Those Durhams

I still think it is so cool that of all the many, many places the wind could have blown us on this med school journey, we ended up just 2 hours away from my favorite aunt and uncle.  They are so good to us and I am continually amazed at their thoughtfulness.  They are always thinking of others and what they can do for them.  I drove out to their house a couple weeks ago to see my cousin Corrie who was visiting from Florida and they sent me home with a pizza for Josh from the pizza place in their town that makes a gluten free one.  Then on Monday they drove out and John took Josh and I golfing while Pat watched the kids, then took us all out to dinner afterwards.  What a treat, I had not been golfing since before Shane and we had a lot of fun (and disregarded any scoring for me ;) ).

 Shane had the time of his life with Pat while we were gone and got her mostly to himself because she was there through Marissa's nap time.  And yes she read all those books to him, multiple times I am sure! 

Then the next day I got a fun surprise in the mail from Corrie.  She had seen an article in her paper about Dominica and sent it to me because she knew I would enjoy reading it.   Thanks Corrie, I loved it!

(Corrie and I with our two kiddos, within months of each other)

Clare and Shane

 I had to include this one because it made me laugh- it is pretty indicative of their different personalities! 

Thanks for always thinking of us Durhams/Hillarys.  We're so glad to be so close!

This Boy

Oh I just love this boy so much it's a good thing I haven't kissed his cheeks off yet!!  He is at such a fun age right now and is like a sponge just trying to take everything in and it is funny to hear how he applies things he hears.  Here are just a few from the past couple days-

-He wanted me to move the couch to get something from behind it and I told him that I thought he could do it.  After he did it I told him, "Shane, you are such a strong man!"  And he beamed up at me and said, "I tugged and pulled!"  (like the Little Engine That Could:) )

-Today we went for a walk around the neighborhood and he wanted to push Marissa so I let him for a couple minutes, but we were moving pretty slow so I asked if I could push her again.  He very sweetly said, "Can I push her?  Say everybody gets a turn!" How could I turn that down!

-Maybe it's not the most proper or whatever but I say "you guys" all the time.  To Shane the natural extension of that is "we guys."  As in, "what are we guys having for lunch mom?"

-If you haven't seen SuperWhy this might not make sense but in it they read part of a story and when there is a problem they "zap" a word to change the story.  Today Shane was asking me to sleep in my bed, which means he wanted me to pretend I was sleeping and then he would pretend to be a tiger or dinosaur and wake me up with his roaring.  We were in the family room so I said let's just play it on the couch and I started pretending to sleep on the couch.  Then he said, "I need to change this story." So I asked him what he was going to change it to.  He said, "Zap!  To the bed!!"  And again, how could I resist? :) 

I love those pictures above and it is classic Shane right now- shorts on backwards and unbuttoned after going potty (he insists on stepping out of his clothes when he goes).  I included the second one so you could see his new flip-flops.  He is the BEST person to buy things for because he is always so appreciative and excited.  I bought those last night at Old Navy for him and the whole ride home he was saying some variation of "I love that you got me these flip-flops mom!!!"

Summer Loving

It was about this time six years ago that I moved in with a few of my friends to the Sparks II apartments. It was my first time staying in Provo for the summer and it was so much fun. The weather was great and there was always someone to do something active and outdoorsy with. It started with some impromptu doubles tennis games with a boy I wasn't super interested in. Then this boy started tagging along with me and a couple friends on our early morning runs. It became completely apparent that he was chasing me when he pushed his way to the front of the line at 7-11 to pay for my Slurpee after a group of us went country dancing (ha ha we still laugh about that one;) ). But it didn't take me long to realize what a great catch he was, and we fell in love quickly and spent the summer together with many a tennis match, volleyball game, hike, round of golf, dip in the pool, and even a half marathon. So when the weather starts to turn and I can feel summer in the air, it always takes me back to that first summer together. So on Friday night I was so excited that some friends of ours hosted a kickball game in their backyard, and when Josh had a couple hours to spare yesterday I struck a babysitting trade with my friend and we snuck out for some tennis. And Josh still has it- the ability to cream me and simultaneously make me realize how much I love to be with him.

Then we picked up the kiddos and stopped off at 7-11 for some Slurpees.  Only now that we live in Saginaw, we have 15 different ones to choose from (I'm not even exaggerating, I just googled it out of curiosity ha ha)

Love you babe!  Can't wait for many more summers to come!

It's A Good Thing...

