Sunday, June 21, 2009

VA Dental Picnic and Tribute

I am really proud of how hard Nate has worked this past year. He's stayed long evenings and weekends finishing his notes, lab prep work, presentations and answering pages. I suppose he could have taken it a tad easier considering he has the highest production, but he has always made time for us. I guess that's why he was presented the "Family Practice" plaque. He's really advanced professionally from the residency and we are grateful for our experiences here.

The residents from left to right:
Dr. Sung Cho, Dr. Sharla Aronson, Dr. Heidi Ferre, Dr. Nathan Starley, Dr. Safa Maiwand, Dr. Nancy Lam

Nate receiving his plaque

Nathan's Tribute:

Dr. Nathan "Family Practice" Starley
Presented for successful completion of the one-year General Dentistry Residency at the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System in June of 2009. Dr. Starley truly excelled as a mature and rock-steady dental practitioner during his year with us. Nathan may have been slow in sharing his dental check-off book with staff, but was never stingy with Stacey's fabulous homemade cookies. Best wishes for you, for your family, and your upcoming dental practice with Dad in Utah.


Katelyn studying the likeness of herself


The Plaques for the residents made by Dr. Deale. He's been making these from dental materials for the past 30 years.

Pretty much everyone that works at the VA dental clinic

Wipes!!!!

The Many Joys of Playing with a Package of Wipes:

Saturday, June 20, 2009

Serra Park Splash Pad

Parks with splash pads are AWESOME in the summertime!
Sammy leading the girls into the water

Mudcastles!

Boogie Woogie Dancin'

Musical Birthday Cards...Classic!

Friday, June 19, 2009

Children's Discovery Museum

We've kept pretty busy these days. We took a morning trip down to the Curious George Exhibit at the Discovery Museum. Lots of little ones but what a hit! If you are ever in San Jose with little ones, you should totally go! Thanks Hol and Colette for the last minute invite.

Storytime with Curious George Books


"Cinderella Pumpkin Carriage"

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Oakland Zoo

Do you ever have a great rendevous planned and then do something lame like forget to check your cell phone's battery life? Yep that would be me. Poor Elizabeth. I tried meeting at the Zoo but couldn't let her know I had arrived. We decided not to make the trip a downer and went at the girls' pace. Strangely enough we got through the entire zoo in 4 hours without any temper tantrums. Small miracle right there. Alison had sent us tickets to the zoo and with it came some ride tickets as well. We all rode the train around the zoo and the carousel. Katelyn was just the right size for the plane ride and we even squeezed in two car rides. A quick trip to the gift shop and eatery and we LOVED the zoo. Too bad I didn't take any shots of the Lion exhibit. It strangely appeared as though the Lion could easily jump the 5 foot space between the 4 foot fence and the deep trench. Ah well. The girls were WAY excited!

Mommy and Sarah

Monkeys and Elephants!

Climbing Trees and Exploring Savannah

Rides
Car

Plane

Poor Sarah!

All Tuckered Out

Annual Fathers Day Silly Tie and other Delightful Crafts

Alison outdid herself this year. Wow! She had three separate picnic tables for themes.
Table #1: Pom-poms, letters, flowers, stars, and googly eyes with glue
Table #2: Bells, Buttons, GI Joes, sewing supplies
Table #3: Father's Day Tie Cards scrapbooking materials
Thanks for helping us create such masterpieces for Nate and Grandpas!
The Loot:

The Scene of the Craft

Modeling


Mommy and Me Monday Bear Theme:

Bear Honey Toss, Bear Books, Gummy Bears, Bear Cookies, Color Bear Necklace


Chuck-E-Cheese

As usual the big cheese delivered. Pizza dinner and games galore. Our favorites? Skee Ball, Basketball Double Shot. The girls? Carousel, Smart Car Ride, Sketch It, and the Half Tunnel Slide. Afterwards we swung by the Baskin Robbins for a Cars themed icecream cake and shared it with the Elders. Poor Nate. I don't think any of us even sang to him on his birthday. WAIT, I take that back. Heather called and left a message (sisters are always on top of that, unless we are referring to me).
The Cake...The girls quickly claimed ownership to the cars...

Birthday Boy at Double Shot

Fast Forward to 16...

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Nate's the big 30!



Here is a post to my bashful husband. He has now become part of the super elite over 30 club. I still have a few more years...but I am sure to receive membership gracefully (ha!). We started with a great Boogie Woogie Dance card from Nate's parents that the girls have been wiggling to, a dehydrated ice cream sandwich from the NASA gift shop from the girls outing a couple days ago, and Nate has yet to open his stellar gift from me. The plan is to dig in with the Elders over icecream cake tonight. Nate didn't want a big fuss made so, I did my best to comply. I am thinking dinner at Chuck-E-Cheese with the girls to relive his childhood years.

