January 27, 2020

Fall/Winter 2019:
I feel like winter started early here. We had a couple significant snowstorms starting mid October. We've had 5 snow days already from school. I feel like only 2 were justified. We tried to get out and play as much as we could and enjoy the outdoors on every nice day. We've done a lot of hikes, gone camping a few times, been to the hot springs, been to Rocky Mountain National Park. We've done more family activities together in the past few months than in the last 3 years combined. It's been nice. Adrian and I have also been able to go on more dates now that he has the time off and we can pay a baby sitter.

School started mid August. Levi is in 3rd grade with Mrs. Saccuman. Malachi is in 1st grade with Mrs. Aston. They are attending Prairie Winds Elementary School. It's a small school. 360 students. grades K-6th. Its' a nice small school with a small feel. Teachers and parents all know each other. The curriculum is not as tough as NY. The school day is 7 hours, 1 hour longer than NY, but where NY assigned 45 minutes of homework every night they only get 1 sheet of math each night. And I try to make the kids read every night too. They are not worked as hard and I feel like they can be kids more. The both claim they "hate" school, but like it better than NY. Malachi is having a particularly hard time. He is just so shy and and won't dare talk to the other kids or the teacher. During his Parent Teacher Conference in October his teacher told me he is academically the top of the class, but we need to work on his social skills this year. He doesn't dare write when he's asked because he's afraid other people will think his writing is dumb. Levi is doing fine in school. He says he's still learning things that he learned last year in 2nd grade. He doesn't come home from school with a headache like he did frequently in 2nd grade. I think he's just not worked as hard. I got guilted into being Class Mom in Levi's class. No one else volunteered. I just have to do the holiday parties. No big deal really. Except I have to pay for everything, I expected everyone to contribute money to class parties like we did in NY. Oh well.

Holidays 2019:
Halloween was fun. Levi was a power ranger. Malachi was Link from Zelda and Maya was a witch. They had a Halloween party that day at school and then we went trick or treating. In NY everyone started trick or treating at 4pm and was done by sundown. We started here at 5pm thinking people would be out. Nope, we were the only ones out trick or treating for a whole hour. It was a very cold evening and we were done by 6. Then we got Papa Murphy's jack o lantern pizzas and went to bed on schedule.

Thanksgiving we went to Cedar and spent the week with my family. It was the first time in 5 years we had a holiday with family. I was nauseous and sick the whole ride there. We stopped at Cari's in Gunnison and stayed the night. She got married to Justin Pickett in October. We weren't able to make it to the wedding. He lives in Gunnison, UT and she moved there with Cambree. The kids had so much fun staying with cousins.

Christmas we also went to Cedar. It felt like a lot of driving within a month. It's about a 10 hour drive to Cedar. We stopped at Cari's again to break up the drive. We had a lot of fun being with family for Christmas.

Adrian: Started his new job the first of July. Took his boards in July and passed them. What a big relief. It's a big accomplishment. He was worried he wouldn't pass because he took a predictor exam earlier that year and it predicted he would not pass. He kicked it in high gear and studied his butt off to try to pass. His new job is giving him good experience. He is the only Dr at the location he is at. He has M.A.s that help him. There are also P.A.s there. He has been a bit frustrated by his boss restricting some things he wants to do. He works 4.5 days. Wednesday being a long day. He has weekends and Thursdays off. He likes having the time off. I think he is still stressed. That's just the way he is. He says he doesn't feel fully satisfied like he thought he would being out of residency.
One of his stresses at the moment is that he is buying a Dermatology practice in Richfield, UT next summer. We will be moving again probably the beginning of July. His derm mentor is selling him the Richfield location. The building and the clientele. This is very exciting! He has always known he's wanted to be his own boss. We will also be a lot closer to family. There is a lot of work that is going into buying and starting his own practice But, he can't imagine working for someone else any longer. We bought a house this month. We looked at a house in Central Valley when we were there over Christmas. We bought it for $250,000. Full asking price because there was another person looking at the house and we didn't want  a bidding war. Our Brother in law Jed has been our realtor. We close on the house Feb. 7, 2020. We're excited for all the changes coming. They are good changes. I feel the worst about moving the boys schools again. They have always been the new kids and never have had any long term friends.
Adrian's calling in church is an Elders Quorum Couselor. He says the dynamic in this ward is unlike any ward we've been in. We think it's maybe because everyone is quite affluent.

