Nathan and Mandy flew in from Texas and Taylor, Justina, Aiden and Eva drove in from Vegas. It was going to be a Stake Baptism, but the Sunday before we found out that Andrew would be the only one being baptized. So, we were able to plan it with family being involved. I really loved that it was so personal. Both his Grandmas gave talks and Taylor and I said prayers. Justina was going to, but she lost her voice right before. Our home teacher, Brother Pehrson led the music. My Dad and Taylor were the witnesses for the baptism. Jacob was so excited for his brother and kept talking about when he would be baptized. Andrew, Jacob, Aiden, Nathan, Mandy and the Bishop's daughter sang Baptism. It was so sweet to hear them.

Andrew

2011-01-16T15:54:00.000-08:00

I am a bit behind in my posting! I want to update on some important things. Our Andrew turned 8 years old! I can't believe he has been here in our family for 8 years. He was born on Veteran's Day, so it is fun that he always gets his birthday off school. We went to the Children's Museum in Phoenix and had a great day. The boys really had a great time with all the exhibits and could have played all day. I made him a Lego cake and he loved all his birthday presents. On that Saturday we went to Gilbert and celebrated with Emily and Armando and the kids.

More pictures

2010-09-30T15:27:00.000-07:00

Here are some closer pictures of his cast. It is heavy, but I have been able to pick him up a couple of times. We tried a wagon out and took him down to the lobby and tried the interactive wall. He is doing well and tomorrow we will try to wean him off the epidural at 6 am and possibly release him if we can get a handle on his pain orally.

Surgery

2010-09-29T17:41:00.001-07:00

spica cast with blanket keeping him decent :) (he still has a catheter) brushing his teeth :)

this popsicle was the beginning of calmer times. I am so glad he has his bear

Finally settled in his room, armed with his bear and watching Winnie the Pooh

They gave him a medicine to help calm him before they took away - starting to get sleepy while Grandma blew some bubbles :)
Here he is pre-op. What a cute guy - He melts my heart, I am loving his half smile here. :)
Michael had his surgery today at UMC in Tucson. It went really well and Dr. Valencia was able to do both hips today. The second hip was scheduled to be done in two weeks and I am so glad that he was able to do both today. Hopefully, we can be done with surgeries for a while! They cut out a wedge of the femur on each leg and tipped the head of the femur into the hip socket. They put a steel plate and four screws in to hold it in place. Then they put him in a bilateral spica cast. They put in an epidural to help with the pain. This way they can numb him with a non narcotic medication and limit the amount of medicine they need to give him. They had to give two doses of morphine when he was waking up, because the epidural hadn't fully kicked in yet. Ironic that my youngest son was the first one in our family to have an epidural! But, it seems to be working very well and he has only had tylenol since he left the recovery room. They will try and wean it tomorrow and we will see how that goes. It is really hard to watch your child in pain. I am so proud of him. He is tolerating everything so well. He has sensory issues, so he hates the IV and the leads on chest and pulse/oxygen monitors on both his big toes. But he hasn't fought them as hard as I thought he would. I know we have a hard road ahead of us, but this bump (It is a really big bump) is done!

I picked the red cast for him because his brothers love red(I love you, Jacob and Andrew). They gave me the option of a couple colors, including bright pink. We are brainstorming coping strategies for the cast. The nurse and surgeon both suggested a red wagon loaded with pillows to get him around the house and other places. It isn't as bulky as a wheel chair. He will need the wheel chair for preschool, but I am not sure otherwise. Any ideas?

School!

2010-09-07T10:27:00.000-07:00

All three of my babies are now in school, at least part of the day! It is incredible to me, I am not sure where the time went. But, when I look in the mirror my wrinkles also show proof that time, indeed has passed! :) Andrew started 2nd grade and Jacob started Kindergarten. They are both in a Spanish Immersion class half of the day. It seems to be going well. I don't know how much spanish they are picking up, but neither one of them are extremely frustrated. They warned us that that might happen. Andrew is not crazy about the increase in homework, but loves that they get two recesses. Jacob really likes school, but is way ahead of many of them. So we are on our second big 1st grade reading book at home. We read stories while the other kids are doing letter flash cards at home. I am thankful for the spanish, because that is something that is completely new to him.

Michael also started preschool! My baby! I think it is a really great thing for him, but hard for me to let him go. He is getting speech, OT and PT services there. He is in a small class, which is wonderful. I am happy with the teacher. She seems to work well with him. The bus (!) picks him up at 11:35 and then I pick him up at 2:45. The first two days of school I took him and he cried when I left. But, the bus has cured the separation fears. He is a bit intimidated, but loves the bus. He takes his teddy bear and hugs him for dear life and enjoys the short ride to school. Mr Dale picks him up and buckles him in and he is set to go.

I am sad that my boys are in school. But glad they are gaining knowledge and working hard.

I am volunteering in Andrew's and Jacob's classrooms at least once a week. We decided that it wouldn't be a good idea to go into Michael's. I am glad that I can be there and am so happy that they get excited when I come and they still want to be seen with me in public. :) I am so grateful that I am their Mama.

Michael's birthday

2010-07-26T09:31:00.000-07:00

Our baby turned three years old on July 3rd. I can not believe he is three, but it feels like he has been part of our family for even longer. His birthday had a bit more meaning this year, because I had been so scared he might not make it when we were in the hospital. We love him so much and are so grateful to have him in our family.

I made him an elephant cake and we opened presents. I think he loved them. Then we went and spent the day with Emily at her place and ate delicious food, played on the slip n slide and enjoyed each other's company. Thanks Emily!

It has been so hot here that everything wants to have a drink all the time. If given the choice - which he normally is not :) - Michael will always choose Dr. Pepper. A little of his Daddy in him.

June

2010-07-11T14:54:00.000-07:00

Jacob wearing his Daddy's pajamas

Helping pack up our van for a trip to the storage unit, before haircuts :)

We spent the beginning of June packing up most of our house. We got a storage unit and packed quite a bit of our things before we left for our big trip. My sweet, big sister Kathie got married and we made the trek to Texas for the big event. We decided to put Michael into a big boy carseat and were relieved to see he could sleep in it. Unfounately, not for as long as we would have liked. And, it was obviously not our first trip driving from Arizona to Texas, our van passed the 100,000 mile mark. I had to take a picture. :) We stayed in hotels and went swimming and finally made it to Houston. We had a fun time with a girls night out, a cousins party and the blessing for the newest Ricks baby.

Saturday, Kathie and Rob were married in the Houston, Texas temple. It was wonderful. The pictures after were not as wonderful, it was crazy hot. I hope they turn out, she was a beautiful bride. We went and had a delicious luncheon after. We didn't get very many pictures, just a few at the luncheon. Everyone had their cameras and the professional photographer, so we will have to borrow some of those.

We had such a fun time playing at Grandma and Grandpa Ball's house. The boys loved playing with Nathan and Mandy. We went to Galveston for a day and had a great time in the sand and water, despite Andrew finding the lone jelly fish washed up on the beach and getting stung. We went and had a fun lunch with Alexa and her family. We wrapped up our trip by heading up to San Antonio with Shelly, Jason and all of their girls, even Bella and went to a special park that celebrates people with special needs. We really had a wonderful time there. Thank you Turpins for sharing that with us. We stayed at the same hotel and even had birthday cake for our three recent birthdays: Joy, Jeremy and Michael. The next day was Jeremy's 34th birthday, too bad we were stuck driving, but Happy Birthday!

We finally got back to Tucson and tried to finish up our packing. We got everything ready for one last day of packing up and went out to dinner and rented a movie for our last night in Tucson. Unfournately, it ended up we spent an additional night in Tucson, in Tucson Medical Center. I woke up to find Michael having a seizure, we didn't know that was what was happening, and ended up in the hospital. He didn't come out of it until they gave him medicine in the ER. They did several tests and didn't find anything. So, after discussion, they gave us an emergency medicine for if he has another seizure. Lynne and Emily came down and saved us. We couldn't have handled it all without them. We also had to get everything out of our house while this was all happening. It all worked out though. Jeremy and Emily packed all our big things up in a u-haul and put it in the storage unit and we all managed to finish the cleaning after they released Michael on Wednesday. We turned in our keys at 4:48 on the 30th and headed up to Phoenix. Thanks Lynne for letting us come. What a crazy way to end the month.

May

2010-07-11T14:18:00.000-07:00

On May 1st, we headed up to Mt Lemmon hoping for a nice escape. It ended up being much colder than we anticipated. Andrew even found snow, he was so excited. It was amazing that in May in Arizona we were wearing mittens, mittens we had only worn in Flagstaff the year or so before! We had a picnic and played, but the cold got to us. We have become used to the heat! So we stopped and got fudge from the general store and headed back home.

Two weeks later we were able to drive over to Thatcher, Az and tour The Gila Valley Temple during the open house. It was wonderful to be inside with our whole family and show the boys the beauty inside the temple. I loved it. The boys loved the cookies after. :)

We went and visited Andrew's school where he showed us the tile he made. He is a bit unconventional :).

We also visited the Children's Museum again. The kids loved the vet center this time. The boys were pretending they were animals in the cages. They had some new exhibits, which I thought were great Occupational Therapy.

We also caught a stomach bug, which started with Michael and then every day thereafter it claimed another member of our family. Andrew seemed to have escaped it, until he and Jeremy were at the grocery store. It turned out to be the worst spot to throw up. Poor Andrew and poor Jeremy who was the recipient of the vomit all over him.

Also, at the end of the month, the University of Arizona finally produced next year's contract for Jeremy. It turned out some funding had been cut and others fallen through, so what Jeremy had previously discussed with the dean didn't pan out. His salary had been cut quite a bit and they were asking him to do more work. So after much thought and prayer, we decided to turn it down. It is not a good time to look for an academic job in the fine arts, but we are hopeful that something will happen for us. We know that God has a plan for us and feel He is aware of our family. So, our plans for next year will not be in Tucson!

April

2010-07-11T14:07:00.000-07:00

The boys and I visited the Tucson Children's Museum, which became an oft repeated request. They really enjoyed exploring and playing. We have been back several times.

We also visited the library and Read to a Dog. I was hoping this would encourage Andrew to read. He loves animals. He really enjoyed reading to him and then getting to give him a treat and they all brushed him.

The week after Jacob's birthday, I was so excited to go visit my friend Michelle and meet her baby Emma. We had such a fun trip. We met up with an old friend and her husband back from our BYU days for dinner on friday night. We went to the temple in the morning, the LA temple is huge! And then we went and had the Madhatter's tea at one of Gordon Ramsey's restuarants in downtown LA. We had hot chocolate and really amazing treats. I wish we could make it an annual tradition. :) Emma is so adorable and I loved seeing Rob and Michelle as doting parents.

Jacob's birthday

2010-05-15T13:11:00.000-07:00

County Fair

On the school bus

the big bike - he is anxious to take off the training wheels

Kathie - this is triceratops monster truck he wanted :)

He picked out this all orange get-up and Night Fury shoes

The Night Fury cake

My big helper

My middle son turned five in April. I am a bit late in posting. Five is such a big number, but he has seemed do grown up for a while. He has become such a great reader. He can read practically everything and has the ability to just figure out what the big words are. I am so proud of him. Not because he is a great reader, but because he is a great boy. I love him so. He is a wonderful big brother and a big helper for me. I will miss him when he is in Kindergarten.

We made mini cupcakes for Jacob's preschool and he helped pass them out. He wanted to go to McDonalds for dinner, they had dragon toys in the happy meal. Then we came home and opened presents. Lynne came in that night and celebrated with us and we sang and had Night Fury birthday cake. (Night Fury is one of the dragon's from the movie How to Train Your Dragon)

The next day we went bowling so Jacob could try to get a 'real strike'. He had been practicing bowling on the wii. :) We all managed to get a strike-thank you bumpers, but Jacob's prep work paid off and he beat us all. We all had fun. Thank you all for his presents and remembering our Jacob on his birthday.

Two days after his birthday, we went on a field trip to the county fair. I left Michael with a friend, so we had time just the two of us (and the rest of his class). We rode together on the school bus and he rode rides, went to the petting zoo and got a couple of treats. I was so happy to be there with him.

Acceptance

2010-05-11T16:46:00.000-07:00

Today was Michael's fourth meeting for the transition from Early Intervention to the local school district. The last meeting went very well, everyone was very nice and most important Michael actually interacted with them and played with them. Enough that they were able to ascertain where to put him. I was afraid he would scream the whole time.
This meeting was supposed to be at 10:30 today, but they called and told me late yesterday that they had been wrong and that it was scheduled for 2:30. Which was fine, except that meant I had to bring all three of my boys. Incidently, today was pajama day at Andrew's school and I forgot to bring him a change of clothes. Thankfully, he got over his intial embarrassment. :)
They did really well, the Child Find Team just let play with toys and for the most part were very well behaved. They even cleaned up when asked- a little reward was offered, of course.
Everything went as I expected. They qualified Michael to receive services in three areas. Communication, Cognitive and Motor. Then they gave Michael a label and I had sign that I accepted this label. They put him in the Preschool severe delay category. Mostly because he has severe communication delay.
Then they told me, they didn't think he should be in the program I thought he would be in. That he should be in a smaller program, that is shorter. That it would be a better transition for him into preschool. That it would more centered on him. It wasn't what I was prepared for and I think I started to feel vulnerable and not in control. I started really thinking about what they were saying to me. They were probably right, Michael wasn't ready for that program. And I want him to be.
So much of this process is paperwork and they talk about due process, etc because an IEP because a binding legal document. So, everything is worded formally and it becomes difficult to feel that way about your beautiful little boy sitting in front of you.
So, I just signed my child into the Special Education program because he has severe delay. And it makes me sad. Sad to think of him that way. Most days I just see Michael, not a little boy who is way behind his peers. Just a fun little boy. In fact the other day at dinner, Jeremy was trying to encourage Michael to eat his chicken. He put a bite on Micheal's fork. Then Jeremy cut a big piece of chicken(off of his own plate) and starting slowly with fun noises bringing it close to his own mouth and out of nowhere Michael grabbed it and stuffed it into his own mouth. It was so funny. We laughed and laughed. I didn't think once that he was behind or in need of special ed.
I know that Michael is delayed, but I don't want him to have to be in the special ed program. I don't want him to be behind everyone. I want him to talk to me. I want to understnad what is going on in his wonderful mind. I don't want that path for him.
I guess, I just didn't think it would be hard. I have already faced these feelings. When do they go away?
I know that Michael was created this way, with a special plan just for him. I know that he has a loving Heavenly Father who is aware of him(and me). But, sometimes, my heart just aches and I want to cry. And sometimes I do.

Trip to Texas

2010-04-13T21:00:00.000-07:00

Michael was helping fees the cows

Calling the cows from the truck

I tried to get in the cab with Michael, but Michael was determined to be a big kid and ride in the back with all the other kids :)

I knocked on the window to get their attention and this was how they both responded!

I decided I had to get that weird picture of me off the blog, so I decided another post was in order. Back at the end of Feb, the boys and I headed out to visit Grandma and Grandpa in Texas. We had a really fun time. I love Texas. The plane trip was a bit harrowing, but we survived. Jeremy was in the midst of tech week for two shows, so I don't think he noticed we were gone. :) The house was probably cleaner! I am so glad we went and then we were happy to come home and all be together again. I just picked some of my favorite pictures of the trip. I missed so many fun moments, though. One of my favorites that I didn't get on camera was when we were at the Turpins and everyone, even Bella!, was playing Red Rover. I loved it. I wish we all lived closer. I have even more pictures to post.

Easter traditions

2010-04-07T17:36:00.000-07:00

We had a really fun time with the Easter eggs this year. We made monster eggs, complete with crazy hair. Andrew was thrilled to begin, his patience was wearing thin. We bought the package two weeks before and the wait was killing him. Michael fell asleep early, which made things a bit easier, but also a little sad that he missed it. I am not sure what I am working so hard on in this picture. :)

This was Andrew's first crazy egg. He was so proud.

This may just look like the biggest cookies ever, but I had a very creative idea to start with. Oh, well, chocolate chip cookie dough just spreads. They still tasted good. :)

They were easter bunnies and the boys and I worked hard getting their ears just right. Well worth the extra trouble.

The parade of stars. It was fun to do and I was the one who did the spilling of the dye. Can I blame it on the boys?

I never thought

2010-03-26T15:48:00.000-07:00

Today, in the most nonchalent voice ever, I asked, Is that poop on the floor? And I was completely unfazed by that.
Turns out it was chocolate that had melted.
It is amazing to me the things that have become normal in my life. I mean, I just talked about poop on this blog.
And I am making hamburger helper for dinner. Help me.

