halloween options

We had a little fun at the store the other day. This is what happens when I go shopping with R - because we each take a kid. Oh goodness I was laughing so hard helping L get in and out of these costumes. There were even a couple of shoppers there that were waiting for the next costume when I said that we were all done and they sadly left. It was a riot. I didn't think to take pictures of the first costume which was a bright blue dragon with wings. But here are the rest that we tried! :)

And sadly, this was his favorite! He demanded to stay in the costume until R came back from the fitting rooms. He was begging to walk around the entire store in it, but I just couldn't do that to him. I know that pink is the "new" (kind of old now actually) color for guys to wear. But I'm pretty sure this is stretching it. 

september catch up

Here are a few pictures to catch up for the month of September - mostly for record-keeping sake. 

 We continually meet new bugs here in the South. This one, however, was a pleasant encounter and the kids loved watching him throughout the morning. 

 First major head injury for this girl (one of many I imagine). Trying so hard to walk around my legs, tripped and went head first onto our driveway. Yes, we use food to heal our wounds and that is yogurt all over her face. 

 L started swim lessons and loved it. I was really surprised with how well he sat for his teacher (he definitely doesn't for me!). I'm expecting to have to repeat the same class maybe five or six times before anything fully sinks in though. It's fun and we love the change of pace.

 Our first official pay-a-babysitter date! Ry took me out to eat for my birthday and we had the yummiest dinner together. It was wonderful to be on a date! Wowsers we need to do that more often.

We went to a fun BBQ/Blues Festival and tasted what we feel were the best ribs in the world. They were so good.

 Still hot and humid enough to play outside a lot. This was in the afternoon and we were all in our summer pj's still. 

 Oh man Lady-LE is cute! 

Built this with Ry on my birthday weekend - it's a little kid bench and will fit perfectly into the space of our dormer windows upstairs. Then eventually it'll go at the foot of L's bed (and a second one to match for Lady-L). First building project together and I loved it!

 We love reading, and especially love it when Daddy's home to read with us!

 "I'm a lion, look at me!"

And we held hands a lot through the whole month - sticking together. 

evening stroll

I took the kids out to the neighborhood playground the other evening after dinner. Since R and I are still sharing the car, we are often left home without a car and have had to simplify our lives a little (which I've actually enjoyed) and these walks are becoming more common as an escape in the cool evening weather. I cannot seem to get the timing right for a good picture of L, but because of Lady-LE recent digression in mobility I was able to catch a few good ones of her. And I got photoshop elements for a birthday gift and had some fun with editing. 

Man alive I love these kids. 

new standard

We have instituted a new C-Family Safety Standard in our house. 

Lady-LE took a minor fall a few weeks ago, and twisted her left leg in the process. I'm still surprised that with all the rough-living L does, that our little girl is the first one to have fractured a bone. We got this splint last week, and Lady-L seems to be adjusting. 

In the mean time, we are requiring helmets to be worn at all times as a precaution. You never know when another fall will happen.  

Good thing our patient is so willing and cute. 

And so much for the physical therapy we paid for with her. All down the drain. 

(not really - I'm sure she'll pick up right where she left off. It's just a little ironic that we paid money to help teach her how to walk, and have recently paid even more money through two ED visits to make walking difficult for her.  Makes you wonder ... )

home owners

Way back in August/September time frame we had our first major induction into the world of home ownership. It started small, just as a small wetness on our sidewalk that looked like the humidity wasn't allowing the last rainstorm runoff to evaporate or drain completely.  We waited for it to go away, but it didn't. Instead it grew. Long story short, we were soon facing this:

 If you look closely above L's head you can see ripples in our little pond indicating where the water was literally bubbling over, as if it were a natural spring in a very unnatural place.The water was probably between two to three inches deep before it would drain down the pipe. 

 After calling an expert (a neighbor knows a guy), the help of a seriously cool gas-powered concrete saw, and a lot of digging while pumping out the water, we found the culprit. That's a pretty big rock!

 For no apparent reason, the rock had been pressed right up against the main water pipe coming into our house. The pressure from the rock caused a crack in the pipe, which resulted in a major stream of water - this was taken when we barely turned our water back on - by no means was this full pressure. 

 More pumping, and a trip to the hardware store later resulted in a fixed water main! Yay!

