Obligatory Thanksgiving Post

As we have arrived to the eve of Thanksgiving I knew that I needed to make this post before we get into the actual Thanksgiving Day.
I am truly grateful for so many things in my life. As I look back on this past year I realise that I was not mentally well last Thanksgiving. I had been hiding in my shell of Postpartum Depression and hadn't wanted to admit that I really was struggling as I battled my own personal demons. I remember being unhappy with so many things going on in my life, but it was only fueled by my unhappiness with the fact that I knew that I was not ok. So many emotions start to stir while I am writing this, but the most prominent emotion is overwhelming gratitude. Gratitude for my Heavenly Father, my husband, my mother and so many others that really helped me along the path to becoming better. It makes me sad to think that I went so long without admitting I had a problem.
This year is so much different! Which makes me so incredibly happy! I feel so blessed to have overcome what has been my biggest trial in my life. There are days when I do still feel somewhat like I used to, but it's never to the extent or the degree of where I've been. There are times when someone will say something that pushes me to that edge again, and I feel completely inadequate all over; but the sadness never lasts long and I am able to pick myself up again.
I am grateful for the support that I have had this past year in overcoming the Postpartum Depression. I think, Jon gets annoyed with me sometimes, because I constantly ask him if I'm acting better. But I just want to know, and make sure that I really am better. Because, he's the one who has to live with me so I better make sure that he is happy with me! Jon is my biggest supporter and I am so blessed to have him be my eternal companion. He is such an amazing man, and I appreciate every single little thing that he does. He is doing so incredibly well in school and I could not be any more proud! He is the most wonderful, attentive husband, and he is such a phenomenal father. The light in Liam's eyes when Daddy comes home is the most wonderful sight, and seeing Jon scoop up Liam in his arms makes me fall in love with him all over again.
I am thankful for my parents and for all the support that they give to Jon and I! They never cease to remind Jon how proud they are of him for all that he is doing and working so hard to achieve. I know that because of Jon's and my rocky courtship they were a little wary when we got engaged, but my dad has told me so many times how proud he is of Jon and how glad it makes him to see how much Jon loves me.
I am so thankful to be having a healthy pregnancy! I am grateful that I am experiencing this all over again! I remember how much I loved being pregnant with Liam and even though this pregnancy didn't start out wonderful, now that we are in the downward spin of it and I can feel the kicks, it makes everything a little bit more bearable. I also feel like I'm able to bond now with the baby because I can feel his/her presence rather than just knowing I was pregnant.
Of course, I couldn't leave this little guy out: My Mr. Liam. How this little boy has changed my life for the better. Not a day goes by that I don't marvel at something else that he has learned to do or something funny that he does. He is the most busy, fun, and adorable little boy ever! I am so lucky to be his mom! I don't understand how anyone could not enjoy being a mom, because this is the best job I've ever had! It's hard and it's downright frustrating at times, but it is so rewarding to know that he is my little boy and that he knows that I am his momma! Jon was playing with him the other day and they were playing with an umbrella, well, Jon opened up the umbrella and that scared Liam. What did he do? He came and hid behind my leg! Because he knows that I will protect him! It made my heart melt when it hit me that he knows that he is safe with me.

Well, there is so much more that I have to be grateful for, but this about sums up the most important! I am excited for Thanksgiving tomorrow and excited that I can put up our Christmas tree on Friday! I know that Jon would have an absolute fit if I had put it up any sooner! When we start making actual money and Jon has a big boy job I am going to decorate with the Grinch theme for Christmas! I'm actually really excited!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Father and Son

I love the dynamic that these two have. I may be Liam's mom, which is the best job in the world, but there is just something so sweet and so perfect about the love between father and son!

The first picture was at the zoo in 2012, and the bottom one was taken this year in 2013.

That's all... just saw these and it made me tear up.

A post about Mr. Liam!

Liam is far too smart for his own good. He has been loving his new bedroom set! I think he really enjoys the freedom that he has in his room, yesterday I was cooking dinner and he was playing happily in his room. Then he discovered that he can shut the door and I won't come open it. It was really funny. I finally put the sheets and blankets on his bed, so his room is almost all the way done. The last change won't happen until after the new Mosher-ling makes their arrival and we need the crib for them. I love that Jon was able to get his bedroom set from his parents house, because along with it came his dinosaur blanket that Grandma Mosher made for Jon when he was young. I think it's so sweet to use things that mean a lot to us and were made for us.

Daddy and Mr. Liam!

Those teeth get me every time!! Love this little boy!

