Friday Jan 3rd. A day in our lives.

6:45 AM

Wendy and Ben wake up, get dressed, eat breakfast.

The light in our storage room

Fruit 

Easy breakfast

Everyones milk

Checking the Internets

7:07 AM

Wendy finds her lost American Express Card in her coat pocket.

7:08 A

We wake Andrew up, scrape the car windows, and drive to the bus stop

7:19 AM

Arrive at the bus stop

7:29 AM

Wendy gets on the bus. Andrew and Ben start the drive to Grandma Stuart's house

7:56 AM

 Wendy arrives at the Church History Museum.

 Andrew and Ben arrive at Grandma Stuart's house.

8:05 AM

Ben leaves Andrew with Grandma Stuart and starts the drive to Primary Children's Hospital

Bye Bye!

08:20 AM

Wendy makes sure the Norman Rockwell paintings are ready to be shipped back to Texas. 

Dollies

 Andrew starts doing laundry with Grandma. 

08:29 AM

Ben arrives at Primary Children's. He goes to the ER and helps families and kids stay entertained and tummies full while at the ER.  Ben will not have many picture updates during this time due to privacy laws.

Wendy sits down at her desk.

08:38 AM

Andrew has a tea party

09:12 AM

Wendy loads the crates onto the moving truck. She breaks one of the dollies that you saw earlier :).

09:16 AM

Andrew has breakfast with his Aunt

  

10:40 AM

ER slows down so Ben starts cleaning toys

10:48 AM

Andrew plays the piano

11:16 AM

Andrew takes Amber for a walk

Getting the leash

Putting the leash loop on

Let's GO!

11:52 AM

Wendy goes out to eat with her co-workers at Blue Lemon - none of them had brought much lunch.

Andrew investigates Grandma's backyard

12:00 PM

Ben leaves Primary Children's.

12:33 PM

Ben picks up Andrew from Grandma Stuart's house. Andrew didn't want to leave.

He was having to much fun.

12:41 PM

Andrew put in car seat

12:50 PM

Andrew starts sucking his thumb

12:54 PM

Andrew out cold

1:02 PM

Ben and Andrew arrive at home. Andrew laid down for a nap

1:05 PM

Ben starts reading a book in bed

2:30 PM

Ben falls asleep and takes a nap

4:45 PM

Wendy leaves work and goes to the bus stop

4:55 PM

Ben and Andrew wake up from their naps. Andrew gets a snack

5:30 PM

Ben and Andrew pick up Wendy from the library. 

Wendy checks out  seven more library books.  

The twenty library books we had at home were getting lonely.

06:23 PM

Wendy, Ben, and Andrew meet up with the Canfields for swimming

07:22

Wendy, Andrew, and the Canfields get dressed

07:25

Ben finishes his swim workout

07:45

Ben gets distracted by the Orange Bowl Football game on the gym's television

08:45 PM

Ben starts to cook dinner

08:54 PM

Ben takes out the garbage. Yes, there is photographic proof!  Andrew eats dinner.

09:51 PM

Wendy and Andrew do the last 5 minutes of the interrupted 10-minute workout with Tony Horton

10:30 PM

Andrew goes to bed. Ben and Wendy read books. 

Both Ben and Wendy stay up too late reading.

Mimicry

He said I've been watching you dad, ain't that cool
I'm your buckaroo, I wanna be like you
And eat all my food and grow as tall as you are
We got cowboy boots and camo pants
Yeah we're just alike, hey ain't we dad
I wanna do everything you do
So I've been watching you

- Rodney Atkins "Watching You"

Andrew has already showed that he is "watching us." The most gratifying mimicry, which is also described in the Rodney Atkins song, is that Andrew knows prayer. He knows the word triggers; he'll immediately fold his arms if you say prayer, or even Heavenly Father. He knows that prayer ends when people say amen. He also knows when we are supposed to pray; Andrew will not let us start eating before we pray at mealtime.

Charades on New Years Eve demonstrated Andrew's understanding of what he is watching.  My extended family was playing charades while waiting for the clock to tick down to midnight last night.  Michael had a Tupperware full of slips of paper; we all took turns choosing and then acting out the words that were listed. Andrew watched for several minutes fascinated. Then, he decided that he was going to participate. Andrew toddled over to the Tupperware and picked out a folded piece of paper. He proceeded to unfold it, and look at it like everyone else had. After a few seconds of thought Andrew moved into the middle of the room. He then put his hands together and made sword swiping movements.  The phrases that immediately came to my mind included both, "So cute!" and "Wow, I did not expect that!"

It does make me wonder in what other ways is Andrew more cognizant than I give him credit for. As Andrew gets older I think about what Andrew is learning as he watches me.  Am I demonstrating good habits? Am I using words that I want him to say?  What is he thinking, what is he learning, by my daily actions?

Christmas 2013

For Christmas Eve my father came up with the idea to go to temple square to look at all the Christmas lights. For those unfamiliar with my dad...this came as a complete surprise. He rarely likes to go to crowded places much less bring up the idea.  We decided that arriving at temple square at dusk would minimize the amount of crowds that we would run into. It worked.

