Sunday June 2^nd 2013

Well this week was better than last. No near death drowning, and although there were five tornados to hit OKC instead of the one last week there was not half the devastation and damage that was done on May 20^th. Friday I was out visiting Nikole Lenhart in Yukon (NE Suburb of OKC) and it was a little frightening deciding to try and take shelter at her hotel, or out run the storm on the freeway that the tornado was on. Adam said I had a good head start so he wanted me to come home. So glad I did cause the tornado went right through Yukon and everyone at the hotel was moved to a local hospital for shelter. Freaky! A couple of the tornados got close to our home but they were weaker and went just north and just south, so although we probably should have gotten in the storm shelter we stayed glued to the TV. It was such a relief to have power all through the storm to know exactly where it was headed. Once your down in the shelter your knowledge of what is going on is much more limited, and thus more frightening. Plus the silly Mom in me wanted to wait to the very last min so I didn’t have to get McKay out of bed if I didn’t have to. :/ Kinda ridiculous, but when he woke up twice the night before at 2 & 3am, was up for an hour, awoke for the day at 6am and then only took an hour nap...I was desperate to get him back on schedule! Cause this 38 week prego body does not do well trying to lay on a kids floor in the middle of the night waiting for them to go to sleep! Grrrr! Yeah, its moments like that I think....the two thoughts of “I can’t wait to have this baby out”, and “What on earth am I going to do once I have this baby, and I still have to deal with a crazy sleeper McKay?” Yeah...no good solution.

Wow...who sounds like an overwhelmed rambling pregnant lady?...raise your hand.  Anyhow Saturday our “get it done” day turned into another helping hands project. Adam went out helping a sister in the ward patch up a roof that was torn off. Oh that was the other thing with this last storm....torrential rains, 4.5” in the metro and up to 8” elsewhere! Bad enough that the more mild winds around our home still uprooted some BIG ol’ trees.  Then today our “day of rest” again included another 5 hrs of Adam out helping clean up damage at people’s homes. So although it’s been emotionally hard as a pregnant mom of three little ones to not really have any family time the past two weekends, I am very glad for the opportunity to serve, and for my diligent husband who always answers the call.  That doesn’t mean I’m not entitled to a good cry, and slight emotional breakdown right? That’s just part of pregnancy without consistent tornados.

 So yeah pregnancy....going so well! I can only compare this level of comfort to Emeri’s pregnancy, because I know I had lots of heartburn, and back pain with Ephraim, and McKay at the end was brutal on my legs/back/nerves. This little lady has brought minimal heartburn, the two months of leg/sciatic nerve issues (March & April), and to date only 17lbs weight gain. Crazy! I feel very blessed by my Heavenly Father! Because seriously in March and April, I thought.... there is no way I can have a ton of kids. This condition started so early, and is so painful/debilitating that if it’s only going to continue and get worse with each pregnancy I’m done for! But miracles are real, and I feel fantabulous!

So the best part of this last week was of course McKay!!! My little boy all grown up and a whopping two years old! Thursday was his birthday and we had hoped to go to a bouncy house place, but it was closed on Thursdays so we hit it up Friday morning. But Thursday I tried to play hard with the kids, and although I was totally burnt out by the end of the day, I think it was well worth it. I had decorations for him to wake up to (all yellow...of course), and a big yellow bouncy ball for him to play with all day...think it must have blown away in the storm the next day. L We had lots of yellow balloons to play with, and blowing bubbles all day. Not to mention some fun snake bubble blowers for festivities in the evening. Some fun cake balls for the kids to decorate themselves, and a little “hoop” cake for McKay to tear apart. He always shouts “Hoop!” when we’re in the car driving around and he sees a basketball hoop.  He got a water table to play with for the summer in hopes that the bathroom sink loses its spotlight. We’ll see.

I do SOOO love that little boy, and he’s doing so well potty training! And I love, LOVE how he says “Otay Mom” or “Otay Dad” all the time. Sure he’ll bark “No” at me, with a scowl, when I ask him to get off the table etc. But when reasoned with he’s really a pretty good boy, and I love the Otay! So grateful he is a part of our family and a favorite of both Emeri’s and Ephraim’s! Those three will no doubt be a tight little herd as they grow up together.

Just now: McKay: “Da baby”...pushing out his tummy.

Mom: “Oh yeah is there a baby in your tummy? Is it a boy or a girl?”

McKay “Da Yellow boy, Da out, come” Big smile. J

Sharing some journal entries of the past couple weeks.

May 26, 2013

Neighborhood on Santa Fe just north of 19th St.

