Children

We are officially OUT OF DIAPERS!!! Can you believe that? I think I need a new purse to celebrate! No more Mary Poppins bag. I can't believe how fast my children are growing. Reece had his 5 year old appointment yesterday--he grew one inch since September and hasn't gained a pound.

We've had a fun and relaxing week. Reece's asthma has been giving us some trouble, but other than that we are doing great. Here goes some random things we've done this week:

Spencer only has 2 more 30 hour on-call shifts! YEA! The picture below is a perfect description of Spencer when he comes home from being on-call. The last couple shifts he has had 0-1 hours of sleep. Try that every 4 days. Sure glad I don't have to do that. He's a trooper and loves what he does so it all works out! (Reece put together this arrangement).

The boys can't get enough of Spencer's Microbiology book. I hid it the other day and Benson found it and called it his "treasure book". When Spencer comes home from work the boys have him teach them about the different "bugs". The boys are ALWAYS asking to spend the night at both their grandparents home. On Sunday Spencer was on-call and my cousins from Shelley, ID were in town, so their wish was granted. They had a fun cousin night out. My mom turned the playroom into a HUGE fort which they all slept in.

Tender moments

Nothing is sweeter than watching your children sleep. I love to check on my children at night when they are deep into their sweet dreams and give them a big smooch. They almost always fall asleep in the most awkward positions!! Love those sweet little boys!!

Dinner table funnies...

Reece: Do girls and mom's know everything?

Dad: No one knows everything. Except one person...

Reece: Actually Dad, there are two. Heavenly Father and Jesus.

Reece: So...moms and girls just think they know everything (he drew his own conclusion!)

For Reece's birthday he got a tool kit and a couple projects to put his tools to use with. He put together a bird cage with Daddy on Saturday and then painted it this afternoon.

Reece's family birthday party

We went to "Monkey Bizness" on his birthday and so insisted we needed a Monkey cake. It's tradition that the birthday boy gets to help make the cake. Reece had been anticipating this moment for a while. This is him helping me. He was trying to be funny--but I can't remember what he was trying to do? :)
Cousins Kylie and Haylie Catmull.

Baby Ashley almost got a chunk of the cake!

Reece wanted to take a bite out of the cake--it's his birthday--do what you want!! Right?

The kiddos helping him open his presents.

Spencer was making Jake and Benson laugh. Jake has 3 sisters and so when he comes to our house he's in HEAVEN. He's never seen so many boy toys in his life!

Auntie Natty!

My parents got Reece a real tool set. It came with a hammer, screwdrivers, saw, tape measure, goggles, and a couple more things. They also got him a bird feeder and book holder that he can build with his tools. Isn't that awesome? He LOVED it!

Birthday Party #1

Reece's birthday bash!! Well, the first one anyway. Reece is lucky this year because he gets TWO birthdays. Dad is on-call and won't be home until tomorrow afternoon so we had a little friend party today and will have a family party on Friday. Here goes the scoop for today!


*Woke up at 8AM: He wanted to watch The Land Before Time V! And it's his birthday so we did it.
*Ate Mickey Mouse shaped pancakes
*Decorated the house for his party (this was a highlight of the day and he took it very seriously!).
*Cousin Topher, Aunt Natalie, Aunt Nicole, and Grandma Blo joined us for cake and presents.
*Played at Monkey Bizness (a warehouse full of inflatables and a climbing gym).
*Came home exhausted and watched The Land Before Time VII.
*Had some asthma issues.
*put together his Legos.
*Grandma Blo came by with McDonald's and watched the boys while I went to mutual.

Don't you want to squeeze him? He's so handsome and precious!Benson went with my Mom to pick out Reece's present and then helped her wrap it. We've had it sitting on our piano for a couple days and Benson has waited anxiously for his chance to give it to his older brother. He was so excited for Reece to open it! His beloved legos! Crazy slide. It gave me the butterflys! Benson is our little dare devil. He would bounce on his bum and then fly off the slide.
Natalie's an awesome Aunt!! The boys LOVE her because she takes such good care of them. She is very fun and comes up with the most creative ideas for the boys.
Love you Reece!! Thanks for making me a Mommy! Love Mom.
Birthday crew.

Happy 5th Birthday REECE!!

A year older and wiser too!!

This is Reece last year on his Birthday.

And this is Reece today--on his 5th Birthday!
Top 5 THINGS I LOVE about REECE!!!

1) He is very sensitive: he senses when I am down and says the sweetest things to make me feel better. He loves to cuddle and be loved! He has such a pure and good heart. He prays every night that he can be a peacemaker.

2) His eagerness to learn: He makes being a Mommy fun because he LOVES to learn and is always asking intriguing questions. His favorite thing to do in the morning is wake up before Benson, snuggle into my bed, and take turns reading stories together.

