Positive Day!

I saw this online and wanted to participate. There really is so much negativity around every turn, in every newspaper, in emails, on the radio, on and T.V. that it is great to take a day to think about the positive things in life. Like (in no particular order):

the pitter-patter of little feet waking me up every morning (even on the days that it is 5:30 in the morning). I love my children and think that being a mom is the best job in the world.

my testimony in the gospel of Jesus Christ restored here on the earth here in these latter days.

the best husband in the world. He supports me and takes care of me even when he is the one who needs supporting and taking care of in medical school.

large amounts of Mexican food (especially fresh salsa!).

bird song in the morning.

nap-time!

books.

modern day medicine. Each time I deliver a baby or one of my kids get sick or hurt I am so thankful for doctors, hospitals and medicine.

school loans. With out the loans that David is getting while in medical school, I would have to have a job outside the home and couldn't spend my days with my awesome kids.

my body that sometimes (ok always) may weigh more than I want it to, the teeth that sometimes get cavities, the finger nails that break, the head and feet that sometimes ache (hey at least I have all these things!!)

living in the United States of America!

my cluttery house and our cars and all of the things we have.

I really have so many positive things in my life! What a lucky girl I am! They day ahead of me looks so much brighter now that I have taken a minute to consider my blessings!

Benson AKA Tub-o-love

Benson went to the doctors today. He had to get 4 shots, poor little fellah, but he was very brave. He only cried a little bit. But here are the statistics I know you are all waiting for.
Benson is 28.5 inches tall (50%). What? One of my kids is in the 50% for anything!!!! This is actually a first. I can't believe how short he is! I would be really surprised if he isn't about to start a growth spurt.
Benson weighs 24 pounds and 4 ounces (89%). That's my big healthy boy!
Benson's head circumference is 19 inches (97%). It takes a big head to hold all those brains.
He is the happiest baby I think I have ever met. He started saying "mama" a couple of days ago and yesterday he was laughing and cooing and smiling to a picture of me. Sure do love this little man!

In other news, we had a great 4th of July. Gracie got a mosquito bite on her arm. If you don't know what mosquito bites do to Gracie check out this post. This one wasn't as bad as some she has had in the past, but she thought it looked like "a boob" and kept on showing me that she had three boobs. I couldn't find my camera for a few days so I didn't get a picture of her third boob. Darn it!

Sammy loves trucks, cars, planes, trains, tractors, you know, all that boy stuff. He can't say truck though. He puts an "f" in front of it and leaves off the "tr." He does the same thing with croc. And he says it, oh about 5000 times a day. If I am not paying 100% attention to him when he tries to tell me about the truck he will say it over and over, louder and louder, until I acknowledge that there is indeed a truck.

David passed his step 1 boards. Yay David!!!! He has just one more year of rotations now until he graduates. He sure does work hard and I am so proud of him!

Brothers- UPDATED!!!!!

Benson above, Sammy below.

Their eyes and smile give it away for me every time!

I found these pictures of my two sons. I was sitting on the floor in both cases just taking random pictures and they both just started climbing up my legs smiling the biggest smile they ever smiled! I just thought it was funny to have two random pictures be so similar! Which boy is which?

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day David! I love you so much! You are an amazing daddy to our 3 beautiful children. Even today, on Father's Day (you know the day you are supposed to relax), you have gone out of your way to help me with the kids. You work so hard to learn everything you can in medical school. You are always finding ways to magnify your priesthood and your calling as a father. And not to mention the fact that you are a great kisser! I love you David. I hope you have a great day! Love you.

Thanks David, for being "a true man."

Just wanted you to know David, how much I appreciate you, and all you sacrifice for our family. I love you!

Finding Opportunities To Give

My sister and brother were sitting in a restaurant about a week ago. They had traveled to a new city to look for a house where my sister would be moving with her husband in a few weeks. Her husband is in the Air Force and couldn't go help find them a place to live. As my brother and sister were waiting for their meal to arrive a man came up to them and gave them twenty dollars. "You reminded us of us when we were young." the man said gesturing to his wife. We had a good laugh about this afterward, because the man must have thought my brother and sister were married (and my brother is only 16). But the more I have thought about this, the more I have wanted to find opportunities to give generously and with out reason... like this man did and like the young men in this story did. If we follow their example it is just a matter of opening our eyes and looking around us for opportunities to give!

