I don't have any pictures to post, but I just feel like it's been too long since I put up something new, so pictures or not - here we go...
First of all, I'm just soooo happy to have Ben home again. One month without him was really hard. I'm thankful that most of his rotations this next school year are going to be close to home. I know I'm spoiled in that regard. I feel like with most of our other med school friends, the hubby's will be traveling around the country this next year, and I'm just grateful that Ben will be able to stick it out here at home for most of the time. I'm excited to get going with our 4th year of med school!! I have that mentality right now of being so close, yet so far away from our goal of Ben actually having a job. Residency is right around the corner, but I'm mostly looking forward to when that's all over and done with too. Not to say that I'm not trying to really enjoy the journey of it all. In fact, I'm also sooo sad at the thought of moving on to residency and beyond and having to leave most all of our friends behind as we all go our different ways. I look at my huge blog list of friends and most of them are all people we see regularly and hang out with often and have kids that Emma dearly loves! And most are also med school student families, giving us all something big to relate to each other about. What an amazing support system I have! Anyway, I know this time is fleeting and I'm trying to enjoy it while it lasts - because it's quickly coming to an end!
We had a great Memorial Day weekend! We've also been able to get out and see some of the big movies that have been coming out. I love summer movies!! Finally, some good stuff is getting into the theaters! We saw Narnia last week and Indiana Jones on Memorial Day. I'd give Narnia a 4 out of 5. It was great, really... a little slower than the first (I'd give the first one a 5/5!), but entertaining for sure and visually awesome! I'd give Indiana Jones a 3 1/2 out of 5, and in some respects maybe I'd even give it higher than that... it was definitely a little out there - I mean, past Indiana Jones movies are definitely a little crazy - not realistic at all and mostly just to entertain... but this one seemed particularly far-fetched. I'm not sure what it was. Somehow it turned into an alien movie and that kind of weirded me out. But I was entertained throughout - never bored, for sure, and Harrison Ford was cool - and I'm a big Shia LaBeouf fan. I used to watch him back in the days when we was the star of Even Stevens, a silly tv series on the Disney Channel. Anyway, it's fun to see him be so successful in so many big movies! I hope it doesn't go to his head! Other summer movies I'm anxious to see: Hancock, Wall-E, Kung Fu Panda, Get Smart, and The Dark Knight. Movies I am NOT anxious to see: Hell Boy II, The Mummy, The Love Guru, and The Incredible Hulk. General rule of thumb - don't make sequels to movies when the originals were lame!
Well, I've been home for a few days now, but I've been slow to post about my great week in Utah. I think I've been a little overwhelmed at all the pictures I took! I chose my favorites and made them into a couple of slideshows. It was the perfect time for a family visit - we celebrated my dad's birthday, my brother Aaron's birthday, and Mother's Day of course. As I've already griped about, Ben is still away in Tucson - in fact, he had to work all day on Mother's Day, so I was glad that I had my family to keep me entertained this past week - or I would have been a rather sad Susan. :(
Some notes about our week -
Dad's birthday: Sarah grilled some kebabs and pineapple. She also made an awesome raspberry trifle (per dad's request - in lieu of cake). Dad's birthday actually ended up with a space theme - Dad LOVES space and dreams of traveling to the moon one day. :) I actually bought him his very own acre of land on the moon to someday be used for building a second home. hmmm....
Thanksgiving Point Gardens: I was sooo impressed by this place. It motivates me to get my own flower garden going... someday. :) My parents have season passes and go walking here often, which sounds absolutely lovely! Emma's favorite part was rolling down the big grass hill - she kept veering sideways, and even started rolling up the hill a couple of times. :/
Aaron's Birthday: Aaron wanted homemade pizza for his birthday dinner - he ended up helping quite a bit with it actually - he even tossed the dough for us! After dinner, presents, and cake, we went disc golfing at a nearby park. Emma loved coming along - she insisted on hanging onto the pink disc (and DON'T call them frisbee's or you'll get in big trouble - not by me, but by those that care). Dad ended up winning - awesome discing dad!
So, as you can tell, it was a great week - Mother's day was really nice too - I got lots of presents from Emma (which she made in Primary - her Aunt Sarah teaches the sunbeams, so even though she's really in nursery she got to spend the time in Primary - and she LOVED it!). Ben also surprised me and had flowers sent to my family's house a couple days earlier. That really made me feel special - thanks cute Ben! Now I'm anxiously awaiting my hubby to come home. His last day in Tucson is tomorrow, so he'll be home for good tomorrow night - hooray!!
