Benefit Golf Tournament

This coming Saturday Jon will be participating in a benefit golf tournament. Last March, my sister-in-law's Mother, Margaret Manning, was diagnosed with Mantle Cell Lymphoma, which is a rare and aggressive cancer. She began receiving treatment in April from the Burzynski Clinic in Houston, Texas. She is currently showing great improvements. However, not all of her medications are covered by her insurance and she needs to remain on them until at least March. My brother has organized a golf tournament to raise funds for the $36, 000 that they still need in order to pay for her medication.

I would deeply appreciate any help that you could give in sponsoring Jon in this tournament. He will be playing (or more likely struggling through) 18-holes and our goal is to raise $56/hole. If at all possible, we are looking for pledges of $1-$10 per hole (or more). Jon and I are covering the costs of the tournament, so all donations made will go directly to Margaret's recovery.

The donation process is really easy. You can make a donation online, through a non-profit organization called Positive Impact, by clicking here. Be sure to specify Margaret Manning as the recipient. Or, if you prefer, you can always make a check out to Positive Impact, with Margaret Manning in the memo line and mail it to: Positive Impact; PO Box 8048; Chandler AZ 85246.

And if you'd like to help out, but feel that $18 or more is a little too much for you right now, then please donate whatever you feel comfortable with. Even $5 would be a great help! Thank you so much! Your donation is truly a great blessing to me and my family.

Veteran's Day

Since Savannah didn't have school on Veteran's Day, we thought that we'd try to have a little fun. We took a little trip to the dairy farm that's just around the corner. We had a lot of fun, but man did it get hot pretty quickly! And I thought that it was November. I guess that that doesn't really mean too much here in the valley. We invited both sides of the family to tag along with us and got a small turn out from each. Here's a shot of all of the kids up in one of the tractors. Melanie liked climbing around on some of the tires that they had set up. Of course, Spencer loved that too, mostly because we let him out of the stroller. Here is all of us waiting to go on a little hayride, which is also a tour of the dairy. We were lucky to get both Grandmas to come with us! Here is my mom and the girls, once we finally got on the hayride. We enjoyed seeing all of the cows and learning lots about them. They have about 1000 cows at the dairy. Did you know that each cow gets 4 showers a day? They are given 2 showers before each milking, and they are milked twice a day. The thought may have crossed my mind that those cows were usually cleaner than my kids, but then again, we get a good whiff of them every once in a while over at our house, and they don't smell too clean then. We even got to see 2 little calves that had been born that day. Pretty amazing. The kids all loved feeding and petting some of the other animals. The girls really wanted to pet one of the sheep, but it was much more shy and so we had to settle for the goats. Melanie's favorite was petting the bunny. It just sat so still and let everyone touch it. That's definitely Melanie's kind of animal. To finish up Savannah got her face painted, a unicorn. And of course, we all got free milk. We had fun, despite the heat and the crowd. And hopefully we can go back to the farm some time when Daddy can come too.

Missionaries

My sister is currently serving a mission in the Tacoma Washington Mission. We always try to remember her in our prayers and the girls like to send her little emails and cards. I'm not sure what sparked it, but one day last week Savannah decided to make name tags for her and Melanie. They taped them on and then came running out and announced: We're Missionaries! I thought that they were just too cute.

The completed project

After lots of hours of manual labor, Jon did get Savannah's bed refinished. He completed it a little while ago, but it wasn't until this weekend that we got all of the bedding out and made it official. My mom gave us matching bedding for both Melanie and Savannah's beds that used to belong to my younger sisters. It's still in really good condition and of course the girls think that it's fabulous because it's new to them. It also took us most of the week to get the girls' room clean, so we were very proud of our final project. I think that Savannah's bed turned out great. She loves that she has a bed skirt and flat sheet, just like Mom and Dad's bed. Of course, she also likes the little decorative throw pillows too. Melanie really wants Daddy to get to work on her bed, so she can match Savannah. But she's happy with the throw pillows for now. We even got matching curtains to hang in the room. Those hadn't even been taken out of their packaging. Savannah was very excited that I let her help me iron them. And I think that they added just the right touch to the room. Now I just need to convince Savannah to leave them alone. She keeps taking the cute button ties off and letting the curtains just hang straight down. Silly little girl. But she was so proud of her new bed. Her and Melanie fell asleep in it together last night, and then Savannah was so excited to make her bed like a big girl, complete with pillows, this morning. I just hope that lasts.

Inquiring Minds Want to Know

For those of you that have been dying to know how I've been feeling, well here it is.

