april wrap up

Um, it's been a while. I was starting to look back through my pictures and realized the last everyday-moment I blogged about was L's birthday back in April! Holy schmoly a lot has happened since then. So in an effort to catch up, here is a quick {or not so quick} recap of the month of April.

R did an away rotation this month, called Wilderness Medicine. Although it was in SLC, the kids and I chose to come out and stay with my parents who live in Logan - a good hour and a half away. 1.5 hours is a heck of a lot closer than 36 or whatever it would have been staying in Ohio, so we figured it was worth it! We crammed a lot into one month. Here are a lot of pictures to show just what I mean.

Enjoyed a fun double date with my little brother - barely home from his mission. We went rock climbing, and it ended up being completely free. Love it. And love my brother - it was SO good to be with him again! 

Took a quick family trip to SLC to see some friends from undergrad. I am completely in love with this little boy! Thanks D & S for having us!

Celebrated my little sister's 16th birthday by taking her and her friends out to lunch at Cafe Rio. So yummy. And fun to feel like I was in high school again with her. She is way cooler than I was at 16, that's for sure! :)

 LOVED having all of my siblings together for the first time in six years! Oh man it felt good, and we had a lot of fun together. We drove down to visit with some family on my dad's side and see some cousins we don't get to very often. It was great to catch up!

 Then we stayed in a hotel and let the kids be wild. L & B loved jumping back and forth between beds - so cute!

The next morning we all went skiing together while Mom and Dad watched the grandkids. WOW! Such a fun day. We laughed and cried and make some awesome memories.  Thank you Mom & Dad!

This picture will forever be one of my favorites: my brother D set up a ski-pod to hold the camera to get a big group shot. The wind starting picking up and the ski was swaying back and forth. All of us were freaking out about the camera falling, and the timer finally went off right when D was running to grab it before it faceplanted in the snow. Perfect timing. 

Then a nice girl volunteered to take a picture for us, and we still got a group shot. Sweet.

Then we crashed a cousin's baby shower and basically took over. She now has a sweet baby girl and we are excited for her! 

{I was battling a sinus infection, hence the tired look. I really did love the pyramid-crash-turn-into-sisters-together scenario though, promise!}

And of course we had to take a gazillion family pictures the last night we were all together. Love it!

My dad is building the shop of his dreams, and it's so fun to go out there and watch him work or have him describe all that is still in the process of being built. This guy is amazing. And these hands have a thousand stories to tell.

And to top it off, he's cute with kids too. :) Both my parents are wonderful with them, and we counted our blessings every day we were with them. 

Had fun taking quasi-senior pictures for both my younger siblings. They are the best of friends and I LOVE them for it. This is their "smolder" look. Pretty good, eh?

{of course a picture of my darling Lady-L while walking outside}

My brother and R working on roofing the shop. There always seems to be a project around for these guys and it's awesome to watch them get to work. Love that about my family!

Trips to the park to ride scooters. B & L are best buds - couldn't ask for anything better! I hope they remember the fun times they have together. And I hope that I can remember how gorgeous these mountains are. Seriously?! I miss them. {and of course the adorable cousins to play with}

My two brothers and R took a little alpine touring trip up Logan Canyon together. R was in heaven. Have I mentioned before how he is like best friends with my brothers? It makes me so happy and I love it. Honestly.

And of course I had to document my little sister's first date. Her date was a little embarrassed, but I had to! :) Thanks K - love ya! 

Easter Weekend was busy! We had more cousins come up to stay with us and the kids had a great time together. We did an egg hunt that was crazy packed and lasted for .5 seconds {literally!}.

L & cousin SC.

Then we had fun playing outside and coloring with sidewalk chalk. 

We took Easter pictures in front of my parent's house. They turned out great! What beautiful people, right?

After lunch we had our own Easter egg hunt and played around all day outside. R's brother and family drove all the way up to have dinner with us, and it was great getting even more cousins together! Fabulous, I tell you. Fabulous.

R and his brother with the boys in matching pajamas. I promise we did not plan this! 

