Thankful Reflection

THANKFUL

Tis the season for us to slow down our lives and reflect on what we are thankful for. I've seen some other friends and family post similar ideas, so I wanted to get my ideas out there as well.

1. My wife. What an awesome individual she is. She has the most amazing personality that I have ever found in a person. She is a dedicated wife, and will go out of her way to be there for me, or help me when I ask. She is an incredible mother to our 4 (soon to be 5) children. She certainly has that "mother's intuition" and seems to stop time to accomplish all the tasks she has as a mother of 4. She completes me (yeah, cheezy Jerry Macquire line). She compliments my faults, and helps me to strive to be a better person. I love our talks at night when I have questions about being a father, and she teaches me. She has the hardest job of them all, and I don't give her credit enough for the awesome job that she does. Sometimes I wish mother's would get monetary value for all their hard work in raising our kids, because Michelle would make us multi-millionaires. I love you bebeh, and can not tell you or anyone else just how much I appreciate you and love you ten million universes, and back.
2. I am thankful for Kaden, Camdon, Halle and Jasmin. I wasn't quite sure what I was getting into when I married into an instant family, but I would not trade the experience for the world. These kids have taught me so much about myself, and have changed me for the better. I love seeing the smile on their faces when the lightbulb goes off in their heads when they learn something new everyday. I miss the three older kids when they go to their biological father's house, and although the break is nice, its fulfilling to be around them again. I get frustrated with them, but their innocence reminds me of why Heavenly Father trusted me with them. I am excited for our new baby, and to continue the life long mission of bettering ourselves, and be as little children.
3. I am thankful for my family, and extended family. My family isn't the "perfect" family, but I will defend them as if they are. I don't feel we are a close family, but I am thankful that I have them if I need them. Although I am a little jealous when I see or hear other families and how close they are. Thankfully my in-laws are that close family. I actually love my mother-in-law and father-in-law. Not many people can say that. They are truly my second set of parents. I have learned so much from them since being married to Michelle. I love all of Michelle's siblings and their families. I truly feel bonded and welcomed into their family.
4. I am thankful for my health. I don't have the best diet and exercise program (ok, I don't even have one) but Heavenly Father has blessed me to still be around. I constantly hear that I need to start getting out and exercise (maybe that is the Spirit "whispering" to me). I am just having a hard time trying to juggle everything and using time management skills to do everything I want to.
5. I am thankful for my Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ. The love and comfort I feel from them, and for the perfect example He has set for us. Although it is not a joyous feeling to know that we are weak and struggle, it is comforting to know we can turn to Him for guidance. I have never had to rely so much on The Lord in my life, as I have since being married this time around. I have learned that I can not do everything on my own, and need to let The Lord into my life, marriage and everything I do. Thank you!
6. I am thankful for my friends. Not just the recent ones I have made over the years, but the lifelong ones I made in high school. Dewey & Meshan, Britt, Danika, Annie, Travis, Charlie, Sara D., I LOVE YOU GUYS! Without you, I would not be the person I am today. You all were such awesome examples to me in a time that we were most influential. When our friends were out partying, and getting in trouble...we all clung together and made it through the rough seas (aka high school). I was the first in my family to serve a mission, and stay on the straight and narrow path, but I give you all the most credit for helping me and being the best friends anyone could ask for.
7. Finally, I am thankful for technology. What a wonderful tool it is for us in these days. The opportunity we have to listen to our prophet and apostles speak to us, and to follow their words. Even this blog site, which has helped me connect with so many loved ones, and to feel a part of their lives again. (Enter in "I Love Technology" by Kip Dynamite)

1st Baby Appointment

Michelle had her first Dr. appointment today for the baby. Through some recommendations from friends and ward members, she found a Dr. who is the Stake President of a neighboring stake. He also is quite young, and has 5 children as well with the oldest being in their early teens.

Her appointment was at 8 o'clock in the morning, and that is when the kids have to get to the bus stop. So I stayed home to get them ready and off to school, and watched Jasmin until Michelle came back home after 10am.

The Dr. says everything is ok. The Dr. drew some blood, told her to "open wide" (and no, this wasn't a Dentist) and also performed an ultrasound. I guess this Dr. performs ultrasounds at every appointment, which is one of the main reasons why Michelle went to him. So she got to see our little baby (I think she referred to him/her as a "little stick") and see the heart beating. We also found out that we're having......just ONE baby! =) whew! Michelle's mom was bringing up the "twins" talk with her, and Michelle was getting a little paranoid. Michelle also kept referring back when she was pregnant with Jasmin and kept having dreams about triplets. So unless this baby miraculously spawns another clone inside, it is just one. This is just fine with us, because with this child we will be maxed out with seat belts. We didn't want to have to go buy a small bus to start driving to the grocery store.

