Happy Grandparent's Day

We have some pretty fabulous parents who have made amazing awesome grandparents to our four littles. It's hard being so far from them and our own grandparents. Especially when I am such a procrastinator.

So, today I realized tomorrow is Grandparent's Day and rallied the troops to pull together this cute picture to say "We love you!" to those special people.

Monster Pancakes!

We love making monster pancakes! Here are some of our latest creations:

Baby Ben

Most of you know, but baby Ben joined our family at the end of May. He was three weeks old yesterday! He's a natural part of our family now and I can't imagine life without him. All the kids dote on him with lots of kisses, cuddles and pokes. I posted pictures of him on my other blog. But here is the only picture I've taken of him since then!

Then I found this one on my phone. This whole time I've been thinking how different Ben looks from what Scott looked like. Hmmm, I guess I'm reconsidering that.

What cute boys!

Building Birdfeeders

We always like the first Saturday of every month. We get to go to Home Depot and build stuff. This week we got to do bird houses. It was fun to have Grandma there too.

Rough Night

Scott decided to make things interesting for us last night. He was a little tired yesterday afternoon so he took a nap. The big problem with kids taking naps is that they don't like to go to bed, and that always causes problems. Typically when he takes a nap he stays up a little bit later or sits in his bed and read books until he falls asleep. Last night he was kind of fussy/tired so we tried to have him read books. Scott really didn't like that idea so he started climbing around on his bed, unfortunately, things didn't turn out so well.
A little bit after 9 o'clock I heard a thud from upstairs, and then I heard Amber's voice shouting my name. I raced upstairs to see Amber holding Scott and blood literally flowing out of his mouth. There was a trail of blood on the floor, and a bunch of blood on Amber's shirt and hands. Amber may have felt pretty frantic at the time, but to be honest she handled it very well. At first he thought he knocked out some teeth or bit through his lip, but when we got the bleeding to stop we saw the big gash in his tongue and decided to take into the hospital.
Unfortunately, we decided to take him to the closest emergency room. In hindsight it would've been smarter to take into the pediatric hospital was another 20 minutes away, since after all is done, that is where we ended up taking him anyway. The first emergency room had a long wait, and when Amber and Scott finally got in they didn't have the things needed to take care of the pediatric emergency like Scott's problem. At first we thought we might be overreacting since most tongue problems I left alone to heal by themselves. And after our visit to the emergency room we realized it was a little bit worse than we thought. At the first hospital they thought Scott needed about three stitches to fix his tongue, but they didn't have a bite block to help him keep his mouth open. When we took him to the pediatric emergency room the doctor took one look and said she needed to get the ENT to take this. Finally, at about three in the morning they took into the OR intubated him and put two layers of stitches (about 11 total) into his tongue. After that things went smoothly. Scott wasn't too excited when he woke up. He didn't really like having his tongue numb. He didn't get much rest of the hospital, but he was a trooper and he got released from the hospital around lunchtime.
Fortunately we have good friends in town they came over to our house and watched our other children through the night. It was kind of a tricky situation manage since our van was in the shop, but it all worked out in the end. The girls were very concerned for their little brother. They didn't like seeing him sad. Sammi was even kind enough to give her special necklace that she got a school that day to Scott so that he could have something nice when he went to the hospital. Her necklace made him very happy since it was a special flashing ball necklace.
All in all it was exciting night, but not exciting enough that I would want to do it again. I'm pretty sure if you asked Amber she would say the same thing especially since she braved the first hospital all by herself.

Random Drawings

Just in case anyone is interested I (Brent) have a blog that I randomly post drawings on. You can find it here at Passey Art.

Oops... Merry Christmas

I forgot to post this last month, but Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you all had a great 2012. We did.

A Glimpse into Scott

Scott and I are having lots of fun while the girls are at school. We like to go on errands together and he loves it when we get to go to the park in the mornings.