Later we enjoyed our own trip down to Lehi to visit R's brother and family again! We spent the night with them and had a blast playing Dominion {if you haven't played it, then you should. It's awesome}. There was a moment the next morning when L and I were the only ones awake, so we decided to take a little walk outside to the neighborhood park. It was beautiful with the flowers and sunshine. I love this guy. He makes every day special.

We visited an awesome pool together and the kids loved the water. And us adults loved it even more. It was such a fun treat being able to spend time with R's brother and fam - so glad we got to see them! 

We kept trying to get Lady-L to crawl. No such luck. 

My mom and I went to one day of BYU Women's Conference and I LOVED being on campus again. That place is amazing and one of the most special places to me. The building in the bottom right is what has taken the place of my first college home. Sure looks better than DT, but I sure was sad to see it replaced nonetheless. Life just keeps moving, and I guess that's a good thing. :)

Our last night in UT was spent packing and kicking tennis balls around the cul-de-sac. Doesn't sound too crazy, right? Well. try soaking the tennis balls in gasoline and lighting them on fire. Then kick it around like a soccer ball and tell me what you think. It was awesome. :) 

We had such a great month being with family, and it was a blessing to be able to be there for so long. Thank you Mom and Dad for giving us a roof over our heads and food in our bellies, thank you S for giving us your room for the entire month, and thank you K for playing with me every day. There are a thousand more things to say thank you for - it was definitely a month to remember. 

husband, m.d.

It amazes me how four years ago we were just starting this journey. We have since both graduated with our bachelor degrees, doubled the size of our family by having two kids, moved across the country from most of our family, fell in love with football and buckeyes, and learn to appreciate the beauty of the midwest. 

We were so excited to move on to the next phase. I truly believe that we were ready for a change. But I can't help but look back on those four years, and with a greater perspective learn to see beauty in the challenges we experienced and the ease of life we had even through the craziness. Life was unbelievably hard at times; to the point where I felt like I could not continue. But they were good years. Years of learning, growth, progression, love, trials, blessings, and more love. 

We now have a new phase to pass through: the phase of being a resident physician and all the joys {and challenges} that accompany that. Isn't that what life really is? Just one more lesson to learn; one more hurdle to overcome; one more step toward our goals; one more blessing to count; one more journal entry to record? 

My emotions have been close to the surface this past month as we said goodbye to dear friends and hello to new ones. My heart is very sensitive to countless memories that we made in Columbus, and the people we grew to love there. And most of all, I am beyond proud for R and this major accomplishment of graduating medical school. All of our family who came out to support us for graduation made multiple, sweet, genuine comments of how it is a team effort and it is both of us who deserve recognition. I definitely understand that and agree with it. But I'm not the one who studied countless days, took exam after exam, practiced for hours on procedures, and was under the direct stress and pressure of directors and attendings who demanded excellence. We both played roles in these past four years that were important, but I am positive that my line of work is vastly different and much more enjoyable than going through what he has gone through. I would choose my job over his any day. :)

Congrats babe - we did it! Here's to three {+} years of residency: a time of learning, progression, improving, challenges, blessings, and most of all love. 

happy father's day

We love you Daddy! 

eleven months

Lady-L is eleven months old!!

Life has been a whirlwind lately, but yet Lady-LE has changed SO much I really need to document it. No new stats to report, but my baby girl is 11 months old and almost a toddler (kind of).

Ways she has changed:

-loves to be on her belly now

-rolls over a lot

-uses her hands and arms while on her belly to move around; although it is always either side to side or backwards. no forward moving yet

-hair finally growing in the back

-filled out quite a bit in the past month or two

-hates to have her diaper changed

-says "Hi" and waves her arms frantically at everyone

-says "ma-ma" and "da-da" although she thinks it's funny to say "da-da" when I am specifically trying to get her to repeat "ma-ma" - just like my little neice. too cute for words!

