Picture of Avagail Taylor Moore and her four older siblings

So, my Grandma has this picture of her mother (the youngest child in the photo), Avagail Taylor Moore, and Avagail’s older siblings: Dora Bell Taylor Blackburn Hunt, Charles Ephraim Taylor, and Orval Clell Taylor. The picture is kind of in rough shape with a rip across the front and quite a few spots that look to have been damaged by water, plus the photo was originally printed for one of those old antique oval frames – so the picture itself is not flat and could not be scanned on a flatbed scanner. Since it is the only picture I have ever seen of my great grandmother as a child, I thought it would be worth restoring. (Again, I love Photoshop!) So, I took a picture of the photo with our digital camera, then worked on that on the computer. Once I got it all cleaned up, I adjusted the color, and then I cropped a picture that just showed my great grandma, Avagail.

Cinco de Mayo BBQ

We were invited to a Cinco de Mayo BBQ and had a lot of fun hanging out with our friends. The kids especially enjoyed playing on the playground and running in the grass, we had good food, and we played a little ultimate frisbee (or “roosbee,” as Kolby would say it).

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Swimming, Zoo Trips, Potty Training, and Car Seats in Church

This week the boys enjoyed their preschool class. Kolby and Eli love their classes, and on Friday I even got motivated and took all 4 boys and worked out during their classes. Camden and Isaac went to their kid care, and I used the elliptical machine for a while. Afterwards I picked up the boys and it was all I could do to keep Camden from joining in with Kolby and Eli in their gym class. That was a fun morning.

On Tuesday it was Camden’s night out with Daddy and they went to the YMCA in Menomonee Falls because it has a nice kid’s swimming area with a little wading pool and slide. Unfortunately there was a problem with their heating system in that room that evening, so they got moved into the lap pool. Camden wasn’t able to go down the baby slide anymore, but they still had a lot of fun. And then on Wednesday night Kolby and Eli had their swimming lessons, and they both did great. Kolby is now able to jump in from the side of the pool without anyone to catch him and he can walk out to the middle of the pool. Eli is still as brave as ever – dunking his entire head under the water over and over. It’s pretty fun to watch.

On Thursday we had an Enrichment activity at Catherine Call’s house sharing all of our favorite children’s books, which was nice to have a night away from the kids. I enjoyed remembering the books that we loved as children and thinking about which ones I would like to add to our collection for our kids. Then on Friday evening we had a ward dessert night at the Spencer’s house and Alicia and Steve Taylor were there too. That was nice to get together with some ‘new’ people, and it was fun to see all the little boys running around together too.

And then yesterday was fun. We went to the zoo in the morning because it was a free zoo day (our membership had expired on Friday). We told the boys that there was going to be a surprise at the zoo (Eli was sure that the surprise was going to be the animals, but Kolby was excited to find out what it would be). When we got there we met our friends, the Hedgecocks, and Kolby was excited that the surprise was his friends, Jordan and Carter, at the zoo with us. My favorite part of the Milwaukee zoo is always the big cat house, because the lions and the cheetahs are always right there in front of the glass and they are usually active and moving around so they are so interesting for the kids to watch. We stopped on our way home and picked up some tennis shoes for Michael since his were getting his feet all wet every time he went out in the snow because he had so many holes in the soles. Then, after naps we took the boys to Denny’s for their kids eat free night. After we got home, picked up around the house, and put the boys to bed, the Kearls joined us for some games.

And today started out with Michael waking me up to help with the other boys because he needed to take care of Eli, who had had an accident. We are working on the potty training with Eli, and he is doing pretty well most of the time. He still wears a diaper at naptime and bedtime, and we have been using pull-ups for school and church (just in case), but during the daytime when we are at home he is just in underwear, and he has only had two accidents since we started this week, so I guess that’s pretty good – we are using less diapers, anyways.

