Introducing Dr. Todd

 It is official.  Todd graduated from dental school yesterday on May 14, 2011.

Todd's family came down to celebrate with us.  We had great seats up on the balcony where all of us juggled the kids and cameras and the kids entertained those around us.  They actually did so much better than I expected.  Fisher played his Leapster and Angry Birds, Cooper sat on laps and ate fruit snacks and yogurt covered raisins.  Tucker was passed around...even to strangers sitting behind us who seemed reluctant to give him back. :)

Todd walking in.

 Finding his seat.

 A view of the stage from our seats.  Thankfully we were not in the front row.  Fisher did not notice the balcony until we started to walk out.  There were a few concerned people as Fisher kept rushing down to see the trumpets and he wanted to lean over to do so.

The graduates. 

The arrow shows where Todd was sitting.

 Next up!

Making the walk to the stage. 

 Smiling for the camera with Dr. Espisito.

Shaking hands with Dr. Boyd and hugging Dr. Stratton.

Dr. Boyd placing the hood.

Hooray!

Receiving his diploma from Dean Sauk.

Fisher and I came down from the balcony to take pictures.  As Todd was on the stage Fisher was yelling "Congratulations Daddy! and  I love you!"  As Todd walked off Fisher ran to him and walked with him down the isle.

Fisher was 18 months when Todd started four years ago.  Since then we have had two more boys who were both born within days of Todd taking a portion of Board exams.  Fisher is now 5 1/2, Cooper is a little over a month shy of two and Tucker was two months and 4 days the day Todd graduated.

Todd with Jedd & Mom & Dad Church.

 This was a proud day for Mom & Dad.

 Todd and his buddies.  There were a few missing from the photo- it was chaotic with everyone walking around.

 Fisher is so excited Daddy is done with school.  I don't know if he realizes this means now he is going to have to start work. :)

 I forgot to mention that it was a miserable rainy day...I mean downpour type of rain. We had to park so far out and everyone had umbrellas and we still ended up wet by the time we got made it to the building where graduation was being held.

Fisher was insistent I take a picture of him doing a 360.

When he wasn't jumping, following Todd around or running away from us and hiding behind a tree, Fisher was hanging out under an umbrella with some of the other kids.

 Todd and his friend, Jeff.

 Todd and his group manager, Dr. Boyd.

 We would have taken more pictures with his buddies but we spent a lot of time dealing with tired kids.

It was a wonderful day and we can't believe it has now come and gone.  We now look forward to what the future holds in store for us.

What's been going on?

I have not had time to blog so this one picture will have to do (minus me) to show what the boys are looking like these days.  This was taken Easter Sunday which was also the day we blessed Tucker.  Todd's family came down for the weekend and Dad Church &  Jedd stood in with Todd along with our new Bishopric.  Here are a few things that have been going on with us:

Fisher: He is almost done with preschool and will graduate on the 19th this month.  Kindergarten starts mid August.  He is happiest cruising our street on his bike without training wheels.  We had a really good run with his behavior for about 2.5-3 weeks.  This last week there has been a big lapse and it has been tough.  The kid has a mouth on him and has no fear or respect for adults at times.  We still are scratching our heads (or at times ripping our hair out) trying to figure him out.  At other times I will find him reading to Cooper or trying to calm Tucker down by telling him how much he loves him, that he is the best baby in the entire world and that he will never let anything happen to him.  I am sometimes reminded of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.  For the record, I would also like to document that we do attempt to do something with his hair but it has a mind of it's own and that mind is a wild, uncontrollable thing.  No amount of water, hair spray or mousse is able to keep it down for longer than a few minutes.  I have been itchin' to buzz his head as soon as I find the energy to do so.

Cooper: is finally attempting to talk instead of only pointing.  He actually has been for about the last month.  While his list of words is not that long, he is adding new ones daily.  So far he says Mom, Mommy, Mama, Dad, Daddy, Dada, hi, more, , WOW!, ball, apple (appoe), baby, Elmo, cookie, Abby, Ernie (my personal favorite)- he LOVES Sesame Street.  He will sometimes let me know that he has a dirty diaper by saying poopie instead of resorting to sticking his fingers in his diaper to give me visible proof like he was for a while there.  He is trying to say Fisher, Grandma & Grandpa.  Sometimes he says something that resembles strawberry which is his favorite fruit.  Sometimes he will say candy.  That is all I can think of right now.  While he doesn't say that much he understands everything we say. 
He is still teething some of his canines and bottom teeth.  Teething is horrible for him.  He loves to cover his face so we can play the "Where's Cooper?!" game.  His favorite thing to do is to play rough with Fisher so that Fisher can get into trouble.  He loves jumping on Fisher's bed, stealing toys from Fisher, taking food from Fisher, hitting Fisher, jumping on Fisher, wrestling with Fisher, running away from Fisher...he LOVES Fisher but sometimes forgets he is not even two and sometimes is too little to take what he dishes out.  I am scared for the future wrestling matches these two will have.  He also has destroyed the crib from all his jumping.  It squeaks like the neighbor's apartment in newlywed BYU housing. :)  Todd and I sometimes crack up listening to Cooper's symphony of squeaks as he tires to go to sleep.  Truthfully, it is a miracle he can sleep with all that racket.

