I've been feeling a little sluggish lately....

BUT..... we are very HAPPY to announce that I am pregnant and expecting our 3rd child!! I'm about 2 months along and will be due in July. I've been really tired and quite nauseated for several weeks now.... hence being soooo sluggish. Tyler has been amazing at picking up my slack.




Do you like how the title of my post and the slug picture introduces my pregnancy?


So here is the story about the slug. VERY DISGUSTING! Since we have moved here to Missouri, I've been quite surprised that we haven't had many bugs in our home. BUT... we seem to have a little slug problem instead. I think I would rather have a bug problem rather than a slug problem. OK... it's really not a problem. We've found about 5, but they are the most disgusting things in the world, and I've discovered them in our home in not the most convienant ways (i.e, stepping on it in the middle of the night. I thought it was left over food from dinner, but totally freaked out when I turned on the light.) Luckily this guy made home on the outside of my slippers the other night, instead of the inside! It seriously gives me the creeps to see them!

Awesome Christmas Video

A friend of mine put this together and the music coordinates really well with the video. It is the nativity with Amy Grant's song. Let me know what you think.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQs0H7dvwy0

Mommy Vacation

I took a quick trip back home for 4 days to Cedar City, UT to attend my friend's wedding. Tyler had Thanksgiving week off, so he stayed at home with kids. It was the most lovely Mommy vacation that I have ever had. (The only one that I've ever had thus far.) Too bad I didn't sleep in.... I did get a couple naps in though.

I met up with my beautiful family on Wednesday in Omaha, NE and we ventured up to South Dakota to spend Thanksgiving with Tyler's Grandpa Glanzer. Grandma Marilyn is a collector of antiques.... so it wasn't very fun keeping the kids out of things. "NO NO NO!!" was very common. They were very accommodating though and it was nice just to sit and chat and watch TV. We took the kid's to the Sioux Falls which was all lit with Christmas lights. We also went to their light parade. Grandma is famous for tea parties. Makenzie learned quick on how to hold the tea cup, with pinkie up and all! The kids loved the hot chocolate and goodies.




We came home Saturday and dealt with rain and sleet the whole way home. Luckily the roads weren't bad and we got home at a decent hour. We got all the Christmas stuff out and I must say that this year has been the worst with Makenzie. She is just loving it too much!!! She wants to decorate and redecorate the tree and then she wants to play with the Christmas ornaments as toys. I threatened to take down the tree! With time, the interest is slowing down.



Jordan has been good... he's just fascinated with the lights and will go and touch them. He learned another word today.... "NO." He says it loud and drawn out... so it sounds like " Naaaaa." He uses it a lot in context.


We woke up to 3 inches of snow on Sunday, the first for the winter season. Makenzie was sooo excited and was out there at 8am playing in it.


Tyler started the car for church to warm up and somehow locked the keys in the car, our only set. We called a locksmith and had to pay $50. We were also late for sacrament meeting. The locksmith told us he can make us a key that will open the car, but not start it. Good enough for me.

Monday was catch up day with laundry and cleaning. I had to shop for the fam as well as 2 orders for the club catering thing we do. Tuesday was the BIG Enrichment night that we have been planning for for quite some time. I deemed it a success! And now I'm glad it's over. I played a Christmas Medley on the piano and I think it went well. I don't think I will ever be perfect in playing, but I didn't mess up horribly.

My master's classes started on Monday. We have weekly assignments to do. This week I have to comment at least 10 times on 2 discussions and then write a paper. I feel like a minority in the class, as I have no work experience in health. Everyone else is employed in some way and I'm just the young mom at home. Already a lot of the stuff they talk about is over my head. Luckily Tyler is here to help me in giving me some opinions.

We got a knock on the door tonight and found the missionaries at our door. We were excited to see that Elder McDowell got a new companion.... Elder Glanzer (Tyler's Cousin)!! What are the chances of that happening?!?! It is his first day out in the field! We visited for about 15 minutes. Luckily I just took out some warm pumpkin bread to feed them. Poor guy came on a cold and blistery day! We hope Kirksville treats him good!

Always Baby-Proofing

I feel like it's never ending with the kids ALWAYS getting into things or doing things they aren't suppose to. The latest of baby-proofing is having Jordan keep his clothes and diapers on. He's woken up the last two days with no jammies on. We'll see if this does the trick...



My poor friend Annie always has to "Jordan-proof" her house every time we come over. We have our little system down, but he still always finds trouble! It's a never-ending battle that I'm still determined to win! HA HA HA

Every Mom's Worst Nightmare!