Tammy: I stay home with the kids. I found out in October I'm pregnant. Not necessarily planned, but we both felt like we were to have 4 kids. I'm due June 27, 2020. 3 day before we are supposed to move to UT. I'm not worried, things always work out. I had my first Dr appointment last week with Dr Baer. I'll find out gender Feb. 12th. I've felt a bit of sickness like I did with Maya. That makes us think it's a girl again because I did not sick with the boys. The kids are excited. We told my family about it at Thanksgiving. We just announced it everyone else via Facebook a couple days ago.
I keep busy with chores at home and all the kid stuff. I'm also YW secretary in the ward. It keeps me busy too. I've been trying to teach Maya at home preschool things, like letters and numbers. I will admit I was a lot better with the boys at doing this. I've slacked with her. I really enjoy living in Colorado. It's nice to be living in the pines and not the busy city. We live in the nicest, biggest house we ever have and are able to enjoy more luxuries as we are not so financially strapped. We got all the credit cards paid off in December, that felt nice. We still have all of Adrian's school loans, that will probably take years to pay off. We were able to come up with $30, 000 down payment for the house. We still need to come up $50,000 for a down payment to the practice Adrian is buying. Adrian's salary for the first 6 months of this job was $350,000 and he got an increase to $400,000 starting this January. It's a lot of money, but because of all our expenses and debts we still live on a tight budget. We did sell our F250 truck we had for 4 years. We bought me a 2016 Land Rover to drive. It's the first SUV we've ever had. Turns out we needed an upgrade to accommodate and extra kiddo coming our way. Adrian moved here with his 2018 Honda Civic he was leasing when his Mini Cooper died. Everyone kept telling him there was no way he could drive it in the winter with all the snow. We felt he needed something that would work in the snow so we traded in his Civic and are leasing a new Tacoma for him. He likes his truck. We all won't be able to fit in it once the new babe comes so he feels the need to some future day upgrade to a full size truck we all fit in.

Levi: (8 years 8 months)
Levi is getting so smart. He can think and reason through things on a higher level now. He likes to play more complicated games. His favorite color is blue. He is really into frogs right now. He likes red-eyed tree frogs the most. He had a small stuffed toy frog he had gotten when he was 2 and he took it with him everywhere. He ended up leaving it in a hotel a few months ago and the main thing he wanted for Christmas was a new stuffed frog. I found him a cute small toy frog that we got him for Christmas. He really likes animals. He is a good little reader. He'll read on his own. His favorite books are Captain Underpants and Dogman. His favorite subject in school is music/PE. He is not a picky eater. He will eat just about anything I make. He loves fruit, especially strawberries. He learned how to tie his shoes recently, although he still prefers me to do it. He loves to play in  the snow and especially go sledding down the hill in the backyard. He has a lot of energy. The most of anyone in the house. He is the last kid asleep and the first person up in the morning. No matter how many times I tell him to be quiet in the morning and let everyone sleep, he just can't help himself and is loud and wakes everyone up. He likes to help me make meals. Adrian has gotten the boys into video games, Levi loves screen time to play Nintendo. His favorite games are Zelda and Minecraft. He doesn't want to do any extra curricular activities. We were trying to keep the boys in swimming lessons, but it wasn't working out with Adrian teaching the boys, Adrian just didn't have time. We have now started the boys in Piano lessons. We're one lesson in, but I think Levi seems quite interested in learning how to play. He still doesn't like to be in front of others and speak. For the Primary program they let him participate by just singing the songs with everyone else. Malachi did the same thing. Levi likes to play with other kids. He doesn't play on his own. He also likes to be in charge with his siblings when they play. He doesn't wear pj's. He wears his clothes for the next day to bed so he doesn't have to change in the morning. He likes to have his hair cut short. He doesn't like to shower, although I make him. He is really creative, he likes to build and make things. He likes small lego projects that take him just a few minutes. He doesn't have much patience for large projects. He seems to be impulsive. He doesn't think how his actions will affect others. It often results in his brother and sister getting hurt or crying. He just can't quite think through how his actions affect others. He has a friend Roman who lives behind us. Levi is into Pokemon. He likes to Pokemon battle. Levi is the child who tries my patience the most. I think he acts out for attention. I've been trying to give him recognition for when he does good. That way he gets attention without having to misbehave for it. I'll be honest, it's hard for me and I hope I can do better for his sake. I want to improve his self confidence. He's an angel when the other kids aren't around, but he tends to pester the other kids. Levi likes to spend money if he has any. He generally has a happy temperament. He will throw all out tantrums and cry if things don't go his way.