So, I totally feel like I lucked out being in Utah the week that David Archuleta came to town! I Love American Idol and 'Little David' is just so cute! ;) I have a total crush on him. Ha! I guess he's too young for me. Anyway, my mom and I packed up the kiddos and headed to Gateway to see him. On our way down, I thought to myself - 'it'll probably be packed with people, but it can't be that bad since it's during a school day and all the little 12 year old David fans will be away at school'. But, I was sooo wrong! The place was swarming with little girls - but, not too surprisingly, also swarming with lots of mommies and their toddlers. Right next to me there was this older lady in her 50's or so, screaming her head off "David! I LOVE you!!". It was hillarious - she kept apologizing to me for waving her hands in front of my camera - she said "I'm just crazy about David! He's just so cute!" Anyway, it was fun and a rather memorable outing. After seeing little David, we ate some lunch and then headed over to the children's museum. I love visiting that place! The kids always have an awesome time! Well, I'll post more about our week in Utah after we get back home. We'll be coming home Monday. We have a fun weekend planned and tonight we're going to see Iron Man!
My kids have been so silly lately - it starts with the fact that in the last few weeks Becca has really been making huge leaps in her ability to play and communicate and her personality is just so amusing. I LOVE my girls! I've been so grateful for them these past couple of weeks as Ben has been away on rotation - they have definitely helped keep me distracted and entertained. Anyway, back to the silliness - they have been finding the weirdest things to do. I've been trying to scale back the television watching (I've been working on this for while now - some days are definitely better than others!) and as a result they definitely have more time to experiment with their imaginative play. Emma discovered that she could push Becca around in the little push cart they have. And then the funnier thing was watching as they switched places and Becca pushed Emma around! That made me laugh. Later in the day I found them sitting in the laundry basket full of clean clothes. I just like seeing the two of them giggle together and enjoy each other. They definitely get on each others nerves quite a bit as well, but I like to think they get along more than they fight. This morning I was so amused at the activity Becca found to do. Emma was busy in her room dressing up like a princess and Becca decided to take all the toilet paper rolls from under the bathroom sink and put them in our bathtub. This was while I was getting ready in the bathroom, so I was definitely happy to see her keep herself so well occupied! I just couldn't believe how long she worked on this little project. She could only get a hold of one roll at a time, so getting that much t.p. transferred was quite a feat. It doesn't surprise me really, though - she definitely enjoys this kind of thing. She loves moving objects from one container to another. I'm not sure what that means about her personality - I just know that Emma was never entertained by stuff like that. Oh, and sorry about the crazy slide show - I'm usually not a big fan of pictures that bounce around and make you dizzy - but this time around, I felt it was appropriate, since the kids have been bouncing around the house and making me dizzy.
I'm sure you can sense the excitement in my voice during this video! Hooray for Becca!! I love how she kind of wiggles her tush in preparation for the next step. :)
So, we're on to week 2 of Ben's Tucson rotation. Thankfully Ben was able to come home for part of the weekend. We miss him so much when he's gone! We kept busy last week to stay somewhat distracted from the fact that we were without a daddy - plenty of playgroup activities, swimming, Young Women stuff, visit teaching, and playing with friends to keep us moving. Emma helped me make her daddy's favorite cookies on Friday afternoon. Whenever she helps with baking, she insists on putting her little apron on. She also loves turning the mixer on and off as we add ingredients. Ben had to work through Saturday morning - he met up with us at his family's home in Gilbert around noon. Before he arrived, we spent the morning with Grandma Dangerfield shopping and playing at San Tan Village. They have a cute kids section with children's clothing shops surrounding a great outdoor play area with stuff to climb on as well as a splash pad. This was Becca's first time playing in little fountains like this - she was hesitant at first, but warmed up to it quickly and rather enjoyed it! She was really wanting to walk while playing in the water, so Ben's mom was clever and had her push the umbrella stroller around - it was funny - it got soaked, but dried off in like 10 minutes from the heat. We got back to Ben's parents home just after he had arrived. We were all soooo happy to see him! The girls snuggled with him for a while - still in their swimsuits from playing. Becca, in particular, is a real daddy's girl right now and rested her head on his shoulder while smiling real big for a good long time. It was just the cutest. Ben had to leave again Sunday evening. We are planning on going to see him on Friday afternoon since he has a half day. On Saturday evening he's coming home late and then taking us to the airport Sunday morning. We get to go see my family for a week in Utah! Hooray!! While we're there we'll be celebrating my dad's and my brother's birthdays, as well as Mother's Day. I'm really excited!
For a good giggle, I thought I'd add this photo of Emma from our latest swimming excursion. We were getting ready to go, so I put her back in her regular clothes - but while I finished gathering our stuff, she went ahead and put some swim goggles on and hung out next to the pool. Her hair was all crazy from swimming, adding to the amusement. I know I always say that Emma is a goof - but come on! Here's some real proof!!