Then on Sunday, we were already running a bit late for church, and Liam hadn't really made much noise and so I figured that we could just hurry and get him up and head out to church once we finished getting ready. Well... the time came and I finally went into his room to wake him up and get him dressed and ready for church. The only thing I saw first was his hand, and it was black, then I noticed that he had a sharpie in his other hand and that, that hand too, was black. The realisation had hit about where the black marks had come from and so I quickly asked for him to hand me the sharpie. He handed it over and I figured it wouldn't be that big of a deal because I could just wipe off most of his hands and then we could still make it to church. Then my eyes wandered down, and realised that there was much more that this little boy had coloured. Half of his leg from knee up was covered with black. At this point in time, I just laughed because what else is a 16 month old going to do with a sharpie? Thankfully, he hadn't coloured on the wall, that would not have been fun to clean up as he is now on the painted side of his room versus the carpeted side, I called Jon in to show him what his son had done and we had a good laugh. Then he noticed that his pillow and blanket had also been used as canvases.

He was quite pleased with himself! I hurried and looked up "what takes sharpie off of skin" and nail polish remover was the first thing that popped up, so I went and got my cotton balls and bottle of nail polish remover. Jon held on to him while I went to work, about two scrubs with a cotton ball was about all the cotton ball could handle, so I went through quite a few pieces of cotton. Liam sat still through most of it, which knowing him is not always the case, I had finally managed to fade it as much as I could and then I went and started the tub running so he could take a bath. He happily splashed in the water and then I got him out once his playing had started to subside and he started splashing water outside of the tub. I got him all dried off and then we went into his room to put on some clothes, after putting new clothes on him he started playing in his room. Since Jon and I had missed half of sacrament we decided to just hang out until it was time to go to classes, so he sat in Liam's rocking chair and I sat down on his new bed and we were throwing a ball back and forth to each other while Liam played. Liam found the cotton balls and brought the bag to me, I took one out and handed it to him and he proceeded to try and wipe his leg with the cotton ball. It was pretty cute to see him trying to do what I had been doing earlier. So I praised him and told him that he was very smart and that is what we were doing.

Another thing that anyone who knows Liam can attest to, is that this little boy doesn't sit still. Ever. He is always going and exploring and being curious and getting into absolutely everything! The other day, he came and sat down next to my mum and I on the couch, and he rested up against her, so naturally she started rubbing his belly. He decided that he really liked that, and kept trying to find a new comfortable position so that she could rub his belly.

Look how calm this kid is right now??

Then, as he was moving around, my mum positioned him so that she could scratch his back. At first, because he was really enjoying his belly being rubbed, he fought it- and then you could see in his little face, his realisation that back scratching is really nice too! So he happily laid down and allowed her to keep scratching his back. He then fell asleep! I love it when he sleeps! He just looks so peaceful!

And he's out. We were trying so hard to choke back laughter because of how much he was enjoying it.

Needless to say, I love our little boy! He brings so much happiness to all of us, and he always manages to make us laugh. He is so creative and loves to explore all around him! He is such a sweet kid who makes my whole day brighter! I love being his mommy, and I know that he is going to make such a fantastic big brother to his new little sibling!