-I signed the word "more" for her once, and she picked it up the first try! She signs it all the time now, and I've slowly been trying to introduce more signs but I kind of forget to make it a priority

-learned how to scream to get our attention, and uses that tactic frequently when big brother takes away a toy

-absolutely loves music and dancing every time she hears it

-she's had her first introduction to Baby Signing Time {which I love, I know. Other parents get annoyed, but it makes me happy} and absolutely adores it. She goes crazy dancing and moving to the music.

Ways she has stayed the same:

-still very sweet and content if she is fed, rested, and entertained {the combinations actually happened at really good times during the crazy graduation week. Thank you Lady-L!}

-completely adores big brother

-loves fruit and some-what tolerates vegetables

-goes completely crazy whenever we go outside. whole body convulses with too much excitement to keep contained

-loves to imitate sounds and do what you are doing

-loves chaos. seriously? yes. she is completely entertained when there are a lot of people around and she loves to have a crowd.

-still takes at least two naps a day - sometimes three. The third is getting more and more rare, but every once in a while we throw it into the mix again. She's almost a year old and she's still on two naps. I'm loving this!

Other tidbits:

-she did amazingly well in transitioning to our new house. She cried the first day or so whenever it was naptime or bedtime, but that only lasted a little while and by day two she was totally fine. Man alive this girl is awesome.

-she has such a crazy personality. Sometimes she's content to simply sit and play for over an hour. Other times she screams until I hold her in standing position and she will scream any time I try to sit down. She does this especially in the pool. She LOVES to stand up in the pool, and it's actually helping her learn to move her legs while standing. Maybe she actually will skip the crawling stage?

things that matter most

There are a MILLION things to post about. Ryan graduating medical school, lots of wonderful family visiting us, vacation to Hawaii without kids, visiting Colorado, L & LE growing and changing every day, saying goodbye to Columbus and lots of dear sweet friends, moving to North Carolina, buying our first house, getting settled in our new city, meeting other residents in Ryan's program, and the list goes on and on.

But I saw this today and it completely resonates with me and I have to share it. Yes life is crazy right now, but there are specific things in life that make it truly meaningful and beautiful:  the gospel and our family. Life is wonderful.

ten months

{we are in Colorado during her official 10 month birthday, so no elephant picture. this girl's life has been one trip after another!}

Recent favorites:

-waving "hi" to everyone, especially mamma when she first sees me

-laughing hysterically at dropping food on her high chair tray table

-loves to stand up, almost to the point where she cried until I hold her hands and pull her up

-no crawling movement whatsoever. or rolling over.

-teething horribly, but seems to be getting better

three years old

We celebrated L's birthday out here in Utah with my family and it was a wonderful day!

 We had a very loose "Toy Story" theme with a Rex dinosaur cake. 

The weather was perfect too - and we took advantage of it riding around on L's new scooter! L loves this thing, and wants to ride it all day long. He's super fast, and loves to cover big distances. He rides goofy, as in right foot forward. I guess from the pictures R does too? Hmm ... never noticed that before. 

We loved talking to lots of family on the phone, and perhaps L's best friends in the world on the computer. Thank you ALL for calling and for showing lots of love for this little boy!

 We played all day, and pretty soon it was time to open gifts! Lady-LE loved the ribbon.

 We even got to sneak in some time outside to play with the new ball and bat. This kid is a natural!

I love this big guy. He is full of life and energy, and loves to play.

Happy Birthday L! 

nine months

Sweet girl is getting bigger! She is a doll and so darling. Since we're away from home again I don't have the traditional elephant for photos, but here's a wannabe substitute:

Recent Favs:

-laughs all day long at big brother. They both do this reciprocal fake-laugh with one another and it cracks me up

-content to simply sit.all.day.long. Shows little-to-no sign of rolling over, crawling, or pulling herself up. Wants to, definitely. But obviously not bad enough.

-filling out in chub more since being on straight formula

-focuses on our lips as we babble to her, and loves to mimic what we do/say

-waves back to us

-laughs when we clap

-getting her top middle teeth and going on a diet in the process (all by her choice. I guess she saw my previous comment about filling out?)