We enjoyed more birthday celebrations this weekend! I love birthdays! Ben turned 28 on Saturday. Happy Birthday cutie-Ben! I have to admit that I am usually the lamest when it comes to buying fun presents or planning fun activities for Ben's birthdays - which is a real shame considering how above and beyond Ben will go for me on my special days. I tried really hard this year to plan better and put more thought into his birthday this time around. I got him the awesomest present (if I do say so myself... is awesomest a word? probably not) - Ben is now the proud owner of his very first grill. Now that we actually live in a house with a little patio space, we have space for one and Ben's been wanting one FOREVER! He was super excited about it (which made me feel good) and we grilled 3 times this weekend with his new manly toy (which made my tummy feel good). So, anyway, I surprised him with that on Friday afternoon and later that evening, after it got all assembled, he grilled up some pineapple and topped it with vanilla ice cream and caramel. Wo yummy!! On Saturday I made his favorite breakfast - eggs benedict (I don't make it as good as he does, but it turned out alright - it's the thought that counts right?). After breakfast, he got to open presents from the girls. Emma actually picked out her present and paid for it with her very own money (quarters and dimes from her piggy bank). She even wrapped it all herself and she did a pretty good job! :) Later in the morning we headed over to our new favorite store and Ben picked out some steaks and other stuff for his birthday dinner (see how well I planned that? I bought him a grill for his birthday and then he just can't wait to make his own celebratory dinner... I'm so sneaky... anything to get out of cooking!). In the afternoon I had a sitter come watch the kids while Ben and I got to go to a movie. We saw Leatherheads which was just okay. We both agreed that the music was fun and the acting was good, but the story was a little odd - I wasn't really sure what was going on some of the time and the ending was kind of abrupt and nothing was resolved really. Anyway, it was fun to get out nonetheless. That evening we had the Lee's over for dinner (which included grilled steaks of course!) and more grilled pineapple for desert! Earlier in the day we also had yummy cupcakes and Emma got to help in singing Happy Birthday to daddy. Becca was just super excited to get to eat cake again. On Sunday we had dinner at Ben's parents house and celebrated some more with cake yet again (I'm sure I've put on a few pounds this week!) - It's Ben Lee's birthday on Wednesday so this was in honor of him as well. The boys opened some presents and later I had to bid adieu to Ben as he left for Tucson. The last rotation of the school year is sadly 2 hours away. He'll be coming home on weekends, we assume. Ho hum. I always hate it when I'm without my Ben. At least we had a fun weekend!
So, we had the beginnings of some summer heat this past week with the temps getting in the 90's! Woohoo! Well, I'm bracing myself for the REAL heat in a couple of months when it's over 110 and I start melting like a Popsicle. Although, the past few summers I've been learning how to really love the crazy Arizona heat - swimming! We recently tested out Taya's pool at the Jones Family Resort and Spa (book now... they're filling up fast!!). This was Becca's first time swimming! Last summer she was so tiny and honestly, I just didn't want to bother getting her in a swimsuit and all lathered up with sunblock and such, especially when she was so content to sleep in shade. :) But, now she's the big ONE and the time had come. She really loved it! She kicked her little feet and giggled and pulled some concerned but amused faces whenever the older kids jumped in the pool and made a big splash. And both the girls looked cute in their new matching swimsuits - thanks Grandma Dangerfield!
And a shout out goes to Jodi for spending all morning (and into the afternoon) teaching me how to make her famous baby booties. I love the way they turned out! Becca wore them all day today - I love that they never fall off! You're so awesome Jodi!
We celebrated Rebecca's 1st birthday yesterday with Ben's family - I was so happy to see Becca enjoying her presents and cake. We had a yummy dinner and then we opened presents. Becca's Grandma and Grandpa Dangerfield got her lots of great new clothes, including new matching swimsuits for Emma and Becca, which I LOVE! It's fun having 2 girls in a row, so that they can have matching clothes sometimes. It makes them doubly cute! Ben and I got her her first toothbrush and a couple of new toys as well. After presents we did cake and it was hillarious! First of all, while we were singing Happy Birthday to her, she started screaming because her cake was too far away for her to eat - she was like "stop singing and let me eat!!" The first thing she did when she got her cake in front of her was stick her whole mouth on it. It was cute. For the cake, we decided on everyone getting their own mini bundt cake from Nothing Bundt Cakes. For Emma's first birthday she got her own little bundt cake as well. They are super yummy so we keep going back for many of our birthday events. It was fun all having our own little cake, including Becca of course. She loved it! We were laughing at the difference in how Becca eats versus Emma. Emma has always been a much messier eater and Becca tends to be much more meticulous in her eating. She like to make sure as much as possible actually gets her mouth and even licks her fingers and hands so as not to waste too much. Emma, however, just demolishes her food in an attempt to eat it - and on her first birthday most of it ended up on the floor or all over her face and hair and arms (as you can see in the picture to the right). Becca's cake actually stayed nicely intact, even to the very end, with a relatively clean wedge taken out of one side, and considering she ate it with her hands she kept herself quite tidy. Emma, even last night, smashed up her entire cake somehow in the process of eating it. Rather amusing, I thought, to notice these differences in our girls.
I took Becca to her 1 year well check this morning. Here are the stats:
Height: 27.5" (25th%)
Weight: 16 lbs 13 oz (10th%)
Head Circ: 18" (75th%)
Once again, I was taken aback at how small she is - I always thought Emma was small growing up, but she was over 18 lbs at least at her one year mark. I thought my kids were supposed to get progressively bigger each time, not smaller. Anyway, I've been anxious to get Becca's carseat turned around, but I can't do that till she's 20lbs. I'm guessing that'll be when she's like 2!
