Boston and other news

Well, it's been awhile, and we've been busy. Before I say anything else though, I should probably post something on my blog that I've posted on facebook. Most of you already know, so it's more just for my records. I'm currently 27 weeks along with baby number 3! I'm feeling good, big, but good. We got the ultrasound and found out it's a boy, which we're both very excited about.

This was today, 27 weeks and 1 day.

And here's the little one. I'm due June 1st, so it will probably be a May baby since I tend to go early. Still no name decided. We'll work on that once he's here.

The holidays were great. All of them - including Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, and Valentine's. It's that time of year for all the holidays. Don't have many pictures, but here's a few, just to catch up.

Halloween at our ward party - a fairy princess with drooping wings and a hippie pirate who wouldn't hold still

 Our ward had a chili/soup cook-off and my chicken gnocchi soup won third place. Woohoo!

Thanksgiving - we were so proud of ourselves that we cooked it all ourselves and it looked and tasted wonderful! It's our first Thanksgiving as just our little family.

Christmas - the only pictures I have are of us flying to Denver CO for a family reunion with everyone on my moms side. We had one stop, but no plane change and Cami and I got to go into the cockpit. Didn't know they would still let you do that! We took only a few of the kids opening presents. For a full account of Christmas, go here. It covers New Years as well.

 

 

 

Another 'holiday' I forgot to mention was a visit from my best friend, Melony, from Arizona. We try to see each other at least once or twice a year. This time last year, Austin and I flew to Arizona to see her. My camera has issues, so I have no pictures of her visit. Fortunately Melony is an excellent picture taker and she did a wonderful blog post about our tour around Albany.

For Valentine's, Sterling and I had our usual quiet dinner at home after the kids went to bed. It was wonderful. Nothing too fancy this year, but, when you're living on a budget... Sterling did get me a mini potted rose, that I haven't killed yet!! And a coupon for a pregnancy massage. I'm super excited to use that sometime soon! I have such a wonderful husband!

The branch had a Valentine's party for the kids, which was a lot of fun. The parents made boxes for the kids and we passed around Valentine's, decorated cupcakes (and ate them), had lots of unhealthy, but yummy snacks, told some stories, played some games, and all around just had fun. It was a great activity.

 

Now that the holidays are out of the way, on to more recent news. School is going well for Sterling. It's school, with homework and reading and quizzes and tests, all of which are never fun. But the learning part of it is fun. His anatomy class has 'brand new' cadavers that haven't been dissected yet, so that's what he gets to do. They go in every Thursday and cut apart a new section on the cadavers. I'm so jealous. I think dissecting would be so much fun. I got a picture of him on his first day of school. It's nice that it's only a short walk away, he doesn't even have to wear a coat.

The day before this, they had the white coat ceremony. It was the second and last day of orientation and they invited all the families of the students to come. We are only one of two that have kids. Most of the students are young-er (roughly 21-22) and only one other girl is married. She just had a baby a few months ago. The students were all presented with their ID cards and their white coats. One of the professors said that the length of the white coat is more or less a mark of prestige, which why the students only have hip length coats instead of knee length or floor length. The professor joked that you'll see cardio-thoracic surgeons with coats that literally drag along the ground behind them.

While Sterling was standing in the line, Cami stood up and practically yelled "Look, there's daddy!" It was quiet enough and the auditorium was small enough that everybody heard and started laughing. I'm not sure if Sterling was embarrassed or flattered, but everybody in his class came up to him afterward and told him how cute his kids are.

Sterling ran for class President and won (without a contest - it was him against himself). So far there hasn't been much extra work to it and he'll get to know his professors and the dean of the school a lot better than he normally would, so he should be able to get excellent letters of recommendation when he's done. It will also look good on his resume. The way it turned out was that he distinguished himself as a leader from day one so several people in his class messaged him and basically told him they expected him to run for President and that they would support him fully. Quite the compliment.

Right now he's on spring break, so he's been home all week and we've been enjoying the time together. He goes back on Monday and finishes the term in April, then starts up again two weeks later. It's going to be a busy couple of years.

Last Saturday, our family had the opportunity to attend the temple for the first time since we've been here in New York. Our little branch only does a Branch Temple Trip every quarter or so. We're technically in the Manhattan Temple district, but Albany is in a unique situation in that it's located right smack in the middle of four temples. Manhattan is three hours south of us, Palmyra is three hours to the west, Boston is three hours to the east, and Montreal is three hours to the north. So our branch takes it in turns to go to most (excluding Montreal because of passport requirements at the border) of them during the year, which I think is fantastic!

