Copy cat

 I came in from a jog on a chilly morning and collapsed onto the kitchen floor, when my shadow came immediately in to access the situation. 30 seconds later, this is what I sat up to. 

I did have to help him a bit with the ear phones, but didn't let them stay in long. This kid doesn't need any damage done to those ear drums. We're already wondering if he inherited my (and thus, my father's) hearing.  On a daily basis he is demanding, "WHAT YOU SAID?!" or "Say it louder!" and after still not catching the repeat, again demanding, "Say it LOUDER!" We are wondering if this could account for him "talking" in more of a yelling voice. Whisper, talk softer, say it quietly hold no meaning to him. Just last Sunday, all of Relief Society and everyone in the halls got to hear him screaming, "Quaaaaaaack" repeatedly as part of a nursery song. Yes, everyone, that was my son.

Surprises

I think I need to have a word with Wegmans about their strawberries.

(As though I should be surprised to find shoes in my refrigerator. I can't step into my boots without finding all manner of pens, cars and toys. There is unchewed gum shoved in the screw cavity of the vacuum cleaner. I will often check Weston at night only to find him nestled in with dirty clothes, shoes or random paraphernalia from the room that Collin has so generously thrown in. My bed houses rubber snakes. Trav even found a CD one night, unbeknownst to him, in his back scrub pocket, that Collin had snuck in much earlier. Boys! :)

RAM trip

Over the weekend, Travis was able to volunteer at a free clinic in Bristol, Tennessee. The organization that puts it on is called RAM, Remote Access Medical. I guess it's a massive undertaking that they go all around the country with. He left Friday afternoon, driving 10 hours with a friend and getting there around 2am. He worked all day Saturday and also Sunday morning before heading home.

It was all done within the Bristol Motor Speedway stadium.

 

I was amazed at these pictures! All along I had just imagined him inside a small building, working with a couple dozen other dentists. In fact, there were canopies filling the stadium where you could meet with doctors, optometrists, dentists or pharmacists. There was a hygienist school there doing cleanings, so he and the other students mostly did extractions with a few fillings. On Saturday morning alone he said he pulled around 60 teeth! He told me he pulled all the teeth in one girls mouth and I was mortified! I asked if there wasn't anything else he could have done for her. But then he clarified... they weren't even really teeth. The crowns were completely gone and she only had black nubs left. Once again, the mortification! How does that happen??!! Meth. Meth does that. And she was maybe a few years older than us. It made me so sad. But that was the story of many of the patients he saw. I'm so glad he was able to go and have this experience! It was humbling to hear about all the people that donated time, money and effort to make it happen. It also made me grateful for a mom that insisted on dental cleanings every 6 months!!

Here's Trav. Hope HIPPA doesn't come after me!!

I wasn't exactly thrilled at the idea of him being gone all weekend, but it worked out just fine. (I even slept without the TV on for the first time! I know. I'm growing up.) 

On Saturday it was ward temple day, and since the only other family going had kids too, we were able to do the babysitting swap. I was glad I could do one last session in the Palmyra temple! 

It also meant one more time at Marks!!! 

We ate it picnic style on the grass down from the Smith Family Farm with the Sacred Grove in the distance. How cool is that? It really has been so amazing living near the church history sites. 

Final blessing of the day? Our {broken} car that still runs, didn't break down on me! It really feels likes it's on its last leg. I could just picture me on the side of the 90 with two kids in car seats, a husband hundreds of miles away and the extent of my car repair skills being "checking the oil".

My free nights were spent preparing my last Sunday School lesson. Bitter sweet. I spend so much time on my lessons that I can't help but be a little excited to have so many more free nights coming my way! However, in all honesty, I don't dig into the scriptures normally, the way I do when I'm preparing a lesson. So in that way, it's nice to have scripture study be my "job". And I've certainly learned so much! For example, my last lesson was on the Allegory of the Olive Tree... Jacob 5. Normal reaction to that chapter: Yawn. I love that chapter now! It was so interesting to study and really teaches so many important lessons that go way beyond just the scattering and gathering of Israel. This calling has been a huge testimony builder for me. The gospel is amazing! And I'm always so grateful for when the Spirit is in my lesson. That is the true teacher!

Well, Rachel was so great to watch Weston for me while I was teaching and she even took a few pictures of him with her phone. She is the Primary secretary so he got to hang out and enjoy his first sharing and singing time! She said he was enthralled and never lost eye contact with the conductor. Just loving the music! So sweet! And such a handsome little guy :)

Easter

Look who came to visit our house over Easter?!!

Yup. The Easter bunny! (Aka, Thumper)

 I can't tell you how many people either saw this little guy or heard about him in our house, only to immediately whip around and throw me the most confused look.

No, folks, he wasn't here to stay. We were merely helping out some friends who needed a "bunny sitter" over the weekend.

I have not done a 180. I do not suddenly love animals.

I did think the boys would be tickled pink to have the {Easter bunny} stay with us for a few days. And oh my word. The moment he entered our living room in his carrier cage, Weston was in heaven. I think he kept his forehead pressed to the cage for 5-10 minutes, just beaming at him. 

(Side favorite moment of having a rabbit: Rachel dropping me off one night and while pulling into our driveway, seeing a rabbit scamper off into the backyard and me joking that "There goes Thumper". Not realizing that Rachel took me seriously and was 1/2 a second away from throwing her car in park and helping me chase down the rogue rabbit.)

