Bob's Graduation

Just a few days over a month after it happened I am finally posting about Bob's graduation. As with most graduations it was pretty boring, went way over and the Dean even shushed the crowd at one point. Weird huh? Anyways, we couldn't be more proud of Bob! I only wish he could wear such an awesome outfit to work everyday! Sadly you just pay a bunch of money for it and then you have to turn around and give it right back. (Seriously though, who would want to keep it, maybe for Halloween.)

 We were about an hour early, so we had plenty of time to kill.

Ezra used the time to run around.

 That is our parents and Ezra in the middle. I was mostly playing with my camera.

I used my bigger lens for the first time. Too bad it took me a while to figure out to 

turn off the flash so the pictures wouldn't be so dark.

 For this lens, I really needed a tripod or something. Sorry for the blurriness.

 Bob was mostly making funny faces because Ezra was crying for his Daddy!

 Getting the GIANT diploma envelope.

 Bob and Henry. He is who Bob did his externship with.

 This is one of Bob's good classmates, Zack.

 Don't mind the chocolate face on Ezra. They had refreshments at the reception.

We are so happy to be (pretty much) done with the Dental School portion of our lives. I feel so blessed to be married to a man who is willing to work so hard and sacrifice so much for our family! Now on to the glorious working years!

The Trek

This cross country (and then some) trek is what we have been up to the last couple of weeks. I still need to post Bob's Graduation, and then I will get to work on posting this. Stay with us while we work on unpacking and getting all the pictures off the camera!

Changes

As you might expect we have had some changes happening around here. The first being that spring has mostly sprung and we are enjoying the weather being in the 60's. I have always wanted a family picture taken in the Mt. Auburn Cemetery in the spring (or the fall) and this spring was our last chance. Last spring we were too late and the Cemetery was closed. The pictures are kind of last minute, so we aren't dressed super classy or anything but they turned out alright.

 You wouldn't know that I straightened my hair twice prior to this photo shoot.

Dang that humidity! I guess I should have gone curly.

 "To infinity...and beyond"

 Ezra knows how to spell him name, so we were excited to find an Ezra tombstone.

A second change is that I have really started to pack up. It hasn't been too bad, and I think everything will come together pretty smoothly. Ezra has not missed any of the toys that we have packed up yet, and is mostly enjoying the extra space and the boxes. He LOVES to climb on, jump off, color on and hide in the boxes!

We have added a lot of boxes since this picture. Crazy!

Notice how the majority of our boxes are diaper boxes.

The last change is that our fish died. (Sorry Bunkers!) We got him from the Bunkers when they moved away and on the day that we were going to pass him on to someone else he passed away. We had a whole discussion with Ezra about death and I think it went pretty well. If you ask him where his fishy is he will tell you that he ran away to Heavenly Father. The only problem is that I think he kind of thinks that they toilet is how you get to Heavenly Father. Oh well, what can you do? We have actually been having some good conversations around Heavenly Father and prayer. Ezra will often comment on how Heavenly Father is watching us even though we can't see him and that we can talk to him. It is pretty heart warming.

I think this is the only picture of Shark Bait that we have.

We hope you are all having some good changes in your lives too! Change is hard, but exciting!

Easter

We had the most beautiful Easter Sunday here in Boston. Unfortunately the day before was not as nice.  It was almost like the storms during the Crucifixion and then wake to the beautiful weather and knowledge of the Resurrection on Easter Morning. We had a nice dinner at a friends house, and it was just a lovely day.

Ezra got to do 2 different Eater egg hunts, one on Friday with primary kids, and another indoor one on Saturday with kids closer to his age. He enjoyed both of them, but still needs a little practice to be competitive. During the first one he would pass up on some eggs and grab others. I guess he knows which ones he is too good for. After he had found his limit he still just enjoyed running around with the other kids who were still looking. At his second hunt he seemed to think he had enough and was less into finding more once he had a few. Luckily we didn't come home with too much candy!

 Thank you to the Bullocks for letting us use their house!

Most of the candy from this hunt didn't even make it home.

