July 4th 2014

 This year started out yummy with Einstein bagels and cream cheese otherwise known as smear. Blake had brought them home the night before. I was so excited that Blake was able to join us in the holiday festivities this year. We went to the city parade and had a great time. We were even lucky enough to run into some good friends among the crowds that showed up for the parade. The girls' most favorite thing, according to them, was the candy that people threw out. We didn't arrive early enough to get seats near the road, but the girls eventually inched their way in to the front lines as the parade progressed. They were disappointed that despite their efforts at getting the perfect location, they didn't get much candy. Kelsey was in tears because of it...so sad (insert sarcasm font). It was fun to see Kayden's reaction to the horses, cars and trucks.

Kelsey, Kayden, Mylee, Kaylee, Lanaea, Brooke, and Austin

Is this cute our what?!

I think he liked the parade!

After the parade, Blake went to his hole (his study place, that day it happened to be his bedroom) to study while me and girls got out the kiddie pool. I placed it underneath the slide and the kids and I had a great time. I've been so busy with getting the house ready to move that I haven't played with the girls much this summer. It was so relaxing and just plain fun to play with my kiddos. I went so far as putting on my swimsuit...I know... and I got a major sunburn, opps! Blake even joined the fun for about an hour. It was so great. I let the girls stay up late to watch the fireworks. We started in our front yard, but ended up on the roof. I wish I had captured some pictures of it. It was fun to see fireworks all over the city including some large ones in our own neighborhood. Blake and I stayed up to watch a movie together. It was a perfect ending to a perfect day. God Bless America!

Our Little Dude Turns 2!

 It's hard to believe that my little boy is 2 now!! The years had literally flown by and I can't express enough about how fun it is to have a little boy!! It warms my heart to see how a simple toy car can make his day. Or how a simple "arrghh or vroom" can make me smile when I'm having a bad or hard day. His cute 2 yr. old antics help bring the girls out of an argument too and can make them laugh when just moments before they were crying. Don't get me wrong, this kid can throw a tantrum, but he sure is cute and such a joy to have in our family.

For his birthday I made him a round cake with white frosting, blue cotton candy for clouds and an airplane jet on the top. Simple, cute, and easy...my kind of cake these days! He loved it! He opened presents in the morning so he could play with them all day then we sang happy birthday and had cake in the evening. It was an eventful day with Kayden's 2 year check-up. If I was on top of it I would have his stats to report here, but I forgot to ask and I know I would butcher it if I tried to remember. I think he's around 26 lbs though which is in the 30% percentile or something like that

I think he liked his new helicopter! When I was checking on him before I went to bed I found it right by him. 

One of Kayden's favorite things he likes to help with...mow the lawn. Isn't this priceless with he and his dad!!!

All my kids with our sweet pediatrician, Lesley Motheral. We will sure miss her!

After visiting the dentist the week before and seeing a mini sized potty in the bathroom, I have caught Kayden many times like this. Maybe potty training a boy won't be so bad after all....fingers crossed. If not, it sure makes for a cute picture.

He loves getting cards in the mail and LOVED that this one had a truck on it. He kept saying vroom, vroom and looked at it forever. 

I think Kayden's sisters like his new train set as much as he did!! Thanks Grammy Polly and Gpa Roland!

Residency Graduation

 Two words: FINALLY and HALLELUJAH!! I really thought this day would never come, but it did...finally! To celebrate, the department does a little graduation ceremony that includes a nice dinner, a speaker that they fly in, a golf tournament the next morning followed by a family barbecue/swim party. It's something we look forward to every year and it was so fun that this year we were the honorees!! The evening dinner and program was great and memorable. Blake's department chair, Dr. George Brindley composed a song that he sang with this guitar featuring all three of the graduates. He also shared advice on 25 ways to be successful and happy. Blake and I felt we are doing well on the things he suggested, namely: marry the right person the first time, always have a savings plan no matter your budget, focus on what matters most--your faith and family. Blake was given his certificate of completion and given a collegiate chair (I think that is what it is called) with his name on it. I'm excited to see that displayed in his office one day. It was a wonderful evening we thought would never come!

Blake and the famous Dr. George Brindley: Department Chairman. He specializes in joints and tumors

Clint Beicker (Blake's twin, everyone at the hospital always gets them confused, even after five years!, John Roaten, and the one and only Blake Clifton.

The graduates and the "crazy" (I didn't just say that) sports attending/body builder.

Blake and his fancy new chair

Blake and Dr. Mark Jenkins--great man and great teacher. He will be missed. He specializes in Trauma and is the Program Director.

Looky there!! It's official!

Shelley Roaten, Amy Beicker, and Cami Clifton, the three Ortho Wives graduating this year....yes we are graduating too!

