Say Uncle.

Oh man. Sometimes coming up with witty blog post titles is just too much, and I have to resort to puns and weird sayings that don't even really relate to the content. The pressure!

Anyway, we were pleased to party with Steve's younger brother Eric over his spring break, when he hopped on an airplane from Salt Lake and joined us for a week in NC. The kids were immediately his biggest fans--especially Gracie, who has loved him since she was a teeny baby--and he was super cool with them, letting Gracie read Frozen and discuss its princesses with him, leaving notes for them in the bathroom with their bathtub letters, and allowing himself to be awakened early every morning, sometimes by being poked and then giggled at multiple times. He kept music playing, ventured out with us to frozen yogurt and other kid-friendly excursions, and was just generally fun.

The Thursday of his trip we pulled Gracie out of school and drove everyone out to the Asheboro Zoo, where we scoped out the elephants, monkeys, flamingos, and giraffes, among other (less exciting, I guess, since I can't remember them) animals. Gracie's favorite exhibits were the elephants (she has a trio of stuffed ones who live on her bed) and the lemurs, who she and Charlie imitated for a few days afterward at home by hopping around with a sock tucked in her waistband like a lemur tail. :)

 Uncle Eric + elephant exhibit = happy Gracie.

We took the double stroller (the zoo is big, and we knew the kids would get tired) and Charlie enjoyed it a little too much, hopping in and out ad nauseam until we laid some ground rules.

There was a grounded helicopter at the elephant exhibit that everybody enjoyed for a while. As well as some informational literature about how (fun fact!) elephants apparently steal crops from farmers and they have to surround their crops with string dipped in pepper. (Apparently this is Charlie's standard camera face now?)

Bronze animals abounded.

We took a loaf of homemade bread, some pears, nuts, and jam and PB and made ourselves lunch partway through. We were hungry and tired and it tasted amazing and kind of nostalgic, like a field trip lunch from elementary school. :)

The next day Steve & Eric rented E a mountain bike and drove out to do some biking. They came home tired, happy, and mostly injury-free. :)

We also spent many evenings playing Sequence, and googling Bill Barrett, who (according to the box) recommends it.

We spent his last day down in Charlotte, where we mostly just hung around our hotel, went swimming in an insanely cold pool (I put one toe in but the kids enjoyed being dunked up to their necks until Steve/Eric got too cold to hold them), and watched TV.

Gracie was very, very sad when Eric had to leave. She cried. It was so sweet and so tough. We are blessed and happy in our life out here, but it is really hard sometimes to be away from our extended families. I told her we could take a picture for her to put on her wall:

Aren't they the best?

The next morning while Juliette slept Steve and the older kids slipped out early to take Eric to the CLT airport. Everybody was a little groggy, but there was no way the fan club would have let him go to the airport alone. :)

The Winston-Salem Dash

We've been in Winston for almost five years now, and there are a few things we now consider to be the quintessential yearly events of this city. One of them is visiting the Tanglewood Lights at Christmas. And another favorite is the opening day open house of our local Minor League Baseball team, the Winston-Salem Dash.

Every year they put on an open house where you can go walk around the stadium, eat some ballpark food, and watch the kids run the bases and play in a ton of bounce houses. Last year Steve took the kiddos alone because I was tossing my cookies "morning" sick while pregnant with our sweet Juliette. This year we got to take her along! (Though I don't think she thought much of it.)

We actually thought Steve might be the one to miss it this year, because he's an intern, so he was--wait for it--working! He texted me that Saturday morning to let me know it was going on, and I was trying to gear myself up to take the three kiddos alone (I think if I knew Charlie would stay by me this wouldn't be worrisome, but he is a bit of an adventurer) when I got another message telling me to pick him up. Apparently they had a slow day and were overstaffed, so a few of the interns were able to swap some hours with each other to run errands. Or in Steve's case, go play at the ballpark with his kids! Yay!

Our kids don't eat hot dogs, so they just ate the buns and drank sodas and wandered around a little.

