Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Ice storm's a comin'

(New Years Eve around 9:00pm.  Gracie putting her puzzle together and Jace playing Angry Birds.)

Saturday evening as we were just pulling into our garage after being out and about running errands,  Ryan's cell phone made its familiar chime that alerts him of a text message. 

the text read --No Church tomorrow because an ice storm is coming. By looking outside it would have been impossible to tell that any such storm was on its way, so at first it was hard to believe.  But the message was from the Bishopric.  I was ELATED with the news.  It was just like the good old days in Virginia.

So what did I/we do on Sunday? Well, I gave the boys haircuts, we had a family devotional, we watched Disney's The Rescuers, Ryan left late morning for several hours because of trauma call, - a car accident left a young man with his facial bones severely fractured and his teeth sticking out of his chin.  While he was gone, the kids and I enjoyed being together.  I blogged while they played.  

So here are pictures and a rundown of our New Year's Eve.


Jace stayed up with us(me) until 12:00 a.m.  Ryan actually didn't quite make it.  He took a little nap around 11:00pm, then Jace woke him up to ring in the New Year with a little Martinelli's.


We worked on this puzzle for several hours.  We finished it a few days later.  It was hard.

A family tradition is the visiting of Kris Kringle on New Year's Eve.  She fills plates with nuts, chocolate and fruit, and leaves a present for each child. My sweet sister provided Gracie with this darling doll this year. 


Gracie loved her, and didn't mind being spoiled one bit.



And Jace spent the morning with his dad and they went to work building his last hope and wish for the Christmas season, 


A yellow Lego semi-truck.

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

It's Working!!


Blogger is finally working!!  


Here are some pictures of Christopher Robin in our upstairs bathroom.

The time is about 10:30 p.m. and the date is around the 10th of January.


He is holding something small and has a little gleam of excitement in his countenance because............


his first tooth finally fell out!!

Examining the  hole.

Christopher Robin's tooth had been really, REALLY loose for about 2 days. Ryan was of course itching to get his fingers on that tooth and get it out because, "that is what I do, I pull teeth for a living!!!!".  Jace was a little scared to have it pulled, and I had told Ryan that IF he talks Jace into letting him pull it to warn me because I would have to leave the house while it was pulled.  I had planned to grab my grocery list and be out the door.  Loose teeth put me entirely over the edge.

I am the same way with my children's vaccines.  I ALWAYS schedule them when Ryan can take them in and I stay home --or go to Julie's-- and bite my nails off.  But this little tooth just popped out on its own.  Since it happened late at night, we woke Ryan up and showed him-- of course he made a big fuss-- then an excited little Robin put it under his pillow and sure enough.....the tooth fairy came!

So now we have one tooth down and a mouthful to go.  We are going to have a pantry stocked full of groceries before the end!!!


P.S.  this was Christopher Robin's "Big News"--(previous post)


Monday, January 14, 2013

Big News

was supposed to be the title of this post because Christopher Robin has some big news that he wants to share with all of you.  But I guess it will have to wait until who knows when.  I have been having problems with blogger lately--it won't let me post pictures.  AHHHH!!! I am so annoyed.  It would be nice if I could get caught up.  I still have Halloween pictures to post, and New Years, the list goes on and on.

So................... I guess I will write a little family update.

Ryan is the Trauma chief  this month. That  means he is on call every day in January.  He will be a trauma chief 5 months total before he finishes his residency.  This is his second month.  His first month was October and it was really rough. Probably the hardest month we have had here in Iowa.  I was so, so sick with morning sickness, then on the 25th we found out we had lost little Truman.  But January, so far has been really doable.  In fact we have started a little ritual this month.  We have been going to the hospital cafeteria for dinner almost every night.  It has been so fun.  We eat, then the kids play on the escalator, the ambulance, see the grand piano that plays itself, stop in the gift shop, and tonight the faculty orchestra was rehearsing on the main floor.  We stayed to listen.  We have been invited to join, but we probably won't right now.

Jace has pink eye.  So does Ryan and so do I, which means Gracie will soon, but Jace has it the worst tonight.  I have been administering antibiotic drops into everyone's eyes. There is nothing more fun then waking up with your eyes stuck shut!  He is up late with me right now.  He and I always stay up late together every night.  Home-school is going well.  We are getting into a groove.  It takes us about 1-3 hours everyday to get through his curriculum, but we like it.  Gracie sometimes joins us or she watches a few episodes of Blues Clues while we work.