More of us, though not all of us. Back, left to right: Michelle, Sarah, Amy, Trina, Shelly, Cami.

Having fun at the family BBQ

 Every year at the family BBQ they have the same guy come and cook prime rib and (can't remember, something good that is beef :), and baked potatoes in a giant smoker. The food was delicious as always and it was topped off with ice cream sundaes with all the mix-ins to go with it. The kids enjoyed swimming while the adults mostly visited. This program also has a tradition of having the chiefs roast the other residents. The best one was how they roasted one of the residents that has been dating his steady girlfriend for at least three years by giving him a fake engagement ring. Both his reaction and his girl friend's reaction was priceless!  Maybe it will finally get him to pop the question and tie the knot :).

Father's Day and Summer Fun

 Father's day was fun and eventful this year. We all slept in and missed making dad a nice breakfast...opps!! We made up for it after church though and had crepes with frozen berries and cream...yum!! The girls had made some cute cards I had put the babysitter up to the night before while Blake and I were at a wedding. The girls and me picked out some nice ties for him and got him mint oreos, his favorite. During church, we knew something was up when Kayden was acting like an angel sitting so quietly during sacrament meeting. He sat on Blake's lap for a while then sat on mine while eating gold fish. Before I knew what was happening, Kayden was throwing up all down the front of him. I had to run out of sacrament meeting as he was still throwing up, leaving drops of throw-up on the church carpet....NOT good!! Blake quickly followed behind me and found a trash bag we could put his clothes in. A nice girl helped clean up the mess he made in the chapel. I went home with Kayden, while the rest stayed at church. He threw up a couple of more times during the day; that's why Kayden is not pictured in the traditional father's day photo and why our day was eventful!

 Summer has been both fun and challenging. It's hard to have all 4 at home while I'm trying to pack up our house and clean it to move. I feel like I have to teach them how to do summer! They would sit all day in front of the television if I let them!! So frustrating for me. It doesn't help that we sold our hose sprinklers at our garage sale and our swimming pool has holes in it, so it quickly loses water. We do live in Texas and it gets HOT! Occasionally I run into tender moments like these shots I included. Pictured above, Kayden decided to use Bella's water bucket as a pool one day. Below I caught the sweetest moment and expression between Kayden and Lanaea. It shows their sweet smiles

 The picture below I caught one day while letting the kids watch Wild Kratts (a daily occurrence while I get dinner prepared). It's a cute program that teaches the kids about animals and their amazing "creature powers".

Summer 2014 Begins

 For the sanity of everyone, but probably more so me, we have kept schedules the same since school has been out. Blake is officially finished with residency, having met all the requirements to graduate. He's still required to attend conference in the morning with the other residents and attendings, but stays to study all day at the library. I sleep in an hour and wake up at 7 instead of 6...an hour makes such a difference! I go to the gym at 9, then we have been trying to plan out activities for the day. I had to take this picture of Kayden after he had fallen asleep one night. He has to have this book by him when we goes to bed...it's a book all about cars and planes. He loves it!

Sweet Mylee lost another tooth...the one next to her two front teeth. We were so proud of her because she pulled it out all by herself and didn't shed ONE tear!! For Mylee, this is HUGE!! The tooth fairy awarded her with a quarter that night. 

I went and bought moving boxes...ahhh...this is happening!!! I'm trying not to feel completely overwhelmed by all that lies ahead between now and our move. Blake takes his test on July 10th and we leave with our moving van on July 12th. That translates into me doing must of the packing. Now would be a good time to live near family! I would love some help. I plan to ask my visiting teachers to help with child care.

The reading train at the library....so fun!!

 One of Kelsey's friends invited us over to swim at their grandma's pool on Friday. It was so great!! I never take my kids swimming because I don't feel safe without Blake with me and there are not any good pools here in Lubbock...boo! Hopefully Albuquerque will do better at that. We stayed for two hours and had a great time.

Job Interview Day 3 and 4

The next day, we slept in as much as the sun would let us. We didn't have any specific plans for the day time, but thought we would continue to look around the area and get a feel for things. Faustin and Kimber suggested going on a bike ride on the path along the river. We thought that would be fun, so we got all their bikes loaded up in Faustin's truck and made it an afternoon. Like the other days, the weather was perfect and the slight cool breeze coming off the river felt so nice. Kayden loved riding in his little bike seat behind me. It was so beautiful along the trail and it was nice to see so many families out enjoying the day. There are so many areas for picnics and parks along the river path. 