His most recent fascination is with pulling toys. We have a pink wooden duck from when Sammi was his age, but its back legs keep breaking. The other day Brent came home with an old school Little People bus. Scott insisted on holding on to the string with two fingers at the very end. It kept slipping through his fingers so Brent found a large heart from a broken necklace and tied it to the end. Now he pulls it happily everywhere! Here's a video:

Turns out, Scott also likes crafts. Something he has in common with Sammi! Here are a few pics of his crafting adventures:

And lastly, the kid loves, LOVES books. He won't consent to sleeping unless he has every book he can see added to his crib. It's usually about 8 books, sometimes more, rarely fewer. His favorite right now is The Chimpansneeze. It has a chimpanzee and a kinkajou who are friends and lose, then find each other, through their sneezing adventures. When Scott wants this book he does the cutest pretend sneeze. We spend a lot of time pretend sneezing these days!

Cute Picture Round Up

Went through my phone tonight and found these gems. Enjoy the adorableness of our three. Biased? Me? Nah!

I almost forgot! Brent and I have new callings. He's a ward missionary and I'm the Bear den leader. Go Scouts! Sammi is still adjusting to first grade. She loves riding the bus but doesn't like the cafeteria food. So I guess I'll be packing lunches. Elli also did not like lunch when she went to preschool last week. Make that two lunches I'll be packing! Sammi had her first test on Friday and has another one tomorrow. It's mostly review stuff right now. I hope they move quickly before she gets bored with the novelty of the classroom, worksheets, and what not. Surprisingly she doesn't like art very much but I'm hoping once they get the class rules down and the teacher trusts them more they'll be able to do more of the things she likes. Elli doesn't get up early so I'm afraid how this week will go as she has to get up at 7 every morning for preschool. Though she is excited to go. Usually. Especially once I promised to make her lunch :) Scott did very well his first day without sisters. He played with a train for over two hours! Such dedication. He loves books and scissors. Fortunately the two interests have not collided yet! Knock on wood. Now I'm rambling. Good night.

Baltimore Trip

We took a trip to visit my sister Ann, her husband Andrew, and their beautiful daughter. It was a ton of fun. That doesn't mean that we didn't have any challenges... kids may have cried, bedtimes may have been a little challenging, but overall we had a great time! We had a lot of fun going to an art museum, a train museum, and the Smithsonian Aerospace, American History, and Natural Science museums.We also went to Artscape, but unfortunately I didn't take pictures there! Here are a few of the pictures that I did remember to take.

Here was one of  my favorite things at the art museum. It was the most amazing toothpick sculpture ever!

Amber and I both found the styrofoam cups carved into cool faces.

Scott was a big fan of the dinosaurs... until he had an absolute meltdown at the natural science museum about 5 minutes later.

The kids and I did the obligatory picture in the giant shark mouth at the Smithsonian.

They have so many cool things at the Smithsonian! Unfortunately they wouldn't allow pictures of Old Glory. The experience seeing Old Glory and learning more of the story was definitely one of the major highlights of the trip.

While Amber took the girls to the restroom I saw something that caught my eye. It was kind of fun to find a little bit of LDS history in our nation's capitol.

It was very hot in Baltimore! Fortunately Ann recommended the splash pad! To be honest this one didn't really have many fancy things, but seriously this was one of the best splash pads we've ever been too!

That was a little peak into our trip to Baltimore. Families trips are great. Things never go as planned, kids always have to go to the bathroom when you're nowhere near an exit, and the weather always does goofy things, but when it's all said and done they are totally worth it. There are so many fun memories from the trips and activities we do as families, and I'm glad I have my family to make those memories with.

A little update

We moved to Kingsport! Actually, we moved a few weeks ago, but we are a bit slow to updat our blog. I (Brent) took my big COMLEX level 1 (licensing exam) a couple weeks ago and we are waiting a few more weeks to here back about how that went. Hopefully I pass and we get to go on with regular old med school life. I was really excited to read the handbook for clinical rotations. It states the the typical week should be around 60 work hours, but it is up to the preceptor's discretion, and we are capped at a maximum of an 80 hour work week. I sure hope I get to see my family more than that! Yesterday Amber and I celebrated a big day. I made a great choice eight years ago. I asked a cute girl out on a date to go see Ryan Shupe and the Rubberband. She agreed but insisted on providing dinner. Eight years later we went out on another date, but this time I paid for lunch. It was kind of fun to enjoy a lunch together without refereeing kids. I think we were out of practice on dating because we didn't seem to know what to say without kids around! Now that we moved to a city with more options for quick dates I think we'll do much better. I'm just glad that I have Amber. Life is better when we are together.

