Current pregnancy picture

I have the sweetest 4 year old. I was talking to my sister on the phone tonight when Tucker came in with this drawing he made for me. Who needs real photos when my children can draw pictures for me. Now you don't need an updated pregnancy picture - this is what I look like. I have a baby in my belly!

San Rafael Swell

We went camping this weekend down in the San Rafael Swell of Southeastern Utah. My parents went down Thursday morning with some friends (the Blakes and the Humbles), and they took Aubrey with them. Tucker wanted to go, but he had his last day of school on Thursday, so we decided to let the grandparents have some one on one time with Aubrey.
We left right after work on Friday and made the 3.5 hour trek down there. The weather report was saying that it was going to be cold and stormy so we packed accordingly. Much to our surprise it was very warm and very sunny when we got down there. It was great playing in 85 degree weather.

Here is a picture of our campsite.

Here is Cole with his favorite person in the world. He actually prefers my dad over Lisa and me. If he gets hurt, he goes to grandpa. If he wants something, he goes to grandpa. It's quite funny to see how attached he is.

When we woke up the next morning we enjoyed the buttes that surrounded us on all sides. The views are spectacular down there in the Swell. I love living in Utah again and being so close to the red rock country.

Lisa and I slept out in the tent that night and the kids slept in the 5th wheel with my parents. For Lisa and me it was a rough night sleeping with the intense winds outside, although the kids and my parents didn't notice a thing in the trailer and slept soundly. Not the best tent camping weather. The next day though, the wind was gone and it was sunny blue skies and warm weather.

Lisa and I took the 4 wheeler over to the Wedge Overlook Saturday morning without the kids. The views are amazing.

This is looking down the canyon formed by the San Rafael River. Our campsite is actually way down there at the end of the canyon. You can see the road if you zoom in on the picture.

After our little get away to the wedge, we went back to camp and did a lot of riding around on the 4 wheelers with the kids.

Tucker and Aubrey absolutely loved playing with Erin and Craigs daughters. They followed them everywhere. Here is Aubrey enjoying a 4 wheeler ride.

With Lisa's pregnant belly, Tucker can't quite get his arms around to hold on to her. Maybe this fall Tucker after the baby is born.

That afternoon the winds picked up a little more and it started to cool down, thus the jackets.

This is pretty much what Cole did the whole weekend. He would grab on to his dump truck and push it all over camp. He loves that dump truck.

It was an enjoyable get away, even if it was a short stay.

Lately

It is so fun having a girl! It's been almost 2 years since Aubrey's had a haircut and her hair is getting really long. It makes it fun to try new "dos". Last Sunday we did a princes crown. Of course I had to have her model it for a picture!

Luckily she has always been great at letting me do her hair and holding still.

Tucker came home from church last Sunday and apparently was really tired. He took his shoes and socks off and crawled under our bed to take a "rest". Cody and I were calling him down for dinner and he never responded. : )

Making sugar cookies. Tucker picked out Halloween cookie cutter and I "helped" Aubrey pick out some spring ones.

Tucker had his last day of preschool yesterday for the year. He loved it and wishes he were going to summer school. How I wish that attitude would last throughout life! (Not that I want him to go to summer school, I'm just glad he likes school.) This picture is with his teacher, Miss Sherilynn and his little friend Kali that we carpool with. Aubrey will have Miss Sherilynn next year.

Finally we finished our yard last night. Cody's sister and her friend came up to help us lay sod and our neighbors came over as well. Our friends gave us an 8X8 garden box that we are going to use as a sandbox for the kids. Now if it would just warm up - we'll spend our time outdoors!

Mother's Day

We had a great day on Mother's Day. Tucker made me open my Mother's Day present last Thursday right when he got home from school. I told him that I was pretty sure I was supposed to wait until Sunday, but when he started unwrapping it for me, I decided now was a great time! He made me a cute bookmark of pressed flowers. He was so excited to show me how to use it and told me to put it in my scriptures. I'm sure it's the first of many more homemade presents to come and I LOVE IT!!

Here are my cute kiddos and me sitting on our GRASS! Yeah for grass! My yard was my Mother's Day present. How awesome is that!

This is a picture of the house with the grass in the front. The dirt pile is slowly going away. Cody built up the flower beds right in front of the house more tonight and we'll use the rest of the dirt in our garden this weekend. Like I mentioned before, the backyard isn't complete yet, so once we buy more sod and have it laid, I'll take a picture. I have to tell you though, it is so fun driving past our street and seeing grass. 

We went to sacrament meeting and Tucker sang a Mother's Day song with the rest of the primary. It was really cute and sweet. I asked him if he was really going to sing and he told me he would. He'd look at me to make sure I was watching when he knew the words. Afterwards we drove down to visit our Mom's. Here the kids are playing in Cody's parents backyard.

My cute princess.

I'm kind of lame and didn't get a picture with any of our Mom's but here's a cute picture of Cody's Dad, Cole and Cody.
We were able to visit with Cody's family, my family and my Grandpa/ma Foster. We love all the Mom's in our lives. Hope everyone had a great Mother's Day!

