. . . the rains came down, and the floods came up . . .

Fargo during the Flood of 1997

I am nearly in tears. I am getting this sick, nervous feeling. I can't believe what I have been seeing. Eastern North Dakota is facing a HUGE flood. They are predicting this flood to be as bad and possibly worse than the flood of '97 (please refer to above picture). I am not so worried about where I live, seeing how I'm nearly 3-4 miles from the major rivers, but I still feel just awful about so many others in my community that are having to prepare for the worst. Phil spent all weekend sand-bagging some of our ward member's homes. We went for a drive on Sunday afternoon to see the preparations and the onslaught of water. Here are a few pictures. It was raining cats and dogs, so I know a lot of these pictures might be hard to see. (Isn't that great, we have a week-long forecast of rain to add to this madness.)

City workers and volunteers have been going 24/7 since Thursday.

Here is one of the clay dikes they have built right across a road.

So much water, and still so much more is coming . . .




If you would like to see more updates, just click on the link: Valley Flood Watch; or you can go to the city of Fargo's homepage: Flood 2009

I also had to add pictures of my cute boys! They were so good on our long drive!
Coleman

Teegan


P.S. Teegan started cutting his first tooth today! Yay!

Give Away!

My friend, Amber Hoffman, has started an etsy shop and is doing a fun give-away. Check out her blog here: simplesayings4u.blogspot.com

Growing Boys.Pretty Pictures.Irish Cheer.

Teegan is growing, and growing, and growing! I can't believe how much he has learned and changed. Life is flying by way too fast! On Monday, he had his nine month appointment and is hitting the top of the charts! He weighed 22 lbs (75%), was 29 3/4" long (90%) and I can't remember what his head circumference was but he was in the 73%. He is getting so big! And it is official, Teegan is crawling! He has been doing the army crawl for a month now, and he has just recently started working on getting his tummy off the floor!

He got his first haircut on Saturday. It was just a trim around the ears, but I'm still counting it as his first haircut! Phil doesn't like it, and wants to get the big boy cutters out. I just couldn't allow that, yet! He's my baby!


Coleman is growing and learning too! We have found that he loves to color and draw. On Saturday, he surprised us with this pretty picture.

After we saw the paper, we found the picture on the dining room table:

On the computer desk:

And on my leather recliner:
I guess I have to take some blame (so does Phil, but he won't admit it!) We did leave the PERMANENT markers in a drawer he could reach, and we decided to both keep napping after we knew he was up. So, if anyone has suggestions of how to get permanent ink off of leather, we would love to hear some tips. Oh and this is what we have tried, so far: soap & water, hand sanitizer, fingernail polish, sunscreen spray, wd-40, and I think that's all. (We googled it, and these are the tips we found!)

Well on a happier note, today is St. Patrick's Day! I made sure everyone was wearing green today! My boys were being so cute!

I decided to keep with Mott family traditions and we had a green breakfast this morning! Green pancakes and green milk! Yum!

Coleman absolutely loved it when I poured the milk, and it "magically" turned green! We might have to do colored food more often! :)

I know, I know, some of you are saying, "it's about time!" (Ashley) Here is the past few weeks in review:

March 1, 2009, Saturday
We headed to Grand Forks and had lots of fun seeing some friends! We also did a little bit of house searching for when we move back in May. While I went to a baby shower, Phil and the boys headed to play with Justin and Maggie. They spent the afternoon trying to wrestle two toddlers and a baby. I heard it was a bit rough, but they survived! Here is Coleman and Maggie playing the guitars!


March 2-10, 2009
Surprise, surprise, we all got sick. I was the first one to get sick with Laryngitis. It was horrible. My throat swelled up so much that I could hardly swallow some Advil. And I completely lost my voice for a couple days. As soon as I started to feel better, Coleman began to get sick. He was coughing and feverish, I think he had the common cold. Phil read to Coleman each night as he sat and did a breathing treatment to help with the cough.

As soon as Coleman started to improve, Teegan took his turn. He was sick with the same symptoms as Coleman and after a couple days we expected him to get better, but he got worse. On Monday, we took Teegs to the doctor and he apparently had Bronchiolitis. The doc said to give him another day or two and then he won't be contagious and start feeling better. It's true he has gotten a lot better! Yay! Now lets just cross our fingers that it stays that way for awhile (for all of us!). Coleman helping take care of Teegan--kind of!


March 7, 2009, Saturday
After Coleman started feeling better, I knew he needed to get out of the house and get rid of some of that two-year-old energy! Coleman was so happy and had lots of fun at Dinoland in the mall.

However, Teegan didn't have as much fun. Poor kid!


March 9, 2009, Monday
After finding out that Teegan wasn't feeling so well, we canceled plans with friends (Sorry Webers!) and decided to have a movie night. Coleman and I headed out to Redbox to get a movie, but unfortunately we never made it. About halfway there, I got into a car accident. It was just a small fender-bender and everyone was okay, which was such a blessing. As we sat and waited for the police to arrive, Coleman was slowly getting more and more antsy. I was doing everything I could think of to keep him entertained. After sitting there for nearly an hour, yes an HOUR, I decided we should say a prayer. I prayed for patience as we waited, and Coleman added in a blessing that "momma be happy". As soon as I was finishing the prayer, Coleman starts shouting, "oowee, oowee, oowee". This is the sound he makes whenever he sees an ambulance, firetruck, police car, or any other car with a siren. Sure enough, there was the police to come document the car accident. I was amazed that Heavenly Father had answered our prayer so quickly, and I'm so glad I was able to share that experience with Coleman.