Miss Grace keeps us hopping. She goes to bed every night right at the same time-- 9:00.  She gets up early too - just like her dad.  Everyday she has a list of things she wants to do.  Today's list was: "I want to go to the tire swing park, (which she did at lunch time with her Dad--it was cold.  Jace and I sat in the car) and then a parade, then I want to go to the airport and get on a plane and fly to Utah to see Grammy Jill and Grammy Blake."  The poor girl has been told that the airport is closed because of the snow.  She asks at least 10-20 times a day to go to Utah.  I don't know what to tell her anymore.  She doesn't understand--we won't be going for a long while.


Me.  I am doing fine. I have just been sick all winter. As I type, I have a sore throat, cough, pink eye, and an ear that has fluid in it from an ear infection last week.  The Dr. said it might take several weeks for my ear to drain. I can't tell you how annoying and painful it is.  I am playing my violin in church on Sunday and I am going crazy with my hearing being so off.  But what can I do?  Take Ibuprofen and weather the storm I guess.  I think I have the winter blues a little this year too.  I am craving sunshine.  My body feels impatient to get back to the warmth of the desert and wide sunny skies.  Ryan is working hard to make this happen for me when we get out of residency. We are down to 17 more months.  There is finally a faint light beginning to appear at the end of a very long tunnel of school. 

And this is the end of our big news for now.

Good night!


Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Christmas Day




I love, love, love Christmas morning!!  -And so do my kids and so does Ryan.  It seriously is the best day of the year!  I really wish it came a few times a year. 

Before I go into Christmas Day, I am going to back up and write about Christmas Eve- as time passes I want to remember.

Monday, Christmas Eve we did do some baking and delivering of goods to a few neighbors and families we visit teach or home teach in our ward (church).  We rushed around all morning because Ryan and I had a surprise planned for the kids. At 2:00pm we were ready and off to Amana, Iowa about 30 minutes from our house. The part of the Amana colonies we went to is a little German style village that takes you back in time, and is so charming.  It also houses the Wasserbaun water park. It was our first time going there, and when we pulled up and told the kids where we were and what we were doing they were screeching with excitement!  We had it all to ourselves. The place was empty.  The water was a little cold for me, but the hot tub was the size of a small swimming pool, and I had a great time.  Ryan and the kids played in the vortex whirlpool and play pad, then came and warmed up with me. 

That evening we went to the Nelson's house (friends from church) for their traditional Mexican dinner.  There were several families from our ward there, and it was really fun to talk to everyone.

We were home around 9:00pm and the kids were asleep no later than 9:30 or 10:00pm.  Then my favorite part started-setting out the children's gifts with Ryan. It didn't take us very long this year, maybe an hour.  After we were done, I stayed downstairs to take pictures and fill the stockings while Ryan went to check on the kids.  

A few minutes later I heard Gracie crying and Ryan talking to her.  She had thrown up in bed, so Ryan had to wake her up and give her a bath!! Poor girl.  She had thrown up the entire week before.  But I have decided it really is not the full Christmas experience if someone isn't throwing up. Luckily, she seemed fine on Christmas day.


Here are the gifts set out from Santa

Jace's stash--is anyone surprised to see a bunch of trucks??



Gracie's stash--of course she is getting a doll!!


Here, the kids are lined up-youngest to oldest- ready to go downstairs to see what Santa brought them. 

The main thing Jace had requested was this Lego police station, which luckily Santa was able to pull off.


Gracie had specifically requested a baby doll that goes pee-pee.  The one she got doesn't go pee pee but does says 150 words and eats a pop-cycle.  She loves it.  And the wooden high chair --wonderful bonus!  I love Amazon! 


Santa maybe wasn't super smart when he got her a pink purse full of make-up--but she loved it!! (Jace's second choice for gifts was this white goose-neck semi truck!)


She spent a good hour using it all up...............


and looking at herself in the bathroom mirror.



I thought it was sweet how Jace took time to make a fuss over her doll.  It gets a red boo-boo on its knee that you have to kiss better, and he helped her make it better.

Playing dolls and
playing trucks

and building Legos and racing ramps with Dad.


I feel so fortunate that we have such sweet kids to enjoy on Christmas morning.

It makes Christmas all the more wonderful!

For breakfast Ryan always makes us German pancakes. Then the kids played with their toys and watched Cinderella while Ryan and I snuggled up, ate chocolate and nuts from our stockings and watched some of Lord of the Rings.

It was a wonderful day.  I felt so blessed.