Fort Wayne

Josh's second away rotation was in Fort Wayne, Indiana.  We drove down there the first weekend he was there to check out the town and hang out with him.  We went to the science museum there and found some cool things, but most of it was for older kids.

They did have a little kid section and they had a lot of fun with the water area.

And two big malls with a play area and giant carousel. 

Overall we liked Columbus as a city better, but so far the program at Fort Wayne is Josh's favorite hands down.  He had a really good experience in his rotation and interview there and left feeling really impressed with all the opportunities the residents have there.  Part of me wishes (not really though...;) ) that he could do a rotation at all the programs he's interviewing with because it really gives you a good idea of what the program is really like, and also because he has gotten a lot of positive feedback from the two programs he's rotated with and feels like it has given him a big advantage.  But halleluia for the rest of his rotations being in Saginaw!   

Catching Up

I've got a lot of catching up on the blog to do and have a goal to do a post a day for the next few days so I can be caught up before we head on more adventures!  It is always a little overwhelming when you've got a lot to post, so I thought I'd start first with the random goings on and pictures that don't really fit anywhere but I wanted documented for myself:)  Like the fact that I can now do these little pigtails on Marissa.  They make me want to kiss her cheeks off. 

We had a little stomach bug a couple weeks ago so we stayed in the house for a few days and found some new ways to entertain ourselves.  Marissa pulled out all the pots and pans and spent over an hour trying to figure out which lid went where and transferring puff balls from each of them.  Totally worth the mess!

I am always trying to find activities to work on Shane's fine motor skills, and this colored vinegar with an eyedropper onto a sheet of baking soda was a fun one.

He is playing with his cars most of the day these days so I try to use them for learning sometimes.  I made this little parking lot where he had to figure out where each car went (he can't read but he does like to tell what letter a word starts with)

And we went to our city's Christmas celebration downtown and visited Santa and Mrs. Claus.  He would not sit on his lap but did tell him what he wanted for Christmas, which was a step up from last year!  So what's on his list this year?  A whale.  (A stuffed one).  Thank goodness Santa knows how to use Amazon, because I have never seen one in a store!

Thankful

 We had a great Thanksgiving this year and have so much to be thankful for.  First and foremost on my list this year is that Josh finished his last away rotation and got back in time to spend it with us. 

 

 

 I am also so thankful that my mom had the whole week of Thanksgiving off and that my parents came to visit.  I am so lucky to have parents that are not only so good to me but that my kids absolutely adore. 

 

 

We debated what we wanted to do for dinner but after calling pretty much all the restaurants in town and finding out that they were all closed (how dare they want to spend time with their families!!) we knew we would be cooking something but I didn't really want to deal with a full turkey.  Luckily we went to Sam's Club a few days before and they were sampling this deep fried turkey breast and it was delicious and super easy.  So we went with it



and decided to make stuffing, funeral potatoes, and green beans with almonds to go with it along with pumpkin cheesecake crumble bars for dessert.  Somewhat festive and totally delicious.  As an added bonus it was in the high sixties and beautiful that day. 

Also on my list of things to be thankful for this year:
-two healthy, happy kids and another little GIRL on the way!
-the gospel of Jesus Christ and modern day revelation from living prophets
-a husband who works so hard and has found something he is truly happy doing
-the opportunity Josh has to interview with so many residency programs
-a great house to live in in a good community with a great support system of friends and neighbors
-the gift of being together again as a family
-great in-laws, and an interview near their new house that gives us an excuse to go visit them next week!!  We are super excited to see them and to have some time together as a family. 

Love This Girl

Oh I love this little girl!!  She can give me a run for my money and melt me all at the same time.  She is 19 months now and has been going to nursery for awhile with no problems.  Thank goodness because I have 10 rambuctionous 7 year olds to teach and it is a lot easier without her!

This is typical Marissa- always drooling, still.  And always has a snotty nose.  I'm sure people think she's sick.  She's not, she's just Marissa:)  Pretty much she is always a mess!

It has been so fun for me to have some one-on-one time with her while Shane is at school.  Her activity of choice while he's gone?  Reading lots and lots of books.  If Shane is at home and there is a book being read, he HAS to be a part of it, so it is nice to be able to read to her without him up in her grill. 

She loves her brother, and the feeling is mutual.  When he is sad a kiss and hug from Marissa works better than anything else. 

 

She can say a lot of words now, and they are starting to become more understandable.  I am trying to get her to use them more now when she wants something instead of just whining.   

 

She is still a pretty good eater, but not very consistent.  Some days I can't get her enough food, and other days she will take one bite and decide she's done.  One day something will be her favorite food, and the next day she won't touch it.  But the other day they gave her a little apple at the Y and she munched on that thing for quite awhile while we waited for Shane to be done with school.  When we got home and I looked in her seat for it, the only thing that was left was the stem!  Silly girl ate the seeds and all!

Grandma Dettinger sent her some alphabet magnets, and I started noticing that she was always carrying around the letter O.  So I told her what it was and she is obsessed with it now, she will find it in books or places and point and say, "Ooooohhhh!"

 

I love you Marissa!

Trick or Treat!

We started off the first of many Halloween celebrations at the library playgroup.  Shane asked me in the car on the way there, "Is today Halloween?"  I tried explaining that it wasn't yet, but he insisted that it was.  So said, "well buddy, we are going to have a lot of Halloweens then!"  And we did.  The next week we went back to the library for storytime and trick or treating. 