(Second funny moment of having a rabbit: Forgetting that they need to eat. We got him Thursday night and it was Friday at midnight (on my girls weekend) that I remembered I hadn't fed him!! I literally almost had an anxiety attack. For the next three hours I would interrupt the conversation occasionally to get reassurance from the girls that he would in fact not die that night. Turns out Trav remembered to throw in some pellets... he just didn't know that the carrots and lettuce were the main part of his diet. Most thankfully, Thumper still survived.)

(Completely NOT funny part about having a rabbit: Cleaning up his cage!! *me gagging and dry heaving and  gasping and... you get the point* All while Trav giggled hysterically while watching me. This was a VERY good lesson for me that even small, cute pets create WAY TOO MUCH MESS! I mean, how on earth do those things poop so much?!

Anyway, back to Easter. I found myself skipping around the house singing, "The Easter Bunny is Coming to Town Today!!.... " And then asked Trav what the next line was, only to have him give me a blank stare and ask, "That's really a song?" Whaaaat?! Did not everyone grow up watching this movie? It's a classic! So I promptly pulled it up on You Tube (Gosh bless You Tube) and had Collin watch it in 4 parts. I definitely enjoyed it more than him. Put me in a right good mood, getting ready for Easter! :)

A girl in our ward offered to do mini Easter sessions so we took the boys over for a quick shoot. I don't know when I'll get the pics back but here are some of my own candid ones.

 I tried to snap a few more at home and once again wished for a good camera!! 

But isn't he the cutest??!!! I'm in love.

 There's the look!

 Weston was none too happy to be forced into a 2nd session!

 Til he got that paint brush! Always a great photo prop. Sigh.

On Wednesday we met with playgroup at Delaware Park for an egg hunt. Collin was very motivated and cleaned up pretty fast.

 This might be my favorite picture ever. Can we all see this in 20 years on the Biggest Loser?! haha!

 The kids were so cute digging into their loot. 

EasTeR DaY 

On our girls trip I saw a batman shirt at Old Navy and succumbed to paying full price so he could have it in his Easter basket! I think I died a little inside paying $13 for a t-shirt from Old Navy. I am so cheap. But it was worth it. It is definitely his favorite item of clothing.

Our neighbors were so nice and left little baskets for the boys on our doorstep Easter morning. We have such nice neighbors!

 Poor Weston got sick over the weekend, so he spent Easter at home with Dad in his jammies. 

 We hosted our usual Easter dinner feast and hauled down the kitchen table to the basement to accommodate everyone. There were 12 adults and 9 kids. Talk about chaos! Sure glad we inherited Grandma's kitchen table though. Gotta love the 3 panel inserts! (Ryan and Wayne make a cute couple.)

 Dying our eggs for the big Egg Bash!

 The kids also had an egg hunt.

 They were so cold! Poor Andrew was visibly shaking.

 Collin ditched out early when he felt he had collected enough eggs.

 Time for some egg bashing! (And this year, no runny yolks!)

 Traci's egg was the winner!!

On Facebook, everyone was posting such cute Easter pictures of their kids and families. Well, here's ours, haha! I think Weston's chocolate goatee puts the finishing touch on it, don't ya think?

 We had such a fun night with great friends. We just wish our friends had eaten more! I bought two hams and had an entire one left over.

Trav was a champ and basically did all the clean up. I went to bed at 9pm and woke up to a spotless kitchen. Heaven. He may have also once again reminded me that we will never have a big house again to host such extravaganzas. (If I had a $1 for every time he's said that!  Deep down, he really likes it. :)

Girl's Weekend!

This past weekend I got to have some fun with friends as a last little {hurrah} before we move. Last year, we did a trip to Toronto, but this time we kept it local.

Terrible picture, but it has us all in it... Marianne, Rach, me, Natalie, Laney, and Carolyn.

We shan't discuss the scuffle that began the evening *ahem, scary parking lot lady*, but from there on out, we had lots of fun! :)

Cheesecake Factory happily informed us that it was a 2+hour wait at 6pm! So we did some shopping and managed to not faint of hunger in the interim. The day before I had discovered a $50 Gap gift card in my wallet from who knows when (score!), so I even had a little shopping cash and found a way cute summer bag.

Rach and I shared the Caramel Chicken, aka a dang good reason to get fat.

 Then we hit up Target and grabbed some Ben and Jerry's before going to the hotel. Natalie used to work for the Hyatt so she got us a great deal for a junior suite downtown! However the front desk informed us there were "no parties allowed", so we had to call off the guys, booze, and DJ. I think the feast of sugar and {Truth} questions was party enough.

 Not to forget the hair stylin'.

By 3am, we figured we should call it a night, but I'm pretty sure we all just laid in bed another 1-2 hours trying to fall asleep! 

 The next morning we took our time getting ready, then grabbed some breakfast before getting our {massages}!! I have only had one massage before, but this one beat it a million times over. It was 60 minutes of heaven. I felt like jelly afterward and was determined that one day, when the budget allows, this was going to become a part of my monthly routine. For sure, the best part of my weekend.

After that, we did some more shopping, then mostly parted ways. But Rach and I had been itching to see a movie, so we headed to the Galleria to see Mirror Mirror with Julia Roberts. 

It was so nice to get away from home for a bit and relax with fun friends!!