Days in the Life

This week = fewest pictures & zero events.

They can't all be dramatic like last week and thank heavens for that.

Michael:

Is in his last week of oral surgery service before starting his last rotation of residency. He'll spend the next four months on Trauma ICU, then his chief year is all oral surgery service. He was on call this weekend which meant rounding on Saturday and Sunday mornings, but he made it to 11:30 church. We were already there since we go early to set up primary, so when he slid into the bench by us at 11:29 Bennett yelled, "DADA!!!" And a friend in our ward in front of us said, "It's a good sign they aren't calling you Michael -- glad you're getting some time in with them!" And it made me laugh. He does get such good time in with his kids whenever he can. I've started putting together some outreach stuff for us to finally start looking around at different jobs and it is making me a little antsy to know our next step in life. Michael loves what he does and that's the best. He helped an MMA fighter that broke his jaw in a fight this week -- in round 1, but he still fought all 3 rounds. I feel like residency has made me tough in a lot of ways. But I'm just never gonna be that kind of tough.

Maddie:

Worked in the garden on Saturday which I just never do because that's Michael's spot. But I felt bad he was working this weekend and asked if there was anything he needed us to do while he was gone, and he showed us a little spot he wanted to put new mulch down on once the weeds were gone. So the boys rode their balance bikes back and forth while I pulled weeds on Saturday morning and we got that spot looking so fine! I showed Westin and asked if he thought daddy would be happy, and he said, "Well maybe so, until he sees that," and proceeded to point to the huge rest of the backyard that has lots and lots of weeds. Sigh. I'm just always going to feel more satisfied with a clean kitchen than anything I can do outside. But he did lay down nice new mulch when he got home, and then we all went to Salsa's for dinner! Otherwise this week was just full of our routines -- audiobook trips to pick up groceries, library story times, preschool, playgrounds, naps, piano lessons, scripture class, and lots of clapping when Bennett pees still. The sense of accomplishment hasn't faded for him at all and it's quite tiring to keep this up, but we're for you, Bennett.

Westin:

Our dinner at Salsa's on Saturday night was maybe the most fun we've ever had at a restaurant all together. The boys were coloring and snacking on chips, Bennett's dipped one drop into salsa and Westin none at all because "Spicy!", and chatting with us. Westin said, "Do you know who my favorite family is? This one!" And pointed to each of us. And they both just kept making us laugh so much. I don't know, maybe cheese enchiladas just always make me sentimental. But it was fun. We also had more fun with his Reading in 100 Lessons book this week because I stopped stressing about getting through a lesson every time we sit down to do it. He's still so little. But he likes doing it. So if he's interested and focused, we move through some activities in a lesson. The minute it gets contentious at all, I put it away until tomorrow. We're in no rush and it has helped.

Bennett:

I started telling Bennett more often that there is a baby in my tummy but now he just seems to think we all have babies in our tummies and he really likes patting his and showing it to me. But when I ask him if it's a brother or a sister he consistently says sister and Westin consistently says he wants another brother. We're excited to find out the gender this week! Something about Bennett is just so, so sweet and he makes Michael and I laugh so much. I made these cookies for the first time tonight and watching him eat one was just thoroughly enjoyable. He's afraid to poop on the potty, which I was hoping we avoided because the first week he didn't seem to care, but now we're there and it's much less joyful than watching him eat a big cookie. But he'll get it. I can't wait to see what he does with his sweet, sweet personality as he gets bigger. I think he's going to love having a baby around but I'm already so sad when I think about those weeks after a c-section when I can't pick him up. Sweetest little guy.

Baby Dae 3:

Still can't feel this baby move, and so excited to find out if this is a girl or boy! Both will be so fun. I am still as sick as I've been since 6 weeks. I miss laughing hard. Bedtime is so hard because we always laugh so much but that's when I'm the sickest and laughing the most and it's a rough combo. I need lemon everything. I wanted lemon frozen yogurt so bad this week but didn't want to go out to get it, so I squeezed a fresh lemon over vanilla ice cream. And I really liked it. Non-pregnant me would never do that, ever. Luckily I'm in the right place at the right time to be craving lemons! Fresno citrus is in full swing and we're surrounded by oranges and lemons right now.

I tried letting him watch a show when things needed to happen around here but that does nothing.
Now we know.

Kids Yoga. Bennett hasn't shown any interest in participating but he's entertained by it. Westin likes the Spiderman moves.

Lemon. On Ice Cream.

Coloring at Salsa's. Restaurants with coloring and some pre-food snacking food are such a breeze compared to others.

Lots of letter practice these days, he loves to draw each of our names or have us spell different words for him to write.

The most snow we've seen all winter.

Bennett was such a little man at church today.

These cookies! I've made the same recipe for ages but wanted a bigger, thicker cookie.
These were delicious! Probably heavily influenced by the fact that we haven't made cookies in months, but still.

Playing with dinosaurs and tupperware while wearing his hat that he found.
It's sizes above his age and already too small. I love him.