I passed my Boards! Everything is smooth sailing from here on out (other than buying a practice, setting up legal entities, buying a house, moving, etc.).
I met this woman about a year ago. She fell and hit her front teeth and had problems. We've discussed many different options. She broke several teeth. She never thought her smile would look the way it did before.
She was hesitant to get much treatment. I did a root canal on a tooth and didn't see her for quite a while. She decided to do fillings on the broken teeth and see how things turn out. We just finished a week or so ago and she was thrilled with the outcome. Gotta say, so am I.
We love our baby sister Desiree! She gets bigger and better everyday!
We have a dumpster diver in the family! Claire can often be found going through the trash to find leftovers, stickers, or just trash!
This was my way of being creative with Brinley's hair on a Sunday morning. I took a picture to show her that it looked like a tiara.
One day I was putting Claire down for her nap. I was rocking her and she kept sitting up and looking around. Usually if she does this I'll just put her in her crib. However, today I was wanting some snuggles so I decided to wrap her up in the "burrito wrap" like I do the babies. I thought she would complain but she was fine. I even put her to sleep like that and she didn't complain at all!
Ashlyn told me last week on Saturday that she really wanted a slap bracelet watch. I did a quick search on Amazon and found this one:
Ashlyn immediately started talking about how much she loved it and wanted it so bad! I told her we could order it if she had enough money. She couldn't find her wallet or her purse. She was pretty disappointed and spent part of the day looking for it. Sunday night came and she hadn't found it. She asked me about it again and I told her if she couldn't find her wallet, she'd just have to earn more money (it was $10). The next day in the morning she was talking about earning money. She wanted to earn all the money on that day (Monday) so that she could buy it. Jenny and I told her that it would probably take several days or even more than a week. She wouldn't have it. She was determined to do enough chores to earn the money. I came home later that day to find out that she worked for over four hours to earn the money! I was so proud. Jenny said that she told Ashlyn she needed to take a break to eat lunch but Ashlyn wouldn't stop until she had finished the chores needed to earn the money. We ordered it later that night (which was preceded by an educational lesson about banks, credit cards, etc. so that Ashlyn doesn't think that Mom and Dad just have to push a button on their phone to order things).
Look at that GREEDY smile! Haha! That is face of accomplishment!
It came in the mail! Amazon two-day shipping has changed this world! When I was a kid I remember ordering my first boombox and it took 4-6 weeks! Spoiled kids these days.
Ashlyn, Brinley and I have gone to the gardens twice this week during nap time to give Mom a break. We always have a blast together. This flower was really cool because there was a small ray of sunlight hitting the back that caused the middle part to light up.
We also played soccer on the hill close to the gardens:
HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRINLEY! Brinley was so excited about her birthday! We told her Happy Birthday many times and she always beamed with happiness and laughter. Thanks to grandmas and grandpas, she had a pretty good stack of presents to open. It took quite a while to open them. Each one, she just wanted to play with. Below, she is placing stickers in an activity book from Nana.
In her new dress from Grandma Martinson, she continues to open other presents.
Playing a game from Grandma Martinson. It's called "Snug as a Bug under the Rug". The girls have enjoyed this game.
The girls bought me this book for Christmas 2014. It is the cutest thing and the book is great but I have still never read the book all the way through without crying. This week when I read, I just let it all out. Brinley thought I was joking because it sounded so dramatic. Ashlyn said, "Dad are you crying? For real?" If you look close you can see the line going down my cheek. I LOVE MY GIRLS!
HOLY WEEK CONTINUES! We did little activities each day through out the week to remember Jesus' last week of his life. Friday was Jenny's birthday. We got donuts and went to the temple to remember Jesus going to the spirit world after death.
I ordered flowers for Jenny's birthday. A box will never go unused in our house as long as Ashlyn is around. I just love how creative she is.
We went to Chick-Fil-A for dinner for Jenny's birthday. We had a great time. The Van De Graaff's joined us. Ashlyn is so brave and willing to go up to order things on her own. I really am so impressed with this girl. She is shy at times but is brave to break out of her comfort zone often.
A neighbor brought us chocolate covered strawberries today! Brinley did a great job at getting the chocolate everywhere! This pic was before it got bad...
Kisses for Desiree. This girl initially was not very happy to see a younger sister join the family. But she has warmed up and is so sweet. She is always trying to help her out.
I was using my camera to find chocolate that Jenny informed me was "all over" my face. Ashlyn was quick and snapped a pic.
I looked at the blog post of Easter from last year and thought I would post some pictures from one year ago.