Today went pretty well. After getting the boys ready and making bread, we headed to church. (On the making bread, if anyone has any good suggestions for getting bread to rise well, I would be open to them! I have made bread now every Sunday for the last five weeks and am starting to get a little discouraged. The first time the bread barely rose at all and turned out very thick, the next time it took hours and didn’t rise much but was a little better, another time it rose pretty well and then sunk right before I put them in the oven, last week they rose nicely and then they sunk while they were cooking, and this week they rose ok but still not very high. I know the recipe is good because my mom’s bread turns out great. I have tried letting the bread rise in the oven on “warm,” letting it rise sitting on top of the stove while the oven is on warm, letting it rise on top the stove on a cooking rack, letting it rise while the oven is on higher, and letting it rise just sitting on the counter top. There are just so many things that could be affecting it, and I don’t know which thing it is I need to fix – is the yeast bad? (but it has risen somewhat), am I letting it get too hot or not hot enough while it rises?, am I letting it rise for too long or not long enough?, or is it something totally different that I haven’t even thought of? At least the bread tastes really good and it’s nutritious, but I sure wish that it looked good and it made bigger slices for sandwiches. So, any suggestions would be appreciated!)

Anyways, on the way to church Camden fell asleep in the car, and Michael and I spent the entire ride to church considering options of how we might keep him asleep (church is hard with a child who is too young for nursery, too old to sit still, and too tired because it is right in the middle of naptime). Various ideas were thrown around, including taking a playpen and setting it up in an empty room at church, leaving him in the car, or putting him in the shed out behind the church – but none of these seemed satisfactory (and some rather illegal), so we ended up deciding on carrying his entire car seat in and setting it on the bench next to us. Now, Camden has long outgrown the little infant car seats that are meant to be carried with a child in them, and he is in an upright, forward-facing seat. Michael huffed and puffed and lugged that big old seat into the church building, and Camden actually slept through a good portion of the first meeting. Michael also decided to take a separate container of snacks for each boy to eat, and that actually kept them all entertained for the entire first meeting, which is uncommon. So, other than the fact that Camden can now open doors and escape from the classrooms at church and so the second two hours of church were not the easiest, it was a good day so far. Camden has two more Sundays before he is old enough for nursery class – yeah!!!

Well, only 18 more days until Match Day when we find out where we will be going for the next four years. We are not-so-patiently awaiting that day. So, tonight we are heading over to Amy and Vicente Cortez’ house for dinner, which will be nice since we haven’t had a chance to visit them for a while. We’d better get ready to go to their place now.

A Busy Week

Well, it is my turn to write out weekly letter. It has been kind of a long weekend – Michael was on call since early yesterday morning until around 2:00 this afternoon. On Saturday I went to a baby shower for Melanie Brumwell, a friend from Michael’s class who is having her first baby in December. That was fun to see several school friends that I haven’t seen for a while and to let all the kids play together. The baby shower was in the afternoon, and we got home pretty late, so instead of taking a really late nap around 4:00, the boys had an early dinner and went to bed early, which was nice for me. Kolby and Eli went to bed around 6:00 and Camden at 7:00, and they slept until I got them up to get ready for church this morning. So, as you can probably tell, I had plenty of time last night (with boys in bed early, Michael gone all night, and nothing good on tv) to update the blog with much of this past week’s goings-on. So, just look at the other posts below this one to see the ultrasound pictures I got last week, the pictures from Michael’s day off Monday when we took the kids to the Milwaukee Public Museum, my thoughts on the 6-year anniversary of September 11th on Tuesday, the good news I got at my doctor’s appointment on Thursday afternoon that my midwife will induce my by November 1st if this baby comes after his due date (October 30th), the video of Camden walking across the room for the first time on Thursday evening, and pictures of Camden scarfing down an entire cake at his first birthday party on Friday. That gives a pretty good summary of our week.

Other than that, I spent a lot of time this week getting all the fall and winter clothes ready for all of our boys. I keep storage bins full of boys’ clothes all divided by size, and I spent one night just sorting through all of those and trying things on the different boys to see what fit and what didn’t. Camden, our big boy, is now wearing 18-24 month sized clothes, even though he only turns 12 months old this week. Throughout the week I went to all of the different clothing stores that I shop at in our area and am finally feeling like we are pretty set for warm clothes for the upcoming seasons for all four boys. One store I really like is just up the street from us, Once Upon a Child, and they sell used kids clothes, but much of what they sell looks new and is still in style (as opposed to the other used kids stores around here that sometimes have a good deal, but mostly just sell worn out junk). Anyways, after spending probably two hours there the other day, picking out clothes and trying each item on the different boys, I purchased a large pile of jeans, long-sleeve shirts, and sweatshirts, etc. The lady who checked me out made some comment about how I was buying a lot of stuff, but I told her that I had really done a pretty good job to get good deals on the majority of winter clothes I needed for all four boys. Anyways, that’s one less thing that I need to do now before the baby is born, so it’s nice to have it done.

