Turning One and Twenty Five

January 15th is a big day in our family! On Thursday Joe will be celebrating his 25th birthday, which he is pretty excited about since his car insurance will get cheaper. Also, our twins Ethan and Noah will be turning ONE!!! Its hard to believe where we were one year ago. I was a blimp, ready to burst, and Joe was sleeping on the incredibly uncomfortable hospital couches. And we would be about to experience the most amazing, happy, sad, poopy, crying, laughing, splashing, messy, sleep-deprived, adorable journey of our lives. So here are a few pictures to capture some of these moments.

"I can't put my arms down!"

Lil' Pimps

Bath Time

So ready to eat!

Little W.

Where Do I Start?

Thanksgiving:

For Thanksgiving I had my friend Sarah over, and we made our own Thanksgiving with the help of Tawnya, and of course our supportive husbands. The dinner turned our great, although the Turkey was a little dry, but I just figured it tasted like turkey and thats all I was going for!

A few days later we put up our $12.00 Christmas tree that we bought from a local exchange store. I've been buying ornaments little by little since August and I think the overall decor looks great.

And of course since we have curious crawling boys... this is what our christmas tree really looks like:

And finally, the present time:

On Thursday night Joe was vomiting through the entire night, but he had a big test on Friday that he couldn't miss. He ended up making it in time for the test, but not doing very well on it, which means that he will have to take the final on Tuesday. He is feeling much better now, so we think it must have been a 24 hour bug that I think I have now (Although my symptoms aren't as severe which I credit to my stellar immune system). Unfortunately Ethan has become quite ill as well starting last night. We aren't sure what it is, but he has a temperature and is very lethargic. I will call a nurse tomorrow to see what I can do.

Though all of this seems fairly grim, it just makes us all the more excited for finals to be over, our illnesses to have passed, and us be on our way back to Utah to visit family and friends.

Operative Dentistry

I just wanted to write a bit about school just to make myself feel good. It is absolutely incredible how much information they are packing into our brains so quickly. I already have a pile of paper that is just my notes from class that is approaching 10 inches in height. Of course there is also text book material we have been required to read but just the notes from class are exausting. In a week or two of time we cover as much material as an entire semester of undergrad study. But with all that said, It has also been quite rewarding. The other night as I was walking in the rain from the Dental building to the medical library to study all night, I stopped and thought about what a blessing and a great experience it is to be here. I felt the rain on my face, looked at the stone spires on top the Medical School illuminated against the black sky like the cathedral of Notre Dame, looked at historic Kinnick Stadium, and pondered what a great experience this all is. Jessica and I have worked so hard to be in the place we are right now and sometimes its easy to get overwhelmed with everything, but its in those hard moments that I count my blessing and thanks Heavenly Father for what we have.

Now on a more fun note, I had one of my classmates take a picture with my phone of me working in class. We have a dental simulation clinic here at Iowa where we are able to work on a manikin head that has false teeth, real teeth glued into a denture, etc. We are learning how to drill cavities right now and its fun to actually be working like that. I'm getting pretty good with the drill so everyone needs to look out. Hahahaha. We will start doing work on each other next semester and I think we start working on real patients either next summer or for sure next fall.

The Slideshow Famine is Over

Here is a quick slide show video i made while Jess was taking a nap. She is still recovering from a bad cold. The film covers the boys from the time we moved to Iowa til now. I hope you will enjoy and not miss the boys too much. We will be home to visit soon enough.

To all the doubters

Here is phase II of our little project. We received phone calls and blog comments kind of doubting our painting skills and wondered what patterns we used, if it was paper or paint, some thought they were purchased. Well, to all the doubters, here is a picture of us working on it as well as the final product. We used those spongy ear plugs to do the solid circles and used a piece of construction paper rolled in a tube to make the hollow circles. Jess is so creative. They were both her ideas to make such nice circles. She is great. I love her so much. She has so many talents. You would not believe the fantastic scrapbook pages she has made for the boys. And now these block letters are memories that the boys can have forever.

The Fruits of Our Labors

Joe has been so great this weekend taking care of me while I have been sick. He has cleaned up, taken care of the boys, taken them to church by himself, and most importantly he has let me NAP! When I woke up from a much needed nap this afternoon, he had started my craft project for me to kill time. Well, I couldn't very well let him go at it alone! So this is what we have so far.

Close-up

And this is the crib set we tried to match.

Tomorrow for family night we are going to do "Noah".

Wish us luck!

Let me explain...

...no, there is too much. Let me sum up.
This past week or so has been fairly hectic, but i won't go much into it. Halloween was filled with many events that i will soon post pictures of, but I don't have any yet. I'll just talk about the important stuff.
Things I love about Joe:
1. He lives his life in a way that makes it easy for me to love him, trust him, and respect him.
2. I know that he would do anything short of chopping off his fingers to make me happy.
3. He loves being a father, and he is good at it.

Things I love about my boys:
1. They are giggly in the morning.
2. They look to me when they cry, because they trust that I can make it all better.
3. Noah sticks out his tongue a lot, and Ethan says "Dada" to get my attention.

Things I love about my mom:
1. She is so quarky that it would be impossible to describe her in one word.
2. She has found it in herself to forgive me for being such a wretched teenager.
3. She loves to laugh, even at herself.