Tucker had his 8 week check up.  He was 11 lbs. 7 oz. and 21 3/4 inches long.  He is a sweet baby who does not like when I eat chocolate.  The next day is full of fussiness, non-sleepiness and spit up even though he usually never spits up.  That is, until chocolate enters the picture.  He smiles a lot, likes to hang out and wiggle between the hours of 3am-5-am, coos, laughs a little here and there, HATES poopy and even wet diapers and is the best cuddler.  He loves to suck on his hands, scratching his face (I keep socks on his hands a lot), and he enjoys baths on the few occasions I remember to give him one. :)  Tummy time is not a favorite  but loves he does love being on his back.

As for me & Todd, we are trucking along with passing off to-do things on our lists.  Todd is pretty much done with school.  He will graduate on the 14th.  He has spent the last couple of days in Omaha looking at houses for us to rent for our year there.  Our appraisal came back on the house and now we are just waiting to close.  We are down to about 5.5 weeks until we move.  In a lot of ways we are ready to be done with this summer...just want all the transition to be over with.  So much is going to happen and it is still overwhelming. 

That is my journal catch up for now.

Visitors at the hospital

Going back 6 weeks...

Fisher LOVES his little brothers.

And I love seeing how much he loves them.

Uncle Jedd.

Fisher and Todd both playing Angry Birds.  Fisher is the master of this game.

Mom & Dad Church meeting Tucker for the first time.

Dad Church and Tucker.

Mom Lund

Cooper offering Tucker his first Cheerios.

The best thing about visiting mom in the hospital.

I wish they had stayed contained like the entire visit. 

First photo with Dad and his three boys.

First family picture. 

You might notice that both Todd and I were shielding Tucker from Cooper.  The first meeting was a little stressful.  It ended about 10 minutes in...after Cooper tore the room apart, kept trying to attack Tucker and  gave me a total and complete mental breakdown. 

Seriously. 

In tears, I told them all to leave so I could sit and cry and panic about how I was going to be a mom of three wild little boys. 

I did not think I would be able to do it.

I still have my days where I wonder.

...But there are good moments, too, where I look at all three of them and pat myself on the back for helping bring these three little boys into this world, into my life.

And I could not picture my life any other way.

(On a side note, life just got that much better.  Todd found out he passed his clinical boards.  Yay!!)

The Birth Story: One month and two days later

Just kidding.  I have been trying to finish this but it will have to wait.  I decided to put the pictures up even if I haven't finished the birth story. Who wants to hear about me pushing trying to hold a baby in until the Dr(s) can make it anyway?

Tucker Stockton

Born: March 10, 2011

Weight: 7 pounds 15 ounces

Length: 20.5 inches

(It is crazy how much he has changed in one month!  It is funny to be posting these pictures when he now looks so different.)

On my due date, Wednesday March 9th, I went in for my 40 wk check up and found out that I had FINALLY made some progress on the dialation front and was between a 3-4.  I don't progress AT ALL  prior to labor so my Dr. was confident that it was going to happen very soon, as in- could happen at any time that day.  She said we were welcome to go to the hospital at any time and she would get me admitted, would break my water and that it should be a really fast and easy process...it did not happen exactly like that.  I was fine with the idea of being induced since I was at the 40 wk mark and frankly, hitting the 10 MONTHS PREGNANT mark can put a pregnant lady in a very dark place. :)  Not to mention the fact that both Fisher and Cooper had slight complications with being overdue so we did not want to go much longer anyway.

 We left the Doctor around 10:00am and then went back home to get stuff ready.  I picked up Fisher and then we spent a little bit of time with the boys and my mom before we left.  Todd and I went on a little date and went out to eat at Penn Station (our days being able to eat our favorite philly cheesesteak sandwiches are dwindling down) and then we stopped by our favorite Graters Ice Cream and gorged ourselves even more on some ice cream sundaes.  I was very thankful we ate so much when I still had not eaten anything at 3:00am that night.

We made it to the hospital where I leisurely strolled in around 2pm.  I was checked in right away where they checked me and said I was closer to a 3, 0% effaced and at a -2 station. They were going to get everything ready to start me on the pitocin and then break my water.

