Its Hard Being First

I have always looked up to my oldest sister. 

She had to always act older than her age and of course she had to deal with me.

It is not easy being the first.

Parents expect the most out of their first born, and in a lot of professional families,

they also struggle through residencies, student loans, and hectic schedules. 

In our busy lives it is not uncommon to forget to express our gratitude for their concomitant sacrifice.

Amber and I have been so blessed by our little Greggors who adds significant depth to our lives. 

Here is to Greggors...who is always excited to be first :)

And here are to good friends!

This past week we also learned of our previous Bishop moving to London, UK. We will miss their friendship and example.

This is more of a funny/fun side-note.

On Friday I officially became a founding member of the Future Male Dentists of America. Don't you just love our logo. You should google our motto, "Denum, veniunt porci"

Post Tent Party

Another motherless weekend. 

No problem. 

In order to celebrate our independence the boys had a campout in the backyard on Friday, soccer in the morning on Saturday and like all good men, the best naps Saturday afternoon.

Recently we purchased a 7-person tent, but due to a busy Fall schedule and hot weather, we hadn't been able to put it to good use. Friday afternoon after clinic I rushed home and Greg and I set up the tent. 

Greggors was the little champ and we put it up with no mistakes in about 20 minutes. We then loaded it up with tons of blankets and created as I like to call it, "Greggor's Throne."

The weather was nice and dry and we had a great night under the stars. 

Saturday morning we had round 2 of soccer. Much better. I made sure Greg was well-fed, fixed his shin guards so they didn't bother him, and dressed him for success. Yahoo! It helps that Greggors plays on the coolest "Tigers" team in Kentucky.

Sunday was another beautiful day in the Bluegrass so we took the boys outside to take down the tent and of course take pictures.

Here is Greggors sneaking out the backdoor.

Busted!

No one has ever accused our boys of being camera shy. Here is Brighton hanging out in the tent space.

I love this series of photos. Brighton saw me lying in the grass in front of him and he lit up a cheese ball on Christmas...like cheese on fire!

Just liked the symmetry of the picture.

Happy to have his mother back. I do have to admit, and even Amber will admit this, but I am the king of naps. Somehow both of our boys love their dad putting them down for naps. Just watch, the next one will be a girl and all she will do is scream...yup, scream like a banshee.

Love this. Turned around and saw my shadow in the grass with Brighton on my shoulders. Handed the camera to Amber and sure enough...Amber snapped a beauty! Tempted to keep this picture for Halloween. Looks like some sort of Louisiana bayou swamp monster.

Need I say anything else besides... two cool dud[es]!

A Long Time Coming

Ever feel like a 2x4 has hit you in the face...not quite here...or here, but right here:) 

Yup, life has been busy. Nothing too much out of the ordinary...school, church, and family. Here are some of our recent adventures.

First off, Brighton has turned into quite the little tornado. Greg was always a little ahead of the mobility curve (walking early and talking), but Brighton takes the cake as being exploratory. In his short lived life he has learned to terrorize the house. Luckily he is so darn AWESOME!!!

Below: Purse, 1 minute, and havoc. Yup, everyday living.

It's our birthday boy! Recently Greg celebrated his 3rd birthday. It is amazing how our little Greggors has changed in 3 years. Since Greg is our first child, every change is a first for both him and us. Love it!

This year we kept Greg's birthday pretty quiet which almost killed Noel. Birthdays for Noel are really important, but because of our busy schedule (Primary and school) we ran out of time to put together anything big. We had a small get together with some friends, ate some cake and felt bloated for about 2 days. Nothing says diet buster like child birthdays!

Here is our birthday boy trying to wait as patiently as he could to open his presents: 

What every 3 year old boy needs... cars from Cars 2.

Even Raoul made a guest appearance from under Greg's bum.

Here is Greg's cake. Originally it was the dirt track in the movie Cars. Greg saw it, changed the color to green and added about 6 cars.

In September we made a short trip to Rochester to see Noel's parents. Noel could only stay for a day, but we spent a little under a week romping around western NY.

Vacation in NY:

1. Fun tractor ride to the apple orchards.
No one does Fall apples and apple cidar like upstate NY.
With no bias intended... sorry Washington, but its ok if your apples are second best :)

2. What a great family! Greg loved riding on Dad's shoulders and picking apples. Unfortunately Greg's aim from above Noel's head wasn't very good as a lot of good apples were left for the deer.

3. Loving the grass. The weather was pretty nice and Brighton loved playing in the grass as Noel and Greg played around him.

