September Specatular

I know I posted a little while ago about doing a huge Close to My Heart party, well here are the details!

This month I am hosting a spectacular event. For every $100 in sales I am giving back $50 worth of FREE product. Here is how it works: submit a $100 order (whether you gang up with friends or just order it all yourself it works the same.) and you will receive the following: • Free Idea Book from me ($3.95 retail value) • Free September Stamp of the Month set ($22.95 retail value) • $20 Free Hostess Product Credit • 1/2-price item OR 'Triple Play' kit OR new embellishment That's FOUR goodies for just collecting a few orders to reach $100. WOW! But WAIT there is more! I am also offering FREE shipping on orders over$200! All orders participating will be submitted September 25th.(Meaning you need to have them to me by this date as well) I will email out the shipping details once I receive them.

Even if you don’t live by me you can still participate. So check out the Idea Book online and give me a call!

Oh so much fun!

Little Will is two months old and growing like a weed! He is putting on weight and starting to sleep longer at night. He is a smily little one and we really enjoy him! Madalynn is 14 months and a little bit of a terror, only because she is into EVERYTHING! Holy Moly is it pretty bad. Everyday Creed comes home and I say, "guess what she did while I was in the bathroom." To which I would say look back at a past post of why mothers can't go to the bathroom. Something always happens! She is talking a ton and LOVES shoes and food. She is also very loving and friendly and cute, so cute! Sarah is doing so well. She tells me that she has helper power, which is great and I sure do take advantage of that. She is growing up so fast and says really funny things. Yesterday she told me that her scrambled eggs were being bad because they wouldn't get on her fork so that she could eat them. It made me laugh! Creed is loving work, which is nice. He is also still working on our website and getting things in order. This weekend we will be going to a lecture by Avraham Gileadi and we are so excited! He has some awesome insights into Isaiah and we are loving being able to understand that hard to read part of the Bible. I am doing great and loving being a mother of three. I can say it wasn't too bad of an adjustment, but I never really adjusted to having two before we were pregnant with number three, so I don't have much info to add on that. I am teaching piano lessons and LOVING it! My girls love it too because they get to play with whoever comes over for a little bit and it breaks up there days a little. Once I take some pictures I will show you all what I have been doing in my craft room as of late. I made skirts for the girls for Chad's wedding, and headbands for all the girls on the Thompson side, plus flowers to go on the girls shirts and the headbands. It really has been fun to create something and challenge myself. I am still papercrafting and LOVING Close to My Heart. Since everything is separated by their 60 colors I can make things faster and they still look great! Plus they now offer online scrapbooking, which is nice to help get caught up a little. Though I still love playing with paper and stamping! Oh so much fun!

Close to My Heart

Hey everyone! I am just letting everyone know that in a few weeks I will be hosting a Close to My Heart Open House at my house. The new Idea Book comes out September 1st and it has a TON of fun things in it that I want to show everyone. Now if you are too far away don't worry! Just email me (sharesalarsen@gmail.com) and I can send you an invite which will allow you to order stuff online. PLUS since it will be an Idea Book Open House there will be tons of FREE goodies going around, and if you order online I will still send out FREE goodies. So this is just a heads up, keep an eye out for the official party information. It will be tons of fun!

Little Will

So 15 days ago I had our little boy, William Creed. He was 6 pounds 3 ounces and 19 1/2 inches long. He was born at 9:05 pm at home. The labor and birth were wonderful and I LOVED having him at home. It was really nice for Creed to be able to be there and hold him and love him. It was nice for me to have a comfy bed to sleep in and a shower pretty soon after giving birth. It was nice to have Sarah there to see Will soon after the birth. In fact when asked if she wanted to hold him or kiss him, Sarah said, "Um... no he is gooey." Though after we washed him a little she did give him a kiss on his head. It was nice to have Elizabeth there to watch Sarah and to help with the girls when we went to the hospital. Will seemed totally fine after he was born, but he didn't feel like breastfeeding. Then at 4:30 in the morning he started to have a hard time breathing unless he had some oxygen blowing in his face. By 5:30 my midwife said that it was time to take him to the hospital since he didn't seem to be breathing well without the oxygen. So we headed to Salmon Creek hospital. I cannot say how hard it was for me to take my little one into the NICU. Once we got there he kind of shut down a little, his breathing started to become really erratic and his heart rate dropped. So they hooked him up to a bubble CPAP machine. He was hooked up to this machine for two days and then he was under the special lights for jaundice. Then we got to take him home.

