David

We celebrated David's birthday this last week. I got him power tools and running shoes and I like watching how excited he gets to use them. And yes, mom, I used pillow cases to wrap his presents in.

I always write about the kids and what they are doing so today I'll write about David. Maybe something you don't know about David. Because probably you know that David is a work-a-holic. He loves his job and what he does and loves, loves, loves working for the Church. He's been given a lot of opportunities there and has done really well. But what you may not know is that even though he is a work-a-holic, he tries really hard to spend a lot of time with his boys. When he walks in the door from work, he's a dad. He may work for 3 more hours after he puts them to bed but the hours in between that are for playing, helping with homework, coaching their soccer teams, going on walks, writing primary talks, doing the dinner dishes (which he does every single night) and giving me a break. He's a fabulous dad. He went with me to talk to the principle at Jacob's school to get his teacher changed because I didn't think I could do it without crying. It meant he had to go to an early morning meeting and then come home and then drive back to work afterwards. I was so grateful he was there with me. Apparently I'm still scared of going to the priciple's office. Last week he took Jacob, Adam and Matthew to a Jazz game. They had seats on row 15 and had a blast. They got home way too late on a school night but they had lots of fun.

David shares my love of sports which makes life lots of fun for me. He watched the NBA all star skills challenge on TV with me tonight. Best dunk contest I've ever seen!! He plays soccer every Saturday. He's the goalie and dives around his goal box like he's 15 years younger than he really is. We both love his soccer team, such great people!

He loves to watch info-mercials. He thinks he can learn to be a better public speaker that way. If you haven't seen David teach, or talk in public or give a presentation you're missing out. I'm not sure why he thinks he needs to be better at it, it's one of his natural talents.

He can fall asleep in 1.5 seconds. He can sleep anywhere. He can sleep through anything. He gets up at night and feeds Lucas a bottle of breastmilk but he usually falls asleep and the bottle falls on the floor and Lucas has to scream for a bit before his dad wakes up and realizes he's not holding the bottle anymore.

He adores reading leadership books which cracks me up because again he's a born leader. In fact he doesn't read anything unless it is teaching him something. It drives him nuts that I read mostly fiction.

He hates to go barefoot. He hates feeling carpet on his feet and has to sleep with socks on no matter what.

He has this completely flat pillow that he uses. He calls it his quesadilla and when Jacob had surgery last summer and David spent the night with him he took his pillow and then forgot it when they came home. So he called the hospital and told them Jacob left his pillow and was in tears over it so the nurses would find it for him. He was too embrassed to admit it was his pillow.

He watches the movie "The Fugitive" every time it is on TV which is like once a week.

He's a very very good man and is always trying to be better.

I could say a lot more but mostly I just want him to know that I love him.

February - So Far

Our February has revolved around two things: Painting the house and Jacob's teacher. Your house seems a lot bigger when you are painting and it's taking us a long time because mostly David paints and I hold Lucas. I've helped him occasionally but it really has been all David and his perfect paint lines. I don't interfere when he's working on perfect paint lines. And you guys think it's just me who's obsessive compulsive...and slightly anal.

Our second problem of Jacob's teacher has hopefully been solved. David and I went in on Monday and met with the principle and changed Jacob's teacher. I really tried for 6 weeks to make this teacher work for him and me. Last Friday I was an emotional wreck after Jacob told me that the teacher wouldn't call on him when he raised his hand for help. His comment was "she never sees me." That was compounded by the fact that I had sent the teacher an email that week that she never answered. I finally got an answer from her the day after we pulled Jacob from her class. Jacob's new teacher is already leaps and bounds better at communicating with parents. She sends a weekly email to me reviewing what they did that week and what they will do next week. She got Jacob in the right reading group and spelling sort group which I begged his last teacher for and she told me that he was at the right reading group. His new teacher moved him up 3 levels. Thank you! And Jacob's comment after the first day was "this was the best day of school" and "I think my new teacher likes me and likes my work." It breaks my heart thinking what Jacob felt his old teacher thought about him. My mental health has vastly improved now that we don't deal with her anymore.

Other things we're working on this month is getting Matthew to sleep in a real bed and not his crib. Here's where I found him when I went to check on him 20 minutes after putting him down for his nap in his bed instead of the crib. Sound asleep on the stairs.

After watching Lucas take a bath in the sink, Matthew insisted on one too. He even tried to wash his own hair.

I had to include this picture because I just can't get enough of Matthew's beautiful big eyes!

