30 years

Lots to catch up on, but I didn't want to let this day pass without a little tribute to my awesome husband.  He turns 30 years old today.  Crazy, yesterday I just kept asking him, "What do you want to do since it's your last day in your twenties?!?!"  He didn't seem to think it was as big of a deal as I did.

He always does everything at 110%, but you should have seen him over this last year....he had a lot on his plate.  In Medical School, the second year of school gets the reputation of the hardest year for some because you have to balance your schoolwork/family/church, etc. while consecutively studying for the BIGGEST test of your life (read: Step 1 of USMLE, pretty much if you do well on the test, you will guarantee the residency that you want...big deal, yes?). To say that his time was not his own would probably be an accurate description.  He had a very demanding calling in our church (spent 8 hours at church on Sunday, and an extra 2 hours a week) and so even on Sunday (which was his day off for studying), he was still moving.  But if you ask him, he wouldn't have it any other way....and he never complained.  In our church, we have a song, "Put your shoulder to the wheel, push along....do your duty with a heart full of song" and when I think about Brandon, that is what I think about.  His greatest concern at the start of last year was not having enough time with us, but honestly, even when he was putting in 12-14 hour days studying, he always made time for me and Tenley.  Our marriage is stronger, it strengthened our faith in God, and it helped us prioritize our lives and the time that we have together.

I have spent the last month (nap times = thank you) making a video to show at the family surprise party that I threw him for his 30th.  There were so many times as I was looking back at all of the pictures of us together that I started to get teary eyed.  I was glad for the extra chance I had each day to reflect on our memories together, but even more, to think about how GOOD of a man Brandon is.  Sometimes I get so caught up in my day-to-day activities, that it can feel like we are just running a routine over here....not taking the extra moments of the day to tell each other how we feel.  Over the last month, I have let the dishes wait, or the laundry sit instead of have to be folded immediately, if it just meant I could go sit next to my husband and hold his hand or sit on his lap while he studied.

Oh and his Step 1 test results? He NAILED it. 

So so grateful for this guy and even more grateful that my children get to have him as their Daddy.

Good ol' McDonald

This little girl has a favorite song.  She sings it all day long.  I finally was able to capture a little bit of her singing, but as you can see...every time that she sees herself on video, she starts to experiment with her mouth/tongue/eyes/show-off abilities.

Pretty sure it doesn't get any cuter than this.  We are convinced that 19 months old is the best age yet.

Summer Lovin'

Well, May came and went without an honorable mention on this blog.  And I'm sad, because a lot of memorable things happened in May.  I still have plans to document it all....better to be behind than to be nothing at all, I always say (??).  Of notable mention, Brandon's youngest brother got married and which completed the "sister-in-laws" on the Wilkinson side.  Our best friends from Australia were in town, we had a lot of different family visiting the entire month, and by far, the hardest part of May was that my dear friend had to say goodbye to her sweet baby, Graham.  Like I said, all of those need a post in and of themselves, but I didn't want June to squeeze by (hello it's the 19th already!) without a small update.


First of all, what has kept me most busy is celebrating our awesome news.

 But now I am 12 weeks along.  That was the announcement we sent out to our family after we were blessed to hear the healthy heartbeat at our first Dr appointment.  

So, besides celebrating our news and loving watching Tenley who completely smothers any baby that she sees...Brandon is slaving away studying for his Step 1 test (on June 22!) and I am babysitting my sister's two little boys for the summer.  You will probably be seeing a lot of pictures of these two buddies:  

 Jack and Tenley, picnic at the park

Final Football Season

Well Brandon finished yet another season of Flag Football.  He put the team together, and it was a bunch of guys from his class, so it was really fun to know everyone (and their wives) on the team.  Monday night was the Championship game, but before they made it to the Champs, they had to play in two single-elimination playoff games (at 7PM and 9PM)...and then they would play their Championship game at 10:30PM!  Doesn't the U know that these guys have families and babies that won't last past 10PM??  Tenley tried her very best to stay up, but after the 7PM game, her attitude started going down as fast as the sun was setting. So, we missed out on the games, but Brandon said the Championship game was close, but they were just too tired to pull out a win.  And...judging by the purple toenail and humongous blister on the bottom of his foot, I'm pretty sure he was more than just tired.  More like, his feet could not make one final "juke" on the field. Wish I coulda' been there :)

Had to bring the camera on the last game-day to make it seem like I had been documenting these games for the past month!