3) He loves his brother Benson: Reece is really good at taking care of his brother Benson. We went to a Bounce house last week for preschool, so I asked Reece to make sure Benson was included. Reece never left Benson and helped him climb through areas that Benson couldn't do on his own because he was too short. He does things like that for Benson all the time. Reece is the perfect older brother and is Benson's best friend.

4) Buddy: Reece LOVES to be peoples buddy. If you take him one-on-one somewhere he will be the most darling child ever!! He's hilarious and acts like he's an adult. I can think of at least 6-7 people who he loves to be buddies with. He will do anything to make you happy and has very good manners (most of the time--we are five you know!). Reece is one of my best friends and I love going on dates with him! He's such a charmer and fun boy to be around.

5) Understanding: Reece has been blessed with an incredible ability to understand and accept differences. He's allergic to milk and nuts and has never fought the fact that he can't have them. He doesn't try to sneak foods, he does the opposite, he almost always asks me if he can have it before he eats it. Many times people have come up to me and said how impressed they are with Reece because they have tried to get him to eat something with milk in it and he refuses it. He is also really good with Bensons diabetes. He wants to understand it and asks questions about it so he can help Benson. If Benson is low and refuses to eat, Reece will say, "Ben-Ben you need to eat this you are low and it will make you feel better". Reece is a great addition to our family and I am grateful for his example.

Googily-eyed session

When Spencer and I were engaged we would have "googily-eyed sessions" (we weren't cheezy at ALL?? :)) They were fun and entertaining conversations where we would give each other our undivided attention and just enjoy being with one another. It's been 6 years since we started the tradition and now we get to share it with two very handsome and fun little boys--and that's what we did to celebrate Valentines Day.

We had a delicious dinner (Red Rice Sauce, french bread, and corn--one of the few meals everyone in our family can or will eat) and then topped it off with carrot cake. Yummy! Then we put the camera on the piano and took funny pictures!! The timer action was fun to work with! We all laughed. And then we ended the night with FHE. We took turns telling each other why we love them. They boys had very sweet answers. What a lucky girl I am to have three awesome boys to entertain and LOVE me! I scored!

Spencer brought these home!! I LOVE LOVE the color purple so you can imagine how excited I was to see beautiful purple roses.Cousin Corbin has a "Valentine" in Boise and asked the boys to deliver a rose and sour gummy worms to his friend. They took there jobs very seriously!! Reece walked SUPER slow and concentrated hard on not dropping the Rose!! Lots of fun!

The decision has been made!!!

Spencer has FINALLY made THE BIGGEST DECISION OF HIS LIFE!!! Just kidding. I was trying to be dramatic. To be honest, at times it felt like the biggest decision of our life. For the past 5 months we have been seriously debating between Internal Medicine and Pediatrics. I won't go into the details of the debate because it would turn into a book. SERIOUSLY. I'm pretty sure we debated every aspect of each field. But, we made our decision and it is..........

INTERNAL MEDICINE!!!!

We are both really excited about it. We both feel good about our decision and have been looking at Residency options. It's crazy--we start applying for residency in June. It's been fun to look at different schools and areas we may possibly be living in starting Summer 2012. We've come up with 15 schools ranging from UW all the way to Duke. Looks like we could be anywhere. We have been praying that we will be sent to the best place for our family as well as the best place for Spencer to train. The matching process is kind of crazy (I will go into more details later) but I KNOW that Heavenly Father will send us to the best spot for our family and for Spencer. He helped us out with Med School and will do the same with Residency. We both are looking forward to another adventure when that time comes. As for now, we are thoroughly enjoying living in Boise with our family and friends.

I took this picture last night. I was making cookies for Mutual and I thought Spencer was reading with the boys. I came into our room to find Reece reading Spencer's Microbiology made Ridiculously simple book and Benson jumping on the bed. Spencer did wake up shortly after this picture thanks to Benson using Spence as a trampoline. I think Spence is a little tired. The poor guy has learned to function on a high level with little sleep. 30 hour shifts every 4 days for 5 weeks is starting to catch up with him.

Ben-Ben (aka. Benson)

Diabetes scare: We had our first episode of Benson passing out on us. He was severely hypoglycemic and unfortunately we found out the hard way. Here's the story:

He kept telling me he was hungry but it was right before dinner so I kept feeding him cheese (zero carbs). It had been a while and Benson started crying and saying he was hungry again. I picked him up and he flopped onto my shoulders. He went completely lathargic within seconds. I quickly checked him and he was 38--I thought, no problem, lets get some sugar and you'll be fine. 5 seconds later he started closing his eyes and went completely limp on me. Spencer was home and got me some fruit snacks. He wasn't responding so we had to give him sugar gel so he wouldn't chock on anything. We waited a couple minutes and nothing happened so we gave him more gel (30 grams). We checked him and he was 81. At this point we thought he was just sleepy. I laid him on the couch and a couple minutes later I checked on him and his eyes were 1/4 open. I knew something was wrong. So this time I cleaned his finger before poking him and he was 28! I knew at this point we had false readings and he was ALOT LOWER then we thought. To be honest, he was probably somewhere between 10-15. It took another 20 grams of sugar before he woke up and was conscience again.