Matthew has really started talking these past two weeks. Finally! About a week ago I was trying to get him to finish his yogurt and he kept moving his head and then he looked straight at me and said "No!" I was thrilled! I know that in a while I'm going to hate it when he tells me no but that was the first time and I was so proud of him. I kept telling him what a good boy he was and what a good job he did at talking. Not really the kind of thing you probably say when your toddler tells you no but I was so happy! Yesterday he told me "I do it." Again absolutely thrilled!

Baby Lucas is really starting to get chunky. Sorry this picture isn't the right way but you can see his fat little cheeks. For starting out so little (6 pounds 7 ounces) his definitely gaining weight. Maybe that will help him sleep longer at night. He's still only doing 3 maybe one 4 hour stretch at night. When Jacob was this age he slept 8 to 10 hours straight at night. I was so spoiled by my first baby.

Lastly I'll leave you with a cute picture of Jacob and Adam after their school Valentine's Day parties. All weekend Jacob and Adam wrote me and David lots of Valentine's cards. So very sweet! Adam had his Kindergarten doctor appointment yesterday and had to get 4 shots. He did so well and just let the nurse do it. On the third shot, he started crying but still a much better experience than when two nurses and I had to pin Jacob down to get his.

Mubarak was supposed to resign yesterday not Jerry Sloan!

I borrowed my title from my clever brother, Aaron. He and I are of one mind however. Jerry was not to resign yesterday. When I found out I think my heart stopped beating and then when I listened to the press conference I cried. I'm a Jazz fanatic but I have this thing about sports coaches. I think they are even cooler than the players and Jerry Sloan was at the top of my "sports coaches to be worshipped" list. (Tony Dungy is on the list too.) I mean talk about hard work and dedication and loyalty. Twenty six years coaching for the Jazz. That is almost my entire lifetime and definitely as long as I've been following the team. Man, it will be hard tonight to watch the game without Jerry on the sidelines yelling at the officials and taking care of his boys. You know, David asked me to married him at a Jazz game in the middle of the court. The Jazz are just part of me and it will never be the same with Jerry gone. I loved when Rod Zundel asked Jerry about Stockton's 3 pointer against Houston that sent the Jazz to the NBA finals for the first time. That is my favorite, favorite Jazz play. That year and the next I recorded Jazz fever on VHS every night during the playoffs and I still have those videos. So at least I'll have lots of Jerry footage to keep watching. Ahhh so long, Jerry. You'll never be forgotten and always be at the top of my coaches list.

A lesson in legal immigration

Yesterday I took Matthew to the pediatrician for his 2 year well baby check up. I've switched pediatrician's since moving out here but I've already seen him a couple times and like him a lot. This is how our appointment started yesterday.

Dr: How does Matthew have such dark hair and eyes and his mom is a redhead?

Me: My husband is Hispanic. He's from Mexico so Matthew looks more like his dad.

Dr: Is he 100% Mexican?

Me: (thinking that is a weird question) Yes, he grew up in Mexico.

Dr: How did you meet?

Me: At BYU

Dr: Did he come up here for school or was he here before?

Me: (thinking oh where is this conversation going?) He came up here for school.

Dr: It must have been a lot easier for him to come here back then than it would be now.

Me: (Totally confused now) Um, well no, none of the immigration laws to legally enter this country have really changed since my husband came. It might take longer to get into this country now but it wasn't easier back then.

Dr: Oh, so your husband was legal. Well, he married a US citizen so of course he's legal. He was like a real immigrant to this country.

Me: (thinking did you really just say "real immigrant." Are there fake immigrants?) Actually, my husband has never been in this country illegally. He came here on a student visa.

Dr: Oh, really? Oh, okay. So do your kids speak Spanish?



I honestly do not think the doctor meant to be rude or prejudice or anything. He's just ignorant on how someone legally immigrates to our country. Or he was just overly curious about David's legal status. Six months ago I had a very similar 30 minute conversation with my neurologist as he was performing a nerve test on my arms. That one included his opinions on Hispanic male culture that he saw while in residency in Houston, Texas. He was fascinated as I explained how David first came to this country and all the legal ways someone could stay here, live here and work here. Again I don't think he meant to sound as bad as he did. I've had lots of these types of conversation. Some with complete strangers. Most of these conversations have not offended me or hurt my feelings at all. But does everyone think my husband came to this country illegally? Everyone who has been brave enough to ask me about David coming here has made the mistake of assuming he first came illegally and then became legal when we got married.

So I'm giving my blog readers a free lesson in immigration.

Lesson #1: There really are legal immigrants in the United States.