Expected Due Date: July 10

Since Michelle can't remember the date of her last period, the Dr. has estimated the due date by the size of the baby. Which is just a few days shy of us thinking it was going to be around July 15 (or so). Since Michelle has had 2 C-sections already, this will also be one, and the Dr. prefersto deliver them a week early. So it will be more like the beginning of July (3rd). Jasmin was actually delivered 3 weeks early (because of complications) and was already at 8lbs+ and fully developed lungs.

Michelle's next appointment will be December 27th. Which works great, because I have the day already off for the Christmas holiday. The three older kids will be at their biological father's this year for the two week break from school. So that gives us a little rest and relaxation, and perhaps I will be able to attend this appointment. I am guessing that we won't find out until the end of January what the sex of the baby will be. The Dr. is estimating Michelle at 7 weeks, so this next appt. will put her at 11 weeks (too soon to tell). But the following appt will be around the 15 week mark, and a lady in our ward found out by 13 weeks the gender.

Thanksgiving Facts

I thought it would be a good idea to put up some facts about Thanksgiving. I'm sure like most of us, we have forgotten about where Thanksgiving came from.

• The first US Thanksgiving was held between 21 September and 11 November 1621 in Massachusetts by 50 Plymouth Pilgrims and their 90 Wampanoag neighbours. After that, Thanksgiving was held fairly randomly.
• Thanksgiving remained a custom unsanctified by law until President Roosevelt signed a bill on 26 November 1941 that established the fourth Thursday in November as the national Thanksgiving public holiday.
• Turkey is the traditional dish for the Thanksgiving feast. In the US, about 280 million turkeys are sold for the Thanksgiving celebrations. There is no official reason or declaration for the use of turkey. They just happened to be the most plentiful meat available at the time of the first Thanksgiving in 1621, starting the tradition.
• Turkeys have heart attacks. When the Air Force was conducting test runs and breaking the sound barrier, fields of turkeys would drop dead.
• Turkeys can drown if they look up when it is raining.
• A spooked turkey can run at speeds up to 20 miles per hour. They can also burst into flight approaching speeds between 50-55 mph in a matter of seconds.

And now you know a little bit more about the holiday, and the turkey that we eat.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

TO ALL WHO READ THIS!

Updated Wall Photos

Well after some unfavorable comments about the previous photos, we decided to redo the kid's faces. After I set up a mini little photo studio in our living room, the resulting photos were much more favorable. Michelle and I are very pleased with the way these ones turned out. Kaden has the best smile of his life, Camdon gets to show off his missing teeth, Halle is as beautiful as ever, and Jasmin looks absolutely adorable! So we hope everyone will enjoy these as much as we are!

Old School

My brother and sister-in-law posted this photo up on their blog. It was too much of a classic to not post on ours! Take a look at that cute kid on his mom's lap, and you'll see where Jasmin gets a lot of her looks from. Luckily, Michelle was involved to help tweak it a bunch to make her the cutest little girl around!

Oh yeah...and I still rarely smile for pics! But it looks like who ever took the photo made my oldest brother Ken smile! lol

All I wanth thor Christhmas...

All I wanth thor Christhmas is my thoo fronth theeth.

That's right...Camdon is one of the luckiest kids in the world! He just lost his 2 front teeth on Wednesday (Nov. 14). He was so freaked out about it. He had been walking around the last few days with his front teeth petruding out from his gums at some of the weirdest angles I had seen. Michelle felt them and they were as loose as a goose! But Camdon was being a big baby about it and if she touched them, they would "hurt." So we made him twist them and pull on them for about 30 mins. It was a huge ordeal. When Michelle asked him to check, he would freak out and if she looked at them wrong he would squirm. It was getting down to the wire (because the kids had to go to their dad's for the night, and were about to leave), so Michelle had Camdon lay down on her lap. She reached in, and with him squirming she got a good grip on one tooth, and *POP* it fell out. Camdon was shocked, because he didn't even feel it and it didn't hurt. He went running to the bathroom and spent 3 minutes in there staring at himself in the mirror with a missing tooth. When he came back out he said "This is already annoying me!". Haha We asked him what was annoying him, and he said his missing tooth. So a couple minutes later, he was back on Michelle's lap so she could look at his other tooth. It didn't look as loose and wasn't all cockeyed as the previous one. A few twist and turns, and squirms from Camdon and *POP* there went the 2nd one. The same pattern repeated itself, as he ran into the bathroom and spent 3 minutes observing him self. When he came out, his mouth was open and his tongue was darting in and out of his mouth as it rubbed against the new gap in his teeth. He said "I hope these grow back quick, because now this is REALLY annoying!"