And this is a pretty accurate depiction of Marissa at every Halloween event.  She figured out quickly exactly what this holiday was all about and wanted to get right to the good part.  I quickly learned which candy could be used as a chew toy to tide her over without making a huge mess down her costume when her jaws of death inevitably ripped open the packaging (Laffy Taffy works great for any of you out there with little candymongers like mine :) ). 

We of course did the trunk or treat at church and Shane's preschool party.  I wish I had brought my camera to his class, it was so cute to see him and his little buddies all dressed up!  Then we ended it with trick or treating in the neighborhood the actual night of. 

I was worried it was going to be cold and rainy, but was glad it wasn't rainy (but certainly cold).  But hey, that's what cute bundley costumes are for.  They both had a lot of fun, Marissa couldn't really say trick or treat but she did say thank you a few times and she sure knew what to do when they held out the candy ha ha.   

Shane got tired of walking by the end and was ready to go back home. I tried to tell him we might as well stop at the few more houses that were on our way back anyway but he was done and told me, "I'm getting tired of Halloween."  I guess it's a good thing, cause that was our last hurrah buddy.  And probably even better because we already have WAY too much candy for a tempted pregnant lady around here by now!!

Happy Halloween(s)!

The Weekend

Josh finished his rotation in Columbus on Friday and drove back to Saginaw to spend the weekend with us before heading to Indiana.  He gave me a little scare when he called me on his way and asked if I wanted the good news or the bad news.  The bad news was that he blew a tire out, which I will take over a car wreck or something like that I was imagining!!  I was kind of bummed that after stopping to get a new set of tires he wouldn't be home til late that night, but luckily he had tricked me into thinking he wasn't as far as he was so I was super surprised when he walked in the door before dinner!  Do you think these guys were a little excited to have their daddy back??

It was great timing for him to be home, there were lots of fun things going on and we packed the weekend full.  On Friday night after dinner we made a run to Culvers for concrete mixers.  Then Saturday morning we took the kids to Lowe's for their kid's workshop. 

It was so cute to watch these two working together

I mostly tried to keep Marissa from wreaking havoc and losing all our nails. 

The finished products, "creeper keeper" boxes.  Hence the scary faces.  The kids loved these boxes!

 We stopped by a birthday party, had lunch, and put Marissa down for a nap.  Then we carved a pumpkin with Shane.  We asked him what he wanted to carve his pumpkin into and of course he wanted to do it into one of his cars, Acer. 

So Josh sketched it out and we carved it and I think it turned out pretty good!

 Then we went to the trunk or treat and chili dinner at the church.  

I was so glad it was this weekend so he could do it with them since he won't be home for Halloween.

Sunday was the primary program at church so Josh got to hear Shane say his part, then he had to leave to make it to Fort Wayne on time to check into the apartment they're putting him up in (hooray for saving some money!)  We were a little worried about if Marissa would warm up to him again right away since it had been almost 3 weeks but that was not an issue at all!  It took about one minute for her to register that her dad was back, then she followed him around like a little puppy all weekend.  I was worried that she would have a meltdown when he left again, but I think it worked out good that he left during church so she didn't realize what was happening.

We had so much fun even if it was really quick.  It has been a little bit of an adjustment again today but I know now that for me it gets a little bit easier as time passes and we will be going out there this weekend.  Oh, and here's a belly shot since I had someone to take it of me.  I barely had anything the last time we saw each other and I think I shot out like 3 inches just this week!  This is me at 19 weeks, the belly is cute now, I am just scared that I will be huge by 40  this time around!!!

 

Since He's Been Gone

 Josh is on his last shift of his rotation in Ohio and will be home tomorrow evening!!  Well, just til Sunday when he leaves for another 4 weeks, this time in Indiana.  But we are excited and can't wait for him to get here!  It has been hard, but it is a lot easier when I keep us busy.  So we have been soaking up every last nice moment outside, going for walks and of course raking lots and lots of leaves.

And who can resist a good pile of leaves?

We hit up our favorite park as often as we can,

and spend lots of time with friends.  We went with some to the pumpkin patch again and the kids had so much fun tromping through the mud in the patch.

Shane was too hesitant to do this last year but LOVED it this year!

But this Thomas train is still the favorite.

Most days I do pretty good but some days I just feel sapped and feel bad because my patience starts wearing thin.  On one particularly hard weekend when it rained the whole weekend I spotted a break in the rain and told the kids to get ready to go for a walk.  Of course by the time we got shoes on, pottied, etc. it was raining again but I said what the heck and we went out anyway, then danced in the rain for awhile since we were already soaked anyway. 

I know so many people have had much harder situations and I really appreciate their strength even more now.  We have learned a lot from people about service this past month.  Josh has had a family from the ward there have him over several nights for dinner and send him with lots of food, which is no easy task on his diet and even more impressive because they knew he would only be there for a month but said they had had lots of friends go through medical school and have the husband be away and knew what it was like and just wanted to help.  I have been really grateful for friends who have us over so I won't get lonely or insist on taking the kids for a little bit so I can do something for myself.  We have been really impressed by these examples of people who show the Savior's love by really trying to find ways they can help someone, and we are inspired to make a better effort to do the same for others.