Christmas '09

2010-01-10T15:22:00.000-08:00

We spent our Christmas at home with our little family. We really missed being with our extended family. But we really enjoyed making our kids the center of everything. And it was fun to create our own traditions together as a family. We had a personal choice dinner Christmas Eve with chicken wings, macaroni and cheese, chicken noodle soup, veggies and cookies. We then read and acted out the Christmas Story with the boys quadruple cast. They were so excited to be the people in the story. I was Mary, Andrew was Joseph, Michael was baby Jesus, Jeremy was the donkey ( My Dad was always the donkey growing up, always ) and Jacob was the innkeeper. Then we had two shepherds, then we had three wise men following the star(Jeremy) all over the house. They finally made it back to me and Michael sitting in the rocking chair. They were so cute. Then we opened our Christmas pajamas, wrote Santa a note and left him some cookies and milk. We had prayer and were off to bed. Jacob and Michael went to sleep pretty easily, but poor Andrew was awake with ears perked for any sound. Amazingly we all slept until about 8 when Michael woke up. We went down and opened presents and spent the day playing together. We got a Wii this year and everyone had fun playing. I fought video games for a long time, but this one has everyone up and playing and moving together. We had such a fun time.

Where does the time go?

2010-01-04T20:39:00.000-08:00

I have a Christmas post to write with many cute pictures, but I have yet to upload the pictures to the camera. But here is at least something new - a new family picture we took. And in the meantime, I have been looking through some old pictures. And this one - It melts my heart. They were so cute. I can't help but smile as I look at them and then immediately wonder how did it happen so fast? We took this picture right after we moved to Arizona.

Christmastime

2009-12-15T21:10:00.000-08:00

I love Christmas time. I love all the music. I agree with Shelly that all the songs are praise and worship, so beautiful. And this season helps people who often forget about being grateful for our Saviour to remember and rejoice in his birth and life. People are working so hard to figure out how to give to others, their families and those in need. We need to figure out how to push all these great things into the rest of the year. A friend gave us a fake tree and I was so excited. We had a small one - we have always lived in small places - and I love having a bigger one, it helps our house feel so much more Christmasy. The boys loved playing in the box it was stored in and worked hard putting the branches into the tree. We had a family home evening about the meaning of the elements of Christmas decorations - tree, star, nativity sets, etc and then we got out the Little People Nativity and played with that and decorated the Christmas Tree. I wish I could leave it up all year. :)

The boys and I went to a Book Club Christmas party and Santa came to visit. Jacob sat next to Santa - not on his lap, Andrew told me he would be brave and sat right on his lap, but Michael cried while we tried for a picture. :) Hopefully, those pictures will be coming soon - I forgot my camera, so a friend took some for me. It was so fun and all the food made me inspired me to make some Christmas treats. I attempted fudge and it never hardened! I was so sad. But, the kids and I still ate it- with a spoon. I think I need a different pan with a thicker bottom, because my caramels last year never got quite hard enough last year. But when I made them at Lynne's house with her pan they turned out great. SO, I will blame my failures on my pot!

My Grandma bought Andrew a stocking at a dollar store when he was three weeks old. She wanted to make sure he had something for his first Christmas. I wasn't worried, because he wasn't even aware it was Christmas, let alone that he needed a stocking. Well, he still has that same stocking. In my defense, I did back stitch his name on it for him one year. In a similar style, Jacob also received a stocking last minute before his first Christmas. Last year, Michael just borrowed one that was extra. When I pulled out the Christmas decorations this year, I found their stockings. I just couldn't bring myself to hang them up and Michael didn't even have one. So, I finally buckled down, hit the fabric store, did the applique, sewed them up and the boys officially have stockings. Hooray! This is the first year we will be having Christmas in our little house, so maybe that is why it had to be done. I think they turned out cute. I have a thing for initials. :)

Thanksgivinged

2009-12-11T21:37:00.000-08:00

Caught red handed, while helping me

He liked the chocolate silk pie

Trying to walk down the stairs standing up

encouraging him to come ( I had to include these two pictures - I like the eyeline. You can tell he is looking at me, so proud of himself. Then I am looking on, so proud of him)

I love the Jacob popping out in the corner

We had our first Thanksgiving all by ourselves. Jeremy and the boys didn't have much time off, so we stayed here. We missed being with our extended families, but the relaxed, no timeline part of it was nice. I decided since it was just us, I would scale down the meal a bit. I made a turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, green bean casserole, asparagus and a chocolate silk pie ( I bought an apple pie and pumpkin pie). I meant to do rolls, but forgot about them until too late. Oh, well. Next time. I had to throw out the first egg whites for the pie and try again and then I finally managed soft peaks, but it was fun to try a new recipe. It was a nice day, so the boys played outside and explored the orange tree. Andrew went back for more mashed potatoes and Jacob ate mostly green bean casserole. I planned on posting a picture of the food and a few decorations the boys made for the table and I even took the pictures, but they looked so sad compared to the traditionally huge Thanksgiving feast, that I will let you imagine instead. :)

Going to the Zoo, Zoo, Zoo

2009-12-11T21:11:00.000-08:00

Michael was not as excited about how close the giraffes were as I was

his first school bus ride

They made Michael a name tag and let me borrow a shirt, too

crazy long, black tongue

Jacob's preschool took a field trip to the Zoo. But before, they taught them the song, Mama's taking me to the zoo tomorrow. We sang it for a week straight. It's catchy and Jacob is really cute singing it. If I was more blog savvy, I would post a video of him singing it. Oh, well. Take it from me. I will just include plenty of pictures to prove his cuteness. Michael and I came along on the trip. We all had a great time, it is a small zoo, perfect for an hour and a half trip.

Ironically, we also went back to the zoo the next day and Andrew came as well. The foundation that provides Michael's therapy has a zoo pass and one of the therapist thought it would be fun for Michael and we worked it out so all the boys could come. The last time we had been to the Zoo was for Jacob's birthday when he turned three. And then two days in a row, a year and a half later. :)

Jacob fed the giraffes, which happen to be my favorite animal and was not weirded out by the foot long black tongue, which he said was not black, but blue by the way. Sometimes, there is no arguing with him. I was proud of him (not for the being absolutely sure that there was no way he could be wrong part). He was nervous at first and his friend Aaron would not even try to feed them, so he feed them twice. Just FYI - did you know that giraffes have no vocal cords? Aren't you glad you read my blog now?

Mama's taking me to the Zoo tomorrow, zoo tomoorow, zoo tomorrow. Mama's taking me to the zoo tomorrow, zoo tomorrow, zoo tomorrow. We can stay all day.

Going to the zoo, zoo, zoo. How about you, you, you? You could come, too, too, too. Going to the Zoo.

Look at all the monkeys swinging in the trees, swinging in the trees, swinging in the trees. Look at the monkeys swinging in the trees, swinging in the trees, swinging in the trees. We can stay all day.

It keeps going, but you get the general idea. See how it could possibly get stuck in your head?

Andrew's birthday!

2009-11-20T19:15:00.000-08:00

Michael observing the consistcy of our experiment

Our scientist in action

Jacob was a pro

A Happy Birthday hug

My little, teeny, tiny baby is now a big seven year old. He is on a soccer team, he takes spelling tests and does the monkey bars on the playground. He is still my sweet boy who gets excited every week when I volunteer in his classroom and holds my hand as he walks me to the gate when they go to recess. Next year he will be baptized. I can't believe how fast the time goes. But when I hear him read from the scriptures, I know that he is getting closer to making those choices.

We had a small party this year. He really wanted friends, but I wanted calm. So we compromised. He invited two friends and we went bowling. He was the winner of the kids and scored 100. We had a fun, relaxed day, especially since the government recognized how important his birthday is and let him have the day off school and Jeremy the day off work. His birthday is on Veteran's Day. :) We took cupcakes to soccer practice that night and to school the next day. On a side note, I found this cute idea of putting drops of black food coloring on white frosting and then using a toothpick to drag out a bit of the food coloring to make it look like a soccer ball. Well, the drops of food coloring were certainly not uniform and even when I did it exactly right, it only looked like a soccer ball if I told you. Oh, well. And remember how it was black food coloring? Stains come out, right?

Andrew loved his birthday and his presents. Kathie - he really loves the experiments. We made slime and bouncy balls. He wants to do one all the time. Thank you, thank you. He also got his first little piece lego set. Lynne came down on saturday and watched his soccer game and we celebrated his birthday again with her. He really loves his Grandma. We watched Ice Age : Dawn of the Dinosaurs twice that day, I think it was a hit. He had a wonderful birthday and thank you to everyone who sent something, called him and sang to him or even thought of him. I am so grateful he has all of you, he is a lucky little man.

Halloween

2009-11-01T19:27:00.001-08:00

ewww, the inside of the pumpkin!

Jacob looks like he is going to take a bite

I can't resist this, a boy and his pumpkin

Working hard

Jacob the fire truck

staring at the bats we decorated our trunk with

The mask didn't stay on long, he loved trick or treating

The boys and I made bats and pumpkins for the trunk

love this

the mask, the inspiration for the costume

Andrew was most concerned about the tail

We had a great Halloween this year. We went and picked out pumpkins at a little pumpkin patch and carved them up and put them outside our front door. Andrew loved pulling the little wagon and hauling the pumpkins for us. Jacob did not love pulling the guts of the pumpkin out. :) But with a little convincing he worked hard on it. They designed their faces and I cut them out.

Jacob was a fire truck this year. We found this costume new at Savers and he had to have it. I think he looks so cute. Jacob had a dress up day at his preschool and they said he did not take his costume off all day long. Not even to eat. :) He really likes his preschool. And his fire truck. He added the fireman coat so he could be a fireman driving a fire truck at the ward party. He was a little nervous during the trunk or treating and wanted me holding his hand the whole time. He was having fun, just wanted a little extra support - I did have a fire chief hat on.

Andrew was a T-Rex this year thanks to Asia for the mask and some creative pattern making, someday I will learn to use a pattern. But he liked it and I am glad it turned out alright. He wore it to a friends on friday, they played in their costumes and then he wore it to the ward halloween party, the trunk or treat. It didn't survive. Next time I will have to reinforce the crotch somehow. He was playing tag and was acting like a real t-rex. He is a little dramatic. :)

Michael was our little frog and stayed at the car with Jeremy and handed out candy and finished up his dinner while I took the two older boys around. I think he had a couple pieces of candy that somehow made in into his mouth, instead of to the trick or treaters. He really liked the bats hanging and played with them. Jacob was done pretty quick and wanted to delve into the candy. Andrew ran around and played and hit a few extra cars for more candy.

It was a fun night.

It was also our first night in a house for Halloween. And our neighborhood is one of the few in central tucson that has sidewalks and is off major streets, so we had plenty of people who drove to our neighborhood to go trick or treating. The boys thought it was so fun to answer the door and hand out candy. Thankfully, we had some left from the church party. It was a fun day.

Soccer

2009-11-01T19:12:00.000-08:00

Andrew is now playing soccer. His team is called the Red Lightening. They practice twice a week and then have a game on saturdays. He is having a great time. He really likes it. Halloween was their first game. They have 12 kids on the team. And in an effort to give them more game time, they have two games going at the same time. Which is a little confusing, but they all handled it well. I think it was the hardest for the coach. Andrew liked hanging back and defending the goal. They don't have a goalie, but he was almost acting like one. It was fun to see him spring to attention when the ball came near his goal. He saved several goals. He saved one goal with a big kick and everyone cheered and he was almost startled, but was so proud. He kept saying, wasn't that a good shot? When the game was over, he asked if we were proud of him. And said, Daddy, I didn't give up. I was proud of my little boy who is growing up and trying to find his way in school and friends. I feel lucky to be his mama.

Michael

2009-10-29T22:08:00.000-07:00

Michael has started eating with utensils by himself. He has been feeding himself for a while, but mostly using his hands. I still had to help with many things, things that weren't easy to pick up or required a spoon, etc. He has been stealing our forks for a while, but mostly just playing with them. Trying to poke his dinner, but not really getting anything. And then last weekend at Lynne's, he had his fork and my fork - one in each hand - and started actually getting some bites in his mouth. He was actively trying to feed himself with the forks. Then, to show how serious he was about his new, emerging skill he worked hard on some chocolate chip ice cream and really put a dent in that bowl with his spoon.
Before this weekend,I would periodically work on this with him - help him scoop something and move his hand to his mouth. But, I wasn't worried about it. I was not really trying to get him to do this. In therapy, there are exercises and things we would work so hard on and then as he accomplished them, we were so excited. This feels different to me. A different excitement, one that makes me cry. Michael decided by himself that this is what he wanted and he worked on it and tonight at dinner - ate stir-fry by himself. This gives me hope.

On a different note, the physical therapist and I think his right leg is shorter than his left. He always has his weight on the right with the left bent. We measured as best we could, he doesn't like other people - mostly doctors - touching him. But, it seems there might be a 1/4 inch difference. Sometimes, the bowing of the tibia occurs in those with neurofibromatosis, so we are going to see an orthopedist, get an x-ray and check it all out. Just what I was hoping for - one more specialist to add to the list of doctors that he needs to see periodically. Did I mention he hates going to the dr? :)

Emily's Birthday

2009-10-24T13:31:00.000-07:00

We went up to Phoenix to spend some time with family and celebrate Emily's birthday. We had a really fun time. Jeremy took some professional quality pictures and we played games. We hope you had a fun time, Em. I had to include the photos. They make me smile. You relax your face completely and shake your head quickly while someone takes a picture!

Dress Code

2009-10-24T13:03:00.001-07:00

During General Conference we have a very strict dress code. Michael was a little above the curve. He wanted both of the ties. It was a wonderful conference, even if I am a little late in posting about it.

Lately, I feel like Heavenly Father has really been listening to me. I am so grateful. I feel like he is aware of me. Last week I went to the temple. I have been worried about Michael lately. I kept obsessing about why his fontanels have not closed. They usually have by his age. So, naturally I am afraid he has a brain tumor that is growing (one of the reasons fontanels do not close on time), this is something that sometimes happens with people with Neurofibromatosis. I know that is not natural, I know that I am a worrier, it will most likely close in time. But, this scenario (the brain tumor - not the fontanels) is the one I have been afraid of since his initial diagnosis. I have been afraid I will lose him. That he will not survive. I was fasting about him and praying in the temple. I had the thought (one that I have heard and should know by now) that I needed to have faith, that faith is the absence of fear. And that Michael has a journey he needs to take, the reason he was sent to earth. And that whatever happens will be what Heavenly Father has planned for my Michael. And that I am blessed to be a part of this journey and that it will be filled with joy. I literally felt my fear be replaced with faith and joy. It was like a little ball of happiness inside me. So, who knows what is to come - I still have no idea if he has a long full life ahead of him or just another year. By the way, he seems to be really healthy right now. But, I know that Heavenly Father knows and is in charge and wants us to be happy.

The Diary of Anne Frank, the play that Jeremy directed at the University of Arizona closes this weekend. I went to see it with Lynne and we both thought it turned out really well. I was so proud of him and to see his name and picture next to the title of Director. It was a crazy time, but I think it was really good for him. Hopefully, another directing opportunity will come again. But I am grateful for now to be seeing more of him and for some of the stress to be relieved.

A Day in the Life

2009-09-30T19:50:00.000-07:00

Woke up
Got a child out of bed
changed a diaper
get him dressed
Got a different child dressed
Woke up third child
Got dressed myself
made lunches
gathered books
made breakfast
fed a child
made sure other children were eating
cleaned up
made sure all three children had shoes and backpacks
drove one child to school
went to therapy - remembered backpack and ball to use for therapy
drove another child to school
dropped off remaining child at friends
drove to 1st child's school
volunteered in classroom
picked up child from friends house
drove home
cleaned up boys room
did laundry
folded laundry
put away laundry
picked up toys
watered plants
swept the floor
mopped the floor
made lunch
fed a child lunch
cleaned up lunch
picked up child from school
went to park for playdate
picked up another child from school
had friends over after school
made snack for friends
went on bike ride with kids and friends
dealt with tantrums
got everything ready for dinner
picked up husband
fed children dinner
cleaned up
put one child in bed
put another child in bed
helped with homework
read stories
cleaned up toys
help get child ready for bed
read scriptures
child headed up for bed
deep breath

and my house is still messy!