After our bike ride we called the Higgs and asked if it would be a good time to come over. Dr. Higgs was golfing so we missed visiting with him, but his wife told us to come on over. She was making pies for a ward party that evening. The smell of her house reminded me of Blake's mom! They had just finished a addition to their home and she was so excited about it that she asked if we wanted to see it. They had added an addition to have a main floor master bedroom. She then showed us their property and told us some good places to drive around. We thanked her for her time and left to drive around some more. 

 We went out by Faustin and Kimber's property again and the areas around it. We found a lot we really liked, but they were sold. There pictures are the views from the neighbor that we really liked.

The area below this house if for sale...want to say it's about 3 acres

Later that evening, we got ready for another dinner with a different set of physicians. I was more nervous for this dinner. I can't say exactly why, but it may have had to do with feeling like I needed to impress more because I was really liking this place and didn't want to mess up our chances of being offered a job. Faustin and Kimber joined us for this dinner which was a comfort. Faustin's mom had come over to watch Kayden and their kids. The place we were supposed to eat couldn't accommodate our group, so they found a different place that wasn't as ideal. I was disappointed when we were seated at a rectangle table. I knew that conversations were not going to flow as easily as the night before.  We decided to sit in the middle, Faustin and Blake on one side and Me and Kimber on the padded bench. When the other two physicians arrived (the two most senior partners), they sat on the ends of the table, their wives opposite them and next to Kimber and me. The conversations were good, but they were separate for most of the time. Once in a while the physician sitting farthest from Blake would ask both he and I specific questions. The wife that sat next to me was not super talkative or incredibly warm so I didn't find it as easy to talk to her, but she was lds and we found some commonalities to talk about. Her husband and the Dr. sitting next to Blake was a talker, so there was never a dull or awkward moment. A quiet moment did come up at the end of dinner so I took the time to thank them for dinner and in having us out to interview. I also offered them compliments on their practice and told them how much we liked the city. I wouldn't really say dinner went bad, just not as good as the night before.

 We went to sacrament meeting with Faustin and Kimber the next morning, then flew out shortly after that. We left feeling excited about tricities and anxious about getting a job offer there. We won't hear any information about the job for a while, we are thinking we will hear something for sure in August. They are interviewing another guy at the end of June, who is also lds and went to BYU. It makes me worried, but I know the Lord will take care of us and if we are supposed to get this job, we will.

Kayden playing with his cars in the airport

When we got home, the girls were so excited to see us. It was nice to be home. Now we just have to wait. After arriving home I found out that Dr. Travis Peterson's wife is my distant cousin. She grew up in Farmington, NM and is a McGee. I found her on facebook and messaged her to say hi and tell her about our crazy connection and wished I could have met her. I told her how much we liked it there. It's Dr. Travis Petersen's friend that is coming to interview at the end of this month. Having this extra connection with me on top of Blake's connection with his cousin, I hope will help them in seeing us as good candidates for the position especially since it's their friend competing against us. I say they, because one thing I really like about this practice is that they see their wives as partners with them and they have every right to now the happenings of the business as the physicians so and can be involved as much as they want to be. They also have a great security net for the wives in the even that their spouse dies. Hopefully I can blog in August that we got the job...or if we are lucky, maybe July.

Job Interview Day 2

Our second day started off exciting at 4:30am, when the sun apparently rises here in the summer. I kept thinking Blake was going to be late for his interview at 8. I got up and ironed Blake's shirts and even had time to take a shower before he left. Kimber had the day planned out for me. After I got ready and she got her kids off to school, she took me around to other parts of the city that we didn't see the night before and stopped at a park in Richland right by the river where Kayden and her younger non-school age girls would play. It was so beautiful and the weather could not have been more perfect. It was almost like the Lord was convincing us, that yes, we could live here and be happy.

Kayden found some geese and started chasing them...so funny!

Isn't it pretty!? Along the river is a bike and running path that runs for miles and along the trail are many of these swings. The particular park even had a free splash pad for the kids. 

When we got home from our outing in the morning, Kimber had planned a luncheon for me to meet some of her friends. It was so thoughtful and kind of her to go to such effort to help me feel welcome. I helped her cut up fruit and veggies and she prepared croissant sandwiches. Three of her friends came over and her sister Cammie came over. They were all so friendly, down to earth, and wonderful. They all couldn't say enough good things about tricities. Kimber's two girls and Kayden enjoyed popsicles in the sun that afternoon, Kayden was in heaven. After friends left, I was beat and so was Kayden. I got him to sleep watching "Planes" again and I took a nap myself. Blake showed up about an hour later. I was so excited to hear about how his day went. He said everything was better then he was expecting, the job, the area, everything. I was so excited to hear him say that because I felt the same way.

