Pinewood Derby

Tonight was our Ward's Pinewood Derby. I am sure I attended my brother's at some point of my life but I really have no memories of them so in many ways this felt like my first time doing the pinewood derby thing. Stew and I made our family's little car. It certainly didn't win any speed races, or any special points for looks but it sure won Bridger's heart. When it was time to put it on the track he bawled and bawled. Our poor guy thought he'd never get it back. After one official race we had to withdraw from the competition because it was too traumatic for Bridger. He then carried it around the rest of the night and showed it off to everyone that would let him. His favorite thing was that there were little pictures of our whole family...yup, we did our van with all of us in it. Bridger would walk up to one of the young men and point out to him that there was mommy, daddy, him self, and baby!!!! I mean that really is something else!!! :O) After the races we got to let Bridger race his car all by himself and he had a ball. He is sleeping with it right now. I think it might be the favorite toy for the next little bit. We had fun making some new memories and I am excited for all the years we have ahead with Bridger being able to get even more into the great fun that is pinewood derby.

Bridger showing the camera his Hot ride!

Here it is after running it's races. There you see Mommy and Bridger. I know, my painting ability is breathtaking. LOL

And there is Angi and Daddy.

My Cute family! If only I could get them to all look at the camera. :O)

One Down, Three To Go!

My wonderful husband has officially completed his first year of Medical School! We are so grateful that this year has gone so well for him. He has loved it and I am so proud of all his hard work. He has done really well. He is "pretty confident" that he was able to get his straight "A"'s and honors this semester! :) Yep, that'd be my funny school-perfectionist hubby! It has gone so fast I can't believe we are already done with this school year. This summer he will be doing a preceptorship where he follows a doctor around 24/7 for 4 weeks. He is excited about it because the doctor he is shadowing is a general surgeon, a pediatric surgeon, AND a trauma surgeon! He is sure to get a lot of experience and get a really good idea about what type of surgery he would like to go into or not go into.

To celebrate we went out to dinner, then the park, and then we hit up the Med School Party. We had a great time and the kids loved all the the attention they got at the party - well, Bridger did. Angi is a bit shy. :O) We are so excited for this next week we have to play before his perceptorship. After his perceptorship we'll have a whole summer to vacation!!! I have been looking forward to ALL of this for months!!!

We are so glad that we are on the road together as a family to achieving Stew's dream to become a doctor. There have been and I am sure there will continue to be many sacrifices but so many miracles have been placed in our path we feel completely blessed and excited about all that our future entails. I know Stewart will be a fantastic doctor! Stew, you're doing an amazing job at being my husband, a daddy to our little kiddos, and a full time student. I absolutely love and adore you! Congrats on now being MS II!!!

Stewart and his Fan Club. I am part of it too but we neglected to take one of us together. :(

Greatness Required

I was a perfectionist. I didn't want to be good at things, I wanted to be GREAT! I knew I wasn't really built with the stuff for overall greatness but I was a hard worker and by golly I was going to be great no matter how hard it was!!! Well, I fought the good fight and then I was pooped. I was nowhere near great and I was making myself miserable. So I had to decide something very hard; Happiness or the dream of being GREAT. I chose happiness. I was going to be standard but at least happy....Well, in time that failed too. The problem was I couldn't embrace standard or even just good. I am Mormon, after all. I don't want to be Telestial or Terrestrial. No, I want to be CELESTIAL! The highest kingdom and the highest level! I have been taught that I can achieve that and I must want that. And I'll tell you, I really do want that.

So how did I settle the score between striving for necessary greatness and being sane and happy? It was priorities. I concluded that there are some things worth striving for greatness in and others, not so much. I think in many ways it is different person to person and depending on what stage of life you are in. I think there are seasons to work on some things and seasons to work on others and I am so very grateful for that.

