Michael & Melissa in January

Michael and I are staying really busy. We love being parents. Spending time together and with our boys is our favorite thing to do. We are also enjoying a few other ventures. Michael LOVES his job! It is really going well. He is super busy with a huge variety of projects and challenges. He is the only attorney for his company, and they keep him really busy. He really likes the people he works with and got his first raise (it keeps us current with inflation--but we're not complaining)!!!!! Every morning, he also gets up bright and early and teaches his seminary class (a Bible study class for kids in our church who are in high school--9th grade through 12th grade). They've been studying the Old Testament this year and have had a lot of neat experiences. Not surprisingly, Michael has established a great relationship with each of his 15 kids and really loves this volunteer work that he does. A few weeks ago, he got pulled over at 5:50 a.m. on his way to his class. The police officer claimed that Michael didn't stop at the stop sign and asked him where he was going at this hour of the morning. When Michael told him that he was going to teach a Bible study, the officer let him go without further ado. As Michael puts it, he found that there are excuses that work and excuses that don't work. Apparently, on your way to teach Bible study is an excuse that does work--at least in Lima, Ohio.


If you can't tell, I love being a mom. I keep really busy with the kids. In addition to all the rewarding and not so rewarding (i.e., cleaning the bathrooms and doing the laundry) responsibilities of being a stay-at-home mom, I try to volunteer each week at Alden's school (I love doing that--I especially love seeing Alden in his element at school). I also teach a sort of preschool called Joy School for Thobe every other week for two days a week. It is so much fun to see Thobe learn and grow in that. I also teach music to the Primary kids (kids who are 18 months to 11 years old) at church. I have had so much fun with this calling and have really grown to love all the kids at our church. This month, I began teaching an online sociology course for Rhodes College, a small community college around the corner from our house. I love doing this. I have especially enjoyed reviewing all the materials and remembering why I chose to get my masters degree in sociology. It is fascinating material--even the 101 stuff. I've really enjoy this venture and am excited to be back in the teaching field. It's really fun.

We also want to recognize the passing of our beloved prophet Gordon B. Hinckley. We are so grateful for the things that he taught us and the service he rendered to our Church. We are grateful that he can now join his wife that passed away several years ago but will miss his encouraging words and uplifting smile. We know that he led and directed our Church through our Savior Jesus Christ who stands at its Head. We know that our next prophet President Thomas S. Monson will also receive direct revelation through Jesus Christ and will lead us and direct us. We are grateful to have a living prophet on the Earth.

Hyrum in January 2008

It's so funny to me that I have three incredible kids, and I love all three of them so much. That sounds like a strange thing for a mother to say, I know, but I just can't get over how much I love these little guys. Each one of them is so special to me. Hyrum is no exception. He is so snuggly and loves to say "hola" to everyone. Yesterday in church, he stood up on the bench, facing everyone behind us. He began waving at everyone he could see, and in his loud sweet voice, yelled, "Hola! Hola! Hola!" It was so cute--distracting, yet very cute. He really has a smile that lights up the entire room. He also loves music!!! If he's crying in the van, all I have to do is to put on music and immediately he calms down. He loves to dance! We took him to a Toledo Rockets Basketball game on Saturday and that little guy went crazy any time the band played. I am not sure where he gets it, but Hyrum definitely has rhythm. We'll have to post a video of him dancing. It is very entertaining!






Oddly enough, he loves anything that hums or makes noise, especially the vacuum. He'd spend his entire day trying to figure out how the vacuum works. He is fascinated by it. He is very interested in anything that makes noise, especially his brothers. The three of them together can really raise the roof. My favorite thing is to see the three of them together laughing and laughing at one another. They are so sweet together. Hyrum loves giving them hugs, but he is not into long hugs. When the hug exceeds its limit, he very adamantly pushes his hugging brother away (which is usually Thobe). Hyrum and Thobe spend a lot of time together with Alden at school all day. They really have a lot of fun playing with dinosaurs and Superheros (Thobe does all the talking, while Hyrum sucks the paint off the toys--if anyone hears anything about lead paint in Superman toys, dinosaurs, or Spiderman paraphernalia, please don't tell me unless you also have information on how to detoxify children who have eaten lead paint--our once nicely painted toys are now not so nicely painted--Hyrum puts everything in his mouth).