It was kind of weird at the hospital because we were known as the "home birth" people. In fact I had a few nurses who were not so nice about it. One even said to my midwife, "Oh, you are the one who allowed her to give birth at home." My midwife was really great about it and said, "I usually don't allow people to give birth at home at 35 weeks, but we thought that she was further along than she was." I had another nurse say that he was just glad that we got him to the hospital when we did and that they really wish that we had given birth at the hospital. I would give birth at home again in a heart beat for a few reasons. One, it allowed me to stay in Will's room the whole time that he was there. If I had given birth at the hospital I would have had to stay in my room until discharged and only allowed to visit. Two, having Will at home allowed Creed to hold him before he was stuck under all the monitors and machines and lights. In fact Creed held Will the night he was born and then three days later. Nothing in between. Same with Elizabeth. Three, it was still cheaper for me to have him at home. All in all it was the right thing for us and I LOVED it.

In other news I am going to post a few things to help my memory. Madalynn took her first step on May 11th and then was walking by the 15th. She is talking a ton and can't seem to walk into a room without saying, "HI!" Sarah has gained two pounds in two months, which is HUGE for her. This helps us know that she is celiac and that she is starting to get the nutrients that she needs. She is drawing stick figures now and loves to try and write different letters. She is actually getting really good at a few of them.

Here are some pictures!

Alright I'll BLOG!

So I have been a horrible blogger, I know, I am not quite sure where the time has gone. I do know what we have been busy with though, so I guess that is good! (Also proves the pregnancy brain has not taken over just yet, thank goodness!)

We spent Easter weekend in Utah and the girls and I spent the week before that in Boise with my mom. This was probably one of the last times that I could spend a week with my Mom with just the girls for a little while. And we had an awesome time (well okay Madalynn was once again teething and was a crank bucket until the last day.) We did a lot of shopping of course and it was nice because Kirsten was visiting the same week so I got a lot of opinions on what to buy and what should stay at the store. By the by Kirsten found an awesome maternity bathing suit at Target, just in case you need one! Sarah loved every moment of being with Grammi and Poppy!

So Easter weekend started out nice, we were reunited with Creed, though he didn't have enough bee pollen and was sort of a crouch (bee pollen keeps his depression and OCD controlled instead of prozac, I can talk about that later if someone wants.) Anyway, and on Saturday we had an awesome Easter party with Great Grandma Larsen and a bunch of the Larsen clan. It was a blast! Sarah was so good at only picking up the candy that she could eat, the taffy, which apparently was not a hit with everyone else, so we got a ton! We made special gluten free chocolate coconut cookies, which Sarah continues to talk about to this day. So cute! I love that she appreciates the extra work it takes to make stuff for her, makes me want to make stuff more often! Anyway, Saturday night we went down to visit with Dave and Kiersten (best friends in the world who I miss dearly!!!) Sarah of course had to start throwing up, I had a migraine and Madalynn was a teething wreck. Oh so fun when Kiersten had a migraine and the boys were at priesthood. Then on Sunday Sarah was still sick, I started feeling sick and Creed started feeling sick as well. By Monday we were in the doctor's office in Boise with Sarah who had an ear infection and the ear drum had burst. We got home on Tuesday and Creed went to the doctor and found out he had strep. I went in on Wednesday because I had strep and Madalynn went in on Thursday because she had so much ick coming out of her ear we knew she had an ear infection. Needless to say the beginning of April was a blast!