It's a good thing Marissa LOVES cars because we sure have a lot of them around here:)

It's a good thing Shane can ride his trike now because he is so happy and proud of himself (next step- bike!)

It's a good thing it is so nice out now so that when daddy has to be at the hospital all night we can while away the time outdoors.

It's a good thing he only has two more weeks of surgery left, because getting to the hospital at 4 am every morning is just a bummer (he is working with a different doctor this month who is nice but is a workaholic).

It's a good thing berries have been on sale lately because this little girl is OBSESSED.  I have learned I have to visit the produce aisle last because she is tortured walking through there with the sights of all those fruits!  It is so fun to see the different personalities in your kids.  With Shane I have to make him eat a fruit before he can eat anything else for lunch and that is the only way he would ever eat any.  With Marissa, she would choose berries over pretty much anything else and I have to cut her off so she doesn't have too many digestive issues!

It's a good thing this little boy is so sweet in real life because he is always pretending to be a bad guy!

It's a good thing with digital cameras you can take as many pictures as want- or is it;) 

P.S. that is her signing "eat!!"  It was almost 7 and she realized she wanted some dinner!  And that adorable top she's wearing- 50 cents at a garage sale! (Along with Shane's trike for $6) This town is like a garage sale mecca!

She Walks. She Eats.

I have been looking forward to this day for awhile- Marissa took her first steps yesterday! She has been standing up randomly on her own for a few weeks now so we've just been waiting for her to take the plunge.  It was the cats next door that got her to do it last night.


And because I talked to a few of you who got a good laugh out of the gerbil food fiasco, I thought I'd document just a few of the things I have pulled since then from her "jaws of death" as I like to call them (teeth #13 and 14 are breaking through, which is probably why she feels the need to put all this stuff in her mouth- at least that's what I'm hoping anyway!)

-a bag of wipes
-a birthday candle
-sidewalk chalk
-a dandelion
-a roly poly
-a beetle

Do we have a mouse in the house?  Nope, just a Marissa :)

P.S. Shane was pretty excited about her walking too.  We've been talking about how he is learning how to ride his bike and Marissa is learning how to walk and he's been praying for both of those things every night and when I asked him if he was proud of Marissa for walking he said, "Jesus doesn't need to help her walk anymore!!!"

Just Another Day in the Life...

There are lots of cute moments every day, like cuddle time in mom's bed in the morning,

which of course involves kisses.

I put Paco in this cage to clean out his glass one and Marissa was in heaven watching him scale the bars.  (If you are keeping tabs, we did have two, but Pete got sick and died a couple months ago.)  This is her doing her sign for gerbil.

and trying to give him his food we had just gotten from the pet store.  Cute, right?

Not so cute when she tries to eat it herself.  Oh dear.  I was making dinner and it wasn't ready fast enough apparently so while I had my back turned she bit a hole in the bag and went crazy.  Luckily Shane tipped me off before she could eat much (he walked in the kitchen and asked me in a worried voice- "Mommy?  Are you happy?" ha ha).  And you know, sometimes you just have to take that half second to take a picture so you remember to laugh instead of freak out.  (P.S. it is NOT bathing suit weather here, just had to try her new one on ;) )

I did not, however, take a picture of Shane and the entire bottle of corn syrup he accidentally spilled on himself and the kitchen floor while playing "grocery".  Needless to say, they both got baths tonight, and I got a good laugh out of Shane teaching his "boys and girls" how to jump.  "Bend, and jump!!" 

Just another day in the life, folks.  And I wouldn't have it any other way.

Living the Dream

I have heard several older and wiser people say that the early days of their marriage where they were scrimping and saving on a tight budget are some of their fondest memories. Granted by the time we are in a position to not be scrimping and saving, it won't really qualify as "early days" of our marriage anymore, but I think I still believe them. Because tonight we had corn tortilla pizzas for dinner (can you tell we're getting to the last couple weeks of our loan check;)?),

walked around Home Depot for entertainment,

and used a coupon we just got in the mail to get concrete mixers at Culver's

and you would've thought it was the best day of our kids' lives. As for Josh and I, it is just a treat to have a Friday he's not working or studying all night and we relish them when they happen. And in all honesty, when I do look forward to the day Josh will actually be done with med school and residency, it's not as much about the fact that we'll actually be making money as it is the fact that we'll get to spend more time with Josh. (Thank you Josh, for wanting to go into family medicine!)