So here are some photos of the recent Camdon:

Thanksgiving

I just wanted to put in my $0.02 about the Thanksgiving holiday. I'm getting really irritated this year with the lack of holiday spirit towards Thanksgiving. I mean for crying out loud, stores had Christmas decorations up about 2 weeks before Halloween was even over. How long does it take to purchase decorations and set them up? Why don't they put up Thanksgiving items/decorations up a couple weeks before Halloween, and then Christmas decorations a couple weeks before Thanksgiving? I could handle that much. Because you want to see whats available and mentally plan your setup for the year.

Another thing that really got me, they started playing Christmas music at night on a local radio station here. WHAT!?!?!?! Am I the only one that feels this way? Is Thanksgiving not that important anymore? Is there no real celebration for it? Is a holiday that makes us focus on giving thanks, just another day? I understand that everyone gets together on just one day, but it should be a feeling we have. So why not use decorations to help others remember what holiday it is?

I don't know anymore. None of my co-workers see a problem with it. It's not a bad thing that people are getting in the Christmas spirit so early, but there is a holiday they are missing inbetween. Maybe people go so big for Christmas, they don't want to get into the Thanksgiving mood only to have to get into a Christmas one so soon after?

Well that's my rambling about Thanksgiving. I need to end this, and work on the next post. Thanks for listening! =)

Emergency Preparedness

THE READY PROJECT

Michelle was contacted by The Ready Project company after they hosted an emergency preparedness "party" up in Reno, NV. Michelle's mother attended that party, and referred Michelle's name to the representative. They called her almost immediately, and explained what they do. Michelle thought it was a great idea, and told them she was interested in hosting a party down here in Phoenix. They had conversations back and forth and finalized a date for the party. It was last night (Nov. 15) at our house, and there ended up being about 10 people from our church show up.

So the representative (who happens to be one of the original founders of the company) flew down from Utah, and came to our house about an hour before the party started. You see, it is more like a taste test party then anything else. The Ready Project specializes in food storage that is delicious and convenient to store (you can put the containers under your bed or cupboards). During the party I stayed upstairs, out of the way, doing my homework because it was all women from the ward. But Michelle saved me some samples to try when I came down. DELICIOUS! YUMMY! TASTY! That is how I would describe the food. Strangely enough, all you have to do is add water to these food packets, but honestly, I wouldn't mind eating it as a regular meal right now. As all of you know, my wife is one of the best cooks I have ever known. Everything she makes becomes one of my new favorites. Well this stuff is almost right up there with it.

I would recommend anyone reading this to visit The Ready Project website (http://www.thereadyproject.com/) or do a Google search for them. Ready about them, and even order them.

Here is the good news! Since Michelle has hosted a party, they have assigned her a PROMO CODE that friends and family can enter when ordering to receive a 5% discount on their order! Why not save money, right? So for those of you have visited the website, like what they are about, and believe me on how good they taste....do it! Sign up for an order today! You can have the products mailed directly to your home, and pay a monthly fee. They have some great products, and really the best alternative for us who are trying to start or replenish our food storage.

The PROMO CODE is: 59090

Be sure to enter that code in when you place an order to qualify for the 5% discount. E-mail or call us if you have any questions.

http://www.thereadyproject.com/

Michelle's Cake Decorating Business

So Michelle has decided to take her love of cake making/decorating, and her talent with art and combine the two into a business. She hasn't made any money off of it, but has gotten a lot of practice in. She is at the point where she feels her skills are good enough to start finding and charging customers.

I have been really impressed with some of the cakes she has whipped out. I can see a huge difference in her first cake and her recent one. She is such a great artist and creative mind. I know she will be successful in this adventure, because she has a strong will and accomplishes feats when she puts her mind to it.

Here are a couple photos of her cakes she made.


Michelle's 1st cake - Halle's 5th birthday

Michelle's 2nd cake - Next door nieghbor (good friend)'s birthday cake.

Michelle's 3rd cake - One of our good friend had his 30th b-day. He invites me to regular X-box nights, so Michelle made this cake for him. This is by far my favorite cake so far. The detail she put into it is ridiculous. The controller looks like it is a real one that is just there for looks, but no...its actually cake. She even made it plug into the console. It was awesome!

Michelle's 4th cake - This was for a friend's baby shower. This cake was very creative. I guess they had a hard time "cutting into" the cake...because no one wanted to mutilate a baby boy.