Yes.... it inevitably would have happened sometime. My daughter cut her hair! She actually wasn't meaning to do it. It just got in the way from cutting something else, even though she lost her cutting privleges long ago for cutting some important papers. I took her to a friend that does hair for some emergency TLC. We decided to trim it up a bit, add some layers, and feather it around her face. I'm sad to see her long hair go, but you gotta do what you gotta do! I just think of Elder Wirthlin's talk from conference and have found humor in this whole thing.


The Before: Doesn't she look so guilty?The After:

You would think we had a tree in our yard....

We had a seasonably warm day, so of course we soaked up as many rays as we could before it turns bitter cold. There were tons of leaves in our yard, even though there is not one single tree in our yard. We enjoyed them for a few days before they blew away somewhere else. We had fun building mountains, getting buried in them, and throwing up in the air.

The Before:


The After: Makenzie is there. Jordan didn't like getting his face covered.

Come and Visit Us!

Back in September our good friends, Jay and Melani Talbot, stayed with us for a few days on their way to moving to Ohio for Dental School.  It's always good to have visitors!  It wards off the home-sickness.  They have two adorable little boys, Lennix and Jensen.  Too bad it rained the whole time they were here due to the aftermath of Hurricane Ike.  We made our own fun with the GIANT puddles that formed in our backyard.  

The Dad's got involved too and ended up staying out there and playing longer than the kids did.

Seeking Refuge under the van

We all went bowling.

The kids did better than we did!

Tyler working his magic!

I feel bad that the way we told them to go was closed.  Luckily they had some other options to get around the flooding.

Happy Halloween!

Little Mermaid and a Puppy!

Well... all the Halloween festivities are over, but it's effects are just beginning with loads of candy hanging around. I asked Makenzie what she wanted for dinner and for once (see the other post) she said she wanted... CANDY. We have had a good Halloween season... now onto Thanksgiving and Christmas. Enjoy the pictures.




Jordan does the best impersonation of a dog by panting. You can't really hear it here, but I tried. He became too fascinated in the car keys.

Bed Time! (my favorite)

Makenzie, "Jackie", and "Alexis"

Makenzie loves preschool at her house.... especially when the boys (Jackson and Alex) will dress up too! Hopefully their mom's don't mind me posting these! :) These will be good blackmail pictures for the future.

Spaghetti....

Our family is a spaghetti eating family. The kids and Tyler all love it. They would eat it every night for dinner if I would let them. Whenever I ask Makenzie what we should have for dinner, she always says.....SPAGHETTI!

It was a Still-a-Bration indeed!

Every year the school has a Founder's Day in honor of Andrew T. Still. They call it Still-a-Bration! They even give the students the day off of school. That's how serious they celebrate. The theme this year was the Wild West. They always have fun activities for the kids, free dinner, a talent show, and dancing.

Here's Makenzie enjoying her much anticipated pony ride. Too bad it only lasted 2 minutes.

Just in...

We got the word on where our new home will be for the next 2 years (starting in June).

We will be in Detroit, Michigan!!


The hospital that Tyler will be with is in Wyandotte, a suburb south-east of Detroit. It is called Henry Ford.


CRAZY!

We are excited! Detroit may not have the greatest of reputations, but there are still good things about it. It's like any other big city- you just have to avoid some places. The suburbs are pretty safe.  You only have to wear a bullet proof vest at night.  They have a temple there as well. Anyways... we are glad we know where we are going and moving forth with that! This will be our home for 2 years before moving AGAIN for residency. Gotta love it!

It's a good 10 1/2 hours to there from Missouri. I'll be sad to move. I've actually enjoyed living here in Missouri.

Five Blissful Years!

Well, this is my first blog.  After being married to Jenny for five years I have come to realize how much I sincerely need her everyday.  It isn't really a matter of me wanting her and having her help me out each day.  I feel there is a dependance we have developed over the past five years in order for life to be smooth.  What is even more amazing than my dependance on her is she is so patient with me.  

One instance, out the many, I decided it would be a good idea to celebrate April Fool's day and include my wife without her knowing.  At the time I worked for a wood shop company building cabinet doors.  We worked with a lot of heavy equipment.  In particular, I worked on a table saw where other employees cut their fingers on and sometimes completely off.  I would tell my wife these stories, and she warned me to be careful.  Well, on a beautiful April 1st I called her from the hospital to pick me up for lunch because I had recently "cut my finger" seriously on the table saw.  She didn't believe me initially, but she saw the phone call was from the hospital.  She eventually came and saw me come out of the entrance with a bandage on my finger.  She was weary and began to ask questions about the incident which she eventually began to believe, although she tells it differently.  Eventually, we got to where we were to eat.  While there I was explaining the story to my father-in-law and grandmother-in-law when I decided to take the bandages off my finger.  When I took it off, my finger was perfectly fine and I began to laugh saying April's fool.  While in mid-sentence I got a face full of couch pillow, courtesies from my wife.  Later on, she got even with a little bit of saran wrap & a toilet.