Wow what an UNREAL week! It’s Sunday and yesterday I hit my 37 week mark. See usually you get to this point in your pregnancy and you’re just excited to have it over with, but even more to have your little angle in your arms. Well both of those are true, more the latter than the first because the Lord has truly blessed me and my discomfort/pain at this point are most definitely minimal. But unlike other phases of life where I got to just look forward to the new addition to our family, this week has had my mind in a WHIRL! Not only have I been trying to get home projects done, and clean out closets, and prepare my little nest for the baby, but Monday our world was almost turned upside down.  A massive tornado touched down just 1.5 miles from our home and grew into a mile wide beast! We had a storm shelter installed in our garage just March 1^st so although I knew it was close, I felt very safe and calm. The kids got a kick out of cracking their glow sticks, and eating from the 72 hr kit. J Adam was at work and was following the tornado on the radio as he raced home. He made sure to stay behind it but was terrified because they were projecting it would take the same course as the May 3^rd 1999 tornado which took out most of our neighborhood. And also had the highest wind speed recorded on the earth, 318mph, pretty serious stuff. Well we were spared and blessed tremendously because the tornado stayed just south of us. But our community of Moore was devastated. Two elementary schools were demolished and 7 children were killed. In total 24 deaths were recorded. Two of which were our neighbor’s wife and 7m old baby. Devastation is one thing on TV, but it’s another thing in your community, and even another emotional level when its people you know and so close to home. Over 40 homes of members were affected, and roughly 20 of those are a total loss, but thankfully no deaths or serious injuries.  So yeah for us it was a measly 24 hrs without power. But the mental comprehension of things slowly grows with each passing day as we try to reach out to those affected by the tornado.  This weekend has been Adam out with helping hands practically all day Saturday and Sunday. I’m lousy offering to be out there picking up debris, not to mention I have 3 kids I’d have to pawn off on someone. So I’ve just been kind of stuck at home, but at least I’ve been able to watch kids for others. That has made me feel much better and like I could contribute to the cause in my own special way.

If a tornado wasn’t enough, Wednesday had its own emotional rollercoaster. We attended the Lusk “School’s out” pool party for the youth since Adam is in the Bishopric, and Brother Lusk personally invited me to bring the kids to swim.  While there a boy almost drown, and Adam performed CPR on him. Caleb Nichols is his name, 11 yrs old, and he was teasing the other kids about drowning all night, so when he really was in trouble no one took him seriously. Finally a young woman swam down and got him at the bottom of the pool and Adam rushed over to try and revive him. It was a surreal experience, watching my husband try to save a gray lifeless body by the side of the pool. After 5+ minutes of just throwing up constantly the paramedics arrived and Caleb had just begun to take in air. He has remained in the hospital since then, and is still on a ventilator. Probably still has a week or two of recovery ahead of him. Adam said in reflection that he was remarkably calm for the whole situation, and it wasn’t until it was all over that it started to really settle in. Mostly just hard mentally, realizing what had happened, and mulling over thoughts of, “What if it had been my child?”

So glad the week is over and looking forward to a much needed Memorial Day break…if you can call pulling up carpet, and tearing down a fence a break. Yeah we’ll see what gets done with a super beat, sun burnt husband. But at least the kids will get some time with him, so important after having him gone all day Saturday and Sunday.

But on a lighter note I have three ADORABLE children who are growing and changing SOO much. Especially McKay, he’s just at that stage. The last month for him has been leaps and bounds in communication. He doesn’t just say words, he says complete statements. Like: “Dat’s my soccer ball!” and he uses a p sound for his f’s calling his foot a put. Which is interesting cause Ephraim used an s for his f’s .

 Oh and McKay is my first child to be so adamant about a favorite color at such an early age. What is the color? Yellow. I’m sure having siblings demanding certain color bowls, cups, and everything else has had its impact. But I still find it quite intriguing and amusing that Yellow is his favorite color. Every time he goes potty he asks for a “yellow bean”, which is a yellow jelly bean. Yeah, doesn’t help that there are maybe 20 yellow beans in the bag of 300 that I bought. 

I started potty training him on May 8^th. Figured I didn’t have the energy, but he was showing all the signs of being ready, and if I put it off, I’d miss my window and be fighting him on it with a nursing 2m old baby girl.  So even though we still have a long way to go he has made some serious improvements, and at least he’s for it, not against it. He tells me now when he needs to go…although I still try to take him every couple hrs max. But he also will feel it coming such that his underwear gets just slightly wet and then he says “Potty Mommy…potty!” And I run him there and he holds the rest of it till he makes it! J Pretty impressive! I’m predicting three more weeks of real effort on both our part, and then hopefully accidents will all together disappear. HA….ok but maybe they’ll be real sparse, cause in three weeks I’ve got myself a newborn and this boy needs to be pretty self sufficient by then.  Regardless of how long the full process takes, I don’t think I’ll regret starting the efforts when I did, because he’s getting a head start and a head start will be better than no start once baby sister takes front and center on the stage of life. J

Ephraim and Emeri are both a joy, but considering its 9:28pm and they are both still screaming and giggling in their room I better try and elaborate on that another day when my memory isn’t so clouded. J  ~Love Jessica

My darling Adam composed this video for me for my 5th Mother's day, and frankly its got some embarrassing photos, but none the less a tear jerker for me. Nothing makes being a mother more wonderful that having an amazing man beside me being a superior father! :)

Here are a couple videos of the latest progression in my little kiddos.

