Baby Pumpkin, Ninja Turtle, Vampire, Ninja, Pirate, and Princess...we LOVE Halloween time! We enjoyed school costume parades, ward trunk-or-treating, and trick-or-treating around our neighborhood. Happy Halloween!!!
National Pirate Day!?! Really? Krispy Kremes had a promotion that if you dressed like a pirate they would give you a free dozen donuts. Thank you Spencer...the whole family appreciated your sacrafice!
This kid is a ball of chubby squishy softness. At his check up he weighed 17.7 lbs 97%, and was 27% for height! He is the sweetest thing EVER! I could kiss that face all day long.
With the move this summer we decided that it would be the easiest to baptize Natali in Utah. It was such a special day, July 20th. Natali was baptized in the Bountiful Tabernacle. In the same font that her Uncle Spence was baptized. We were blessed to have so much family and friends there. Grandma Gerry, Great Grandma Dove, and the Kings were in Park City already so it made it easy for them to come down and be there as well. I gave a little talk about baptism and Grandma Gerry talked about the gift of the Holy Ghost. Dad perfromed the baptism and confirmation. Since we were already gathered we took the opportuntiy to bless William as well. Such a sweet baby and beautiful blessing. It was reported that Will just sat there staring at everyone making little cooing sounds. I had a hard time paying attention since Spencer was detterminded to be a little turd! {Loved that he kept trying to lift my skirt up while I was up front giving my talk!} After we all went back up to Fluhmans and ate, celebrated, and talked. It felt like the perfect day!
This year was a milestone birthday for Natali. My first born turned 8! {In 8 more years she'll be 16...NOOO} We spent the day celebrating all things Natali. We had a special breakfast (even had some extra friends with us), took treats to playgroup to share, and topped off the day eating pizza and bowling at the new Spare Time center with friends. I convinced the folks there to let us use the back room for our little gathering so it made it feel all the more special. They brought us our pizza and there where plenty of lanes, lights, and food. Natali thought it was A-MAZING!
Residency is SUPER easy...said NO ONE EVER! Ha, like most things in life it was hard but rewarding in the end. Rewarding because we could say that it was over. Rewarding because Ben could look back at where he started and be proud of where he was. I get emotional when I think back on the last 3 years of our life. It was so much more than just residency but it WAS what we revolved around. Our road getting to Temple/Scott & White was bumpy. We saw the Lords hand open doors and lead us right there. In some of my trying moments I often reflected on this and took comfort in the fact that I KNEW we were suppose to be there.
I knew that our 3 years would go by fast, I knew it. But I wasn't prepared for the relationships and comfort I would have in those 3 short years. Saying goodbye was hard. I cried saying goodbye to the kids Kindergarten teacher...Mrs. Kelley. Bless that woman...she was an answer to my prayers. I cried driving home from Chick-fil-a {lets be honest...I have lots of memories there}. I cried driving past the hospital...that's where I brought my sweet baby William into this world. So many memories made in 3 short years. Then there were the people. People that we met there in Temple, life long friends. People that will hold a spot in my heart forever. These people made getting through residency bearable. We each understood roughly what the other was going through. It was comforting.
Then there were people who had been with you for the long haul. People you'd been with from the beginning of this journey, 7 years together. They'd been there for 3 of your babies. They knew all about the craziness of your family {you can't share that with just anyone}. Friends that really were more along the lines of family. The kind that see you in your ugly moments and know all about your personal level of crazy! The kind that you can just sit and talk with all day. I was blessed with a couple of those. Those were hard goodbyes for so many reasons.
In celebration of graduating, the Podiatry program took everyone out for dinner. They do a presentation honoring each of the graduating 3rd years. It was actually very funny! It was a fun night of celebrating for both the husbands and wives. It was such a bitter sweet celebration...I was so excited to be done and so terrified and sad at the same time. I'm so grateful for Ben and his hard work and lack of sleep. I could never have functioned like he did on such little sleep.
