Rivers of rain

So it has actually been dry here for three days in a row now, but I thought I would just put up this picture that Chelsea took last week after it had only been raining for maybe 2 minutes! This is right out in front of our apartment. Notice the little waterfall into the river/sidewalk. Did I mention that it downpours here!
You can click on the picture to make it bigger if you would like.

Caden's new do

When we were at Sea World watching Shamu, poor Cade was just soaked with sweat. His hair looked like someone had dunked him in the pool or something. So I convinced Chelsea to let me shave his head on Saturday. I think he looks pretty cute!

Brooklyn turns 4!!

Yesterday was Brooklyn's 4th Birthday and boy did she let us know about it this whole week, or actually this whole month! Every time we would go the store and she would want something she would tell us that "maybe we can get it for my birthday?!" Or if she wanted to show us how big she was getting she would let us know that "I can do it by myself now because I am going to be 4." So she was really excited about her birthday this year.
She told Chelsea that she wanted a Hello Kitty Cake so Chelsea, and her amazing cake decorating skills, made Brooklyn her very own Hello Kitty Cake. Chelsea is amazing! She did all of this from scratch. No cutouts, no moulds, nothing but her own imagination and creative skills. I don't know about you all, but I would say this pretty much resembles the Hello Kitty character. I told Chelsea we might get in trouble with Copyright laws because it is so close of a resemblance.

We woke Brooklyn and Caden up yesterday morning to open her presents before I left to work since we figured that she wouldn't last all day without being able to open her presents. She was way excited with what she got (thanks grandparents!). Then for lunch Chelsea took her and Cade to "Ole McDonalds", as Brooklyn calls it, and they got to play in the play area and have their very own Happy Meals.

After I got home from work we had our own little Hello Kitty party, complete with Hello Kitty Cake, hats, and plates.
After that little fiesta we took the kids to Sea World so that Brooklyn could ride her favorite ride, The Shamu Express, all by herself. She won't let Chelsea or me go with her because she told us that the sign says that "we are too big." This stems from us telling her that she couldn't go on some of the other rides because the sign said she was too small!
Last time the kids were at Sea World, the other kids they were with got to play this ball game and they won plush shamu's so of course our kids wanted to play as well. Considering our huge budget that we have since we are making so much money as a dental resident, Chelsea kindly told them that we didn't have any money for the game but that they could do chores and earn money to play the game. So for the last little while the kids have been earning their money and Brooklyn knew that as part of her birthday presents she would be able to play this game when she went to Sea World. My question is, what kind of parents make their child pay for their own birthday gift?! We do, I guess!! Anyway, both the kids got to play the game and my young strappling boy threw the ball right in the middle hole and won the biggest Shamu (he did it on his second throw is all), and my daintly little girl finally won the small Shamu after about 7-8 attempts! If you didn't know, we have the sterotypical boy and girl! They were pretty excited about their new Shamus and each displayed them proudly for the camera.
Brooklyn and Cade also went on some of the other rides there at Sea World. As you can see from these pictures of the Paint Cans (equivalent to the Tea Cups at Disneyland), Brooklyn was having the time of her life as Chelsea spun them around and around, but Cade wasn't so sure about the whole thing. To be honest, from the look on his face I thought he was goin to blow chuncks!
So as you can see, it was quite the special day for Brooklyn, and at the end of it all, as we were driving back home from Sea World at 10 at night, Brooklyn let us know what a wonderful day she had by simply falling asleep in the car from sheer exhaustion! Sorry for the long post, but it was such a fun day that I thought I would share it with you all.

Shamu Rocks Texas

As part of Brooklyn's enjoyable birthday we saw the special summer Shamu show, "Shamu Rocks Texas!" Brooklyn had a good time dancing to the music and watching Shamu do his tricks. However, she was a little upset that we didn't let her sit in the "splash zone" this time. Everytime we go to Sea World she always wants to watch Shamu and sit down close so she gets wet when he splashes the crowd. It was a pretty neat show, and even though I have seen Shamu before, several times since we've been here, I am still amazed that those animals can do such things, and that they can be trained so well. It is really amazing. Anyway, these are just a few pictures from the show.

Welcome to the Jungle....

