"COINS"

A couple times a week Landon asks if we can walk to the mall. Not because he loves to shop, but because he loves to play on the little firetrucks and other fun rides. He is always asking for "coins" (which I find funny because I've always called them quarters) so that he can take them to the mall. About twice a month we give in and let Landon earn the whopping seventy-five cents it takes to go on a 2 minute ride and we walk to the mall. Luckily, Landon always chooses a vehicle that has two seats so Zachary enjoys it too.

Today, we went to Walmart and as we were leaving I gave Landon a bunch of change to put in the red tin. What I thought was going to be a simple task ended up taking much longer because Landon had to sort the change and in the end would only put the pennies, nickels, and dimes into the tin. The quarters he kept for himself and asked if we could take the "coins" to the mall to go for a ride.

A new calling

About a month ago I was asked to be the new Young Womens President in our ward. A few of the first thoughts that ran threw my mind when I was asked if I would accept included, "Why me?", "I'm too young.", "Wouldn't someone else be more qualified?", and "How am I going to do this with two little kids?" I thought for a moment that I must be dreaming and that I would wake up soon. Well, it turns out it wasn't a dream and yesterday was the first day of this exciting, yet overwhelming calling I now have. Since being called I have had a flood of ideas and I find myself thinking, "How am I going to have time to do all these things?". I'm trying to stay calm and have faith that I can do this. I pray that I will be able to bless the lives of the YW and their families. I know that I am not alone in this endeavor. I am thankful for the help of counselors and advisers. I am thankful that I was counselor for 2 years. I am thankful for the example that the previous President was to me. I am thankful for the young women in my ward, and I am thankful for a husband that supports me in this time-consuming calling and his willingness to help with the kids. I know that it won't be easy, but I also know that I was called for a reason so I will take one step at a time and do the best that I can. I am thankful for opportunities like this that my church gives for I know that it will teach me to love to serve, it will help me grow stronger, and be better.

IMAGINE

Landon's imagination has blossomed the past few weeks. He likes to pretend his train is going to the beach, to Utah, to grandma's and other fun places. When he goes to the beach he pretends to put Thomas the train's swimsuit on for him along with his sunglasses, hat, sunscreen, and he makes sure he gets all of his sand toys. When he goes to Utah he shows Thomas how to throw rocks in grandmas pond. Last night he said he wanted to make a cake, but I told him we couldn't because it was time for bed. He decided to pretend to make a cake on the table and then brought me and Ryan a piece of it. He kept saying how yummy it was and how he wanted more. Then spilled a little on the couch and went to get a rag to wipe it up. This morning he pretended our bed was a boat and he kept falling in the water in hopes that we would rescue him. He also likes to pretend to talk on the phone to his cousins, Jared and Allison. We have fun seeing what he'll come up with next.

Growing Boys!

Zachary turned 9 months old a few days ago. He's got the army crawl down and loves to follow Landon around the house. I let him have the last little bit of my Popsicle as you can see in the picture and he loved it. The cold didn't even seem to bother him. Maybe it even felt good since his 8th tooth is already arriving.




Landon learned to ride his Trike a few months ago and is now getting pretty speedy. He's never liked it when I try to push him so I could take the push bar off, but we keep it on just in case I need to stop him from going into the road. He loves to go down hills, over bumps, and of course, through water puddles.

A Glimpse of Paradise

We recently returned from a week vacation to Hawaii. We stayed 4 days on Oahu and 4 days on Kauai. Both islands are amazingly beautiful and we had fun hiking, swimming, trying to surf, snorkeling, eating shaved ice, and of course visiting with Tyler, Janna, and Lilly. It was also fun to see Thomas and Brooke and their two cute boys. What a great place to live! We missed Landon while we were away, but it was definitely more relaxing with just Zachary and I know Landon had fun playing with with his cousins, Jared and Allison. In fact, we've only been home for four days and he was asking me today if we could go to Aunt Cindy's.