And there were just a few other things that happened this week that I should mention. On Wednesday morning I went to visit teach a new sister in my ward, Alicia Taylor, for the first time. We had a nice visit, even though the boys were a little distracting. Then I came home and babysat the Hymas girls while Amy went for an ultrasound. And then on Wednesday evening I got to go to a new service enrichment group where we planned a service project for the women at the META House downtown, a place for women with children who are recovering from addictions and trying to get back to normal life. The META House staff requested that we bring pumpkins and help the women have a fun night with carving jack-o-lanterns (since many of them have not had a chance to do that before), which sounds like it should be a fun activity, although I hope it is not too challenging to get donations of pumpkins, since one of the girls there mentioned that she heard the heavy rains of last month ruined many of the local pumpkin crops so pumpkins are expected to be expensive this year. On Thursday and Friday we cleaned the house in preparation for Camden’s birthday party Friday evening. And on Friday Michael had his last day off for the month, so we went down to Chicago in the morning to go to the temple. We usually go with our friends, the Hedgecocks, and trade off babysitting, but Michael’s call schedule made it so that we couldn’t go with them this month, so we just went on our own and traded off watching the boys. That was a good trip, and each of us was able to get about 10 initiatories done for family names. That night the Wellses and Amy Cortez and her kids came for Camden’s party, and we had fun watching him eat almost an entire cake by himself.

And Kolby will be starting his preschool classes again tomorrow. Michael is going to give him and Eli each a father’s blessing tonight, which should be a cool thing to do. And I will definitely have to take some back-to-school photos of Kolby in the morning. And both boys will start up their swim lessons again this week, which will be kind of busy for me for the next couple weeks because Michael won’t get home early enough so I’ll probably be taking all the kids by myself, but it will be good for them to start up their swimming again after the 2-week break between sessions. And on Thursday, September 20th, Camden will turn one year old. He’s getting to be such a big boy.

4th of July!

So, our 4th of July this year was great! Just like last year, the weathermen on the news predicted rain, but it ended up being bright, sunny, and quite warm all day. It was beautiful out. We got up early to walk with the Maases down to North Avenue to reserve a spot for the parade. The Hunters, Hansens, Simons, and Hymases all came and joined us for the parade too. Kolby remembered that last year there were people dressed up in Elmo and Mickey Mouse costumes in the parade, and he was excited to see them again. The kids all got little flags, which they enjoyed waving around. There were people walking on stilts and high school marching bands. A civic band came by playing their instruments, and Michael commented that he wants to join a community band when we get settled down sometime soon. And there was a carriage pulled by two large horses that came up near where we were sitting and Kolby and Eli both jumped up and moved away because they were a little startled. At one point the people came by dressed as the different characters and Elmo was across the street, but Kolby got to shake hands with Bob the Builder and Donald Duck, which was fun for him. And both Kolby and Eli came away from the parade with a little bag full of candy that the people in the parade threw to the kids. Camden ended up asleep on my lap by the end of the parade.



After we went home and got a few things ready, we went over to the annual ward 4th of July BBQ party at the Twelmyer’s house. It was very fun. Michael and the boys all swam (we were surprised that there were lots of people swimming, because the pool wasn’t heated and Michael has been one of the few crazy swimmers the last couple of years we had the party, but this year it was nice and warm out). We had lunch and the kids played with Daddy in the big pool and in a little baby pool that someone brought. Camden had a blast splashing in the baby pool, and then fell asleep in my arms as soon as I got him dried off and dressed. He had a short nap in the playpen while we enjoyed the rest of the party.

