Walt and LeaAnn Sharp Family

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

The Happiest Day in this Mother's Life is.......

The first day of the school year. I know this may make me sound cruel, but after 2 1/2 months of being stuck in the house because of the heat with 2 fighting boys, I was more than happy to see them off. But my boys love and thrive at school. They need to have a break from me and I am so lucky that they can go to a good school with teachers that I know love them. Max is now in 2nd grade and Ian is now a 1st grader. I can't believe it. I won't say time has flown by because it hasn't but every once in awhile when they are talking to me I wonder I came to have kids that are old enough to go to school and read and write. After all, I am only 23 years old. Shocking!!

But in getting rid of 2 all day, I have gained one. As most of you know, Walt was laid off of his job this week. So now I have both him and Van during the day. But since he can take pretty much care of himself and is not asking me to get him food and drink, I think I will survive. It wasn't a complete shock that he was laid off but it is still not a comforting thought that we don't have a job. He had starting looking around at jobs weeks ago and contemplating a new direction so who knows what will happen. Luckily, his job was still offering severance packages so we have some time before the money runs out. And I still have my job. So we are good.

Friday, July 3, 2009

Random Cuteness!

Anyone that talks to me about my kids know how I feel about Van. He will give us so much trouble when he gets older since he get away with a lot since he is so cute. So here are just some pictures of his cuteness.

A story to explain these next photos. Father's Day weekend our young women were at girls camp, and my good friend Shanell had to go. I agreed to watch her girls on Saturday since her husband Dale has to work. I took all the kids to the in-laws to swim. The Gambell girls are the ages of my boys, with the exception of Sophia, since I don't have a 4th child. Eliza is the youngest and I couldn't find any clothes to change her into after swimming, so Van and Eliza were both wearing just their diapers when they fell asleep on the way home. Since the older kids were still playing, I decided to put the 2 little ones to sleep in my bed so they wouldn't be woken up. I am not sure how inappropriate this is but I thought it was cute. I did think it was best to cover Eliza with her blanket.(Since they were both without a shirt)

Another one bites the dust!!

OK, so do you remember when I was commenting on the fact that after 7 years of boys, I was surprised that I had only one instance of staples/stitches? Well, I spoke too soon and now Ian has been injured.

Last Thursday, Walt made an appointment to speak with the Bishop, but since his car was sporting a radiator crack he took my car. His keys have a pocket knife on them and Ian decided to play with it. Well Surprise, Surprise he cut his finger. I was pretty nasty and since it happened at about 8pm, the Urgent Cares were closed and so it was off to the ER. I guess bleeding children are not a priority at the hospital anymore, so we had to wait a long time. It gave me a chance to catch up on all the latest news of Michael Jackson's death, which I didn't know about until we got there. He had to get 7 stitches and he did awesome. He barely made a sound when they had to numb his finger. But as always, they bounce right back and keep smiling. It is just now a battle to keep him from swimming on our hot days.

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

HAPPY 6TH, IAN!!!

So, Ian turnded 6 yesterday and since I haven't blogged in a long time I thought this was a good reason to to do one.

Ian was born in the afternoon and was the easiest delivery. I guess that might because he was my smallest baby and was a month early. That also contributed to the fact that his lungs were not quite developed and had to spend a week in the NICU. But he hasn't had any lasting effects from that. He is my only brown eyed child and has the best laugh in the entire world. That is definitely on the top of my lists of the best sounds. He also has the longest eye lashes. He will be in the 1st grade this coming fall and loves school. He is also my most difficult child in he has a language deficiency. Because of his constant ear infections he spent the first 4 years of his life not hearing very well. When he finally go tubes put in, his speech improved drastically but learned selective hearing. We spend a lot of time repeating ourselves and trying to get him to focus. I am sure a lot of it has to do with just being a child but not all of it.

He learned how to swim this summer and I hope to get him riding his bike without training wheels soon. I think his real problem is that his bike is too small. Here are some pictures of my beautiful boy.