Dentistry From The Heart

This past Saturday my office held a day of free dentistry in conjunction with the non-profit organization Dentistry from the Heart.
We were so excited as an office to give back to the community and help out those who wouldn't normally be able to afford dental work. We had my good buddy from dental school, Spencer Wade, come down and help me out with fillings and extractions. We also had a hygienist, Kelsie Graham, volunteer to come in and help with cleanings. A huge thanks goes out to those two for their sacrifice and help.
We also had some friends of our current staff come to help with registration and organization with the crowd. In addition to all of those volunteers we had several dental assisting students come up and help with the sterilization of instruments, cleaning up and setting up the operatories and helping Dr. Wade and me with the dental work.
We provided the option of a cleaning, a filling, or an extraction. We advertised that we would be open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and it was a first come, first serve basis. As I showed up to the office at 7:30 in the morning, there was already a line outside with people camping out to get some free dental work.
In all we saw 50 patients and provide approximately $20,000 worth of free dental work. It was an insanely busy day, but very successful for our first ever day of free dentistry. We definitely learned a few things on how to improve for next year as we plan on having this day once every spring.

Marieli, Paty, and Alicia helping at the registration desk.


A view of the line of people waiting for dental care. At one point the line wrapped around the building. We ended up turning people away after 10:00 because we had met our quota for the day.

Doug, Celeste, and Lindsay helping out front.

Spencer Wade and an assistant doing some fillings.

Kelsie Graham cleaning some teeth.

Yours truly sporting the shiny, bald head and being assisted by RanDee Graham.

All of the volunteers had a great experience helping out and we had plenty of very grateful recipients of dental work. My main motivation for doing this was to help out the less fortunate in Summit and Wasatch counties. As the Savior says in Matthew 25:40 "...Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." The feeling that comes from giving of oneself is better than any financial profit or gain that we gave up by donating all of that dental work.

We look forward to another day of free dentistry in 2011. For now, I need to recover from this one. Between this and putting my entire yard in last week, I am beat. Unfortunately I have scout camp this weekend too! I think I'm ready for a vacation.

Day at daddy's office

Here are some recent photos of the family as they came in for their cleanings at the office.

Tucker and Aubrey do great in the dental chair and love to watch the cartoons on the t.v.'s that we have in the ceiling. It's so funny to watch them enjoy their cartoons.

Another wonderful patient in the dental chair. Good job with your brushing. Look at those pearly whites!

New Logo

We recently updated our logo for the dental office. We love it and it looks great in our office. Enjoy!

30+

I'm finally 3/4 of the way done with this pregnancy. I hit 30 weeks over the weekend. The nice thing is, I know that I can get induced early, so I like to say that I only have 9 weeks left. I've definitely popped out more in the past 10 weeks. I'm pretty sure I'll be completely stretching that shirt out if I try to wear it right before I have the baby, so we'll see if I get a 40 week picture.

20 weeks

Riding the Train and Cinco De Mayo

On Wednesday we were able to ride the Heber Creeper for a great deal. Kids 3 and under were free and everyone else was only $6 a person. That's a fantastic deal! To ride the train when Thomas is around, it's $18 per adult and $16 per kid. There was no way we ever would have done that. My Mom came up and rode the train with us - she's lived here her whole life and never been on the train just like me. It was sponsored through the library and the kids received conductor hats and fruit snacks. Here we are getting our picture taken with Mr. Conductor.

The train takes you through the Heber Valley and winds around the west side of Deer Creek. It's beautiful with the mountains and lake. When we reached our turnaround point, the engine disconnects and goes around us to the now front of the train to take us back to the station.

Of course I only have pictures of the sage brush mountains, not Timp or the lake, but it was pretty.

Getting all 3 to keep their hats on for a picture took forever. I didn't take my SLR with me and that's always a mistake. I miss half the good shots, but at least it's not taking up my whole diaper bag. Aubrey didn't want to ruin her hair - wonder who told her that?!!

When Cody came home from work that night we made a Cinco De Mayo dinner. It was great with authentic meat from the Mexican market, fresh cilantro, guacamole, salsa, corn tortillas,  Jarritos to drink and Mexican rice.

Yummy!

Laying the sod

This cute little face follows me around all day long.

And this is the view I see when I look straight down. My belly, a big boy and my baby. Little does my baby know that he is going to be dethroned in 10 weeks. : )

So it all happened Tuesday night. Our sod is now our lawn! Cody's dad and the men and young men from our ward came over and helped us roll it all out. The tractor moved the rolls over into position.

And then 1 by 1 they were rolled, cut and shaped to fit our yard.

I'm so glad I didn't have to help with this part. Sod is heavy!

Our free sod took us to about a 1/3 of our backyard. Not too shabby! We'll order sod for the rest of the yard in the next week or so and get that put in too.

I haven't downloaded the finished yard picture yet from my camera, so when I get around to doing that - I'm sure there will be a new post. We are so grateful for all the help we received throughout this process. It would be impossible to do alone.