Dream Come True

So David says our computer is on its last leg and going to need some replacement parts at least. I can't get Picasa to open and therefore don't know how to get to most of my pictures... I know that makes me pretty dumb. Oh well. So this is just a post with no pictures with a little update about all of us.

David is doing his O.B rotation right now. The hours are horrendous!!!! He has only been home 2 nights in the last week! But if you ask him (besides the missing his family part) he is having an awesome time. He has actually delivered 3 babies this week and LOVES it!

Gracie and Sammy love to fight over toys. It is driving me CRAZY! Sammy woke up really grumpy from his nap yesterday. We spent some time together just Mommy and Sammy trying to get him out of his funk, but he threw tantrum after tantrum anyway. I finally went in and put him to bed early. He cuddled under his "ay-ee" and we sang song after song and then I kissed him goodnight and he said, "More kiss." So I kissed him again... and again... and again, then I told him goodnight again and he curled up and went right to sleep. Gracie stayed up a little later, but she is so used to playing with Sammy as they both fall asleep (they share a room and have bunk beds) that she couldn't fall asleep on her own (I think she was a little scared to be awake by herself). She came in to our room 4 times. We would take her back to her room and tuck her back in, but finally we gave in and let her come fall asleep in our bed. I didn't really mind too much. I love cuddling with my kids and it is nice to know that they love each other in spite of the fighting!

Benson is the happiest kid. He loves his brother and sister and his Daddy and of course he loves his Mommy. He started to crawl a couple of days ago and to say Da-da. There is nothing quite like the way his face lights up when I walk into the room and he has started following me if I leave... hollering at the top of his lungs. He woke up this morning around 5:00 ready for breakfast. I was not however ready to get up so I pulled him into bed with me and we both fell asleep while he was nursing. He woke up again at 7:00 and wanted to nurse again. His crying woke up the other kids. Sammy and Gracie both came into my room and saw me still in bed so they decided they wanted to come cuddle in my bed too. Between the two of them they brought 4 pillows, 5 blankets, 2 purses, 1 stuffed animal, and a Dora and a Diego doll that Gracie calls her "kids" into my bed. When Sammy decided he was going to be a frog and jump all over the bed I decided it was time to get up, but not before he came to me and said, "Froggie kiss?" I said, "Yes, I would love a froggie kiss." and Gracie said in a dreamy voice, "A froggie kiss is a dream come true!"

So that is us in a nutshell. We are living a "dream come true." Not every moment is perfect, but I wouldn't trade it for anything!

Big Bums

Gracie came to me this morning and said, "Mom, when I get older I will have a big bum like you."

Thanks Gracie. Love you too.

The Fairy Princess

Mama's Boys

My sister, the beautiful bride!

One of the reasons we went to visit family was to go to my beautiful sister's wedding. My amazing Father in Law made the dress. You looked beautiful Sarah!

Sammy's toes

Sammy loves to have his toes painted... I am not exactly sure what to do about this. Any time my sister left her bedroom door unlocked we were sure to find Sammy in there looking for trouble. In this case he found my sister's finger nail polish and decided to sit right down and paint his own toenails. I will admit, I have painted his toenails before. How do you tell a two year old when you are painting his older sisters toenails that he can't get his done. I tried getting David and my dad to say, "Ewww, yucky!" every time we are painting toenails, but he doesn't think so. Don't his toes look pretty!

It's Gracie from down under.

Gracie had so much fun this last month with her cousins and uncles and aunts and grandparents. In fact she said she would only come home if "a grandma can come with me." Thank goodness David's Mom was able to fly home with us. Thank goodness for more than one reason too. It was seriously the flight from h-e-double-hocky-sticks. The kids were grumpy and so was one of the passengers sitting in front of Gracie. If I had been flying alone with my kids I think I would have just sat in the corner and rocked and cried the whole way home. So thanks Mom!!!!