Happy One Year Old Birthday to my dear little Rebecca! :) I couldn't be happier to have a such a cute little girl. This first year has gone by super fast! It seems like I just had her! Things Becca loves at the big ONE: food (daddy made her some yummy chocolate marshmallow pancakes for her birthday breakfast and she loved it!), standing up (I anticipate her starting to walk really soon!), giggling, flirting (especially with daddy), bathtime, going to bed EARLY (lights out at 6 or she's a mad baby!), being cute and small - a lady at the grocery store today came up to me and said "you're little baby is so cute... is she like 5 months old?" When I told her that she was turning one today, she was extremely surprised! Yes, she is tiny and I like her that way. :) Oh, and she also now has 4 teeth (and a 5th about to pop through in the next couple of days). I can't believe she's gone from no teeth to almost 5 teeth in just a month! So, we won't actually be doing cake and presents until tomorrow, so I'll post about that later - Monday she has her well check, so I am anxious to see her stats. I LOVE my Becca!!
Emma went to the dentist for the first time today! I was so proud of her, so I was sure to take a couple pictures. She was such a big girl as she listened and followed the dentist's instructions. She kept her mouth open real wide and wasn't scared about the x-rays or any of the dental tools that were put in her mouth. Awesome job Emma! We really liked the dental office we went to. I've been looking around for a while for a good place to take Emma that takes our insurance and finally (thanks to Aubree and Liora) I found a great place! Hooray for clean teeth and no cavities!
That title sure was an attention-grabber, eh? Now you just can't wait to read what we've been up to! ;) We went camping last night in Burro Creek near Wikieup, AZ. It was awesome! As with all camping trips, though, we ran into a bit of problem in that Becca started throwing up just as we were getting ourselves ready to go to bed. Eeek! Thankfully, it didn't last all night and Becca and I were able to get some sleep. Little Becca seems to be doing okay today - just a little tired. I don't know what it is about camping with us lately... there's always some sort of incident that arises to keep things interesting. Well, even though there was some sick Becca involved we had a great time! Activities included: fishing (well, Ben Lee fished and showed the kids how to do it.. I enjoyed watching - at one point the fish were literally jumping out of the water, but we just didn't have good enough bait for them to grab a hold of - I suggested using Becca, but that just wouldn't be nice), eating super yummy food (we did Dutch Oven chicken and rice and cobbler for dinner, and the Lee's cooked up a huge breakfast of pancakes, eggs, bacon, fruit, and cider!), making s'mores and singing around the campfire (Ben's dad brought his guitar and we rocked out to John Denver, Buffalo Springfield, and the Beatles). Anyway, it was a good time... but now I'm soooo tired. I don't know what it is about camping exactly (maybe the sun, lack of sleep, lack of shower?), but it wears me out!
I've seriously been having such a great weekend!! I just had to get blogging! :) On Sunday, Ben and I will have been married for 6 lovely years. We celebrated last night with an awesome date! Ben's always been sooo amazing at planning great dates and being a real cutie-pie. I love you Ben! We started our date shopping around at the outdoor mall, Kierland Commons. I got a couple super cute shirts! After enjoying the evening air, we ate dinner at Lon's. This was seriously one of the best dining experiences I've had in a long time! We love to eat out, but this place tops them all. Well, I didn't think we'd ever come across a place we like more than the tree room in Sundance, but this at least ties. :) Anyway, the atmosphere was great and the food was to die for! :) It was a lovely romantic evening. Here's to 6 more awesome years married to my Ben (plus many many more!!).
The weekend continued to be great with a wonderful Saturday morning. I ran my first 5K and I was just so proud of myself for not dieing on the side of the road in exhaustion (beforehand I had thoughts of Micheal Scott running for the cure for rabies and him throwing up at the end of the 5K... that could have been me!). Anyway, I managed to push through the race without stopping to walk and I actually won a trophy! Somehow I got 3rd place in my age group. Woohoo! My trophy is a cool bobblehead - so awesome! Now I need to find a place to put it. :) I was also really proud of Emma - she ran the 1 mile kids race and almost ran the whole time! Way to go Emma! The Hunters attended the event as well. They are so fun. Craig ran the 5K also and finished in 24 minutes - awesome!! Addy also ran the kids race and was a real motivator to Emma as she booked it off the starting line!
