Sneak Peak

Sean's Aunt Dewanna and Aunt Ida did an amazing job for us! They took family pictures for us for our Christmas card. So, here's a sneak peak. Thank you again ladies! We are so pleased!! It also helps that those kids are so stinkin cute...but hey, I'm not biased or anything! :)

Krazy Kids

Josh and Jake...giddy up!

I found Josh like this at the bottom of the stairs. I guess it was nap time. :)

Sarah has finally let me convince her to put sponge curlers in her hair. Now she wants to do it practically every night! Ha, I guess I asked for it!

Our princess...I think this may have been the first day of school. I've been such a slacker blogger, I didn't put in their first day of school pics, Jacob's birthday, Pumpkin Patch, Halloween, etc. Oh yeah, maybe because I've been ASLEEP for 5 1/2 months! :) This baby is taking the juice right out of me. But we did find out...IT'S A GIRL!!! Go team pink!!

Vote for Sarah to win a trip to Disney World!

I just entered Sarah in a contest and hope she wins. You can vote for her here: http://family.go.com/princess-picture-contest/who-is-the-fairest/princess-sarah-marcum-21221/ This is what I wrote:

The name, Sarah, literally means princess. Since birth, Sarah has always been our princess. She is now 5 years old and has worn her princess attire everyday for about 3 years. As shown in the picture, she has well loved her clothes as they are tattered and torn.

Sarah wore the same princess dress everyday for over a year. It was a pink sleeping beauty dress. I would have to take it off her after she was asleep just to wash it. All of our family and friends saw how much she loved being a princess and started giving her more princess dresses and princess themed gifts for birthdays and Christmas. We even found some of her favorite outfits at yard sales and feel blessed for they are her treasures.

Currently, she has no favorite, but loves to be each princess: Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Snow White, Belle, Ariel, Jasmine, Tinkerbelle, etc with all the shoes, tiaras, necklaces, bracelets, and earrings to accessorize. Every night we read from either a Princess story book, song book, or even coloring book. The pages have many times been taped and mended from the wear. It gives us joy to see that these books are so loved.

She sleeps in her princess sheets and comforter and colors on her princess table and chairs. When we go camping as a family she has her princess sleeping bag, flashlight, and backpack. She plays mommy with her princess stroller, baby carrier, baby swing, diaper bag and back pack. She plays tea party with her sleeping beauty tea party set and will always dress up her two brothers in all her princess attire. It is funny when her 4 year old brother comes down stairs all dressed up like Cinderella, and Sarah says, "Isn't he beautiful!"

This past Christmas she was given a Princess Castle for her room. Many nights she'll get out of bed and we'll find her in the morning asleep in her castle. We painted her room two shades of pink and purple to match her castle. All her friends love to come over and play dress up and imagine they live in a castle. Many dragons have been slain and handsome princes have come to the rescue to wake the beautiful princesses.

Sarah has definitely lived up to her names sake. She loves being a princess and playing dress up. We know it would be a dream come true for Sarah to experience the magic of Disney and actually meet the Princesses. Being from Kentucky, it is difficult to drive the long distance with a 5 year old, a 4 year old, a 2 year old, and a baby on the way; and too expensive to fly. We hope you seriously consider Princess Sarah for this contest. We know the joy and memories would last a life time. Thank you for this amazing opportunity.

Sweet Peaches

Nana and Papa came to visit over the Labor Day weekend, and boy did we make them labor! :) Papa and Sean cut out a door and into the space under the stairs to make us a food storage room. It looks amazing! We canned peaches (as shown :)) and just did so many fun things. We had Jacob's 4th Birthday on Saturday and had oh probably 15 sunbeams and 15 adults come. It was so great! We went to Gattitown, The Movie Tavern, Wal-Mart, Home Depot, Sams Club...etc...some of our favorite places. :) Thank you Nana and Papa for coming out and all your hard work! We miss you and can't wait for Christmas!!

The Cat is Out...

Yes, we are announcing that we are expecting baby #4 come March. :) We are of coarse thrilled, and nauseous (really), but super excited. We are hoping for a girl...or we might send it back...just kidding. We just feel so blessed. We wanted to wait another month to tell, but my belly would not hear it...I'm already happily wearing my maternity pants. Yes, it feels good to breath. I guess that is what happens with baby #4.