My current dilemma is that I am in the season of young motherhood. Today I am squabbling with myself over priorities. I need to be a great mom. I want that more then anything else in the world. It is the first thing I pray for in every prayer. This drive for greatness isn't that of a perfectionist, no, it is of a mother who realizes the enormity of her call. The thing is, I feel overwhelmed. I am not sure where to start - what are the priorities of a really great mom? I find it so incredibly daunting. Motherhood is complicated and I wish I could just pinpoint what I need to do to be a great mom. Is it simply like love? Is it the play groups, story time together while the house is quite, vacations with adventures, cooking their favorite cookies just because or is it different for each of us? If so, then what mother do I need to be for my kids? What do I need to do to be the mother Heavenly Father envisions me? I am not sure. I wish I had a clearer vision, do you? Today I find motherhood humbling, it requires of me greatness and I am faced with the same old realization of teenhood - I am not great. I am human and I know there will be things that I am bound to do wrong.

My dear blogging friends, when Motherhood bares down on you where do you set your gaze? How do you strive for the greatness that is required?


I think my own mother would say to me, "Emily, try your best day by day. Pray a lot and the Lord makes it enough." What would your mother tell you?

A Hard Day and How it was Saved

The other day was a hard day. I was so sick but I had some urgent errands that had to be run and my poor kids had been stuck in the house with me for so many days that I knew they needed to get out of the house too. I guess it was the fact that we'd been in our own little world for so long and that I was so sick that made it so I had a hard time dealing with people's reactions to me and my kids. I will be the first to admit that Bridger can be very hyperactive; offices and libraries were not constructed with two year old boys in mind!!! At least not hyperactive ones! I felt like we were the circus coming through town.

It seems that people don't keep much to themselves. They would talk about us as if we weren't able to hear them, "Hey look at that little boy. He's sure got a mind of his own." and "Look he's on a leash. How sad!" The worst is that people will stare at me and see that I need help and will not go out of their way to help me but rather to let me know, "Well, you've got your hands full don't you." and "Wow, they are close in age! You're sure brave." I heard that so many times I wanted to scream. Why do they say that? Do they actually mean well? What it really translates to is, "I am so glad I am not you. You have more then you can handle. You are dumb and crazy to have kids so close." I think its just rude! Usually I am able to answer their comments by saying something about how much I love my kids and then do something that shows just how much I do enjoy my kids no matter how crazy they are, but I was sick and really not enjoying them very much so no such answer came. I just gave a weak smile and then ran after Bridger and Angeli getting into their latest escapade.

This one is so rude it really blows my mind. It happens all the time. They say this to me even when Stewart isn't there, just like this hard day. "Your kids are beautiful. Their Dad must be very handsome." and "Wow, they have such beautiful blue eyes. Their Dad must have beautiful blue eyes." Now, it's not so much that they are saying I am ugly and my eyes are not pretty enough to have given my kids their blue eyes that bugs me, its that they think they are very kind. They think they are just complimenting my children and not implying that I am a terrible genetic provider. They are delighted with themselves and wait for me to be flattered by their nice compliment. I'll I say is "Yes, their Father is very handsome and has very beautiful blue eyes." People, I think you mean well but come on!

However, there were a few people that did exactly what I needed after all the scoffers and rude comments. They saved the day. They loved my kids and helped me! Novel, I know, but they did it just right and it saved me from having a melt down. One such encounter happened at the library. We were leaving the library and our overflowing HEAVY bag of books kept setting off the alarm and Bridger was running around crazy. I was exasperated and people were looking at me annoyed that I was holding up the exit. Then the only nice person in the entire library came to my rescue. He took the huge bag for me, rescanned the books and then helped me get out the door. Then he said with a big happy grin "Have a good day." It was all I needed. I loved that kind man!

Then later that evening I realized we had no food, that I was too sick to cook dinner, and that Stew was staying late at school studying for finals. I decided we needed fast food. I was in tears because I was so sick and not sure I could make it to our local McDonald's without throwing up. However, they needed food so I had to suck it up and go. I wanted the kids to be able to play and eat there so they could have a little bit of fun out of the house so I decided we were going in. Once we got there some magical things happened. No one was there but us. One of the workers got the door for me and he smiled at my kids. Bridger fell in love with him. He let Bridger help him wipe down tables and sweep. The workers told me how beautiful my kids were without saying anything about my husband and even told me my son's eyes were like mine. They smiled and talked to Bridger and Angeli. Then this kind man came in and gave Bridger some money to put in their money thingy. It spins the coins around and around delighting my son like no other.