So, Ben is currently out in Scottsdale somewhere picking up a trampoline. We're getting it for free from my brother-in-law's boss whose looking to give it away. We're so excited! Well, Emma is especially excited - she loves jumping. :)
Happy belated Easter! It was a great weekend! Well, it was mostly great - I was rather sad on Saturday because Ben wasn't able to spend the day with us like I would have hoped. He's just been soooo busy with his surgery rotation this past month that he had to spend a day getting some stuff done, such as studying and applying for 4th year rotations. However, because of his hard work on Saturday we were able to have the whole day with him on Sunday. He even woke up with the kids! I sure have missed my Ben! Anyway, despite not having Ben with us during our Saturday activities, we managed to have a good time. So - to backtrack - Friday we did Easter egg hunt #2 with friends and it was great! Emma just can't get enough candy! ;) On Saturday morning we went to Egg hunt #3 at Ben's school (without Ben... sigh...). As with last year, Emma LOVED jumping in the inflatable bounce house. She's always had a real fondness for jumping. :) Saturday evening we attended the Easter Pageant at the Mesa Temple with Ben's family (once again, we were Ben-less... ho hum...). I was really impressed by the show that was put on. And it was soooo busy with people. But, we got there plenty early and had seats relatively close. We had a good time hanging out till the pageant started. We had a good 2 hours to kill, so we ate dinner, chatted, wandered the grounds and attempted to take some good pictures of the kids. It's so darn hard to get decent pictures with crazy kiddos - I've just learned to snap as many as I can and hope that one of them turns out good. During the performance, I was impressed by how interested Emma was. She really enjoyed the costumes and the animals - she was really frightened during the thunder and crucifixion scene, though. I wasn't sure how I was going to like watching these events depicted in this type of setting, but I thought that it was done well. It really was a great event to be a part of. I hope to go again next year! It was nice to have an activity that reminded us all of why we celebrate Easter - it's easy to get caught up in all the Easter bunny and Egg hunt stuff and not devote enough attention to the true central focus of the holiday. Emma really learned a lot from the Easter Pageant and I was glad for it.
Sunday was just great! I was seriously just sooo happy to have Ben with us the whole day, without any school stuff hogging the attention. :) We drove down to Gilbert and attended church with Ben's family. Afterwards we spent our time hanging out at Ben's parents home. Easter dinner was really yummy - ham, rolls, "egg desserts", spinach salad, and scalloped potatoes. I was particularly glad to have leftovers to bring home for dinner tonight - I love it when I don't have to make dinner! After Easter dinner we had Egg hunt #4 at Grandma's in her backyard - the kids really cleaned up - I've got a huge amount of candy sitting in a large bowl here at my house now. If anyone felt like they didn't get their fill of chocolate and sweets, then head on over and help us eat all of this! :)
On a side note - while we were hanging out with Ben's family on Easter, Becca tried out a little walking push toy and she just LOVED it! She's been practicing her walking while holding my hands for the past couple of weeks and this was just so liberating for her - she was able to 'walk' without mommy! I'll be so excited when she can do this completely on her own - she'll be sooo happy with herself!
I've been so happy to have some holidays to celebrate this week! It seems like it's been forever since Valentines Day and I've been ready for some more holiday activities! Well, for St. Patrick's Day we didn't do much, but I'm surprised at how simple things can just make Emma's day. When Ben got home from work he distracted her while I laid out little leprechaun footprints. At the end of the trail was a little goody bag filled with coins and green Starbursts. Emma was really excited about this - I had told her earlier in the day that leprechauns might come visit our house, so to keep her eyes peeled! She was seriously on the look out all day - she told me a couple times that she thought she saw one hiding under the kitchen table - she's so funny. She really has quite the imagination!
This morning we had a little Easter egg hunt for playgroup. We had a great turnout! The park was crazy busy, but we still still had a good time. One of the girls had the clever idea of doing the egg hunt across the parking lot in the empty ballfield - this worked great... away from the busy spring break crowd! Emma sure loves Easter egg hunts and she's getting much better at it as she gets older! Last year she stopped after each egg to open it up and check out the goods - this time she swept the area clean before diving in. Way to go Emma! :) I love Easter!!
So, we had a fun morning/early afternoon today! A few days ago I would have been surprised to hear myself say that about today, considering I got my wisdom teeth pulled yesterday morning. However, I've been recuperating quickly - wonderful! I went in to the dentist a few weeks ago for a check up and they said I really needed to get my top two wisdom teeth removed. The bottom two were taken out back when I was young and spritely!. ;) Now that I'm nearing 26, I'm on the 'old' end of the ideal time to get them pulled. Anyway, I was scared to get this done, because Ben wasn't going to be home and I was afraid that it would hurt like the dickens afterwards. But, thankfully, it hasn't been too big of a deal. Dear Melinda watched my kids while I was at the dentist, Ben got home a little early from work, and Ashley even brought us dinner - goodness sakes! I'm just so well cared for. :) I've also been hopped up on vicodin - that's always fun! It reminds me of the good old days when I had a bottle of percocet pills for after labor pains with Becca. Those were the days... (sigh)...
