Birthdays and Happy Mother's Day!

We have been determined to rid ourselves of sickness and we're just about there!  Ross and Ruby finally are sleeping regularly and all that's left is a runny nose for Ruby.  Whew!  Steve and I, however, fell off the wagon of health after them, so we're still re-cooping.  I currently vary from sounding like a man and having no voice at all (I seriously didn't realize how much I talk until I lost my voice.  There have been a lot of witty comments that I've had to keep to myself since the energy to be heard takes more than I care to give).  Stephen is a day behind me so hopefully - SERIOUSLY - all this sickness stuff needs to be gone by the time we head to Oregon!

Saturday we got up and headed down to Utah County to officially celebrate Stephen's birthday and my dad's.  I snuck in a hair appointment for myself to get brightened up for graduation with my friend Maren (seriously love that girl).  We did shish kabobs for dinner which was quite delicious, and then opened presents.  We gave my dad a deep sea fishing trip while we're in Oregon, and Stephen got (tickets to Les Mis which we already went to) some shorts, shirts, lipstack (in Ross's words), and a gift certificate to his favorite Indian Restaurant.  Nate and Beka gave him some water guns and nerf guns - oh dear. :)  Dain and Rachel went over the line and got him otter pops (which he's not allowed to have due to his overdosing problems).  We played Rollick which was hilarious, and then had birthday cake - I tried a new chocolate cake chocolate frosting recipe which was a hit.  I nixed the espresso powder, but it was still fabulous and everyone gobbled it up.
 

Our 28 year old Birthday Boy!

28, 3, and 57.  Some pretty solid ages here :)

Ross has to help opening presents.

Deep Sea Fishing!  I'm not sure if that's an excited face or a "I'm-not-so-sure-about-this" face. ;)

Ross really likes his job if you can't tell ;)

Indian Food and "Lapstick"

Peanut M&M's are a GREAT present.  I mostly just love the faces in this picture. :)

Steve feeling a need to guard his otter pops....he has a serious addiction people.

Letting Grandpa know these are bubbles.  You blow them.

A salmon colored shirt...

This is what my dad thinks of it. ;)  Good thing it was a joke!

Ruby ready for battle.

A Nerf war already ensued.

Michael put up a good fight...but Steve finished him off.

Young giving some piano lessons. :)

Some of Ross's cheese faces are hilarious. :)

This is how getting a family picture went. Haha!

Ross went straight for the frosting!

My dad's candles in the shape of 57!

These two are best buds :)

Readying to blow out the candles :)

 

Done!

All that hard work paid off!

Ruby is a chocolate girl and knows how to get the most bang for her buck.  She alternated bites between Dain and Rachel.  Between the two of them I'm pretty sure she ate an entire slice of cake.

Dad liked it too! :)

That night after the kids went to bed, we kids went to Nickel Mania to play some arcade games.  It was actually quite fun even though my voice was shot.

Stephen and Michael spent about half the time on the terminator game (and most of their money too I might add).  Rachel was on the hunt for tickets so I joined her for a while.  Dallas managed to beat the Simpson's game, Dain was sucked in to a Scope Rifle game for a good part of the time, and Thomas, Young, and Michael spent their time here:
 

Completely focused on annihilation.

Dain doing a "look in the distance" pose. :)

Riding some Pelicans!

Haha - just kidding.  Five of us played the X-Men game which was fun - all except for me falling off the cliff two thirds of the time.  Then we cashed in our tickets and headed home.

Mother's Day was a bit crazy.  We woke up and headed to my mom's to have breakfast with them and give her a pampering spa gift card.  We went to Sacrament meeting but our kids were pretty miserably tired so after we went home to put them down for naps.  THEN - we got to talk to our little Meghans on her mission.  She is such a cute little missionary.  It was fun to talk to her - it was our last time before she comes home!  CRAZY.  

Then we had a delightful dinner and the boys cleaned up (even nicer).  We gave my mother-in-law her present to pamper herself with a nice pedicure and we got ready to go home.  It was nice to get back to our own beds.

Now we're getting ready to head to Oregon, find a for real job, and move back down to Mapleton for a month!  Busy busy busy!

Anyway - a note on mothers.  I'm so grateful for all the mother figures I have in my life.  I could not have survived having my own children without having my mom there to take care of me in the after math.  She is a beautiful lady inside and out and I'm so grateful for how caring and self-sacrificing she is for us, her children.  What a wonderful example I have.  My mother-in-law is another sweet relation to have with all I've learned from her while Stephen and I joined families.  She is a comfort and support to have as well.  It's also nice for my children to have two grandmother's who are so involved and loving as they.  And I'm thankful for my own two grandmothers that have been in my life sharing their amazing and sweet stories with me and always making me feel special as I grew up.  Womanhood is a beautiful thing.  We need to do all we can to protect and care for it as it is our divine role and influences so much of our purpose.  Happy Mother's Day.  I'm so grateful for my own children who call me "Mom" and to have such wonderful relationship with them. 