This time we drove out to Boston and saw the beautiful temple there. We took our kids with us, since we would never ask anyone out here to watch them for us for a solid 9 hours. The way it works out is that we take the kids to the stake center next to the temple, then we coordinate with any other couples that also have kids. You watch their kids while they do a session, then they watch yours while you go into the temple. It means you're there for twice as long, but it's part of the sacrifice. We wanted to drive into Boston and do some site seeing, but by the time we finished in the temple, most of the tourist sites had already closed. We do plan on going back sometime and seeing all the historic sites. I'm excited. We decided that next time we go to the temple (in June to Palmyra - whether we go will depend on junior) we're going to go up Friday after Sterling's classes, site see that day, spend the night, then go to the temple the next morning. Should work out well, I hope.

We finally finished hanging up the rest of the pictures and other stuff on the walls of our place. Does that mean we're officially moved in? Funny how something like that takes so long. I've got some boxes that hang on the wall and we put those up. I usually put my India, South Africa, Hong Kong souvenirs up there, and did so this time, but I couldn't find the stand that my ostrich egg usually sits on. Got misplaced during packing and it never turned up, so I made a substitute out of duct tape. Apparently duct tape doesn't fix everything, because we went out shopping that day and came home to this:

I was very upset. However, my parents are going to be going back to South Africa in April, and my mom offered to pick up another ostrich egg for me. Otherwise, I figure Sterling and I will just have to go there someday!

I posted pictures of my piano a long time ago (the one that I bought here), though I don't think I really said anything about it. When I bought it, it didn't come with a bench. Sterling found one on craigslist for $4, so we jumped on it. The lady who sold it to us had bought a cheap piece of ply board and covered it with this hideous material that she got on sale somewhere. There was no padding to it and the board would bend when it was sat on, even by my kids, let alone me. So Sterling and I made a trip to Lowe's and Joann's to buy pieces to fix it. What we came up with is this beauty:

 

This is the material that was on it before. Meh.

I'm very pleased with it! It's got some lumps in it from where we stuffed it unevenly, but those should work out with time. The material is a sort of micro suede, so it's comfy to sit on. The only problem with it, is when you sit on it and stand up, it leaves a butt print in the fabric. Aw well. Also, the wood colors don't match at all, but I really don't care.

Today we went to Home Depot for a few things and were told that there was a kids activity going on in the store, so we went to check it out. Turns out they were making cars, so we got Cami in on the action. She's actually very good with a hammer for a three and a half year old. Then they got to race them down a track. She was the only girl there and I think she did at least as well as half the boys.

 

 

 

My sister, on her blog has a hilarious quote board that I think it's about time I start replicating. It gets me laughing every time I come across a new one on hers and Sterling and I have collected a handful that we think merit their own post.

First off, just some background, when Sterling noticed that his bald spots were getting too big and noticeable, he decided to shave his head completely and has kept it that way since roughly mid-November. When he first shaved it, he used his electric rechargeable razor and the battery on it died halfway through. I snapped a few pictures because it was just too funny.

So, now Sterling has very little hair on his head and yesterday, all four of us were sitting together on the couch and the conversation went something like this.

Cami: Mommy, I like your hair.
Me: Thanks, I like your hair.
Cami: And I like Austin's hair and I like Daddy's... no, not Daddy's hair. But I like Daddy's head.

I laughed so hard I cried. Literally. Cami was very concerned when she saw the tears coursing down my cheeks.

Another was when Sterling was doing a patient assessment on me for one of his classes.

Sterling: Patient has a cookie in one hand. She obviously has a weight problem, as in can't wait to stuff her face.

Never heard that one before.

On the way home through town just before dinner we're stopped at a red light

Cami: I want chicken nuggets
Me: I don't think we have any chicken nuggets at home
Cami: No. They're right there. (She points out the window at the McDonalds on the corner. Oh the powers of association.)

So, that's about it. Here's a few more pictures I've taken recently.

 

 

 

 

 

 Austin was in nursery and I guess he was just so tired that he walked over, got a stuffed animal and laid down and decided to go to sleep. One of the other little kids thoughtfully covered him with a blanket.