Anyway, this morning I woke up feeling pretty good and not too terribly swollen. So, I went with Ben and the kids to attend his dad's birthday celebration. We met up at IHOP for a themed brunch. Afterwards we were to see Horton Hears a Who and IHOP is doing a promotional thing I guess and serving Green Eggs and Ham and Who-Cakes. It was a lot of fun! And the green eggs were actually quite good - done with spinach for the green. I was particularly glad to be able to eat something - the eggs were nice and soft and yummy! Yesterday I only ate ice cream and pudding, so I was definitely hungry for real food!! After eating we went to the movie and it was really great. I definitely recommend that everyone go see Horton - I thought it was funny and cute and the animation was just super. Jim Carey was hillarious!
On a side note, Becca is just a doll. Seriously. I LOVE this girl - as she grows older, she is just getting cuter and cuter and her personality is just bursting right out of her. She cracks me up with her funny faces and silly noises and the cute way she crawls and cruises. She's just great. I also noticed that I can finally put little clips in her hair - hooray for girls! She has the funniest hair right now - it's long enough to stick up in weird places when she gets up from naps and will look so silly. It's also relatively fine, but thicker than Emma's was at this age. Emma was a real baldy even past turning one. So - back to Becca's funny personality - I took a little video of her practicing her artistic skills. It's so cute to see her really start to play with Emma and join in on the day-to-day activities. It makes me feel like our family really has grown to 4 and isn't just 3 and a little baby.
So, we've been really busy with day-to-day activities the last week or so - I've been really feeing like my calendar is so booked up right now between doctor and dentist visits, activities for the kids, visit teaching, Young Women stuff, baby showers, girls nights, babysitting, and on and on. Mostly just regular old events and appointments that keep life busy and fun, but still, it seems I've had an extra amount of it all. Thankfully, it's been good timing for all the business on my calendar, since Ben has been away all the time! I've been feeling like a single mommy while Ben's been keeping up crazy hours at the hospital for his surgery rotation this month. He's up in the morning at 3:00 am and sometimes doesn't get home until 7:30 or 8:00 at night. It's just crazy - and this weekend the poor boy was on call at the hospital and was there from 5am Saturday until 10am on Sunday. Good grief! They run these students ragged sometimes. Well, despite it all, we are all surviving and I've been impressed with Ben's stamina to keep up - he's coming home relatively cheerful and doesn't seem to be collapsing of exhaustion just yet. We'll see how much longer he can keep it up - he still has 2 weeks left of surgery! I'm thankful that Ben doesn't want to be a surgeon for his career because I don't think I'd be able to survive the residency years! I've learned through all this that I wouldn't fair well as a single mom - I desperately need a hubby that works reasonable enough hours so that I could at least remember him leaving in the morning and have time to give him a hug and a kiss in the evening before having to go to bed and start it all over again. I bite my thumb at you surgery rotation!
Alright, moving on.... Emma had her 3 year well check this morning (almost a month overdue) and she was just relieved that she didn't need to get any shots this time around. She was sooo pouty at the thought of having to get a shot at the doctor's office. Her stats were nothing exciting or dramatic - 50th for height and 25th for weight - nothing surprising there for my petite little Emma. It was a quick visit with nothing much to discuss, considering I don't really have any medical concerns for her. I'm happy to have a healthy, normal 3 year old! What a blessing! In other news, I noticed this morning the signs of a tooth in baby Becca!!! Can you believe it?!! There's finally one coming in! 11 months old and her first tooth is on its way! Good work Rebecca - way to really take your sweet time! She'll be so happy to finally have some teeth to help her eat, because she sure does love to eat. I've been impressed with her skills at gumming just about anything. Another new Becca thing is that she's signing! She doesn't do it much, but she can sign milk! And it's really cute. Here's a weird video of me pressuring Becca to sign for the camera.
The weather has been just perfect lately - ranging from 75 to 85 for the high over the past couple of weeks - it's just lovely! Needless to say we've been spending a lot of time at the park. I love the park! I love being able to sit outside while watching my kids play. I'm proud to say that Becca is doing quite well playing at the park without eating much of the sand. A couple months ago I couldn't put her down at the park without her going straight for a handful of dirt in the mouth, but now it's much more uncommon, which is nice. :)
Sorry this post is all over the place! This week we made shamrock cookies as a pre-St Patrick's Day activity. I used Taya's sugar cookie recipe and it's awesome! My previous recipe always resulted in rather thin and crispy sugar cookies, but these turn out thick and soft and yummy!! Thanks Taya! Anyway, they turned out nice and I was particularly grateful to be able to give a number of them away to friends, because I just kept eating them! Eeek! So many calories!! I've been becoming a little more calorie conscious this past week - I actually tried counting my calories for a few days just to get a better idea of what I usually consume in a day. It was frightening! I tried to get away with only eating 1500 calories/day for a couple days and that was way too hard for me!! I also decided I need to focus less on calorie counting and more on just eating a little healthier and mostly exercising more! I've been running a lot this past week and it feels great! I'm going to do my first 5K at the end of month and I'm so excited! I've never done anything like that before. I'm surrounded by all these athletic, fit friends, and I want to do better at joining in the fun! I don't know how some of you do these triathlons and marathons - you crazies!! Well, really, I'm just jealous and would love to work up to doing something like that - but first I've got to lay off the shamrock cookies and the double stuff oreos!! wink, wink Heather. There was a lot of exclamation points in that paragraph!