Spring Break was last week. We did have some fun together, also trying to find out where our new home will be. I have been looking for a dental practice to purchase and mainly looking in Texas. I found a practice that I liked and have been investigating and working through the purchase. There are so many steps it feels very overwhelming. This is a very stressful time for me. I'm usually great at managing stress but lately it's been tough. Here's all the things I'm trying to keep up with:
-graduate: make sure I'm finished with clinical requirements, pass all competencies
-take care of patients: I have several patients that have implants or a lot of work to be done and I'm trying to get them scheduled and finished before I graduate
-be prepared for clinical boards: I need to have three different patients with very specific criteria (it doesn't sound crazy but it's super stressful to find and arrange). These boards are on Saturday April 2.
-get licensed in Texas: there are quite a few hoops to jump through in processing an application for licensure
-purchase the practice: working with CPA firm, lawyer, broker, and dentist to try and transition smoothly
-getting a mortgage: we got approved for a mortgage this week and are looking at houses!
The practice is in Lufkin, TX. I feel bad that I didn't really get any pictures while we were there. It was a 12-13 hour drive down from Omaha but there were many stoplights and highways through small towns on the way. It was very frustrating for me to not be able to drive through a fast freeway the whole way down. We drove down on Saturday. We stayed in a hotel with a swimming pool and the girls loved this! Claire warmed up to it over time but Ashlyn and Brinley wanted to swim at every free moment we had.
Ashlyn LOVES the hot tub. It's funny because she seems to be sensitive to water that is too hot in the tub or shower, or food that is too hot, but she just jumps right in the hot tub with no problem. When we talk about moving to Texas, she is excited because we will go swimming a lot. We have tried to explain the situation further to her several times without much avail.
How much fun can you have with 6 people in one room!?
On Sunday we visited the ward and drove around Lufkin. Lufkin is a city of about 40,000. It is 2 hours from Houston and 3 hours from Dallas. The people that we met while we were there were extremely friendly and helpful. There were many churches, and WHOOOOOGE churches (as Ashlyn would pronounce the word). Churches the size of Home Depot. It took me back to my mission in Oklahoma.
Long story short, we are moving to Lufkin, TX! We are excited and nervous, but ready for the adventure ahead of us.
Shopping with my three girls! Ashlyn and Brinley had carts of their own that they could help me out with! It was actually very enjoyable.
The Gardens! I am really going to miss this place. The smells, the wind, the aviary, racing with the girls down the hill.
Ashlyn loves pretending that these doors are the doors of Snow White's hideaway and knocking on them. Then when staff answers the door, it's always a surprise.
This is the swing that we love to sit on as a family. We hope to have some kind of a porch swing in the future. Reminds me of Grandma Robertson's house and also Ross and Jody's house in Teasdale.
Sabina and Mike are moving to South Carolina! They stopped by and stayed the night with us on their way through! It was great to see them. Ashlyn and Brinley got a story read to them by Mike (even after their long day on the road).
Village Green Easter Egg Hunt! Yes, one of the many we will attend this season. It seems every holiday there are events at all the places we love: the Gardens, Fontanelle Forest, Children's Museum, and more. No I'm not bitter about it. I just don't necessarily love trick-or-treating four times in a two week period. Bah-hum-bug. It was a cold morning as well! It snowed on and off several times yesterday. Jenny and I wonder how much we will miss that in Texas.
There was a FAIRY FAIR at the Fontanelle Forest yesterday so right after we finished at the easter egg hunt, we headed to the forest. We gathered different items from fairies, made fairy wands,
found out that these pants are too small for Brinley,
took pictures with the fairies,
and went home to make a fairy house!
Mom and Ashlyn both have great creativity skills when it comes to stuff like this.
Ashlyn put the fairy house in her "secret garden". Ashlyn loves playing on the side of the house and imagining things. She is so creative and loves playing things out.
Ashlyn got her "kindergarten shots" this week. She has known for years (it seems) that this day would be coming. Jenny didn't tell her until the morning of and she was very brave.
Jenny told her that she could choose a place to go after her shots and she chose to get slushees. They went while the other girls were down for a nap (don't worry, a neighbor was on watch, thanks Mindy). We really are so proud of Ashlyn. She's just about the best daughter you could ask for.
Rub-a-dub-dub three girls in a TUB!
Today is the beginning of the HOLY WEEK. Jenny has made it a tradition to talk about things that happen each day of the week during the time before Jesus' death and resurrection. Today was Palm Sunday so we made "palm" leaves and took turns riding the donkey.