CRAZY.....but True

I've been searching for a place to park our car at the San Francisco airport. The cheapest I could find that's within a couple miles of the airport is $102 for 8 days. If you stay at a park and sleep hotel you get a 1 night stay plus the parking of your car for as little as $75. Crazy, huh! I guess we'll save $ by sleeping in San Fran and not waking up so early.

Wandering Mind

My thoughts today:

~I wish I could speak Urdu and Mandarin so that I can communicate at the park. Only in Milpitas can you go to the park and no one speaks English. (Although a lady from Pakistan is trying to learn...she tries to talk to me, but all I can understand is, "I love to learn English".
~How do I get Landon to stay in his room all night. I often find him sleeping on the floor in my room in the morning. (He knows not to wake me up or I make him go back to his bed)
~Having 3 weeks to prepare a talk to give at church may not be a good thing.
~I never thought I would really like having a van, but I do. I love our Toyota Sienna (We had to get a new car after our Cruiser broke down on the way home from Oregon).
~Hopefully Ryan and his friends make it back safely from whitewater Kayaking (It's Ryan's first time, but I hope he likes it and he takes me sometime)
~Why is it so hard for me to make Visiting Teaching appointments when its so refreshing to visit my ladies (BTW I just made 2 out of 3 appointments so I'm feeling pretty good)

Where did my little boy go?

Landon has hit a stage where he wants to make all the decisions and do everything by himself from the shoes I wear to pouring his own milk. We left to church yesterday with Landon screaming because I was wearing my brown church sandals instead of the black ones he wanted me to wear. Today we were going to go to the park and he insisted on going down the elevator all by himself. Since I wouldn't let him he threw a tantrum and we ended up back in the house. If he needs a drink he has to get his own cup and then get his own water, which is fine, but if I mess up and forget that he wants to be the one to do it then he starts crying. We have definitely hit the terrible twos. I know some people who read books on how to raise an independent child. Where are the books on raising dependent children? LOL

Little Artist

Lately, I have been making some home-made paints for Landon and we are discovering that he can be quite the artist when he's in the right mood. I really like this painting that he did with corn syrup and food coloring. Here's how he made it:

1. Put corn syrup in little cups and add food coloring to make your paints
2. Landon dumps all of the paint onto his paper
3. Landon swirls the paint around on the paper
4. There is way too much paint on the paper so mom gets strips of paper and trys to soak some of it up.
5. Landon pulls the pieces of paper off and underneath lies a masterpiece.

Landon enjoys painting with the corn syrup because it is sticky, makes fun designs and it dries shiny.


WARNING: Is very sticky even when it dries. I had to put this one in a sheet protector so we could keep it.

FINALLY!

I bought new running shoes 2 months ago and I finally found the motivation this morning to put them on, put the boys in the stroller, and go for a run. Since I was told to take it easy when I was pregnant, my exercise has consisted of walking to the park (that is right outside my door) and watching Landon play. This has to stop! Honestly, after a while I liked being able to say, "I can't exercise". But now that I don't have a good excuse, I just feel lazy and my body is really hurting. After only 3-4 minutes of jogging I started huffing and puffing and I could feel the side-ache coming. I ended up doing intervals of jogging 2 minutes and then walking for 2 minutes. After about 20 minutes of this my legs felt a little wobbly so I gave in to Landon's requests to play at the park. Now that I know how out of shape I am, I'm really going to feel guilty if I don't get out and exercise. Breastfeeding is great for losing weight (I'm back to my pre-pregnancy weight). Too bad it doesn't build muscle and give your body the oxygen it needs.

UTAH FUN!

We have returned from a fun-filled trip to Utah. We are so glad that we were able to see so much family and a few friends in the week we were there. There is never enough time with each of you, but we really do try to visit with as many as possible. Thanks to all of you who took time out of your busy lives to visit with us. We love you all!

It was the perfect day to hike to Battle Creek Falls.

We went on a hike with Ryan's grade-school friend, Ryan Peck. Ryan was glad Peck offered to carry Landon.