So, we just told our family and our own children, and have gotten a whole variety of responses. Some happy, some shocked, and even some disappointment. But, we are just estactic! Sarah has come up with some hilarious questions that I thought I'd get down for journal purposes:

"How will the baby come out of your tummy?"
"Does the baby have a blanket inside to keep it warm?"
"Does the baby have toys to play with? That would be boring."
"Can the baby talk in there?"
"Does the baby feel cold since you are always cold?"
"Does the baby lay down when you lay down?"

Those are just a few off the top of my head. Jacob lovingly kisses the belly and Josh is oblivious. His boat is about to be rocked since we still call him "the baby". He's 2! Anyway, life will be busy, but know we still love you all...even if we can't chat as much. :) PS If you are family, we ran out of cell minutes and couldn't get everyone called. Sorry!! We're already over 60 minutes...at .40 cents a minute...yikes! We'll talk on the weekend. :)

Lost Tooth!

Sarah lost her first tooth in July. She was SO EXCITED...(can you tell?) and the other bottom tooth is loose already! What does the tooth fairy pay these days? She got a dollar! :)

I cut off about 5-6 inches of her hair and we had a salon day. I dried it and put it in my hot curlers. She looks so grown up!

Who is this big girl? Surely not my baby? She's going to Kindergarten and I'm boo-hooing already!

I know I haven't blogged forever, but we've just been enjoying the summer. Some highlights were:
Family Reunion to Yellowstone
Friday Night Flicks at Jacobson Park
Free Regal Movies on Tuesdays
Story Time at the Library
Swim lessons and going to the pool
Sprinklers in the backyard and lots of freezepops
Taking the kids to the drive-in to see Ice Age III
4th of July BBQ, Parades, and Fireworks
Sleeping in, staying up late
watering the flowers
and lots of ice cream!!!! (pics to come!) :)

Family Reunion!!!

I'm back! It's been a long while since I've blogged...and I've a lot to catch up on. I put together a digital scrapbook of our fabulous family reunion in Yellowstone in May. Here is the link. :) Too many pictures to put in this post. Right now I'm painting my hallway, Sean and I painted our bedroom a few days ago, so now I have the "clean, paint, organize" bug. :) I'll post pics soon when it's all pretty!

Hope the link works. :)

http://preview.picaboo.com/Webview/CoverPage.aspx?album=000000000004536B6C&user=00000000000177FC73

Finally! Ear Tubes

Poor Josh has had a terrible past 2 years of constant ear infections. I truthfully lost count. Finally we got the doctor to refer us to the ENT doctor. We checked in at 7:00am, he went back in a wagon at 8:00, literally 10 minutes later he was back to us and we left not long after that.

These are all pictures from my phone. Dr. Loreano's office was SO CUTE. The examination bed was a fire truck and there were toys in all the drawers. The walls had all the Sesame Street characters. Josh kept saying "meww" and pointing to the cat that Ernie is trying to get out of the tree.

I wish PAA (our normal doctors office) would revamp their rooms to this...we always get stuck in the room and WAIT for an hour before we see the doctor with NOTHING to play with...except the dumb spinney chair the kids fight over. Ahhhhh!!! Imagine 3 kids in a small room with only things I have to say "no touch" to!

Here is Josh attacking Daddy before his surgery. Good thing they are having fun, because, I honestly was SO WORRIED. I know it's silly, but I didn't sleep a WINK the night before. I was so worried about him being put under...being so little. He did have a hard time coming out of the anesthesia. He cried for like 30 minutes without opening his little eyes. He was so groggy. I feel silly being so worried, when it is just ear tubes, and I am grateful that it wasn't anything more serious. I just feel more compassion for my friends with children who are fighting many sicknesses and in the hospital constantly. I can't imagine. So to Troy and Amber, Heather and Bryan, Chris and Kellie and others, I love you and continually pray for you and your little ones. Thank you for your valiant examples!

Turtle Man

Saturday we cleaned and ran errands all afternoon. But the highlight for the kids was when we stopped by Sportsman's Warehouse to see the "Turtle Man". He has video's on youtube.com. He was a true redneck hick...nice guy too. :) The kids loved holding the turtles and Sarah even played "tug-o-war" with a huge snapping turtle. They had everyone pull with "all your might" on the turtles tail and couldn't get it to move. Now, thinking about it, it seems cruel. Anyway, this is Kentucky! :)

Easter Message-None were With Him

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland gave my favorite talk at General Conference, and part of his text was put to video. It is very beautiful and moving.