And admired Juliette as she was forced to dance to "Party in the U.S.A." by Miley Cyrus.

And then I asked the kids if I could take their picture together and obviously they struck some awesome poses, as usual. I'm not sure what Charlie is going for (he was making some kind of camera face even though he looks ticked off) but I think their separate approaches to being photographed pretty well sums up the differences between the genders. :)

Mother's Day

Mother's Day this year was:

• Waking up to sweet kiddos sounds in our new house and then getting to snuggle down and go back to sleep while Steve fed them breakfast and played with them,
• Waking up slowly (the second time) to sunshine pouring in my windows,
• Finding an envelope slipped under the bedroom door by my Gracie girl with MOMMY and pictures of balloons ("for celebration!") across the front of it, and sweet card inside signed "I ♥ U AND XO" in her wonderful preschool handwriting,
• Breakfast on the couch (because I got up just before breakfast in bed was finished cooking) of silver dollar pancakes (I love teeny pancakes) with raspberry jam and syrup, a side of eggs and a big glass of milk,
• A tender note from my Steven that made me tear up (he called from across the room, "Are you crying?" and then did a "Yes!" fist pump when I laughed and said I was),
• A half a dozen "flours" (a la Stranger Than Fiction) in the form of 6 beautiful cupcakes from our fav local bakery, Dewey's,
• Gracie singing a mother's day song with the primary kids on the stand at church, beaming into the crowd and waving at "Karen, the husband, and Addi" and at me, and at Charlie, who was so pleased to see her standing up there...

• A card from Gracie that detailed things like what her Mommy does all day ("cook, make cookies"--I wish!) and what her Mommy is best at ("giving me hugs and kisses") and her favorite  thing Mommy cooks ("eggs"),
• A card from Charlie with scribbles inside. Love.
• Unsuccessful attempts to get a picture of all three of us together after church (should have done it before, I guess):

• A picture of baby #3's progress (it is avocado sized, now):

• A phone call with my own sweet mama while the kiddos napped,
• My requested dinner of hamburger sliders with grilled pineapple, cooked up by my handsome hubs after the littles had gone to bed for the evening,
• Snuggling up to one of the Harry Potter movies on the couch in our pjs.

It was just a very lovely day. Steve did such a great job making me feel loved and cherished and valued, and I felt really happy to be in our sunshiny house helping take care of our kiddos. I am really soaking in all this time with all four of us just hanging out together all day while Steve enjoys time off before graduation--it is such a treat! :)

Home is wherever I'm with you.

If you've been wondering about the radio silence around here for the past few weeks, allow me to explain: we bought a house!

For all a lot of March we hung around Winston kind of mentally checked out, thinking we would be on to a bigger city in a state far, far away (or not so far, depending), but, as usual, God had better plans for us. So five days after our Match Day results divulged that we would be spending the next three years right here, we had worked through the numbers and said a lot of prayers and consulted our feelings for their response... and we went house hunting. For two days.

And then we put in an offer and waited.

So April and May became a blur of loan paperwork, utility transferring, conferring with our then-landlord about move-out details, and an insanely organized packing spree (thanks to Steve, our resident move expert), and I didn't have the time or the energy to write. Plus, we were waiting on things like inspections and appraisals just to find out if our loan would even go through.

But last Thursday (which also happened to be my SIL Emily's birthday--a very good sign) we left the kids with Christie (thanks Christie!) and drove out to Kernersville to sign the papers for our FIRST HOUSE!

And an hour later we were back on the freeway giddily calling our parents as I clutched a set of shiny new house keys.

And I couldn't help but be charmed and girlishly excited when I saw that sweet blue bow tied to our mailbox!

We have our own little tree! And shrubberies! A garage! A garbage disposal (glory be)! Three bathrooms. And so much light, all day long. Oh my word. We love it. We are even doing dishes much more frequently, and today I was so thrilled to be doing laundry UPSTAIRS and INSIDE the house that I did an extra load just because.