 Here's our little flag girl.  She always knew where the pile of flags were and always requested that I put one on her for the duration of the evening.  Then we would play repeat games of "Mommy is going to pull your flag" as she would run away laughing.

This shoulder ride was brought to you by Tenley's ornery behavior, like I've said before...shoulder ride from Daddy = instant happiness 

And, cute picture of Tenley and hilarious of Brandon.  A part of me thinks he is thinking, "I have two games left to play, and my wife is going home to go to bed." Sorry honey, this is what happens when we're not 23 anymore. 

Pre-game stretch.  Most of his teammates had no idea that he will be 30 years old this year.  He still has some amazing athleticism, and seriously is one good looking man....but pictures like these remind us that our hot man is getting old! 

It took me 9 seasons of flag-football to learn that I just need to take pictures of when they are walking.  Action pictures never turn out for me.  

Here is Brandon's weekly support club.  Marquelle is the BEST sister and even stayed for the 10:30PM game in our honor.  

This is Tenley's little buddy Easton.  They would always run up to each other and hug, and then go play on the forbidden pole-vault mats together.  I was grateful for Easton to keep her occupied and not running into the field every two minutes. 

It really is so much fun to watch him play football.  It is just his "element"...and you can just tell how happy Brandon is when he is on the field.  Brandon has to hang up his cleats for real life now.  Pretty bittersweet, because he realizes that the 3rd and 4th year of medical school has no real schedule, so he can't commit to a specific night.  $30 bucks says that he will still find a way to play and I will be blogging again from the field in September 2012.

Prom

If you're a long-time reader of our blog (which let's be honest, unless you're family, you're probably not even reading this) you will remember this post wherein I beg and plead with my husband of ONE year (back in 2008) to please, please PLEASE take me to the BYU Homecoming Dance. Well, flash forward to my husband of almost FIVE years and you will get this exchange:

B: Our Med School is having a Prom, and I think it would be fun if we went to it.

E: (Speechless) (Jaw Dropped on the Floor) (Brain immediately thinking of every outfit I own that will resemble a Prom Dress)

That's about how it went, he needn't convince me to go! So, we asked our friends who live above us (the Loves) if they wouldn't mind having their Friday Night Date night in our apartment and we would provide the snacks and movie. Tenley was already asleep before the dance started (because hello! We do cool things like leave our house after 7PM sometimes!), so they didn't even really have to "babysit", more like "supervise".

I got all gussied up and wore my old bridesmaids dress from Tiffany's wedding, and we set out for our fun "Night Out".

Our first picture depicts us out after dark (notice the background) with the EMPTY car seat in the back. We have a "date night" every Friday night, but it almost always consists of dinner and snuggling up to "Shark Tank" and "Grimm" after Tenley goes to sleep....but we try to go out once a month Tenley-free. Here is the proof:

The Dance invitation said that it started at 8:30PM, so of course we thought we should be prompt and be there at 8:30! Note the empty dance floor behind us.....turns out we didn't get the memo that it's not cool to come to dances early even AFTER you're graduated from High School. I mean, I knew that was the cool rule back in HS, but I just thought once you were adults you show up on time to things because you are just THAT excited to be there :)

The real party started when all of the Second Year Med Students started showing up. Brandon has such an awesome class, everyone gets along SO well and they are all so down-to-earth. We had so much fun, even if it meant that we were the 1 out of 5 couples sober in the club. (yes, a CLUB...with a DJ...and candles....)

Turns out, I either a) have forgotten how to dance since EFY, or b) never really knew how to dance but thought that snapping and clapping was cool back in 2005. We had so much fun though, and it was a great break from the day-to-day routine we have been in.

I was a little bummed that we didn't wear a boutonniere/corsage and equally disappointed that they didn't crown a Prom King/Queen, but aside from that...I finally had my first real PROM Date, ten years later. And you know what, it was worth the wait.

Eggs and Playgrounds

March can pretty much be summed up with Easter Egg Hunts and going on long runs to find our favorite playgrounds. For Brandon, his March can be summed up with Studying for the Boards (June 22!), studying in the library, spending time with Tenley and me, and playing flag football.

First off, we have Tenley venturing around on a new playground that we found. Although it goes without saying, that no matter how cool the park that we find, she prefers her old blue and yellow playground (setting = our front window).
Annnnd, the rest of these pictures will be proof of the FOUR Easter Egg Hunts that Tenley went to. Needless to say, she knows exactly what the use of a plastic egg is = candy. And since I was in charge of our apartment Egg Hunt, we had about 400 plastic eggs in our house at one point. Tenley was in heaven, although she would get so frustrated when the eggs were either: a) empty, or b) only had a sticker in it. So Mommy got smart and started filling the eggs with raisins, grapes, cheese, goldfish, etc....just to keep her happy. Worked like a charm.

