Birthday week- Part I

Photo- compliments of Christopher Robin

Oh, the Dr. is singing around here.  He is off work for the week and he just walks around with a smile on his face.  If I had his job-draining puss and all the fun stuff a year 2 resident gets to do-I would be happy for a small break as well.

Photo-taken by Christopher Robin.

He just gets his kids fed and dressed everyday and loves every minute of it.  I love the break.

Photo-Christopher Robin

Monday, as you know, the kids all got their vaccinations.  It went fine. I didn't go. Christopher Robin said the shots didn't hurt too much.  Ryan lathered them in EMLA cream (numbs the skin) an hour before the injections.  It must have worked, or at least helped.

Wednesday we went to the temple.  It was cold in Nauvoo, but it is so beautiful this time of year. Ryan attended the 10:00 AM session while I waited with the kids in the Temple Arrival Center. We have never waited in there before and it was fantastic.  I was impressed. They have a large closet stocked with toys for the kids, a mother's room with a crib and a couch and a rocking chair, a kitchen--you name it, it was there!

The toy closet had Noah's Ark and lots of trucks and cars-important for an almost 5 year old boy.

 I was the only person on my session. I went at 1:00PM. I felt like a VIP. The Temple President was the session officiator. It was a special experience. 

And this is my Christopher Robin on the eve of his 5th birthday. 

The three of us stayed up way too late watching movies.  Christopher Robin danced around the family room to the movie music and played with his trucks.  Ryan and I reminisced about the night he was born and talked about the past 5 years as parents.

It has been such a wonderful week so far. I want to push pause and keep it longer.  I don't want Christopher Robin, age 4 -to be gone forever. 

New dentist

On Monday the kids met Dr. Steph.  She is our new dentist. We have been in need of a dentist since July 1, 2010, when Ryan, by law, was no longer allowed to practice dentistry.  He can only practice in his specialty now-which as you know is Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery. 

It was a little weird for me to see Ryan on the sideline at the appointments, when he is a dentist, but Dr. Steph was terrific, we loved her. She had blue sunglasses for the kids to wear so "Mr. Sunshine" (the bright light) wouldn't get in their eyes and then there was

Mr. Thirsty.  He was really thirsty on Monday and came to have a look at Christopher Robin's teeth.

And little Miss Rue could hardly wait for her turn in the chair.

I  think Ryan was just fine handing the reins over to someone else.  How was he supposed to compete with all of Steph's bling?

The Apple Orchard

I love this picture. I took it last year on our 1st trip to Wilson's.

On Saturday we made our annual trek to the Wilson's Apple Orchard.  I love the glimmering sunlight of fall, and Saturday was a beautiful, fall day.

When we first arrived, and got out of our cars,  we saw some beautiful large butterflies that Ammon and Jace chased around on the grassy hill overlooking the orchard.

Here we are, the Erickson's and Swigert's ready to find some pumpkins!

We ran into several families from our ward!

In order to ride the tractor-named "Bessie" -down the hill to the pumpkin patch, you have to wait your turn.  So that's what we did, we "sat on some pumpkins and had them all to ourselves."

Here we are on "Bessie". When we got to the creek at the bottom of the hill, they drove right on in, and stopped right in the middle. They then told we had just broke down.  But they were teasing!

Oh, the looks of anticipation!

Gracie wouldn't look at me. Too much going on!

At the bottom of the hill we started our pumpkin search.  Grace knew that Christopher Robin would love the rocks, so she proudly held them up for Jace to see!

She was right. He threw a few into the stream then managed

to lug over the perfect pumpkin to take home.

Then little Miss Gracie found one too.

After the pumpkin hunt, we also searched for red tags that were hidden in the trees.  The tags had numbers written on them that we redeemed for prizes.

I won one of their AMAZING, apple turnovers-Ala mode-which I have been craving all year long!!! I really did not share ONE bite! I meant too, but I didn't.

And now, for your enjoyment, since I was not blogging last year, are a few pictures from last year's trip.

