captChris

I have added the pagination navigation as noted below.

<?php
		  $temp = $wp_query; $wp_query= null;
		  $wp_query = new WP_Query(); $wp_query->query('category=-44,-401' . '&paged='.$paged);
		  while ($wp_query->have_posts()) : $wp_query->the_post(); ?>
        <?php get_template_part( 'content', get_post_format() ); ?>
		<?php endwhile; ?>
<?php posts_nav_link(); ?>
		<?php wp_reset_postdata(); ?>

The next posts link is showing up now but it is not being replaced with the IS show more link.

Thank you again for all your help

I tried using wp-query but was having a hard time calling the posts. The code I added to the functions file is in my first post as is my working loop using query-posts. I also have the loop working using the following code

<?php query_posts($query_string . '&cat=-44,-401'); ?>
        <?php if ( have_posts() ) : while ( have_posts() ) : the_post(); ?>
		<?php get_template_part( 'content', get_post_format() ); ?>
        <?php endwhile; else: ?>
          <p>Sorry, no posts matched your criteria.</p>
        <?php endif; ?>