I left feeling rejuvenated. Bless those people that saw the beauty in my kids and treated me with dignity and kindness. They will never know how much I needed that. They saved the day.

EaRThQuaKEs!!!!

We have been having some little earthquakes ROCK the Reno area lately. Lucky for us we live the furthest you can from the epicenter and still be considered part of the Reno area so honestly we have only felt one of them and even then it was more of hearing it; Rattling dishes and the sound of the earth sort of rumbling. I was surprised how much it scared me though. The last time I was in an earthquake it was the Southern California Wittier earthquake in the 90's. That one was a BIG one. It messed our house up quite a bit. It even put me in shock. I didn't talk for like two days, a total Zombie. I wouldn't let my mom out of sight! So this last week when this little one sounded in our house I immediately knew what it was - EaRThQUakE!

I had a dream the other day that there was a huge flood and we had to evacuate our house. We couldn't find anything. All our flashlights were dead, and we had no idea what we should grab - total chaos! So this week for our FHE we had a serious run through of our emergency plan and made a checklist of things we need to add to our 72 hour kits. They keep saying to be prepared for a big one, so hopefully if one hits we'll be prepared to handle it.

When we looked at a map of the recent earthquakes we realized that while we are having some earthquakes here in Reno it still isn't too rare of an event to have earthquakes in the West. :) Check it out! http://quake.wr.usgs.gov/recenteqs/latest.htm

Our Sweet Boy

My Son is a sweet boy. A hyperactive, jolly, mischievous boy, but ultimately he is very sweet. I think one of my favorite things about Bridger is how much he delights in life; in the little things, in everything. His joyfulness is so contagious and makes our little family full of so much energy and fun. The past couple nights he has been so sweet to his newest teddy bear - which really is a ginger bread man we call Gingy. At one of my events I attended with my business they had a free build your own stuff animal table. Bridger was able to stuff it himself and thus he feels a little more of a connection to this sort of odd stuffed cookie man. Anyways, he has been tucking his little Gingy into bed every night as we put him down and it is the cutest thing ever.

He talks in whispered jabbering as he lays Gingy on his pillow, gives Gingy some of his juice ("ere gooo. Ju"), layers each blanket on him with great care and the most gentility a two year old can render. Then he dose one of the greatest acts of love, he gives Gingy his pacifier. He tries to put it on his mouth but it seems to always fall and after a few tries Bridger is content on Gingy simply having it next to him. Bridger gets up from Gingy very carefully and then starts to make snoring sounds. When Stew and I talk too loud he informs us that we should be talking softer. "no, no, no. zzzzzzzzz"

This whole event makes Bridger beam and you can tell he is a proud little parent of Gingy. Last night it was so cute that I had to take some pictures. I wish I had video so you could hear his whispered jabbering. It is adorable. It something like, "nigh, nigh. sssssssh. juba hbaba. jubab bababa. sssssh. nigh nigh. zzzzzzzzzz" - translation: "nighty night, Shhhhh. jabbering I don't understand. shhhh. nighty night. snoring sounds."

He has started to ham it up for the camera. He is really trying to smile on cue. Funny boy!

Flirting with mom

Here is Daddy tucking Bridger in with all the necessities: Teddy bear, Gingy, his sippy cup, his wa wo (pacifier), and all three blankets.

After we put him down I could hear him talking to his stuffed friends for about a half an hour. I bet he was tucking them in all over again. :)

Who Rules the Roost?

Well, it's the kids. They've got us running around like a bunch of crazies. Having two toddlers is proving to be quite the joy and trial. They are turning into the cutest little friends and it warms our hearts like none other. However, it has also multiplied the trouble they seem to create. Yesterday the kids gave us a run for our money. I had to go to an event for my business and so Stew took care of the kids the bulk of the day and had everything under control. I came home to a clean beautiful house and two sparkling smiling kids. But I must have triggered something because as soon as Stew retreated to the bedroom to study some while I cooked dinner they let loose. Angeli was in the trash can, Bridger was in the cupboards, they both managed to get in my ceramic glaze and spread it all over the laundry room. After an emergency bath to get the lead glaze off them (super scary!) I thought we'd be in the clear, but no. Bridger tackled Angeli to steal the blue marker she was coloring with so I took him to timeout where I have to police him so he actually stays in it. When we emerged from timeout ready to say his sorry we found that Angeli had tried to eat the blue marker. She had actually pulled the ink thing out of the pen and tired to eat it. It was everywhere. So once again we had to take a bath. When I had to call Stew out of the bedroom to witness the latest disaster our adorable children created he could only say, "How do our kids survive with you everyday?" my response was, "How do I survive?" :) Honestly, I don't know how we are all still alive after all the trauma that goes down at our house but at least we always seem to get a good laugh out of it. :O) To live it up and turn our crazy day around a bit (yes, this really is living it up for us) we headed to the video store to rent a movie and McDonald's to get some ice cream. The kids thought we were wonderful and we thought they were wonderful too despite our crazy day.