Gracie found this hat of her uncles and I have no idea what she was trying to be or do with her face when she was wearing it, but I thought the pictures were funny. Love you Gracie-girl!

teeth, sitting, and scooting

Benson grew up so much in the last month. He can now sit on his own and scoot on his belly. And he got two shiny new teeth that you can see in these pictures. My mom kept telling me that Benson was getting teeth (he was kind of fussy when we first got to her house) and I didn't believe her. She almost always says that is the problem when a baby is fussy (and it probably is). He had stopped sleeping through the night and was just as grumpy as he ever gets (which really isn't all that grumpy) and then these cute little teeth came in. Immediately after that he started only waking up once during the night again and now that we are home he doesn't wake up at all. He was so excited to see his Daddy. He practically launched himself into his Daddy's arms in the airport when David came to pick us up. Don't you just think he is adorable!?! I just love this happy little boy to pieces!

We're back!

We are back from vacation. We (the kids and I) spent the last month with our family so that David could stay here and study for his boards. It was a blast, but man does it feel good to be home! Lots to report soon to come!!!

Benson likes cereal!

Benson got his first taste of rice cereal this week. To say he loves it would be an understatement! He can't get enough of this stuff! We also moved him into his crib in is own room. He has started sleeping through the night or only waking up once. I know most moms pray for this day, but I am actually really sad. I really actually love to nurse during the night. I love to have Benson's little body snuggled up to mine and to cuddle with him in the quiet night time hours. Benson also said his first word this week. It is bo-bo-bo-bo-bo. I know most of you probably say that isn't a word, but in our house it is. The day I brought Benson home from the hospital I was nursing him on my bed. Gracie followed me into my room and said to me (in a very shocked voice), "Mom! What are you doing?"
Me: "I am nursing our baby."
Gracie: "But Mom! What are you doing with your bo-bo?"
What can I say. The way to a man's (or boy's) heart is through his stomach. I kind of feel like him saying bo-bo is kind of like him saying ma-ma. I know he doesn't really even know what he is saying, but I still feel kind of like the cat's meow when he says it!

Broken Toes

I broke two of my toes the day before yesterday. Aren't they a lovely shade of blue and purple? They hurt. I can't excersize which means I am not going to win the biggest loser contest I am in. :( Look how fat and gross they are!!!

D.C. or bust!

We went to Washington D.C. the weekend before last. It was AWESOME! Here are some of the pictures from our trip (in no specific order).

Recognize this guy? I have to say even though it was really crowded (Easter weekend and the end of the cherry blossom festival) seeing the monuments was one of my favorite parts of the trip. We went to a couple of museums and I didn't really enjoy those at all. They were so crowded that you couldn't really see anything.

The Jefferson Monument. We didn't get up close to this one, just saw it from across the pond.

The Washington Monument (and some of the cherry blossoms).

Gracie LOVING the hotel! She asks me just about every day now if we can go to another hotel. She loved the pool and the "TV with cartoons on it all the time!"

David in the pool with the kids. They thought this was better than anything we saw in Washington DC. Unfortunately, Sammy threw up... in the pool... just a few minutes later. Yes, I am THAT parent. The one whose child throws up in the pool and makes it so no one can swim. GROSS!

The fam!

The flag pole. Who knew it was also a climbing toy?

The Capital from the middle of the street. We stopped right in the middle to take pictures.

Sammy's preferred place to ride.

Gracie at the aquarium.

Don't you think David and his brothers have good jeans? I mean genes. Having David's brothers and their families there with us made the vacation so much more fun!

Sammy looking at the turtle in the aquarium. He LOVED the turtle!

The White House where David's best pal lives.

The other (and better) White House. The DC temple is absolutely beautiful! This was my most favoritest part of the trip!

Sammy on the temple grounds.

When we first drove into DC it was dark and as we were driving down the freeway all of a sudden the temple spires were there in front of us, beautiful and white in the dark sky! The Spirit that I felt just looking at that beautiful building sent tingles down my arms. It was so amazing! It was a great trip and we had so much fun. I can't wait for the next family vacation!