30 things I like about Nate:
1. He's funny and he likes to tease me
2. He bought me orchids last night because I had a rough day
3. He wrestles with the girls
4. If we are hanging out with friends he doesn't mind entertaining the kids while I play a round of Settlers.
5. He forgives me and doesn't hold grudges
6. He gives the best hugs, is delightfully handsome, and reminds me of a certain famous actor...
7. He's a hard worker. He stays late if he needs to, he is thorough in his work, if he says he'll show up for a service activity he will (even if he has a fever).
8. He's uniquely allergic to Acetaminophin, weird but it's sort of like Achilles heel. There is a magic weakness to all his heroicness.
9. He washes the dishes
10. He does the grocery shopping
11. He'll take Katelyn to the laundramat while HE does the laundry
12. He takes out the garbages
13. My neighbor hinted that Chinese men don't do these things but she's always pointing out Nate's great qualities (I think secretly she was wondering what I do all day...)just kidding
14. He makes a great bowl of Lucky Charms, though his Ham Fried Rice is still a work in progress...
15. He reads his scriptures and says his prayers regularly and he's really good about gently reminding me to join him.
16. He runs at my pace and pushes both girls in the stroller just to spend time with us.
17. He's friendly to everyone and I don't know anyone that doesn't like him.
18. He's humble
19. He has a strong testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the Book of Mormon.
20. He dances with me when the girls have gone to bed
21. He does the best animal impersonations with the girls
22. He's not afraid to admit when he's wrong or when he doesn't feel confident doing something. He's not ashamed to ask for help.
23. He is so much more than I ever thought to hope for in a husband.
24. He has sooo much patience
25. He makes chores exciting and gets the girls begging to participate with his enthusiasm. Dishes, cooking muffins, "Let's put the Baby to bed Sarah," mopping, wiping tables.
26. He puts up with my countless projects, ideas, dreams, and less than ideal temporary organization solutions.
27. He listens to all my book, movie, current events, and outing reviews and is respectful and patient as I tell him every detail. He usually puts in a good laugh at the end.
28. He embraces my spontaneity and lack of planning but is usually willing to do whatever I have in mind.
29. He has the best mind for trivia. Pop, sports, historical, just don't ask him about literature or art (though he did get a question about Charles Dickens and Pip correct the other day, way to go).
30. I love that I am sealed for eternity to this man and we have many more memories to come!

He really is that wonderful!

I won!

How cool is that!!!?? I won a free book from the treasure hunt.
"My prize is an autographed copy of Anne Bradshaw's YA book, Please, No Zits! & Other Short Stories for LDS Youth."
Just click on I won to link if you would like to enter for the rest of June...

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

I is for Icecream

Holly Allison has to be one of the most creative moms....she has all these cute Mommy and Me activities just floating around in her mind. Monday she let Katelyn, Sarah, and I join her in her antics. Her theme: Icecream.
She set out this scavenger hunt of construction paper icecream scoops in different colors all over the playground. Each child could gather up three of three different colors. Then she read a little poem and had the kids raise there colored scoop when it was mentioned. We did this a few times through. Next we were given a paper cone and the kids "stacked" up their triple decker cones.
Then we gathered in a circle for Ring around the Rosies and sat for the presentation. Holly had all the ingredients for homemade icecream and let the kids help put everything into the can. The kids kicked, passed, and rolled the can to each other while the icecream set (Erin, I don't know about you but this reminds me of a similar activity in Principles of Technology...). To top it all off we each had some icecream in a cone together and sat for our picnic lunch. Then the kids played together on the jungle gym equipment.
Oh the fun things I will miss about these awesome friends in California...

Friday, June 5, 2009

June happenings

My posts seem to be confusing everyone, sorry. We are still in Cali but only for a few more weeks. I stayed in Utah for a long visit closing on the house and getting a few things ordered prior to move-in date. Things have been really good here. We've been spending a lot of time outdoors on walks with friends or getting together for playdates.
We had a short scare for me, but the docs best guess is that I had a small ovarian cyst that ruptured a few days ago. No further complications have come from it and there don't appear to be any others; so we are feeling really blessed. Thanks to those of you who came to help me with my kids (Heather!!!) or were just a friendly and reassuring voice on the line (everyone else!!!).
Here are some cute shots of the girls from a playgroup pool party and walking party:
Barb Whitman knows how to throw a pool party! This was the "snack" table before lunch. She passed a menu chart around and you just marked how many of what you wanted from the grill (I took the salmon burger).


Katelyn and Everett (firetruck shirt) are such cute friends. I wished I had taken my camera on our walk today. They were running on the path holding hands. Everett just kept calling back to us 'slow' stroller pushers "See ya later alligator".

The baby goats were only a few days old when we saw them at the farm along our foothill walk.

Tree Huggers Ashli Mei and Katelyn