Ben, Melanie, but mostly Little Grace

Pics of our kids (updated)

2011-03-11T21:03:00.000-08:00

We haven't posted any pics since Pax was born, the kid is adorable and Grace is just as cute, here are some updates.

Here is a pic of our little Pax-man smiling like usual

Grace with two of her favorite people Janelle (her aunt) and her boyfriend Jimmy

Another cute pic of Paxton

Gracie playing her little brother, he really loves her and she is being a great big sister

Grace at a Princess Tea Party

Grace dressed like Dorthy (she loves Wizard of Oz) and giving her best "Cheeeeeese" smile

Grace at the beach, one of her favorite places

Grace loves dress up, this was another of her Halloween costumes

Dressed like Ariel with another "Cheese" smile

Grace is doing her best supermodel pose for this shot. Ignore me in this picture; I never learned how to pose for a camera

Hope you enjoy, we will post more soon

What do you really want from your doctor?

2011-02-09T13:30:00.000-08:00

Thanks for the comments

New Baby Boy

2010-08-28T10:21:00.001-07:00

On Wed Aug 25 Paxton John-Patrick Burton was born. He was 7 lbs 8 oz, 19 inches, and perfect. He is home now and Melanie is doing well. Grace is a great big sis and we are adjusting well to the new addition to our family. Below are the pictures we have from the past few days.

Concert

2010-06-05T09:50:00.001-07:00

Melanie recently won a radio contest where we got to go to a private concert with Sara Bareilles. It was done in the lobby of a local hotel so it was small and there were only about 50 people there. It was really impressive. I didn't realize how talented she is. She was a lot of fun to watch play and connected well with the audience, and musically she was flawless.

After the concert we got a chance to meet her, which was sort of like a reception line at a wedding. We all lined up and walked past her as she shook our hand, we told her how much we enjoyed the concert, she gave us an autograph, and took a picture with us. It made me feel kinda bad for her. I am sure she does this often and I know standing in the reception line at my wedding got old after a while, and I was shaking hands with people I knew and was excited to see, not random strangers that won a radio contest.

Anyway it was a lot of fun, and I would recommend Sara Bareilles to anyone now. She only really had one song that I knew of but after hearing her concert I downloaded some more of her music and I love listening to the new tracks.

Here is a pic of our big moment with Sara. My only regret is we didn't take Gracie she would have loved it, but it was 21 and over and we couldn't find her fake ID.

Valentine's day and more

2010-02-23T22:13:00.000-08:00

For Valentine's day I took pictures of Grace with Solomon her cousin to give as Valentine's to our family. Solomon played cupid and Grace was just a beautiful girl in a red dress. It took about an hour of prep for 2 minutes of pictures, the kids have very short attention spans and Solomon was not too sure about his outfit at first. This first picture is of Grace at the park and all she wanted to do was swing. I'm not sure why I like this first picture so much I just do. The big news for this post is I'm pregnant and due August 31st, so today I am 13 weeks. So far this has been a harder pregnancy than Grace was, but I can't say that this pregnancy is very hard compared to other people's experiences. We are very excited to be adding to our little family.

Wow it's been a long time

2010-01-25T21:58:00.000-08:00

Here are some pictures from Christmas and other recent favorites.

Grace loves her tricycle

Here she is in her new bathrobe from her Aunt Janelle

This is Grace's sassy face

Grace laying in her new cradle with her new baby

Our most recent family picture...not the best but it will do.

As for us we are doing well. Ben is busy in school but he still likes it. It's Gracie's 2nd birthday today and she is doing great. She is very busy, very sweet and such a joy even when she's being sassy. She has graduated to a big girl bed and it seems to be going well. I am busy with work and other projects but I still love being a mom and love being in Oregon near our family. Hope all is well with everyone and I'll try to be better with posts.

Goodbye Uncle Johnny

2009-11-09T12:03:00.000-08:00

Last week we found out that my Uncle Johnny had passed away in his home due to a major heart attack. This was quite a shock since he's only 50 and has never been diagnosed with heart problems. If you scroll down you can see that my family lost my Uncle Patrick about 6 months ago as well. So needless to say it feels like too much to lose both my Uncles on my Mom's side within 6 months of each other. Yesterday was the Primary Program in our ward and the theme was My Eternal Family, I am the teacher for the 6 year olds so I was sitting with them. The spirit was so strong and my emotions became so intense during the program, I had to sit out most of sharing time to regain composure to teach the 3rd hour. The part that stood out to me was one of the songs' chorus said this "God gave us family to help us become what He wants us to be. This is how He shows His love--- for the family is of God." I can't imagine my life without my Uncles they have been such a blessing. Although neither of my Uncles were great at keeping in touch I always knew they loved me and supported me. My Uncle Johnny always made holidays and celebrations so fun. He was always making people laugh and loosen up. There was one time where he drove me from Coos Bay to Medford or maybe the other way around, anyways it was between my grandparents houses. The ride was so fun I think I was about 16 and he talked to me about a girl he liked, and how to tell if someone is a good driver, and various other things. My little Grace loved Uncle Johnny even though she didn't get to see him much she would always go to him and smile at him which if you know Grace is not very common. I will miss him greatly. I pray that my Uncles are at peace and that they are together. Good bye and I love you Uncle Johnny

Missing Friends

2009-10-24T16:03:00.000-07:00

I have recently added Google Analytics to our blog to see who is visiting our site regularly and luckily so far there aren't any concerning trends. We had a weird day where someone from Brazil visited our blog 8 or 9 times and people from all over looking for Tres Leche Cake receipts, but aside from that everything looks like it is just friends. I was actually surprised to see how many people are visiting our blog and realized that we must have some friends from years ago that have found us. Our problem is this, we have no way to get back in touch these old friends.