We chose to put it all back together ourselves to save money, so it's not as aesthetically pleasing as a professional would make it. But we did it, and it's done. Now we just need to pressure wash that sidewalk. :) 

Can I just tell you that having any home issue with a resident as a spouse is not the best combination in the world. I love my husband, I love his job and the training that he's receiving, and I love my house. I just think the timing of the latter two wasn't the best idea. Oh well. Come what may and love it! :)

take a breath

Whew! I just caught up on the past four months and some major changes in our lives. {and yes, I backdated them to make it look not so bad}

I'm sure not a whole lot of you care to look back and read everything, and I offer no other incentive. Scroll for pictures, read every word, mark 'as-read' and completely skip, I don't mind either way. It's been therapeutic for me to be able to cross this off my list and say I am caught up! 

One of my goals this year was to take a photo everyday. That morphed into creating an online source that I would post it to. That morphed into detailing out my thoughts on that specific photo. That morphed into an online journal that I now crave and yearn to write in {practically} every day. I am amazed at the things that I can remember, and choose to focus on. All the little details, or the big ones. The silly ones or the serious ones. Like the food we had for dinner, the games I played with my kids, the impressions of the spirit I felt that day, the reasons why I love this person, the yearnings of my soul to make changes, the blessings and hardships I experience everyday. Makes this quote take on even deeper meaning for me:

"You will have significant experiences. I hope that you will write them down and keep a record of them, that you will read them from time to time and refresh your memory of those meaningful and significant things. Some may be funny. Some may be significant only to you. Some of them may be sacred and quietly beautiful. Some may build one upon another until they represent a lifetime of special experiences."

~Gordon B. Hinckley, October 2006 Speech at BYU

I was there and heard President Hinckley give this speech at BYU. I loved it then, but didn't quite understand its depth. I am learning the blessings of recording my life, and I love it. 

I definitely think it's easier to stay current, rather than catching up - so here's to renewing my commitment to this fun responsibility of keeping in touch with family and friends through this blog. Here we go!

august wrap up

{I'm already to August in my catch-up! Yay!}

 Can you tell I was not cut out to be an elementary school teacher? Absolutely zero cuteness in L's sticker chart for going potty. But he loved it, and that's what counts! I took this picture at the end of day two. I would say that's a major success! He has done great. Seriously. Still have a few hiccups ... but great.

 Painting a little bit. This was a "prize" after filling in a row of stickers. He was so excited! 

 This is Miss-LE waiting for her "play-doctor" as L refers to her, otherwise known as physical therapist. It has been awesome doing physical therapy with her! And she has caught on so quickly. It was as if her brain was stuck, and just needed an outside influence to help her 'click' that she could move and get where she wanted to be. In the four weeks that we've gone {one of them included the introductory evaluation}, she has learned to go from laying-to-sitting, sitting-to-kneeling, kneeling-to-standing, and has gotten a lot faster at her bottom scooting. She is even cruising while holding onto things and wants to  go faster and faster. Seriously! Basically in three weeks covered what she should have been learning for the past six months or so. She is noticeable happier, as am I! I no longer have to entertain a toddler trapped in a six-month-old body. :) It's fabulous. This does mean that I have to constantly be helping her walk around, and "training" her on how to do these skills, but we love it. Only one more week and we'll probably call it quits because she'll be age-appropriate. Hooray!

 This little guy loves to ride his bike around on the driveway. Oh man he loves it. I've been doing a ton of yard work lately, and he's my buddy outside while Lady-LE takes her morning nap.  He always says that I need to use the grass cutting machine, and he using his bike machine. We make a good team together.

 A little spur of the moment family night out to watch Tangled at a movie in the park. R had the next day off {which is so rare!}, and I was itching to get out of the house {potting training will do that to you}. Everyone loved it and we all had a fun time. However the next couple days were brutal for L. He literally turned into a monster. There's still a half-monster in there, but he's slowly returning to his old self. 

 Doing yard work again, and letting the kids play in the water. We really should look into getting a bigger kiddie pool. :)

In a very sad turn of events, we had to say a premature goodbye to Jeep. R got in an accident on his way to work one morning while it was still dark outside, and the damage was significant enough to outweigh the total value of the car. The damage is on the driver's side door/front panel/front left tire/front axel. But I wanted to remember Jeep in all her glory, so I'm not showcasing that side. No one needs to have their faults exposed, right? Especially Jeep after all she has done for us. 

We had our first date in this car. We drove away on our wedding night in this car. We drove all over UT during our undergrad years in her. She carried us across the country and was constantly reliable through medical school. We have driven her from CA to NC, and she still had one heck of a life ahead of her. Let's just say that I cried when we got the final news that she was totaled. It was a sad day. 

