Update, Big Changes

Warning:  Long post!  It's a catch-up one, again!

So, I don't even remember the last time I blogged.  Let's just say it's been a while!  Here's a taste of what's been going on in our neck of the woods:

 We went to Utah in June to visit family.  It was a nice visit, and it took advantage of Eli's two weeks off for the summer.  We left the day after he took his huge and super important boards. I am happy to report that we have since gotten the score and he did very well on it, like we all knew he would!

 We took Caroline to temple square with Eli's mom and Grandma.  We also spent a few days in St. George with all of Eli's siblings and Dad and step-mom.  It was fun but soooo hot!

 Caroline got a chance to play with her cousins a lot.  Here she is with my sister Annie's sweet kids.  I never take enough pictures and didn't get any of Caroline with my sister Cindy's boys, or Eli's sister's children.  Sorry guys.  Remind me next time to take more pictures!

 She has mastered the ladder thing at the park, which really terrifies me but she's really good at it.  Seriously, those things look like a death-trap for kids under 5!

This is the only way for Caroline to go to sleep.  She takes the "penguin jammies" as we call them, and puts the on backwards with the zipper towards the back.  They are too small for her to actually wear anymore, but she likes to pull one sleeve down to cover her hand and put that soft fabric up by her nose.  Don't ask me how this started.  I have no idea. 

 We have started potty training.  All I can say is I am not a fan.  Also, she refuses to go #2 in the potty, and I don't know how much of it I should force or just let her keep going in diapers...it's a fine line between pushing her to accomplish something and completely traumatizing her and scare her for pooping on the toilet forever.  Sigh.  Can you sense my frustration with potty training?

My mom was kind enough to pick up Caroline and I on her way to visit my sister Alaina in North Carolina.  We had fun, Caroline really enjoyed their nice house, all the trains and boy toys they had, their new puppy, and learning how to be a bit more mischievous from her cousin Oliver!  It was so cute to see them playing together.  One day they spent a couple hours taking every toy they could find and putting it in the pack n' play she was sleeping in.  She's never really continuously played with another kid like that.  It was really fun though!

 The best/scariest spot of mischief these two got into was filling up Alaina's big bathtub with freezing cold water and dumping a bunch of toys and books in it, UNSUPERVISED!  I was asleep, Alaina and my mom were making dinner and we all thought these two were playing nicely in the toy room.  It was so scary to think of what might of happened, but also kind of funny.... ok, really funny.  They were having so much fun!                                

 

 

 

 We went to Huebers farm in Indiana to pick peaches with our friends Emily and Kyle.  It was such a nice day and we even fit in a picnic lunch with them and swimming at a lake.  It was also on Eli's birthday!  We also had a nice dinner and a party at a park with our friends to celebrate the day!  Happy Birthday Eli!  You're 28 now! 

Caroline got a new helmet and a tricycle as a reward for filling up her potty chart.  She loves both, but has a hard time working the pedals.  She'll figure it out though!

 

 

The biggest news for us though is that we are having another baby!  She's a girl, due December 16th.  I can't say this pregnancy has been as easy as Caroline's.  Case in point; I'm writing this at 1:30 in the morning because I've got some bad heartburn tonight and the little one won't stop kicking me, and I can not get comfortable!  We are really excited to have another girl and to have sisters!

 We went on the pedestrian bridge across the Ohio river.  It was so nice!  If anyone ever comes to visit us we will take them there!

  Our good friends Tom and Whitney moved to Lexington for Tom to attend law school at UK.  We went out to see them one Saturday and had a blast!  We went to Keenland race track, it was so beautiful!  We also got to meet their daughter Ava for the first time.  Caroline loved Tom and playing with Ava's toys.  Its fun having good friends so close to us now!

 

That's about all.  Eli's started his third year, which is no longer lectures, classes and tests.  He is doing 6-8 week rotations with different specialties.  So far he's done Internal Medicine and is currently on his surgery rotation.  He's been doing well and really enjoys being in the hospitals with real patients and seeing what it's actually like.  But the poor guy is so tired because he still has to study when he gets home! As I'm typing this he is at the hospital, on call for more than 24 hours.  Surgery is the most demanding rotation though, and considerate man that he is, set it up so he could have it done before the baby is born.  I'm so proud of him for how hard he works.  We've gotten pretty boring over the past couple months however, both of us are so tired all the time!  I'll try to be more regular with the blog.  Thanks for reading!

First Haircut

Well, I bit the bullet and cut Caroline's hair today.  It was getting long, and I could do a lot of things with it, but if it was left down it looked a little too much like Harry from Dumb and Dumber for my liking.  So, this morning I took her to Great Clips and got it done.  I'm really happy with the way it turned out!

some before shots.

