Busy, Busy,Busy....Moving, Home Improvements, Board Exams, Russia....

We are so busy there are no words! We are moving to Tennessee in July and getting ready for jobs down there which is paperwork, paperwork, paperwork! We have been trying to get our house ready to go on the market which was a daunting task...Joe's brother came from Nebraska w/ his wife and 2 1/2 year old daughter Addison, to help Joe finish our basement. It was partially done when we bought it and we are finally getting around to finishing it. Let me just say that I hope I NEVER have to go through a home improvement project this big again! On our own that is...Oh the dust from putting up drywall was enormous!!! I am still dusting it off our furniture that is THREE floors above the basement. It took a full 2 weeks from start to finish and it was not fun for me!! However, it is nice to have an official "playroom" for the toys and Logan LOVES it. I also want to say that selling a house is SO much work and I wish we had just rented for these 3 years of residency so we could just pick up and move...oh well who would have known the economy would be so bad....
We also have 2 sets of boards coming up. Our surgical boards which is so important! But studying is non existent right now for me!! I am chief resident right now which involves a lot of extra work (just what I need!) and the icing on the cake???? Joe just left today for RUSSIA!! He is going to Moscow first then on to Siberia for an external fixation training course in Kurgan. He got a scholarship to go and he is actually the only resident invited to attend BUT selfishly I am not happy with the trip!! Besides worrying about his safety in Siberia I am alone to take care of the kiddos and working and getting the house on the market and everything else! Patience and Perseverance are my words for the month! It can always be worse!

Melody is now 8 months old and Logan had his 4th birthday March 18th. Melly is getting around everywhere and starting to pull up to her knees. She is going to be quite the challenge I can tell already! I can just barely get a diaper on her, she DOES NOT stay still! She is so happy and I think her favorite person in the whole world is her big brother. He can make her laugh when nothing else works! She's also kind of a mommy's girl which makes me feel good since I have to leave her at daycare every day. So far she is eating good but hasn't learned how to use her two teeth yet. Our biggest challenge is with her always being sick! She's had ear infections that required two rounds of antibiotics and also had RSV which is still hanging around but never got really serious thank goodness. Her coughing gets scary sometimes! But she is such a trooper and rarely lets this get her down (true female style!)

She loves to do the splits!

Her first sippy cup/juice experience...all she did was chew on it.

Logan's 4th birthday was similar to his 3rd in that the same kids came over but he wanted a Super Why cake which is a show on PBS that he loves and unfortunately has no merchandise out there. So I improvised by using something I printed out from online and had this cake made.

It was a quick party through together since everything is so crazy but all in all I think Logan had fun and thats all that matters right?

Waking up to being 4!

Off to "happy school" (what he calls daycare) with his M&M cookies and birthday ribbon.

Logan's b-day was red, white, & blue day at school.

Logan and cousin Addison

Some of the kids at the party.

Logan and Addison spent 10 days together and besides a few "She's looking at me!!" and "These are MY toys!" It went pretty well.

Logan's geotrax is growing!

Logan helping us "tape" for painting the basement

Some bathtub fun. Melody laughs her little head off when Logan blows bubbles in the water and then she tries to do it by dunking her head in the water...this scares me so I have to hold her up and not let her go under :)

That's it for now. I don't know who has more of a chance of not surviving these next 10 days...Joe in Siberia or me holding down the fort alone!

Melody 6 months and MORE....

I'm a few weeks behind but "Little Mel" as I like to call her is 6 months old already! Actually almost 7 months now. I can't believe how fast time goes. She is sitting completely on her own, eating wonderfully all the new foods I have given her, laughing hysterically (mostly at Logan), and "scooting" around everywhere! Not exactly crawling on all fours yet but she is all over the room and I can no longer leave the room or take a shower unless she is sleeping or in the pack-n-play. One day she moved to the corner of the TV stand and was trying to chew on wires! Uh oh I better start the baby proofing again. Logan has lots of small toys now that are definitely not for a little baby. Funny how she seems to go right for all the things she CAN'T have and could care less about all the cute baby toys we have. She loves to find Logan's crayons and yep, put them right in her mouth. She is a very "mouthy" baby and EVERYTHING goes into her mouth, including mommy's nose the other day! She is such a happy baby and we are so blessed!

Her little party at my parent's place

No, she didn't eat the cake but we did!


My mom got a hand me down "car" that both Melody and Logan are enjoying

Speaking of her mouth, her first tooth is coming in!! When I picked her up yesterday at daycare one of her teachers, Miss Tuesday, asked if I knew she had a tooth coming in. Emabarrased to admit that no I feel like the worlds worst mom b/c I didn't know....I just said I thought I felt it that morning. But yes, it is barely through her little gums and definitely coming in.

February 20. The day of her first tooth!

