My first appointment

I had my first appointment yesterday, and the due date was officially set after they measured the size of the baby.  March 19th!  Here we come!  Molly and Garrett are both excited(well Molly will be excited if it is a girl) and Garrett just keeps lifting up his shirt asking me to feel the baby in his tummy.  As I saw the little one inside of me all comfy and cozy, legs a movin, and heart beating strong, I was reminded of the miracle.  This little life growing inside of me, preparing to join our family, with no idea of what is really in store.  I feel great gratitude, and great responsibility.  Both sometimes overwhelm me, and it reminds me of Elder Ballards counsel: "Pray, study, and teach the gospel.  Pray deeply about your children and about your role as a mother.  Parents can offer a unique and wonderful kind of prayer because they are praying to the Eternal Parent of us all.  There is great power in a prayer that essentially says, "We are steward-parents over Thy children, Father; please help us to raise them as Thou wouldst want them raised."   He also says that the "joy of Motherhood comes in moments" and this little moment at the doctor's office is one of those "moments."  It is also one of the only moments you get in the first trimester.  So as He sends us another one of His little ones, and as much as I pray to be strong during this nausea, I pray more deeply to be a good parent.  

Garrett and his Mom...

Garrett and I have had a lot of quality time together since Molly has started school.  Yesterday we went to the beach and he laid on this board until a wave would get kind of close and then he would hurry and stand up.  I am still not sure if he has watched the surfers enough and he wants to try to "pop up" so he can surf, or if he is just scared of the wave.  One finally took him and he "surfed" until he fell down.  I had to take a pic of him b/c he was SO patient as he waited 10-15 minutes for the tide to come in.  The other highlight of Garrett right now, is he is saying these really long prayers(he says thanks for all the stuff he sees in the room...mom's blankent, the hot dog, the fork, Mollsy,  etc...")  So after an especially thoughtful prayer, we all said "AMEN" with a little flair.  He responded to that by taking a bow.  Yes, a bow, a very deep bow.  A flair for the dramatic, this kid.

First Day of Kindergarten

Hopefully you can just feel the excitement emanating from the picture.  She has loved it so far.  Best quotes have been, "We had to get in a LOT of lines Mom."  "I didn't even go to the bathroom, so I didn't have to worry about doing my button."  "I can walk in all by myself Mom, I can do it."  "Garrett, did you miss your Mollsy?"  

She has had a great time so far, and the only part that got to me was watching her "go and be a big girl"  They have these gates they walk in and then you can see them walk to their classroom.  You saw her walk down the walkway and you knew that she was just trying to recognize which class was hers.  She almost passed it, then stopped, looked, and hung up her backpack.  Yes, only a mom can sit and watch her kid from afar and think it is interesting, but she was just so darn cute.  She is our little champ, and we are proud of her.

My Mom and Dad

I ran into a post the other day that was praising my mom when my mom was her young women's leader.  And I thought, why is someone else posting about my mother and I haven't even done it?  So this is my ode to my mom and dad.  They have had quite a year.  They gave one of the best talks on marriage as an equal partnership that I have ever heard(and I am very unbiased right?) at Women's Conference this year.  Audio can be found here and the PDF, here.  They also wrote a book together, visit Amazon to view here.  I have always loved them and thought they were wonderful, but as a kid I just didn't "get it."  They are so incredible and I just thought everyone was like my mom and dad.  As I am reading their new book, I realized it isn't a book just for "teachers and students"  it is for me as a parent.  This is what they did for us when we were kids. I am so excited to be a "teacher" to my kids and help them develop into the kind of "learner" that will find great joy in this life.  So this day, I am grateful for parents.  I was blessed with goodly parents who have loved, supported, and more importantly taught me.  I love them.  Thanks mom and dad.

A UKE and Popeye Eggs in the "Edge" Pan

So this birthday was great his year.  For some reason, lots of people remembered...which is odd for my birthday.  Usually I get a couple of emails or calls....but this year was my lucky year I guess, lots of people stopped by, flowers, cards, and calls.(Really, this never happens, I don't want to sound like a whiner, cause I really have never thought about it in the past, but it was just kind of a lot more than normal this year...and well...it was kind of fun and unexpected).  Then, to top that off, Sam went over the top this year with his gift and will never be able to beat it.  He got me a Ukulele.  He gave it to me early so I could take it to girls camp.  I had it strapped to my back the whole time. :-)  How cool is that?  Okay, YOU may not think this is cool, but trust me it is.  Okay, maybe it isn't THAT cool, but it is really fun.  The Young Women ate it up, and were making up many a tune by the end of camp, and Uke sales skyrocketed in the southern california region. :-) This gift is thoughtful for many reasons for me, but one is that my mom and grandma played, and if I can be like them in ANY way, I am the better for it.  The other gift I received was an "EDGE" brownie pan.  You can see by the picture how it is shaped.  Well...I love brownie edges...but I tried it first with popeye eggs(german pancakes).  It was the best thing ever.  Every piece was  good piece.  No poor unsuspecting soul had to take the middle piece.  Everyone got the yummy edge.  It probably isn't a good thing when food makes you happy, but this made me REALLY happy(this also would've resolved a lot of disputes in the Osgu home growing up).  So with my "bejeweled" crown that Molly made me it was a great day.  On a more serious note, as every year passes, I realize how blessed I am. Good times.

What a month!

It has been quite a memorable past few weeks.  Molly has learned to swim...after a little coaxing(I think at one point I offered her ten million dollars to get her to just put her face in the water).  But after a little practice, bribery and her getting a little courage, she did it.  She won't come up for a breath though, and she just swims across the pool in one breath...hopefully she isn't damaging her lungs.  She has also learned to read and "sound out" stuff.  She is proud of both her new skills and wants to practice them constantly.  Garrett has learned to use the potty!  Which is obviously fantastic for all of us.  He is super cute about it and loves his little underoos.  The best story from his potty training days has been when he had a little accident in his "Lightning McQueen" underoos.  I asked him, "When we need to go potty, what do we say to Mommy?"  He just looked at me with his big blue eyes, looked down at his underoos, and said, "Sowwy Wightning McQueen, Sowwy"   It has been a month of "firsts" and it has been a lot of fun.  These are fun ages to have the kids at.  I had a friend say once..."I wish they would just stay this age forever"  There are days when I think that...but there are other days when I wouldn't mind if they were a little more grown up. :-) 

What a fun week!

We started off the week with a visit from Sam's brother Peter.  He was in town for work, and you would think that he was Santa Claus with how the kids followed him around.  We had  a great time. (which I still think back to that picture and can't stop thinking about how cool these little birds were that would fly around the lagoon, and then just stop mid air and take full speed nose dive into the water...it was crazy)  ANYWAYS...:-)...Sam and I got to spend the whole weekend together while my sister took the kids.  We had so much fun...golfing, Sea World at night, Sam taught me to surf, shopping(amazing how easy this is without kids), then we took in a Padres game Saturday night.  Thanks Em and Tom!  Not, that I needed reminding, but it did make me remember how cool my husband is.  Then I topped it off on Sunday with a drive up to LA to see Thorn(who was in town playing the Sparks) and Caroline, another old teammate.  It was so fun to get together.  It was all capped off by these jerseys(or Jazzies as Molly called them) that Thorn got for them.  They have to have them on at all times and they are getting pretty dirty.  :-)  But when you gotta wear your Jazzy, you gotta wear it.  :-)