Jenny, you continue to amaze me with your love and creativity.  You always seem to say the right things at the right times to make me feel your love.  Whether I am in San Antonio, Kirksville, or Cedar City.  I feel your presence by my side and even sometimes pulling me.  You always find a unique creative way to express your love by getting gifts specific to me.  You even seem to find good ways to entertain yourself with your husband.  For instance, the time you put money on the floor of the stairs.  I came walking in picking it up like I was a little kid picking up candy.  Your laugh said it all over how entertaining it must of been to watch me pick the money up.  My love continues to grow and it is in large part due to the fact that you are so easy to love.  Another five years here we come.

Here is a little tribute to Jenny of the Sherman Family.  Thanks Scott for putting it together.

5 years and still going strong!

It was on this day that Tyler and I sealed our love for eternity!

Happy 5th Anniversary! Looking forward to another 5 and then 50 and many more as well!

What do you want to be for Halloween?

A couple weeks ago I was hosting our little preschool group at my house for the week. To make conversation with all the 3 and 4 year olds at snack time, I asked them what they were going to be for Halloween. To my surprise, every single child rattled off some sort of character or costume! I had not talked to Makenzie about Halloween at all, so I wondered if she knew what she wanted to be. Her response was, " The Little Mermaid." Okay.... I wasn't prepared for that one.

I've brought the subject up several more times and she continues to respond that she wants to be "The Little Mermaid." Why couldn't she be a princess or Snow White or a clown, or anything else that we have supplies for? I'm not all too creative, but I guess I'm willing to work with her request. So on Friday we set off to a fabric store an hour away in search of material for our "Little Mermaid." Much to my surprise we found a shiny green fabric that had a fish scale pattern on it! I got a little more excited as I envisioned a somewhat decent costume coming together. Stay tuned to see the finished project...which will be modest by the way.

Can we have more Conference Weekends?

Wow! We had a fun weekend. I finally decided to lug my camera around for some of it, and the other half I'm stealing pictures that my friend took. We enjoyed going to the Truman University Homecoming parade Saturday morning. Tyler was out shooting with the Young Men's group. I'm sure he was glad he was there, instead of with us. We enjoyed the parade, hot chocolate, and friends. The kids got way too much candy. Jordan would try and eat the candy, wrapper and all! That's what kept him entertained.


A group of the guys got together to go out to eat before the Priesthood session, so while the Dad's were away, us Moms decided to play! We shared a night together with the kids.

We got invited to a ward member's house on Sunday that live about 15 minutes out of town. The kids were in heaven with an endless supply of FUN FUN FUN. There were plenty of kids to run around with, toys, a trampoline, a tree house, a teeter-totter, and many farm animals.
We all went on a hayride as well.
Near the end of the day, we looked outside to see Makenzie riding a baby calf! The family freaked out, because the calf is quite skittish and isn't very friendly. We don't know how she got on, but she safely got off. She wasn't so lucky with missing the cow pies and took a long bath when we got home.

Between all of these fun adventures, YES, we did sit down and watch all the sessions of conference! This really was the best part. I find myself strengthened in my faith and testimony.

It's Official....

I'm going back to school!!  (This is Jenny talking!)  Call me crazy... 

I found out about an opportunity to get an online master's degree through Tyler's school, A.T. Still University, for Health Administration.  I will do just one class at a time, so it will take me about 3 years to do.  I'm excited to expand my education.  I've always wanted to, but I didn't know in what.  Then it hit me.  If I get a degree in Health Administration, I can work with Tyler and help him with his practice in the FAR off future.  So I'm set to start up on December 1st!  I'll be able to do my studies in the evenings when the kids are in bed.  I figure it's better to spend my time enriching my brain then frying it with watching tv or surfing the net.  

I didn't sink!

I participated in a triathlon as a team this weekend. I did the swimming portion, while my friends Aimee and Sara did the bike and run. It was a fun experience and it just inspires me more to do a full one by myself some day. The weather was a little iffy all week with rain and cold temps. The day of the race, we woke up to fog and 50 degree weather. COLD. Luckily the lake water was over 70 degrees, which made it more than enticing to get in. It warmed up over the morning and it was a good race! We got 3rd overall in the female team category.

Call 1-800-DR. TYLER!

It's great to have an "almost" doctor around who can be "on-call" 24 hours a day.  I really needed a good back adjustment this morning before church (hence everyone being in church clothes.)  It's great that he can treat me right when I need it!  The kids had fun with the table, the face hole, and also being treated by "Daddy Doctor."