VALENTINE'S DAY:

Joe was gone at a conference unfortunatly but I had a great day w/ the kiddos and even got my hair cut & highlighted as a rare treat to myself. It's been over a year since I got my hair cut! I did get some beautiful tulips delivered from Joe :

Logan and Mel in their valentine's outfits for school...

She loves her bottles

PLAYING TOGETHER:

They are really starting to enjoy playing with each other now that Melody is getting older. She just loves to watch him and is always happy when he is around. She just cracks up at him and he loves it and sings to her non stop. He's even created his own baby talk that he uses when he talks to her. And he's already so protective over her. I always take Logan w/ me when I drop Melody off in her daycare room and he goes and gets her toys off the shelf and if any other baby comes near her toys he scoops them up and says "No baby! These are MY baby sister's toys!" Its so adorable. Here they are enjoying the toy car together, I pushed them around like this for hours today:

UNCLE FRANK:

My brother dropped in for a short visit and he hasn't seen Melody since she was 2 months old.

Who Says Boys Can't Dance

Logan is very "boy" and almost always wants to play football, "catch", chase, dinosaurs, wrestling, and the latest....sword fighting. So I was surprised when today he told me he wanted to put on his "tapping suit". So decked out in his suit with his "tap shoes" aka his dress shoes on, he did quite an entertaining performance for me. I didn't even know he knew what tap dancing was!!

Shopping Cart & Play Food

I really don't like taking Melody to the grocery store b/c the one we go to the carts are not safe at all to put the infant car seat in unless you put it in the main part. Which means barely any room for the groceries. So the last time I went I decided she was doing so well with learning to sit that I would try to put her in the seat...and she did great!

The kids playing with their play food they got for x-mas

Homework!

Logan is transitioning to the pre-K class at his daycare and he now has homework. Yikes, how am I going to find time to help him with his HW? Its not like he can sit down and do it by himself yet. And I'm sure that won't happen for a long time anyway! He is super excited about the thought of homework. I asked him if he knew what it was and he said of course he knew what it was. So I said what is it? And he says "I don't know!". So I tried to make it as exciting as I could and he loved doing it. It was really cute and he is so proud, showing everyone that will listen. Here are a few pictures of Logan's first homework experience:

Logan's first self portrait

The Aftermath and Favorite Toys

The house was a mess for several days after x-mas until I could find a place for everything. I am having to get really creative in keeping things organized around here with so many toys! With our basement not really finished, it is too dungeon like for it to be the playroom so until we do something about that, our living room will continue to be the multi purpose (crowded!) room.
I think this year Logan's favorite santa gifts turned out to be some of the little things he got in his stocking. Things I thought would not be a big deal. Such as the small toy airplanes and the Alladin figurines. He loves to play with both of these. He also likes his 2 headed dragon and big dinosaurs alot. And he likes the geotrax trian and airport sets but doesn't play with them as much as I thought he would :(

A Day of MANY "Changes" and "Sun Up to Sun Down"

Changes of clothes that is. Logan changed his outfit 6 times throughout the day! I felt this blog needed two titles since it was such a fun day

Our tree AFTER my parents came over and doubled the amount of gifts!

Logan's first glimpse of the presents and outfit #1, his dinosaur pjs.

Logan was so cute x-mas morning. He was excited but he was very specific about how he wanted presents opened. He wanted to take his time and someone else could only have a gift when HE said so. Too funny. In a way it was nice he wasen't tearing through all the gifts but to get to my 2nd blog title it took us "SUN UP TO SUN DOWN" to open all the presents. First one started around 8am and last one was opened at 11pm! With a break for dinner at my parents house.

My Dad and Melody with her new pony

Outfit #2, his Pirate costume from Halloween.

He wanted to put it on as soon as he opened his pirate ship. He played with this for a good half hour before another gift was even thought of.

Outfit #3.

He ran around in his underwear for awhile while I convinced him to put on some clothes! My mom had a good idea and had him open his new outfit for his "Build A Bear" monkey named "Dr. Bananas" (Joe and I bought him the monkey with scrubs on originally) Anyway, this brought us to our 4th outfit......

Eagles Football attire

My mom and Melody with her "Dolly Llama

This was my dad's idea. My mom told him she was looking for a doll for Melody and he said "Why don't we give her a "Dolly" Llama? So my mom got the stuffed Llama and a tag around its neck that says "Dolly". It will be funny one day when she learns who the "real" Dalai Lama is

Outfit #5. One of his new ones from Joe's parents.

He finally kept this one on for awhile.

Logan's new geotrax train. We also got him the geotrax airport but it had the wrong pieces, so back to the store I go to exchange it..

Our cookie cake for Jesus.

Logan sang Happy Birthday and here is the video.

Melody had a bath in my parents sink

Logan wrote his name all by himself

And outfit #6....some more dinosaur pjs.

Holding his two headed dragon that "breaths fire"

What a great day we had!!! Logan was exhausted by the end of it and fell asleep in the middle of eating a chicken nugget. Wish I had a picture of that!