New Family Picture

We had pictures taken just after Easter in the girls' new dresses and Scott's stylish tie. Our friend Heather took them. She did a great job capturing our family style. Thanks, Heather!

February 2012

 Here's a glimpse of February. We had a lot of fun celebrating Valentine's Day, taking a pottery class at the Children's Museum of Oak Ridge, painting, shopping, dressing up and losing a tooth.

Scott getting sleepy after filling up on a yummy dinner.

 Super Scott saving the world one milk jug at a time.

 Playing in the kitchen at the Children's Museum.

 Sammi dressing up in the Pioneer room at the Children's Museum.

 Elli dressing up in the Pioneer room at the Children's Museum.

 Sammi lost tooth number 3. She worked a long time on loosening it and finally letting Mom pull it out. The Tooth Fairy knew how hard she worked and how patient she was and rewarded her with 2 dollars!

 Scott discovering fingerpaints. He loved squishing it through his fingers. By the end it was all over his head.

Wearing hearts for Valentine's Day. They picked different shirts with hearts every day for the week before Valentine's Day. Sammi is making a heart with her arms.

 On a shopping trip to Hobby Lobby. These three are such cuties all together when we are out.

I went through a box of papers from graduate school and found this paper where I doodled my name and Brent's. I think this was before we were engaged. It even has Scott up there in the top right corner. 

February went by so quickly and I can hardly believe it's April already. The children are growing fast and learning so quickly. Sammi is starting to read more fluently. She's moved into first grade math. She's learning to roller skate at our homeschool co-op. Elli is also learning to roller skate. She writes her name. She knows all her letters and tells me frequently that she'll learn to read tomorrow (already a procrastinator!) Her favorite song is Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. Scott loves all sorts of balls. He loves for me to bounce a ball off his forehead. He's started stacking blocks instead of knocking them over.

January 2012

January was a busy month. We started it off with Scott's birthday and ended it with Brent's birthday. Both celebrated their golden birthdays (where they turned the age of their date: Scott turned 1 on the 1st and Brent turned 31 on the 31st). I meant for there to be great amounts of celebrating, but alas, life was busy and we didn't do much.

Scott turned one and ate a marshmallow! No cake for this gluten-free boy. It still seems to bother him. Scott has become so playful. He loves to follow his sisters around and play with them. He loves fruits and veggies, especially mixed together in a smoothie. He's now in 18 month clothes, though some long 12 month pants still fit.

Elli started the new year of with lots of crafts. She is not a fan of formal school time so we do lots of songs and imaginative play. She knows all her letters and their sounds but isn't ready to sound out words yet. She does like to play with Sammi's school supplies so we have fun all together doing school. Elli loves her ballet class and often sachets around the house to her own soundtrack.

Sammi is continuing to grow at a very quick rate. She's lost her bottom two teeth and by the end of January another was getting loose. Sammi is also learning at a quick rate. She is reading early readers but doesn't really like to read. She'd rather I read a more complex book to her. She's also spelling like a champ and a whiz with numbers. But her true love is art. She must do art projects everyday. She enjoyed Grandma Devine's visit where we learned to doodle and she got to watch tons of art videos with Grandma.

Brent went back to school on the last day of his month, a.k.a. his birthday. After having been out of school for 9 months he was glad to get back. We celebrated his birthday during family home evening the night before his birthday. At church Brent is still teaching the gospel principles class, now on his third time

I'm busy with the joys and fun of homeschooling, having three little ones and all the other responsibilities that pop up throughout the days and weeks. At church I am still the Primary President. We started the year by giving the children a journal to keep track of what they learn during sharing time this year and to help them memorize the scriptures that go with each month. The kids love them! We also participate in a homeschool co-op and I volunteered to teach two classes this semester: art to 3-5th graders and an animal science class to the K-2nd graders. My part of the animal science class is to do a craft each week related to the animals we discuss. I love all the focus on art! And Sammi loves to help me plan and prep the lessons, too.