So, because Ben was on call this weekend, I missed the Spring Fling - what a bummer! But, it turned into a pleasant evening anyhow - I offered to watch Addy for the Hunters while they went to the dance (since I was just going to be home sulking anyway!) and we had a lot of fun actually - we played Easter Bingo and I was surprised at how much they both loved it! It was funny - we used Easter M&M's as markers and every time someone won they both got to eat the M&M's off their board. Obviously, they just wanted to play that over and over again. :) In addition to that, they colored and we read a bunch of books and then when it started to get late we put in Little Mermaid, which put Emma to sleep after a bit. I also enjoyed indulging in my Oreos which Heather gave me as a little present since I was having to stay home from the dance. Did you know that there are 140 calories in one serving of Oreos - and one serving is only 2 cookies! Oh my!!! But despite that, I love Oreos and thanks so much Heather!!
Okay... she actually turned 3 a couple of weeks ago, but we had to hold off on a friend party until we got home from Utah. Melinda and I combined forces to have a double party for Benjamin and Emma who's b-day's are only a day apart. We had a great turnout and it was great to see my Emma-babe get a birthday party with her fun friends. Emma is just such a ball of energy and we LOVE having her in our family. She's so darn smart and loves to talk and play and be silly. Happy Birthday Emma Lou!
I've been a little slow to post about our last week in Utah - we're back in Arizona now and we are getting back into the swing of things - it's been super nice having a month-long vacation! I've had plenty of people to watch the kids and I had to do very little cleaning and house tasks (thanks to my wonderful mommy!) Anyway, we were all really pampered while staying at my family's house - so now it's a bit of shock to come back and have to actually do stuff during the day! Well, despite the sudden busyness of our days, it's nice to be back with our own stuff, in our own bed, and our own cute little house. :)
So, to recap the end of our Utah stay won't be quite as epic as the previous posts - we finally ran out of birthdays and holidays to celebrate! But we did have a good week - Emma spent a lot of time playing with her birthday presents that she received over the weekend. Some of the presents that kept her particularly occupied included a train set, Color Wonder coloring books, doctor kit, a Dora writing book and a United States puzzle. In fact, we ALL really enjoyed taking turns with the Color Wonder books. They're fun - and great for church, since the markers only work on the Color Wonder paper. So, there's a little plug - if you haven't already tried them out, I recommend getting a kit the next time you're out. Anyway, other activities that kept me busy this past week included shopping, visiting friends, watching lots of Lost and American Idol, and eating out at a crazy German restaurant. Ben, Emma, my dad, and I all went out for lunch on Friday (since Ben got done with his rotation work super early!) at Siegfried's Deli in Salt Lake - it was definitely different - I've never tried German food before, but I really liked the spaetzle!
The drive home was alright - we didn't break up the trip this time and spend the night like we did coming up - so the drive felt really long. Ugh. We stopped a few times, of course, for fuel and bathroom breaks, including a stop at the In 'N Out in Las Vegas. After it all we got home safely and the kids did pretty well. We were particularly relieved to come home to a house that was intact and didn't smell horrible. I kept having horrible thoughts on our drive home that we would arrive to a house that was broken into with all our stuff missing - or at least a smelly house from leaving some garbage or something on accident. But, the house was fine and only smelt a little musty from not having the air going while we were away. Since coming home, though, we have run into a load of items needing repair - our dishwasher broke soon after getting home (but, thankfully, the owner is replacing the dishwasher for us - woohoo!! new dishwasher!!), somehow the Cavalier is leaking oil as it keeps leaving little puddles in the garage, our XBOX is flashing red lights at us and is apparently broken (we'll try taking it back to Costco!), and our vacuum is not working properly either. Oh man - and to add to the list of "broken stuff" - apparently my teeth need some work - a filling, cleaning, and wisdom teeth removal for me!! Oh man!! Well, despite all the stuff just falling apart on us, I'm quite happy at the moment. I've been enjoying the warm weather (capris and flip flops for me today, as the high is 83!!) and relaxing in my own house with my crazy kiddies. Life isn't too bad. :)
Needless to say, I'm a little overwhelmed by everything I have to blog about... there's seriously been so much going on!! We've reached the end of our 3rd week here at my family's house - which means that we only have one more week left. We've been so busy with activities and such that it has gone by rather quickly. So, I'll do my best to recap our week for you - brace yourself for a lengthy post!! :)
Tuesday: My sister Sarah (and the youngest of the three siblings in our family) turned 19!! We spent a good chunk of the day over at my grandparents home in Salt Lake. We had lunch with them and chatted while the kids played. We also took a little field trip to the Salt Lake Cemetery to see Pres. Hinckley's grave, along with many of the other past prophets. I wish I had a camera while we were there - in addition to the gravesites, we saw a bunch of beautiful deer on the grounds. Emma called them llamas as first - I thought that was pretty odd! During our visit to my grandparents home we also tried on a beautiful Native American headdress. It made for some fun pictures! My grandma on my mom's side is 1/4 Chinook - so that would make me 1/16! Anyway, her home is filled with Native American artifacts and such; it's seriously like a museum!