At least it makes her eyes pop. :)

You can see the battle wound from their marker fight. :)

I wish I had one with her blue teeth, she looked so funny!

He is my favorite little man even if he tackles his sister for her markers.

If we were Celebrities...

This is totally for fun. Yes, I know it really just indicates that I need to get a life but still I had fun doing it. :) Here are the celebrities we matched with the most. Enjoy. :O)

BTW I also matched with Dolly Parton, Stew matched with Jamie Lynn Spears, and Angeli matched with a ton of guys. Who knew?!?

MyHeritage: Celebrity Morph - Genealogies - Free family history

MyHeritage: Family trees - Genealogy - Celebrities

MyHeritage: Celebrity Morph - Old photos - Free family tree

MyHeritage: Celebrity Morph - Family tree templates - Free genealogy

MyHeritage: Family trees - Genealogy - Celebrities

Home Sweet Home

I have been thinking a lot about why Stewart and I felt like we should buy our home. With the current real estate market the way it is and our need to sell our home in three years it can be a bit scary at times to "own" it. We know that everything will be okay but we also realize that we wont be selling at a profit and walking away with a bunch of cash to help set us up during residency like we had hoped. I have determined that there must be a different reason why we felt we needed to buy and why every other house fell through except this one. I find myself often searching for a grandiose reason. The other day as I was running (my reflective time) I realized that there are probably a mixture of reasons for our need to buy this home. In my pondering I came up with these few reasons:

Missionary Work

Stewart and I are in a awesome situation to help all the inactive people in our neighborhood and that has really been great to be doing missionary work. I think the most exciting part of this has been our neighbors across the street, Larry and Emily. They are not members but I think they will be. They are old enough to be our parents and they have been such a help to us since we moved here. The day we moved in they brought us a ton of food and things (even their own microwave) to help us out until we could get to the store and get our refrigerator and pans unloaded from the trailer. Emily has MS and she is really sick. She can hardly walk with a walker so the kids and I try to visit her a lot and bring her the mail everyday. Larry is always trying to talk religion, politics, science, ect. with Stew. We have had then over for dinner and invited them to church and things and I am really hopeful that they will join the church. Just to be their friends and apart of their lives has been a huge blessing. We feel so grateful to have their help and hope we can in turn help them out too by sharing our testimonies and friendship.

My Business

I need to be at home with my kids, but UNR is so tight with their loans that I need to make money... that leaves a home business. It would be impossible to run my business from an apartment thus we had to buy.

Kids

We could not live in a small apartment for very long simply because of our kids. It would have been really hard to cram our kids into a tiny apartment for a long amount of time before we'd be dying for more room for them to run, play, explore and make all the noise they want. Renting a house would have cost us almost as much as paying a mortgage so buying is smart in that regard too.

Our Ward

Stewart and I felt at home so quickly in our ward. I have never experienced anything like it before. I never once felt uncomfortable there. Everyone is open, down to earth, and so so kind. Yeah, they are human but honestly I adore all of their humanity. We feel like we have support and friends here when we need it...our family away from family.

Growth

Stewart and I needed to grow up some more. I think the Lord wanted to test us and give us an opportunity to stretch our faith. We have done this completely on faith and as of yet it still seems a little backwards but we know that, like always, after the trial of our faith great blessings come about.