So all we heard from people before we moved to San Antonio was how hot and nasty it was here. We have now lived here for 2 months and while I wouldn't call it hot, it is rather nasty at times. By nasty I mean it is raining like crazy! I didn't realize we were moving to the jungle! Everyone that is from here says that this is very abnormal, to have so much rain, but I am beginning to think that they are all lying. It has rained for almost two months straight, no kidding!
I looked up the numbers on the internet for precipitation here and it looks like in an average year here in San Antonio they get about 29 inches of rain! Now, I know that I am not used to rain having lived in the dry ole west my whole life, but 29 inches?! Now get a load of this, already this year, from January 1st until yesterday we already had just over 30 inches of rain!!! Oh and by the way, today we added 1.6 inches more to that total for the year! Are you kidding me, who knew? I bought this scooter thinking it was such a great idea to save on gas, and I am getting soaked almost on a daily basis. It got so bad that today I finally went out and bought a rain suit to go over my clothes to give me some protection!
One good thing about all the rain is that everything here is so green! These pictures are looking out the front door of our apartment. It is very pretty here, way different than I had pictured Texas!

Excited for Sea World

Brooklyn and Cade were so excited to go to Sea
World the other day we had to get a picture. I can't believe how fast they are growing up! Brooklyn loves to go on all of the rides (some even by herself). She is on this ride with her friend Bryson, they were laughing pretty hard. We'll probably head back to Sea World for Brooklyn bday on Friday. She wants to see Shamu at night.

Two Faced

Cade has recently introduced us to his "mad face" and "happy face". He will walked up to you scowling and say, "Mom...I'm mad face." Then you have to ask where his happy face is and he's excited to show you that he now has two faces.

And the Winner Is....

Well, the poll is officially closed and it looks like ya'll have more belief in me, although Chelsea's fans made a late run and pulled to within one vote. (Good thing I was able to vote twice!) Thanks to everyone for voting, and we will try to get a new poll up in the coming days, so check back and express your opinion on whatever the very important question will be.

Sedated

I'm sure many of you have had the wonderful opportunity of getting your wisdom teeth out, and in the process being put out yourself. Well, I too have had this opportunity, but yesterday I had the opportunity again, not to get my wisdom teeth out again, but to be sedated again. In my residency program we are getting IV Sedation certified, so to practice we get to put each other out, and my turn was yesterday. Now when I say out, that doesn't mean that I was out cold, rather, I just don't remember anything that went on. Thanks to the miracle of modern technology, my co-resident was able to get some video of me on his cell phone, and lets just say I was anything but "out." Apparently I am quite talkative and expressive when I am "under the influence" and I expressed some things that...well...lets just say that I'm not going to be repeating them anytime soon! It is amazing that I was so with it on the video, but I don't remember a thing. Drugs are awesome!
Well, I am going to try to get some of the video clips from my co-resident and if I do, I will try to post some of the "censored" ones here for ya'll to enjoy!

Kid's Quotes

I thought I'd start a little section where we'll put funny or interesting quotes from the kids. There are definitely plenty of the them. It's just off to the left under "Kids Say the Darndest Things."

Our Tough Guy

Check out the guns on this little guy! Somedays he thinks he's tough stuff. When we go and get the mail he will step up onto the stairs and say, "Look mom! I'm strong!" Now as far as the cowboy boots go, maybe they make him feel more athletic?

Welcome to the Ward

So today Chelsea and I had to give our customary "Welcome to the Ward" talks. I think everything went well; Chelsea did a phenomenal job with hers. She spoke on prayer and I spoke on fasting. We tried to have the kids sit with one of the couples from the ward, but Cade was not having it. So we ended up splitting the time sitting with the kids. We are glad to get it over with, but don't look forward to likely doing it again in about a year. We were saying today though, that we have given so many talks that surely the topics should start coming around again and then we can just pull from our files and not have to worry about writing new talks! I guess that is one benefit of moving so often in our young marriage.

Scoot Scoot

Here she is in all her glory. I went down today to the motorcycle shop and purchased my first ever 2 wheel motorized bike. It is a Kymco Vitality 50cc 2 stroke, and she purrs like a kitten. Today was a beautiful day here in San Antonio with blue skies and bright sun, except for about 45 minutes of the day. Of course the clouds rolled in right after I go to the motorcycle shop and right after I bought the scooter and was getting ready to ride it the 14 or so miles home, it started to sprinkle. I wasn't about to let a little rain stop me so I decided to ride home from the shop, and for the whole 30 or so minutes it just poured on me. I'm sure people were driving by looking at me and thinking what a wacko! I was soaked, but it was a great time.

The kids were dying to go on a ride so they hopped on and for about 15 minutes I took them around the apartment complex here. They had a blast. All I heard was, "go faster daddy!"

Any body up for a swim?

I had to post this picture because I thought it was so funny.