Once we were all feeling better we started the packing, which just doesn't go as well with kids unpacking the boxes and a big belly getting in the way of everything! I have decided that I will no longer move while pregnant. I just felt like a big fat loser who couldn't do anything and poor Creed had to do it all. I sure that him! Anyway, we got really busy with the packing and we painted the four bedrooms in the new place and then moved in all in a week. Oh, my were we busy, but it was good at the same time. We love the new place, it just feels more like home than the old one. There is enough room for us and some, which is wonderful with baby #3 on the way and the hope of having more children (though I am thinking that I need a little more of a gap between these next two!)

Madalynn is growing up fast. She loves to sing and dance, and is really quite fun to watch explore. She is trying her hardest to walk, but falls down after taking a step. I am hoping she completes this task before baby gets here, which could be any time between now and July. Anyway, Madalynn has a pretty big vocabulary, she says hi, peek-a-boo, Sarah, Mama (which isn't me, I am still Dada, go figure!), Daddy and duck. It seems like everyday she learns something new. Sarah is doing awesome and is growing up too fast! She had her first talk in Primary, she wants a bike for her birthday, and loves to play with Barbies. I am starting to feel just a tad bit old, though I know that I am still young. Creed is doing great at work and is really enjoying it more and more, which is always nice. I am now big, and to the point where doing much of anything is difficult. I can no longer reach my toes, bend over to pick up toys, or food on the ground, and my belly is getting in the way of me reaching too far into anything, such as the sinks, or the back of the stove and oven. If you have been pregnant before you know this stage. The one where you can't roll over without it taking 5 min. The stage where you start debating if shaving your legs is really worth the effort, and the stage where flip flops and slip on shoes become your best friends. I am there! Also the baby started having hiccups three weeks ago, this is good news for me because it tells me that I am further along than the ultrasound showed and hopefully I can start going off of my first due date and not the new one. I am crossing my fingers on that one! Anyway, next post will be a bunch of pictures, right now it is nap time and I need one!

Who wants an update?!?

I hear a bunch of "I do" so I guess I can share what we have been doing. First off I finally had my ultrasound and yes we are having a baby! Wahoo!! The baby is healthy, but measuring pretty small (20 weeks when I was 24) so the technician said that according to her computer our due date would be the middle of July. Since I am measuring how many weeks I should be pregnant I at this point am going with my original due date of the beginning of June (-3 weeks because I am always 3 weeks early) so I guess this baby can come safely anytime between the middle of May and the middle of July (oh bother!). I think it is one of those things that we will just have to wait and see about (and yes I am shaking my head a little).

So here is what Madalynn has been doing: teething, pulling herself up into a standing position and this week she even took a few steps along things (once again I am shaking my head!) Lets be honest as Mothers when your first child shows signs of walking at 9 months you get excited and think, YES my child is AMAZING! With every other child you look at them and think, really?!? Can I push you down without hurting your chances of ever walking? I mean I want Madalynn to walk before Baby #3 comes, but I don't want her walking now! The other thing she is doing that I am shaking my head at is deciding she is big enough for finger foods, which wouldn't be a problem if she had more than one tooth. The other tooth finally came through this last weekend, but it still makes for messy food because she doesn't want to eat off of a spoon and she only has two teeth, sometimes I don't even know what to feed her! She is also talking, she can say da da (which is really mommy) and daddy along with duck. Yes I wrote duck. My mom gave her a plastic Donald Duck toy and she loves it, so we started calling it duck and one day she just decided to say it with us. For some odd reason I don't think we will be needing to teach this one sign language so she can tell us what she wants.