The never written post about Pirates of Penzance

Have you ever had an experience that was just completely awful that you just couldn't really talk publicly about for awhile? Well... that was this past summer for me. I really wanted to do a show, and so Jon and I found a cute little theatre that was close to us that was holding auditions for a show called Pirates of Penzance. I've heard of the show, but I'd never seen it nor been in it; Jon and I thought it might be fun to do together and so we got auditions ready and auditioned. I had read through the show briefly before auditioning so I knew the characters and whatnot, and I was so sure that I would be cast as one of the sisters. Imagine my surprise when I was double cast as Mabel, the lead. I was pretty excited, but that excitement was short lived. As Jon and I started the rehearsal process we quickly learned that this was not like any show we had ever been in. There was absolutely no discipline whatsoever and our directors seemed to not really know what they were doing. People seemed to come and go as they please and as we got into music rehearsals we were only taught the melody which I found completely ridiculous because I've been able to teach harmonies to choirs in an hour, but they said that we didn't have enough time to learn all of the harmonies because we only had a month to do rehearsals, but considering that we were called to rehearsals for a good three to four hours every night it seems stupid and lazy on the directors parts to not do their job of teaching us, so I took it on myself to learn the alto line since that seemed that that was going to be our only harmony in the show. Our directors decided that their idea of doing things for this show was to make it as "janky" as possible. So they would make inside jokes about everything. They had cross dressers for the pirates and the daughters which was a stupid idea, they decided that it would be funny to make our set out of cardboard, and make it look as ugly as they possibly could. We had no blocking or direction at all except to make it "as janky" and "as funny" as we possible could. The lead male was the brother of one of the directors and a junior in high school who couldn't make it to half of the rehearsals so not only did the other Mabel and I have to learn all of our parts without him when he finally did grace us with his presence we each only had a short time to actually work with him. It really was run horribly.
The pirates were made up of mostly young men (14 year olds) who didn't know how to control their impulses and said ridiculously stupid things and made idiotic comments most of the time. And the sisters were compiled of two girls that we became pretty good friends with and two girls who were very much adults (one was 20 and the other was 23) who did not like the rest of us, and who found enjoyment out of sitting on the laps of the 14 year olds and taking 'cutsie' pictures and getting attention from these boys who were much younger than them. It was extremely creepy to see grown women acting like school girls with these young boys. These girls couldn't stand a friend of Jon's and mine, and later we found out that they were telling everyone that we would bully them and were just so mean to them which never happened from my perspective because they wouldn't even look at us, nor talk to us. So I don't understand how we could have bullied them when they gave us the cold shoulder for all of the rehearsal process and performances.
Considering that our set was made out of cardboard (very horribly I might add, but apparently that was the "vision" that our directors were going for) and we were not disciplined whatsoever, and our music was horrible, and we had no direction at all. I was very embarrassed to be part of this show. Never before have I been so ashamed of a show that I've been a part of. Pirates of Penzance is actually quite a funny show, if you understand that type of humour. It's dry and extremely witty, but our directors changed so much to add in their own inside jokes and took out a lot of the smart humor. It's a funny show, but they degraded it and dumbed it down so much that it was not even funny anymore. It was just incredibly stupid. But of course half of our cast had not ever been a part of a truly well run production and so they thought that our directors were doing a fantastic job, and I feel so blessed to have worked with directors who actually know what they are doing and talking about, because you have to have the bad to truly appreciate the good.
Notes for rehearsals were also a complete joke, they consisted of nothing that we needed to actually work on, even though those of us who have really been in shows could see all of the blatant mistakes and wrongdoings going on with the whole show. What notes mostly entailed was how "amazing" we were and how our directors "nearly had a heart attack and died because it was so funny" and there was nothing that was actually note worthy, and yet, they managed to drag notes out for about an hour to two hours bragging about all of the things that they had done in previous shows and joking around with the brown nosing male lead who had a very creepy relationship with our director (not his brother) even though he claimed to have a girlfriend. It got to the point that Jon and I would just leave during the notes sessions, because they would just blather on for hours, and we had Liam with a babysitter at our house, so there was no way that we were willing to stay to listen to their idiotic statements about how amazing they were and just boasting themselves up til midnight or later. So it got to the point where Jon and I would leave after rehearsal because there was absolutely nothing that was worth staying for.
 Our directors said at the very last rehearsal we had that they "turned the show over to us and they were no longer a part of it" So when Jon and I walked in the day that we were going to be opening our Major General handed Jon a can of spray paint and told him to go and add colour to what was supposedly a fountain. The group of us (which was a little more than half) that were not pleased with what was going on decided that since our directors had chosen not to be a part of the show that we would take matters into our own hands and so we banded together and Jon built a completely new set, and I painted it. It was definitely not our best work at all and had we had more than a couple days to build something it would have been much better, but we did as best we could in the time allotted. Of course, when the rest of the cast showed up the few who still believed that our directors did a fantastic job were not happy that we had taken liberties to change the set. That's when the coldness became even more icy, but honestly I didn't care. I'd have done it again. It's not fair for directors to make it so that their cast cannot be proud of the show that they are going to put on. I'm sorry, but when the main adjective used to describe a show is "janky" it's not going to be a good show or even a show that is going to deserve any kind of effort. I didn't give my all for any part of the show, and that kills me! Because I know that I didn't perform to my best ability and that makes me mad, to this day.
I definitely know that I am grateful for Alyn and for the way that she has taught me and how she is mentoring me right now! I learn more from her in one rehearsal than I did in the entirety of that show. This isn't even all of what went down with the show, but it's far too much to put into one blog post. I just know that I am past the point of being completely angry about it and so I needed to write down the experiences. Because even though it was the absolute worst show I've ever been a part of, I do need to be grateful that I had the experience so that I can truly appreciate all of the good shows I'll do in the future!

November Update!