 About 30 minutes before they started me on the pit. I had my first legitimate contraction, just like it felt with Cooper so

Grandpa Sinkey

Thanks Aunt Kathy. 

I love this picture.

Ramblings

When I went to de-personalize the house for showings I needed some pictures for my living room and I remembered I had taken some from Lake Tahoe over the summer.  Since it happens to be my favorite place, it makes me happy to see these pictures every day.  They look even better in print.

The footprints in the first and last picture are Fisher's.

I wish I had more time for the blog.  Poor Tucker has kind of been put on the back burner with trying to take care of three kids and then everything with the house.  I eventually plan on putting up pictures from when he was born and when my mom & mom-in-law visited.  Then there are the few recent pictures I have snapped but have not yet made it off the card and on to the computer. 

Things are slowly but surely working out for us.  Tucker had his 4 week check up and weighed 9 lbs 2 oz and was 21.5 inches long.  He was right around average on the charts.  He gained a lb over the last week was positive since I had mastitus and some other nursing issues.  Everything is going a lot better in that category and his weight gain reflected that.  He is a good baby although he does like to be held constantly which can be hard sometimes.  We can't blame him considering we can't put him down when Cooper is around so it is imperative for him to be held often which only makes it worse.  He has been sleeping through the night for about the last four nights.  He will eat sometime between 10pm and midnight and will sleep until 6 or 7.  You would think I would feel so rejuvenated but I am still exhausted mostly because I have not caught up on sleep from the last few weeks.  Every spare moment has been spent either dealing with the kids or cleaning the house...which is why is it nice to say that we have found a buyer for the house.  We listed the house on a Tuesday had two showings on Sunday and then one on Monday and we received an offer on Tuesday which was countered back and forth a few times.  In the end we decided to take it and I feel a huge weight lifted off my shoulders now that I do not have to keep the house so spotless all the time.  It is a hard thing to do with three kids, one of them being four weeks old today and a tired mom.  Now we just have to hope that everything goes well with the buyer's loan and inspections.  She agreed to rent back to us until June 15th so it looks like that the 14th or 15th of June will be our big moving day where we load up our lives and head to Omaha.  It is all becoming so real.

Todd is slowly but surely crossing off different requirements in order to graduate.  We are counting down the days until graduation.  He officially has a case of senioritis that would have rivaled mine in high school.  (I was nominated "Worst case of Senioritis" my senior year. :)  I can't blame him.  He will be 31 in August and aside from a 2 year stint in Finland from 19-21 he has been in school since he was 5.  I think a Bachelors in history, a Masters in Sport Administration and a D.M.D are plenty for one guy.   I am so proud of him and all that he has done for our family.  He is THE BEST husband and father.  He is perfect for me and I love how we balance eachother.  I love him.

He has his final Boards next week.  We will be crossing our fingers that everything goes okay with them.

***

I guess I should also throw in a quick little blurb about Fisher and Cooper.  Fisher is still handling the big brother roll well although he has started becoming a little more aggressive with Cooper in their wrestling matches where as before he would just lie there and take it.  I guess one can only sit and take the abuse so long before it becomes too much.  He has definitely started acting out but we expected that.  There are so many drastic changes occurring and he is old enough to recognize them.  He is devastated to be moving away from his friends.  I worry how he will cope with the move and starting Kindergarten.  He is very bright and curious.  He has learned to read his colors and wants to learn how to read everything but I have to figure out a way to make it seem like he isn't "learning".  If we label it as such then he becomes more resistant.  (Hmmmm...sounds familiar to his mother.)  There are these special moments when he drops the new attitude and his eyes light up with excitement over something and I remember how much I DO love Fisher despite the fact that he can frustrate me to no end. 

Cooper LOVES wrestling and "fighting" with Fisher.  He is a little instigator.  I have started calling him "Beast" because he is one.  He has started climbing out of his crib, not sleeping as much and it doing A LOT of naughty things.  This past week, while on my own, he has thrwon items into the toilet, unrolled rolls fo toilet paper, pulled his diaper off, played with his #2, poured lotion on to the carpet, dumped all the gold fishies from the box, broken eggs out of the carton on the kitchen floor, opened the oven (thankfully not on at the time), constantly getting into the dishwasher- starting, stopping, and jumping on the door which hs is too big to sit on, knocked all the chairs to the table onto their backs, fallen off the kitchen table, fallen off the ottoman, fallen off the lazy boy...are you sensing a pattern?  It hard to keep the kid contained and when I am feeding Tucker, Cooper takes full advantage of the situation.  The one thing I would say as he goes about his business is that Cooper is full of joy.  He radiates it even when being a mischievious little stinker. All he has to do is bat his big blue eyes and it is hard not to do his bidding.