The backyard

2009-09-23T14:21:00.000-07:00

Just one of the reasons I love our backyard and my husband.

coveting

2009-09-04T12:47:00.000-07:00

I have a dream stroller. I know that it is silly to have a dream stroller. But ever since I first saw this stroller I have wanted one. It is a Phil & Ted's Stroller and it is crazy expensive. But twice in a week and a half I found one on Craigslist and someone got to it faster than me. So disappointing and again silly to get so excited about just the possibility of one. Even used, people are still asking more than I want to pay, but I would love to have one. And then if we have another baby, you just put on the doubles attachment in the back and it is a double stroller and it is a jogging stroller, too! You can lock the swivel wheel. It is really compact and folds up small. Ah. Oh well.

http://www.shopphilandteds.com/strollers.cp

Boys with backpacks

2009-08-28T16:13:00.000-07:00

Jacob has started preschool! He wasn't too keen on posing with his backpack, but I got a couple random pics. Jacob was accepted into a program as a model peer. There are 8 kids with speech delays and 8 kids that are model peers. There are 5 teachers/helpers in there. He seems to really like it. I like that he is busy making things and playing with other kids. I like that he is learning schedules and how to listen to a teacher, etc. I love listening to him tell me about the things they did. It is five days a week and I am a little sad about that. I wanted it to be 3 days a week but I feel like this worked out for a reason. It is a hard program to get into since there are so few spots. The program for the model peers was supposed to start on Sept 8, but the head teacher wanted all the kids to start together. So, when I called on Monday, she told me he had a spot, but that I needed to come tomorrow. I was not quite prepared to lose Jacob yet, so I was a little sad to leave him there. But, I feel good about the program and that this is really good for him. And he will be prepared for school next year. And I really like that our cost is a huge $8/month. Isn't that amazing? If we qualified for free lunches, we wouldn't have to pay at all. I really feel like it is a blessing. Some of the preschools I looked into were from $220 for just two days a week all the way to $600 for 5 days.
I am excited for the one on one time with Michael. I can now schedule Michael's speech therapy and physical therapy and drs appts while Jacob is in school. This way Jacob doesn't just have to sit back and watch. Michael's physical therapist suggested for PT one day that Michael wear his little backpack with a couple small books in it for some strength training. He was excited to have a backpack like his brothers. :)
You know, I like change in small amounts, but this week has been too many changes for me. Jeremy started back to work on Monday after being off for most of the summer. And of course, auditions were that same night, then call backs and last night rehearsals started. But, he is excited that he is directing this year. And he is learning a lot about the concept of academic casting and all the details that the director is responsible for. He is directing The Diary of Anne Frank. It is going to be a busy semester for him. We will miss him, we are hoping to see him for dinner every night before he rushes back at 5:30.
Andrew started school last week and this week had his first afterschool art class. They offer it right after school on Wednesdays and they are making insects and reptiles, right up Andrew's alley. It is only $10 a month. We will see how this month goes. He liked making stink bugs and a dragonfly puppet.
And Michael has decided he is too big for his crib and is now sleeping in a big boy bed. I will post a picture later, he is so cute. I sang him to sleep last night and after I finished each song, he would sign more(or it could be that he just wanted the itsy bitsy spider again) until I watched his eyes close and he drifted off to sleep. It was so sweet to watch. It also saves my back from holding/rocking him right before I put him into his crib. :)
So, Jeremy went back to work and right into a play, Andrew is back at school and a new class, Jacob is in preschool, and Michael is sleeping in a big boy bed. And I am left jugglng everything making sure everyone is where they need to be at the right time and picked up at the right time, etc. (Jeremy is riding his bike to the bus stop to get to work, so I have helped him a couple times with drop offs and pick ups too. :) )I will get the hang of the schedule, but it so much all at once. Our summer was so laid back, but I am glad to be back to a schedule again. :)

1st day of school and haircuts

2009-08-20T15:24:00.000-07:00

New haircut!

Needs a trim

Crazy hair!

Look at all those curls!

First day of school and new haircut

New haircut and snapper pants

On Monday, Andrew started first grade. He was ready for the summer to be over and ready to tell everyone that his is six (apparently a requirement for 1st grade) and that Mrs. Nelson is going to be his teacher. He seems to be doing well. He told me that on the first day he only made a couple bad choices. :) They have a color card system for discipline and he says he has always stayed green. So, good news there. The bad news is no more dinosaur toys, but at least they have a whole box of dinosaur books. :) I miss him while he is gone.
Jeremy took the boys out on some errands with him and while out, a nice woman told Jeremy what a cute little girl he had. So, according to Dad that means haircut time. No little girls in this house. And since school was starting we trimmed everybody up. The before and after photos did not load in quite the right order. Oh, well.

Jacob has always been strong willed. He knows what he wants. And what he wanted for the past two weeks are his snapper pants. And Jacob loves them. Some people might call them overalls. I guess I am a little slow, because he became quite frustrated when I did not know where or even what snapper pants could be. His snapper pants were his wardrobe choice every day for the last two weeks. He didn't get to wear them everyday, there were two Sundays in there. :)

2009-08-17T11:50:00.000-07:00

I am a little behind posting about our trip to Texas. Right before we left we met up with Lynne, Emily, Armando & Fam, Taylor, Justina and kiddos and celebrated Michael's birthday. So, the picture is of Michael with his birthday cupcake. We had a fun day and it was so nice to have everyone come to party with us. Taylor and his family came home with us that night and we hung out and had such a fun time.

We took our time driving to Texas, it felt like forever, but we finally made it and the kids were so happy to be out of the car. We were to happy to not have to hear are we in that part of Texas yet?

We had a great time. Michael had a hard time adjusting to all the new beds and different places and all of the family at different times. So, I didn't get very many pictures taken. Sad. But here are a few of them. We met the Lowe's at Rudy's, we had to have our Texas BBQ, one day right after we met Gideon for the first time. We all thought he was so adorable. It made me a little baby hungry - the feeling has since worn off :). The boys loved playing with Nathan and Mandy and all over Grandma's house. We met Bella and hung out with the Turpins - sadly I didn't have my camera, but I think Asia took one for me? We had a very fun time at the beach. The boys went to an Astro's game - Andrew didn't love the noise. We loved spending time with aunt Kathie. I am so glad we made it to Texas, but we are glad to be back home and settling back into real life.

today

2009-08-11T14:59:00.000-07:00

today i decided i do not want to have another child. today i can not handle the three i have. today has been full of crying, whining, throwing fits, screaming, biting, giving up. today i want to escape all by myself. today i am grateful that school starts next monday. today i feel like a horrible mother. tomorrow....

Walking

2009-07-22T08:29:00.000-07:00

When we stopped in El Paso on our way home from Houston, Michael decided it was finally time to walk! He is doing so well. He can turn and change direction, he can catch himself and not fall. We need to work on standing up on his own without holding onto anything. We have been praying for this for a long time. I will put up some video when I figure out how. :)

Jeremy's Birthday

2009-06-29T12:50:00.000-07:00

This is my husband. He turned 33 years old on Friday. We had a fun day. Lynne came down and we grilled hamburgers and hot dogs for lunch and played in the pool. Notice a theme for the summer? We all played some games with him on the computer. He found Tanks online and now our boys are pros at blowing up the other tanks. Does anyone remember this game? We used to have it on our computer growing up. Andrew loves to use the Hot Shower and the Air Strike and Jacob really likes the Large Ball. :)

Then we had Jeremy's favorite - pizza and wings for dinner. We found a place called Wings Over Broadway here in Tucson and they were really good. I made Devils Food Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting and I think everyone liked them. The grown ups watched a movie after the boys went to bed. I think Jeremy had a fun birthday.

On Saturday we went to see Earth at the discount theater here in town and Michael loved the baby polar bears. He kept reaching out to Jeremy and squealing to make sure his Daddy was seeing them, too. Andrew loved the cheetah, Jacob seemed to like it until he fell asleep on Jeremy's lap. :)

Before Jeremy's birthday as part of a pre-celebration we went up to Mt. Lemmon and played. We found a great spot for a picnic and a place where the boys could play in the creek and behind the spot we went rock climbing. We had a fun time splashing, finding worms and throwing rocks. ( I need a little girl ). The boys helped gather wood for a fire and we had more hot dogs. :) And we had to stop at the Mt Lemmon General Store for some really yummy fudge.

It is nice to escape the heat and enjoy the water and pine trees completely free of cactus.

Thank you Kathie

2009-06-29T12:41:00.000-07:00

This post is to show Kathie how much we loved her package. It came Kath, and the boys had to play with everything right away. We wrote with the chalk and checked it out with 3D glasses. We colored the stickers and then placed them on Grandma Selim - who was a great sport - she even wore them to the movie we went to see. :) We played with the ball toy so much it is now broken and really none of us were very good at it. :) We cut out a dinosaur from the coloring book. I tried on all the clothes and most of them fit. I even wore one of the dresses to church yesterday and got several compliments. So, thank you, thank you. It was a perfect summer package! Thank you for being such a nice and generous sister and Aunt! We love you so!

Father's Day

2009-06-28T21:32:00.001-07:00

I am a little behind, but we celebrated Father's Day partly on the day before. We got out the pool and played in the water. Jeremy broke out his new grill and we tried it out cooking hamburgers. The day was perfect and the hamburgers were great. I am all for buying Jeremy a gift that gets him cooking! We are loving the grilling he is doing for us. :)

On Father's Day, the boys woke Jeremy up ( really he was awake due to all the very loud planning the boys were doing) with the 2nd Annual Father's Day Parade. Everyone has an instrument - Andrew on the guitar, Jacob on the recorder and Michael with the maracas ( which Jacob very cutely calls the ramacas) singing : It's a Parade, It's a Parade, It's a Father's Day Parade over and over until they get the appropriate response. :) They presented him with the tie they had made him and with the cards and origami ties they had folded for him. We all got ready and attended a church meeting where Elder Anderson spoke (one of the Apostles of our church ) and a new stake was created. It was really powerful and we really enjoyed except Jeremy was battling Michael for half the time. We came home and had ribs and potato salad. I think he had a fun day. I called my Daddy and sang to his answering machine and even sent him an email. I still haven't talked to him - I love you Daddy. I hope you aren't avoiding me!

Summertime

2009-06-28T20:40:00.000-07:00

So the month of June has flown by and we have now been in our house a month. We have been busy playing hard and celebrating - Father's Day and Birthdays. Our neighborhood has a connection to the Rillito River hike and bike trail. And it has been really fun to get everyone on a bike - or on the back of a bike in Michael's case - and go for a bike ride. We have take a bike ride to two separate parks near our house. One was a longer ride and the boys were great. It is so fun to do it all together. Oh, and remember we live in a desert and there is no water in the Rillito River unless there has been a very large rain - ie Monsoon. :). And there has not been one, yet. We saw plenty of lizards and ground squirrels, though. And even a road runner.

Photos

2009-06-08T07:53:00.000-07:00

The living room and entrance to the kitchen with our crazy Jacob. You can kinda see the stairs in the background.

The living room during Family Home Evening with Jeremy pretending to be preoccupied with guitar. Why would he smile for the camera?

Toy closet with bookcase in the back

Table with view of laundry room door on right and toy closet door on left and of course Andrew :)

The backyard with covered patio

I wanted to post some pictures of our new place. The upstairs still hasn't been documented, but here is the downstairs. We love the backyard. Grass is one of my favorite things about the new place. Something I really took for granted until we moved to Arizona. I love the floors, even though I sweep all the time now. We used to have really bad carpet. :) I love the toy closet. It is really close to the living room, but it can all stay in then when they are done. They do have some toys in their bedroom. I like our kitchen and am in love with our new fridge. I don't know if you can really see it in the picture. It is one of the french door fridges with the freezer drawer on the bottom. We love the garage and being able to park our car away from the hot Arizona sun. And this way Jeremy doesn't get mad if I forget to lock the door, because I only have to remember to close the garage door. I love that the laundry room is inside the house, inside of having to go outside. We can stash our shoes and bags in here, it doubles as our mud room, because you walk through here from the garage into the kitchen. Our favorite thing is the AC and the ceiling fans. It really makes summertime in Arizona livable. We are really happy here.

Another Address!

2009-05-31T21:57:00.000-07:00

We have had a roller coaster of a week and I think we finally are on pretty level ground. Last week right before we moved Jeremy accidentally flushed his phone down the toilet. He is so careful with his things, that this really threw him. And it has made communicating really difficult. Funny, now but really annoying. Then the toilet overflowed and had to be broken to get the cell phone out. Which resulted in a half day with no toilet and then a brand new one for a day before we moved. Then we packed up the crib and a sleeping bag in our van and then Jeremy dropped me off to head to my last show and he went with the boys to pick up the keys to our new place. He then went to the new place and there were people here cleaning it. So, they had to leave again, but they were able to get in later and set up the crib while frantically trying to keep Michael away from the stairs. My friend dropped me off at our new place - which was thrilling - and Jeremy gave me the grand tour of sleeping boys in their new rooms. Then the plan was to head back to the other place and pick up our bedding and some breakfast items. But, the car wouldn't start. So, we slept on the bamboo floors and one thin quilt. :) The next morning at 6ish, Jeremy takes the bus, which amazingly takes him to a walmart and picks up a new battery for us. The boys of course wake up starving and I had one nutrigrain bar in the diaper bag. Michael falls down the stairs. Jeremy carries the heavy battery in his backpack and thinks to pick up a box on nutrigrain bar, too and saves the day. We (Jeremy) gets the battery installed and we start the back and forth of moving within the city. We get a good amount done with the seats out of our van. And then Emily, Armando, his kids and Lynne all come done to help with a truck and we get all the big stuff moved over. They were a huge lifesaver. Thank you, thank you! After they headed back to Phoenix, we tried to make a few more trips. Moving is never very fun. So we tried to take it slowly and not stress, but it would have been nice to have it all done in one done. I slept many hours cleaning everything and piled all the extra boxes in one room like a trash pile. One box was full of packing peanuts I had saved just in cased we moved far away. Jeremy then takes the boys over to help him clean up the backyard and they discover the packing peanuts. Jeremy walks in, expecting a clean room and helpful children, and finds two little rascals diving and swimming in packing peanut pieces. The entire floor was covered. It would have been really funny if we hadn't been trying so hard to finish up and get out of there. And packing peanuts seriously resist being cleaned up! But, the keys are now turned in. We are officially in the house on Babbling Brook and it feels so nice. We have been loving the backyard and especially the air conditioning. I will post about all our new favorite things with pictures soon.

2009-05-02T22:17:00.000-07:00

When I was early pregnant with Andrew, I was doing a play. It was a crazy, intense King Lear. When I was doing that show, I had no idea it would be seven years before I did another one. I have done a couple films , several commercials and an industrial since having my children. But no plays. Plays tend to be a bigger time commitment, weeks or months rather than days. And then, figure in all the months of pregnancy and then nursing times three when I couldn't have done a show. And then, Jeremy has been doing shows at least once a semester ( our life is lived in semesters, even now that he is not in school, he's teaching in one ) if not more. Then, I didn't want to sacrifice all that time away from my family and the inconvenience of balancing schedules to play a tiny part. I figured since I was in a new place - Austin and now Tucson - I might have to pay my dues and start small and work my way into good roles. And then, after all those years away I was starting to forget my audition monologues and then started to worry if I was even good enough to do a play anymore. And that brings us up to March 2009. Jeremy's play Medea closed and he wanted to take a break from acting for a while and my baby is getting big (He is almost two). I came back from Houston where I went to Time Out for Women with my family and thought that it was okay for me to have these desires. I checked out the Tucson Theatre Blog just to check to see if anything was available that I could play, that wasn't inappropriate for me, that fit our schedules and wasn't too long a commitment. And amazingly enough, I found something. I emailed about an audition and a whirlwind of auditioning the next day, being offered the role and rehearsals beginning the day after. It was a little too quick to process it all.

It has worked out really well. The rehearsals have been pretty flexible, Jeremy was able to watch the kids every time, except the one performance when he came to see the show. It isn't a long run, only four shows. It is a play about women dealing with postpartum depression. My character tries to hold on tight to control after the birth of her second children and then almost commits suicide. It is a meaty role with a great character arc. On Thursday, we will perform for the last time. We have performed in hospitals and a community center in various cities in southern Arizona. Our audiences are doctors and nurses, women who have PPD or pregnant women, or people interested. Everyone has responded well to it. I have really enjoyed putting myself out there, finding this character. I have enjoyed being a part of something beyond my little family. The subject matter is close, I never had PPD, but I had some difficult adjustments times after two of my babies. And one line in the play is : After my son was born, I put my personality in a box and didn't take it out until he was two years old. I think I have struggled with finding out who I am again after these huge changes in my life. I think that is pretty common. It has been a great experience. But, I have also remembered all the not so fun parts of performing in a play. Working with a cast of creative people, can be wonderful, but also hard at times. Dealing with a director with different ideas about your character is hard to solve. Three of our performances have been out of town, which means at least a couple of hours of transit and performance time and set up and take down time. So they tend to take up most of the day, which stresses me out and makes me feel guilty for being gone so long. This is the first play I have done where I have had to balance a family. It is hard to leave for rehearsals when Andrew was saying, Mama please don't go. I want you to stay home. Jacob,

with a brave face, Mama I will try to be happy. Michael, crying every time I go. Overall, I am still glad to have done this. Pulling part of my personality back out of that box after seven years. And although it is not much at all the $200 stipend is helping get a new table for the house we are moving into this week!

And while I was rehearsing for my play, Andrew's Kindergarten class was practicing one of their own. Andrew played Kevin. It was so cute, they performed at the Celebration/graduation last week. Today is his last day of school, I can't believe he will be in 1st grade soon!

Jacob Thomas Selim

2009-04-26T10:00:00.000-07:00

Jacob was born four years ago! Jeremy likes to tell people it was an easy delivery because we got to the hospital at 9 something in the morning and Jacob was born at 11:30 ish. But, it was a crazy intense one! And it started long before we made it to the hospital! :)

I am so glad he is our son and he is getting so big and so smart. He made his name out of train tracks, I only helped with the 'B'.