Family Photos

Michelle visited a friend's house in our church, and saw a great way to display family photos. The friend's had taken close up shots of all the family members, and put them in large seperate frames. So we decided that would be a great idea. We purchased some large 16" X 20" frames (brown wood) and it took a couple weeks to find time to take the photos (since I'm usually busy with schoolwork when I get home from work). But we finally took the photos and need to find a place to blow them up to 11" X 14". After a few different phone calls, we found that Costco would blow them up for only $2.99 each. What a great deal! So we decided to do a Sepia color photo to help match the frames.


Here is what the pics look like, with the final photo being the end result.

Jasmin's First Ice Cream Cone

Well this is a bit of an older pic, but it's one that I have on my work computer. I added my first video last night, which is awesome, but unfortunately they have it blocked here at work. But it was fun to learn. I will be able to do a little more as time goes on, and I find out more of the possibilities of this website. I've already changed a lot of things around since I started yesterday.

So my first attempt at adding a photo will be of Jasmin eating her first ice cream cone. Michelle had gone to one of the mall's around here with some friends and their kids. She took this pic with her cell phone and sent it to me.

The picture speaks for itself.

Best Music Video

So I found this video on YouTube. Michelle and I are HUGE fans of "The Office" on NBC. It started back about a year ago, when a friend of mine at work brought in the DVDs and we would have "Lunch and Learns" to watch the episodes. If you too are a fan of the show, this video will make perfect sense to you. If you've never seen it, or rarely follow up, it is still an awesome song.

The song is "Apologize" by One Republic ft. Timbaland.



Here is the original version performed by the artist One Republic.

WE'RE PREGNANT!

Yeah, we know! We had the same reaction when we found out too!

What do you say, when your wife calls you while at work with a hint of hysteria in her voice to tell you that the pregnancy test (which you had no idea she had) just turned up positive? Well if you're like me, you tell her to take another one. When she calls you back and with more confidence in her voice tells you that test was positive as well...what do you say? Well if you're like me, you tell her to go to a Dr's office to get an official test done! Haha

That was how our day played out last Wednesday (Nov.7) after Michelle figured she was later then usual. It has completely surprised us, and taught us a valuable lesson.

About a month and a half ago, we had reached a conclusion to an ongiong battle of whether to have more children. We fasted and prayed specificially to know. Afterwards, we did not really have a strong feeling one way or another. So we decided to continue with our plan to sell all of our baby stuff by having a large 4-family Yard Sale with some friends and fellow church members. We did quite well during the sale, but some of the major items didn't sell (bassinet, car seat, etc.) so our neighbor knew some friends that wanted to buy them. The purchase dates kept getting pushed back for some reason (i.e. neighbor's friends wanted to wait until next paycheck) and then Wednesday November 7th happened. Needless to say, those items are no longer for sale! :)

Michelle has received a Priesthood blessing, and we are allowing Heavenly Father to have His hand in this. We know we can not control the situation, but will keep our faith and testimony in that Heavenly Father will do His will, and everything happens for a reason. This was not a planned pregnancy, so it was obviously meant to be. We are also hoping that this baby will be a boy (which I've been excited to have to carry on the Sherman name), since we didn't conceive by using some Chinese calendar or what phase the moon was in! Haha, you all know what I'm talking about!

We are not even exactly sure of the due date, because Michelle can't remember the date of her last period. So we are kind of going off an estimated guess, with a tentative due date of mid-July. Michelle has her first Dr. appointment on Tuesday, November 27th. I doubt they will be able to tell the size of the baby, but if they can, we might have a better due date. But all of Michelle's babies have been in the 90%+ percentile for height, so their educated guess may still be off.

I saw a friend's blog that had a little "baby due date" count down on it, so I'm excited to check more into it when we know the official day. That way all of you can keep track with us.

Michelle doesn't know this yet, but she will be laying around with headphones again on her tummy with Mozart blaring. We did that for the last 4 months or so with Jasmin. Since she came out so cute and brilliant, why not do it again with this baby? :)

I hope you are not bored with these posts, because it's kind of hard to attach pictures and visual aides while I'm at work. But I'll try to go back and update posts in the future.

In the beginning....

Hello Family and Friends!

That's right, we have jumped on board. Michelle and I have started a couple websites of our own, but have been horrible at keeping it updated. So after reviewing and reading some of our family and friend's blogs, we thought we'd give this a whirl.

Michelle is extremely busy with everything, so I, Brian, will do my best to remember to update this.

So I would like to invite you all to sit back, buckle your seat belts...because you're about to enter the lives of the Shermans*!


Brian & Michelle

*Disclaimer - You will probably learn things about us, you wished you hadn't! :)