Whirlwind

Well, it seems that once again I have neglected the 'ol blog! Life is just so crazy and its hard to believe that the last entry was back in July while I was still in San Antonio! Well, to recap, we moved into our new house about a week after I returned home from the Army's Officer Basic Course. It has been so nice to be home with Meghan, Braylei and Tayscen! The day before moving, Braylei had tubes put in her ears to help reduce the quantity of ear infections she has, and I was impressed about how tough she was about it! She was real groggy after coming out of the light anesthesia, but after I got her some apple juice and cheez-its, she was in good spirits!

The actual moving process was a lot smoother than I expected. We had a loading crew out at Meghan's parents house and a bunch of med school buds made up the unloading crew at the new house. We have since unpacked, and made the new house a home. Braylei loves it! Since Tayscen needs the crib, we got Braylei a "big kid bed" that will last her a long time! Since being here, she has slept really well at night, too! Tayscen is doing really well, too! He's such a happy, laid back little kid with a big coolness factor goin' on! When we first moved in, he was still getting up a couple times a night to eat, but is now sleeping 10-12 hours straight typically! He has grown a ton, too! He loves being on his tummy, too! He would probably play (and sleep) all day on his stomach if we would let him! As a result, his back muscles are really developed and he is trying to roll over and scoot now!

A few weeks ago we were able to bless Tayscen at church. It was an amazing experience! While we were standing in the circle, he was smiling, cooing, and looking at me with his big, blue eyes! We also had a bunch of family out for the event, and that was really nice to have everyone out here on this side of the valley rather than us traveling all the way out east. Since everyone did come all the way out for Tayscen's blessing, we decided to have Braylei's birthday out at Meghan's sister Kim's house. It was pretty low key, Braylei wanted to have a "Cars" party, and picked out sunglasses for party favors! Braylei loved it because she got to go swimming with everyone! She loved going down the waterslide! She has gotten so grown up, too! Her speech and comprehension is scary sometimes! She just picks up words and really understands them, too! She uses multi-word sentences all the time and has no problem vocalizing any concern she has. Last week when I was giving her a bath, she was tossing around her floaty turtle and said, "Daddy, I want to catch it to you!" Then she tossed it to me so that I could catch it! It was so stinkin' cute! She also is very skilled with the crayon! She holds crayons and markers properly already and is displaying pretty good control and loves to use tons of colors.

Meghan is doing great. After delivering Tayscen, she was up and about right away! She is simply amazing! She takes care of the house, the kids, me, and makes excellent dinners while still finding time to work out! I am so, so very lucky to have her in my life! She spends all day with the kids, playing with them on the floor, interacting, and when the other is down for a nap, spends one on one time with them, helping with developmental skills. She does exercises with Tayscen everyday to help him as he gets ready to roll over. Braylei is so advanced because of the amount of time Meghan spends with her everyday.

Meanwhile, my second year of medical school at Midwestern University-Arizona College of Osteopathic Medicine is well under way! It's hard to believe that we are almost halfway through with the fall quarter already! This year is absolutely nuts! The classes are way more rigorous, expectations are higher, there are way more small assignments, and much less time. We have the triple threat of Pathology, Pharmacology and Microbiology this year, and if that's not enough, we have tons of clinically oriented classes and the best of all, our Osteopathic Medicine class. I am still trying to get find a solid rhythm for studying and spending time with family. I am getting up at 3:30am everyday, going to school, working out, studying before and after classes, and I try to be home by 6pm every night to have dinner with the fam, and getting the kids ready for bed. I am trying to go to bed between 9 and 9:30pm, which is needless to say, much earlier than my classmates. But it has been a good schedule for me, as I at least get a couple hours of family time in a night and then in the morning, everyone is sleeping, so it's not cutting out of their time. Oh, and me being me and wanting to get involved, I'm the President of the Sports Medicine club, Vice-President of AMOPS (Association of Military Osteopathic Physicians & Surgeons), Vice-President of the Latter-Day Saint Student Association (LDSSA), and also the class liaison for the UAAO (Undergraduate American Association of Osteopathy.) We do a lot of lunchtime speakers and evening workshops to facilitate of medical school learning, so it's pretty beneficial on the whole. Plus, it helps me to get to know the 1st year students and students from the other programs. Hopefully I'll get fully into it soon! We have a huge Pharmacology test tomorrow morning, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I'll do well!











P.S: Here's some funny video clips!