That evening Kimber and Faustin watched Kayden while we went to dinner to meet 3 of the physicians in the group. This was really his interview. Earlier in the day he did meet one of the physicians, but walked around with the CFO all that morning and got details about the practice. Dinner was held at nice restaurant right off the shoreline of the Columbia River. When we arrived, we were greeted by one of the physicians in the parking lot who recognized Blake, Dr. Shoham. We all walked in together, then were greeted by another physician and his wife in the entrance, Dr. Higgs and Janis Higgs. They were all very nice. Later we were joined by another physician, Dr. Travis Peterson. There was supposed to be one more, but they were unable to attend last minute. The dinner could not have gone more perfectly. The table was round so we were all able to communicate with each other easily. The conversations were easy and everything about our associations felt so natural. I enjoyed talking with the one wife that was there when the guys were talking doctor stuff. We found out Dr. Travis Petersen has a brother that is married to Blake's cousin. Such a small world! At the end of the dinner, Dr. Higgs (one of the most senior partners) asked in a round about way if we could make a decision on a job right now, we felt we could honestly say yes. He and his wife also invited us out to their home the next day and gave us their phone numbers and addresses....WOW!  We took them up on that offer the next day. Blake and I went back to Faustin and Kimber's house just beaming! It seriously could not have gone any better.  It was a great day!

Job Interview Day 1

 Blake, me and Kayden flew out to Kennewick, Washington for Blake's 1st official interview!!! Yes people....THIS is really happening!!! We left our 3 girls with some good friends in Lubbock for the 4 days we were going to be gone. We referred by Blake's friend, Faustin who also did residency here in Lubbock, but is 3 years ahead of him. We have been so excited for this trip, wondering if it might possibly be our FINAL stopping point in this long medical journey we have been on. I had fasted the Sunday before and had been to the temple, asking for guidance and direction about the job, the area, and if it is the place where the Lords wants us to be. Kayden was our little sidekick and did so well on the entire trip. The picture above was our first layover in Denver. He was so excited about all the "brruuummms!"  

Thank goodness for modern technology and fun movies like Disney's "Planes". I even go to relax and read a book I had brought!

Kayden's favorite game on the plane, opening and closing the plane windows. You know our neighbors loved us.....:S

We made it to Washington!! We are at the airport in Pasco. 

Blake and Faustin had been talking about this job for years, so we have had lots of time to think about this place as being a possible stopping place for us, but not sure if there would be a job for Blake when the time came. Knowing it as a possibility we have thought about it over the years knowing it offered pretty much the perfect job, but have struggled with the fact that the climate was dry, the landscape was flat, and pretty much devoid of mountains and therefore many activities that we enjoy doing. It did however, have a river large enough to ski on and mountains were within an 1.5 drive, which gave us some hope, but all in all we were skeptical. Despite our skepticism, we knew we wouldn't know for sure about how this place would fit our family and our needs until we physically visited it. The picture above was the first thing we saw coming out of the airport. My first impression was, this doesn't seem dry, it's definitely not flat--at least to what I know to be flat, and mountains? Definitely could not call them Utah mountains, but there were many nice sized hills that offered variety and interest to the landscape. I thought wow, this place is nice and I honestly could say it was pretty in its own way. 

We arrived at Faustin's house at 4:30PM. His wife Kimber, warmly greeted with us along with their 5 children.  They were so kind to invite us to stay at their house. Kimber had prepared dinner and had the evening planned out to take us around the cities (tricities). Faustin arrived about an hour later, we ate then Faustin and Kimber took us around. They drove us by the temple, up to a very tall hill/mountain that overlooked the valley of Tricities, to their property, and around different parts of the cities. Everywhere we drove, I couldn't stop thinking, "Wow this place is nice! I could see myself living here and being happy." I had visions of it being a very big city, instead if felt quaint and cozy. The population between the three cities, Kennewick, Richland, and Pasco comes to about 250,000 people, but the population is spread out along the Columbia River so driving between towns and even neighborhoods felt country-like...which I really liked. The feeling reminded me of Alpine when I was a young girl when I would go to visit my grandpa and work in his apple orchard. There were orchards and vineyards everywhere! When Faustin and Kimber took us out to the 13 acres they purchased, again I thought, Wow, this place is nice and pretty in it's own way. The area was so nice and the homes around were nicely kept with large spacious lots. Many of the other physicians in the practice own land in the same area. 

Later that night we stayed up late and talked for hours. Faustin went into the nitty-gritty details about the practice and we enjoyed catching up as friends. Kayden took a while to relax, but I eventually got him to sleep while watching "Planes" on my tablet. We went to sleep that night looking forward to Blake's tour of the facilities that next day and our dinner with 3 of the physicians in the group that evening.