Benson the magnificient!!!

My little but big Benson is growing so fast. Today he hit a couple milestones. He rolled over from his back to his front, sat up by himself almost the whole day (he used to fall over after 10 seconds), and has been in the best mood I have ever seen a 6 month old be in. He seriously was laughing the whole day. I think sitting up all day made him super happy. Everytime Reece or I would look at him he would start laughing. It was the most adorable thing. He is such an awesome stud. He's going to be a heart breaker. He's such a happy kid--I just want to squeeze him all day long. Good thing he's chunky and can handle it!

Good job Spencer!

If you don't want to hear me brag about Spencer, then stop reading this post.

I am super proud of Spencer because he just received his biochem test score (this was his first test in med school) and he got a 99%!!! That was the highest grade in the class. He just started his testing week and so hopefully the rest of his tests go well. Anatomy and anatomy lab were today and he didn't feel great about them so receiving good news on his biochem test was a good confidence boost!

The lovely Buchanan's!

Crazy Reece
My boys! (notice the matching ties!)
Riss and Colby, and Juliann and Benson
Father and Son

Natalie, Spencer, Juliann, and Benson

My sister-in-law, Candice, married Kayle Buchanan last Saturday in the Boise, Idaho temple. Grandpa Miller was able to make the trip and did a great job sealing them. It rained most of the day except for a 2 hour period which was when Candice and Kayle were sealed and taking pictures outside. Soon after, the rain picked up and it poured the rest of the night. Luckily their reception was at the Hilton Garden Inn in Eagle and so the rain didn't spoil the fun. Candice looked so beautiful in her dress and the newlyweds are enjoying a great honeymoon in Hawaii!

Claire Freckleton

Aubry and Jeff had a sweet little girl September 7th. She was so little and precious. Aubry looked great as well. It was really fun to see her as a Mom. Her and Jeff are going to be great parents!! Congrats Aubs and Jeff!

Sweet Benson

Red wagon slide

The Goat garbage can

You feed the goat garbage and it sucks it up!

Spokane trip...

My boys on the Gondola.

We took a short trip to Spokane to see Aubry's baby and to send me and the boys on a "big airplane up in the sky (in Reece terms)." Spencer got a hotel off of HOTWIRE for $54.00 and boy were we surprised at what we got. We stayed at the Doubletree Inn right next to the Riverfront park and were greeted with warm fresh cookies and a backpack full of toys for Reece. I was impressed with Spencer!!!! We spent the day at the park and were surprised how kid-friendly it was. We rode the gondola across the waterfalls, played on the slide and blocks, and enjoyed walking through the park. We then said our good-bye's which was really sad. We've been married almost 4 years and I still miss Spencer CRAZY when we are apart.

Another near ER visit...

Spencer and Reece went to the grocery store Friday night to get a couple things for the weekend. Unfortunately, they came back with a deep cut on Reece's eye and zero groceries. Reece was doing his typical 2 year old crazy play in the shopping cart and biffed it as he tried to jump from one side to the other. This caused a nice deep cut in his right eye. We probably should have gotten a couple stitches, but we decided a butterfly band-aid and a couple kisses would heal it just fine.

15 minutes early!!!

Benson is such a stud! He has the craziest hair. It's ALWAYS fuzzy. Today I decided to beat the fuzz for church. I lost. Fuzzy won. His hair looked like this for about 15 minutes and then it was back to being fuzzy. I even used a hand full of gel.

My handsome boys!
My hands are always full!

I am seriously OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) with being early to church, not just 5 minutes early, but at least 15 minutes early. I come by it honestly--my Mom has to be 20 minutes early so I think I'm doing pretty good with just 15. To illustrate how severe this disorder is this summer my Mom showed up to church 17 minutes early. She was distraught & terribly stressed at her late arrival--she admitted afterwards she was the third person to walk into the building. Anyway, today was a great day because I didn't stress once this morning because we left our house 22 minutes early and still had time to take pictures!! Now that's what I call a great morning!!!!

WWAMI wives club

I started the WWAMI (that's what the UW medical school program is called) wives club. We get together once a week and do something fun. This week Traci and I taught Paola how to make baby blankets. Paola is 8 weeks pregnant! They are really fun girls to be around! We will follow each other to Seattle next year and will all live in the same apartment complex.

Toliet training-our first attempt...

I just got done reading New Moon by Stephanie Meyer and told myself I couldn't start the next book until I had Reece potty-trained. So I got really excited about training him, read a book about it, and started the process this morning. Needless to say, it was a total failure. The first hour went great. He was doing everything he was supposed to do. The only problem was every time he would stand up, or I would turn my head, he would wet his pants. After 3 1/2 hours, 4 accidents, baby Benson screaming because he thought he was being neglected, a messy kitchen, and not a single time actually making it into the potty, I decided to give up and start my new book. Reece is such a great kid and every time he had an accident he would start crying because he felt so bad. I take full blame for not succeeding today and will try again in a month!!! :)

Happy Birthday Spencer!