His birthday was April 16th and it was a bit of a crazy day. I performed a play for the first time in seven years at a nursing conference in Gilbert

which is about 2 hours from here. My wonderful sister in law watched the boys for me. She lives only minutes from the hospital where we performed. It worked out perfectly. Thank you so Emily! This way I only had to leave the boys for the time I was at the performance rather than the four hour round trip plus the three hours I was at the hospital. And Emily made Jacob's birthday fun for him. We drove back and

met up with Jeremy and Andrew and had Taco Bell for dinner. Jacob wanted cheese roll-ups for his birthday. The birthday boy always get to pick what we have for dinner and this made it pretty easy for me. :) He even included it in the birthday wish list: I want a 5 button race cars, a dump truck, a cheese roll up, etc..

They also get to pick what kind of cake they have. At first, Jacob wanted a circle cake with numbers like a clock and a dump truck in the middle. I managed to convince him that it might be more fun for it to be a big dump truck

cake instead. Sometimes, convincing him of anything can be a hard job. He has very strong opinions and ideas! He helped me do the food coloring for the icing and he helped with the black icing details. He is a really great helper. We sang him happy birthday and blew out each candle one by one. He told me that when you are four years old that you don't have to eat food anymore. When you are so many years you don't need dinner, you can just have candy and cake. :) He is so funny.

We gave him a big dump truck and

he loved it. He loved all his presents and Thank you so much to all his aunts and uncles and grandmas and grandpa that gave him presents. We met Lynne on Saturday at the half way point between us to continue the celebration. We watched Monsters vs Aliens and then went to Peter Piper Pizza for lunch. Everyone had a really fun day.

4 things I love about Jacob:

I love to talk to him - his logic gets him out of trouble all the time. I love the way he can explain himself and make me understand what is happening in his brain.

He loves his brothers. He is so good with Michael and loves to play with him and help him. He and Andrew are such close friends. They play together so well - most of the time!

He is a great helper. He tries to help me everyday. I can't make a meal without him

pulling up his stool to watch and help. He throws away the dirty diapers outside and is pretty good at putting away his toys.

He is so smart. He is a great counter and is learning to read. He is a pro with the computer games on PBS Kids. He is going to be really ready for Kindergarten.

Easter

2009-04-18T21:02:00.000-07:00

We had a great Easter this year. A little crazy, but still great. I had a rehearsal on Saturday morning and then Jeremy had a last minute meeting, so our great plans were pushed back. It still turned out to be a nice plastic egg hunt and dinner over at Emily's and then over to Lynne's for bedtime. We woke up on Easter and opened presents from Lynne. She gave the boys a movie and a book about Christ's life and resurrection. When Andrew opened the book he said, ' I got Jesus!' That is what Easter is all about, right? I am glad that we all can open that gift and be grateful for our Savior.

This is a little silly, but I wanted all the boys to match on Easter. So, it took a bit of arranging to have three of everything, ties, shirts, pants, belts, etc for church. But, I managed it by the time we left on Saturday. So, they were all dressed and ready to go and about to head into Lynne's family room to take pictures when Michael decided he wanted to stand out and be an individual. He had a crazy explosive diaper which thankfully only knocked the pants out of commission. I did not have a back up pair of navy church pants for Michael or any suitable pants at all, but my ever prepared husband reminded me of the back up clothes we have in the car (we have a complete change of clothes in a big ziploc for each of the boys). It turned out Michael's emergency pants were a little casual, but served in a pinch. I was a little disappointed about the now not quite matching outfits, but that is how life goes. No great family picture this year, but I tried to include some so you could see their ties at least.

We decided that the Easter Bunny would come while we were away for church and we would do the secular parts of Easter after we had focused on the Resurrection and Atonement. So, the Easter Bunny left church for a bit to run home to Lynne's house and hide the baskets and eggs. He did a great job hiding everything and then wrote a note for the boys trying to tie in the Easter egg hunt/Easter bunny with Christ and went outside to put it on her front door for them to find. Unfortunately, the door locked behind him with Lynne's house keys inside. Thankfully, he had his keys still with him and headed back to church. Emily had a spare key to Lynne's house, so we only had to wait about 10 -15 minutes after we got back from church to make it in for the big hunt. Thanks again, Emily! The boys had a great time and loved their baskets, thanks Lynne for all your contributions, and even Michael began to get it a little. He certainly understood there was chocolate in his basket and nothing, not even the foil wrappers were going to keep him from eating it. :) We had a wonderful Easter dinner and a fun time all weekend, even with the hiccups.

We have been talking about Resurrection for a little while, leading up to Easter, reading the New Testament, etc. We talked about how the spirit leaves the body, the body is buried or put in a tomb or cave like Jesus was and then later the body and spirit are brought back together and then Jesus went back to Heaven with his body. Over the same period of time we have been talking about, Andrew and Jacob have found two little dead baby birds in our back yard. We have a great big Saguaro cactus that I am sure holds a myriad of nests. So, we buried the baby birds and talked about how the spirit left the body, etc. A day later Andrew comes in and says Heavenly Father must not like this baby bird, his body is still here, it is still in the ground. Why isn't he up in Heaven? At least resurrection is a concept we are beginning to understand. I am grateful for Christ's sacrifice so that we can all be resurrected one day and live with our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ again. Hopefully, He will like us. :) I know He will, even if we don't deserve it.

Random Pics

2009-04-01T09:34:00.000-07:00

I decided to do the sixth picture of the sixth folder tag, but this computer doesn't store photos that way, so I am going to try to find 6 random pictures to post. :) Then, we had too many pictures, so I had to keep going. I think now there are 10 random pictures. :)

Camping!

2009-03-24T19:26:00.000-07:00

On Friday, we took our family camping for the first time. We loved it and decided it needed to be repeated, even though the Bear Warning sign kept Andrew a little too on the alert. :) The kids went to sleep well in the tent and Michael even took a nap in the tent on Saturday. We went hiking , made several fires, roasted hot dogs and marshmallows for s'mores. Jeremy woke up early on Saturday and went out for more firewood and made us all breakfast. It was so fun to watch Jeremy teach the boys how to make a fire and put up a tent. The boys and I did some serious rock climbing where Andrew's shoe fell off and we saw several wild animals. We saw crazy chipmunks and Andrew kept trying to talk to them, several really brave and beautiful birds, Jacob saw a rabbit, the boys both saw different lizards, I went to the scary bathroom and had to search for courage to enter after watching a mouse scurry away. Then after the boys were all sleeping, Jeremy and I were sitting by the fire and we heard some rustling sounds. Jeremy shined the flashlight near the noise and we watched a skunk(!?!) casually walk by! Oh, the irony, because our bedtime story was Curious George Goes Camping, in which George meets a skunk, puts out a fire and takes a bath in tomato juice. Thankfully, the skunk is probably pretty used to having people around, so we had no need for any tomato juice.

It was nice to be surrounded by trees and the weather was beautiful. I ate way too many s'mores, but we all had a great time. Jeremy is really excited for when the boys can help carry the load. Poor guy, we all tried to help, but Jeremy carried the brunt of it all. He is a great outdoorsman. He makes me feel safe and taken care of.

Texas!

2009-03-18T14:56:00.000-07:00

I just returned from the land of my birth (I was born in Houston a little more than 29 years ago) where I celebrated my birthday a couple of weeks late with my family there. I took a trip all by myself. It was a little surreal the whole time, I only had to take care of myself, no little boys! I missed them, but it was really nice to sleep in! I took advantage of the no children situation I was in and tried to do all the things I usually had to get a babysitter for. I had my hair done, I went to lunch and shopping with Alexa (it was so fun to catch up and see her beautiful house and feel so at home with her), I went to the temple, went to Time Out for Women on Friday night and all day Saturday. We went out to great restaurants where I didn't even have to look at the kids menu or keep little boys in their chairs. I stayed up late talking with Donna, I enjoyed all the green grass and plants that Arizona doesn't have (hooray for bluebonnets!). I loved spending time with my Mama and my sisters. I ate Texas BBQ and even took some home to Jeremy. I read two books. It was a wonderful trip.

Before I left, I tried to prepare my boys. Jacob told me in a very determined voice, We are coming with you! When I told him that I only had one plane ticket, he said, "Okay, then we will be the men who fly the plane!" Jacob was very brave when I left, but Andrew and Michael were sad. I talked to them on the phone a couple times and via the web cam once. They had a great time without me. :) I came home to a welcome home banner made up of drawings from each of my boys and beautiful tulips. I am happy to be home and ready to be a even better wife and mother, completely rejuvenated. Michael is not sure what to think. He didn't want me to put him to bed last night. He is really confused. I think a little mad at me. I think our relationship will recover. :)

Change

2009-03-08T18:57:00.001-07:00

I have just been looking at my children and thinking how much they have grown. And then they will do or say something that seems so grown up. A trip down memory lane was in order. The boys and I watched as they slowly grew up in iPhoto. And we came across these pictures of Michael's first real bath right after we took some other bath pictures. It has been 20 months and looked at how much they have changed!

Tax Return

2009-03-07T09:50:00.000-08:00

Just a cute picture

After

Before ( with a crazy Andrew)

I think our television could sense the extra money in the form of our tax return that was now resting comfortably in our savings account. Our bank account was not quite accustomed to having so much there. So, our television decided to take action and turn colorblind or make us all feel colorblind. The color just went out. Jeremy said that it didn't look all that different to him. We say thank you to Costco for giving us a good deal and broadening our viewing pleasure.

This was the first TV Jeremy and I have ever bought. Our first TV was a gift from Bob and Laura - they had decided they didn't want a TV, so they gave us the one that was in the house. :)

Then we inherited the one that just decided it wanted to think in black and white when Grandma died. So, it was kinda fun to buy one together. We really like it. I know that it is a little funny to post about this. :)

Asia Elizabeth Ball Lowe

2009-02-16T08:21:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday, Asia! I love this picture of Asia and Andrew that we took when we were living in Austin. I hope you have a wonderful year, Asia, it should be an eventful one! I miss you and wish we lived closer together and could see each other more often. I am grateful that you are my sister and my friend. I am still waiting to hear from Ben about our spa trip! :)

Memories of Asia:

1. Asia used to say she was older than me because her birthday is four days before mine, only I was born three years before. :)

2. When my family was living in Germany, we starting calling her Little Miss Sunshine, hoping it might wear off on her attitude.

3. She went to a dance in Heidelberg castle. Isn't that romantic?

4. She cooked for her own wedding reception.

5. She once etched my name in the window sill with a screwdriver, hoping I would be the one to get in trouble for it.

6. She studied Art at Texas Tech.

7. She is the only one of us kids that didn't go to BYU.

8. She has beautiful blond hair and blue eyes.

9. She is so fun.

10. She took care of my boys when I was in the hospital after Michael was born.

11. She is very generous - my boys love getting presents from her.

12. She loves my boys.

13. When I was a senior and she was a freshman, it was fun to have her in Drama with me.

14. She is a great scrapbooker, I love the pages she has done for me.

15. I love going shopping with her.

16. She was born in Singapore and will maybe have her baby in a foreign country, too.

17. She made and decorated my wedding cake - it was chocolate.

18. When we were in Europe, we (mostly me) had eaten so much chocolate and I made her exercise with me, doing lunges, etc in the hotel hallways. We tried to look inconspicuous every time we saw someone.

19. I made her go on a date with me once when she was visiting me in Utah, my date (the guy) wasn't too thrilled. But, she made it so much better for me!

20. She has a beautiful daughter.

21. She has visited me everywhere I have lived, except for Arizona. What's the deal, As?

22. She helped me go buy a pregnancy test when I thought I was pregnant with Jacob. ( I was )

23. She is so brave to drive across the country all by herself to see her husband before he left for Iraq.

24. She has always been one of my best friends.

25. She used to bite me as a kid.

26. She used to share a bedroom with me and once we doing running somersaults onto the bed and we put a hole in the wall.

Happy 26th birthday!

My Valentines

2009-02-16T07:48:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, Andrew and Jacob told me I was a princess. I thought it was pretty cute. I will be a princess surrounded by my princes. Last night, Andrew and Jacob were changing into their pajamas and were taking turns using the bathroom before bed. Andrew came running out of the bathroom completely naked and Jacob was running into the bathroom wearing only underwear and they ran right into each other. I thought it was so funny. For some reason, it warmed my heart, like I was really experiencing motherhood. I know that sounds silly, but watching the looks on their faces and how they literally take life at a run, I feel lucky that I am their mother.

Jacob slept on the top bunk last night for the first time and I am surprised regularly that he is growing up and ready to be a big boy. Michael loves Nursery as long as he can see me. Hopefully, he will get used to it and be ready to be in there alone once he is walking.

Shark Teeth

2009-02-04T07:18:00.000-08:00

What a great morning picture!

A little while ago, Andrew told me a new tooth was coming in. Come to find out, his new tooth was coming in behind one of his baby teeth. It worried me a bit that we would need to get the baby tooth pulled and that his tooth would stay back there. But, I looked it up online - hooray for the internet - and found that it is fairly common ( they called them shark teeth). That the tooth will usually come out on its own or if we had to, it wouldn't be a big deal to pull it. And that the tooth typically moves to the spot it ought to be in. That baby tooth was a little loose, so we worked on it to loosen it a bit more. Andrew was determined to get it out. He had a hard time going to sleep, he really wanted something to put under his pillow for the tooth fairy. So, two days later when I picked him up from school, he smiled really big to show me his new smile - without one of his teeth! They said he was wiggling it and it came flying out and one of the aides caught it. :) They put it in a cute little treasure chest and sent it home with him. I was a little sad that I wasn't there when he lost his first tooth. Oh, well. Anticipating the tooth fairy made getting to sleep a bit harder than usual, but he put the tooth in an envelope under his pillow. And woke up a dollar richer. :) He was so excited to go buy a toy with his money. My baby is growing up! The big tooth is starting to move up to the right position. Hopefully, all the other teeth come in the right way! But, for now he is our little shark.

Taco Bell

2009-01-18T07:49:00.000-08:00

I think that last night I got a taste of what feeding three boys (and Jeremy) will be like as they get older. The boys had a fun time completing a quest Jeremy had created for them and part of the treasure was to get some dinner. They wanted to stay and play in the cave - I will post some pictures later - so I went and drove through Taco Bell. This is one of the few places we go out to eat. Sad, I know. But, I ordered their usual, a cheese roll up. We had dinner and Andrew asked if he could have another one. Then two minutes later, Jacob asked where the rest of his dinner was. Jokingly, I asked if I needed to go back to Taco Bell. Jeremy sheepishly told me that he could eat more. So, I made a second trip. And the woman working the drive through, asked if I had been there earlier. What will it be like when they are 18, 16, 14?

I like this quote by Sister Tanner. I hope I can live up to it and shout for joy about my role as a mother instead of all the times I just shout. :)

I take great delight in my role as a nurturer, which allows me to express my deepest identity as a woman. I never fail to be struck by the way that women, young women, and even little girls seem to have an instinctive interest and ability in nurturing. It is not only a mother's primary responsibility but also part of our 'individual premortal, mortal and eternal identity and purpose' ("The Family: A Proclamation to the World," Ensign, Nov. 1995, 102). To nurture is to teach, to foster development, to promote growth, to feed, and to nourish. Who would not shout for joy at being given such a blessed role? "The scriptures use the word nurture only twice and in both cases speak of the responsibility of parents to raise their children 'in the nurture and admonition of the Lord' (Ephesians 6:4; Enos 1:1).

Susan W. Tanner

Little Boys

2009-01-15T14:48:00.000-08:00

On Sunday, we had a bit of a transition. Jacob is now officially a sunbeam. He is in Primary, the children's sunday school - like portion of our church. He was a little thrown off, but once they made into their classes, he had a great time. And Michael went into Nursery. He is 18 months old. I went in with him, which I will most likely do for a while. But, he had a fun time. I just can't believe it happened. I have two children in primary and one in nursery. How does this happen?
Today, four members of the Selim family left our house dressed and breakfasted at 7:38. We did it. Andrew made it to school on time and he didn't even have to run to make it in line on time. Then Jacob, Michael and I preceded to Michael's therapy and were even there before the therapist. It is a rare thing to be so ready to go in the morning. I am proud of us. Before Michael's therapy changed times, usually Andrew was the only one out of pajamas when we took him to school. So, here we go 2009 - we can do it. I can be a little more on top of things. I think. :)

Home again!

2009-01-07T08:11:00.000-08:00

Jacob had a crazy accident in the snow and this was the result. Only pink skin remains now. :)

Making a gingerbread train

I love this picture of Eva

Lots of Texas spirit

He was so excited about his dinosaur :)

Michael and Joy

Jacob couldn't believe his luck

Our little wise men

Four babies in one year

Joy, Michael, Aurora and Victoria

We are glad to be home and for real life to resume. We got back into Tucson late Sunday night due to an extended stay of the stomach flu keeping us in Phoenix. But, we had a great Christmas break. We drove to Texas and had a wonderful Christmas with my family. I realized how much I miss Texas. All of my family was there, except for Bob and his family. The boys loved playing with their cousins ( and their aunt and uncle :), depending on how you look at it ) and we were sad to go. We then drove to Phoenix and spent time with the other side of the family. We had fun having sleep overs with Lynne and Taylor and Justina's family - the boys loved sleeping in their own little tents. :) We spent a crazy day in the snow in Flagstaff and enjoyed our time at Grandma's house until we got sick. I feel blessed to have so many wonderful people in our lives. And for our Savior, Jesus Christ, whose birth gave us a reason to rejoice together.