 She was really freaked out when they put the robe on her.  Luckily there was a sucker.  If not for the sucker it would have been a very traumatic experience.

This is the best pouty picture!

So happy to be done!

so short!  But so cute!  And now when it grows out it will all be even and not look so funny!

 I curled it under with my straight iron when we got home.  I think it's adorable.  And she won't stop talking about her haircut!

I think she looks like her cousin Evangeline in this picture.

Halfway to a Doctor!

We are happy to announce that Eli is halfway through medical school!  He has done so well and we are really proud of him.  He has his big national boards test on June 3rd, and then 2 weeks off!  He is studying at least 10 hrs a day until then, but we know he will do well because he is a super genius.  When his finals were over we celebrated by visiting our favorite hamburger place, Bunz, with our friends Emily and Kyle.  We had a lot of fun, they came over afterwards and the kids all took baths and we all watched Wreck it Ralph.  It was a nice little mini-celebration.

Way to go Eli, we're so proud of you!
As usual, I didn't take nearly enough pictures.  The only ones I got were of Caroline playing by the restaurant before Emily and Kyle got there.  She was so happy because we were in the city!  Her two favorite things right now, that she talks about constantly is the city and going on the highway.  I don't know why she loves them, but she does.

She has started making hamster faces again, and I'm sad to say her unfortunate teeth don't help things! 

In her own words

Favorite Color: "Yellow!" (everything is yellow, by the way!)
Favorite Book: "Yellow Book!" (translation: Monkey Book, translation: Curious George Visits the Zoo)
Friends: "Reese, Ebbie, Ava, Lily, Baby Ewan, and Daddy"
Favorite Place to Go: Baby Ewan's House"
Favorite Dog: "Yellow Dog"  I said, "Dogs, Caroline, which dogs do you like?" "Elle Mae" (Grandma and Grandpa's Dog)
Favorite Toys: "Yo Gabba Gabba Toys (thanks Grandma Jani!) and shopping cart"
Favorite Sport: "Yellow Sport" ( I don't know what that one is)
Favorite Food: "Noodles and Hummus"
Favorite Song: "Mommy's Song" (Translation: Sherry Baby)
Favorite Animal: "Crocodiles and Alligators"
TV Show/Movie: "Monkey Movie" (Translation: Curious George, the movie we just watched for the first time.)

She is such a fun little girl.  I can't believe she's so big.  It's been really fun to have conversations with her, I can't believe she has so many thoughts that she can express and to actually hear what they are.  She has some fun thoughts.  She gets really excited about things.  She likes to add "Yay!" and clapping her hands about things she is excited about.    Love this girl!

Also, here are her stats from her 2 yr checkup on Tuesday:
Weight: 26  1/4 pounds (50%)
Height: 34 1/2 inches (75%)
Head: 18 1/2 inches (50%)

Caroline turns two!

Caroline's Birthday was yesterday! I can't believe she is two years old, the years went by so fast!  She is so wonderful.  I will do an interview thing with her tomorrow.  I keep seeing those and they are adorable.  Also, thanks to Alaina for showing me how to do the collage.  This will transform my blogging and save those of you who read it from having to scroll down a huge page of pictures.

She woke up and came out to blueberry muffins and scrambled eggs.  She requested blueberry muffins, even though she's never had them.  She wasn't too impressed.  She was so excited by the decorations and the butterfly balloon.  She's been asking for one for her birthday for two months, and was so happy to see it.  After breakfast we went to church.  In a birthday miracle, we had a special stake conference with Elder Cook of the twelve apostles visiting our stake.  It was great to hear from him, his wife, and our stake president.  Stake conference also meant that Eli was home with us ALL DAY!  Neither of us could remember the last time that happened.  It was pretty much a perfect day!  Caroline was so happy, all day long.  She had her daddy's undivided attention.  She was able to take a good nap, during which Eli helped me get things ready for the dinner, and we were even able to take a nap!  It was the easiest party ever!

We had our friends Emily and Kyle (although Kyle was sick and couldn't come, get better soon!) and their kids Lily and Ewan, and our friend Mike and Ify and their kids Reece, Ebbie, and Ava.  These five kids are the ones Caroline plays with the most.  She was so excited.  Lily and Ewan an Emily got there first and Lily and Caroline were having so much fun! She was even more excited that more friends came!  I think her mind was blown having these two sets of friends being over at the same time.  It's never happened before.  I did feel bad because she has a lot of other friends in our ward but our apartment is just too small to have a big party, especially with a lot of kids.  So, sorry if we couldn't invite everyone, I really wanted to!

