July 23, 2019

Christmas 2018:
Adrian's cousin, Edgar, who lives in Atlanta, found out his son had a brain tumor. Adrian flew down for a week to support them. He was gone for Christmas so we opened presents with the kids on Dec. 23rd. It was a very lonely Christmas. We had friends who invited us to dinner and such, but the kids also got sick so we didn't go anywhere. We ended up watching movies the whole week, which is totally not the norm for me because I hardly watch movies. I felt very sad when I saw pictures and videos of my family from Christmas being posted on social media. I felt very lonely and homesick. Before Christmas we took the kids to a  Cirque de Soleil show. We had seen one in the summer and thought the kids would love all the tricks. It ended up being a total flop because we unknowingly got floor seats and none of the kids could see anything.

New Year's 2019:
We attended a New Year's Eve Party at our friends' the Staples. There were a lot of ward members there. There was good food and good company. We did a countdown early for the kids and was home by 10pm.

January 2019:
We took the kids to see Monster Jam. It was cool, but the kids were not as excited or into it as much as I thought they would be. They wanted to see crashes and demolition and were disappointed there was none.

February 2019:
The boys were Swimmers Of the Month at Long Island Swim School. We had a pipe burst in the house in the kitchen ceiling. Luckily I was home and was able to turn the water off and not much damage happened to the house.
We took the kids to Mexico for the first time to meet Adrian's family. Since Adrian has been moonlighting we saved up and paid for the trip for everyone. His parents and brother had never met any of our kids before. We flew everyone to an Airbnb on the beach of Cancun. It was perfect. The weather was warm and sunny and we had the beach and pool to play in. We rented cars and went down to Tulum to see the Mayan Ruins. We also went to a water resort called Xel Hal. It was beautiful and fun to play in the water. We floated down a river and went zip lining. Swam in a cenote.  We also stopped and toured a large cave. Our old friends Eric and Amanda Turner also joined us for the whole week. By the time it was time to go we all were sick with stomachaches and the kids had nausea/vomiting. As we were driving to the airport Adrian got pulled over and he was able to bribe the cop with some money to let him go.

March 2019:
Malachi and Maya had birthdays. We did a combined party for them and invited friends. They shard a My Little Pony Cake. Also had a Rainbow Dash piñata.

April 2019:
Levi had another MRI to check for neurofibromas in his brain and neck. There were no changes from his MRI 18 months ago. That's a good thing. No new growths.

May 2019:
Levi had a birthday. Adrian was gone and we celebrated without him. No big party with friends. We went to Chucky Cheese and played.

June 2019:
Levi was baptized on June 8th. My parents were able to come and support him. During his confirmation Adrian really felt Levi would have some hard trials coming, maybe due to his NF.  Adrian and I also left to CO for a week. We went to secure housing and we made it a birthday, graduation, anniversary trip without the kids. It was fun. I remember after arriving in Denver and driving down to Colorado Springs and seeing all the green open land. My eyes had only seen city for 3 years and it felt crazy to see open fields again. My parents stayed with the kids and also fixed the house to be ready to move. Once Adrian and I got back from CO I flew with the kids and my parents to UT for a week and played. We did a lot fun things. I leaned that Levi really loves fishing.  I Took the kids out of school a couple weeks early so they wouldn't have a tiny summer.
Then I left the kids at my parents and flew back to NY to finish packing and to drive across the states with Adrian. We towed his Civic the whole way with the truck. It took us 3 hours to get of NYC, the traffic was bumper to bumper. We kept joking that NY wasn't letting us go. Then, once we crossed into NJ our trailer got a flat tire and we had to wait 1.5 hours on the side of the NJ turnpike before it was fixed. It put us behind schedule. It was a safe trip for us. Kansas was so long to drive through, that seemed to be the part that drug on and on.

July 2019:
The new house seems great. It is big. We laugh because we downsized so much to fit our stuff into a 16 foot moving pod and now we have all this empty room in the house. The neighbors are nice. They invited us to a 4th of July BBQ. Behind us live the Whites, a family from the ward. Our kids get along well. We sold our F250 truck and got a Land Rover for me. Adrian took the first couple weeks off work to study for his boards. He took his test July 23rd in Florida.
While he was gone in FL we had a huge hail/rain storm here. Our entire basement ended up flooding. I had to move everything and prop up the couches just me and the kids. The landlord was unreachable so I called a water mitigation company and they got here at midnight and emptied the house over the next couple days. It was a huge 6 week cleanup and restoration ordeal. The storm though that caused the mess I remember thinking was so beautiful. It left patches of hail everywhere, but since it was summer everything was also very green. I distinctly remember thinking how beautiful everything looked outside. It turns out our house flooded because the sump pump was not working. Whoever installed the pump forgot to untie the float that would raise as water levels increased and kick on the pump. Silly mistake caused so much damage.

Levi: (8 years 2 months)
Levi became really anxious for a few months. He had systemic symptoms, like needing to urinate frequently, belly aches, etc. The pediatrician said it was classic anxiety in kids. We figured Levi was worrying about the upcoming move and starting a new school. Levi is really smart. He's also impulsive. He's into sharks, Wild Kratts tv show and My Little Pony. He want to be an animal researcher. He wants to go to Madagascar and see the rare animals there. He's not big into bikes. Doesn't dare ride them on a dirt trail. He loves fishing and swimming (playing, not so much lessons). He likes to play games and he reads by himself. He's scared to try new risky things, like riding on the motorcycle/4 wheeler with my dad. It takes him a half hour to fall asleep at night.