After going home and letting the boys have a 2-hour nap, we met and parked our cars at the Taylor’s house and walked a couple of blocks to Hart Park for the professional fireworks show. We got a nice spot on the grass in the football field, right up front. The kids ran around playing for a while before it got dark. At one point Kolby and Eli were chasing each other and they got a little too far from us, so I went to get them because there was a big crowd of people there and we didn’t want to loose sight of them at all. So, they were running and chasing each other and then they were running from me, and they thought it was a great game. I was darting in between people and around picnic blankets, and I finally caught Eli, but Kolby kept running fast. He wouldn’t stop when I called him, but I couldn’t loose him in that big crowd, so I picked up Eli under one arm and carried him like a football as I ran, literally as fast as I could, after Kolby. People were probably laughing at the sight of this pregnant lady with a big belly, carrying a two-year-old under one arm and jumping over blankets to try to catch a 3-year-old. I finally caught up to him after running around at least half the length of the football field, and then headed back to our group, where Michael was searching the crowd because he couldn’t see where the boys or I had gone. I was panting for several minutes after I got back, but fortunately the boys stayed right by us the rest of the night.

When it got dark, we all lay down on our picnic blanket and watched the fireworks show together. It was great (especially since last year someone brought a wagon and the boys played in/fought over the wagon through the entire fireworks show). This year they were so excited about the fireworks and they just lay still right next to us the whole time. Camden really wanted to watch the fireworks, but each time one made a loud noise he started to cry. After a minute or so, Michael covered him with his blanket and laid him on his stomach, and Camden quickly fell asleep for the rest of the show. Michael said that during the loudest part of the finale, Camden stayed asleep, but his legs popped up in the air each time a firework exploded. The show was very good, but there must have been a bit of a breeze blowing toward the crowd, because there was ash falling on us from the fireworks, and some got in my eye. Never had that happen before. Also, at one point, part of one of the fireworks hit the ground about 10 or 15 feet from where we were sitting, and sparked and bounced around on the grass for a few seconds before going out. Everyone around there was lucky, because there were people sitting a few feet on either side of where it landed, and it could have burned someone pretty badly. But luckily it all went well, and the fireworks were beautiful. My favorite are the gold, glittery ones that kind of make a crackling noise as they come down. We came home and put the boys right in bed, and got to sleep around 11pm. It was a long, but very fun day!

Happy Father's Day!

This week has been quite busy for us. On Sunday night the Kearls came over for dinner and we had fun playing a few games after we got all the kids down to bed. Josh Hunter’s wife and kids were out of town while he was studying for the Boards, so he came over and played for a while too.

Tyce offered to come back the next day and bring some wood and tools to fix our entertainment center door that had fallen off. We decided to do a group family home evening activity and go to play volleyball at a park and let the kids play at the playground after we got the entertainment center fixed Monday. After Michael got home that night, Tyce and Faith came and they worked on fixing the door, but the kids were being pretty wild. We finally ended up taking the kids to a nearby playground because they couldn’t stay inside any longer. I ended up finishing the entertainment center a few days later – and it is nice to have it all fixed (especially since we don’t have to continually worry about keeping Camden out of all the things we store inside the door that was broken before. We had fun at the playground with the kids, but didn’t stay too long because it was late and the kids were all rather grumpy.

On Tuesday the kids got lots of chores done and we got the house all cleaned up, then we went and ran some errands and when we got home I made dinner for us and for some friends who just had a baby. Michael got home that evening, and after we got the boys to bed I went to a Ladies Night Out activity.

On Wednesday morning we went to a playgroup at the Tot Lot playground. The boys had lots of fun at that. Then we ran some errands. I had a doctor’s appointment, but it wasn’t for a couple of hours, so I called Michael and he met the boys and I for a little while and then went to the doctor’s appointment with us. The appointment went well. Everything seems to be good with the baby. And I told the doctor about the knee pain I’ve been having with this pregnancy, because it’s been getting worse lately, so I now have an appointment set up at an orthopedic clinic in a couple days – I am really hoping that I go in and they make a few quick suggestions and whatever the problem is with my knee will be an easy fix. We’ll see.

Wednesday evening was Kolby’s first swim lesson of the new summer session – and we decided to let him try being in the class without the parents in the water again this session. Several months ago we tried that class, and he had a pretty hard time at first, but then he got used to the teacher and seemed to be improving a lot. Then we were pretty surprised a few weeks into the class that the teacher suggested that Kolby shouldn’t be in that class anymore. The teacher had made a lot of comments about having too many kids in her class and how the kids were all so different in their ages, swimming skills, and how well they followed instructions. Anyways, they suggested that we put Kolby in a private lesson, but we ended up doing another session of the parent-child classes with him. This time we let him choose which class he wanted to try – and he said that he wanted to be in the class where Mommy and Daddy watched him from the side of the pool. I told him that would be fine, but that he would need to listen and do everything that his teacher told him to do. So, we went to his new class on Wednesday and he did so well. He was probably the best-behaved child there – he did everything the teacher asked right away. I was so proud of him. He will have fun in this new class, I think.