So if anyone around here is looking to sell a car, we're in the market for one. 

For the record, both R and the driver of the other vehicle were both completely safe and unharmed, thank goodness. We have counted our blessings repeatedly for that and continue to be grateful. 

Life on a resident's schedule with two little ones at home with crazy naps make it difficult to survive with only one car. But we're making it work, and it's been about two weeks already. Hopefully we'll find a car soon ... after being homebound during the potty training, and now having only one car between us, I find that I'm not as much of a homebody as I thought I was. I gotta get out! :) 

july wrap up

The month started with a bang when my brother and his family came out to visit for the 4th. Oh my goodness that visit carried us over! It was fabulous and I still love looking through those pictures. Then Lady-LE had her birthday and we loved celebrating that with some new friends in the neighborhood. Then life slowly become a little hum-drum. There was a point where I was literally about to crack. Our lives have been so crazy and constantly busy and I had been operating on crisis-management-mode for months. Now life was normal, predictable, routine, and I was falling apart. I had completely forgotten how to do "normal" and definitely struggled in finding a rhythm to life again. It's still in the process, but I'm enjoying it more and more and we are really finding our niche in this new town and life. Life is good.

Exploring a splash park with a play group. R even met us for lunch which was such a treat! We loved it! {and I loved making new friends in my church}

 We play a chasing game practically daily. We do a figure-eight pattern through our bedroom/bathroom area and the living/dining area. L begs us everyday to chase him. It's pretty cute how he immediately screams and started laughing and has taught Lady-LE to do the same. 

We take our eating very seriously.  

Playing at a kid pool at the YMCA. 

 We had a scary round of croup with L. I was legitimately scared, and R learned the difference in being emotionally involved in patient care as opposed to being in the hospital with people you don't know. It's quite different, and yet he still was the rock solid influence in remaining calm and figuring out what to do next. Thankfully it only lasted a few days, but sleep was hard for him when he couldn't breathe, and he was SO tired. Doesn't he look so sad here?

This is him falling asleep while learning on the couch waiting for me to clean up Lady-LE after a meal. He was completely out and I felt bad waking him up to take him upstairs to bed. Oh man those were exhausting days ... glad they are over!

 In the recovery days we tried to do low-key things to have fun and pass the time. He loved this road, and I loved it because Lady-LE couldn't mess it up which meant that L didn't freak out. It was a win-win. Definitely an idea to keep on the back burner for a rainy day!

 We went to a park outside, and it was probably close to 7 at night and still in the low 90's temperature wise. Poor kids were so tired of being inside, and yet so lethargic outside! Wow these summers are rough here in the south!

 This little girl has attitude already. Oh I just love her.

 And eventually L returned to his darling self and life was back to normal. 

I have no idea where his clothes are ... but it's the summer so it's okay, right? 

Onto August! Wahoo!

happy

So everyone in my family just ended a big two-week vacation together. One sister and her hubby could only join the festivities for a couple days. But other than that, everyone was together for two weeks. And us? We were stuck stayed in NC because of R's crazy-awful purposeful intern schedule.  :)

In all seriousness, I was very sad to be missing out and knew that this opportunity would not come up again for a long time. BUT. I also knew the reasons why we couldn't go, and was proud of myself about how matter-of-fact and logical I was about the whole situation. We are simply at a point in our life where we can't do everything that we want right now, and I accept that. R's new intern year schedule is demanding to say the least, and he is working his tail off trying to fulfill all that is required of him. We're the new kids on the block (in all sense of that phrase), and I get that. It doesn't mean that I'm not sad about it, or that the days here were easier.  But it did allow me to be happy for my family and them being all together, and keep myself from playing the "woe is me" card.

Just today my sweet sis-in-law shared a ton of photos with me from their trip. I loved it! I sat and looked through all the hundreds of pictures she sent, having thoughts and happy feelings about every single one - commenting to myself about how old this nephew looks, how sweet this niece is, how good these two people are together, and how darn-right-GORGEOUS my family is. 

Then I saw the first picture of the beach. The short hike to the beach that my family has taken many times together. The beautiful glimpses of the sun and blue sky through the trees as you catch your first peak at the water. The crazy rainforest you hike through to get there. The always changing driftwood that is weathered in the sun. And I cried. Full-on tears rolling down my face. That place is just breathtaking, and full of countless memories of my family. 

