Canal Highlands & Independence Day

At the entrance to our housing development there is a fishing pond. We drive past it every single day, and after 2 years of hearing "Mom, we should go there someday" or "Mom can we pleeeease go fishing?", we finally walked up to the pond one day and did just that. Except for the fishing part. ;)

Look at this curly-haired beauty.

On the 4th of July, Ryan had to work of course, but I made the kids crepes and fruit. Grace was not very happy with her crepe so she didn't want to be pictured. 

In the morning I had them string up patriotic bead necklaces to wear. They both did great, and even Logan enjoyed it! He usually doesn't like this kind of thing but he was into this time.

Gracie made a perfect pattern.

We also put together some popsicle stick flags to hang up. It was fun crafting together!

That afternoon a bunch of families in our ward got together for a BBQ at the Storts' house. The kids had a great time in their sandbox and playing with all their fun backyard toys.

Before the Pickerington parade started, we went with the Coons to the park (along with 500 other people) to kill some time. 

I love these cute kiddos!

We sat on the parade route with the Goates, the Coons, and some of the Clydes (our friends and landlords). We sure missed Ryan though! 

The SWAT vehicles were part of the parade this year with a few of their officers in their full fatigues and huge guns walking along the route. We may be a small-town parade, but it has some neat stuff!

The local high school football team walked past us and Logan got to high-five each guy. haha Logan is such a little dude.

This year the parade was extra special for us because the full-time missionaries and some ward members had worked on this replica of the SL Temple for HOURS. For the last couple years, we have always noticed how many other churches enter a float... so why don't we?!

They pulled the replica on a trailer and a bunch of our ward members walked with it. It was really neat! They did a great job! I wanted to walk along with them, but with Ryan working I felt like it was too big of a job to keep the kids entertained and push them the whole route by myself.

The kids and I left the parade a little early so we could beat the traffic and meet Ryan at home to light some little fireworks and throw pop-its. Then the kids went to bed, Ryan fell asleep shortly after, and I was completely exhausted. It was a very long but fun independence day. :)

Logan turns 2 1/2!

Logan just had his half birthday and I admit this is an age that is always a rough one. Turning 2 brought lots of language development and milestones, but turning 2 1/2 seems to bring with it the hitting, screaming, throwing, and violent tantrums that we experienced with Grace at this exact age. It's definitely a fun stage! ;)

Our handsome little man!!

nicknames: Bull Dog, buddy, Logan Boy

weight: between 30 and 32 lbs according to our home scale

wearing: size 6 shoe, 3T clothes, size 6 diapers (not for long!)

I tried to get a picture of his awesome flip-flop tan lines but he didn't want to keep his feet still long enough.

-Logan is a good sleeper at night and a good napper in the day. He goes to sleep at 7pm and I usually don't hear him until 7am. He has recently been having some bad dreams, and even last night at 2am he was complaining of a "scary storm" but I showed him out the window that there was no rain or "funder". In the day, he naps from 12:45-2:30pm normally.

-He always has so much to say, and it's really fun to see his mind working and keeping up with everyone. Although he is at that stage where he has to be acknowledged each time he says something or else he says it over and over and over until he is. He is still missing some words to make a complete sentence, and I still have to translate for Ryan and Grace sometimes, but for the most part you can follow his train of thought. 

Our favorite words/phrases:

-funder (thunder)

-I luh him/you/her/it (love)

-I toot 

-anytime he puckers his lips into the "oo" sound, even when the word doesn't have that sound in it. I adore it! Like the word "big" he pronounces "booig" in a low voice, as if it makes it more intense. :)

-wunny nose (runny nose)

-tiss (kiss)

-I dut know (I don't know)

-atch-uh-lee... yeah! (actually yeah)

-Welcome (you're welcome)
-Come here, with his little finger beckoning me over
-Fweety (Sweetie, which we call Grace)

He heard the train whistling next door and thought it was too noisy.

-Logan is not really into learning letters, or spending more than 10 seconds coloring or doing any kind of focused learning time. I'm hoping that this fall with Grace in preschool that I can get him excited about some mommy-school time. In the bath I will have him point out letters to me (until he gets tired of it after about 5 letters), but he seems to know about 1/3 to 1/2 of the alphabet. Maybe 1/2 is too generous... but it's a start! The ones he knows best are: A, L, O, G, S, X, M, C, D. He also knows some of the shapes and can point them out to me when I ask. 