Malachi: ( 6 years 4 months)
He is so sweet and make sure everyone's included. He whines/cries over everything that doesn't go his way or as planned. He's a very picky eater. He falls asleep really fast. He loves to ride his bike and go on long rides. He did swimming lessons and he didn't like them. He was the youngest kid in the advanced swim group so he was the slowest and felt bad. He always gets left out when playing with Levi and friends. I always see him playing by himself. He's adjusting well to the move and changes so far.

Maya: (3 years 4 months)
I fully potty trained her right after her birthday. I still have to make sure she goes every couple hours because she can't tell me when she needs to go yet. She is always happy, spunky, fierce and plays hard with her brothers. She loves princesses and shoes. She naps for 2 hours each day. She has her own room in the new house. She gets afraid of monsters and hides under the blankets to fall asleep.

Adrian:
Moonlighted the last year of residency. Worked 6 days a week. His new job is slow, he's not paneled with insurances yet so he can't see many patients. His Mini Cooper died last Nov. in NY. The clutch went out and it wasn't worth the money to fix it. A blessing was that 2 days before the clutch totally broke he noticed it wasn't working quite right. He took a Monday off to go see about a new car and  the clutch completely broke as he pulled into our driveway. Usually on Monday's I drive him to the train station in his Mini Cooper. I would have been stranded 3 miles from home with Maya had he not taken the day off. Since we had no car payments, he went for a reliable vehicle with the smallest payment. We leased a Honda Civic.

Tammy:
Always home with the kids. Love the new place and living in CO. So nice to be out of the busy city and not crowded.

Winter 2018-Spring 2019

The kids love playing in the snow. It seemed in NY that the first snow was always around mid December.

Maya loves getting dressed up in her dresses.

Warming up in mom's bed on a cold night. 

Trying on mom's clothes.

Ready for church.

We switched swim schools to Long Island Swim School. Within a month of starting there the boys were both swimmers of the month.

Maya feels left out that she doesn't go to school yet.

Working on homework.

Maya amazed me when one day she put a 24 piece puzzle together. I didn't know she knew how to do them.

Levi at church.

Malachi lost his first tooth. Adrian is soft on the boys and gives them a numbing shot before pulling their teeth out.

Christmas 2018-

Adrian was gone in GA to be with his cousin Edgar who's son was surgery on a brain tumor. We had Santa come a couple days early before Adrian left to GA. 

Meeting Santa at the ward party.

Levi knew it wasn't the real Santa.

The boys' gift list.

Family Christmas photo.

Our elf on the shelf, Benji, being taken hostage. The kids love to wake up early to find him every morning in December.

Making a gingerbread house in Kindergarten.

Cirque de Soilel. We thought the kids would love all the acrobatics and magic. We didn't know until we got there that we had floor seats and the kids couldn't see a thing. They did not enjoy it like we thought they would. 

 Malachi at church with his class.

Snuggles in mom's warm bed in the morning.

 Maya snuggling with her babies. 

School picture samples. I'm too cheap to buy nice ones. Malachi Kindergarten, Levi 2nd grade.

 We took the kids to Monster Jam. 

They wished the trucks would've been crashing into each other instead of doing stunts. They didn't enjoy it as much as we thought they would.

Adrian always has Dermatology Conferences in the spring. One in Vegas and he drove his co-residents to Zion to see it. Another conference in Washington D.C.

February 2019-

We took the kids to Mexico to meet Adrian's family for the first time. We stayed right on the beach in Cancun.

We visited famous caves.

We walked/explored Cancun.

We visited the ruins of Tulum.

We went to a water park resort called Xel-hal.

Swimming in a Cenote in Xel- hal.

Lazy river through the mangroves. I've been wanting to do that ever since we saw mangroves while living in FL.

Maya's birthday!

Malachi wanted a hula hoop for his birthday.

 We had a combined little get together with friends for Malachi and Maya's birthday. They had a My Little Pony cake and piñata. Maya turned 3 and Malachi 6.

Mother's Day notes from school.

Levi's 8th birthday.

He got 2 bubble suits. He and Malachi would run into each other and try to knock each other down.

Adrian and I took a trip to Colorado Springs the first week of June just the 2 of us. It was initially meant to secure housing, but we finalized that earlier and made it graduation/birthday/anniversary trip. It was great spending time just the 2 of us. That hadn't happened in 7 years. 

Here's the Royal Gorge. 

Driving up Pikes Peak.

Royal Gorge Railway.

Top of Pikes Peak. We both got altitude sick.

Hiking the Manitou Incline. It took us 1.5 hours to get up. 

Royal Gorge bridge.

 We went skydiving for my birthday up in Longmont. It was my 2nd time, Adrian's 1st. I never got nervous, mainly because I knew I was perfectly safe. Adrian got nervous. Starting the day before. His harness was too tight on his legs and it hurt him the parachute ride down. I enjoyed the 3 minutes parachuting the most. Adrian enjoyed the minute of freewill the most. I remember the freewill being really cold and loud. The parachute ride was slow and peaceful overlooking the beautiful landscape.

 Hiking 7 falls. 

Enjoying the sunshine of spring.

Malachi's field trip to the Outdoor Learning Center in school.

Father's Day notes from school.