My heart just burst with love and happiness for everyone in those photos. And I would not be honest if I did not acknowledge the longing I had to be there with them. Like an ache in my heart, but yet my heart is full of joy. It amazes me how I could feel such opposite emotions at the same time with such intensity. I guess sometimes family does that to ya. :) It gave me a wonderful opportunity to sit and contemplate all of my memories of that place, and the phases of life we go through. 

By the end of going through the pictures I was definitely feeling a little more of the empty feeling as opposed to full-of-happiness feeling I had when I began. So I wandered around a little bit looking through our own pictures from the previous two weeks and found this again. Watching this reminded me of the happiness that surrounds me every day. While it may not have the majestic backdrop that the Olympic National Forest offers, it still is beautiful in every way. And these two little ones are the pulse and purpose of my being these days. Through them I can find my happiness every day, even when I am across the country from my sweet family in the one place I call Heaven on Earth. :)

get a move on

Life these days is pretty basic, but we're enjoying it. Here is my thirteen-month old, and her mobility. Yes, she is darling. And yes, this is the extent of which she can move around. No crawling. No pulling up to standing. No cruising. No laying-to-sitting ability. No sitting-to-kneeling ability. She does walk holding onto both our hands. She does do some kind of tiny butt-scoot while sitting up. But her gross motor skills are definitely lacking for her age. 

Have we been worried? No. She is completely fine in every other developmental stage, and I have personally enjoyed her lack of mobility. :) 

Upon her one-year check-up with a new pediatrician, we were recommended to a physical therapist. Our pediatrician was just a little concerned {and we even had bi-lateral hip x-rays done to make sure her bone structure was correct}.  We had our first appointment on Monday, and I am honestly and sincerely happy about it. Here's to teaching this little lady how to get her groove on! 

fourth {third} of july

We just had a wonderful visit from my brother and his family. {well, timing is all relative, right?} They drove 11+ hours for a very short weekend, and we had so much fun being with them! L and his cousin B played like crazy and were such good friends. All day long after they left, L just kept saying over and over again how much he missed her; and R and I simply could not fill the playmate role as well as she could. It was darling to watch them!

We of course started out the weekend with some photo booth fun on our computer. It was dang cute watching them all laugh so hard.

Playing in the water for a little bit. And riding bikes and scooters a lot.

Going for a walk around the pond and having some snacks along the way. 

R had been planning on making me a picnic table for an early birthday present. After talking with brother D about it, they decided to do it together and D brought some tools with him. R had made the saw horses before hand, and they definitely came in handy. From designing, buying the materials, cutting, and putting it all together it took them five hours. Amazing! We still have to sand and stain it, but we have to wait for the rain to stop long enough for it to dry. Someday soon. Happy early Birthday to me!! I LOVE it! 

The finished table on our deck, well loved by everyone. It has definitely been fun! 

We even had a visit from the ice cream truck! It was such a quintessential summer moment I had to take pictures {as if I ever need as excuse, right?}. Don't let that sour face on Lady-LE fool you, she loved it! 

See? I love the ice cream dripping off her chin onto the watermelon on her shirt. Perfect summer day, I tell ya!

We drove up to the US Whitewater National Center to see on fireworks on Saturday night, and we had a great time. That place is huge and we can't wait to go back and take advantage of it. It was crazy crowded, and the kids loved the fireworks. SUCH a difference from last year when L couldn't even keep his eyes open. And of course, he and cousin B had wrestling games on the grass. It just seems so perfect when your best friends' kids get along so well with your own, right? 

Sunday we had a lazy morning, enjoyed church together, and then had a big 4th of July dinner together while R slept to prepare for a night shift. After dinner we enjoyed some sparklers and playing outside a little bit more. 

I love this kid's intensity. He cracks me up. {and I love D&A's camera. It's amazing.}

So stinking fun! 

{on a side note, I love looking at this picture and seeing hand-me-down clothes from cousin J-boy and Baby-A. It's as if we were all together and it made me happy.}

Monday morning {the real 4th of July}, we all got up to say goodbye.  The A-Family had a long way to drive before D reported to work at 4am the next day.  We were so lucky to have them come visit us!! Our first year of marriage D&A lived in Provo at the same time before graduating, and we did everything with them. It is so fun to get together with them now and simply pick up right where we left off. They are the best of people, and we are constantly trying to be as good as them. Thank you so much for coming!! We can't wait till our next adventure!