Ryan and Landon with Aunt Joyce and Grandma Liston.

We went on a walk with Bruce and Nancy and April.

Dan is my favorite horse

I can't believe how big my baby brother is!

I loved visiting with two of my best friends from highschool, Shauna and Rachelle. You both are beautiful!

The wonderful, crazy, fun, frustrating moments of life as a mom!

Hello! The month of March seemed to disappear and how is it the 17th of April already? The past little while has been full of fun, tiring, exciting, and frustrating moments. It's a good thing the fun and exciting times out number the not-so-pleasant ones.

Last week I tried to do the 3 day Potty Training by Lora Jenson with Landon. According to the book, 22 months is the ideal age to potty train. I was skeptical, but had to try it to see if Landon really was ready. It was the most exhausting 5 (not 3) days of my life! Not once did Landon tell me he needed to go potty before he was actually going and I followed the book exactly. I must have read it 20 times to make sure I was doing everything right. At the end of day 5 I gave up and put Landon back in diapers. Each day Landon did improve a little bit, but I'm certain it would have been at least a couple more weeks of constant watch and training before he would be telling me that he needed to go potty. One thing he did amazing at was staying dry at night. I guess me telling him a hundred times a day to, "Tell mommy when he needed to go potty" really stuck in his head because the 4 nights we were potty training he woke up dry. I like the method and I think there's a good chance it will work when he's a little older. For now, I'm glad I have my sanity back.

We purchased season passes to the Great America/Gilroy Gardens Theme Parks. Landon went to Great America for the first time on Tuesday. I don't think he's ever been so stimulated. The two mornings following our adventure I would go to get Landon from his crib and he would tell me all about riding the cars that go round and round. He must have dreamed about it.

Zachary has begun to smile a lot and has started to squeal. He's really good most of the time, but does have his times during the day that he doesn't want to be put down. Every morning when he wakes up I bring him to my bed and he is so happy. He'll lay in bed smiling, kicking, and squealing for at least an hour.
We had Janice (Ryan's Mom) take our family picture a couple weeks ago when we went to visit. Boy is it difficult to get my boys to look at the camera at the same time.

Little Chef!

Landon loves to help me in the kitchen. The other day we decided to make some cookies and Landon did really well and helping mix all the ingredients together until we got to the chocolate chips. He tried to eat as many as possible before they were put into the dough and then once they were in the dough he kept trying to pick them out. Funny Boy! He ended up being a mess as well as the counter, but he had fun. I really need to find him a good stool to stand on.

Landon 21 months, Zachary 1 month

Well, I made it through the first month with 2 kids 20 months apart and it wasn't as bad as I thought it might be. Actually, it was pretty fun. Landon has adjusted well to having a little brother. I do have to watch closely to make sure Zac is safe from flying toys and fingers going into his eyes, but Landon has been very good about letting me take care of Zachary's needs without getting upset. He seems to play better by himself now than before the baby. Zachary is doing really well. He has gained a pound a week the last few weeks making him weigh 9 pounds now. He is a very content little guy and has been really fun to take care of.

Zachary Peter Sharp

Zachary made his way into this world five weeks early on January 6, 2009. Amazingly, he weighed 6 pounds and was 20 inches long. He probably would have been huge had he waited until his due date. The first 10 days if his life he had to spend in the NICU. At first he needed some oxygen to help him breath and by the time he could breath on his own he had forgotten how to suck so he stayed in the hospital a few more days until he could drink from a bottle. We were able to bring him home on Friday, the 16th and now we are working on breastfeeding. He's doing really well and looks like he will have it down in no time. At least that's what I'm hoping since it's getting really tiring to be pumping and bottle feeding. Landon is adjusting to having a little brother. The first couple of days he would get upset when I was feeding Zach and try to make messes everywhere. The last couple of days haven't been quite as bad although he does get a little upset when Zachary won't take the pacifier that he tries to give him.