Also - this little chick's hair finally fits in to two tiny pig tails. They lasted about an hour before she pulled them out...but I'm LOVING having a girl!

Cutie

Having a conversation with Woody :)

 

Mad Eye Ruby and a Ross that Can't Catch a Break!

Well after all our happy celebrating for Stephen, we seemed to get hit with the sick bus.  The day Steve took his test and we picked up our kids, both Ross and Ruby had colds - mostly runny noses....like CRAZY runny noses that just wouldn't quit.  They slept fine the first few nights...until the coughs started.  Ruby seemed to be getting better while Ross started hacking up a lung.  By that Saturday we took him in for his croupy cough that wouldn't quit (that's number four since he's been born) - for reals that night we were up with him the whole night.   He couldn't sleep longer than 20 minutes without coughing.  The doctor gave him the steroid which helped him relax a bit, and his cough became more productive.  

But not before he decided to spread his cold into his eyes.  That Monday we made ANOTHER trip to the doctor for Pink Eye.  His eyes were pretty terrible.  I think I've sanitized my hands about three hundred times since Monday.  

Sadly enough, on Wednesday I seemed to come down with some achy, hurts to swallow episode that has hung around a few days and managed to hit Stephen (harder than me...or maybe he's just more of a baby when he's sick ;) ) yesterday and today - he actually took a sick day - he NEVER does that).

We've been really careful with Ross's pink eye, but somehow couldn't dodge the bullet.  Today Ruby got it, and Stephen got some of it yesterday (knock on wood for me).  Thankfully, the doctor just called in a prescription for the antibiotic eye drops for her so I didn't have to make another trip.

Or did I?!

I THEN noticed Ross had broken blood vessels in the whites of his eyes which worried me, so we went in this afternoon to get THOSE checked.  It was concluded that it seemed to be related to all his coughing he's done over the last week.  HOWEVER, it was noticed that he had an infection in his right ear (AGAIN) and was put on a stronger antibiotic as of tonight.  

CUTE boys (notice the tissue - one of hundreds) photo bombing in the background.

Steve and Ross made a Dragon Wall (after watching How to Train Your Dragon).  It has stayed up for the last four nights - it's that important!

His eyes look WAY better here. :)

MAN - curve balls galore!  We are SO ready to not be sick anymore.  ESPECIALLY by the time we go to Oregon.  We need to nip this in the bud!  We were laughing because Ruby has now been given the nickname - Mad Eye Ruby since she has one eye that has the infection pretty bad.  Poor thing.  She's a good sport, unless I'm putting eye drops in her eyes (Ross too!).  They do NOT like it.  

Me and Mad Eye Ruby.  Poor thing!

“Constant vigilance!” in the words of Mad Eye Moody.

This may be the evidence that I'm next in the Pink Eye department.  It's my own fault...

Still love how relaxed and happy Steve's smile is these days. :)

These two are just two peas in a pod - both fun loving and hilarious!

Anyway - I'm ready to NOT be having movie marathons galore, rereading every book we own twenty times over (Ruby's current favorite is the Sesame Street book Peek-a-boo, I see you! (It seriously gets old after two reads).  Ross prefers Picture books of trucks in which you're not allowed to say anything while he tells you each and every truck on every page.), checking on our caterpillars every ten minutes - well that's actually pretty interesting.

Side note - I did these butterfly kits with my first graders when I taught and decided Ross was old enough to do them this year.  We LOVE it.  Our caterpillars are all in cocoons now.  It's going to be fun to see them as butterflies!

 

Fattening up our caterpillars

Cocooned!

Back on subject: Mostly, I'm ready to go OUTSIDE with our kids and socialize with others!  We're all dying in here.  

OH - on another note.  Ross finished his swimming lessons!  His best one was his last one.  No tears and mostly did everything his teacher asked him to do.  My heart melted watching him in his class.  It was kind of surreal seeing him interact with the other kids and his teacher, learning something new.  You always want your kid to do everything they're supposed to, but you realize you can't control every action they do - it's sweet and terrifying at the same time - if you're kid is THAT kid you swore would never do that thing...most likely your kid WILL be that kid you vowed would never behave that way.  Ross was actually quite good, and I have more of a desire to put him in other programs and sports for him to grow.  I realize he needs to feel safe before he's willing to try new things, and the more opportunities he has to try new things I think the quicker he will become at ease with the idea of trying them.  Anyway - I will call his first swimming lessons a success!