Now I could bore you to death with what those ways are. And I'm very familiar with many of them. I have done all of David's immigration process myself plus several others. All that is talked about on the immigration political platform is about illegal immigrants and what to do with them. There are lots of illegal immigrants, don't get me wrong. But nobody mentions that not all immigrants fall into that category and many of them are here legally.

Lesson #2: David didn't become a U.S. citizen just by marrying me.

There is a lengthy (it tooks us almost 6 years) and very expensive process that involves lots of forms, paperwork, medical exams, fingerprinting, interviews and stress.

Now I don't want to start a political immigration conversation. Really I don't...rather I just wanted to give you the chance to laugh at my poor pediatrician also.

I'm having one of those days....

The one where Lucas has peed on me twice today and thrown up on me twice. Not like a little spit up. More like "cough, cough, empty entire content of stomach on mom" throw up. He has a cold and is terribly stuffed up. He nursed every hour and a half, maybe two hours last night. I need some sleep. Instead I have to go to Parent Teacher Conferences tonight and I'm afraid my lack of sleep is going to limit my ability to hide from Jacob's teacher just how much I dislike her and how she runs her classroom and my opinion on how poorly she communicates with parents. Okay, sleep or not I'll have to work really hard on not letting my contempt for her spewed forth. I'm off to do more "soiled by bodily fluids" laundry. Oh and did I mention it was 16 degrees outside when I picked Adam up from preschool? The snot Matthew wiped on my shirt froze.

1 month

Lucas is a month old now. At one month Lucas can eat, sleep, poop and well that's about it. However he still has his blue eyes which I love. Not that I have any illusions that his eyes will stay that color but for now I am loving them. He is starting to get some thighs. Before his thighs were the same circumference as his calves. And his cheeks are getting a little plumpier.

Lucas at one month and 3 days

Matthew at 25 days in the same outfit. Nope I don't think they look alike besides the Parra nose. I think Lucas looks like Adam.

This is Adam at one month and 20 days. But Adam probably weighs 3 or 4 pounds more than Lucas in this picture. And Adam definitely has a lighter skin tone than Lucas also.

Anyway back to Lucas...this is the first outfit that Lucas has worn that hasn't been pajamas. He's too tall for Newborn size clothes but 0-3 months drown him because he doesn't weigh enough. This outfit fits him pretty well right now.

Matthew's birthday

Matthew's birthday was a small affair this year. For the first time I didn't make an elaborate character cake for my child's birthday. Yes, I have a small amount of guilt over that but also very grateful that he's two and doesn't care. He just wanted cupcakes.

I was excited though to give him his pillow pet. Every since Santa brought Jacob and Adam pillow pets, Matthew has wanted one. In fact he steals his brothers' every chance he gets. I'm not sure why Santa didn't bring one for Matthew at Christmas. Silly Santa!!! But Matthew loves his bumble bee and drags it and his BYU blanket EVERYWHERE.

Matthew was very happy about Grandma's presents also. But even more excited about the M&Ms she had left over from her BYU meeting. See, it's so easy to make a two year old happy.

I had to add this picture also because Matthew's eyes are beautiful. So big and dark....

So a little bit about Matthew at two. He loves his dad. He adores his dad. He wants to be with his dad every second of the day. While it's very precious to watch, it's a little hard for mom since I'm the one who stays home with him. Two Sundays ago he stayed home with me because of a cold and after 20 minutes of a massive meltdown from watching his dad walk out the door without him I was ready to call David and tell him to come back home and get the child. He follows all of David's instructions and not a single one of mine. He loves to run away from me and has even started running away from David. He thinks it's hilarious. He hates to get dressed and loves his pajamas. He still hardly talks but we are working on it and he is getting better. It's sort of cute to watch all his hand gestures trying to get us to understand what he wants. Sort of...and then the screaming starts because we don't get it and then it's really not cute anymore. After being my worse solid food eater as a baby, he's a great eater now. He likes Mickey Mouse, his BYU blanket and balls. He's an excellent little athlete. He loves to be outside and likes to go places like the store. He has a lot of nicknames but we mostly call him Mashy and Mafu. His older brothers are really good at including him in their play and helping him so he can keep up with them. Matthew's a good older brother too and loves to hold Lucas and not let any of his other brothers hold Lucas. Not only does he have beautiful eyes but he has the cutest curly hair ever. He's pretty stubborn and likes to climb up and get things he's not supposed to have like gum. David will tell you that Matthew is the spitting image of him except for the stubborness. He claims Matthew inherited that from me. David might possibly know what he's talking about...