Happy October!!

Autumn, Halloween sugar cookies, and a birthday for the little boy of my life (more on that to come), such a great month!

Kid Moments

So fun to be a mother! I'm enjoying the many moments that come with caring for precious little kids. Here are some recent ones from this week:

 Tonight, as I was getting Emma in her pjs, I heard James pounding in the other room. When I came to see just what, this is what I found:

My Goodness!! The little stinker! He can't even walk, but here he is up on the TV stand, and not even one year old. And so it begins . . . :)

This morning, Emma went to her first day of preschool!!  

It was no big deal for her, she wasn't nervous or shy. Just happy to be learning and playing with other kids. I'm so excited for all that she's going to learn, socially and intellectually.

Finally, my last moment is the most precious. Yesterday, I took the kids with my in-laws to see the Brigham City Temple open house. Unfortunately, it was Labor Day, and the wait to get in took three hours. It was like "outer darkness" as my brother-in-law said, and I was worried that Emma wouldn't get anything out of it, even after a special FHE about temples the day before. When we FINALLY got to walk through, it was wonderful. The spirit was tangible, and despite being her three-year-old self, Emma was exceptionally reverent. I tried to tell her about a few things as we walked past, like the baptismal font, the sealing room, and the celestial room. This morning, on our drive to preschool, we shared the following conversation:

"Mom, what was that temple yesterday?"
"The Brigham City Temple?"
"Yeah. My favorite part was the sparkles [chandeliers in the celestial room] and the kneeling room [sealing room]."

"You mean the celestial room where we get kneel at an altar to be married?"
"Yeah. I wish I could do that when I'm bigger."

"You can. If you keep the commandments, you can get married in the temple when you're bigger."

"And when I'm bigger, I want to do that, and I really want to kneel with James and hold his hand because I really love James, and I want to be with him forever. Can I please, please marry James when I'm bigger?"

Perhaps one of the most precious moments of my life.

Broken Arm

Emma has always been a little bit of a climber (the video below is from 6 months ago) and this spring she had a large fall from her crib and broke her arm. The break was pretty severe, and she had to have a small surgery with 3 pins put in her arm. She was very brave through the whole ordeal, and now her arm is as good as new! She still climbs a lot, but often says things like "I need to be careful or Dr. Hawes will be angry." (Dr. Hawes was her orthopedic surgeon.) Thanks to all of you who expressed concern while she was healing.

Moab Canyonlands Half Marathon

Megan ran the Canyonlands Half Marathon this March for the second time and did a fantastic job. Congrats, Meggie!

Match Day

In the world of medical school, match day is perhaps the biggest day of all four years. This is the day where you find out where you will go for residency training. The match process is long and complicated. For Andrew, it involved being out of town every week of November and December, and into January (and a week in October after James was born) to interview for transitional year and residency (that's 7 TY interviews and 14 radiology interviews), flying on 47 planes, renting one rental car, visiting 15 states in all. Not to mention the months of hard work he put into the application process, nor the hours, days, nights, years put into training. Needless to say, it's a BIG deal. And hence, match day is a BIG day.

On March 16th, the day finally arrived.

Andrew's mom joined us:

  

Along with James:

Promptly at 10am, a red tape was cut and students ran up to find their envelope containing their destiny. Here is Andrew coming back with his. Thankfully he had the patience to walk back to me before opening it:

And here's what was inside:

We matched at Intermountain Medical Center in Murray, UT for his Transitional Year, and Mallinkrodt Institute of Radiology at Washington University in St. Louis for Radiology Residency. We couldn't be more thrilled!!! 

Grandma Karen, with her ESP, had a St. Louis flag for Emma :)

We got exaclty what we wanted. We both feel SO blessed and grateful. It kept feeling like a dream to me, and some days I couldn't help thinking about match day coming up, even though it had passed, just because we anticpated this day for SO long. We were both so surprised by the results, not that we didn't think we could get them, just that our dreams had really come true. I am so proud of Andrew. He has been unrelenting in his dedication to do well and provide for our family. We have so much to look forward to, including his first real paycheck after eight years university training. Way to go Andrew, we LOVE you!!!

James Update

I think the last post I did of James was when he was six weeks. Well, now six months later, I am back at it, mostly thanks to Grandma Jean for giving us a camera after mine got stolen! 

James is growing up SO fast. 

Here he is at six months. He started sitting, so he graduated from the swing to the high chair . . .

and he loves it! Food is one of James's most favorite things. He never tires in reaching for the placemats and plates at the dinner table. If I put the baby jar of food on the table, he will wail until I get it in his mouth! Feeding him is not the problem, feeding him fast enough is. ;)

Here he is sitting, so cute!

He also moved into Emma's room, and he does really well in the crib. He LOVES toys. Asleep:

or awake:

He is such a boy, he will roll a ball for EVER!

He loves to go on walks to the park, 

and he can swing:

Here he is at 7 months:

We love our James so very much. Every day is a joy to be a mother of such a darling little boy. I am grateful to have a baby! I spent so many months being pregnant, but I am so thankful, because he is so worth it! I am happy every day because of my little James. 

Kids Say the Darndest Things

Emma: "Daddy, I'm sad because I want an iPhone."

In my efforts to encourage napping, I explained one day to Emma that her body is growing, just like Baby James, and that's why we sleep, so we can grow bigger. The next time Emma napped, she woke up and exclaimed: "I'm still two!!" I guess she figured she'd be a lot bigger :D

Me: "Emma, are you a mommy's girl or a daddy's girl?"

Emma: "Daddy's girl!"

Me: "And what about me?"
Emma: "You're a skunk."

The other morning, Emma was trying to open a box of breath mints:
Emma: "I can't open it. A-L-T-O-I-D-S. That spells closed."

Andrew: "Emma do you want your first car at 16 or 17?"

Emma: "Two!"