Taft's broken collarbone

My first of many (so I hear) Emergency Room visits for broken bones. Taft fell down our stairs and broke his right collarbone. It is so sad but you must admit that little sling is pretty darn cute, not to mention the boy! He is doing fine and being a good sport; in fact, if i didn't see the x-rays I may not believe it was broken. We give him motrin when it hurts and do our best to keep the sling on. He has to wear it for 2-6 weeks. They say at this age he should heal very quickly but it will be at least 2. We take him to a doctor in a week to see how it is healing. This was a crazy way to end a busy week.

Family Temple Trip

We went to the Washington, D.C. temple together as a family. It was wonderful and the boys really enjoyed walking around and going to the visitor center where they saw the statue of Christ and listened to the recording. It was a nice opportunity to talk to the boys and make some sweet memories with them. At two different times Taft told Brett and I that "Jesus loves Him"; it was worth the whole trip for that. I hope he will always feel that! I am so grateful that Christ has made it possible for our family to be together forever. I hope and pray I can live up to my part of that gift.

Brett's White Coat Ceremony

This was Brett's White Coat Ceremony (when they have finished classes and are about to start rotations they get "coated" by a faculty member. The bottom picture is him waiting for his turn. The top picture was the clearest picture I was able to get of my handsome man; he is waiting outside the room for it to start. Our camera battery died right before it ended, so, someone else got a picture of our family that I will hopefully be able to add later. He has worked so hard. We are so proud of him and excited for this next step, okay, excited and nervous.

Brett's Birthday

Here are my 3 cute guys waiting to open Brett's birthday presents. Aren't they great?!

After Brett finished his last exam for classes (only rotation exams now, yeah!) we went, alone, to the cheescake factory (thanks Tamar & Holly for watching our boys). We had a great time and especially enjoyed our dessert (although the food is pretty good, too).

A Day at the Zoo

Taft's favorite part of the Zoo...the train ride. Here are couple of pictures of the boys and their friends on the train.

Love those horses; just wish I could lead them myself and ride further than a circle but this is the closest thing to horseback riding I have gotten to do in a few years and the boys loved it.

Taft is giving a "hug" to his friends, Jordan's two boy, Colin and Brannon; while getting a free ride in their wagon. =0)

The T-Ball Team

Here is a picture of the group of kids that play t-ball together on Saturday's with the boys and another picture of our cute boys!

Family Night

A classic family night with popcorn and Taft's favorite game...Mr. Mouth. Zea can now play with us and actually has a pretty good shot.

Taft is potty-trained

Taft is potty trained and we are so excited!!! He just decided one night that he wanted to go on the toliet and then did it again the next morning, looked up at me and said, "i want my big boy underpants...the ones with the airplanes", and that was that; with a few accidents but that is to be expected. Zea, on the other hand, now thinks he doesn't need to wear a diaper and so he is constantly trying to take it off, so, we put underwear over them (thanks to the idea from Jordan, a friend of ours) and he is fine now.

Our friends

These are some of the boys friends that they play with a lot. I am good friends with their moms (Tamar-girls, Jordan-boys) and we do a lot together. There's (top) Colin, Emma, Abby, (bottom) Taft, Brannon, Hosea. It's fun to see them play together. Tamar and Trevor (her husband) live 2 doors down from us and Jordan (Ben is her husband) is one of the girls I run with all the time and also the mastermind behind the t-ball team (I quickly joined the bandwagon).

A day trip to the Philadelphia Zoo (the first Zoo in America) with a group of our friends.

The boy's T-ball practice

A group of us student families here decided that we wanted to have our kids in some kind of t-ball team and were all too cheap (considering they won't really play) to join a league; so, we created our own in this grass area at an apartment complex that a lot of our friends live at. We just play on Saturday for an hour. They love it and it has been fun to see the Dad's come out and play with their children (they all usually study during the week so this is a nice opportunity).
Zea, of course, decided not to participate in the practice but went staight for the food and water, granted, it was hot.

Here is Taft's "team" warming up by running together and doing jumping jacks...so cute!

Brett is being the wonderful Dad that he is by help Taft learn to hit (which he does wonderfully by the way). Taft can hit and throw quite well, but we are working on the catching thing. ;0)

The "half-marathon" adventure

This past March, some girls that I have been running with talked me into running in a half-marathon with them. Actually, I really enjoyed myself but the marathon ended up being cancelled the morning of the race due to bad wether. Because we were leaving out of town for Steve's wedding and couldn't make the rescheduled race, the girls decided to make our own half-marathon by running around 'Kelly Drive' (a popular place to run here, even by Rocky) and then end on the museum steps (the 'Rocky steps' as most people know them). It was fun to accomplish it and to have Brett and the boys there when I finished. I was pretty tired after and didn't mind the vacation to California that followed. I'm not planning on ever running a full marathon but wouldn't mind continuing to run a half every now and then; actually, I would really just like to be able to run in a real race someday and actually have it happen. But I did lose some weight and now I know that I can run that far if I want to, oh, and most importanly...i got a t-shirt.

Colonial Williamsburg

We went to a tavern that Brett went to as a child and Hosea was in a Teepee in Jamestown.

More Williamsburg

Taft was a prisoner at the local jail. Mom (who Taft learned his crimial skills from) was sent to the stocks instead and Dad just enjoyed mocking the old 'toliet' that his family was forced to use.

Our first family vacation

We just took our very first family vacation where we were not visiting family or had anyone but us there. We went to Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia. We had a great time, despite the humidity and heat that we were not expecting, and loved to see that part of the country. The boys loved it and did really well, considering they did not get one nap the whole time. One thing we learned, besides more about history, is how much work it is to be the parent on vacation and how important it is to still take get-a-ways alone as a couple as well; it was fun but we were exhausted.