Attention Please!

Makenzie lost her first tooth!

It really seemed to be bugging her these last few days. Tyler pulled a trick on her and just wanted to "see" it. Well, of course his hand "accidently" bumped it a little too hard and it came out. After she got over the initial shock of the blood, she was more than excited. She has been beaming all night! Our little girl is growing up... (tear)!

There's a 2 year old in the house!

We celebrated Gavin's 2nd Birthday this weekend! I can't believe he is two! He is so fun and we all love him so much. Tyler had to be at a medical conference in Columbus on Friday, so we decided to make a trip out of it and visit our friends the Talbots. We planned on having a BBQ dinner at a park Friday night. Right as we were walking out it started pouring rain! We decided to still go and cook under a pavilion and let the kids get soaked to the bone. It was a fun adventure! The pictures are kind of scary-looking because they are were taken with the phone and it was dark, but the kids sure had fun!

Saturday we spent the morning swimming.

We then had a small party for Gavin. He loves anything with wheels, so he loved his cake.

He loved blowing out his candles and knew exactly what to do. I would randomly sing the birthday song later that day and he would always blow out his imaginary candle at the end! Too cute!

Gavin got some micro-machines!
It was a great and very cheap e-bay find. It's been a hit with all the kids!

Digging in! Yum!

All the kids (including Tyler) relaxing and watching some "Tom and Jerry."

Thanks Jay and Mel for letting us crash your place. It was a fun weekend!

Inside the house...

Okay, so I found a time when the house was mostly clean and I took a few shots of our place.

Here's the living room.

Okay, I'm lying, here is what the living room usually looks like. This picture was taken just a few hours later.
Kitchen: LOVE IT!
We bought a Shark steam mop as a house-warming gift for ourselves. Best investment right there. I hated mopping, but now it gets done like every other day!

Dining Area: We are in the process of getting a new dining table, so for now you get to see our card table. Ha! Ha! Computer/Office Niche: I love it because I can hide all of the art supplies, office supplies, and papers galore.

Master bedroom with a fireplace!

Kids room

3rd bedroom that we turned into a play room

Here's Gavin posing by his train table. We spend many hours in here.Upstairs bath:
We have a master bath, but it I couldn't position myself to get a good picture. Plus, it's not decorated yet as we need to invest in things to furnish another bathroom (someday when we have money.) We also have a half bath/laundry room as well.

Come and visit!!

Dr. Tyler Sherman D.O.

It's hard to get use to hearing Dr. Sherman! It's good though! Here he is on one of his first days of work. This first month has been full of orientation, re-certifying classes, lectures, and a rotation of pediatrics. I dare say that he seems to have a lighter load than some of our other medical school friends. Tyler is a little frustrated with it starting out a little slow, but it won't be long when the work will come. He has Friday and Saturday night call every other weekend. He has to be at the hospital and cover for several Family docs. He is suppose to monitor any of their patients that come in. Well, he hasn't gotten any pages this whole month, which seems hard to believe. There were no interns last year, so they believe the other hospital staff have gotten out of the habit to contact the FP intern. So Tyler is trying to get his name out there so he feels a little more productive, especially when he hears that his ER colleges are swamped. (Now some people may like the "no calls/no work" attitude, but not Tyler. He is ready and willing to do his job.)

Southern Ohio Medical Center: Very good things are happening here.
That is their motto. Yes, good things are happening here.

So here is the story behind the sign:

Tyler has a tendency to forget his name badge and pager when he goes to work. Those are 2 very important MUST haves. He will probably hate that I'm telling you this, but I think it's so funny. He likes to blame the kids in misplacing them. But in reality they are often just left in the same spot he left them. This has been going on for the last 2 years of rotations. So the first night of call, I get a phone call about 20 minutes after he left. Sure enough he left his name badge on the counter and he was coming back to get it. The next night, 20 minutes later I get a phone call telling me he forgot his pager which was sitting on top of the fridge.

So as he walks out all frustrated and with me laughing, I decide the next day to make him a sign to help him remember the essentials. Of course I must remind him about the most important thing to do before leaving.... and that is kissing the wife!

4th of July

We had a good 4th of July celebration. We decided to check out what our new area has to offer. We went to a small town parade. It was short, but the kids got the most candy they have ever gotten from a parade. We had our own little BBQ and took the kids to see "Cars 2." Gavin was more interested with the arcade games out in the lobby. There's only so much popcorn and soda you can use to distract him. We made a small flag craft out of ribbons and jewels and had a basic lesson on it. We then could not forget the fireworks! The kids were more excited to light sparklers than to watch the BIG ones. I am so grateful to live in this country knowing all of the many sacrifices that have come so I can have my freedom.

Makenzie is showing off how good she is at blowing bubbles.
She loves gum!

Sparkler pictures: Not the best, but good enough to remember the night!

Finding good in Popeye

My kids recently found old "Popeye" episodes on Netflix. I guess I learned this week that television can have a good influence on my kids! They have requested to eat spinach all week long-- a first ever!! Makenzie has eaten a good portion of the whole bag. Jordan did try some as well, which is unheard of. It does help that Tyler helps in the situation acting as a weak person who is afraid of these "Strong Popeyes" who eat their spinach.

Also the other day, Jordan started kissing my arm up and down with some smooching sounds. I asked him what he was doing and he said he was being like Popeye as well! Good ol' Popeye sure does love his Olive and shows it. It's too cute to watch my four year old do the same to his mama!

Carter Caves, Kentucky

We decided to do an overnight camping trip and check out the area. We went to Carter Caves State Park about an hour away in Kentucky. They are a lot like the Lehman Caves in Nevada that I went to as a kid. To say the kids were excited was an understatement. They loved every minute of it. We set up camp and then went on a tour in one of the caves. That is one of the best things you can do on a hot muggy day! It was nice and cool in the caves.We had a simple dinner and went on a hike to see a naturally formed bridge out of rock that has a paved road on top.Gavin found himself in "tent time" a lot, as he did not want to stay in our campsite. We taught the kids how to play "War."

Makenzie really wanted a fire. We didn't plan on one, so she scrounged up enough wood to build a small one. She was excited to learn a few things, including using matches all by herself. The lightning bugs came out full force at dusk. Makenzie is our professional bug catcher. I don't know how she does it, but she catches flies to small birds ALL the time! We only had a bag for her to catch the lightning bugs in. She did release them by the end of the night. When Gavin saw the lightning bugs, he didn't understand how their bums lit up. He thought it was fire and tried to blow it out!

We got the kids glow sticks, which was a big hit. We spent a good amount of time sword fighting and baton twirling. The campground has a weekly dance held at a pavilion. We stopped to go to the restroom and decided to check it out. Makenzie was begging to dance. There were mostly teenagers there, but there were some families with younger children. I let her hit the dance floor, and that is exactly what she did! She danced her little heart out. Tyler and I just watched her with amazement and laughter as she moved her little body around. I wonder where she gets most of her moves because she is pretty good!

We had a wonderful time and something we plan on doing more this summer. We found out that Tyler has to do call at the hospital ever other weekend, so that is something we will have to work around.