Hyrum has also become smitten with tearing everything apart. As I type, I hear him upstairs with Alden tearing the pans out of the kitchen drawers. The other day while I was making dinner, I didn't notice him pulling all the pans out of the oven drawer. I heard him blab blab blabbing about something and looked down to find him happily pounding on the floor while he sat in a frying pan. I told him that I thought we were having chicken, but I now see that we are having Hyrum for dinner. He gave me a happy cheesy grin and let me take a "Hyrum for dinner" picture. He is so funny and cute!



Perhaps the funniest things about this little 14 month old is that he knows what he wants and want he doesn't want. If he doesn't want something he aggressively pushes it away and shakes his head "NO." If he does want something, he lunges and points and leans to let you know what it is. He convincingly pleads and clearly says, "Hold you," if he wants Michael or me to hold him. He can clearly ask for his milk. He also is very inquisitive and will often say, "What's that?" when he wants to know what something is, or "Who's that?" when he wants to know who someone is. He also can ask similar questions in Spanish and often says, "Agua," and "Esto?" particularly to Michael. He calls both Alden and Thobe "Ah den" and can say Mommy and Daddy too. He is really a remarkable little boy. We are so very happy that he is part of family and think that he's amazing!

Thobe in January 2008

As I said with Alden, I am so amazed with all the things that my kids do. I really love them so much. Thobe is just as amazing as Alden is in his own way. Thobe definitely marches to the beat of his own drum. He loves to talk and jabber about stuff, usually sports stuff, especially Buckeye stuff. He goes through phases where all he talks about are the Buckeyes (today he said to Alden, "I need to run upstairs and cheer for the Buckeyes--I'll be right back"). When we bought our house it came fully equipped with an Ohio State Buckeye room. The moment Thobe saw it, he exclaimed, "Oh my Buckeye room!" Naturally, we had to buy the house after that, right? His other favorite team is the BYU cougars. He used to have a very battered Cougar t-shirt (Cosmo the Cougar was barely distinguishable and the shirt was nearly thread-bare). However, he loved it!!! Unfortunately, we lost it somewhere over our Christmas break. He asks me almost everyday if he can wear his Cougar shirt, and everyday I have to tell him that I don't know where it is. This always produces some form of sadness. On good days, I hear, "Oh man!" and on bad days, there is weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. On one of our cold Ohio days, he went most of the day without any shirt at all because he wanted his Cougar shirt. Somehow, Michael in all his wisdom, convinced him to wear something when he got home from work. You would think that we'd try to buy him another BYU shirt--we actually tried at Christmas, but did you know that there is no where in St. George, Utah (that I found) where you can buy a BYU kids' t-shirt?


Thobe also loves Superman. He says that he's Superman, while Alden is Batman or Spiderman. When we got back from Utah, we had a second Christmas at Abuelita and Grandpa Monday's house. Thobe was as excited as Alden was about the "treasure" (the box of Superheros), but Thobe was especially excited about the Superman toys that it contained. He also really enjoyed opening gifts from his Abuelita and Grandpa and Tia Shell (notice his tongue in the picture where he is trying out his new dinosaur feet --I bet you can't tell whose son he is).







Perhaps my favorite thing that Thobe does is that he goes around the house and asks, "What's your favorite part of Christmas, (insert name of any member of the family). For those of you who saw our Christmas video, I asked everyone what their favorite part of Christmas is. Thobe very much expects two things after he asks this question: 1) that you will respond the way you did in the video, and 2) that you will ask him what is favorite part of Christmas is. To see his answer, go to http://www.vimeo.com/418326 and watch the first minute of our Christmas greeting. We get this cute little answer, without video cuts every time.

Thobe loves going to joy school and playing in the basement. His Spanish is coming along so well! He'll often ask Spanish or English questions that he already knows the answer to. He'll say things like, "How do you say agua in English?" or "How do you say funny in Spanish." We either answer him or say, "You know, how do you say 'agua' in English?" He'll answer correctly every time. He really loves playing with his dad and brothers. He'll often give Hyrum big hugs or ask me when it will be time to go and get Alden from school.




He also enjoys playing by himself too. He's very creative. Just last night, I found him down stairs playing in his toys, sitting in one of his toy buckets. When I saw him, I was surprised and said hi to him. He just looked up and smiled at me like this was a normal place for him to sit.