Malachi (6 years 10 months): Malachi is so kind and caring. He likes to make sure everyone is happy and included. Even his teachers have mentioned they've noticed this. I really think he is a highly sensitive child. I got a book explaining highly sensitive children and I think it describes him well. He  just feels things more intensely. It explains why he such a picky eater and sensitive to smells. He tries to be perfect in his projects and gets disappointed easy when things don't go his way. I feel like he is always crying. He says he can't help but cry. It's just his natural reaction when things don't go his way. He seems to have a more negative temperament. But there are definitely times when he is so happy. His smile is so cute. He loves to snuggle up close to feel loved. He has made statements lately that worry me. Like, nobody cares about him or he wishes he weren't born. I do my best but it's hard to meet all the needs of the children. I often go to bed feeling very guilty that I wasn't good enough to them that day. Malachi's favorite color is red. He loves dogs and really wants a puppy. We told him he could have a puppy once we move, but now I'm thinking it may be hard with a newborn as well. He sleeps with his little blankies and stuffed cow pillow pet and stuffed Pokemon Charmander. He has learned to tie his shoes. He picked shoes for school with shoelaces and I only had to show him once how to do it. He practiced and practiced until he got it. He dislikes going to primary at church. He'll always try to stand out in the hall and not go in. He doesn't like going to school. In fact, there's been a couple times in the car drop off line I've had to gently push him to get him out of the car. He states he doesn't get enough time with me and wants to stay home with me. I started him in piano lessons as well. He is way distracted during lessons, but hopefully starts to enjoy it. He wanted to join the running club at school, but all the meets were on Sunday. So I didn't want to pay for it just to never compete. He enjoys large elaborate lego projects. He has the patience and the skills. He is always helping family members out and letting them have their way. He is just so caring. He is a super picky eater. Most of the time he'll just look at something and declare he doesn't like it. Even if we go out to eat, he'll state he doesn't like the place before he even sees the food. We've recently bought him a vegan protein shake that is plant based and healthy. If he doesn't like a meal, I make him try one bite, then he can have his shake. It really is the only way he consumes fruits and veggies. He only likes applesauce. I often think it's just a texture thing for him too. Malachi gets scared often at night. He has his own room now and his two night lights in there just aren't enough. He'll often turn on the hall or bedroom light. He says he has bad dreams or hears scary sounds. He is good at reading. He's probably on a 2nd grade level. I can't seem to find a series that interests him. He just reads random picture books on his level. He has really neat handwriting. He is left handed when he writes. He's quite ambidextrous and uses both hands for different things. Malachi's favorite toy he got for Christmas were his dragon balls. Little dragons that can transform into balls.

Maya (3 years 10 months):
Maya is my little buddy since the boys go to school. She is so fun and full of life. I often say she is high on life, she is just always happy and excited about everything. She is goofy and sassy and rough and tough like the boys. She likes imaginative play. She has dolls and tea sets and a Dr kit she likes to pretend with. She is really into the movie Frozen and loves to pretend she is Elsa and has me tie a blanket around her neck as a cape. She is loud and likes to wrestle and play with the boys, but she also loves to be a princess. When we went to Cedar for Christmas we were too busy for naps and now she doesn't nap at all. By the end of the day she sometimes gets cranky because she's tired. She goes to bed around 8pm with the boys, but I bet she would sleep longer in the morning than them, but the boys are loud when they wake up and always wake her up early. She is potty trained. She'll even tell me when she needs to go. She still has accidents though. In the middle of the night if she has to go she'll come in my room and get me to help her go. Her favorite colors are pink and purple. She likes to listen to Frozen and Tangled songs and dance and pretend. We go to story time at the library. She likes for me to read her books. Her favorite shows are Barbie and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. I made her stop watching nursery rhymes on Youtube because she would start watching other things and she started saying phrases that were not nice that she learned from there. Like, "I hate you" or "shut up  mom". She constantly bugs me to let her watch again, but I don't let her. She is now a Sunbeam in Primary. She is so happy and loves going. She's a pretty good eater. She'll eat or try most things. She likes to do her preschool work. She likes to watercolor paint. She is really good at doing puzzles. She can easily do 24 piece puzzles. She still loves to dress up and try on shoes and clothes. She'll often go in my closet and put my clothes up to her and look in the mirror and pretend she's having a fashion show. She likes to play with my makeup . I have a few makeup brushes she plays with and she  puts blush on. Or she'll pretend to color her eyebrows. She have pink lipgloss she likes to put on. She also likes to comb her hair and tells me how she wants it everyday. She was in ballet lessons at the YMCA for a while. She loves to dance and get dressed up in her tutu and ballet slippers. She is getting these cute little freckles on her nose. We got her to stop sucking her thumb. We used some bitter nail polish for a couple months. She got some new dolls and accessories for Christmas that are her favorite toys. She sleeps with her teddy bear still. It is her comfort item. Levi also got her  a stuffed giraffe for Christmas and she sleeps with that now too. She still prefers me over Adrian.

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.