It's a girl!

It's official! Jake was right and I am done having babies! Say hello to Raena Marie Ward! She's very pleased to meet you, I'm sure. Jake is so excited to see pictures. He likes to look at the video clips over and over again and comments all the time how cute his baby is. I'm so glad he's happy!

Feasting on the words of Christ

I just got called to be the Gospel Doctrine teacher in our ward (evidently there are slim pickings for teachers) and was considering buying new scriptures to help me out. I bought new ones just after Joe left on his mission about 8 years ago, and there really isn't anything wrong with mine, I just thought it might be nice. Since I don't really need them I decided to just use the ones I have. Yesterday I heard an unpleasant ripping sound. My baby has become obsessed with paper and loves to tear things, so I was rushing toward the sound thinking, "Ugh! What has he gotten into now?" The little stink had pulled himself up to my nightstand and tugged my quad onto the floor. When I caught him he was serenely chewing Alma 32.
Alma 32:28:
28 Now, we will compare the word unto a seed. Now, if ye give place, that a seed may be planted in your heart, behold, if it be a true seed, or a good seed, if ye do not cast it out by your unbelief, that ye will resist the Spirit of the Lord, behold, it will begin to swell within your breasts; and when you feel these swelling motions, ye will begin to say within yourselves—It must needs be that this is a good seed, or that the word is good, for it beginneth to enlarge my soul; yea, it beginneth to enlighten my understanding, yea, it beginneth to be delicious to me.

So now I need new scriptures, because my baby has been feasting on the words of Christ.

A clean, though snotty, bill of health!

Kory had a follow-up with the neurologist today. In case you don't remember, his old neurologist was fired a few months ago, so this was our first meeting with her replacement. I was kind of nervous that he would want more test (which are awful) and find more things for me to worry about. What happened instead is such a blessing. He said he has looked over both our EEG's and also sent them out to be anyalyzed elsewhere and everyone is in agreement: the EEG's are perfectly normal. Since he has had no seizures in months and is in every other way normal and healthy, we can conclude that whatever was wrong was likely episodal and, barring any further incident, we can assume he is perfectly normal and healthy. So allow me to say YAY!!!!!!! My baby is the snottiest kid you will meet (by which I mean he has a lot of mucus, not an attitude problem) but he is just fine. Thank you so much to everyone who offered their concern, their help and thier prayers. It means so much to us. I have to say that I am so grateful for the comfort and guidance of the Spirit. There isn't anything worse than the feeling of total helplessness and uselessness that comes when your child is sick. I couldn't have dealt with any of this at all if not for the calming reassurances of the Spirit and constant love of my Saviour. Even when I'm not sure how worthy I am of His love and help, I know with a surety that He loves my children, and He will make me everything they need as long as I earnestly seek His help.

Binkies

Kory was never a big fan of the binky. Jake used his till he was 18 months. Kory gave his up at around 6. So you can imagine my confusion when all of a sudden this afternoon, everywhere I looked, there were binkies! Kory took no notice, Jake started trying to give them to Kory, and they continued to appear as if from nowhere! In vain I sought the source of binkies, thinking perhaps a toy box or hidden laundry stores were the culprit. The mystery was beyond my grasp. I went into Kory's room to put some clothes away and caught my puppy worming out from underneat Kory's crib with, you guessed it, a binky in her mouth. The little scamp had been scavenging under the crib and finding all the binkies I had resigned to their dusty fate. So thanks to an adventurous cocker spaniel, it is Binkypalooza at my house.

Pictures

Hey look! Some pictures!


Kory and the Kory for whom he was named! Kory Peterson was Joe's trainer on his mission. He's a great guy and we love him a lot!
Jake is washing his puppy. What else can I say?

It's not fair to all the other people how cute my baby is.

This is their favorite thing to do together. Tubby time is the funnest time at our house!

Good news, and...its not bad news but I'm not all that pleased to be perfectly honest.

I've been told by several people that I am in big trouble for not giving an update on Kory's condition. He hasn't had any full seizures for months now. We were supposed to go in for a follow-up in January, but they called me the day before my appointment and told me they had fired my neurologist! So now we have to wait till March to see what else is going on. We may have an MRI then, but that's not at all certain. I think that, given his lack of problems since and his normal development, we're going to continue with the "wait and see" course of non-action. I'm ok with this. I harldy think about it at all anymore, which is nice because though I tried to be ok, I really wasn't a lot of the time.
Since the freezer incident I have learned that its really is just one thing after another. I had planned to keep the following news private for a long while, but it turns out our parents didn't understand that memo, so I might as well tell you: we're pregnant again. Kory and the new baby will be 18 months apart. I did not do this on purpose. I'm really not that girl. That's why Gwen thinks its so funny (so boo on her ;@ ). I am trying to be excited, but I'm not going to lie; I'm pretty bummed. I'm way to tired to deal with this. And I really like to enjoy my babies, and now I'm not going to get to do that with Kory as much. I'm sure it will be ok, but I'm a little overwhelmed at the moment. I just hope its a girl so I don't have to have any more babies!

So, update

Things have been crazy around here lately. Both my kids have been pretty sick, my electric breaker is broken in some way so that my deep freeze hasn't worked for a couple of weeks, at least. I didn't know it was broken. I found out when I discovered half a side of beef rotting in there. Imagine the worst thing you have ever smelled and multiply it by twelve. I can't begin to describe how disgusted I am.
Kerry has decided we could make a lot of easy money by selling newborn calves. He had me put an ad in the Thrifty Nickel, and asked me to take the calls. My phone rings off the hook! I was shocked at how many people want baby calves! We sold 60 calves in 3 days. Can you believe that? I do wish I didn't know so much about calves now.
Jacob is a new Sunbeam. I tried to get him all psyched up for it, excited and ready for the change. I failed. He hates it. Bad. He cries and cries and tells me, "I don't like this place! I can't do it Mom!" Last week they let him say the opening prayer (so he could talk into the coveted microphone) and then, since he turns 4 on Friday, they sang happy birthday and gave him a sticker. He was a little better after that, although I'm told he was not at all interested in Sharing Time, and had to be given crayons and paper to be happy. I don't know what to do about that.
Kory is really mobile now. He really wants to play with Jake, but Jake is officially irritated by his baby brother. He tells him, "Go away Kory! It's not your turn!" Then Kory cries and Jake feels bad and caves. That baby knows what he's doing.