Tuesday evening we had cake and ice cream and sang Happy Birthday to our dear Sarah. She also opened presents of course! Fun, fun, fun! After all that, we exchanged Valentines. This turned out to be really great! I assigned everyone the task of putting together 6 valentines to give to each member of the family. So, we each had our little baggies with our names on them and we gave out our valentines. It was really amusing because everyone's valentines were so different and original - some homemade, others purchased, but all were heartfelt and fun. I wanted to be sure we did this for Emma's sake since we wouldn't be home to do all the valentine activities with Emma's many little friends.
Wednesday: Wednesday was super snowy - it didn't really hit until around lunch-time, but it was like a blizzard outside with a ton of snow and a lot of wind, so the snow looked like it was coming in sideways. Anyway, we stayed home all day and Ben ended up having a crazy time getting home from the hospital. If I would have realized how bad the freeways were, I would have told him to spend the night at the hospital. He had a late shift that night and didn't get off until 8, but he was on the road for 3 hours traveling from Provo to Sandy - so ridiculous! He actually read his book all the way home - that's how slow he was going. I was so relieved that he didn't ever run out of gas and that he was able to get home safely. Well, the next day was actually lovely and the remains of the storm were evident in the huge mountains of snow in the front yard! That required some serious shoveling!
Thursday: Valentines Day was sooo awesome!! I was particularly spoiled this year by my dear hubby. He sent me to the spa in the afternoon to get a facial and my hair treated and styled. It was so rejuvenating. When he came home from work he presented me with some beautiful flowers. They are so lovely and it seems like they will last a good long while. I just took the picture of them this morning and there are still 3 more of the gorgeous white flowers that are still to bloom. How wonderful! For our date (thanks to Sarah for babysitting for us!!) we went to see a Ballet West performance of Cinderella. Before going I honestly thought that it might get a little boring in parts, but it was extremely entertaining and amazing! These people are so talented. I was telling Ben afterwards that I wish I had a talent like that. I was so impressed by the performance. We also went to a late dinner at Benihanas, which was located right next to Capitol Theater (how convenient!). The evening was just great. I love you Ben!
Saturday: Emma turned 3!!! Honestly, I feel like she's been 3 for a while now - so I'm just glad that she finally had her birthday and that I can officially call her 3 years old. Although, now she's no longer free at Disneyland!! Oh nooooo! ;) Well, we had a special treat to be able to spend the day with Ben's parents who came into town for the weekend. Emma shares her birthday with her Uncle Peter, so it was a day of birthday celebrating! We met up for lunch at Gateway and then went to the Children's Museum there. We took Emma there a little over a year ago when we were in town for Thanksgiving and she liked it quite a bit, but now that she's a little older, she enjoyed it soooo much more. She's much more imaginative and into creative play so the pretend grocery store and farm and house, etc were all right up her ally. It was a great time! Me, Ben, Emma, Becca, Peter, Lacy, Carol and Clyde attended the outing and it was hard to tell who was having more fun - the kids or the adults! This month the museum is hosting a Sesame Street exhibit on the body and it was really great. We were all quite impressed - there was a lot to do and it was all just so cute! They also had some rather funny parts - including a sneezing nose that drips "mucus" on you and a poop machine! We all got a kick out of that! After the children's museum we did some quick shopping and Ben's parents, the kids, and I enjoyed a ride in a heated horse-drawn carriage. So fun! After our Gateway outing, we went to my family's house to visit, eat cake, and open presents. Emma got very spoiled by her grandparents and received all sorts of fun stuff. In the evening we went out to dinner and to a movie (without the kiddos)- we saw Spiderwick Chronicles, which we all quite enjoyed. I've never read the books, but now I want to!
give it higher than that... it was definitely a little out there - I mean, past Indiana Jones movies are definitely a little crazy - not realistic at all and mostly just to entertain... but this one seemed particularly far-fetched. I'm not sure what it was. Somehow it turned into an alien movie and that kind of weirded me out. But I was entertained throughout - never bored, for sure, and Harrison Ford was cool - and I'm a big Shia LaBeouf fan. I used to watch him back in the days when we was the star of Even Stevens, a silly tv series on the Disney Channel. Anyway, it's fun to see him be so successful in so many big movies! I hope it doesn't go to his head! Other summer movies I'm anxious to see: Hancock, Wall-E, Kung Fu Panda, Get Smart, and The Dark Knight. Movies I am NOT anxious to see: Hell Boy II, The Mummy, The Love Guru, and The Incredible Hulk. General rule of thumb - don't make sequels to movies when the originals were lame!