It Makes Us Happy

When we realized we were moving to Reno the first thing I did was see how many Walmarts there were and if their was a river with a running trail. :O) Even more then I depended on Walmart I depended and loved the Provo River. I would run along it almost everyday. It was my sanity, my therapy. I felt so blessed to have it so close by. It was beautiful, calming and just perfect. I thought I would lose that when we moved. But I didn't! We live right next to the Truckee river! I have another river! That might seem so weird to some but to me this has proven to be a huge testament to the Lord's tender mercy in caring about the little things I care about. I run by it almost everyday and I love it. In connection with that I love our quirky little community. Everyone is so nice and friendly. It's pretty in it's very humble way. There is a little park, a its own tiny tiny school, a pool, and lots for the kids and I to explore. Everyday on our run we see ducks, geese, trains, lots of friendly neighbors, wild horses, and we go down this little farm road and get to see cows and more horses. I feel like they have so much to enjoy so close by. The first week we were here I remember feeling like our home in its funny little neighborhood was going to be our sanctuary from the craziness of Med School and having to live in this complicated world. It has become exactly that.

Basically our home is humble, there are things I wish I could change about it everyday, money is tight, its value has dropped tons in the months since we bought it, our neighborhood isn't much more then an upper class trailer park but it is home. It makes us happy, we always feel safe and we are so grateful for it. I probably would have never thought this would be our life, that hidden in this odd corner of Sparks we would find our sanctuary but I guess Heavenly Father knows better then I. :O) We truly love our home sweet home.

Mrs. Cranky Pants!!!

Angeli has been such a whinny dramatic little girl lately. We finally realized yesterday why. She is teething. She is getting four new teeth! Two of them are molars. Poor baby, and Honestly poor me too! :O) She will soon have 12 teeth. She seems to always get them in fours. I better go Bridger is spreading lotion all over our glass doors! You can be happy you aren't to me! :O)

Here is one of her little tantrums. I took the remote away to remove the batteries before she put them in her mouth. What a mean mom!!!

Random Things I Want to Share

Stew and I rented this and really liked it. It is a feel good renter. Steve Carell dose such a good job in it. He proves he can do almost any role. I am just waiting for his action movie to come out. :O)
I am not a huge reader and I probably never will be because I am super picky about what I read. I like my Father- in-law's point of view, "Life is too short for good books, we only have time for the really great ones." - okay so I didn't say it as eloquently as he says it but you get the gist. Anyways, I read this book recently and it has had a profound effect on me. I highly recommend it. Its a super quick read. It is The Message by Lance Richardson . Its a near death experience. You can get it at Desert book if you are interested. It really fit in with some of the experiences I have had in my life and made death so much more of a happy thing for me. It focuses on what messages he was to bring back; how we can have more of a Zion society. Basically it is up lifting.


My kids favorite thing has been jumping. They pile up all our bean bags and pillows and jump off our couch into them. Bridger is getting some pretty good air these days. I came out of my bedroom this morning and this is what I found.

My business has actually gotten some business this week and that has been huge for us. I feel so blessed. On Friday I have another appointment at a day care which I think will be super crazy and busy. We are feeling really blessed.The Kids both learned how to say banana this week. It is really cute. To celebrate their achievement we made chocolate covered bananas for our FHE treat. The kids thought it was the coolest thing ever. It sure made a mess though!

Bridger has made so many messes this week I am going a bit crazy. Here is a short list of his biggest ones:
- spreading tooth past all over the house twice!!!
- dumping my powder all over himself and the couch
- pouring out three bottles of spices all over the kitchen
- pouring out a box of cereal all over the kitchen
- coloring all over my kitchen cabinets
- coloring on my bedroom walls
I could go on but I wont. I think you get the point, he is a busy boy! :O)

no , no, no,

Angeli can say "No". She mastered this new skill today. It is pretty darn cute as far as "no's go. She is my little echo. Every time I say "no" to her or to Bridger I then hear this soft little "no nnnnnno no" from her. She is always quite proud of herself. She gets what it means for sure because every time Bridger takes her toy she says it with all her heart, "NO!". Today Bridger and her have gotten in a couple "no" contests. They tried to out "No" each other. Bridger won in the end because, after all, he has had more practice. But I must concede that "No" is going to be the most popular word in our house from now on. I hope they can both start learning how to say "yes" at least too! :O) Either way I think they are pretty cute!