4. Empire HOTs!! You can always tell who is from western NY and who is a poser. Kentucky has Hot Browns and Rochester has "Garbage plates." The original garbage plate (also called trash plates) is from Nick Tahos. Today there are slightly over 20 locations in western NY that offer trash plates, all of which end in "Hots". When Noel was in high school they would frequent Empire Hots up by the Lake [Ontario]. Even though Noel was in Rochester for less than 36 hours, he still made time to visit Hots.  

A real trash plate... home fries, cold mac, 2 cheesburger patties and chili sauce. Once you go trash, you never go back.

Iconic


Once Noel left, we had some real fun in Rochester. Grandma Dickens is a busy body and we took the boys all over town. Greg particularly liked the National Museum of Play. All of the exhibits are child friendly. Greg's favorite part was the Wegman's exhibit (also an iconic western NY company).

Amber took a picture of Greg dancing on the DDR pad. Noel thought it was awesome and turned the picture into modern art :)

After:

Before:

Greg also started soccer this past weekend. The poor coach. After only 30 minutes he kept saying, "Three year olds are much harder than seven year olds." I agree. Greg started out ok. He was able to line up his ball and even had some fun dribbling with his friends.

And then everything went downhill. Greg did not get the memo about soccer being about feet. He grabbed his red ball and would not let it go for about 15 minutes (literally). 

I was able to sneak a couple of action shots.

And then it was back to normal... soccer with hands. If only he knew how cool it is to be #11 (famous winger number). We will work on it.

Thankfully Greg's team is about 75% LDS and as such all of his friends are on the team. The Bylunds were there and Jon took Brighton for me so I could take pictures.


Poor Greggors and Brighton. Travel all day Friday... Lots of errands Saturday morning and mom was in Somerset with the youth all day.

I think this picture sums it all up. :)

Times Are A'Changin

How is it that one morning you wake up, the kids are in bed, your wife is still sleeping, you walk to the kitchen to eat and sort out your patient load for the day when you realize, "I am so old." Luckily not quite as old my parents (or at least we hope not :)). 

Had one of those moments this week. I think a lot of it revolves around our oldest turning 3 and our current discussions about our savings plan to purchase a new home in 6 years. Still, I can now say I had my pre-fourth decade debacle.

These last two weeks have been quite busy. Classes began, Greg has decided that "huge" boys don't need naps, Brighton finally broke his two lower incisors, and Lexington decided that 90 degree days were too unbearable (never thought I would be happy to hear, "It will only be in the 80s today.")

Last Friday I did not have didactic or clinical work so we took the boys to the Cincinnati Zoo. Awesome! I've been to the San Diego and Chicago Zoos, but the Cincinnati Zoo was just as good. Clean, family friendly, and lots of activities. Don't have pictures, but because we had so much fun the boys were absolutely wiped out on Saturday. Greg was so tired that when he had his 1 hour quite time he fell asleep on the floor surrounded by his toys (see picture below)

Thursday afternoon during Primary Presidency meeting Greg and Waverly were playing in the backyard when they noticed a big green thing. Yup, somehow a small green kiddie pool ended up in our yard. We should have told Greg that it came from outer space, but I can only imagine Greg telling his parole officer some day that, "all of my troubles began when my parents lied to me about how we got our green kiddie pool."

Yesterday afternoon after a full morning of yard work and some much needed nap time, Amber and I filled up the kiddie pool and let the boys have some fun. It was such a nice afternoon and I was so happy to be home and not at school either studying or finishing lab work for patients. I even had time to pull out the camera (they have been quite neglected since vacation).

Below: Brighton pre-kiddie pool

Below: Yes, you can look up the term "Macroglossia" on Wikipedia and you will probably find Brighton's picture as a case-study.

Below: Gave the camera to Amber and let myself have fun with the boys. So much fun! I think Greg particularly liked having fun with me and not watching from behind a lens.

Below: Another typical Brighton picture. He has become quite the accomplished pseudo-crier.

Below: The face we prefer to see.

Below: We learned this week that Brighton is extremely well coordinated, completely opposite of Greg. We would lightly toss the ball to him and he would put out his arms to catch the ball. Amazing how kids of the same flock can be so different.

Below: Just a fun image of Bubbers.

Below (2): Greg liked the pool for the simple fact that he could run up and completely wipeout in the water. I was wondering if we could record him wiping out and mail it to the producers of "Wipeout". As a side-note, anyone else notice how oblivious Brighton is to Greg. :)

Below: Cute

Below: Macroglossia once again. Almost reminds you of a frog readying to smack a fly with its tongue.

Below: Greg realizing that when you run on recently cut grass, then jump into the pool that the grass follows you into the pool.

Below: Favorite of the day. Like I said, because I am always taking the pictures, there are hardly any with my sons. Thanks Amber for rising to the occasion and snapping some keepers!