First up, Annual Easter Egg Hunt at Papa and Grandma Eva's house:

Here's our little Easter Bunny in her Easter Dress....never got around to taking official pics because she had a meltdown the day I was planning on it. Such is life.

Here are our cute nieces/nephew. The older girls didn't think they were "young" enough to hunt for eggs....made me feel bad since I still wanted to find the eggs myself. Grow up.

Second up, we have the Annual Wilkinson Egg Hunt.

This is Tenley's cousin Mckynlee (as blogged about before), they are only 1 month apart but COULD BE TWINS. Must be related.

Tenley on the hunt with Uncle Mark

And here's Grandmother helping her out with the eggs. She didn't like the "put them in the basket" concept so much as she liked the "shake them and open them and eat them" concept.

And, lastly our Annual Apartment Egg Hunt (didn't get pictures of the fourth Egg Hunt we did with the Med School wives, because I was seriously egg-xhausted...yes, I've been waiting to say that).

Our little bunny getting ready to do her business

I just LOVE this picture of Tenley (littlest one in the yellow) and all of her neighbor-friends. These kids seriously are the cutest, and every time we walk out of our apartment we always hear, "Tenley!" and they come running up to her. She has about 40 friends just as we walk outside, needless to say, they are all 4+ years older than her too. She'll learn to be wise at a young age.

A First

Just thought I'd document this since it will be the first of MANY times in Tenley's life where she will do this. Brandon has always wanted Tenley to run up to him when he walks in the door for the night and yell, "Daddy!" But, when he comes in she normally just looks at him and waves...and then after he's in the house for a bit, she'll become his little shadow.

Tonight, when he came home we were back in Tenley's bedroom. She heard the door open, so I said, "Oh guess who's home? Daddy!" She immediately got up off of the floor and started heading toward the door. When she spotted Brandon, she got really excited and said, "HI!" and ran up to him with her arms wide open for him to pick her up and give her a hug. It was adorable. Then for the next 30 minutes he was home (because once he finished his school work, he was headed off for church work) she followed him around wherever he went. When we sat down to eat dinner, she just kept reaching up for him so she could sit on his lap while he ate. When he headed out the door again, she followed him all the way to the door and then whimpered when the door shut.

It's official! She's a Daddy's Girl! Brandon's dream has come true!

*Here they are back in February outside. Tenley always knows Daddy will take her out to play on the swings. And seriously, if Brandon had little bear ears on his hat, they would be complete and utter twins.

Took a Trip

So we went on a vacation finally! It is this amazing place called "City Creek, Salt Lake City, UT". Actually, it's just the new mall that is in Downtown SLC, but we SERIOUSLY felt like we were all of the sudden plucked right out of our little home and into some swanky outdoor mall in San Diego or something. We were walking around the mall and kept saying, "Are we in Utah?" It was an amazing mall, and I would definitely recommend everyone go and visit. The Church has done an AMAZING job with the construction/completion of this mall, and I am sure now with the coupling of Temple Square Christmas lights and Christmas shopping, Downtown SLC will be crazy from here on out. But, we loved it. So, it just turns out that there ARE some perks to living on campus at the U of U....Downtown SLC is just a 10 minute drive away. Can hardly wait to go back for our Summer trips when Tenley can run around in their awesome fountains and Mommy can buy a snack at Kneaders Bakery :)

Some pics of our three-hour vacation....

Brandon chose to get his picture with T in front of the "Porsche Design" store

I chose to get my picture with T in front of the "Tiffany's" store, naturally (the teal-blue sign to the left), and also notice the Temple to my right. So awesome.

The awesome fountain that Tenley was obsessed with. This fountain is so awesome, but seriously I can already see the lawsuits right now....kids can practically walk up onto the fountain if they have enough guts. And believe me, some of the kids we saw looked like they were brave enough.

Teaching her to shop-til-you-drop while she's young

And in other news, Spring Flag Football has begun...so we are already prepping Tenley for the late nights under the lights. If it were me on the team, I'd choose her as my running back. Cutest little runner you'll see out there.

