Why am I still awake?

It was a super busy day. Get the boys to a friends, go to work, work on some projects, go to an ME EN class, help students, go to Capstone lunch, go back to my office, help students, go to Capstone to look at projects, get my ID card, go to my office and work on projects, leave work to pick up kids, pick up kids and go to the library for Joseph's last class, go pick up Joe, put gas in the car, come home to get ready for the soccer game I am coaching, go to the store to pick up treats for my team, go to the game (we lost by a number of goals), get home and pick up gift and Samuel and go to a friend's baby shower, come home and give the boys a bath, get things ready for daycare tomorrow, get the boys to bed and now I am winding down. I need to get to bed.

Samuel

Samuel talks a lot more. When I took him to the night clinic, he recognized that we were going to the doctor's office. As we walked to the room, he started to cry and say, "no doctor, no doctor." He cried and cried till the doctor left the room.

Every night, when I go to put him to bed, he says, "mommy lie down too." Yeah, I have to stay in bed till he is asleep.

Yesterday, he was indoors most of the day and then he said, "Go bye-bye." I took him to the library because we had a movie waiting on hold for us. We got the movie, checked it out and then I was trying to leave. He said, "No, go get book." We went to the children's library and he picked out a few books. After I gave him one of the books to look at it in the car, he said, "Like it book." I told him we were going to go to the store and he said, "go costco." We passed in-n-out and he said, "want french fries (dent dies)." Then he started to talk about "tatsup."

He is using his nails to "make line" in daddy's mouse pad. I asked if he was still sick, and he said, "no, Joseph still sick."

He recognizes the way to certain places. When I took Joseph to martial arts on Wednesday, as we made the turn in the direction the place is, he said, "karate class." I was practicing some stuff with Joseph yesterday and Samuel started to mimic it. He would kick and say "sa" which is what they say when they kick at the class. I am going to miss my cute boys everyday.

Coughing contest

So last weekend I developed a sore throat and had a fever. Samuel seemed to have the same thing earlier this week. We have both been coughing a lot. Last night, Joe brought him to the room to sleep with me in the bed. He woke up around 1 or 2 amd wanted milk. I gave him some kid's tylenol and milk and then we both spent the next half hour coughing. Today we have been coughing a lot and on top of that, Samuel got a high fever. I took him in and he has an ear infection. Joe heard both of us coughing and said that it sounded like we were having a coughing contest. Those were my exact thoughts last night.

In other news, we went and signed the closing docs for our house. We should fund sometime next week. Also, I got a job at BYU as an undergraduate advisor for mechanical engineering. It should be a fun job. :)

Here's a picture of Joe's family together. This is the first time in 2 years that all of the siblings have been at one place at the same time. I think it will happen again in July because Amy is getting married then. Kind of crazy to think that only Joe's youngest sibling will be unwed and that she is getting closer to graduating high school.

The Rankin cousins together. Notice that the only girls are Joe's sisters. Rankins are good at having boys. Maybe Alison will have another girl to add to the mix of grandchildren, seeing as Mackenzie is the only girl so far, and Adam and Meredith are having a boy this time around.

Samuel is talking more and more each day. He no longer says magilk and uses chocolate milk. He loves to race around on his "cycle." He is now in a big boy bed. Unfortunately, that means that he can get out of bed when he wants to. Last night he slept in bed with me; I just hope I didn't get him sick. He also says "stuck-ed" when something gets caught somewhere. He loves to sleep with Samson and Ribbit (his bear and frog), as well as piggy car. Samuel also has a sense of clothes that he likes to wear. His favorites are: a shirt that says stay cool, a hoody with a pumpkin, dinosaur socks, and pants.

Joseph is starting to take martial arts classes and is enjoying it. He also starts soccer in a couple of weeks. I get to coach his team...yeah, we will see how that goes. I have a training on Tuesday night and I have contacted all of his team members. We also registered Joseph for kindergarten at Provost Elementary.

We are closing on our house in the next week if all goes well. It will be nice to have our own place again.