After we signed the papers Steve picked up Chipotle for us and I grabbed a packed dinner for the kids to eat on the slab out back. Steve had to run a quick and unexpected errand (selling stuff from the old place before moving day) so I served the kids their meal and some sparkling grape juice (we "cheers"'ed each others cups a lot, and Charlie later christened the carpet inside by spilling some delightfully purple juice right out of the bottle, with which he had secretly absconded). Then they played in the grass while we waited for Daddy to return so we could all unlock the front door for the first time together.

Gracie didn't mind, because I taught her about the joys of rolling sideways down a hill. :)

I snapped a picture of baby #3 (15 weeks here--uh oh!) in the sliding glass door while the littles played behind me.

And then Steve came back and we went around the front together, where he unlocked the door and--oh I just love him--carried me over the threshold! Melt me, right? He is adorable and the best, and I love love love that I just bought a house with him. I know it isn't typical to find a 30 year mortgage romantic (we literally laughed at the lawyer's office when we looked at the payoff date), but I have to admit, I love anything that ties us together a little tighter and says one more time: you're the one for me, forever.

We stepped inside and let the kids run free through the empty house and while we admired the fridge (which is fancy and has buttons and is bigger than any one I've ever had, and has an ice maker that you can LOCK--genius) and all the other random things you admire as a first-timer, and then ate burritos on the bare kitchen floor while our babies bumped noisily around upstairs playing in the closets or thundering up and down the hallway like a herd of tiny, bipedal elephants.

It is a great house.

My favorite part is the light, which is divine and makes me so happy. Our last place was so very dark, and it made me really sad. I love every window and bright spot in this house, and there are so many!

Gracie's favorite part is her closet, which she likes to sit in with her toys and play, and which has its own light switch. She chose that room specifically because of its closet, and would not be swayed.

Charlie's favorite part is the garage door, which he can't pronounce but loves to watch. His eyes go wide and his little mouth drops open into an O of awe and delight. He talks about it most of the day, and pretends other things (a trap door on his play car, the toaster oven) are garage doors, too. :)

Lately.

Love him.

When one of us is out of commission, things tend to slow down. It was a little rough, at first, dealing with the nausea of the first trimester, but I'm starting to feel better now (11 weeks on Thursday) and able to pitch in a little more, just with more breaks for laying down than I was previously used to. But life goes on.

Charlie has had an ear infection (and we think he is also teething) so he has been needing extra cuddle time. (Yesterday he said, pathetically, "I want yay down wif Mommy." And once I laid down with him he went from hysterical and unconsolable to perfectly happy.) And he has been taking crazy long naps in the afternoon (he hasn't napped for months now). So we know he's uncomfortable.

But with Steve out of school until residency bootcamp in a few weeks, we've taken some time to just take it easy. It's been nice. We each read a book over the weekend, even spending some evening hours on opposite couches soaking up words. We've been watching an episode or two of Law & Order: Criminal Intent together every day (love Goren & Eames, and make lots of Jeff Goldbloom jokes--Chaos theory!) and since the weather has turned nice, we've been picnicking on the front lawn with the kiddos for lunchtime.

Other than that, we've been just coping with whatever my hormones throw at us, and slowly packing up the house in preparation to move (not far, just 10 minutes away) which is exciting and makes me feel even more grown-up. I'm trying to get Gracie registered for kindergarten (!!!) which is surprisingly complex in NC, and figure out my Medicaid for this pregnancy (also complicated) and some other paperwork stuff.

My book has been on hold. I'm okay with it. It has been a nice respite, actually, and I just think about what I'd like to do with the plot and work out little storyline kinks in my mind, casually instead of harriedly. I will get back into intense and daily writing soon, when I'm feeling more 100% (and back to the gym, too--Steve is getting much more use out of our membership lately) but for now I'm happy to let things rest.

Med school is almost over. So much has changed. We are so much better, I think. I am, at least. It feels like the blink of an eye. We've been happy in this phase of life, and are looking forward to the new things on our horizon. Steve a doctor! Not unbelievable at all, but I can't figure out how we got here so quickly. It has been challenging and very worthwhile, and he has done so well in all his roles. Graduation in May.