Mama

2008-12-30T20:04:00.000-08:00

I just found out that my Granny is on life support. She didn't want that and so sometime tomorrow when her family is gathered around her, they will take her off. Although I don't like some of the decisions my Granny made as a young woman and the effect it had on my mama's life, she was the parent and the constant in Mama's life. And I ache to think of the pain Mama is feeling now. I am sure she is remembering her right now and seeing all the good things she did for her. And it has made me remember again why mothers are so important and that no matter what, the deep love you have for them. I want to remember some of the good things my mother has done for me.
I know she loves me and thinks that I am important. And some days when I am not sure if anyone else feels the same way, I can call her and she will listen to me and lift me up.
She has always been my cheerleader. She and I started my journey as an actress together. She was the one who took me to all the classes and auditions and sets. I will always remember her confidence in me and the fun times we had together. Now when I have an audition (very rarely) I have to go by myself. :) She is a part of every one of my successes.
She taught me to be strong. She has taught by example and has turned out five strong women. She is so capable. She can do almost anything. I always had the best costumes of everyone on stage when she was the making my costumes. She makes beautiful blankets and she was telling me of the matching suits she made for Daddy and Bobby when he was little.
She holds our family together. She is the connection between all of us.
When I got married, I subconsciously tried to become her. I knew if I could do all the things she can do, I would be a good mother and wife. I love my Mama and want her to know that I think she is a wonderful woman and I am so grateful for her and that she is so many things to me. And that if she ever left this earth, I would be left with a void in my life. And so, I hope the void for her own mother won't be too painful and too hard to overcome. I love you, Mama. And I love Granny and am glad for the good changes she made in her life and that she did the best she could to make the most of a hard life. I wish her joy and peace.

Beautiful messes

2008-12-07T20:20:00.000-08:00

On thursday, Michael had therapy. The therapist pulled out her original report from October 7 and we evaluated the goals we had set for our little Michael. And in 7 weeks he had accomplished all of them! Hooray, Michael! So, now we are celebrating the mobility and thus the messes that Michael can now create. He loves to crawl to the bookcase and pull out all the crayons, pencils, etc. and make a huge mess. And I can't help but smile. And we are working on cruising and standing up on our own. The therapist says she isn't in a hurry for him to walk, because crawling really helps with strength building and he is still weak.

Testimonies

2008-12-07T19:41:00.000-08:00

Last week after church, Andrew told me he wanted to go up and say something at the pulpit. So, since Fast Sunday was coming up we had a Family Home Evening on testimony. We each practiced bearing our testimonies behind the rocking chairs aided by pictures of Christ, prayer, etc. So, today Andrew told me again he wanted to go up there. Then right before we got up, he told me that he really wanted to bear his testimony, but wanted to wait until he was a little older.

He decided to come up with me anyway, but was too scared. Then tonight he gathered all of his snakes and stood in the doorway and said, hello, everyone. I want to bear my testimony about snakes. He talked for a while about snakes and then said, I am thankful they can be a family and that God created them. I choked up a little. :) Sometimes, it is nice to see when they are really getting something. :) This is his school picture. I can't believe he is old enough to have a school picture.

5 joys, fears

2008-12-06T07:34:00.000-08:00

I am a little slow on this tag. :)

5 joys:

3 little boys

1 big boy

Christmas time

My family

My Saviour

5 little things that make me happy:

crawling

smiles

reading

dragonflies

holding little hands

5 fears:

losing someone in my family

never settling down somewhere

being a bad mother

not progressing from who I am now

giving up

5 surprising things:

I sometimes forget to brush my teeth

I'm scared to have a little girl - if we ever mange it!

I almost like the Arizona weather - the winter is great!

I don't feel like a grown up, even though I have three children, been married for 7 and a half years and am nearing 30.

I don't love jelly beans anymore. I still like them, but in college I might have been a little obsessed!

Ronald Andrew Selim 11/11/2002

2008-11-15T08:15:00.000-08:00

Putting together Hungry, Hungry Hippo

He looks so grown up with his cake

T- Rex cake, slightly damaged.

Andrew at the Dinosaur McDonalds

Funny Dinosaur masks

My little Tiger

Andrew, at home in his crib for the first time

My tiger, Andrew is 6 years old! My tiny baby is a big boy. On Monday, we made cupcakes and took them to his school where we sang happy birthday. He wanted chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting and dinosaur colored sprinkles. Then, since his birthday is on Veteran's day Jeremy and Lynne had the day off work so we had a bowling party. He has been wanting to go bowling for a long time. So, we all bowled with the bumpers on and discovered that although we are not the best bowlers it was really fun. Andrew came in second place. And even Michael pushed a couple of times. Jacob was so excited whenever any pins fell down and somehow managed to get a strike.

We had pizza there and blew out candles on his dinosaur cake. The dinosaur cake didn't quite make to the bowling alley unscathed. Oh, well. We opened presents there and Andrew loved everything. Thank you everyone.

We came home and played games, built a new train track with the new pieces and then ended his birthday with a trip to the Dinosaur McDonalds. It is a McDonalds with a dinosaur theme and of course, Andrew loves it.

We have played so many games of Hungry, Hungry Hippo and are still watching the ants in the ant farm every waking moment. It was a great birthday for our big boy.

Halloween and random thoughts :)

2008-11-09T13:01:00.000-08:00

Our elaborate costumes

Check out his short hair!

Michael pulling up on me and the shell on his costume.

We had a fun halloween this year. Jeremy's show that night was cancelled due to low ticket sales, so he was able to be there. We went to the library where the boys decorated cookies, made blow pop ghosts, spider watches and jack o lantern faces. They had a trick or treat through the library where they accumulated non- candy treats. Then we went to the church party, where we had scary foods. We brought frog eye slime in a witch's cauldron. The boys thought it was so fun to add the green food coloring to the tuna casserole. It looked really gross, but still tasted good. :) Lynne brought down some of her great Halloween decor and we decorated a door for trick or treat down in the primary rooms. They had some fun songs with the bishop and his wife and some games to play.

We had three T's this year - a tiger, a Thomas the Tank Engine and a turtle. The pictures don't quite capture the cuteness of the turtle. I will post individual pictures soon.

Michael is making some strides lately. He can get from his stomach or back into a sitting position all by himself. He can now go onto all fours and takes a few crawling steps. He is great at pulling up to his knees and we are working on getting all the way up. He can say Ball now. I am really seeing more of his personality now and I am excited to see my little guy exploring his world.

Andrew has been coughing for two weeks and last thursday after I finally got him to school (we had a flat tire ) he joined his class outside. After all that running around on his weakened body, it gave up and he threw up all over a couple of his friends. So, we have been dealing with the virus going all through our family. No fun. But, the sad part for Andrew was that Friday was his very first field trip and he didn't get to go. He was so sad. He kept asking me if he could go to school. We rented a movie with a dinosaur in it and let him watch it while his class was at the zoo. Andrew's class also voted for president. He says he almost voted for John McCain, the old man, but decided to vote for Barack Obama, because he was so tall. It seems that was the most important characteristic on voting for the president.

Jacob went to the doctor and he is now 32 lbs and 36 1/2 inches. He seems so big to me, but he is a little small for his age. Fiery, though. He loved being Thomas the train for Halloween. He spent the whole time in costume 'choo-choo' ing everywhere. He always put his hat on sideways or backwards. He is so funny.

When we got to church today, there were protesters with posters on the sidewalk. They were upset about the marriage amendment passing here in Arizona. While it never escalated, I have begun to understand how prophets in the past were stoned to death or imprisoned. Emotions by the opponents to these amendments have surprised me, I didn't expect them to pinpoint our church as much as they have, especially in California.

October

2008-10-21T15:58:00.001-07:00

We drove down for about an hour to a pumpkin patch where we could pick our own pumpkins. We had to fight through some overgrowth with spikeys, but it just added to the adventure. :) We picked out a perfect pumpkin and a small baby pumpkin.

I neglected to pack sunscreen and Michael kept his hat on for about two minutes after the first picture was taken. It is October and it is still hot! It was fun, though. They had a petting zoo and a children's maze. The kids loved a baby goat, the picture just shows them swarming it, too bad, it was cute. Andrew did great with the maze. He only climbed over one wall. :) We even had a sack race.
This was Andrew and Jacob playing in the water in Phoenix. We went and had lunch and played in between Conference sessions. We missed Aiden this time, though. We really enjoyed spending the weekend with Lynne. Conference was wonderful and we feel lucky to have grandma around.
After we watched the last debate, Jacob was running around saying 'barackobama, barackobama'. It was all one word and he thought it sounded cool. Then he asked, 'What is barackobama?' Pretty funny. Jacob and I are having fun at home while Andrew is at school. He helps me with Michael and likes to do 'homework' with me. He has some preschool workbooks that I have him work on when I am helping Andrew with his homework, so sometimes during the day we pull them out. We made our own paint with flour, water and food coloring, which was fun and not even that horrible to clean up.
Michael is in therapy and it is going well. The therapist said in just two weeks she is noticing greater trunk control and he is starting to pull up on things and gets on all fours(almost, usually his legs are perpindicular to each other) and has started clapping. I think he is close to crawling.
He is still quite the Mama's boy, but did well when I shot the commercial. Which was fun to shoot and a nice break. But, it was stressful arranging babysitting, someone to drop off Andrew at school, pick him up, getting everything ready so Jeremy could get them ready before he went to work, etc. Everything went smoothly, but whenever I had any downtime, which wasn't much, I was worrying about them. I don't leave them very often, especially Michael. It should air down here in November.
Jeremy's play Loves Labours Lost is up and running, which eases his schedule a bit, we actually had him home Mon, Tues and Wed night this week. His classes are going well and is he is working on job applications for next year.
Andrew is doing well in school and is doing well in his reading. He can read several books all by himself. He has made friends at school and seems to have ironed all those kinks out. He is getting tall and I can't believe he will be six next month. He is a great big brother.
We have had a fun October so far, we even had a short cold spell, but then popped back up into the 90's. Jeremy keeps reminding me we live in the desert. I am sure I left plenty out, but its a start!

Does it take a village?

2008-10-02T20:47:00.000-07:00

It has been a crazy last few weeks, full of things I needed someone to watch one of my children for. Mostly doctor's appts. I have my children with me almost all of the time. I don't do very many things, if at all that require me to be away from them. So, I have a hard time asking people to watch my children for me. And wishing that I had family here in Tucson that I could lean on for support. And yesterday, I had an audition at 3:00 right by Jeremy's office, my second audition in Tucson. Jeremy's class ends at 2:50, so I was hoping I could get him to end his class a little early and then hang out with the kids in the car for me while I auditioned and then I could take him back to work or we could go home together. This way, I wouldn't have to find someone to watch all three kids. Of course, he gets caught by students and doesn't make it to us until 3:03 and I get to my audition almost 10 minutes late. And it turns out it is almost a group audition and all these people are sitting around a table waiting for me to get started. Embarrassing. And then due to the weird nature of the audition, I didn't get out of there until 4:30. Which means my poor husband in the car with my three crazy children for over an hour. It was not quite as simple as I had hoped it would be. Does it get easier to balance? How do you get everyone to the places they need to be at the right time with the right amount of children, etc. If we had another car, this audition would have gone easier, but that doesn't really solve the problem. I think it will just get harder as the kids get older and we have responsibilities with church and other things.
But, I guess it was worth it. I will be shooting a commercial for Vantage West Credit Union on the 20th of October. :)
But, what that really means is that I have to find someone to watch my children!!!!!!

Michael update

2008-10-02T09:43:00.000-07:00

We finally got the results from the MRI and are so relieved that there were no tumors in the brain or the optic nerve. Hooray. The Dr. found a few concentrations of fluid that he said would go away, but they were often an indicator of neurofibromatosis.
His surgery went well and he is mostly back to normal. Sometimes he still favors his right leg a bit. The surgery was to fix an undescended testicle and the nurse said something funny when he was taking a little longer to wake up from the anesthesia. She said when there is a male anesthesiologist and the surgery involves that part of the anatomy they tend to give them a lot of medicine! They pumped my little baby with a narcotic, local anesthesia and a caudal block to numb the lower half. I don''t think he felt anything!
The therapist finally came to evaluate Michael and she said he is doing a lot of good things and she sees no reason why he won't continue to develop and he will hopefully catch up. She think one side of his body is weaker than the other and getting those two sides to do the same thing at the same time is difficult. So, we will see what happens.

My voice

2008-09-28T23:40:00.000-07:00

Today in Sunday school we were talking about Christ's visit to the Nephites. We read a scripture that introduced God's voice to the people and the effect it had on them.

'...they heard a voice as if it came out of heaven; and they cast their eyes round about, for they understood not the voice which they heard; and it was not a harsh voice, neither was it a loud voice; nevertheless, and nothwithstanding it being a small voice it did pierce them that did hear to the center....it did pierce them to the very soul and did cause their hearts to burn.'

I have been contemplating disciplining my children lately. Andrew is testing his boundaries, trying to balance what happens with the other kids at school and what is appropriate. And Jacob is very demanding of my attention at home now that his big brother and playmate is gone during the day.
They are both being very rough, with each other and Michael. My patience is stretched pretty close to breaking most days. And I don't like how I feel when they don't listen or obey. And I am afraid I have been yelling too much. And the yelling isn't effective anyway. So, I am am left frustrated and still no results.
After reading this scripture for the second time today, I realized I want to strive to have the voice described in it. I know that this is not the way I think about this scripture very often. But, I was struck how I could apply it to my own life. I don't want to have to yell. I want them to know I love them. But, what I want most is the effect it has on these people.
I want to have a voice that is not harsh or loud, but one that pierces them to the very center.
So, I have found one more attribute of our Heavenly Father I would like to emulate. I have a new goal.

The world according to JACOB

2008-09-13T21:52:00.000-07:00

On taking a drink:

It feels like a waterfall in my mouth. And it is hot.

2008-09-11T21:44:00.000-07:00

Michael had his MRI today. We will get the results in about a week. And tomorrow someone comes to evaluate him for therapy. Hooray, things are happening. I am hoping for more knowledge, more tools to help Michael become who he was sent here to be. I know Heavenly Father created him and that He will help us know how to help him.
Today was a little surreal for me. An MRI isn't really a major event, but when you have to put your baby on anesthesia, it kinda becomes one. It was scary for me. But, he did great. Especially considering he was ready for a nap and really hungry. (they can't have anything but clear liquids six to eight hours before and nothing after 6am) After he woke up and really came to, he snuggled into me. I never wanted to let him go. The paper I had to sign about the small risk of death and other side effects really occupied my mind during the hour and twenty minutes he was away from me. I am grateful to be his mother.
On a very different note - I am curious about everyone's thoughts about Sarah Palin. I have mixed feelings. Let me know what you think.

Smooth Sailing

2008-08-29T20:57:00.000-07:00

Jeremy and I have had seven years of smooth sailing. Nothing ever goes wrong. Take for example last weekend. We have been wanting to go camping for a long time. We bought a tent a couple years ago as a Christmas present to each other. We set it up twice and slept in it once - in our living room. So, for our anniversary we decided it would be a cheap way to celebrate and something we really were excited about. We tried to reserve the perfect campsite, but we ended up with one that sounded good near a place called Mormon Lake. The website showed pictures of the beautiful trees and said there was good trout fishing, etc. Then as we were preparing, we discovered our tent was MIA. We don't have a large place, there are only so many places it could be and it wasn't in any of them. Since we had no tent, we grudgingly decided just to do a day trip. Then day of, Friday, Jeremy surprised me and bought us a new version of our old tent in UT Longhorn colors. (He had no idea, he's colorblind. :) But, he does still have school pride.) We scrambled around to pack up and were careful not to walk on the floors too much, because we had just had the carpets cleaned that morning. I thought it would be easier for it to dry if we weren't around trying to spill things on it. We met Lynne and switched cars, so she would have the carseats and headed off. It was a beautiful drive and we loved the area we camped in. We got there about 8. It is just south of Flagstaff, so it was a bit of a drive. After we got off the freeway and drove to the campsite, we saw an entire herd of deer, complete with babies. We also saw two other small groups of deer. It was so neat. I think I could live near Flagstaff. Beautiful trees, very green and meadows full of wild flowers. We set up camp, built a fire and had hot cocoa and soup. It was great. The next morning, I actually slept in, no little people waking me up. It was heavenly. Jeremy made us breakfast and did the dishes. :) Then we packed up to go explore Mormon Lake, hike and go fishing. As we left the camp site, Lynne's car was acting funny and we discovered it was a flat tire. So, we took everything out of the trunk and changed the tire. The spare was a small donut tire. We decided to still go forward and made it to Mormon Lake Lodge and still couldn't find the Lake. Turns out there is no water in it! It is a beautiful meadow surrounded by trees, but we were expecting some water! The map shows a blue body of water. Oh, well. After exploring the area, a bit, we headed back toward Phoenix hoping we could find a Discount Tire. We stopped for lunch in Sedona, which is beautiful in a completely different way, with red rock and a lower elevation. There was no Discount Tire, so we got back on the freeway toward the next stop on the map. But, the donut couldn't stand the pressure any longer and gave in. We called a tow trunk and a very nice tow trunk driver towed us to Anthem to have the tire changed. While we were waiting on the side of I-17, I wasn't exactly sure where we were - so it took a bit to find us- the glue connecting the bottom of my shoe decided the freeway was too hot and didn't want to hold any longer :). Thankfully, everything worked out. Lynne's tire was under warranty and the Insurance should reimburse for the tow. Even though things didn't exactly go as we planned, Jeremy and I still had a great time together and were glad we went. And especially glad the kids weren't there. That might have put us over the edge right around the second flat tire! :)

Oh, and I didn't think about leaving the fans on or a window open when we left Tucson. So, when we walked in to our house on Sunday night, we were overwhelmed by the smell of near mildewed carpet. I spent most of Monday working on it and it even smells good now - like peaches.