Tonight, as we were finishing up dinner, Brooklyn came in with these goggles on and she thought she was so funny. Then of course when Cade saw her, he wanted his on as well so Chelsea helped him with his. They just ran around with them on and played with each other, but I think Cade must have had problems seeing where he was going as his began to get real foggy. I must say, they both looked pretty cute.

FHE

Regardless of what my wife might say, I do not vote for myself...she is just jealous that I have more friends that will vote for me (I'll pay you all later!).

So tonight was Family Home Evening and Chelsea made this cute little story about manners and used some cut out Dinosaurs to go along with the story. She did an excellent job, but unfortunately I don't think the kids (read Caden) got the idea of the having good manners, because all he did during the whole story was cry, scream and whine because he wanted to hold the dinosaurs. Obviously he missed the part in the story about Yelladactal and Whineasaurus! It is fun to have FHE with them, although I must admit, lots of times it is more of a CHORE during the lesson. They do love to sing the songs and play the games though. Their favorite games as of late are Red Light, Green Light and Duck, Duck, Goose (both classic FHE games)! We got some video of us all playing these games and maybe we will get it edited and posted here shortly (I have to edit out the explicatives!!). As I mentioned the kids also love to sing the songs and if I remember right, for the past three weeks straight, and probably more, the songs have consisted of Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree, Give Said the Little Stream, and Book of Mormon Stories. Lets just say that when Brooklyn finds something she likes, she tends to stick with it; not a lot of branching out here.

I thought I'd steal a minute away from the kids while they are pretending to like each other. Actually they play together pretty well. I just wanted to post something while I could since Heath keeps voting for himself that he's going to be the one who posts most on our blog. I can see him frantically clicking the mouse on his name while he thinks I'm not looking. Just kidding but that would be funny. Today has been a pretty good day. This is Day 1 in potty training for Caden. He has actually been asking to go to the bathroom on the toilet for about 2 weeks. I thought I had better take advantage of it while it lasts. He's only had two accidents today. Not too bad. I had him pantless to get the idea and this afternoon he decided to pee on one of Brooklyn's paperback books and is subsequently dripped down onto his boot. Nice huh? He was rather concerned about his boot. I made a sticker chart for him and he couldn't care less. He doesn't want any candy or treats and would just rather give Brooklyn high-five.

Brooklyn gave a scripture and a prayer in Primary yesterday. She loves to bless the food numerous times in any prayer so Heath and I prepped her and said that she doesn't need to bless the food and that she could pray for these other things if she wanted too. She decided she wanted my help with the prayer at the last minute and before I could help her get a hold of the microphone she had already blessed the food. I was trying not to laugh and it didn't help that I could hear the boys in the older class giggling. She did a job though she was just quick to get that food part in.

Heath and I have talked about how well the kids have adjusted to moving and all. We were worried about Cade and nursery but he seems to have done so well. Or so we thought. A guy in the ward told Heath yesterday that Cade seems to be doing better in nursery. (His daughter is in the same class.) Apparently the first week Cade just put his head down on the table and cried to himself for a good 30 minutes. Then the following week he walked over and hung out in the corner and didn't want anyone to bother him. I feel kind of bad but he always seems excited to go and play in nursery so all is well.

Time for Smack Down

One of Brooklyn's and Cade's favorite things to do is to wrestle. Most nights just before bedtime they get into their smack down mode. They jump on each other, steam roll one another and just about any other move you can think of. They have way too much fun. Their timing is impeccable because they are so happy and laughing so hard that it makes it hard to put them down for bed. So far no serious injuries and since the picture choke holds have been banned.

Fillet O Tongue

This is old news to most but Cade had a bad fall at Sea World. He obviously cut his tongue pretty good and the fall also pushed one of his front teeth forward. I must say this little guy is so tough.
He never held back much when it came to eating although I'm sure it must have hurt. Luckily it has healed nicely and he's doing great.

First Patient

Well, I saw my first patient today in my residency program. We each were given a denture patient that we get to make new dentures for and we are learning a new technique that they teach here at the program. It is definitely alot better than the old fashioned way we did it in dental school, but I won't bore anyone with the details! The first official week ends tomorrow and so far so good. There is a lot of classwork type of stuff that we are doing right now to learn about all the advanced things that this program does, that we did not get to do in dental school, so the patient care time is limited. But once it gets rolling here in a month or so, I'm sure I will be plenty busy and learning so much. It is fun to think how much I am going to learn in this next year, and scary to think about how much I don't know, yet I could be out practicing dentistry without all this new knowledge that I am going to get. Wow!