Moving

I can't believe the month is almost over. With it has come spring and the beautiful flowers on the tree in my front yard.

They have mostly fallen off now and my lawn is carpeted with pink flower petals.

This is the last spring we will spend in this house. In fact it is the last week we will spend in this house. It has been a good house and a good place to live. The kids are excited to move closer to their Aunt and Uncle and two cousins, and David is anxious to start his residency training. I am anticipating having him done with school FOREVER!!!! He has been a student since we got married almost 9 years ago. Some people tell us that residency isn't much different than school, but others tell us it is infinitely better. You get to do what you want (take care of patients) instead of attend class, and for the first time in years David will be bringing home a paycheck (Woot Woot!). David still has another month before graduation, but he is doing his last rotations where we are moving for residency so we are moving at the end of this week. As happy as we are to start this new chapter in our lives, I am sad to leave here. Just like I am sad to see the flowers fall off my tree each spring. We will miss this place where we have been so happy the last three years.

A new baby...

Thanks for all of the well wishes and congratulations on our pregnancy. Even the "HOLY SMOKES" and "HOLY CRAP" feel just about right most days! ha ha ha! We are indeed having another baby. I have been feeling 100% totally overwhelmed, and really down right terrified if I am going to be honest here, about having another one. And I have been feeling really guilty about feeling overwhelmed and terrified. Aren't moms only supposed to be excited and happy and yes glowing over the fact that they are inviting a new little bundle of joy to join their family? I didn't tell anyone for a long time. Or at least what felt like a long time... when you are pregnant doesn't each day feel like an eternity? I was afraid of what other people's reactions would be. Would they be totally excited for me, smiling and happy, in which case I would have to pretend to be just as excited as they were even though I was feeling so scared? Would they think I was crazy or insane or stupid? Would they feel sorry for me? My doctor did? She asked me if this pregnancy was planned and when I told her it wasn't she said, "Oh, I am so sorry." I am glad that we are moving and she won't be the one to deliver our baby that she is sorry is coming. (Grrr, grumble, grumble) Even though I am scared and overwhelmed doesn't mean I am sorry. Anyway, sorry to go off on that tangent... Where was I? Oh yeah, afraid of what other people's reactions would be. But somehow it seems Heavenly Father always knows just what we need to help us get through our trials. Even if it is just a glimpse of another person's life, another person's joys and trials, to give us the courage to get through our own and turn them into joys. My friend's sister-in-law just died from a brain tumor. But before she died I was able to see some pictures of her with her family (husband and five kids). Somehow that picture of her and her family smiling and happy in the midst of their trials was able to give me the boost of courage that I needed to turn having another baby from being a trial into being a joy. I never met this girl, but her life has become an inspiration to me! Now we are getting pretty excited to have another baby. Gracie is actually THRILLED. She was so sweet last night. She got out of her bed to come and kiss me and hug me goodnight...again (you know, anything to draw out the actual moment of having to go to sleep at night), and then she had to kiss and hug my tummy. Her parting phrase as she was leaving to go back to her own bed was, "Take care of the baby during the night okay mom." She really really wants a sister. At one time she told me if it was a boy she would ask Heavenly Father to take him back. She also told David the other day that it IS a boy, so hopefully whatever it is she will be happy. She didn't want Benson when he was born (she wanted a sister then too) until the moment that I set him in her lap, and then this was her reaction.
I LOVE this picture. She will be five for a few more months when this little baby is born. I remember when my little sister Sarah was born when I was five. I felt like I was pretty special because I got to hold her while my mom canned peaches. Gracie is going to be a really great big sister. Her brothers will be great big brothers too. Sammy will be three, and Benson will be one for a few more weeks. Benson already loves babies. Any time he has the chance he will go up and hug them or kiss them. Thinking about it makes my heart swell... you know that feeling where your heart hurts a little bit in a good way and it beats a little harder and faster... like that. I am due on Sept. 30th. Okay, honestly, I am due on Oct. 1st, but I am determined that this baby will be born in September since there are already two people in the family with October birthdays (Benson and me). And besides, September feels so much closer than October. This is the only time I will ever admit that this baby is due on October 1st in real life. Hereafter I will always say he/she is due in September. A lot of people have asked me if we are going to find out what this baby is going to be since we didn't with Benson. Yes, we are going to find out. I feel unprepared enough that I really need to know so that I can feel more secure about this. We can find out in about a month (I am 15 weeks right now), but we are moving right around that time and don't know for sure when the ultrasound will be ordered since I don't even know what doctor I am going to be seeing at that time. As soon as I stop looking fat and start looking pregnant, I will post pictures. It will probably be soon since I am already so big, I guess that happens with the fourth one (or maybe it is the cookies and treats I have been craving). Anyway, thanks for all the support from all my friends and family about our new little baby.