While other kids were still looking Ezra was digging in to what he already had.

We also had our annual egg dying party. It was the messiest year to date, but I think everyone had a good time!

 Ezra really enjoyed putting the color tabs in the vinegar.

 This was Austin's first time coloring eggs, and it was pretty awesome to watch.

At first he would crush the eggs in his hand and then throw it into the dye.

Needless to say his mom ended up doing some very hands on helping.

 The Chase's were the only ones to make it to all four years of our Egg Dying Extravaganza.

Aren't they the greatest? (In others defenses they didn't live here all four years.)

I made the multi colored one and Bob did the Black Label and 2-toned one.The rest were all Ezra. 

He is trying to add stickers to them, but the stickers were too old and didn't stick.

On Easter morning the Easter Bunny left Ezra a trail of eggs to follow, which made it much easier for him to find his basket. Daddy was not so lucky and I had to practically tell him where it was. Ezra was pretty spoiled between us and Grandma and Grandpa. He seems to really enjoy all of his spoils though. All in all we had a great day!

 Following the trail!

 He got the rest of the Toy Story figurines he has been earning for cleaning his room.

He also got some Lightening McQueen clogs, Bambi, a new church book, a swimming suit,

some new outfits, and of course candy.

 Testing out his new recorder!

No need to wait for breakfast when you have plenty of candy.

I think he liked the ring pop the best though.

Congratulations are in Order!

In case you haven't heard Bob passed his boards. Both his written and the clinical portions! We are so excited/proud/relieved. He now only has one major hurdle left, and that is finishing his requirements. Thanks for all the support and prayers thus far, but please keep sending them our way!

It's long, but mostly pictures!

In our lack of posting we have been doing a lot of little things. We made rainbow cupcakes, or at least tried to. Despite hearing that these were hard and time consuming I couldn't resist making them anyways. I did the first batch all carefully while Ezra napped and then when he woke up we let him (and ourselves) make crazy ones. Turns out that they all ended up looking more tie-dyed than rainbow so I could have skipped the careful layering.

 He was really excited and did a good job!

 Enjoying their spoils!

I think it is funny that red was my bottom layer and is the most prominent on top.

Also it is in the middle of the done version and the blue 

and purple that were on top got moved to the bottom. Weird!

 See how the ones from this blog are perfect on top and have nice layers after being baked.

Mine did not turn out like that at all. No idea what I did wrong, but I don't really care.

It seems odd to me how often Ezra ends up eating an all orange lunch. On the day pictured below it was grilled cheese sandwiches with Tomato Basil Bisque (yummy tomato soup from Costco) and cheetos. Yesterday it was Mac-N-Cheese with oranges and carrots. He also often has what we call vegetable juice, but is actually Ocean Spray's 100% fruit and vegetable juice. Some of them are orange, and all of them are quite yummy to me and Ezra. He does get a variety of food, I promise. It is just that he never has an all red lunch or an all green lunch.

Yes, he often eats lunch while still in his pajamas.

Ezra has also taking a liking to exercising with daddy. He is actually pretty good, but gets in Bob's way a lot.

 Here he is doing "downward dog" in the brief yoga part.

 In this part they bring their knees up to their elbows, I told you he's good.

 Beside a nice view of Bob's behind,

 you also get a nice side shot of one of Ezra's lunges.

Ezra has been more into play-dough these days too!

In fact as you can see he wears his p.j.'s a lot. 

That's what happens when you can't go out much.

While Bob was doing his WREB Ezra and I went to the park. I could have sworn that I took a picture of him standing up because it was the first time (and only time) that he got to wear shorts this year. This is the only one I had on my phone though. He is swinging with our friend's baby Lyla. We had a picnic lunch, but had to cut our trip short when Bob needed me to be his patient. Allison and I loaded up the kids, walked home, and then I dumped Ezra off on her and stole her car. Luckily I qualified to be a patient and it all ended up being worth it. We owe them big time though.

I also made these cute spring rose balls. If you want to see how you can see the tutorial here. Mine are bigger than the ones in the tutorial, and I think I would have liked them smaller, but what can you do. They are still cute and cheap. Me and my friend also enjoyed making them, and so did our kiddos since they got to play together.