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Our 9th Anniversary

Today Walt and I have been married for 9 years. Not a huge milestone but after 3 kids, work, and 4 years of a master's program, we are grateful that we are still together and still feel the love. Walt had surprised me by getting the day off to spend together. Between his work and mine we deserved a day together. So I was really looking forward to today. But you couldn't tell by the fact that my brain is fried.

I first of all told Sarah that I was coming down today to visit with her since I try to go down there once a week and help out and keep her company. I then told my visiting teachers that they could come this morning for a visit and to top it all off, I said OK to bringing a lady dinner tonight since she just got out of the hospital.

So last night as Walt and I discuss what we are going to do, it hits me that I agreed to do the first 2 things. Sarah called that night to talk about something else and was SO understanding of my mistake, she was laughing at my forgetfulness. It also turned out that visiting teachers had to cancel due to sick kids. So my mistake wasn't so bad.

Walt's Mom came over and watched the kids while we went to lunch and saw the new Star Trek film. Enjoyed that immensely. I then bought a new pair of dress shoes since my feet seem to be shrinking and needed something to wear for church. We then decided to go and get the kids and take them swimming since they were home from school. So as we start to drive to the in-laws at 4pm it hits me that I am still suppose to take dinner to the women in my ward. What to do? I turn to my dear and wonderful friend Shanell who is luckily making a casserole and is able to take a plate to this lady. I should be shot!!! I use to pride myself with my memory and reliability. They are a thing of the past.

Other than that, it has been a great 9 years and I am grateful for a wonderful husband who loves me in spite of my shortcomings. He works so hard to provide for his family, I am truly blessed. I am looking forward for whatever the future holds because I know that with him by my side things will be OK and we will be happy. I am thankful for my 3 boys and hope that they will still love me when this whole thing called childhood is over.

This is the picture we used for our announcements

Nine years later. Thinking what have we done?

Friday, May 8, 2009

Finally! Baseball is Over

I know that my life as a "Soccer Mom" is just beginning and I don't know if I can do it. Maybe it will get better when my younger ones are older and I can actually sit and enjoy a game. I spend most of my time keeping the other ones out of trouble or watching them on the playground.

Max just finished his 2nd year in coach pitch baseball, and if I do say so myself he isn't half bad considering I haven't spent anytime working with him at home. He gets solid hits but has picked up the bad habit of throwing his bat after he hits. His arms should be pretty ripped since he has to do 10 pushups everytime he throws it. He really trys to get in front of the ball even though he may not stop it each time. His throw has gotten a little soft so that is something we will have to work on for next year.

In my typical form, I remembered my camera for the last game of the season and was able to get some pictures of Max and the other 2 boys during a game. Max's team were the Rockhounds and the were boys 6-8 years old. And oddly enough, there were two Maxs and two Logans on his team.

Max just hit a foulball

See what I mean about throwing? Is this ballet or baseball?
He gets a hit. Look at that awesome form?
And the red shoelaces. That is another story for another day.

Monday, April 13, 2009

Easter 2009

I took the "What kind of Mother are You" quiz on Facebook, and suprisingly it said I was a Suzie Homemaker. So I thought with Easter coming I would try to do some of the things "Suzie" might do with her kids. Saturday I bought stuff to decorate eggs with the boys. Of course, I had Walt take a picture because I didn't know if I would do it again. It wasn't that bad or that messy.

I went out and bought a few things for an Easter basket, which I have never done before and new ties for church. I also wanted to make sure that they really understood what Easter was about. Luckily our church isn't til 1 pm so we were able to watch a little movie on the Resurrection and explain that the bunnies, eggs and candy should not be the focus. I thought they had really understood this until the ride home from church. It suddenly hit Max and Ian that the Easter Bunny didn't bring them a basket full of toys and candy. I reminded them that they did get a basket this morning. Of course they said that the basket was from me and not the Bunny. So unlike a "Suzie" I said that there was no Bunny and to be grateful for what they did get or I won't do it again.

Overall it was a really nice day. We did have an egg hunt and spent time with Walt's family. Enjoy the pictures.