Check out Benson's new duds!

Yep.... here we go again!

Gracie is lame...

Gracie is allergic to mosquito bites (remember this post) Her body doesn't react to them well. It is just getting warm enough (barely) here that the every once in a while we see one or two (okay I haven't seen any, but David said he did). But apparently one found her. It bit her three times. Her foot has swelled up like a balloon. It looks worse than a nine month pregnant lady's feet. She can't (won't) walk. This picture doesn't show very well the bruise covering the whole top of her foot from toes to ankle. She keeps waking up in the night crying that it hurts. She hops into our bed and then rubs her foot on me like that is going to make it feel better. We keep giving her benedryl and putting hydrocortizone on it. We keep icing it and elevating it. Nothing is really helping. She is still lame. Mosquito's are even more lame.

In case you were wondering...

Those of you who read my blog know that David had to retake his Step 2 boards. Well just in case anyone is wondering and hasn't heard yet....

DAVID PASSED HIS BOARDS!!!!! YAHOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

I am so proud of you babe. He did awesome. He improved his score by over one hundred points. Our bishop even announced it over the pulpit during sacrament meeting on Sunday so that "we can all stop fasting and praying that he will pass." Ha ha ha.

David, you are amazing!

My little table dancer!

I can't keep this kid from climbing on the table.

All day.

Every day.

He gets up on it and starts to twirl or run around in circles or just break it down dancing.

Love him.

To cut or not to cut... that is the question.

Gracie's hair is getting really long. These pictures really aren't very good and I just took her hair out of the hair-do from yesterday so it is kind of kinky in these pictures (she had several little braids in it), but she really has long beautiful red hair. We are trying to decide just how much of it to cut off. I am kind of torn. Do we just cut off a couple of inches to keep it healthy and growing, or do we cut it short and donate it to locks for love? Opinions? She is finally and for the first time saying that she is willing to get it cut short. Part of my hesitation though is that she has always wanted it long and I love it long too. But it would be pretty awesome to donate it... What do we do for her new do?

The rugrats

Love this kids skin, and smile, and eyes, and everything!

Wee woo Benson!

Sammy with a mohawk. He loves it and loves all the attention he gets when he has one. He told me he looks "beautiful" with it.

Gracie's school picture this year. I had to actually go with her to retake day to keep her from having a dorky smile. Her smile in the originals was really fake. I like this one much better.

I do not like green eggs and ham, I do not like them Sam-I-Am.

We had green eggs and ham to celebrate Dr. Seuss's birthday yesterday. David read the story to the kids while they ate.

Sammy proclaimed, "I LOVE IT!" as soon as he saw the green eggs and grabbed some right off the serving plate and popped them in his mouth. Green is his favorite color. It was so fun to hear the kids giggling over the story as they ate their dinner.

Gracie also had to pull out her tea set and serve us all "hot chocolate tea" as we ate dinner.

Even Benson loved the green eggs. It was a fun thing to do to celebrate a great author's life and birth.

Random pics of the family.

Here are just a few random pictures of the family for our families to see.

Gracie took this picture of herself. Every once in a while she gets a hold of the camera and it is hilarious to see what she takes pictures of.

David and Benson at a basket ball game we went to for the local basketball team. Gracie proclaimed that basketball is her favorite sport and then was only interested in the bounce slide and coloring pictures of the mascot.

Sammy and I at the game. I think David and I had more fun at the game than the kids did, but it was fun to get out and go somewhere as a family. We are going a little stir crazy with all of the snow we have.

Sammy and Benson swimming in the tub. Sammy fell and hit his head over a week ago and still has a great big bruise to show for it.

Snow Ice Cream

We made ice cream out of snow on Saturday. We mixed some fresh, clean snow with sweetened condensed milk and vanilla. The first part of each bite tastes pretty much like vanilla ice cream. Then the rest of the bite tastes quite a bit like snow.

(In case you are wondering, the little brown spot in the snow is a chocolate crumb. The snow was as clean as possible. It snowed right into my pan.)

We put rootbeer and hot fudge on the ice cream (in separate bowls) and there were smiles all around. The kids are still talking about the snow ice cream. :) They can't wait to do it again.

Yes, Gracie did pick out her own outfit for this picture. How could you tell. ;)

Answered Prayers

I have debated about whether or not to tell this story on my blog because it is kind of personal and not just about me, but my husband keeps bugging me to blog (love you dear) so here goes.