Sarah has been doing really well lately, getting bigger and more courageous. She climbs everything and therefore there isn't a safe place in the house to hide things. If I put it under a bed Madalynn gets it, up high and Sarah gets it, so no hiding places for us. Sarah is also becoming really sweet with Madalynn, she loves to play with her and laugh with her and try to teach her new words (though I think Madalynn is a ways off from saying Sarah and blanket and cheerios). Sarah loves to go to the park and play and lately the weather has been nice enough that we have gone at least once a week. She is also really big on going to the store and helping us with things and she loves to hold the coupons! Sarah and I do school at least once a week and she is really good at patterns and numbers and can write the letters A, O and I (we are finding them all over things, like the walls and our car!) She also loves learning about colors and which colors mixed make other colors (probably because I get out paint and she is allowed to paint something). We are slowly moving towards a Celiac diet with her and have taken her off all milk, expect raw milk, that doesn't seem to bother her. Her rash is going away and only comes back when she does eat wheat/milk products, so we are pretty sure that she is Celiac and just got a false negative on her test. Personally I love that she isn't always itching and cooking meals without wheat isn't as hard as I thought it would be, we are going on our second week now and everyone is still alive!

Creed is still enjoying his job and now carpools most days with his friend Nells, who isn't a member of the Church. This leads to some awesome discussions that Creed than shares with me, which I love. Also we have finally closed on our house in Springville, and we are so excited about that! I still coupon and am loving saving money, this last week at Albertson's I saved around $200, it was fun! We are studying Isaiah together and that has been a ton of fun. We use Gileadi's help (isaiahexplained.com) and I warn you that it took us 4 hours to get through the first chapter (we were taking notes and chatting about it). Man is Isaiah interesting when you understand it! Anyway, that is pretty much us, oh wait, Creed also has gone to the local skate park for some rollerblading fun, Sarah came home and told me that "Daddy tried to kill himself two times!" meaning he fell twice. I haven't yet decided how I feel about it, I know he enjoys it, I just wish he enjoyed something that wasn't so dangerous!

What we have been up to, up to, up to?!?

Okay if you know what the up to part of the title of this post is from you win brownie points! And if you hadn't guessed Sarah has been on a Sleeping Beauty kick. Anyway, we have been pretty busy like usual and like everybody else. Somehow we didn't even notice that it had become February until last Sunday when I looked at a calendar and remember that my little brother turned 21. Oh how crazy life is. We have been doing the usual stuff, letters with Sarah, teaching piano lessons, helping Madalynn learn more words and get teeth, family home evenings, reading scriptures with Sarah, getting more food supply, Creed goes to work, laundry, bathrooms, dishes, dinners, couponing (and making $20 last week in the process!), scrapbooking, cardmaking, oh yeah and every now and then we sleep. It really is funny how busy I feel but then when I write about it, it looks really dull. So sorry! We have done a few fun things like going shopping for a sewing machine (happy anniversary and birthday to me!), which I am hoping to pick out next week. We found this place that restores old machines, you know the ones that were built to last forever, and the owner said that he would have 5-6 in our price range next Saturday, I am super excited! Here come some cute skirts for the girls, maybe some blankets, and whatever else is 101 sewing! And on Sunday we celebrated our family's 6th birthday along with Valentine's Day. Sarah got really into it and was hugging us and kissing us all day. We were totally feeling the love! We even made a cake and had candles and sang Happy Birthday to us, it was really fun and really special to be able to talk to Sarah about our wedding day and being sealed in the temple. What a wonderful blessing it is to know that Creed is mine forever (and the girls too!). I love him so much and am so excited about our future, though I don't know what it holds. It really is fun to have someone that you trust completely and can share everything with. So Creed, I LOVE YOU!!!!

Okay I will be done with the sappy, I know everyone is dying of pictures so here are a few:

Also I thought I would share a little quote from Sarah, we have been reading the end of 1st Nephi with her, where it talks a lot about Zion or the Second Coming. Last Saturday Creed took Sarah with him to pick up our year supply of wheat. The people at the cannery asked her what all the wheat was for and Sarah answered: It is our food for ZION! She really is cute!