Play-at-Home

So, I'm new to the whole "mom" scene. Only been doing it for 16 months now (but seriously, already sixteen months?!?!)...so, I just recently heard the phrase "I am not a stay-at-home mom, I'm a play-at-home mom." As cliche as that is, I love it. Amidst the house chores, showering, cooking, working, checking blogs :), etc...I sometimes find that an entire day will go by and I didn't just SIT down with my little girl (who is growing up too quickly) and just play with her. Of course, I'm with her all day...running errands, walking out to the mailbox, driving Daddy around, and even sometimes as I'm sitting and playing with her, I'm thinking in my head what I need to do next on my to-do list. Which means, I'm STILL not really "there" with her.

So over the last couple of months, I have been researching a lot of different toddler "self-directed" activities for this little one and have tried to do at least 1 activity a day (thank you, Pinterest!). (note: I have fallen short of that goal...some days are just too packed) But, on my BEST days....I am spending time just sitting, and watching this little girl try to master every little thing she tries. Some recent things I want to log on the ol' journal:

-I sing this marching song for Tenley (did anyone else grow up listening to the Brite Music tapes?) "Left, right, marching along pum pum pum pum"....I hold Tenley's hands and we march all over our apartment (not a lot of marching space, I tell ya). The other day, I decided to time her and see how long she would want to "march" before wanting to move onto something else = 26 MINUTES of MARCHING. I think she could have even gone longer, but I was seriously so bored...and out of breath...and sore the next day. Pathetic.

-I took an old formula can and cut a slit in the lid...she loves to put things in the can and then take the lid off and pull everything out.

-She loves to bake and so when I'm cooking, I will put a towel in the sink and have her sit in the sink and "help".

-Here are some pictures of the newest activity she LOVES to do....buttons and muffin pans. This kept her busy for at LEAST 30 minutes...and I just sat there and watched her little facial expressions and those little fingers grasp the buttons and then shake the buttons all over the place.

Simple moments....but at the end of the day, it's those moments I love the most with this little girl of ours.

Journal Entry

Since I am trying to make this somewhat of my own family journal, I need to write down something that happened tonight. It is a VERY simple story, with a VERY simple outcome. But, I want to record it for posterity's sake anyway.

I am the manager for my apartment complex. With this responsibility comes one VERY important key that you canNOT lose. This key is like the "key to the city" for our little complex...it opens up all of the secret doors with all of the secret supplies. :)

Tonight, as I was making my weekly rounds (I have to walk around the complex weekly to make sure everything is "in place"), I decided I would multi-task and talk to my sister-in-law on the phone at the same time. Interestingly enough, our conversation was turned to prayer and how we have both been waiting upon the Lord for certain prayers to be answered. We discussed patience, faith, and how it isn't the FAITH we lack....we have plenty of that. We know the Lord always does answer our prayers, but we talked about how it was the patience we lacked. Between our conversation of faith and patience, I was swinging my key around on the string it has tied around it and as luck would have it, the key flew out of my hand and into the grass. Mind you, it was dark outside as well. So, I moseyed around thinking the key would turn itself in at some point. 20 minutes went by, the conversation ended, and I was still searching for that dumb key!

Panic set in, not because the key isn't replaceable...but because I would have to pay a heavy penny to replace the key AND I would have to 'fess up to my Boss about how I lost the key because I was "talking to my sister and twirling the key around!"

I walked into our apartment and said to Brandon, we need to say a prayer, I just lost THE key. So, as foolish and simple as this sounds, we got down on our knees...I was hoping Brandon would say the prayer, but of course...he graciously offered me to say it since I was the one who needed the prayer anyway :) I prayed, apologized to Heavenly Father for such a silly thing in the first place, but still asked if He could appreciate the urgency of my situation and just help me find the key.

2 minutes later, I walked out of the door...flashlight in hand and walked RIGHT to the key. I.KID.YOU.NOT. It's like an angel flew down while I was inside my apartment and placed it in the most obvious spot. I'll take it. Needless to say, our next prayer was as follows, "Thank you, Thank you! And I promise I will now tie a huge piece of wood to that string and a beaconing device as well."

Simple, yes. But tonight...I needed that. I needed a reminder that although some of the "big prayers" have yet to be answered, it does not mean the Lord is not aware of me. He knows every detail of my life, even down to the missing key...."but the very hairs of your head are numbered"

First Sentence

Tenley has a lot of words that she says, but she has recently picked up on her first sentence.....

"IS THAT COOL?"

At first I couldn't figure out how she came up with that, but after a couple of days of hearing myself constantly saying, "Oh Cool!" or "Cool!" or "Isn't that cool?" I quickly realized she is just being Mommy's little parrot. Needless to say, I rarely say "cool" anymore :)

Not only does she say, "Is that cool?" but now she adds, "Is that..." to every word she says. "Is that roar?" "Is that haha?" "Is that thank you?" "Is that swing?" "Is that milk?"......Our cute little talker.