-takes two naps a day regularly, sometimes still three

-sleeps roughly 11 hours at night straight

-absolutely loves getting tossed in the air and hanging upside down

-loves grandma & grandpa. absolutely adores them.

{photos were taken on 4.6.2011 - L's birthday}

experiencing ecuador

I chatted with my brother on the phone the other day, and realized that an entire month has passed since our Ecuador trip, and I had not shared any specific details of our trip with the majority of my family. Seriously?! Life is crazy busy, and I really love looking at these pictures and wanted to share them. I won't narrate too much, but thankfully kept a journal while there so I can remember all the day-to-day adventures we had. So enjoy the pictures!

First off are a few pictures from R's time there with the other students. We just did an exchange of all our photos and while looking through them found these gems. The first collage is a canyoneering adventure that looks awesome, and the second is showcasing their amazing karaoke talents. Pretty funny stuff I tell ya. :)

Our spring break just happened to fall on the week directly following R's rotation down there, so we tried to take advantage of that and B & I went down to visit our hubs.  It was nice to have good friends there to have adventures with!

 Our first morning there with R & J's host family. Really nice people.

Our first day we toured the city of Quito. Saw beautiful cathedrals and fun older areas of the city, along with a gondola ride up to a mountain for a bird's eye view of the city. Beautiful! 

Everywhere we went it felt like we were charged more for being tourists. Made us laugh every time. :)

We met up with some wonderful people that my brother knew from his time in Ecuador serving a mission for our church. They were incredibly generous and drove up all the way up to Papallacta to see these amazing hot springs with us. One of which (the one where R's dipping his feet in the water) was practically boiling it was so hot. Ridiculous! My favorite part of it all was just getting to know these good people and hearing them share stories of my brother as a missionary.  

We definitely stayed busy, visiting six different cities (Quito, where R lived for the month; Papallacta, Mindo, Guayaquil, Puerto Lopez, and Otavalo). This was the first time R and I had traveled within our travels - does that make sense? We rode buses daily, and have fond (or not so fond) memories of cramming in with a thousand of our best friends or sweating bullets because the only windows open were the ones right next to us gringos and it's 100 degrees outside! We'd ride buses in town, buses to new towns, and buses out of town. Let's just say that it feels good to not have to ride buses anymore (and to have toilet paper, but that's a different story).

Obligatory pictures on the Equator line (which isn't the exact equator, but it's fun nonetheless). 

From Mitad del Mundo we took a bus to a mountain town called Mindo. Small and nestled in a small area surrounded by gorgeous mountains. We had fun watching the HUGE rain storms - I've never seen rain like that and I'm from WA, catching truck taxis, following our guide dog around, zip-lining, drinking lots of yummy juice, visiting a butterfly conservatory and watching lots of hummingbirds, and swinging in hammocks at our hotel listing to the rain on the roof. 

Seriously the coolest drink stand ever. Loved the swings, but the drinks made it even better. I will have dreams for the rest of my life of the juice. It was that good. 

From Mindo we went back to Quito, caught a flight to Guayaquil, and met up with my sister-in-law's family! Plans changed a bit and we weren't able to stay as long as we would have liked, but I am really grateful that we got to see them even just for a little while. C & B showed us around Guayaquil a little bit, visiting the temple and the Malecon, and fed us delicious food and homemade juice that night and the next morning. It has been so neat to know and love this family. They are kind, generous, good people. They always make me feel like I am apart of their family, and went out of their way to help us. I love them! Thank you Sanchez family!

 We caught a couple buses out to a beach town, and had a stop in this random town along the way where we made some local friends. :)

 We stayed in Puerto Lopez which was to die for. So beautiful, and the hotel was perfect. This little iguana was our friend perched right on the planter-box outside our bathroom window. He hung around for the day, then we saw him at a different spot in the gardens the next day. We were basically best friends by the end of our trip. 