They only funny apart about it was 15 minutes after he came out of it--because he went from unconscious to a serious sugar high.

I am very THANKFUL Spencer was around to help me. I am also thankful it happened in my arms, instead of finding him somewhere unconscious. I feel blessed for the protection we receive daily with Benson. His numbers are still up and down all the time but I have faith and trust in the Lord that he is taking care of Benson and his health needs. That is what gives me a peace of mind. I would be a freak if I didn't have that.
Potty training camp 2011: A week ago I woke up with nothing on the calender and was feeling very patient (something that doesn't happen very often). I got the crazy idea to start potty training Benson. I called my sis-in-law Clarissa who trained her boy when he was 2 and got all the goods on what to do. Lucky for us--her method worked great! Benson was absolutely darling about the whole thing and made what I thought was going to be a "disaster" into a very pleasant and fun day. He had a couple accidents but for the most part did awesome. He is completely opposite of Reece--he doesn't want anyone in the bathroom with him--he just wants to be alone and get the job done quickly. Reece could spend the whole day on the pot and loves people to join him for good conversation.

Today he went the whole day with ZERO accidents and proudly showed his Grandma blo his Wall-e underpants. We took our first outing with underpants on and survived. Give us a couple more days and I think we will be officially trained!

An uneventful--but eventful couple of weeks

2 weeks ago:

1) Candice (my sis-in-law) flew into town for a couple days so we could throw her a baby shower! She's having a baby girl in April so we had to celebrate! She looks darling prego! She is thinking about naming her girl "Charlotte". We told Benson about Charlotte and he immediately fell in love. Every time he saw Candice, or just about every other minute, he would run to her belly and start patting it and say, "hello Charlotte" in his silly/freaky voice. It was darling!

2) Reece's primary talk: Reece gave his first primary talk and did a fantastic job! I was so proud of him. We only had a day in a half to prepare so I was crossing my fingers it would go well. He walked to the pulpit with all the confidence a 4 year old could have, put his paper on the pulpit, and read his talk (I copied a story out of the Friend magazine). He came up with all the props, including a map he drew of Heavenly Father and Jesus in the clouds and Reece on earth with arrows pointing up toward heaven illustrating how he was going to live in heaven with them again! He took his job very seriously and invited all the family to come watch (sounds like my kid). We had the whole back row filled! Thank you Grandma Blo, Aunt Kristi, Aunt Natalie, Grandma and Grandpa Miller, Aunt Candice, and Daddy for supporting us (my Dad got a preview the night before)!

And thank you Candice for the picture! :)

Reece's primary teacher gave him a journal to write in after he reads the scriptures--and so after his talk he told me to write these things in his journal for him:

*We are on earth because the scriptures tell us why we are on earth.

*God is the light of the world.

*The scriptures are a map to lead us to God.

*The scriptures are true. And Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ love us!

Children are amazing. Reece has taught me so much lately. They are ready to learn and want to soak up all they can. They have such pure souls and want to do what is right. Many times I feel inadequate with the responsibility to teach and raise my children. I feel like they have more to teach me, then I have to teach them. I hope my children will always cling to the gospel and it's teachings because it will always direct them in the right direction.

3) Our eventful, but not so eventful happenings (this has all happened with in the last 4 days):

Saturday: My mom and I gave Angelie Hobson Bauer a baby shower! We pretty much copied Candice's shower and it turned out great! Lucky for me and boys--our "diarrhea bug" (to much info? :)) kicked in after the shower which kept us home for the remainder of the day. Spencer was on call so we missed him greatly that day.

Sunday: still sick. But it went away a couple hours before the super bowl--I mean FHE--family party. We thought we were clear until midnight when Reece threw up ALL OVER the bathroom. I couldn't believe the volume that came out of that child's mouth. yuck. Spencer only got 2 hours of sleep the night before while he was on-call, so he missed out on clean up duty!

Monday: potty training camp continued. I got a little stir crazy--probably from not leaving the house much and missing my husband. Benson was a champ and had ZERO accidents! I'll post Benson's potty training camp and diabetes scare on my next post.

Tuesday: Spencer is back on-call. He will have worked 70 HOURS in FIVE days. Craziness is all I have to say. We are doing well but can't wait for him to come home! He's a hard worker and is doing very well in his Internal Medicine rotation.