We had homemade pizza, salad, pineapple, and a yummy salsa Emily made.  All the kids ate a good amount.  Then she opened her presents.  She was so focused while doing that.  She got a soft, beautiful robe that Emily made.  She loves it.  The Whitfills gave her a monkey bubble blower.  I haven't even gotten out the bubbles, she just loves playing with the monkey.  Her Grandma's in Idaho gave her Yo Gabba Gabba beanie babies.  She is obsessed with them!  She has slept with them ever since and wants to bring them everywhere.  Grandma and Grandpa Rhoads gave her a purse, lacing blocks, and a cool guitar.  She was experimenting with the guitar today and really likes that!  Gammy and Pappy sent her a balloon bouquet on Saturday and she's been playing with them nonstop!  Eli and I got her a baby doll station at Goodwill.  It is awesome and in great condition.  It has a baby bath, a high chair, and changing table.  She plays with it all the time.  But we gave that to her last week, I can't hide anything that big in our place.  So we got her stickers and fruit snacks for her to open and she loves those too.

It was a wonderful party!  Thank you to everyone who came.  She was one happy girl yesterday.  I can't believe she is two! 

Is this not the sweetest girl?  I just wanted to write a little memory down so it doesn't go unremembered. 
Caroline is really receptive to learning about the gospel.  She loves to learn about Jesus and her favorite thing about Christmas is Baby Jesus.  She loves babies and Jesus so the fact that there is a whole holiday celebrating Baby Jesus just blows her mind! 
Here is the memory:
On Sundays we usually watch either general conference or the Mormon Messages videos.  Right now, on lds.org there is a beautiful video of the Nativity.  We watched it and she loved it.  There is another one on there featuring a piano and a cello playing "O Come, O Come Emmanuel" with scenes of the Saviors birth and life.  It is really really beautiful.  Everyone should watch it.  So, we were watching that and there is one scene where Christ heals a man, who rises and gives him a hug.  Caroline's eyes lit up and she said, "Hug Jesus?  Baby hug Jesus?"
 Sidenote: She refers to herself as "baby."
 I said, "You want to give Jesus a hug?"  She said, "Yes, hug Jesus."  I told her we can't literally give Jesus a hug right now in this life, but we can pray to Heavenly Father and tell him how much we love Jesus and that we want to hug him.  I asked her if she wanted to say a prayer and she said she did. 

Another side note/contradiction to an earlier statement: About two or three months ago Caroline was all about saying her prayers, and she wanted to say them for every meal.  And by say the prayer, I mean repeat what we told her to say.  But lately she has refused to say a prayer except for her bedtime prayer.

So this is the prayer that she said, repeating after me and pronouncing everything clearly (at least to me):

Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for Jesus, I love Jesus, I want to give Jesus a hug.  Thank you, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Now, imagine her saying that in her sweet little voice, and she really does have the sweetest little voice.

I'm not bragging on her, I just don't want to forget it.  Sometimes when she's screaming no at me or throwing a tantrum, and I'm sure the power struggles will get way worse, it's hard to remember that children really do come from a place where they knew what this whole life is about and they know exactly who their Heavenly Father is and who their Savior and Redeemer is.  They are so sensitive to the spirit and are such enormous blessings.  We can learn a lot from them about faith and what really matters in this life.  We are so blessed to have her.  This is what I will try to focus on this Christmas, just like Caroline, I want to really be so excited about Baby Jesus.  It really is the most wonderful thing to ever happen to this Earth. 

Merry Christmas!

(Minor) Home Improvements

We've recently added  a few things to the apartment.  Take a look.

           We found these wall stickers at Dollar Tree (which is my FAVORITE place).  It started with the animal stickers.  She loves zebras, and saw the zebra from across the aisle.  We put them on her wall and she loves them.  She goes up to them several times a day and points and names all of the animals.  Except for the rhino, for some reason she has no interest in the rhino.   So then, we decided the next time we were there to add the alphabet to the wall, for educational value, and the butterflies for fun, because she loves them.  I figured it's cheap, $1 each, and when we get sick of them we can just take them off.  Anyway, they are fun. 

I'm sure you've seen the tutorial for these prints all over the internet.  I just took the picture to staples, asked for an engineers print.  It was $3.50.  Then I got a foam board at Hobby Lobby and painted the edges black, and glued it on.  It was really easy, but the hardest part was finding a way to get it to hang on the wall. It took several days and failed attempts, but I finally found the command picture hooks.  They work really well.  I feel like I had done a lot of little things all over the apartment except in our room.  This really adds a little interest to our room.  I like it a lot.