On Thursday Michael had one of his long call days at the hospital again – from early Thursday morning until Friday around noon. This time I suggested that he just stay after his shift ended and catch several good hours of sleep at the hospital, rather than coming home and just getting a few hours of sleep here and there with lots of interruptions from the kids. I think that it worked out better for him – he was still very tired, but able to do stuff with the family the next day. Thursday the boys had their art class in the morning. Later on, after naps, we went over to the Kearl’s house to play. They got a little blow-up pool for Nathan with a basketball hoop on one side of it, and the boys had lots of fun playing. Afterwards they rode bikes around the driveway. It was fun to just sit and watch them play. Then we went straight to Eli’s swim lesson at the YMCA. His class seems good, although I think that he is old enough to have more work on actual swimming skills and less time spent on the parents holding the children and singing songs. But I guess really that a big part of the swimming lessons when they are so small is getting them comfortable in the water. He enjoyed it, though.

On Friday morning I took the boys to the library. After Michael got home, we got a few things done around the house and then dropped the boys off at the Taylor’s house. We went and saw the musical, The King and I, which was put on by members of our church at a building south of here. Our friend, Cassidy, was the lead role of Anna. I had seen the movie Anna and The King a few years ago, but had never seen the musical or the movie of the musical before. I was a little surprised by the ending (because it was quite different from what I remember happening in the movie I saw), but we liked the performance and had fun spending time out together.

On Saturday morning we got up early and got everyone ready to go to the temple. When we got there, it was pretty hot out and the cicadas were flying around in the trees and making a really loud buzzing noise. Michael and I went in first and we ended up doing a few initiatories. Peter and Cynthia went in next and we took all the kids to Costco while they did initiatories also. We were planning on stocking up on a bunch of stuff at Costco, but then we remembered that they only accept American Express credit cards, and we decided to wait until our temple trip next month to go stock up at Costco instead, once our next set of student loans has come in and we have some more funds in our account. We ended up doing a circle around Costco and letting the boys try each of the free samples for part of their lunches. After eating lunch and dropping Jordan and Carter back off with Peter and Cynthia when they got done at the temple, we drove home and got the boys all down for a nap. I cut Michael’s hair, Michael got the laundry done, and I made dinner. Then the Taylors brought their kids over so they could go see The King and I. They were really good and after watching the movie Curious George that the boys had checked out at the library, and eating some chicken for dinner, the kids all went to bed. We had six kids here, and got them all to bed in the three bedrooms, with one extra bed to spare – we decided that we could easily fit six kids into a little apartment (as long as Michael and I didn’t need a bed to sleep in).

So, Michael is on call again today. He will be home sometime tomorrow afternoon. Luckily he only has one more long call day this month – next Friday/Saturday – and then he is done for a while. After June ends, Michael will officially start fourth year. That is exciting – especially since he only has two months of rotations fourth year that he is scheduled to be on-call again. That will be a big change to have him home most weekends (and, for most rotations, probably most weeknight evenings too). Today is Father’s Day, and we knew that Michael would be at the hospital today, so we gave him his gifts yesterday after we got home from the temple. I got him the sheet music book of Jon Schmidt’s Hymns. He started playing them on the piano for a little while yesterday, and they sounded great. We also made a cute card for him with a picture of a house. The house had three windows that were cut out with photos of the boys in the windows. The boys and I also made a card like this for my Dad and one for Michael’s Dad. Then, in their art class, the boys made Father’s Day cards and decorated bags of cookies for Daddy. So, I think Michael enjoyed those gifts. Today at church the boys did pretty well. We ended up out in the hall after the Sacrament, but they went to their classes well, and Camden played with the other kids during the Sunday school class, then he fell asleep on my shoulder so I was able to go for most of my relief society class. That was nice. Now that we are home and the boys are up from their naps, I think we’re going to play a game or something before dinner – they are getting a little worked up and have started playing a game where they stand on each other’s stomachs – and that can only lead to trouble. Better run.