 Puerto Lopez was called a "sleepy fisherman town" in our little guide book. And it seriously was wonderful. This was the scene in the morning when all the fishing boats brought their catches in. They would haul buckets and coolers and nets full of fish to trucks parked on the sand, and then drive them to these cleaning stations up farther north in the town. It definitely feels good to order fish at a restaurant and know exactly how fresh it really is! (not that I'm a big fish connoisseur by any means, but I can still appreciate it)

 This basically captures why this spot was our favorite location ever. R and I are total beach bums and we loved swinging in our hammocks at the beach in such a secluded remote town. We read our books, talked a lot, walked along the beach, chased sand crabs, swam in the ocean, shopped around the town a little bit, and played games in the hotel's main house which was open to the evening breeze by the water. Absolutely perfect. We totally want to go back there again.

We left the day before Carnival started, which was nice because it was still a very quiet town while we were there. As we walked through the town to get on our bus we could see all the preparations for their big festival and were glad that we were missing the crowds! We went back to Guayaquil just in time to catch our flight back to Quito. 

 Our last full day in Ecuador we went to a city called Otavalo, which is known for our Saturday Market. I've been there before, and I swear it has multiplied since then. It is huge and so fun. I LOVE walking around seeing all the textiles and colors, crafts, paintings, clothing, the beautiful native Indian dress, everything! Loved it. 

All in all, a wonderful vacation. Words cannot define how good it felt to be with R again after being apart for so long. It was marvelous to have so much "just the two of us" time to play together, and so fun to see all the wonderful sights and think about how much our kids would love them - maybe someday they will! 

Seriously, the best spring break ever. Loved it. 

match day

Match Day in the medical world is a big deal. All across the country, 4th year medical students all open an envelope at the exact same time that reveals where they will complete their residency training. It's the first real "Doctor" job they will have, and ranges anywhere from 3-7 years (not including fellowships).

Today was the day! And here are our results:

Carolinas Medical Center

Charlotte, North Carolina!

I am so proud of R and all the crazy hard work he has done to be such a good applicant. I honestly cannot say enough good things about him, and we are both really excited for the future! CMC was our first choice, which was a difficult decision to make since it was the farthest from family. It is an amazing program, a great fit for R, and a wonderful opportunity for our little family. We are so thankful and can't wait for this next adventure. Bring it. 

eight months

Lady-LE is still amazingly sweet! She got ditched for a little over a week from Mom and Dad, and got a whole lot of one-on-one time with Grandma, Grandpa, and Aunt K. From their reports it's safe to assume that she loves to be around people, and as long as someone is nearby she is quite content (most of the time).

Recent Favorites:

-takes bottles 24/7

-sleeps through the night, typically speaking 10 hours

-loves to be sitting, does not like to be laying anymore (and has recently stopped rolling over)

-showing no motivation for crawling as of yet

-laughs at big brother all the time

-complete impatience for vegetables, while she willingly holds still and opens her mouth wide for any kind of fruit

-her tongue is always hanging out of her mouth

-still takes three naps a day

-momma's girl: during one of our skype conversations while in Ecuador, she saw me and immediately started crying. Aunt K eventually had to take her out of the room because she wouldn't calm down. If she knows I'm there, then I better be the one closest to her. If she doesn't know I'm there, then she warily allows others to tend to her

-loved visiting both sets of grandparents

-just stared at me for the longest time when I came back from Ecuador - as if she was not willing to warm up to me until she knew I was there to stay

-hangs onto my shoulder really tight when I'm carrying her on my hip and moving fast - she hugs into me and sometimes buries her head in my clothes. So close and cute.

-when you do catch her laying down (which is not often), her legs go stick straight and she kicks them out. Makes diaper changes pretty easy.

-content to just sit still in the same position for a long time, especially in a laundry basket where the toys are never out of reach

-master of the pacifier

-sharing a room with big brother now at home, oh the joys of having a room to ourselves!

-blows raspberries like there's nothing else in the world

-loves to talk in a sing-song voice full of "la-la-la"s
-don't know her weight, but she seems to be a little chunkier since being on formula

Love her.