Well, with a new baby coming that means that we have to rearrange our house to welcome our newest little addition! We have three bedrooms upstairs in our house, one is the Master Bedroom, then the room at the end of the hall is Mr. Liam's room and the third room had been an office/playroom for Jon and Liam. We needed to move the office downstairs so that the third room upstairs could be the new baby's nursery. Knowing that the new baby will be with us in our room for at least the first three months made me start thinking about Liam's age and whether or not he'd be ready for a toddler bed by the time that the new baby needed his crib. So then the search for affordable big boy bedroom sets began; and that was quite daunting! Then, Jon's dad called him up one day and asked if we wanted Jon's old bedroom set! What a strike of luck!! We said that we would happily take it and that took quite a load of pricey burden off of our shoulders! We went and got that this weekend and it was really awesome because Liam has a bed, a desk, and a dresser! We set it up (I say we but I really mean Jon) and Liam had fun bouncing on his new bed. We took his changing table out of his room and have been using the bed as the changing table. It's been nice, we've been toddler-ising Liam's room to make it friendly for him (again, I say we, but it was really Jon. I sat and cleaned out the closet while Jon did the heavy stuff).
Being 19 weeks pregnant this week I realise that I am tired... a lot... I had forgotten just how tired a body gets when growing a child. It doesn't help that I am still a mom to a very busy 16 month old! Liam shocked me this Sunday though, in a good way. Jon was finishing setting up Liam's new bed and so I had taken in Liam's pajama's and a diaper into the bathroom so that I could just change him in there after his bath. Well, he played happily in the water, and then when he was done, I took him out of the bathtub and dried him off so I could put his diaper on him. Well... he stood up as soon as I was done drying him and he went over to his potty and he lifted the lid, sat down and proceeded to use it! I was both shocked and elated that he chose to go potty all by himself with no word from me. After he was done he got up and came and sat down on the towel and let me put his diaper on. What a wonderful moment for me as a mom! I've noticed this about Liam, when he doesn't know how to do something he won't do it, I'll use the stairs for this. Until Liam knew how to climb down the stairs and up the stairs he wouldn't go near them. I never had to worry about him falling down the stairs because he just didn't have any interest in them until he knew exactly what to do. And so now, I still don't have to worry about him and the stairs because he knows how to go down and up them. We never had to put the gate up so he wouldn't go down them. I'm seeing a pattern with him, he's very intuitive and he's extremely smart, he won't do something or even attempt until he knows that he really does know how to do it. That's with the potty. I haven't pushed potty training because I don't want him to hate the toilet, but I bought the toilet so that we could have it in the bathroom so that he would be able to see it and not be scared of it when the time actually comes to fully train. Same with the new bed. I want it in his room so that when all of a sudden it's time for his crib to be moved out, he recognises the bed because it's been there for so long. My method is obviously working for him, so I'm content.

Exciting news this week!!! My sister in law Meagan had her and Timy's baby! Her name is Nola Irene and she was 8 pounds and 20 inches long. I am so happy for her and my brother! It's kind of weird to see him as a dad, but I love seeing the pictures of them with their new baby! It really is wonderful to watch others experience the amazing outpouring of love that comes with having a child! I know that I didn't truly understand love until I had my sweet little Liam! I also love the fact that Liam and Nola are only  a year and some months apart and then my newest baby will be about six months younger than Nola! They are going to have cousins to play with!! The only downside is that they won't be able to play with one another until the holidays when Tim, Meagan and Nola come out for as they live in Texas. But for them to have cousins close in age is something I am thrilled about!

Baby Number 2 Update!
Well, I have had so many family members ask what the sex of our child is. At first I didn't want to find out, because I thought it would be really sweet to find out the day that he/she was born. I get to experience everything first with this baby and I just figured it would be sweet to have Jon be able to tell me in the delivery room if we had welcomed a boy or girl into our family. But Jon really doesn't want to wait, so we won't wait. At my 18 week appointment last week Jon rushed down to be present, because Dr. Hall would do an ultrasound. Well, we go in and he puts the jelly stuff on my belly and then starts looking at the baby. What a difference a month can make!! I love seeing our little one grow! Well, he measured the baby's head and leg and then went to see if he could determine the sex, and, no joke, my belly button was in the way, so there was this HUGE shadow where we needed to look. Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha, I just laughed! Liam was rather difficult too for a long time and so I shouldn't have thought that this child would be any different. Jon was quite disappointed, but I was actually quite humoured by the fact that we couldn't see because of my belly button. The baby's legs were wide open and had it been in a different location we would have been able to tell, but because of where it was we couldn't. My anatomy scan will be December 4th so we will be able to find out if it's a girl or a boy.
I am able to feel this little one kick! It's amazing! I didn't feel Liam til I was about 21ish weeks, so the fact that I've been able to feel this one so early is fascinating to me! I love laying down and feeling the tiny kicks. This morning I put Liam's hand where the kicks were and I don't think he liked it very much as he pulled his hand away pretty fast.
Overall, this pregnancy is going by so fast, and I feel like I'm missing half of it! I am 19 weeks today and I'm really almost half way done! Time seems to be flying by and the only thing that I am noticing lately is the fact that my belly is getting bigger, and I'm getting more and more tired! The simplest of things gets me winded nowadays. It's rather frustrating. Also, bending over is becoming slightly more difficult... I was at the school the other day putting tape down onto the floor so the kids would know not to cross it before going onstage and it was hard! My body didn't like it!

Well, that's really about all for right now. Alyn's and my show opens on Thursday! We are really excited! the kids have worked so hard and I know that I am really proud of them. There's still much for them to learn but they've come a long way!