Andrew got to try out his dinosaur hat and gloves. We were worried about Andrew getting cold. I think I got cold before he did.

Arriving at Temple Square

Family picture in front of our temple

How sweet!

Andrew had a ball dragging Grandpa and Grandma around the square

Christmas morning Wendy and I woke up before Andrew. I'm anticipating that this is the last year that I will wake up before my children on Christmas Eve for a long time. We finally had to wake Andrew up so we could make it so the Stuart Christmas Brunch.  Wendy had filled our stockings and Andrew's boot with lots of yummy treats. Andrew had helped me wrap all of the presents the night before.

Boots with yummy things inside!

Christmas tree with presents

Christmas morning Stuart Family Picture

After eating a yummy meal with the Stuart family we moved over to the Ashton house. There Marsha gave the million and one presents she had bought to everyone. Everyone else passed out their presents too; just not in the same volume. By this point Andrew had realized that wrapping was a lot more fun to pull off than to put on. Wrapping, boxes, toys, and lots of people. He was in heaven. We had a fair amount of fun also.

Marsha finds the picture booklet we made

Finding Minion Stuart

Saffron and Babes in Toyland

Lisette in poncho and hot

Ian and Miles in their hats

Stuart family in their hats

Brian and Ashton Family in their hats

Samuel found the treats

Andrew played with Cora

After present board games!

Snow

This actually is Andrew's second winter. I'm not sure that he remembers much of his first winter. In his memory he is experiencing snow for the first time.

Winter has led to several adjustments in our daily schedule. Previously after his nap, diaper change, and lunch Andrew and I always went on a walk around the neighborhood or the park.  Andrew does not understand that snow should change this routine. So, every day after lunch we still go out for our walk. Fortunately we have a full snowsuit and snow-boots so Andrew doesn't freeze. Andrew has quickly discovered that he likes the crunch of snow under his boots. He likes very shallow snow or the sidewalks. His initial foray into the deep snow of the lawn resulted in a cold face.

What do I do with snow?

I'll try walking in it.

 Several days ago Ben piled up  snow from previous snowstorms. It  looked like there was a little snow volcano in the back yard. After waiting several days a new snowfall covered our little volcano. We now had our own little sledding hill.

This is the result.

As with most new things Andrew had to think about whether he enjoyed it or not. Ben was slightly worried by the silence that greeted the first two runs. As you can smiles soon appeared!

Graduated...for the third time.

No, that's not counting my high school graduation.  I used to joke in high school that instead of a career that I would be a professional student. After three college degrees (2 Bachelors, and one associates) and the intent for another (Doctorate of Nursing Practice), I'm realizing that my joke may be a reality. Still, I'm glad my undergraduate portion is over. I'm looking forward to entering the graduate portion. Primary care provider has always been my end-game.

I digress, I'm sure you are less interested in my musings of past and future educational attainments than last Friday's graduation.  Yes, I graduated from Weber State University on December 13th, 2013. I had to be specific because recently I found out just how minimalistic I kept the knowledge of my graduation date.  KaLyn had to see a Facebook post; Kevin and Scott found out in Lorraine's weekly family news e-mail.  I feel slightly bad that I wasn't more vocal about letting people know about the graduation.

Part of that is that until about a week prior to graduation I didn't intend on walking. I view this graduation as a milestone; not an ending. I had attended the full graduation at USU and felt that it was extremely long and boring.  Upon reflection, and encouragement I finally decided to walk. The main factors were; one, it has actually been a long-time coming and I should celebrate that; two, with departmental honors, and a high gpa I would have a bunch of stuff around my neck and it's a way to brag through pictures without bragging overtly. Yea, I'm shallow like that sometimes.

As expected the ceremony was long. I was scared how Andrew would deal with being confined to one spot for three hours. I shouldn't have worried; Aunt Dejah attended the graduation. Between the books, puzzles, games, and even food Dejah made sure little Andrew and Elliot were rarely bored. For the times that Dejah was unable to entertain Andrew there were other amusements...such as the stadium stairs.

I also managed to stay awake,  fortunately as it would turn out,

The keynote speaker graduated from WSU thirty-eight years ago. She told us that when she graduated she never would have imagined that she would be back as the speaker and receive an honorary doctorate. She stopped at that point and slowly asked,

"Now, which one of you will come back in forty years?"
"Let me give you some of my ideas..."

"Benjamin Stuart, he'll be back here. Where's Benjamin?"

Benjamin is slightly hyperventilating but raises his hand. 

"Benjamin is going to create a ground-breaking patient care algorithm."

Benjamin is still speechless; apparently he is also on the jumbo-tron.  Benjamin is still trying to figure out how the speaker knew his name much less his degree. Benjamin is slightly relieved as she goes on to mention another graduate.

Throughout the remainder of her speech the speaker continued to call out graduates names and make comments based upon their major. It's a novel way to make sure all the graduates are paying attention for sure.

My fellow nursing graduates.

Tassels are dangly.

Proud parents

Proud wife and son.

Fist Bump - that's how was say congratulations

Thank you all for who came on such short notice.

Future Grad

ps. Did you notice all the bling? :)