And a baby ultrasound in a couple weeks--our first sighting of baby Walton the third. :) Looking forward to that.

Right now Steve is out teaching with the missionaries for the evening, Gracie is humming a song to herself in bed, Charlie is quiet (and I suspect already asleep--rare for him, poor sickie), and I can hear an airplane overhead, and the birds singing spring-songs outside our window as the sun goes down.

And that's what's been going on around here lately.

Match day.

This post could also be entitled: The Longest Morning Ever.

If you're a loyal reader, you'll remember that we had our first bout of match-day-anxiety back in December, when we were surprised to secure a military deferment for our residency years. Many interviews, road trips, and credit card swipes later, we got the email that told us Steve had matched! He was going to FOR SURE be a doctor... somewhere. And the next adventure was to find out where.

Last Friday we woke up with butterflies. At noon we would know. The hours passed slowly. I dragged my pathetic, morning-sick self out of bed, did my hair (gasp!) and makeup (UNHEARD OF!!!) and got dressed. Around nine we packed the kids in the car and took them to the "tailgate" in the parking lot outside the Match Day venue, where they had donuts and orange juice, spun in circles, and then were packed back into the car to be watched by Amanda (Thanks Amanda!!!) while Steve and I went to the envelope-opening/luncheon festivities.

We got back to the tailgate around 11am (which was by then buzzing with almost the entirety of Steve's graduating class and their parents/families/significant others) and ate some fruit/bagels and chatted with people about bow ties and my dad being a dentist as TIME REFUSED TO BUDGE. I am serious. It was an endless, existential experience.

At 11:45 as we were walking into the building our Arizona friends (confused by DST) called to find out where we were going.

We climbed a jam-packed set of stairs to find these unassuming tables laden with the envelopes that contained the futures of all 150 or so students in Steve's class.

They were cordoned off until exactly noon when, finalllllllllllly, everyone got to hold their fates in their (probably sweaty) hands. Like so:

He sliced that baby open and we were surprised to discover that we will be staying here in Winston for another three years!

I'll admit... at first, we were a little shellshocked. I think we had both spent so much time imagining our family in a new city/state that we hadn't really thought to entertain the idea of what life would be like staying here. And the thought of being left behind as some of our best friends moved on was more than a little disheartening.

But then the Yates came up to us and said they were staying. And the Nickles. And many of our other favorite people, like Robert, Betsy, and Becca (Becca's announcement prompted a spur-of-the-moment squealing three-way-hug that we were all very proud of). It kind of turned in to a little Wake Forest resident party in our corner of the world, and we started to get pretty excited. People we love were staying, and we had no cross-country move, no short-term settlement, no starting over trying to make new friends in a place we would only be in for three years! Woo hoo!

The luncheon was delicious (I went back for seconds and had ice cream afterwards) and we had a lot of fun catching up with people and seeing everyone stick their pins on the map to show where they would be spending the next few years.

Afterwards we all went out on the balcony for photo ops, and we hugged on people and talked to Betsy and just enjoyed the fact that it was our turn to have this day and get this far. These four years have flown by, but I still can't believe we're almost to the finish line of med school and on to the challenges and excitement of residency. Pretty happy I get to go through life with this guy. He is my favorite.

Fourth year wives! Me, Madeline McClain, Nicole Nickle, Rachel Cohen, and Christie Yates. 

Almost-doctors: Alex Nickle, Paul McClain, Steve, Kevin Keys, and Eric Yates.

We really like babies.

So we thought we'd have another one.

:)

Walton baby #3, due October 2013!

(And we're blogging about it here.)

Third Year Finale

Steve is, as of this day, officially a 4th year med student! Woohoo! We aren't quite sure how it happened, because third year, though hard sometimes, really flew right by. I literally can't remember which month it is most of the time. We are, obviously, utterly thrilled to have only one year of med school left, and are gearing up for a great year of interesting and/or easier rotations, applying for residencies(!!!) and celebrating this last fun year with our friends here in WS.