We have also been trying to put some finishing touches on potty training Thobe. This has not been an easy task. I really think he wants to be potty trained and is trying, but sometimes, he just forgets to go. Poor kid. Michael and I have tried a number of tactics and have felt like it was mastered one day to feeling like we were back at square one the next. Today, I saw him lying on the floor and knew what he was doing. I sharply said, "Thobe, did you poop your pants?" The regretful look on his face gave me my answer. I told him that he needed to clean it up himself and take care of the mess. Promptly he got off the ground and told me that he was going to take care of it. He ran upstairs, and I finished an email that I was writing. I went upstairs thinking that I was going to have a horrible mess to clean up. When I reached the top of the stairs, Thobe said, "Yeah, I'm doing it, Mom! Come look!" I cringed slightly and went in the bathroom. Thobe was standing over the toilet with his underwear in the bowl, swishing it around in the water attempting to get it clean. I asked him if he was getting his underwear clean. He looked up at me and very confidently said, "Well, I'm trying, Mommy." He really did a great job. I was really proud of him.

Alden in January 2008

I really hate to brag, unless it is of course about my kids. I really think I have the most amazing kids alive! It is so much fun to watch all the things that they do and say. Alden has really amazed me since we got back from Utah. It seems like he has just taken a gigantic leap in his cognitive and fine motor abilities. When Alden started Kindergarten, he could read, but his writing was not that good. For example, he knew how to spell his name and the order the letters went in, but when it came to writing it on paper, he would put a huge A in the middle of the paper, and then the rest of his letters were written in a random order around the A. When we got back from Utah, I had him write a journal entry. It is as follows:
The amazing thing to me about this is for most of the words, he sounded them out himself and wrote this on his own. I should probably scan in one of his writings from even the beginning of December to really see the progress, but I am so proud of him for improving so much!


Also when we got back from Utah, we had a little Christmas celebration at with Grandpa Monday and Abuelita. We had such a fun time opening presents and sharing Christmas cheer. We actually ordered Alden and Thobe a big box of superheros that didn't get to us until after Christmas. We had them open that in Toledo. Alden was so, so, SO excited. He told Michael, "Oh Papi, esto es mi tesoro (Oh Papi, this is my treasure)." Whenever he refers to it, he calls it his treasure.




The other thing that is so amazing about Alden is his faith. On Tuesday, I went to Walmart in Findlay, and to make a long story short, somewhere between the checkout and my car, I lost my wallet and realized it when I was almost home. I was very distraught about losing my wallet and that afternoon was a little short with the kids. I realized that I was wrong and said, "I'm sorry guys, but I lost my wallet and am worried about it." Alden immediately said, "Maaaom, I know how you can find your wallet. You can ask Heavenly Father, and he'll find your wallet for you." I told him that I had already said a bunch of prayers, but maybe he needed to ask Heavenly Father too. Alden then offered the sweetest prayer, asking God to help us find my wallet. Within a few hours, my wallet all intact was returned to me. Alden and I offered a prayer of thanksgiving for help in finding my wallet. I often worry in situations like that, "What if we never find it," but I am reminded that with the faith of a child great things can happen. My wallet is proof of that.


This week (January 14-17, 2008) Alden has been student of the week at school. He has really loved being the special student. Yesterday, his teacher let him show and explain to the class all the pictures that he brought in and read his favorite Spanish book to the class. After he finished reading, she called the principal down and had him read it to him. He was so very excited. Mrs. Curl, his teacher, called me last night and told me how great he was at explaining his pictures. She also said that he told the class that he was wearing all blue today and that since his shirt is blue, his eyes were also blue that day. He said, "Now if I were wearing my green button-up shirt, my eyes would be green." She said it was so cute and that the class loved it when he read to them in Spanish. It was really great. He loves school so much and is doing so well!

Our Christmas Fun

For Christmas this year, we went out to Utah. We thought that Laura, my sister, would be returning home from her mission, so the boys and I flew out to Utah four days before Michael so we could be there before she got home. Unfortunately for us, she decided to extend another six weeks, so we went out early for fun--and fun we did have; however, flying by myself with three kids is a little bit intimidating and not all that fun, especially with the stomach flu that I didn't know I had until I was throwing up in the barf bags so conveniently provided by the airline. Fortunately, my kids are fabulous travelers and great at finding barf bags for their mom to puke into (what a great way to start out my blog and my trip for that matter--huh?).