August 18, 2001

2008-08-18T21:00:00.000-07:00

We were married seven years ago. It was such a wonderful day. I remember the ceremony and how happy I was to be there and to give myself to him and take him as my husband. I think I had no idea what I was getting myself into, but I am so glad I did it!

Now, seven years later, I understand what a huge decision we made and I wouldn't change it for the world.

Seven reasons I am glad Jeremy chose to be with me forever:

His love for me is real

He takes care of us and is a strength to our family

He makes me smile everyday

He is a good man with a good heart

Andrew

Jacob

Michael

There are so many more reasons why I am lucky to be his wife. Just wait for the 50th anniversary! :)

Yea, Jeremy!

2008-08-15T09:22:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, Jeremy had an interview to teach two teach classes at Pima Community College. And they hired him! Hooray! He will teach two sections of Screen Acting. We are excited for the experience he will gain and the extra money will be really helpful! We also think that it will look good on his resume to have another class he has taught and a different school. This is good timing, considering he will start applying for jobs for next year in the next couple months. It will be a crazy semester for him, though. He has two weeks of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof left, then will immediately start rehearsals for Loves Labours Lost, then job applications will start being due, etc. He will be co-teaching two classes because the other professor is going on tour for six weeks in the middle of the semester, plus his two classes at U of A and now two classes at PCC. He is going to be busy! But, I am so proud of him. Our anniversary is on Monday - 7 years!

An unofficial official diagnosis

2008-08-14T09:25:00.000-07:00

We were able to get in to see the Pediatric Neurologist yesterday, a few weeks earlier than our original appt. The Dr. says it is pretty likely Michael does have Neurofibromatosis. He has order an MRI and a blood test to check the DNA. The DNA test should be conclusive because they have identified the two genes where the mutations for NF are located. So, now we are waiting for pre-authorization from insurance and we will get this going. It will most likely be almost two months until we know about the DNA. It takes a month to do the DNA test and it will probably take awhile to get the pre-approval. The forward motion though will begin with therapy. I need to contact our insurance to do PT and ECI.
I was hoping the Dr would be able to tell me what to expect. But, this disorder has a huge range of severity. Some people have a benign problem, just cafe au lait spots and small learning disabilities, while others have severe pain and a small percentage have tumors which lead to death. So, he told me we had to just wait and see what life would bring. The not knowing is hard for me. But, I have high hopes for our little Michael. He is such a sweet boy and we love him so much.

Kindergarten

2008-08-11T09:01:00.000-07:00

Today is Andrew's first day of school. When I woke him up, he said "Is this a practice day?" We had been practicing waking up. He likes to sleep in - he is like his Daddy. :) He was so excited last night, he had a hard time sleeping. And this morning he could barely eat his cereal. Everything was all ready and set out last night. He picked out his outfit and his book to share. I wrote out his name tag and set it on the desk. We were ready. This morning the name tag was no where to be found. Which drove me crazy, I wanted everything to go perfect. Jeremy doesn't start teaching again for a couple weeks so, he stayed home with the boys that were still sleeping and I took Andrew to school. Andrew gave Jeremy the biggest hug goodbye and said," I am so excited. It isn't a practice day. I am going to kindergarten!" We only had one practice day, it must have had a big impact! I couldn't get a great picture, because of where the sun was. Oh, well. I drove him to school and I took him inside with all his school supplies. He got a new name tag. :) He put his backpack and dinosaur towel in his cubby with his name on it. Then gave me a hug goodbye. He put his book in the pile and went to sit down on the couch with a different book. He sat down next to one of his classmates - he had down syndrome, maybe that will be Joy someday!- and starting looking at it. I tried to take a picture, but it didn't come out well. He looked nervous when I left him. I didn't expect it to be so hard to leave. I know he will be fine, in fact I think he will do great. He was so excited to come to school and make new friends. But, I cried - not until I was far away from him and he didn't need my brave face anymore. It made me so sad to leave him there looking unsure. I don't know exactly what he'll be doing. I am worried the kids won't be nice to him. I am worried he will fall through the cracks. I am worried the teacher won't like him. I am worried he will be scared in the cafeteria. I am worried he won't learn anything with all the distractions. I am worried he will misbehave. I am worried he will be won't be nice to the other kids. I am worried he won't like his teacher, etc, etc. I know I am silly. I really know that he will be okay. I do. I am one of THOSE moms. I didn't think I would be. Maybe I'll be ready by the time Jacob goes to kindergarten :)

Monsoon Mondays

2008-07-16T14:40:00.000-07:00

This was a post I meant to publish before we left on our cross country trip. I will post on the trip next. :)

We are in the midst of Monsoon season here in Arizona. Crazy, quick storms that dump a ton of rain down in an amazingly short amount of time. It does bring down the heat a little, but also adds the humidity. It is fun to watch the huge drops of rain, but Andrew hates the thunder.
We had a funny day. Andrew and Jacob found a can of sardines in our emergency kit/food storage and really wanted to open it. I made them wait until Jeremy woke up. SO, we all had sardines at ten in the morning. ugh. But, everyone thought they were okay, even Michael. :) We all had a couple bites. I thought it would be just lots of tiny fish, but it was two small fish sans heads and tails. It was in water, so it pretty much just tasted like fish. I was really expecting the boys to be grossed out, but they weren't. They loved the can and wanted more. Not a bad addition of protein to a 72 hour kit or food storage.
Then in the evening we visited the Tucson Children's Musuem for Monsoon Mondays. It just means everyone can get in for a $1 a person. So we spent $4 (Michael was free) instead of $24. Hooray. They all had fun. They had a dinosaur exhibit, which is the reason we HAD to go. I thought it was great, but not great enough for $24. :)
We are all so excited for our trip. We can not wait.
Michael is drinking out of a straw now, so we are hoping that it will be easier for him in the car. You don't have to hold the cup up as much.
Jacob keeps finding things and saying they are his babies. And if he loses them , he starts to cry. Mostly, they are small things like a bouncy ball or rocks, but he is so cute as he takes care of them. I wish he was as soft with his brother as he is with his 'babies'. :)

Michael Duncan Selim

2008-07-09T21:20:00.000-07:00

Our baby is a year old. I can't believe how fast the time has gone. He had a fun party in Phoenix. We got a blow up pool out and the kids had a really fun time. Justina, Taylor, Aiden and Eva had just come into town, so we met Eva for the first time and the boys loved playing with Aiden. The boys love being at Grandma Selim's house and soaking up all the attention. We loved seeing Emily, too. She saved us when the pool we had planned on using had holes in the bottom after we cleaned it all up. :) She is a great Aunt. Our boys are really lucky to have so many people to love them on both sides of our family.

I took Michael to the doctor yesterday and he weighed 22 pounds, 1 ounce. He was 30 and 3/4 inches long. He is our big guy!

2008-06-27T21:53:00.000-07:00

I can't believe June is almost over. It feels like it just started. Yesterday was my love's birthday, he is now 32 years old. He was 24 when we started dating. :) We had to celebrate his birthday on Wednesday, because I spent most of his birthday filming for MDA. We went up to a small lake, complete with fishing license, two fishing poles and worms. We caught nothing. :) Oh, well. It was beautiful up there, much cooler than here and not a cactus in sight. Poor Jeremy just had bad luck - the bobbers ( I don't know how to spell that) kept sinking, the line would get tangled, the reel on one broke and when everything happened to be working, the boys would start throwing rocks in the water, again. I hope we can try again with better luck. Then we came home and had Jeremy's chosen dinner - pizza and hot wings :) I hope he had a good birthday. Last year, he says he spent his birthday alone in a hotel room with a can of spam. So hopefully, this was better. But, how can you really compete with Spam? He was teaching a workshop in Austin and we were in Houston praying that Michael wouldn't come while he was away.
The next day, Jeremy and I both went to work. Thankfully, Lynne came up to celebrate with us and to watch the boys while I filmed. Everyone was really nice and even though they misspelled my name on my VIP name tag - Cindy Selin- I still felt important. It was filmed at the national headquarters of the Muscular Dystrophy Association, so no one can go in without being signed in, given a name tag and escorted by an employee to wherever you need to go. I have no idea why.
But, anyway I learned how easy it is to work with a teleprompter. I always thought that it was right next to the camera and that you had to balance looking at the words and the camera, but it is the camera. The words are right on the lens of the camera. Pretty cool. I will probably never have a need to know that again, you typically don't look straight into the lens. :) This time I only looked straight into the camera for one shot anyway. I had a great time. I felt like a professional. It was a nice feeling. I didn't have to calm any children, change any diapers, etc for six hours and I got paid to pretend I was talking to someone on the phone. :) It was great. If I hadn't almost walked into the men's room, it would have been virtually painless.
One hard thing is it gave me a taste for it all again. I would really love to do more. I hope that other things will come along when I really need a break. Or a new pair of jeans. :) Andrew can go through a pair of pants faster than anyone I know. Only his church pants are without holes in the knees. And not the fashionably ripped jeans, just ones that obviously happened when he fell down. They match all the bruises and scrapes all over his legs. He plays hard! I am not excited for school clothes shopping.
My baby turns one next week. I can not accept that!

Father's Day

2008-06-17T12:58:00.000-07:00

We had a great Father's Day this year. At least, we enjoyed it! I hope Jeremy did. :) Andrew was the event planner this year. He decided we needed to do a Father's Day parade complete with marching band. Andrew played his guitar, Jacob played the recorder and Michael and I were on the drum. We walked in singing, It's a parade, It's a parade, It's a Father's Day parade over and over all while playing our instruments. Jacob was really funny to listen to, as he was trying to blow into the recorder and sing the song. We all had the song stuck in our head all day. Then we presented Jeremy with two fishing rods, one for him and one for the boys. Then we gave him a pair of shoes that matched the boys shoes. They picked all of it out. And total it was $20. Not bad discount shopping! He woke up with a smile, which was sweet. Anyone who knows Jeremy knows he hates to wake up, he loves to sleep in if he can. And then we had pancakes, eggs and bacon, which the boys helped make. Then we all got ready for church and went to church. It was so fun to have the boys so involved and that Jeremy really liked everything. He is really hard to shop for.

I am so glad that Jeremy is the father of my children. He loves then so much and they really love him. Whenever Michael sees him, he gets the biggest smile on his face. He has started to just let go of me and try to jump to Jeremy when we are standing by him. We love you, Jeremy. I am glad that there is a day to honor them. I got to talk to my Daddy and he really likes the fishing pole we all got him. I wish I could have been there to celebrate with him, too. Last year we were there. It is hard to be so far away. Love you so, Daddy.

I would include pictures, but our memory card is acting up and the camera won't read it anymore. Oh, well.

2008-06-04T06:51:00.000-07:00

We have had a great week. Last Wednesday, the boys and I went to a playgroup tour of a fire station. Of course, I forgot my camera. But, we had a great time. They saw the the bedrooms and the four refrigerators and the fire truck! They climbed in, 'drove' the truck and watched how high the ladder went up. On Saturday, we went hiking at the top of Mt. Lemmon with Celia, another Acting Fellow at the UA. It was really beautiful. We had a picnic and the 'trail' led you across the creek several times. We saw a small waterfall and threw plenty of rocks in the creek.

On Monday, I had my first audition here in Tucson. It was for a video teaching the volunteers for the MDA telethon what to do. The MDA headquarters is here in Tucson. It was nice to be auditioning again. I saw the other women there that were auditioning and thought, 'oh, well. At least it will be good for me to get my feet wet again.' They were beautiful and totally different than me. I stumbled a few times in the cold read, but overall I felt fine about it. When I left, I didn't think it was mine. But.... yesterday my agent called and told me I got it! I am really excited. I am thrilled to take a little time away and film something. The money will be nice, but it feels good to be doing something different and using my talents. Too bad it is on Jeremy's birthday.

His show opens in two weeks and he will be performing on his birthday, too.

And - Taylor and Justina has their baby! Yesterday, their little girl, Eva Elle Selim was born. I think she was about six and a half pounds and they are doing well. I will post a picture when I get one. Taylor sounded so happy when I talked to him. Congratulations! When I was talking to Taylor, I told Andrew his cousin was born and he asked," Is she big enough to play with us?"

Now he is going to start asking me for a baby sister again!

Arizona

2008-05-25T14:47:00.000-07:00

We drove up Mt. Lemmon to Rose Canyon Lake. It was really pretty and not a cactus in sight. :) On the drive up there is a very clear dividing line, it must be the higher elevation, but all of a sudden there are no more cactii. There is a cactus forest that is hundreds, maybe thousands of saguaro. They almost look like people (or aliens) marching down the mountain. But, anyway we hiked around the lake and it was so nice to be outside. I loved the smell of the pine trees. Jeremy picked me some wild flowers and had Andrew give them to me. It was so sweet. At the edge of the lake, I was sitting on a rock. He found a big log and brought it over and said, 'There's room for two.' These are small things, but I felt loved. We have been married for almost seven years. It was fun to feel like a couple sitting there looking out over the lake and watching the boys throw rocks in the water. We saw fish and even crawfish. Here they call them crawdads. Jeremy jokingly told me I had to call them that now that we are in Arizona. I think I will always feel like a Texan. Then we stopped on the way down and climbed on these huge rock formations. The boys loved it. I like the picture with Jeremy's shadow in it. I kept trying to take a picture with him and the boys, but he wouldn't let me. He says the shadow counts. :) Oh, and notice my bangs? I needed a change. :)

What a day

2008-05-21T18:35:00.000-07:00

This picture is a little old, but Andrew is reading to Michael all about dinosaurs

Michael is zeroing in on Jacob

The picture is a little blurry, but Michael is attacking me. He loves to grab my hair and pull me.

After bath time - my three cute boys - aren't they huge!

Michael is part of the wrestling action!