To celebrate the boys' accomplishments, a bunch of third-year (now fourth year!!!) couples went out on a big group date last night to 4th Street Filling Station, where we all spent too much money on yummy food and chatted and ate and enjoyed each other and the ambiance. (I stole all these photos from Christie--our camera charger is MIA... Thanks Christie!)

All of us (AND some fabulous peanut-gallery action in the background):

With the Swords (they are both med students who met and got married here!):

McClains & Nickles (and Alex's super fly trout tie, allegedly an Armani original):

It was so fun to go out and just be a couple, hold hands, and talk to people we love for hours. We've been sad that all our fourth year friends are graduating and leaving us (and we still are sad to lose you guys!) but last night was a fun reminder that we've got lots of good times ahead with our own year--and now we're the mature, experienced ones. ;)

First Brackets

We tried really hard to get Charlie to fill out a bracket. We had a whole system of Cheerios, raisins, and colored pencil-picking that got him through the first two rounds, but with only about 12 left to pick, he decided he'd had enough.

Steve concerned about Charlie's bracket-picking:

It's okay. I just made my first bracket this year, too. It was stressful. I get it. I used a highly scientific methodology involving seed rankings, my gut instinct, which states I liked (or knew someone who lived there who I liked), which school names I liked (I got kind of obsessed with Purdue just because I liked saying it), and, as a failsafe, which school had the least-lame mascot.

My gut said Kentucky. Steve's said Ohio. We'll see who has a smarter gut.

Gracie colored a Rapunzel picture while she filled out her bracket. I asked her over and over to pick between two teams. Here are some choice responses:

Mom: Duke or Lehigh?
Grace: LEHIGH!!! What does that mean? (raising eyebrows)

Mom: ...Is it from the scriptures? (we've been reading in the Book of Mormon about Lehi)

Grace: YES!!!!

Mom: Louisville or Davidson?

Grace: DAVIDSON! LIKE ABBY'S DAD!!! (who is named David, see below)

Mom: Murray, or Colorado?

Gracie: MURRAY!!! LIKE SESAME STREET!!!

Murray:

BYU fans, just FYI, she chose BYU over Marquette, but for no real reason.

Mom: North Carolina or Vermont?

Grace: North Carolina!!!! (She knows we live here.)

Mom: Temple or Florida?

Grace: TEMPLE!!! That's where you got married!!

(San Diego Temple)

San Diego or North Carolina (NC State)?

SAN DIEGO!?!?!?! (She knows that is where she was born, but since I know she has loyalties to both I asked her again, and she changed to North Carolina as her final answer.)

Ohio or Loyola?

MELORA. (She thinks Loyola is "Laura" the name of her favorite daycare leader at the Y.)

It went on like this for a while.

Then I asked her her favorite number (she held up 3 fingers, for her age/fav number) and added 100 to that for her final score guess.

In the end it came down to Abby's dad David (Davidson) and her Y leader, Laura (Loyola). Sorry David, but Loyola is her pick for the win. So far its not looking so hot.

Not-So-Hungry Caterpillars

About three weeks ago while playing in the backyard we found a pair of caterpillars crawling around. We showed them to Gracie and she was so entranced that we decided to try keeping them in a jar to see if they would cocoon and turn into butterflies. We put them in a clean peanut butter jar in Gracie's room and then spent a couple of days freaking out because they wouldn't eat any of the leaves we put in with them (and we gave them several different varieties, people--I'm all about options).

Then one day I looked in their jar and they were gone. I had a moment of panic--how to explain this to Gracie?--and then I realized they had made cocoons! Both of them! At the same time! So we had two side by side cocoons just sitting there in their jar on top of Gracie's dresser. After a while I started to wonder if they were okay in there, but then a couple of days ago I discovered that they had both emerged from their cocoons! We were so stoked that this experiment worked out and we had amazingly kept them alive (through no magic of our own, we realize).