-He is still quite clumsy and uncoordinated. He has bruises all over and trips over his feet often, poor guy! He runs pretty fast but it's sort of crazy and clumsy so it looks like he will biff it at any moment... and he usually does. He is becoming more courageous though which is fun to watch. He used to really not like to swing, and that was when it was just a baby swing. But just in the last 4 or 5 weeks he has decided he DOES like to swing (although it makes him nervous to feel the butterflies for the first few seconds) and even does it on a regular seat. He also didn't used to enjoy the feeling of a trampoline but now he will actually stay on a little longer than before without wanting to get off right away. Baby steps! :)

Funny conversations with Logan:
Me: "Do you have money?"
Logan: "Uh huh" ... Reaches in his pocket, pulls his hand out and hands me some air...
Me: "Thanks! How much is it?"
Logan: "Mmm... Forty."

At the store...
Me to Grace: "Grace, stay up with me please."
Logan to Grace: "Come on, fweety!"

Before nap time I said "When you wake up, we'll play some more."
Logan: "You play Red?"
Me: "Yep I'll play cars with you. Goodnight!"
Logan: "Ok, and I play Mater."
And the moment he woke up 2 hours later he went straight for Red and Mater and said "Come eer mom, play Red!"

Singing on the swing set in the backyard with Grace...
Me: "When you swing together like that, I used to call it being 'married'."
Logan: "

In the car...
Logan: "I wanna drive someday."
Me: "Yep, when you're 16 you can drive too."
Logan: "Daddy will teach me?"
Me: "Yes, Daddy will teach you. If you could drive all by yourself today, where would you go?"
Logan: "Owen's house!"

Logan says the prayer at least once a day, and it goes like this each time:
"Hev Fadder... dank oo for day... dank oo for day... dank oo for day..." and then we have to jump in and help him with saying other things.

-Logan loves to sing songs and participate in the actions. His nursery leaders tell me that's definitely his favorite part of nursery. Before he goes to sleep, his favorite songs to sing with me are: Away in a Manger, "Peace song" (Peace Be With You - from my madrigal days), Children's Prayer, Itsy Bitsy Spider, I Love to See the Temple.

-Logan is also VERY rough. He will act like he is going to give Grace a goodnight but then he will push and wrestle her straight to the ground. He likes to steamroll her (or Ryan or I if we're on the ground at his level), and he kicks or hits you as a way to get you to play with him. We are working on trying to get rid of those habits. As part of his play, he likes to make these growling or fighting noises and hit others with toys. He has many-a-time thrown toys at Grace or hit her hard on the head with a dinosaur, etc, giving her legitimate bruises and marks all over. He is just so rough!

-When Logan and I get a chance to be alone together he is just the sweetest, easiest child. Some of my very favorite moments in my whole day are right before bedtime when I get to rock with him and sing a couple songs together. He cuddles right into my arms and I just adore it. He is still my baby in those moments! However he has just started to be really difficult at bed time lately... refusing to lay down to be tucked in and just stares at me not moving a muscle. But when I do give up and leave the room he cries and yells for a long time and won't give up until I go back in to lay him down and give him more hugs and kisses. I keep telling him "I'm not going to play this game anymore, buddy. You need to lay down one time and I'm not coming back in" but he does it every nap and bedtime. He knows how to get me to do what he wants. I admit I'm wrapped around his finger a lot of the time. :/

-He is already peeing on the toilet at least once or twice a day. He has even pooped on the toilet once! I can tell he is ready for potty training and the date is already set: August 4th! He seems really excited ear time. I hope the transition goes smoothly. Grace seemed somewhat easy to train, but now that Logan is doing so awesome before we've even officially started, I think maybe he will be easier. We'll see! Wish us luck.

What's Ryan up to?

I hardly ever blog about how Ryan is doing. He is always so hard-working, determined, and reliable. His program and his patients are very lucky to have him! His most recent rotations have included NICU, GI, and Hematology/Oncology. All really rough ones. Oncology is an especially tough one on Ryan. It really wears him out emotionally and makes him want to do general pediatrics even more after spending time on that floor. 