Like we usually do when we fly to Utah, we flew into Las Vegas (we flew one-way for $7.77 on Spirit Airlines--they have incredible deals if you're patient). Despite the fact that we used to live in Las Vegas just over a year ago, Alden was very puzzled with the Strip area. From the back of the van, I heard him say, "Duh? Duh?" When I turned around to see what the trouble was, he exclaimed, "Mom! This is what the world would look like if silly man made the world!" Alden often asks us questions like, "What if the world was all green?" or "What if the world was all grass?" or "What if the world was all superheros?" (I think you get the picture). Anyway, this was definitely my favorite world observation he's made. He has quite the imagination and a lot of silly comments!



My sister, Diane, and her husband, Doug, picked us up at the airport and took us home to their house. The boys were so, so, so excited to see their cousins. The next day, Alden went to school with Davin, while Thobe had a blast playing with James and Bridger. I'm not sure how much fun Bridger had because Thobe was constantly telling him not to do things, but I think they had a great time. While we were there, Thobe tipped over in a bar stool and gave himself a gigantic goose egg on the back of his head and cut his chin open. He had to have 5 stitches, but was so brave and calm about the whole thing. His biggest frustration was when we took his macaroni and cheese away from him in an attempt to stop the gushing blood. He kept saying, "But I'm hungry!" He actually fell asleep just prior to getting the stitches and giggled like crazy when they took them out. What a silly boy! I suppose the funniest part about all of it is that when I told Michael, who was still in Ohio when it happened, he was very concerned when he heard that Thobe had an injury on his face. "Maybe you should take him to a plastic surgeon to prevent scarring, Melissa." However, when he saw where it was, he was much less concerned and told me, "If there is a scar, people will just think he had a chin strap injury from playing football... COOL!" Despite his silly comments, Michael is very good about putting Vitamin E on it every night so there will be no scar. What a great DAD!

Christmas was so much fun. My parents had 22 people in their house, eating, sleeping, giving Christmas presents--it was crazy and a lot of fun, at least for everyone except Hyrum. He is definitely his Grandpa Humphries' grandson is adverse to big groups of people. He was fine if Michael or I had him, but he didn't like being separated from either one of us. Even with us near, he was still a bit apprehensive (fortunately, by the end of the trip, he had warmed up to Grandpa and Grandma and was having the time of his life!). Despite his nervousness, we had wonderful Christmas celebrations! We had a very fun Christmas party with my dad and two of his brothers and their families on Saturday. On Sunday we all went to church and had a nice relaxing Sabbath (I guess as relaxing as you can have with 22 people in a house).


On Monday, Christmas Eve, we had kids bouncing off the walls. With 9 of the 22 people age 7 and under, there was a lot of excitement in the air. That night I dressed all the kids up as characters from the first Christmas. My dad read the account from Luke 2, and the kids entered and exited when we told them to. We all changed into our new pajamas that my mom gave everyone and then piled into the front room where my mom gave us her very special Christmas gift. For the past 15 or so years, my mom has given us a gift from her heart on Christmas Eve. She gives us a special gift and then also tells us of her love for each of us and her love for the Savior. It is a very sacred and special time for our family. My dad also adds his insights, expresses his love, and bears his testimony of the Savior to us as well. It's such a special tradition--my favorite one that I have with my family. We then lit a candle and sang "Silent Night," a tradition that Michael's family does every year, as we remembered family that were not with us there in Enterprise. We then shuffled over to the computer to look at Norad.com to see where Santa was, and then nine excited kids scurried off to bed.




Christmas day was very fun and magical. We felt so abundantly blessed and had so much fun watching the kids open their presents. I think the hit presents were the boys' Spiderman costumes, a doctor kit that my sister Kristi gave to Alden, and a little basketball toy that Santa brought Thobe. We had a wonderful time with family as we reflected on and celebrated the birth of our Savior.

The day after Christmas, Hyrum began taking his first significant steps. He walked about 5 or 6 steps back and forward between Michael and me. He was very, very proud of himself, and no walk was complete without a round of applause from everyone in the room, including Hyrum! When Hyrum walks, I can't help but think of Steve Martin in "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels" when he pretends that he is walking for the first time. It always makes me laugh.