I think that medical school must be really hard. I know it is hard for the families of the students, but I know it is really hard for the students too. I am really glad that I am not in medical school. :)

Knowing that medical school is hard, I think that cramming medical school into three years instead of four must be really really hard. At least it has been for us. I am pretty sure I have mentioned this on my blog before and everyone who reads my blog probably already knows this, but David is in a 3 year medical school program for those interested in going into Primary Care. The school that David is attending just created this program a few years ago. In fact, David is going to be in their first graduating class. It is exciting to know that we are getting done a whole year early and saving ourselves a whole year of school loans, but there have been a few bumps in the road. The biggest bump came just over a month ago. David failed his step 2 boards. It was actually a huge shock. He had been doing fine on all of the practice tests and shelf exams, so we were very surprised when he failed the test by just 2 points (probably one question shy of passing as far as we know how to calculate). Now this would have only been a small hiccup if he had taken the test when he did, and been in a 4 year program. He would have just studied and taken it again. The real problem came because of when he had to take the test because he is in a three year program he wouldn't have a passing grade for "match day." Match Day is when find out where you are going to residency. You rank all of the places you want to go, the places you have interviewed at rank you in the order that they want you, and the computer goes in and gives everyone there top choice that "matches" between the two.

Because David wants to be a family doctor he only interviewed in 4 places. Family medicine isn't very competitive because as far a pay goes, they are pretty low on the totem pole. Most people want to specialize in something that will make them a lot of money (most students don't come out of medical school with less than 200K in debt and you have to pay it off some how). Anyway, we only applied at 4 residencies because David wants to do very specific Family Care and knew that these programs would give him that training. But when we found out that he had failed his step 2 boards we started contacting those 4 residencies and talking to them about our situation.

We heard back from our 2nd choice residency first.

They absolutely would not rank us.

It didn't matter that David had to take the test a full 6-12 months before anyone else. It didn't matter that he only failed it by two points. It didn't matter that he was going to retake it as soon as he could (which wasn't until a week after the match). It didn't matter that he is a great guy that any residency would be lucky to have. He didn't have a passing score before match and so they would not rank him.

Two days later we heard from our 3rd choice residency. They would not rank us.

We only had two choices left. Our 4th choice was very close to home (just a 45 minute drive) and David did a lot of his rotations there. He really liked the hospital, but it isn't as big as we would have liked. Because David worked there so often we were pretty sure they would still rank us. We just weren't sure David could really get the training he needed there. Our biggest fear was that even they would not rank us and that no one would want us because even to "scramble" (to try and get a spot at a residency that didn't fill all of its openings) you need to have passing board scores. Knowing that our last choice would still rank us was something.

Our top choice was a very competitive residency (as far as family medicine goes) and we were pretty sure that they would give us the same answer that the other two residencies had given us. That it was just too much of a risk to rank someone who hadn't passed their boards yet. But from the moment I heard that David had failed his test I started praying. I don't think I stopped praying until we heard back from them. I prayed that they could be our miracle. I prayed that they would be able to see David's worth (because he is amazing and will be an amazing doctor) and that their hearts would be softened to our situation. And Heavenly Father answered our prayers. They ranked us. The doctor that David was in contact with told him that he wasn't ranked as high as he had been before they found out about his test score, but I knew in my heart that we had been given a miracle. They ranked us!

Then came the grueling weeks of waiting to find out where we matched to. I knew we would get our first choice. I knew it in my heart, but in my head it was sometimes hard to be so sure. Satan knows our weaknesses and just how to make us doubt and to bring fear into our lives. I think those may have been the longest 3 weeks of our lives! Waiting and wondering if we would have anywhere to go after David graduated from Medical School.

And then the day was upon us. David was pretty sure we were going to find out we had gotten our 4th choice. I knew it would be our 1st! And it was! We got our first choice! As soon as I found out, I had to get on my knees and thank my Heavenly Father. I know that everything in my life, all of the blessings that I have, come from my wise, loving, and all knowing Heavenly Father. He knows why we had to go through this trial. And someday we may know why. But for now it is enough to know that He loves us and He hears our prayers. Always.