Oh yeah – Camden started standing up holding on to furniture the other day. And this morning he was trying to play with my foot while I was on the couch, and I slowly moved my foot along the edge of the couch and he moved along after it – he took a few steps and moved along the front of the couch. And, this afternoon, he started clapping his hands for the first time too. So that was pretty cool. Here are some photos of Camden the first time he pulled himself standing up:

Summer is Almost Here

This weekend has been wonderful. The weather has been nice (70s-80s), and this is my “golden weekend” for this month, which means I got the weekend off from work.

Tuesday we had the ultrasound that confirmed we are having our 4th boy!! It also showed that the baby looks healthy and well. That night we dropped the boys off at the Taylor’s house and then went to a meeting where they talked about strategies for eliminating debt and preparing for retirement. They had some good ideas of things that we can do once we start into a job so that retirement can be the “golden years.” One of Steph’s visiting teachers invited us to the meeting, and we are going to meet with another sister in the ward to prepare a financial needs assessment that they do for free. Basically it is a way to show how much you need to save each year to retire with a certain amount of money. We have heard from others in the ward that it is nice to do just to see what sort of things we will need to think about once we have a real job.

I was on call Thursday night, and I got two hours of sleep, which is a lot for this rotation. We see so many motorcycle and automobile accidents, and then gun shot wounds and knife wounds – those are probably the main things that come through the trauma bay. After this month I don’t think I’ll ever be able to get on a motorcycle again – I have seen too many people’s lives completely changed for the worse from these accidents.

Kolby had his last day of preschool on Friday for this semester. He gets a summer break now (and Steph gets a summer break as well), and then he will start back up in the fall. We will continue with the swimming lessons so that they don’t forget how to swim over the summer. We are going to try Kolby again in the class without parents in the water to see if he is now ready. Their new classes start up this next week.

So Friday I pretty much was asleep on and off for most of the day – Steph says I wasn’t much use that day because I was so tired. We did get the car dropped off to have the odometer/speedometer fixed and picked that up on Saturday. We have had to fix the brakes, flush the brake fluid, get an oil change, rotate the tires, and now fix the speedometer and odometer this month. Now hopefully the cars are all fixed up for the next several months. That night we watched Peter and Cynthia’s kids so they could go to a movie.

Saturday morning I went to a class meeting to help us get ready for the 4th year of medical school, mainly focusing on applying for residency and how to prepare our applications and then how to prepare for the interviews that will take place November through January. They gave some good ideas of things to do to show why we should be picked for interviews and residency programs. I can’t believe that we are already here. It is both scary and exciting. We’ll keep you updated.

Steph has put together chore charts for Kolby and Eli, and they get to fill in squares for helping with dishes, putting their toys away, setting the table, and doing jobs for mommy & daddy. If they fill in all their squares for the week, then they get a special prize. Their prize this week was to go to a playground Saturday afternoon and play on the slides. It was such a nice day and we had fun chasing each other around on the playground. Then we dropped the boys off at Peter and Cynthia’s so that Steph and I could go on a date to celebrate Mother’s Day and Father’s Day. We splurged and went to dinner at Outback Steakhouse (mmmmm!!!!!) and then we saw Spider Man 3. We had watched Spider Man 2 earlier in the week so we could remember the story. Three was pretty good, but we both decided that two was our favorite of the series. It was nice to spend time together with just the two of us.

Today has been another beautiful day. It was also nice to be able to go to church with the family. With the way my rotations have gone recently, I have had to be at the hospital a few Sundays each month. I think Steph is also very happy when I am here Sundays to help with the boys at church. They did really well today. They were in underwear the whole three hours without having an accident. The talks in sacrament meeting today were about the sacrament prayers, focusing on the promise we make to keep the commandment. One of the speakers read several quotes from the four most recent prophets about things they have commanded us to do. It was neat to hear revelation that we have received from these modern day prophets. In Sunday school we talked about Matthew 21-23, where Jesus teaches about hypocrisy and how we need to be careful that we don’t fall into the trap of saying or teaching one thing and then doing the opposite. And then in the last hour we talked about provident living and things we can do to prepare temporally, socially, emotionally, and spiritually for the future. Tonight we are having the Kearls over for dinner so that should be fun.

We hope all of your lives are as fun and exciting as ours. Keep us posted.