He was so excited to bring me his check off card and show me his sucker - totally worth all the mom attachment issues with going to swimming lessons for him!

 

Ruby thought it was hilarious to look down at Daddy every so often. :)

Here's to getting healthy and moving forward with new things!

Freedom!

Well let's give a synopsis as to how Steve's ginormous Boards day went.  He was all nerves to say the least.  The kids were at Grandpa and Grandma White's so Steve could get his last studying hours in, so the morning of, as I went about doing house chores and exercising, Stephen would go from bouncing a red rubber ball on the kitchen floor while he paced up and down to darting back to the bedroom to check something in his notes.  This took up about half of the morning.  I made him a birthday brain smoothie but tried to lay low for him.  We went on a walk to the park to get rid of jitters and then finally got in the car to take him to the test.  We prayed together before he left (the last of thousands of prayers for him to be able to do his best, be helped in the areas he needs, and to pass the test).  Then we sent him off to battle with all the love, prayers, and support in the world.  

It was a 5 hour test with only a 15 minute break after two hours - you take NOTHING in with you - not even a water bottle (seriously - how can you get your best brain juices flowing if you're dehydrated?), get a pat down, a locker for your stuff, and then sent to the mattresses.  He fought a long, hard battle - nay - a full out war.  He used up all 5 hours but for 6 minutes just to keep it real. ;)  

I ran errands, cleaned, and didn't quite know what to do with myself without children for the five hours he was gone.  When I picked him up he had half the burden of Boards off his shoulders.  He was done!!  So relieved to be finished, and not a clue as to how well he did.  We didn't care though - he was finished!  No more late nights, full weekends of studying.  We had our Stephen back!  Woot woot!  We all knew he wouldn't be settled until he knew he passed - which according to his discharge info, would be in 10 business days.  Boo.
 

The Birthday Boy is DONE!  ( Can you still sense the tension - whew, I can.) :)

We headed down to get our kids, Steve was completely worn out.  His mom did a nice birthday dinner and a little cake to celebrate his actual birthday (even though his party is this weekend), and we headed home.

The next few days Steve mulled over all the questions he thought he missed and worried all the while, while he tried to distract himself with regular life.  

However, this last Wednesday night, Steve decided to check online just in case, and found THIS little baby!!!!!!!!!

 

He DID IT!!!

He PASSED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Truly - we needed ALL of those exclamation marks!)

He was shaking all over, a mixture of shock, pure joy, disbelief, and complete happiness.  He danced around the room (to Ross and Ruby's entertainment - they soon joined in) and pumped his fist in the air about 1,400 times that night. :)  We immediately started our prayers of gratitude, thankfulness, and humility for all God has blessed us with and for his help in our path.  Truly we couldn't have done any of this without Him and His Son Jesus Christ.  

Now THERE'S a happy face. :)

The first thing I noticed when he found out he had passed his Boards was his smile.  I hadn't seen that REAL smile for MONTHS - that care free, life has a future for us smile.  And, let me tell you, it's GORGEOUS! :)  We are so elated he is done (I will no longer be a single parent during our holiday to Hawaii this summer - WAHOO!!!!!).  We now have some more focus on timelines for getting a job and where we're going in life.  SO SO happy Stephen took Boards now.  It was worth all the sacrifice and effort.  Hooray!  FREEDOM!!!   

Stephen truly is the most wonderful man alive.  He has worked so hard all throughout graduate school, and I say that in the context of setting his priorities in order.  God and family always have come first in his life.  He told me multiple times that if ever our marriage or family became rocky or strained because of graduate school, he would easily drop out to make things right.  Because he put God and family first, somehow he always ended up, no only okay, but would pass all his tests and projects with flying colors.  I'm not saying that happens for everyone.  God's will is always what's best for us, but I've always known this path was what we needed to be on, and that God would make the difference to help us stay on it from the minute we knew we were going to Oregon for school.  It's funny - I stress out about how everything is going to work out - from vacations, to day trips, to new phases (this is in part thanks to having children).  I'm a worry wart. I always am checking on my children at night when they go to bed.  I have to make sure doors and windows are locked, things are turned off, everything is the way it should be.  But when it came to this phase of our lives in grad school with how much it would cost, the time, effort, and sacrifices it would take, I've never once worried that we wouldn't make it through.  That is truly a tender mercy to me and a complete confirmation that God's hand is always there in our lives guiding us if we will put our lives in His hands.  I am so grateful for everything we've gained from this experience, and I am in awe that it is already coming to a close.  It has been a truly special time for us in our growth, our closeness as a family, our faith, and our dedication.  

Life is good, and I am thankful.  Congratulations to my incredible husband.  We love you with all our hearts! 
 

There's that gorgeous smile :)