Today, I am thankful for:
Resolve carpet cleaner
disposable diapers
little boys
fruit
dentists
antibiotics
Today has been crazy.
I am thankful for all of those things, but I wish they didn't all have something to do with my day today. I woke up with a sick baby. Michael has strep and is on medicine, but he just doesn't feel well. When he was awake today, he really just wanted to be held. He didn't have much of an appetite, poor guy. But, he did still want to play and smiled in between the sad times. I took him to the doctor and he is 21 1/2 lbs without clothes or a diaper and 29 1/2 inches long. He is getting so big.
One of the side effects of the medicine came through today and his diaper totally exploded out every way possible all over the rug. He and the rug needed a bath after. It was the first time I used Resolve carpet cleaner today.
At 9:00, I took Jacob to the dentist. It is a children's dentist, they even have a small mcdonalds style play ground for them to play in and small toys are given when they are done. But he still didn't want his teeth worked on. :) I hate the dentist, too. But, they are very good with him. Poor guy, he was so sad when he was done. They take the child back for part of it without the parent. They say the kids handle it better without Mom standing right there. And they have a one sided window parents can look through to watch what is going on. I wish I could go back and erase all the times I probably let him have too much apple juice. Oh, the mom guilt. But, he is all fixed and goes back for a check up in six months.
I bought some cherries and Andrew asked if he could have some. I told him to wait until after lunch - I was making it right then. We were having spaghetti. He said, 'Okay , Mama, I'll wait'. A little later, I heard the bathroom door close and didn't think much of it. Until I realized that I hadn't heard it reopen. I found Andrew in the bathroom with the bag of cherries. Ugh!
We had a talk about how he could hide from me, but Heavenly Father knows what we are doing and knows when we disobey.
Then after lunch, when he was carrying his plate back to the sink, he dropped it and spaghetti sauce all over the carpet on the way to the kitchen. Why do dining areas have carpet? Resolve carpet cleaner, take two.
He is also learning to read. I bought the book, Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons and he is doing great. Today he read - am, eat, ram, see, rat, at, sat, sam , seed, me, and. Yea, Andrew. I told him today that he was a reader. He said in an astonished voice, "I am a reader?" So cute. It is so fun to be a part of this learning and growing. I am so grateful to be their mother, even when they accidentally smash cherries in the carpet when they are pushing the exersaucer around, which they aren't supposed to play with. Enter Resolve carpet cleaner for the third time in one day. I think I want a house with all tile or wood! :)

Mother's Day Weekend

2008-05-13T20:11:00.000-07:00

On Friday, Andrew's preschool had a program for the end of the year. He was going to sing 'Take Me Out to the Ball Game' with his class. He was so cute practising. He knew all the words and was so excited. I was really excited to see him up there with his class. Then right before we left to go to McDonalds - then the performance, he said, 'Mama, my tummy hurts, I'm sick'. We went to McDonalds anyway, he didn't want to eat - just drank his chocolate milk. Jeremy dropped us off and went to find a parking space. I took him in and helped him get his special shirt and then....
He threw up all over his preschool room. Chocolate milk throw up everywhere. Somehow he did manage to only throw up on the tile. And then he was fine. Happy, not feeling sick. I am not sure, but maybe it was just nerves. Who knows. I asked his teacher if I could stay with him and see if maybe he was okay now and decide later. But they said he needed to go home. I was so mad. I understand that they didn't want to expose the other children, but it felt like no one came in to assess the situation before they decided. I have gotten over it, but I was so sad that we missed that event in his life. It wasn't anyone's fault, but I was still upset.
We left that night for Phoenix and went to spend the weekend with Lynne. Andrew was feeling fine. :) Jeremy and I went to the temple on Saturday morning and it was wonderful. I felt so close to Heavenly Father, like my prayers were so much clearer and closer. We grabbed some lunch at Taco Bell (what a date! we even went through the drive thru) and then took Lynne to get her Mother's Day present. After Jeremy put up the blinds, he took Andrew and Jacob to buy me a present. We had a great dinner and then put the boys to bed.
Mother's Day came bright and early with Michael waking up at five, Jacob at six and Andrew at seven. SO, at seven I asked Jeremy, if I could please sleep in since it was Mother's Day. So, I slept until ten o'clock. It was wonderful. The boys did keep coming in to ask me questions, but I did sleep most of it. :) We went to church at 11- a great time, the boys game me a food processor - Jeremy asked what they liked to do with me and they told him they like to cook with me. So , he took them over to that part of the store and helped them pick something out. They really wanted to give me a red race car and a T Rex Dinosaur. Can you guess who contributed which answers? We had dinner and watched Enchanted. It was a cute movie and fun to watch it with Lynne. Jeremy watched it while he played a computer game, not enough movie to keep him occupied. :) It was a nice day. I am grateful to be a mother to three sweet little boys and to have such a wonderful mother, even if she lives so far away from me.

Summer Time

2008-05-08T07:52:00.000-07:00

Jeremy has finished teaching the classes on his original contract. He still has to administer a final, but otherwise he is done. I can't believe how quickly the time has gone. It has now been almost a year since we left Austin and that doesn't seem possible. But, things seem to have gone well for Jeremy here. They have asked him to teach a class this summer and he was cast in 'Cat on a Hot Tin Roof'. He will perform in June and August. He will teach two classes in fall and assist with a lecture, just like this year. And just recently they asked him him to cover another professor's two classes while he is away touring for five weeks. So, he will teach two of the advanced classes in the BFA. Which he thinks will be good to put on his CV, that he has taught Acting Shakespeare and another Advanced Acting in a great BFA program. So, hopefully all these things will help as he applies for tenure track positions for fall '09.

Andrew is officially enrolled in Whitmore Elementary School. The principal was great and took us on a tour of the school and I think Andrew will do really well there. I am excited for him. He is really ready to go. He is confused why he went back to preschool after we enrolled him.

Jacob is busy sounding out letter sounds every where we go. We went to Old Navy the other day and he sat there sounding out the sign. I think he is ready to be five years old, too. :) I may try to find a two-day preschool for him next year.

I am excited for summer to begin. We have a new niece to be born in June, a family reunion in July and Michael will have a birthday. And who knows what else is in store! Good things to come and very high temperatures! Oh, well - I will focus on the positive.

A long one!

2008-05-04T20:11:00.000-07:00

I don't know if anyone remembers but, the neighborhood school where Andrew is supposed to attend isn't a very good one. The test scores are not good and I haven't heard good things about the teachers and I didn't feel good about the school when I visited. So, I was putting a lot of faith into the open enrollment even though we filled out the form past the deadline. The deadline came before we found we were staying in Tucson. And just the other day, I checked the mail and Andrew was accepted to Whitmore Elementary School! Hooray! He didn't have to take tests or anything, we were just lucky that there was an opening. Funny thing is, I put it as my third choice and I didn't even know why, I just had to have one more and the name stood out to me. Then later, I was talking to a friend at church and she said she loves the school, her daughter goes there. And I heard other great things and it isn't too far from our house - about an 8-10 minute drive. It is a real answer to prayer, I feel like the Lord has His hand in the little details - like a good place for my baby to start school. I have been praying that Andrew would have the right teacher that could help him to grow and progress and give him a exciting beginning to all the years of school. He only has two more weeks of preschool.

My friend, Sarah who I knew from Austin came into town with her mom and sister for a spa weekend. (Mama and sisters - doesn't that sound like fun?) So, I was able to see her and have a fun night catching up and she met Michael for the first time. I was 8 months pregnant when we moved away from each other.

Jeremy and I went on a date for the first time in a long time. As part of his job, Jeremy is expected to attend all the theatre productions. This one was a musical, Urinetown. Thankfully, they give him comp tickets because even with a faculty discount the tickets are 25 dollars. The funny thing is I just found he gets the comps when I called to get the tickets, which means he has paid for four other shows! Oh, well. But, I loved the show. The cast was great, most were seniors ready to head off to NY. It is a really unusual show all about fighting for the right to pee for free. It is really funny. Not inappropriate, just funny. I had a funny experience in Europe when I didn't realize I had to pay and had no money on me, thankfully Daddy walked up right then! It was fun to go out with Jeremy and know the kids would be fine without us. We have some friends now with kids the same ages as Andrew and Jacob. They had a great time, too. We went and grabbed some pizza before the show at a place close to campus called No, Anchovies. It is super casual and doubles as a bar. The artistic director of the Arizona Rep. Theatre took Jeremy and another cast mate there after rehearsal late one night when we first moved here. And they carded him! He is 31 almost 32 years old in June and he thought it was so funny. Ironically he was the one only drinking Dr. Pepper. :) It was nice to hold hands and walk to the theatre together just the two of us.

Validation

2008-04-23T10:10:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I met with an agent here in town. I spent over an hour there and left with a contract to sign and an offer to teach some workshops periodically. It was really good for me! It felt nice to be validated that I was good at something and had some knowledge I could share with others. Tucson doesn't have much of a film market, but I think that will be good. Hopefully, every now and then I can audition and maybe get cast in a few commercials or whatever is around. Just the idea that there is a possibility of something sometime is exciting. I have friends out in LA where auditioning can be a full time job. And I already have one of those! Maybe this way, I can just get a small break from the kids every once in a while to do something to fulfill a different part of me.

The agent suggested I get new headshots - I knew that was coming- because the hair is too long and too blonde and ... it is too sexy. :) I thought that was really funny. I don't really feel sexy, so it was kinda nice to hear it like that. But, she thought the picture would limit me. That there were other opportunities beside the sexy roles.

Another validation - this one sweeter. I bore my testimony in church a couple of weeks ago. Andrew waved to me from his seat and as I came back down the aisle, the boys said really loudly, " You did it, Mama! Good Job, Mama. " It was so cute. I love them so.

Jacob Thomas Selim

2008-04-21T22:07:00.000-07:00

My little man is three years old. We celebrated his birthday with Lynne and Emily when they came down on Saturday. It was a great day. We went to the Zoo and had a train ride. We came home and had a red Lightning McQueen cake and opened presents. Jacob loved all his gifts and wanted to watch all the shows, play the music and play with his blanket and toys at the same time. Then we went to Peter Piper Pizza, ate pizza, rode the carosel (Michael had his first ride, he loved it.) and played games. We came home and Jacob fell asleep on the floor during the first few minutes of a new Thomas the tank engine show. Jacob said he had 'such a fun day'.

I am such a cliche mother, but I couldn't help the flood of memories of the labor and when he was born. I kept remembering the moments just before he was born and how different that life was than where we are now. The labor was pretty quick, we arrived at the hospital at 9 something and he was born just after 11. But, it was hard. Jacob was almost two pounds bigger than Andrew was. There was a moment when I told Jeremy I didn't think I could do it, but I am so glad I did. He is such a special little boy and I am so glad he is ours.

Cake and Trains

2008-04-15T00:01:00.000-07:00

Andrew took this picture
His brain is working
Can you feel the love?

Michael now has seven teeth. And when one has so many teeth, you really need to test out them out. Chocolate cake would be the obvious choice. So, today, I gave Michael his first cake. I figured since Kathie already decided he was more than ready for chocolate (She gave him some of her ice cream in San Diego and now I think she may be his favorite Aunt ) I might as well jump on the bandwagon. He is 9 months old. :) I think most of it ended up on his face. He seemed to like it. Andrew wanted to take some pictures of the experience.
Some of you may not know that Jeremy is a very accomplished builder - of train tracks. Seriously, he creates masterpieces when I am building the figure eight. Once he built Nathan a track in Houston and Mama took a picture of it, so she could put it back together if it was broken. The boys love it and Michael even played with the train cars today.
Michael thinks Jacob is so funny. He will just sit and laugh at him. Sometimes, Jacob will just stand in front of him and jump. And every jump is somehow funnier and funnier. It is so cute.
My Jacob turns 3 on Wednesday. I still can't believe it. So, three random things I love about Jacob:

He has really long eyelashes.

He loves cheese.

He melts my heart when he talks to me. He gets out of trouble all the time after just explaining himself to me. I have a hard time punishing him when I hear the way his cute little mind works.

Bedrooms, Bunkbeds and Blessings

2008-03-31T21:41:00.000-07:00

Jacob was sad, I told him not to touch the letters! Michael loves the rocking chair.

On top of the world!

My boys are growing up. Andrew is now sleeping on the top bed on their bunk bed, which we put back together. Because - we moved Michael into the big boy's room. So, now all my boys share a room. My baby, Michael is big enough to start being a big kid. I think I am babying him, I'm not ready for him to grow up. The fact that he will be 9 months on Thursday just doesn't seem possible. I have been worried about Andrew sleeping on the top bunk since we inherited the bunk beds, but he has no problem at all. Sleeps toward the wall, hasn't given me any heart attacks, yet. We decided to go ahead and put Michael's crib in since we were rearranging and trying to make room for it. Lynne came down to visit us for the weekend, which was so fun. We saw Horton Hears A Who. Lynne always gives up her bedroom for us when we come visit her and we wanted her to have some space without little kids trying to wake her up at various times of night or morning, so we gave her our room. And we slept on the bottom bunk(full or queen sized) with Jacob. He likes to climb in bed with us at least a couple times a week, so he thought it was great. The next night he asked, " Can't we sleep all together, again?" So, we had our whole family in one bedroom. And it wasn't that bad. No one woke up in the middle of the night. Everyone slept well. It really made me realize that things that extra bedrooms are huge blessings. Families all over the world share a home with multiple generations. Families used to live in homes that were one big room. We had some friends, who after grad school, lived in a studio in Manhatten with two small children. We have friends now who live in NY with three children in a 600 sf apartment. There are times I bemoan having to walk outside to do my laundry which is in a little room at the back of the house with only outside access. Then, I remember what a blessing having my own washer and dryer. What a blessing to have a backyard to have to walk through. What a blessing to have a Heavenly Father who loves us so much to bless us with the things we need and some we just really like. We went on a hike at Saguaro National Park today and it was really beautiful. We saw so many cacti and flowers and climbed on rocks and saw birds. Andrew and Jacob are great climbers. I am so grateful for the beauty of our world. Something we didn't need, but He knew would bring joy. I am grateful for The Son of God who came to earth and suffered for our sins and pains and died for us and was resurrected - something we did need.
PS - Break a Leg, Kathie. You are going to do so well on your Orals tomorrow. We love you and our thoughts and prayers are with you.

Spring Break

2008-03-25T16:46:00.000-07:00

We were just having too much fun!

I just love this picture!

Jeremy did his part to ensure they all had fun!

He loved the ocean!

Yea random lego man in our picture!

We had a wonderful Spring Break. It was a little hard to drive away from the ocean and my family. Jacob and Andrew cried, I just wanted to. :) Our week was jam packed with fun activities. Everyone had a great time except maybe Michael, who cut two teeth while we there. Now he has a grand total of five, with two more on the way. Once he got over that and a little cold, complete with green gunk oozing out of his eyes, he was a little happier. We started off with Legoland which was so fun, we decided to add another day. I think it was better than even Disneyland would have been, because the kids could ride on everything. There were only a couple that Jacob couldn't ride on. Thank goodness he was 36" tall or he would have been sad. We played on the beach and almost everyone ended up buried in the sand. Michael stayed under the umbrella most of the time. But he did venture a bit into the sand, :). It was such beautiful weather. I really understand why people would live there. We saw live seals on the beach at La Jolla Cove and then visited the Zoo to see animals in habitats. Andrew, Mandy and Jacob were mesmerized by the monkeys playing together and Andrew loved seeing his preschool Mascot, the Camel. All of the days were so fun, but the best part of the vacation was spending all that time with people we love. We miss being close to my family.

2008-03-14T20:44:00.000-07:00

I am breathing a sigh of relief tonight - the Relief Society Birthday Party is over, the playgroup Easter Egg Hunt went well (I am in charge of playgroup). SO, now all I have to do is get ready for our trip. The RS program went fine, no one threw any tomatoes. I am disappointed, because I wanted it to go perfectly. But, I am really glad I made it through. I forgot the words in the song for half a second, which I am embarrassed about. It could have been so much worse. I am sure I made so many other mistakes, but everyone was really kind and complimentary. It was good for me.
The boys were so cute at the Easter egg hunt. It was a beautiful day here, perfect for running around. The boys helped me stuff the eggs last night before they went to bed. It was fun to work with them. Then, when I woke up this morning, I found Jacob had taken all the candy out of the eggs. :) Thankfully, it was all individually wrapped and he couldn't open any of it.
Michael has a crib sheet with cars, trains, helicopters, etc. all over it. When I was laying him down for his nap, he was so funny. He kept reaching for the sheet and trying to grab the cars on it. He had this serious look on his face as his hands kept closing without the little toy. He reaches for people now. If he is sitting on my lap and one of the boys is next to us, he will reach out and touch them to get their attention. He also has started having conversations with us, usually when we aren't paying attention to him. He will look at someone and just start babbling. I love to hear him.

The end of a season

2008-03-13T10:39:00.000-07:00

I am a little sad. My milk is gone. No more nursing for my Michael. Truthfully, I am surprised that it lasted for eight months. And he wasn't nursing very frequently anyway, because there wasn't much there. But, that still doesn't keep me from wishing things had worked out differently and I never had to use formula. I hope that what little breast milk he did have helped him somewhat.

It is really warm here in Tucson, I think it is 80 degrees today. So, the boys spend a lot of time outside. They have been digging daily in our sandbox that we call a backyard and come in covered in a layer of dirt. It is a so cute until I see the dirt footprints on my pillow or their filthy shoes. :)
We went to the park yesterday and they spent two hours making a lake and river in the sand with a couple of other kids. They just kept filling buckets with water and carrying them over to the sand. It was fun to watch them all play so well together and create something. Yea for buckets and shovels. I am hoping that it will be warm enough in San Diego to get some beach time.

I am doing the program for our Relief Society birthday party tonight and I will be talking about the strength of women past and present and my experience playing a pioneer and ...... singing a song. I am singing a song all by myself. AHHHHH! I will let you know how it goes, hopefully not a repeat of Bob's Farewell! :) I don't think my self esteem could handle it.

Kindergarten Roundup

2008-03-06T18:34:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, Andrew and I attended Kindergarten Roundup! I feel like I need a rope and cowboy hat. What I really needed was two proofs of residency, a shot record and his birth certificate. Who knew? I came ready with only a birth certificate and my cute soon- to- be kindergartner! Oh and his social security card, which did not prove to be helpful. They took the kids on a tour of the classrooms while we were to stay and register our children with the help of the before mentioned items. I was told to come back later. Sigh, what a good start to our school years. Andrew came home to tell Jeremy all about the classrooms and that there were two parks there and was very excited. The kindergarten has it's own play scape - which I think is a good idea. No crazy fifth graders taking over the slide! He vacillates between wanting to stay at Mrs. Tellez's school (his preschool teacher) and going to Kindergarten right now. The visit was not a complete waste - I feel better about Andrew's preparation for school. One of the teachers soothed my fears. :) This picture was of Andrew's first day of preschool. He was seriously thrilled. He looks bigger now to me.

I am really ready for Spring Break to come - we are headed to San Diego. I can't wait. For some reason, I really want to escape. Right now.

Brothers

2008-03-01T07:23:00.000-08:00

Michael is now almost eight months old and is getting big. I picked this picture because you can see his teeth. He has three and two more are coming. He loves sitting up and the new world of toys he has discovered. He is also our little thief - if you are holding something and he is close to you, he will try to grab it. It still surprises me when he does it. The boys think it is so funny, I'm waiting for when they realize he is taking their toy away and not just being cute.