McKay is so good at reading his scriptures, and it doesn't hurt having two good older examples.

And just yesterday we had weather in the upper 60's. So lovely. So of course we had to spend two hrs at the park. Super windy though as you'll no doubt notice.

I was super impressed with Ephraim though cause only two days earlier he was insisting help for the monkey bars, and here he just tackled it all on his own with out my noticing. When I did notice I knew it had to be recorded.

Back From the Dead

So, ill just dispel any excitement from the title of my post right now. No, no miraculous moment has happened with any of our health, nor do I even have a remotely dramatic story about a vehicle, or a pot of soup revived from a dying status. No dear friends it is I... My blogging self back from the dead. Yes my last post was of McKays 1st birthday, and no I am NOT wired to be a blogger of any sort. So why am I back? Because I guess 9 months was just long enough to get some of my sisters and sister in laws to ask why I stopped. I wrote initially for my Mother and family in India. It's hard being a grandma 5000 miles away. But truth was they're life there was so hectic crazy that my mother never checked my blog. So once my driving purpose was gone so was my motivation to blog. But now my family is situated up in cozy Canada, and all my siblings are in school so what else is my poor mother to do besides read my blog right? That's the hope at least. We'll see how it fares. Plus I'm revamping my journal organization and if blogging and I can ever get past our differences I think we could create a stellar Wadsworth family history. So here's to effort #527. :)

This was our CRAZY FUN/Exausting week of birthdays and valentines day. Here's a quick recap:
Tuesday: first dentist apt in 2 yrs. rocked cause I got to invite two of the workers to come to church, one a less active since she was 12. (Missionary work always gives me a high) Adam also turned 28! Tried to plan some fun lil things, but the first LAGIT snow fall of the winter kinda cramped my style. It was 50 and sunshine the day before. But nasty driving conditions just when I was gonna surprise him with lunch and balloons from the kids. So we waited it out and made it happen at 2:30 in the afternoon instead. No biggie cept McKay only got a short car nap and so he rest of the afternoon he was cranky and needy, just when Mommy needed to be cleaning the kitchen, making Adams birthday dinner and creme brûlée! Well yeah, Adam basically made his own creme brûlée after he got home. But he did get to do a confusing treasure hunt to find his present... A tool box. ( I know.... Can't wait to see what I'd give you for a birthday present huh?) Look you get old, you get a lot of expenses, (kids) and you get practical. Don't judge me!
Then after the kids are down I should be getting up decorations for Emeri to see in he morning, but I'm burnt out.
Wednesday: LUCKY mom gets a daughter who miraculously sleeps in and I can sneak out and bring in her surprise Tinker Bell balloon. Then we get ready and go on a surprise birthday outing to a jump zone place with a couple of Emeri's friends. Super fun, and totally made me feel like I was a good birthday mom. Had pizza, then cam home and crashed for naps. The rest of the day was torture waiting for Daddy to get home so we could have our "party" aka... Emeri was dying to eat her princess cake. Adam had the ingenious idea of making a mini princess cake so we didn't have masses and masses of leftover throw out. Worked like a charm! Emeri went at it shamelessly! Thought about other cake options since we did a princess last year, but this girl just loves being a princess... no other cake would really suffice.

Thursday: Supposedly Valentines day...but since my kids aren't in school yet, I figured this burnt out mom could designate whatever day she wanted as Valentines. So we took a much needed party break on Thursday and made our Friday Valentines instead. The kids and I painted/crafted valentines for Daddy, and we all went out to PeiWei for dinner. (First time for us, and frankly a little disappointed.) Chowmein noodles were unbearable...missed Panda Express sorely. But after dinner the kids got to enjoy the delivery at the door when "the man kicked the door". A Wadsworth tradition where a sack of treats and toys are dropped off by an anonymous man (Dad), and the kids get to revel in the excitement of it all. Fun thing was Mommy snuck in Daddy's new cable speed jump rope. Its a hit! Adam is on a week fast from sweets, and is determined to work out at least 3 times, and not eat past 7pm. All in effort to lose weight. I wish he'd be this gun-ho when I'm all flabby after having a baby instead of during my 24th week of pregnancy when its nice to make excuses for a blueberry shake every night. But regardless I'm proud of him and glad that he's not complacent about his health. That he's determined to look and feel his best even if he is happily married for over 5 years.

Yes, that is what a lagit starwars valentine looks like.