The last few months have been particularly hard on our family because of all the hospital rotations (none of the nice clinic hours we like). He's been doing at least 70 hour per week since way back in April, if I'm remembering right. It's been a rough patch, to be honest! But... we've come this far and we can make it 11 more months. That's all we have left of residency and we couldn't be more thrilled that it's coming to an end! :) 

This fall will be a bit better though and Ryan is very excited about what's coming. Once football season starts, he will be the "team doctor" for a local high school team and will be going to all of their varsity games. That's perfect for him (since he does want to do sports med in the future) but bad for me since it means EVERY single friday night he will be gone, and not getting paid for it. Yay. But his rotations will be Emergency Med, Sports Med, and a rural clinic in Zainesville which might mean weekends off some of the time.

Another very exciting thing is that Ryan has been talking to lots of recruiters from clinics and hospitals in the west looking to hire a pediatrician next summer. We have 3 years to fulfill with the National Health Service Corp (since they have helped pay some of our loans, so he has to look for openings through their registry. The clinics have to have a score of "14" or higher which shows how medically underserved their area is. So it narrows down his options, but we are finding some great potential jobs out there! Top of our list right now is a hospital and clinic in Paradise, CA.  It's a small mountain town of 20,000 people and a nice, new 100-bed hospital. They are paying to fly Ryan and I out there in October to interview, meet everyone, and show us the housing market. My parents are coming out here to stay with the kids. We are SO excited!! It sounds like a nice place, but we will see. Another new development in the search is a possible Pediatric position opening next year in Roosevelt, UT. We will hear more next week on whether they're serious or not, and if they are they will fly our whole family out to interview and check the place out. Yay!! That's only a few hours from SLC and we are very happy about that idea. Other options right now are in the Tri Cities area of Washington, a couple places in Colorado, and a couple places in Oregon. So we still have some researching and contacting to do at this point. Every couple weeks Ryan asks me about places in Arizona and I shut out that idea as quickly as possible. NO more desert for me. :)

I got this text from Ryan recently... 

Ever since starting medical school (rotations) he has had moms or nurses comment on his good looks or his youthful appearance. One even asked him if medical school was a high school thing now. ha! He tells me they're always "older nurses" and I have nothing to worry about... Uh-huh. ;)

The sunday after we got back into town, Ryan's residency program (not the MD group - the DO side) had a catered dinner at a park in Upper Arlington. They have some incredible parks up there, people! Canal Winchester is seriously lacking. But anyway Ryan and Mary Frances are the co-chief residents this year of the DO program and I'm proud of him for going after that position! It will keep him busier this coming year but I know he can handle it. We had a fun time seeing the other residents that night, meeting the 4 new interns, and the kids got to stay up until almost 10pm which they were loving. 

Ryan with two of his 3rd years. The girl on the right is the co-chief with Ryan so they work together often and are good friends. Sarah on the left is a sweet heart and I have been able to take her family photos a couple of times! 

They're saying "caaaaaake!"

The two chiefs were trying to prepare the 4 BRAND new interns for what was to come... The poor girls had a "deer in the headlights" look in their eyes, and I found myself not knowing what to say other than "good luck!" Although I wanted to say "Good luck... it's rough... prepare yourselves...  maybe you should have picked something else." :/ haha I'm so helpful. So glad we're not in their shoes right now.

Since we had missed Father's Day with Ryan, we celebrated on a random day a week and a half later. Ryan just happened to be getting off a few hours early that day so I hurried and finished his surprises for when he got home. 

There had been 6 cupcakes but I didn't get a photo until he had already walked in and eaten one!

 I interviewed Grace about Daddy.

 His big surprise was still awaiting him though... I had him get in the car, we drove over to our friends' house (Clyde's), we borrow their truck, I handed him an envelope with cash, and told him to meet me at Home Depot. He is a quick one though and figured out the whole scheme as soon as we turned onto the road to head to the Clyde's house. haha. But he was very surprised and excited to realize he was FINALLY getting to buy a grill. And a good one that wouldn't blow over in a wind storm like the other 2 cheapo ones we've bought here.