Mostly, I've been tired. Melanie is such a little angel to just sit and look at books or color or watch a movie and let me nap. Rarely has she actually joined me, but she always lets me sleep and I don't have to worry that she's getting into trouble. Unfortunately, I've been so tired by 9:30 that I've fallen asleep while the kids watch cartoons. However, Spencer is not so nice to me while I'm napping and is usually trying to wake me up during those times.

I'm also starting to feel a little bigger. None of my regular pants fit comfortably, so I don't even bother wearing them. I drug my box of maternity clothes down. Luckily I organized it very nicely last time and was able to just grab a few pairs of pants off the top and so they are keeping me happy for now. I really do dread when I have to make the full switch to maternity clothing. Although it is fun to see some of my old clothes again that I haven't worn in a while.

Nausea is never fun, but has always been a part of my pregnant life. I have felt very blessed to not toss my cookies everyday or even close this time. I have had a number of very miserable points, mostly every evening. But I have actually been able to think of things that I would be willing to eat, lots of refried beans this time, and then keep it down. So far, I've only lost it 3 times, which is a great record for me. I used to be happy if I only lost it 3 times each week, but I'll take 3 times in total for this time around. Since I am now at 13 weeks, I'm hoping that the nausea ends soon. I know that Jon hopes so too, so he doesn't have to stay up and do the dishes every night. But I love him dearly for it and it really has helped me keep it together in the morning.

The girls are excited for a baby. Savannah says she wants it to be a boy, because she loves Spencer. Melanie was insistent that it is a girl and wouldn't let me talk of the possibility of having a boy; however, after listening to Savannah talk about having a boy a few times, I think that Melanie may have been won over to the boy vote. As for me, I'd love to have another boy so that Spencer could have another little guy to play with. He's only a year and a half and he's already rougher and tougher than Melanie by far! I think that he tackles/clobbers her at least once, if not more, on a daily basis. Of course, we'd all take a little girl in a heartbeat! You can never turn down a little sweet thing! Savannah is already asking if the baby is kicking and if she can feel it. I informed her that she's going to have to wait a while longer for that.

So that is the low-down on us. We're managing and hanging in there, some days better than others, but we're all still alive. Thanks for all of the love and concern!

It speaks for itself...

I know that many of you know already. But the date is May 31st for those of you that don't know. I am at 12 weeks today.

Melanie's Sleeping Habits

I promise that this little girl has her own bed, but she hasn't spent most of her time in it this past week. Here she is sleeping in Savannah's bed. I think that they were happy to fall asleep together, but it was a different story in the morning. Savannah kept complaining about what a crazy sleeper Melanie is. Here she is sleeping next to my bed. I found her there one morning. By the time I took the picture, you can see that she is halfway under the bed. And here she is asleep on the kitchen floor. She was supposed to be in bed and was instead watching TV with Dad. Smart girl, laying behind the half-wall so Daddy couldn't see her.And these were all just within in the last week! Silly little girl, we've got to love you even if you are a crazy sleeper!

Happy Halloween!

We had a nice Halloween! To get into the holiday spirit we went over to Jon's parents' for some pumpkin carving! Melanie had no problem gutting her pumpkin. I thought that it was funny that she didn't mind getting her hands all slimy! Savannah didn't mind the slimy hands either. Jon was good enough to carve both of the girls' pumpkins. Melanie wanted the exact same face as Savannah's pumpkin, so that worked out pretty easy for him. And the pumpkins turned out pretty cute too. We even got to have yummy pumpkin waffles that night! Thanks Auntie! They were really good! We also decided to make a few Halloween goodies. Here are our Tombstone brownies with Nutter Butter ghosts. The girls had fun helping for about 2 minutes and then Jon and I were left to finish them. I think that they turned out cute though. The anticipated night of Trick-or-Treating finally arrived and the girls didn't want to be what they originally planned. So here is my cute little Superman. It was about the only costume that I could come up with that didn't require Spencer to wear something on his head; he absolutely hates that. Savannah was a butterfly again, which she was 2 years ago. And Melanie decided on the Indian costume, which Savannah wore 3 years ago. Melanie insisted that she was the Indian Princess from the Peter Man movie; so there's our cute little Princess Tiger Lily. Jon and I also pulled some costumes together. I found almost all of the needed clothing at Goodwill, so I guess that it was meant to be. Jon went as Handy Manny and I was Kelly the Hardware Store owner. Of course, no one could tell who I was without Jon and even then it was still difficult. Oh well, we still had lots of fun and the kids got mounds of candy.Happy Halloween!