Joseph quotes

We were leaving our car with the dealership. The driver was bringing us home:

Joseph: "We live in the basement. If you want, you can come in and visit us." (I need to talk to him about inviting strangers into our house).

Yesterday after daddy left for PA:

Joseph: "I would be so sad if daddy passes out while he is gone." (Passes out means passed away).

In a prayer while daddy was gone:

Joseph: "Please bless that the time will pass super, super, super, super, super, super duper fast so we can see daddy again."

Great Grandpa Azro Goodwin Rankin

Early Monday morning, we lost a beloved family member, Azro Goodwin Rankin. He was a remarkable man. I was so blessed to become part of his family. He welcomed me into the family with open arms. Joseph's middle name was to honor him, Azro, and Samuel also has part of his name, Goodwin. The brief time that I knew him, he was always so kind and gentle. It didn't take long to for him to make anyone around him feel like they were important. He recognized God's divinity within us and was a man of faith. He always wore his wedding band, even after losing his wife, honoring the love that he carried with him till he left this mortal life. He always wore a smile and laughter was an essential part of his character. Even when we saw him at Christmas in the hospital, he eased the pain of us seeing him there by making us laugh. We love you grandpa and know that you are reunited with your wife. We will see you again one day. Thank you for your life and example.

Up to date updates...

News in our life:

-We heard back on the house that we are interested in buying. It is a nice cute home that has an unfinished basement for Joe to work on. All the schools are good from elementary to high school. A few nice things about the house: central air, newer windows, newer roof, new kitchen cabinets (even if the kitchen is a small eat in type), and a super nice landscaped fully fenced backyard with large garden boxes. We had a few offers in, but this is the one we are planning on. It is in southeast Provo and has an awesome view of the mountains.

-Joseph is really big into playing the wii. He loves to spend so much time playing, that we have had to put time limits on him, otherwise he would sit in front of it ALL day long. At first we told him 2 hours was his limit, but he felt it was too short, so he asked for 144 minutes. We told him he could play 120 minutes and that made him happy. :)

-Samuel is a little chatterbox. He likes to talk and is formulating sentences like crazy. Not all of them include proper verbage, but he is putting things together. It is funny because the other day, Joseph wanted a snack. I told them we had popcorn and Joseph said that would be a good one. Samuel heard we were having popcorn and he started to say, "popcorn and pickles." Yep, he is his mother's son. :) He loves to snack on pickles, just like his mommy. Right now he is walking around saying, "piggy car. hide it?" He can't find his piggy car because he hid it. I don't know where it is either. His favorite songs are the "itsy bitsy spider", "the abc song", "the snowman song", and "twinkle, twinkle, little star." He sings along. I need to record the abc song because he only does certain letters and then kind of grunts for others.

-I have read a lot of books on my nook. Some are free samples and others were free books. I read one called "Fools Rush In." It is a cute story with very religious sentiments. I read the second in the series which I purchased. It was a little farfetched in my opinion, but I liked it. I decided not to purchase the 3rd book and am going to check it out at the library. Joe said I could spend more money getting books, but I like owning the hard copies of books for a library of my own. It is super nice to have because I can read it in the dark. Lately I have had to lay down in the room with Samuel so he can fall asleep. It helps him settle in easier and now that I can read, I don't get irritated with the time it takes. I have also set up a mommy decoy in the room. It is a bunch of blankets set on Joseph's bed to look like I am in the room sleeping. It has worked for the most part and he has started to sleep through the night again. I think he is starting to get afraid of the dark.

-Joe is working ridiculous hours at work. They are hiring someone else, so that will be nice for him. He will hopefully get to be home more often at night and on weekends. He is keeping himself busy doing things at home. Samuel likes to sit with his daddy and he usually falls asleep on him if it is nap time. Joseph loves to share his video game passion with his daddy. It has been quite the bonding experience for both of them. :)

I am trying to take more pictures. I need to learn how to not be afraid of my rebel. It is soooooo nice and the pictures that it takes are awesome.