Dear So-and-so

Dear little-boy-with-a-phobia-of-closed-doors,

What am I going to do with you? We went to church on Sunday and all through Sacrament meeting you kept begging to go to nursery (except when you were begging to go home to get some milk). But as soon as it is time to go to nursery, you don't want to go... unless I go with you of course. When I dropped you off at nursery you cried and begged me to stay with you. I snuck away when you were distracted, but when I heard you crying because I was gone a few minutes later I came back. I decided to bring you to my class with me. You came to Relief Society last week and you are actually pretty reverent. You saw Brother May a few minutes before Relief Society started and you know that he has a pocket full of candy for the kids that are good in their classes. He wouldn't give you one until after you went to nursery though. He took you by the hand and took you to nursery himself. As soon as you got into the classroom though you started crying for you mommy. Brother May was able to get you to settle down though and then he left you there and Brother Snedaker took over trying to help you be happy. But you cried for me again. He said he took you out into the hall and you stopped crying but as soon as he tried to take you back into nursery you cried again... until you asked to keep the door open just a little. You seem to be okay as long as there is no closed door in between us. You are the same way at home actually. If the door is closed between us you freak out until you are practically hyperventilating. You are even aware of the door being open when you are fast asleep. Sometimes when your Daddy has to get up early in the morning to go to school he tries to close your door so that he won't wake you up, but you wake up immediately and cry until the door is open. How do you do that? How can you know when you are fast asleep whether the door is open or closed? I am truly amazed by you! You are having a lot of separation anxiety over being apart from your mother. Even if I just leave you in a different room for a second while I go change the laundry or to grab a towel to get you out of the tub. You are constantly telling me, "Don't be right back mom. Don't be right back." Or you come up to me and say. "I am right here mom." I know where you are love, and to quote words much more famous than mine, "I promised I would never leave you, And you should always know, Where ever you may go, No matter where you are, I never will be far away." Don't be afraid Sammy. I love you and I am right here. Forever.

Love,
Your Mom

Christmas 2009

What a fun Christmas we had. Here are just a few of the highlights...

...lots of hot-chocolate-smiles...


...some treat-snitching while making a gingerbread house...




...that actually never stayed up...



...but we still had fun trying and eating the treats from it...






...a little brotherly love and wrestling...




...lots of snuggling by the fire place...



...some more snuggling and Christmas stories...

And of course Chritmas Eve and Christmas Day. Sadly, on Christmas Eve we were all sick with the flu. Everyone was sick and tired. We spent the day eating crackers, drinking gatorade, and trying to relax between throwing up. Benson fell asleep before the kids even got to open up their new Christmas sweat pants. We watched the Nativity movie made by the church, read the Christmas story, sang Away in a Manger and went to bed. Santa woke David and I up around 3:00am. He needed a little help getting some presents put out (they were just to heavy for him all by himself). I wanted to wake up the kids after he left (around 5:ooam) but we decided that since everyone was sick we would let them (and us) sleep a little longer. Gracie came and woke us up around 7:00. She came running into my room saying she had gone to peek and Santa came and can we please get up now. I sent her in to wake up her brothers and we all made our way down the hall to see what surprises Santa left.

Gracie got a "big pink craft box" (a pink tote with art supplies in it) and a big easel, and a Straberry Shortcake Doll which she proclaimed was "just what she wanted!" I have a video of them all coming out on Christmas morning, but I am having a hard time posting it... I just can't remember how and everything I have tried isn't working. :(

Here is David and me looking a little bit like death warmed over, which is pretty much how we felt.

Here are Sammy and Benson playing with their new train table. Sammy has barely left it alone for a minute since Christmas. I think we have replaced the battery in Thomas 4 times since Christmas he has been so well loved!

We got a lot of other great presents, but the greatest gift we got was being able to feel the Spirit of Christmas in our home. We had a truly beautiful Christmas despite the sickness, and the busyness. Gracie goes to a Christian preschool and to have her come home singing songs about the Savior's birth all month has been wonderful! We have so much to be grateful for!

An Example on Life in the Keith Home

I love Baby Blues -- oh, and this is David, Julie doesn't know I"m posting this -- I saw this one, and another one I can't find at the moment, and since their little girl is a red head, and she acts like Gracie, it's perfect. I love this!! This is our house!! sometimes

The Statue of "Liderty"

I know, it has been a while since I have blogged, but that is because I have been pretty busy, but for those of you who have been bugging me to put up pictures (you know who you are), here are some from our recent trip to the Statue of Liberty. No matter how many times we tried to teach Gracie how to say Liberty it kept coming out "LiDerty."

It was a really beautiful fall day. There were leaves everywhere and the weather was just perfect!

I am truly not choking my daughter in the above picture. I did have to physically hold on to her to get her to stand still for the picture though. The kids had a great time chasing the seagulls.

There was an amazing feeling of history there on the island. It was fun to teach Gracie about what the Statue of Liberty meant. The kids loved riding the boat and watching the water and talking about the sharks that they were pretty sure were in the water! Ha ha ha. It was such a fun day!