They both just love him so much. I am excited for when he can really play with them, but not yet. I still want him to be a baby!

We have survived another tech week. Jeremy's show previews tomorrow and we are so glad to be out of the rehearsal process. Hooray! And this time our church is earlier, so I don't have to do church alone when he has a matinee on Sunday. When he was doing Bus Stop, I had all three kids by myself at church for a month. I didn't appreciate how much Jeremy does at church until he wasn't there!

We had a really fun weekend in Phoenix last week with Lynne and Emily. They made me feel very loved and the kids loved spending time with them. They never want to leave. We came home with a bookcase and a chair from IKEA. Now we have enough chairs for all the members of our family!

Help!

2008-02-28T06:49:00.000-08:00

I am in need of serious recipe or dinner planning help. I am in a cooking funk. I have no desire to cook and so when I do, it shows! I keep trying and once even Jeremy said, I'm sorry I just can't eat this. I am usually a pretty good cook and I was trying something new and it was just gross. Eggplant and fermented black beans - I should have known that having a fermented main ingredient was not a good sign! Justina posted a recipe and inspired me to ask for help. I am not even pregnant and I am in that nothing sounds good, I don't want to cook phase. Michael, at least is eating baby food so he doesn't have to suffer. Thank you!

My Birthday!

2008-02-21T14:26:00.001-08:00

Well, yesterday I celebrated the day I was born. :) Thanks, Mama and Daddy for helping me to get here! We celebrated yesterday by going to lunch and buying a rug I had my eye on! Thank you to all who contributed - I would have felt guilty buying it, except for the birthday money. :) Andrew is on the new rug in the picture. The boys bought me roses they picked out for me. It was so sweet, they carried them in saying Happy Birthday, Mama with the most excited looks on their faces. I am lucky to be their Mama. Jacob and Michael even slept in until 7 in the morning, which I thought was a wonderful birthday present. We are going to Phoenix this weekend, where we will go to the temple and maybe IKEA for a little shopping! Jeremy is really good about going shopping with me on my birthday and christmas, any other time and he is just miserable. I am beginning to feel like a grown-up. I am even started to notice all the wrinkles around my eyes! But smile lines aren't a bad thing in my book. Maybe now strangers will think I look old enough to be the mother to my three children!

ARIZONA

2008-02-15T15:07:00.000-08:00

Jeremy signed a one-year appointment to teach and perform here in Tucson. And now they have asked him if he would like to stay. After a lot of thought and prayer, we have decided to embrace the heat. Jeremy thinks two years of experience at a great university and hopefully even more experiences here will help him to get the job he would like to have. I am so glad we don't have to move again and deal with all those expenses and transitions. Though, I was hoping to settle down and take advantage of the housing market and get a great deal on a house somewhere! It will still happen, I know the Lord has a plan for us. As I prayed about the job and maybe moving ( I was secretly hoping for a very clear answer that there was a great job for us in ___ )I felt joy and peace. I know that our Heavenly Father loves us and cares about where we are. Even though I was really hoping to move somewhere with green grass and rivers that actually have water in them, Tucson seems to be the place the Lord would like us to be. And I honestly do want to follow His will.

My Andrew will start school here in Tucson. I looked up his neighborhood school and it is underperforming. So, I am now trying to figure if we can get him in another school. They do have applications for open enrollment, but I don't know if the good schools will fill up. Just thinking about putting him in school is overwhelming to me, let alone one that isn't even performing at the right level. Advice anyone?

I experienced an Arizona first - I saw a coyote at the park. Jacob, Michael and I went to the park while Andrew was in preschool. I let Jacob out and unbuckled Michael. After locking the car, I couldn't see Jacob, but I could see a coyote. Apparently, they are all over town. A City of Tucson employee, who just happened to be there, told me not to worry, they are usually afraid of people. But this coyote didn't look very afraid, he kept looking at me with what looked to be a little grin. I was holding Michael - he would make a nice snack at almost 19 lbs! :) Oh and I did shortly locate Jacob, burying his car in the sand.

Happiness

2008-02-07T13:31:00.000-08:00

Happiness is finding a pencil. Pizza with sausage. Telling the time. Happiness is learning to whistle. Tying your shoe for the very first time. Happiness is playing the drums in your own school band and happiness is walking hand in hand.

Happiness is two kinds of ice cream. Knowing a secret. Climbing a tree. Happiness is five different crayons. catching a firefly. Setting it free. Happiness is being alone every now and then and happiness is coming home again. Happiness is morning and evening, day time and night time too. For happiness is anyone and anything at all that's loved by you. Happiness is having a sister. Sharing a sandwich. Getting along.

Happiness is singing together when day is through, and happiness is those who sing with you. Happiness is morning and evening, daytime and nighttime too. For happiness is anyone and anything at all that's loved by you.

I love this song. The little blessings that make me smile, the big things I often take for granted. What is happiness to you? A child growing inside you, a new home? These things are not happening to me right now, they are friend's joys - just so you didn't see this as an announcement! :)

Happiness is three little smiles, a loving husband and our families. Happiness is learning the gospel, feeling the love of my Heavenly Father. Happiness is ..... what do you think?

New Things

2008-02-06T09:48:00.000-08:00

We have had an eventful last ten days or so. So many new things in a short amount of time.

Starting off...

For the first time, I picked up a sick child from school.

Andrew was diagnosed with Scarlet Fever. A disease of Helen Keller and Little Women proportions! Thankfully, with pink liquid antibiotics, that tasted like strawberries, Andrew is better and back in school. Amazingly, no one else in our family contracted the disease, which is highly contagious. The doctor had me scared, visions of hospitals visits. The other day after his bath, he asked me to carry him. I told him, No. He said, "But, I can't carry myself!" I thought it was really funny.

Michael is starting to sit. He can sit for about 5 seconds by himself. :) Little by little....

He is 7 months old and weighs 18 lbs, 12 ounces and is high in the percentiles! He is wearing clothes now that Andrew wore when he was walking, which was a couple months after his birthday. We even had to change him to a bigger car seat. He was uncomfortable in it and it was just too hard to carry him and it. I even bought a sling to carry him in, which I love and never thought I would. So, even though a infant car seat says you can keep them in it until 25 lbs, no way. Which takes me to...

Jacob now has a big boy booster. It is a little early, he weighs 29 lbs, not thirty. But, we went ahead anyway. We put Michael in Jacob's old car seat and now Jacob gets a new one. A rarity for a second child. Plus, it was much cheaper to buy Jacob a booster, than Michael a new convertible car seat. He was a little sad to give up his seat. He said, ' I want to stay little'.

Another new thing, terrible twos, which I am sure will blend into the terrible threes - his birthday is in a couple months. He has learned how to throw serious fits, how to mantipulate - Mommy, I'm scared!, he even is yelling at me and tried to hit me. All new. He has always been stubborn, but oh boy howdy! (A little Texas for you, I miss it) He also enjoys taking off his pants and says he needs to race naked. make any sense? He revs his engine, kicks his right foot backward and takes off. It would be funny, if he would listen to me eventually and put his underwear back on. He is still a sweet boy who says he will get me Roses and five cherries for my birthday, because he knows I will like it and I will be happy. When he hears Michael crying, he says Mama, I will give him a kiss and sing Twinkle, twinkle. That would make anything better! Sweet words from my sweet, first born in the wilderness(like Lehi and Sariah). :)

We have now lived in Arizona for six months and yesterday, something I never expected happened. We walked through the hail to our car and our windshield was completely frozen over. I had to scrape ice off my car in Tucson! One of the doors wouldn't even open until it defrosted a little. I know that a little ice is nothing for most of you, but this is Arizona!

There are more, but this post is already too long!

Married to an actor!

2008-01-30T08:38:00.000-08:00

There are some challenging things about being married to an actor. One hard one right now is transitioning back to rehearsal mode. No more Daddy at night time. The boys have a hard time when we tell them Daddy has to go to the play, why they can't go 'play' with him. It sure sounds like fun! So, we now say he has to go to work, which is true. It is really hard work. Thankfully, as an actor myself ( I still consider myself one, even if I have no proof at the moment ) I knew what I was getting myself into! The drive, passion or need that some actor's feel is really hard to describe to someone who has never felt it. Also, I feel very blessed to know that this is the field Heavenly Father wants Jeremy (and maybe me, someday again) in. And that helps make all the instability a little easier to handle. I said, a little easier! :)

There are also some really fun parts like getting to see his work. Every time I see my sweet husband perform, I am reminded of the talents Heavenly Father has given him and that they were meant to be used and not buried or lost. Not many wives get to see or experience their husbands jobs. My Dad could show us some programming he did, but it isn't quite the same. Even if we saw it, we wouldn't understand it! Just the other night, Jeremy found a trailer to Alpha Black Zero, a computer game he did some voice over work for. He was the voice of the main Marine and did some other character accents. We had a good laugh as we listened and found they had used Jeremy's Wolfgang Puck voice as one of the generals. It was great, Wolfgang Puck and tough military man all in the same trailer. What a man! Right now, he is working on a production of Titus Andronicus, one of Shakespeare's bloodiest and violent plays.

I think it may be one of the first times I won't see a play he is in. Jeremy says it is really graphic and that I would have a hard time watching it. Titus' daughter is raped and has her tounge and hands cut off, Titus also loses a hand, several other people die and Titus kills the men that did that to his daughter and then feeds them to their mother. I might have some issues.

How to camp with children

2008-01-20T12:51:00.000-08:00

Our family loves to be outside. Jeremy and I spent our honeymoon in a cabin by a river in Colorado. But, we have never been camping. Jeremy wants to really go camping, meaning pack everything and backpack in, camp, then carry everything back out. So, the idea of carrying children and everything in seems a little too much. Plus, who wants to carry out dirty diapers?I keep trying to convince him to go car camping, but it hasn't worked yet. Last Christmas, we bought a tent as our gift to each other. We set it up once by the front pond on the farm, but didn't sleep in it. So, after we came home from Phoenix after Christmas, we decided to go camping during Jeremy's last few days of vacation. The boys helped set up the tent. They especially liked going in and out through the little doggy door. Jeremy cooked for us with his new camping pot set on the propane burner. We had hot chocolate and roasted marshmallows for s'mores. Most of which Jeremy and I ate, Andrew and Jacob didn't like how sticky they were. And for some reason, Michael just wasn't into trying new things. :) The boys loved it. Our tent was big enough for them to run around in.

Did I mention we did all this in our living room? We had to move our couch to set up the set. But, it was great. Michael slept in his crib and the rest of us slept in the tent. We 'camped' for two days and when we took the tent down, Andrew almost cried. We had to set up the tepee they got for Christmas in their bedroom. I took a couple of pictures, Jeremy asleep and Michael hanging out with Andrew's bunny and Jacob with the tent. One day we will actually use our tent outdoors, but for now I am glad we were able to get a little taste of camping.

Mama - no longer!

2008-01-16T21:35:00.000-08:00

Jacob has started calling me Mom. Every once in a while he would call Jeremy, Dad, but mostly we are Mama and Daddy. And all day today, I never heard a Mama from him, only MOM. I don't know why it is weird for me, but it sounds so strange coming from my two year old. He will be three in three months, but he is not allowed to grow up yet. I am so far from ready for that. I still call my parents Mama and Daddy. I remember a time (I think I was a teenager), when I had to decide if I would continue to call them that or switch to Mom and Dad. And it is silly, but I couldn't do it. It felt like I was trying to be something I wasn't or trying to change the relationship that had been established. I can't call my Mom, Mommy, but she is Mama. All my siblings still call her that. My brother went on his mission as Bobby. While he was there, he let us all know he was now Bob. It was hard to change, the only Bob in my life was the grandfather I never knew. But now when I think of my brother, I think of him as Bob.

What do you call your parents? Did it ever change?

As my children are growing up, I have conflicting emotions. Three years old feels so much older than two. I was fine with Jacob turning two, but I am not ready for three. We have lived in Tucson since August and not that long ago - I can't remember exactly when - Jacob could not turn on or off his bedroom light. Now he can, no problem. He has grown up and I didn't see it. One day he couldn't - now he can. Is it harder to accept your second child growing up?

Six Things You Don't Know About Me (Maybe)

2008-01-13T08:49:00.000-08:00

I was tagged, thanks Justina!

I had a hard time with this, I feel like I am pretty open. So, if you already know all these things about me, I'm sorry.

1. I have to mentally fight myself not to buy all the die cast 'Cars' characters that my children do not have. This is very unlike me. I am not an impulse buyer - mostly because I do not have the luxury of doing so. :) I really wanted 'the boys' to have Luigi and Guido, I think they are my favorite characters in the movie, which by the way we still watch on a regular basis. And I think if I had ever seen them in a store, I might have given in. Thankfully, my wonderful mother in law gave them to the boys for Christmas.

2. I really wish I could sing. Sometimes, I ache to be able to express myself like only music can. I did do a musical right before Jeremy and I were married, but I was the only character without a solo. :) I sang only one line all by myself - 'Playing the drums in your own school band' from Happiness in You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown. But, I am also terrified to sing alone. Everyone in my Musical Scene Study at BYU had to suffer through all my nerves during the required solos. It could stem from when the whole congregation laughed at me when I sang at my brother's farewell. (My little sister was standing next to me while I sang, making faces at my voice. I was a last minute stand in, when my other sister, Kathie lost her voice and couldn't sing her verse) After the resurrection, maybe that part of me will be made whole! But for now, my kids like to sing with me - especially Jacob, he's our little singer.

3. I might go back to school, someday. I am currently toying with the idea, when Jeremy is a professor somewhere and the kids are a little older, I might take a few classes at a time and get a Master's. Most universities offer low tuition or free tuition to faculty members and their families, so we wouldn't have to pay for it or at least not near as much. Then, maybe I could teach a class at a community college when I am done. Who knows if it will happen, but it is fun to think about it.

4. I had surgery on my sternum when I was 11 or 12. (12, I think) So, I have this scar that extends from a few inches below my armpit across to the other side. The doctor said the scar would most likely be hidden under a bikini, so I didn't need to worry. I have never tested it. :)

5. I am scared to ever have another baby. For a couple of reasons - First, it might be another boy. And while I love even adore my three little men, I think I might cry for a while if another ultrasound finding 'boy parts', as the doctors call it, dashes my hopes for tea parties and hair bows and mother/daughter dates. Secondly, the events around Michael's delivery were really hard on me. I know people have been through much worse, namely three members of my family, but it was hard and never really want to go back to a hospital. And really the worst part had nothing to do with the labor, even though pushing out an almost 9 lb baby was hard, especially with a high fever.

6. jhjjmjjmmjmjjhhkrjuhgyiuyyuututiy andrew selim jjacobbjjjjjjjjj - this was andrew and jacob's contribution to the blog.

Jeremy and I have been married for 6 and a half years and have had 8 different addresses. We have lived in three different states and seven cities. Even though three of those cities were provo, orem and bluffdale - all very close together. I am very tired of doing address changes with the post office, let alone all the moving and packing. I am really hoping that very soon that will change and we can settle somewhere and find a home and a ward that will be ours for good, or at least for a long period of time.

There it is. Fun for me to think of all these. I tag Mama, Alexa and Shelly.

Michael - a journey!

2008-01-08T10:13:00.000-08:00

I decided that since most of you have missed the last few months of Michael's life, I would update you. At every major or even minor :) milestone I want everyone to be around to see him grow or change. So, today as he had his first taste of baby food - I went with sweet potatoes this time around, he seemed to really like them - I thought I would catch you up. He has changed so much! He used to have so much hair!

On another note, I have discovered a new reason to help your children to avoid cavities. The obvious one is to have healthy teeth, the second is what happens when you have a cavity filled. Andrew had a cavity filled on monday and the dentist said he was excellent. I was a little worried for him, I hate getting shots in my mouth! So, his lip was numb for a little while after. We told him to be careful, but he still didn't feel himself biting his lip. It looked terrible and now looks even worse! It is so swollen, it is the biggest fat lip ever with the addition of gross white layer on top. It hurts me to look at it. And even worse, I can't do much to help it. A little tylenol to help with pain.

We have succumbed!

2008-01-06T20:19:00.000-08:00

We have finally joined the world of blogging. We think this will be a great way to stay in touch and a shameless way to showcase our cute children!

We had a wonderful Christmas and New Year in Phoenix with the rest of the Selim's. The boys cashed in on all things Cars and decided to store them all in their new tent.

We were able to spend lots of fun time with Lynne, Emily, Taylor, Justina and Aiden. We went hiking to a waterfall just outside of Phoenix which seemed to be missing the water :), went bowling, visited the railroad park in Scottsdale, went to the Mesa temple, lots of last minute and after Christmas shopping(me) and computer games (Jeremy and the boys), and raided Grandma's stash of Disney Movies - Snow White is the reigning champion.

We are happy to be back home and Jeremy still has a bit of vacation before he heads back to work. Before we headed off to Phoenix, Jeremy decided to make a little movie with the boys. We think they did a great job and that they are even cuter in real life.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CuSxZxawiM So, check them out!