**You will notice in the video that she loves her fork. Another known fact about this little girl, she LOVES feeding herself with her fork and her spoon. Sometimes the mess stresses Mommy out, but for the most part, she is a pretty polished silverware-user**

Livin on a Prayer...and Kelloggs

Look what Momma brought home! My awesome friend and neighbor also doubles as my personal Savvy Shopper, she tipped me off to an AMAZING deal at Smith's...and then she gave me 5 of her coupons. So, really...I can't take any of the credit except that I had the motivation to put my shoes and jeans on at 10:30PM and trek over to Smith's to get my 38 boxes of cereal for $44.

It's Finals Week here at the Wilkinson household, and if you know my husband...you know that nothing says "Good luck on your finals and I love you" like bringing home 38 boxes of cereal.

Mission = accomplished

Fruit Snacks

To say this little girl loves fruit snacks would be an understatement. Our friend at church noticed Tenley's draw to the juicy goodness and her husband surprised Tenley with four boxes of her very own fruit snacks! Our only problem = mommy loves fruit snacks just as much.

Ye Old iPhone pics

Finally got around to moving the phone pictures onto the computer, so I figure I might as well take advantage of blogging about some of our recent impromptu-don't-have-the-camera-on-hand-so-quick-grab-the-phone pictures....

Along with everything that comes with being a second year Medical Student, Brandon has also been working his tail off for the last 8 months on research. Last week, he was able to present his research at the Academic Surgical Congress in Las Vegas and got to stay at the swanky Wynn hotel. Since his trip was only a mere 24 hours, we didn't think it would be worth it for me to join...but in hindsight, next time: I'll go too :) Between class, studying for exams, studying for the upcoming Boards, research, preparing his presentation, spending time with me and Tenley, Church, he and Tenley were able to get some much needed quality time together....nap time:

I had a meeting for my job, so Brandon was in charge of putting Tenley down for her nap...when I got home, that was the sight I had. Loved it. They took turns snoring....precious.

Here are some pictures we took when we went to Temple Square for Family Night back in December. Tenley is absolutely obsessed with "Lights!"...needless to say, this was pure heaven.

While we were in AZ, my mom treated us to a night out on the town and she kept Tenley for us! Honestly, if you know my mom, you know her middle name is, "I'll watch the kids and you guys go enjoy yourselves!" She is the best. She even gave us a gift card to Claim Jumper....Brandon ate like a King.

Here is Miss T. Clause at Church on Christmas. We were in my sister's ward in AZ, so nobody knew who we were, but having a cute little Clause in your company is an easy way to have everyone come up to you after Church and ask if you are "new in the ward." Sorry folks, this cute little girl belongs to UT.

We have been trying to schedule actual "Saturday Family Time" so I'm trying to get creative and come up with fun/free things we can do as a family. Feel free to share any ideas you might have...

Here we are at the library, where Tenley was able to score a free book AND a library card. She loves books, and the cutest thing is when she is reading to herself in her carseat. We can just hear her in the backseat talking away and making animal noises as the flips the pages.

Another favorite of hers? Swings. Living with a playground 25 ft away from your front door has its pros and cons. Pro: you don't have to walk far to find a park. Con: every time you walk out to the car/get the mail/neighbor's house, you have to hold onto your one year old's hand as she pulls and tugs toward the swings crying, "Siwah, Siwah".

Here she is doing her favorite past-time. A personal favorite of hers is when you pretend like she is going to swing and push you over when she comes toward you. I'm sure I look awesome as I utilize my best acting skills and sound effects as she "knocks me over"

Recent favorite past-time: studying with Daddy. Everytime Brandon is sitting at the table studying, Tenley MUST be sitting in his chair with him. As long as she has a highlighter, book, pen and her Daddy's lap...she's content. Mommy = loves it. Daddy = can't get anything done.

And, lastly...a random picture caught on the phone. Still not quite sure what she is doing, but during random times of the day...we will find her laying on the floor just putting her feet in the air. So content.

Love is the Balm

Being a mother has opened up chambers of my heart I didn't realize existed. What a blessing it is to now not only spend Valentine's Day with my best friend, but also our sweet little girl.

I remember a favorite talk from back in the EFY days, the speaker titled his message, "Love is the Balm", referring to the Balm of Gilead. How true that is.

Lucky to not only have my little family of 3 to love, but also the family and many friends we get to love.