Anyway they weren't butterflies, they were moths, but Gracie was pretty excited anyway.

Moths. Kind of icky, but cool that they started as caterpillars. Those silver-gray things are their cocoons.

Grace inspecting her moths. 

We put them outside to let their wings dry so they could fly away, and Gracie took the lid off herself and told them goodnight. By morning they had fluttered off. And thus ended our happy butterfly (well, moth) experiment.

"I'm Going to Disneyland!"

That's how Steven answered anyone who asked what he was going to do after finishing STEP. :) (Speaking of, he got his score back today and felt really good about it--hurray!)

Steve took the dreaded USMLE STEP 1 exam on April 1st, and 24 hours later we were boarding a plane to fly out to LAX. The kids did great on the flight, we stayed at a cute B&B with his fam that night, and then had Charlie's blessing on April 3rd. And the next day, it was off to the Magic Kingdom with Steve's family. We couldn't wait to take Gracie there again now that she was old enough to know what was going on!

We started off with a quick ride on Pirates (one of my all-time faves), and Gracie was IN HEAVEN being carried around by Eric, her uncle and idol. She kept walking over to him and holding out her arms to be picked up.

Then we headed over to meet Winnie the Pooh & co, and ride on their ride.

Gracie thought all the characters were just lovely and treated them like giant stuffed animals, complete with cuddling and thumb-sucking, which she only does to her most snuggly stuffed animals.

Steve's parents met Charlie for the first time that weekend, and were pretty excited to take photos with all their grandbabies (Curt & Adelaide the younger, Gracie & Tigger, Charlie, Michelle & Adelaide the elder).

And here we are ready to party on the Winnie the Pooh ride...

Then we went on the Haunted Mansion (when the lights turned out Gracie very calmly said, "I want to leave." We were quite impressed that she stuck it out with us.) and later everyone hit Indiana Jones while Steve's parents took charge of their pack of grandbabies.

Speaking of which, Steve and I also finally got to meet our newest niece, Kevin & Rachel's baby Adelaide. She was the sweetest little thing--very happy to be held and played with, and pretty much in a good mood all day. We love her!!!

Steve and Adelaide were purple twins.

Rachel & Charlie bonded, too:

And of course Adelaide and Charlie met each other:

The highlight of Gracie's day (besides Uncle Eric) was the princesses at Princess Pavilion. We had to wait in line for nearly an hour, but at the end of it she got to meet three princesses, all by herself. And lucky duck, two of them were her very favorites, Ariel and Belle. She walked into the little princess walkway, saw them, and couldn't move or speak. It was the cutest thing, and made the whole day worth it (and that is saying something, because Disneyland with two kids is no walk in the park. No pun intended. Haha.).

We stayed for princess story time, where Jasmine told the story of Aladdin (when she mentioned that Aladdin had lied to her about his identity, Gracie, who has been learning about not lying lately, turned to me and said, shocked, "He LIIIIIIIED!!!").

By this time the kiddos were pretty wiped out. Poor Grace hadn't had a good nap in days, and was pretty overwhelmed by the whole Disneyland thing. (She LOVED it, but it is definitely a lot to take in, especially when you're two.) So we had some low-key time for a while. Steve took Gracie to a Toon Town park and I fed Charlie, then we hung out in the shade for a little bit.

Grace rallied and we all met up to ride It's A Small World. I got to sit next to a really cute guy.

And then, Grace's favorite ride of the day--teacups with her cousins and aunties.

They went on twice, and both times got in trouble for having too many people. Emily was always able to sweet talk the attendant, so they all got to stay in their cup. Grace shrieked with laughter the entire time. Meanwhile the rest of us hung out on the sidelines, happy to keep our lunches inside us. And Grandpa and Charlie chilled together and took partial naps.

As always, we had a blast with the extended Walton family. So far we've gone to Disneyland with them the same weekend every time we've had a baby blessed. Hopefully we can make it a tradition. :)