We also bought the kids a plastic pool on our way home (while we had the truck and all!), and some hamburger meat so we could use our new grill right away.  This view of my man grilling us some dinner and the kids playing in the pool in our own backyard made my heart so happy!! It's the simple things. :)

Our young women are getting ready for camp coming up in a week, and that means First Aid review! Ryan came to a mutual night to teach the girls (the half who were in town) and get them passed off. It was fun and the girls seemed to enjoy it! I usually get the kids in bed right when mutual is starting, so I almost didn't go so they could go to bed on time. But I figured it would be nice to see Ryan in "the zone" since we never get to see Dr. Ryan doing his thing. He even reviewed with the girls about basic babysitter first aid and CPR, since that room was full of our babysitting force.

The rest of June

After we got back into town, the kids were SO excited to have their toys and beds back. The next day they played incredibly well together for a couple of hours, acting as if they had all these brand new toys. I even caught this photo of Grace reading books to Logan on her bed for a solid 10 minutes. It was priceless!

 I have had WEEKS of catching up on photos, editing, blogging, and sending photo CDs to people back in Utah. This is how much photos I took on my DSLR in 2 weeks... and there was another 400 or so on my phone. Woo! Good thing photography is my passion. ;)

 We went from the most beautiful, low-humidity, sunny days in Utah to THIS grey, stormy sky of Ohio. In the last few weeks, I think we've had two severe thunderstorms per week, tons of rain, wind storms that have broken trees, and our power has gone out multiple times. Gotta love the midwest.

 The kids and I went to Costco and of COURSE had to get some pizza. THE best.

 I really enjoy running errands with these kiddos. We try to have a good time, and they make it fun. (most the time)

 Our garden finally started to produce!! Our first veggies have been yellow peppers, snap peas, and zucchini. Our basil is doing awesome and I already have pesto in my freezer. We've also had lots of broccoli, a few nice big green peppers, and a few tomatoes are just barely starting to turn orange.

We finally got ourselves a new kiddie pool and we have had countless backyard pool days! It's been so fun this summer with nowhere to be and a great, fenced-off space all to ourselves to play. I love our backyard. I sure hope our next home has a nice yard! :)

They're singing "...ashes ashes, we all go SPLASH!"

This girl is going to be an architect when she grows up. She is great at creating buildings, houses, towers, and this one is a staircase. All on her own!

 Isn't she so beautiful? Look at those curls!!

 My friend Amy Seaver came over and we taught ourselves how to made burlap wreathes. They're pretty easy and only end up costing about $10! I want to make another one for fall.

 Ryan and his mini-me. He had just gotten his haircut and it looked particularly military-style this time. He looks like a drill sergeant in this pic.

We had our friends the Coons over to play and cook hot dogs. (post about our barbecue coming soon)

 Grace watched her cousin Layla swing all by herself in Utah, even pumping from a dead stop to get herself going, and she immediately came to Ohio ready to learn herself! She is a pro now! Logan is finally "okay" with sitting in the big swing and letting me push him a little bit. He has been nervous about it for a long time and rarely let me even push him in the baby swing. I'm proud of my kiddos! They're so big.

 Ryan only has a handful of days off between June and September, so I wrote a list of things I'd like us to do together to take advantage of those VERY few days together. First on our list was visiting the new Africa part of the zoo. It just barely opened this summer and it was A MAD HOUSE. Not only was it jam packed with people, but it was an awfully hot and humid day. One of the worst we have ventured outside to experience since living here in Ohio - no exaggeration. We were all miserable but we survived... just barely... and it was only slightly worth it. haha. 

 The giraffes were neat to see, and they have a nice savannah where several animals hang out together. We also got to see some african dancers and drummers performing which was pretty cool. The very best part was seeing the cheetahs running! 

On another extremely humid/hot day, I pulled out a painting project kit that Grace got for her birthday and we got to work on painting some blocks. I rarely let the kids get messy and create all that extra work for myself... but I'm working on changing that about myself! 

 Getting ready for church one sunday, I was struck by how much I wish I could freeze time! 

 I love this time with my kids... the ages they're at... this place... 

I sure wish Ryan was around more but I can't have everything all at once, right? ;)