Spencer's birthday was a couple days ago, but I thought I'd write about it anyway. I was trying to be a good wife and make his birthday special. Spencer doesn't like big parties or anything like that (which is crazy to me because I LOVE parties and make my birthday last a month), so I had to think outside the box. I surprised him with his favorite meal, steak and red rice sauce, which turned out only ok because I didn't add enough green peppers and onions. Then I gave him his birthday present which he was excited about, but turns out it wasn't exactly what we wanted it to be. Then we had Brad and Traci over for games which was loads of fun. During games I served an oreo-fudge ice cream pie. It was delicious except I got a little too happy with the oreos and so it was a little over powering. So, even though I pretty much botched everything I tried to do for him, he still had a great birthday! He's awesome and we LOVE him TONS!! The best thing about Spencer is he knows what's important in life and he keeps his priorities straight. He always makes sure our family comes first!!!

Labor day weekend FUN!!!

Spencer had the weekend off and so we PAR-TAYED!!! Saturday morning we went to the Farmer's market and got exposed to the unexpected culture of Moscow. I seriously thought I was in a time warp. I really felt like I was in the 60’s. They had tons of vendors, a couple singing n the street (singing 60s music with perfectly matching attire), people were all over in the streets with their bikes and so forth, and everyone was dressed in tied-died shirts, had long braids, and were dressed in 60's style clothing. Don't take this as an insult to Moscow, I actually really like it here and the farmers market was a TON of Fun! It’s kind of fun to see a culture different from the one I’m used to.

Moscow is a nice town because it is close to a lot of beautiful areas. We went fishing Saturday afternoon (just 15 minutes away) and had a bon-fire with some friends in a park just outside of town. I've never seen such beautiful rolling farm hills before. They sit right next to the pine tree forest. This is a nice area and we are taking advantage of the outdoors. I've been trying really hard to be an "outdoorsy girl" but I'm not that great at it. I run every time I see a bee, I tell Spencer to sanitize his hands after he touches the fish (which he refuses to use), and the only thing I can do with a fire is roast marshmallows!!! Oh, and whenever we caught a fish I could hardly wait to free it and when the hook removal accidently killed a fish, I felt REALLY, REALLY bad.

Here are some pictures from the weekend! Enjoy!

Goblet ice cream just for Mom and Dad!!! Benson was literally growling and staring at my spoon the whole time we were eating it. Reece could care less while he ate his fishies (swedish fish).

Reece's camping chair!

Benson watching us Fish.
Mom's famous fish lips. I give Reece a "fishy Kiss" everynight before bed.
Dad and Reece's rainbow trout fish
The family in Coeur D' Alene

Dad's favorite trick with the boys...

Canada

My good friend Traci and I decided to take off to Canada for a couple days while our boys stayed home to study! We went to Grandma and Grandpa's cabin to relax and hang out on the beach. Unfortunately, we only had one day on the beach due to weather, but it was still a fun adventure. It was a four hour drive and at one point we had all three kids screaming out-of-control in the car and there were NO STOPS for 15 minutes. All Traci and I could do was LaUgH! Needless to say, we survived the trip!!

Traci and Grandpa!

Mom and the boys!! You gotta love how opposite my boys look.

Brotherly love! Baby Benson was distrought the weather was bad...it meant more time for big brother to "take care of him". Whenever I put Benson on the floor, Reece lays right next to him and says "take picture mommy". We have LOTS of pictures similiar to this one.

National Lentil Festival

That's right!!! Yesterday we went to the National Lentil Festival in Pullman, Washington (5 minutes from Moscow). The festival was pretty big and they gave out a yummy brownie recipe with lentils in it. They had a little parade, a bunch of vendors, and we were lucky to catch up with "tasty lentil" for a picture!!!

Brad, Traci, and Laney (our new friends who are also in the WWAMI program) came with us. They live right next to us and are a ton of fun! There monitor reaches into our apartment so they often come for game nights once the munchkins fall asleep.

First day of school!!!!

Spencer started school last Monday and I was right there with the camera to get a nice picture before he left. I made him a lunch and tried to buy him a cute lunch box to put it in but he refused. School is really busy but he is loving it. Each med student gets paired with a doctor for the semester and has to spend 4 hours a week with them. The obstetrician and orthopedic surgeon were the most sought-after doctors because they actually let you in on surgery's and let you do things. Well...Spencer's first pick was the OB and they gave it to him!!! We've been told the OB doctor doesn't schedule a time each week, he just calls you up and tells you to meet him at the hospital--a baby is on it's way! So probably starting this week Spencer will see some pretty cool deliveries and c-sections.

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