My glue gun drips a lot, but I never thought too much of it. 

However when doing a project like this and leaving it on for so long it really wastes a lot of glue.

Good thing you can buy refills at the dollar store!

WREB

Last weekend I challenged the Western Region Examining Board.  It was a nerve wracking and exciting weekend.  The exam consists of a written portion, and doing 2 root canals, 2 fillings and a deep cleaning.  I took the written portion at a testing center a few weeks before.  The weekend of the exam was for the clinical portions.  The exam was on Friday, Saturday and a half day on Sunday.  The only part of the weekend that was scheduled was the root canal portion.  It is done on extracted teeth on manikins so there is limited space for the this part.  I was unfortunate to have it scheduled on Saturday, the day most of my patients could come in.  I worked things out with my patients so that I could seen one Friday afternoon, one Saturday after the root canal exam and one on Sunday morning.  I lost the leeway since I could get anything lined up for Friday morning so everything needed to go smoothly.   Fortunately for me, I have a wonderful wife.

My lovely assistant and I in our garb.  (Sorry for the low quality phone pictures)
I think that I tried to smile for this picture.

The my assistant for the weekend ended up being my patient on Friday.  EmmaLee first saved me by being my clinical assistant that day.  Everything was going fine until Saturday afternoon.  My patient for the deep cleaning didn't show up and I couldn't get a hold of him!  When he finally called back he said that he had been to the hospital but promised up and down that he would be able to come in the next day.  I called my patient that I was going to treat on Sunday to come in, but he out of the city and wouldn't be able to make it on time.  It was the same case for the other patient that I had screened for the exam.  I started asking my classsmates if they had any back up patients I could use for either a filling or a deep cleaning to no avail.  EmmaLee had a really small cavity that I was afraid that the examiners would not accept, but I had run out of options.  She totally saved me again by dropping what she was doing and coming in to be my patient.  The examiners approved her as a patient and I was able to get the filling done in time.  Sunday went smoothly because my patient did make it in and I had an assistant.  I also need to thank the Van Dusen family for their help.  I couldn't do it without them either!

Hard at work saving the world!

The Jury is still out on whether I passed or not, but I think it went well.  At least I didn't have any automatic failures (like not having a patient) but only time will tell.  I did, however, find out that I did pass my national boards.  If I did indeed pass the WREB, the only thing I need to do is finished my requirements for school.  Thank you so much for the love and prayers from everyone.  Please keep us in your prayers.

To sleep or not to sleep?

We recently charged the battery in our camera that takes video, and I am so glad that we did. I was able to catch this gem on camera tonight!

This reminds me of BYU. I often wanted to say to the student falling asleep 

"Just give up and put your head down!"

It was always funny to watch though.

To explain this video, I must reveal a bad parenting moment. We went to our monthly game night last night and stayed until 11pm. Ezra was a champ, but very tired by the time we got him home and into bed. Despite the late night he still got up at 7am and then refused to nap even though he was clearly tired. Once Bob left for dinner with the Elders Quorum before heading to the priesthood session of General Conference I made Ezra a simple dinner of frosted shredded wheat and fruit (it was what he wanted and I wasn't in the mood to fight). He didn't make it very far, as you can see and we called it quits. He was in bed by 7:15. FINALLY! Tired boys are not exactly fun boys.

As I looked at what else was on the camera I came across this funny video. It is supposed to be all black because it is Bob and I standing outside Ezra's door at like 10:30pm. It was a few months ago and Ezra was obsessed with hot lava. (Don't ask me, he just thought the words sounded funny and liked to pretend the heat coming out of our vents was hot lava. I even overheard him playing with some little guys saying "Oh no, hot lava! Run Away! Run Away!"). Anyways he had been in bed for an hour and a half and I could hear him talking. When I got closer to his room this is what I heard. Listen closely over Bob's laughing and you will hear Ezra saying hot lava and then laughing his head off. What a funny boy!

You might need to turn your  volume up all the way to hear him!