Ryan and I haven't aged a bit, but our Robin and Rue sure have. 

Long day

It is 11:59PM.  Ryan got up at 4:50AM this morning and has been M.I.A since.  Hopefully he will get some sleep tonight.  It is mid-face trauma call week.  He worked in the clinic all day and was helping fix a mandible fracture earlier this evening, then sewing up a lacerated ear, then he had dinner and headed back to the ER to evaluate an orbital floor fracture-eye socket injury- on a convict and also drain some MRSA out of someone's lip. The good news, he has next week off and we have been making plans for the birthday boy's big day next week.  That's right, Christopher Robin turns 5 on Thursday, and there are some serious birthday plans being made here.

But first things first. Christopher Robin is in dire need of a hair cut. He is getting one on Saturday. Can't you tell he loves having Mom cut his hair? Then on Monday he goes in for his 5 year old shots at 11:00AM. I have been dreading these shots for the past year. I am not going to that appointment. Hence why I scheduled it during Ryan's vacation. Grace is due for her 18 month vaccinations too. So he gets to take in both kids together. Should be really fun.

Poor Christopher Robin, the haircut is bad, but trust me the shots are worse.



All I can say is good luck Ryan and lots of kisses to Jace and Grace.  I will be home wishing I had some Valium to chew on.

Mother doesn't always know best

Here is my proud boy!

We have been enjoying beautiful, warm weather here in Iowa.  We went to Willow Creek park -for several hours-'cuz I'm such a swell Mom. While we were there Jace taught himself, with a little coaching from me, how to slide down the fireman pole.

First, you bravely step to the edge

then hold tight

and slide down.

Pretty simple, right?  It was going so well at first. 

He did it over and over again.  I watched for a while and took pictures of course, then went on my way, satisfied that I had given him ample praise for his accomplishment. A little while later, I hear "Mommy" in a very anguished Jace voice.  I turn to look, there is Jace slowly walking towards me with his "family jewels" exposed to the light of day.  I rush to his side -lets just say he is rubbed raw.

Lets look again - yeah, I forgot to teach him to use his knees.  Whoops!

Sorry Christopher Robin. At least I knew to advise against the Band aid he wanted to use when we got home.

But as they say, "no pain, no gain."

Whatcha having for dinner?

Why some good ol' Iowan corn and

blue food coloring!

How 'bout you?

Mormon Helping Hands

Saturday was our ward's (church congregation) day of service.  It went from 8:00AM until noon.  The Swigert family arrived just a little before 10:00AM.  We got there in time to help put all the tree branches that had been cut down into the dumpsters across the street.

Boy did Jace make us proud.  He was such a good worker for the first 35 minutes!

Look at him go!

It was really hard for me to carry branches and Gracie and take pictures all at the same time so I found a new job.

Bagging leaves.

Christopher Robin helped too.

Then Gracie wandered a little ways off, and got lost

and scared.

So Mommy rescued her and gave her a pumpkin bread muffin

 and all was well.

After a lot of working, followed by begging, Christopher Robin was finally allowed  to get his dump truck out of the van.

Which was a really good move, because  his dump truck was able to get 

a lot of work done!

Then replacement dumpsters were brought in because all the other ones were filled to the brim.

So Christopher Robin intently watched that

for awhile.

Meet our Bishop,

Bishop Parker.

I couldn't resist taking this picture of our ward triplets.  They were born on May 15th, so they are 1 day younger than Grace. 

Ryan and Elder Rasmussen took on the very manly job of stump removal.

They worked for awhile and then

called in

some help.  

Overtime, they were able to remove 3 of the smaller...I meant LARGER stumps before giving up!

Meanwhile Christopher Robin was filling his dump truck on the curb

and resting some and then

working some.  He must closely observe how those tires move.

Then it was closing prayer time,

and muffin eating

time.

Then the dump truck gave Christopher Robin a lift to the van.

We loaded up then drove home, smelling much stinkier and sweatier than we had arrived, but we didn't mind, 'cause we were feeling so happy and fuzzy inside!