March 10-11, 2009
Mother nature decided this week that we hadn't had enough of winter, yet. North Dakota was hammered with a major blizzard, and we were blessed with snow, snow, and more snow. We got at least a foot of snow that with the crazy blizzard winds, the snow was once again, pushed up in front of our house.

When Phil went to shovel, he put Coleman on top of the snow pile and he was able to just sit there and ring the doorbell!

I think it took Phil almost an hour just to shovel out a large enough walkway to get to our front door!

Since we obviously can't start enjoy spring outside, I decided to bring it inside!

A couple weeks ago, I finally planted my Paper Whites, that I bought back in December. It has been a lot of fun and Phil, Coleman, and I check to see how much they've grown every day!


March 11, 2009, Wednesday
By the time it hits 5pm, Coleman gets really wound up and starts acting hyper. This usually isn't a problem, because Phil plays and wrestles with him. However, yesterday, Phil was on call from 6am-9pm. I tried to play around with Coleman, but it just wasn't working out. He ended up going off to play on his own. When I went to check on him later, I found that he had emptied out the cupboard under the bathroom sink (okay, he took out the scale I had hidden in there). And apparently, he has a new secret hideout! Oh how he makes me laugh! :)


Well, that is our update for now. I'll work on blogging a little more often! Love you all!

L.O.V.E.

Well, to start off, I have to tell the world how much I LOVE my husband! Yesterday was a bit of a whirlwind for me and by the time the clock struck 9pm, I could no longer function. I was so worn out. Phil, my knight in shining armor, came rushing home from scouts to rescue me from my wild crazy children! After getting them to bed, did he come in complaining how exhausted he was? Nope! He gave me the best massage I have ever had! (Sorry Sheena!) He was so supportive and wonderful! Thank you, thank you! I love you!

Last Friday, Phil and I decided to celebrate an early Valentine's. We went to this wonderful bakery called Nichole's. They brought in an award-winning chef and we had a nice candlelight dinner. I wanted to take pictures, but Phil said that it would be innappropriate seeing how we were eating a fancy five-course meal including a special surprise of Oysters with kiwi glaze and cocktail sauce-YUCK! Really though, other than the oysters, dinner was fabulous and dessert was divine!!!!! Thanks Seamons for watching our boys!

On Valentine's Day, we celebrated as a family by going to Famous Dave's for dinner. The food was great, and all the boys looked so cute dressed in red!


This last picture is simply for your viewing pleasure! LOVE THEM! :)

The List

Last year, I went to Women's Conference at BYU and learned so much in the few classes that I was able to attend. There was one class in particular about motherhood and caring for young children. One of the teachers talked about "the list". As mothers and wives, we create lists of things to do, items to get, projects to finish, etc. The teacher went on to say that so often we get caught up trying to finish "the list", that we forget to just sit down and play with our children, and remember these special moments in their lives and yours.

Unfortunately, today I didn't listen to her advice, and instead worked on "the list":

Wake up; change diapers; feed toddler; feed baby; check email/blog/facebook; start on laundry; clean up breakfast; get kids ready for the day; call pharmacy; prepare talk for sacrament meeting; put baby down for a nap; start next load of laundry; make beds; clean up a gazillion toys around the house (courtesy of toddler); change diapers; make lunch; feed baby; another load of laundry; put toddler down for a nap; start cleaning bathrooms-only get through one and a half before baby is screaming; put baby down for nap #2; go back to cleaning bathrooms; more laundry; clean up lunch; de-clutter kitchen; pick up a gazillion toys (courtesy of toddler-again); shower and get ready for the day; another load of laundry; calm down toddler and baby-who both woke up and are now demanding a sippy and bottle, respectively; change diapers; pack up kids and run errands (target, pharmacy, etc.); unload groceries while kids are screaming; frantically make dinner; feed baby; change laundry; clean up dinner; vaccuum floors; put toddler and baby in bath; put toddler to bed; put baby to bed; fold laundry; empty dishwasher; take out the garbage; sweep the floors; fold more laundry; put laundry away; get ready for bed . . . ahh! FINALLY--mommy time!

Well, even though I was ultra-grouchy by 6pm, I am proud of what I was able to accomplish. I now feel like I can definitely put it away for the next couple days (besides the continuous prep for the sacrament talk) and really enjoy life with my children!

P.S. I do have a husband, he just seems to spend 25% of his time sleeping and the other 75% at the hospital or studying or fulfilling church callings or well you get the idea!

Where in the World . . .

Actually, where in the United States of America should Phil and Megan live?

Phil has (finally) begun the job hunt. He talked to some people and they told him the first decision is to look at where you want to go. We've begun to realize what an opportunity this is. We can move ANYWHERE in the U.S. (with the exception of Utah because there aren't very many jobs there and they don't really like CRNAs). So, I pose to you this question: If you could live anywhere in the states, where would you live and why? PLEASE COMMENT and let us know what you think. Phil and I are really struggling trying to decide.

And because I haven't added any pictures for awhile, here are a couple.

The other night, Phil and Coleman were playing with the big trucks and they decided Teegan should join in the fun. Here they are going around my house in circles!


I know I can get frustrated at their noise level sometimes, but I want to take this moment to remind myself to treasure these very loud and wild times. I know they will disappear all too soon!