Disney on Ice

I just had to post this picture from our Disney on Ice adventure...mainly because it cost me $12 to buy it!!!! But, I didn't want to be "illegal" and just take a pic of the backdrop and photoshop them in. :) So, here are Star Commander Jacob and Cowgirl Sarah. We had a fun time, (Josh wasn't invited) :), and only had one meltdown at the end...mine. Sarah wanted a hot dog and I totally overreated that she was pouting. I was saying things like, "You kids don't appreciate anything....I won't take you any where special if you pout...Jacob can come next year, but not you....etc." Yeah, you get the idea, I was bad. I am very sorry. I sometimes treat my 5 year old like she should be 25 and act perfectly every where we go...when I myself can hardly keep it together. :) Thank goodness they are quick to forgive and love generously. I think she will get to go next time...I'll just be better prepared by having them earn their spending money in advance, that way when it's gone...it'll be gone and they won't ask for more things. PS I thought Buzz would be taller. :)

Are you seriously kidding me?

Yes, I know, motherhood is wonderful, fulfilling, a blessing...etc etc. But, then there are days like this one. :) Friday started out on a bad foot...seeing as how before I even got a foot out of the bed I could see coco-roos scattered on my floor trailing out the room and down the hall. Great! Sean had done breakfast and after he left, Joshua went crazy emptying the box. So up I get, and tell the kiddos not to step on the cereal...which in turn gives them the idea TO step on the cereal. So, as I'm sweeping up the cereal, I literally thought, "man, there goes $1.79" (that is what I paid for my cheap-0 non-healthy cereal). :)

Later, Jacob is in the other room...quiet...but I didn't notice until after the damage was done. I started smelling something good...like a fresh scent...like a new baby...like baby powder.

Yep, I walked in the living room to find everything blanketed in white baby powder...everything. My carpet, stairs, couches, all the furniture...it was all white. Jacob for some reason LOVES to make messes...and he knows he isn't supposed to...and when you ask him "WHY" did you do such and such...he doesn't even know why...he just says, "because I did". Well, from what others have said in comforting me...he is just a boy I suppose.

So, here I go, vacuum out, rags out, broom out...I'm going to town. As I was dripping in sweat, bent over wiping the legs of the couch off, I hear a blood curdling scream....it was upstairs. I ran upstairs to see Josh at the office door. At first I thought he was just really mad because he wanted to go in, but then noticed his hand. His poor little hand was shut in the crack completely. His two fingers were literally dangling they were so squished. So, after a lot of screaming, I calm him down, call the doctor and they said that since the door was shut completely, we needed to take him to the ER.

Well, it's like 3:00 now, and I haven't even showered. I'm in sweats, sweating from cleaning up all the messes, and need a babysitter. There ain't no way I'm taking all 3 to the ER. Jaime came to the rescue and let me drop off monsters 1 and 2. I get to the ER by about 4...and 5 LONG LONG LONG hours later, we leave. Josh was fine. No broken bones. But I got to hold a squiggly toddler in my arms for hours, because every time I put him down, he'd run straight out the automatic doors and get to the curb before I could catch him! So, I held him...more sweating on my part. I got Applebees curb side "chocolate meltdown" to go. Got the kiddos home and in bed (Sean had to work at Abuelos this night) and collapsed in bed with my hot fudge, chocolate cake and ice cream. I felt better, then immediately guilty for eating all those calories. Man, I am too hard on myself...I can't even enjoy my own reward for surviving a hard day!

The funniest part to this whole story was that the night before Sean and I were at the temple, talking about how we can't wait for another baby. Well, after a day like today...I must be crazy! :) Hopefully, soon, I'll forget all about this day, and be baby hungry all over again. :) Because in the end, this is what being a mother is all about...and I really do love it...and I'll love it even more when they can do their own chores. :)

Easter Pics...Jacob

One more of Josh

We tried and tried to get a good group...but trying to get 3 kids to look and smile at the same time...almost impossible! Thank you again Ida for taking them! We love them!

Happy Easter...Sarah pics

Sweet Sarah

Blogging Catch up

Just some favorite pics...Josh totally put this hat on...all by himself. He is too cute!

I braided Sarah's hair the day before and she LOVES to leave it curly for as long as possible. Look at the volume!

Here are my kids at the preschool Valentines Party. Josh and I came down and this pic totally captures my kids...Sarah is toting Josh to get him to stand in line with the rest...and he is crying because he wants to run free. :)

We've started reading Book Of Mormon stories after dinner using the children's BoM story book that I remember using as a kid. We found one at DI for 50 cents! Yeah! Dad usually does the scriptures and I do the dishes. :) Josh is trying to distract by handing Jacob puzzle pieces. He is a little devil! :)