So here is my plan; if you are an old friend that managed to track us down please send us an email.

The email address is burton_benj@hotmail.com

I realize that posting my email address on this site opens it up to massive spamming so I am using my spam email account. This is the account I use to take online IQ tests, sign up for free newsletters, etc. so it already receives about 30 spams a day. This also means it may take some time for me to get back in touch since I only check the account about once a week and there is a lot of junk to sift through, but hopefully it will give us a way to find some of our old friends.

Specifically I am looking for the Byrds, the Snows, and possibly the Campbells. I am pretty sure all three of you have found us but we don't know how to get back in touch with you, so shoot us an email if you are still checking in on our site. If there is anyone else that wants to get/give some more contact info please send an email as well.

I would post some cute pictures of Grace but Melanie already posted the best ones below. I was also thinking about posting some of the most interesting images from my medical school lectures, but I am afraid I will look like a crazy person since most of them involve internal organs. So I will leave it with just this.

More pictures from the pumpkin patch

2009-10-21T22:30:00.000-07:00

Pumpkin Patch

2009-10-21T22:20:00.001-07:00

We went to the pumpkin patch for family home evening this week and it was so fun. There were farm animals, slides, play structures, wheel barrels and of course pumpkins. Grace had so much fun, I want to take her back just to play. I have so many cute pictures that there will be another post with pictures.

We made it to Oregon!!

2009-08-29T21:52:00.000-07:00

Ok so we've been in Oregon for a while now and we are loving it. We are so close to family and friends, it's been really fun catching up with everyone.

Ben started school this week and it looks like it's going to be a great year. The clinic he'll be working at is actually the clinic he would like to work for when he finishes residency. Grace is loving it here, she has an endless amount of people who want to play with her, whether it's a grandparent, aunt, or cousin. I've started work again in the Emergency room just a few hours a week and that has been good. I enjoy the challenge and Grace gets to stay with her Grandma or her Aunt so it's great. Here are a few pictures. The first is of Ben and Grace when we went to Sunriver with my family. Grace loved the bicycles.

Grace looking cool in her shades

Grace loves our backyard and being outside

Grace figured out the doggie door in about one minute

Banana Tres Leches Cake

2009-06-28T21:43:00.000-07:00

Here is a very good cake recipe. I decided to post it because everytime I make it people ask for the recipe. So here it is give it a try and enjoy

Banana Tres Leches Cake

Cake
1 box white cake mix
1¼ cups water
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
3 eggs
1 cup ripe mashed bananas (about 2 bananas)
1 can (14 ounce) sweetened condensed milk
½ cup coconut milk (not cream of coconut)
½ cup whipping cream

Heat oven to 350 degrees (325 for dark or nonstick pan). Grease bottom only of 13x9 inch pan
In large bowl beat cake mix, water, oil, eggs, and mashed bananas with electric mixer on low speed for 30 seconds; beat on medium speed for 2 minutes, scrapping bowl occasionally. Pour into pan
Bake for 30 – 35 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool completely, about an hour
Poke top of cake every ½ inch with fork, wiping fork occasionally to reduce sticking. In large bowl, stir together condensed milk, coconut milk, and whipping cream. Carefully pour over top of cake. Cover; refrigerate at least 2 hours or overnight until mixture is absorbed into cake.

Frosting

2 cups heavy whipping cream
1 cup powdered sugar
1 8 ounce block of cream cheese (room temperature)
½ teaspoon vanilla or ¼ teaspoon coconut extract

In medium bowl whip whipping cream and ½ cup of powdered sugar together until you get peaks about 2 minutes on medium speed
In a large bowl mix cream cheese and ½ cup powdered sugar together until light and fluffy about 5 minutes on medium speed
Fold whipped cream mixture into cream cheese mixture add vanilla or coconut extract (extract optional without extract you can taste the cream cheese more)
Cover cake generously with frosting (I usually have left over frosting and it is really good on fruit). You can also garnish the cake with banana slices and coconut if desired.

Marseilles Dress SHABBY APPLE GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

2009-06-16T10:04:00.000-07:00

Marseilles Dress SHABBY APPLE GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

This is such an adorable dress

Gracie update

2009-06-03T11:28:00.000-07:00

Sorry these posts are a little backwards but keep scrolling down and see the other 2 posts I needed to catch up it's been a long time

Grace is 16 months and is doing great. She's a girly girl loves babies, jewelry, brushing her hair, dancing etc. She is also a climber and into everything. She figured out our childproof locks in the kitchen, we had to go buy the magnet locks which cost about 10 times the price. Everyday she makes me laugh and I am so thankful for her.

Here she is bruching her hair before church

Grace with one of her favorite people her Daddy

I was cleaning the bathroom and Grace wanted to help so she sat in the sink

This isn't a great picture but Grace loves to put her sunglasses on and her shell necklace, of course the sunglasses never stay on when we're out in the sun

In loving memory

2009-06-03T11:11:00.000-07:00

Before leaving for Oregon I recieved some very sad news that my Uncle Patrick had passed away. I wish i had a better picture but this is the best I have right now. His obituary is after the picture but I wanted to write a few thigs. Uncle Patrick was like a big brother to me. He lived with us a few times while I was growing up and I will cherish those memories forever. He teased me endlessly and was one of the funniest people I've known. I'm thankful to have had him in my life and I miss him so much. I pray for him and for those of us left behind to mourn the loss that all may find peace in this tragedy.

Patrick David Musser
Musser, Patrick David 45 04/03/1964 04/28/2009 Patrick David Musser, 45 years old, passed away on April 28, 2009, in his home in Beaverton. Pat grew up in the Rogue Valley in Southern Oregon and graduated from Crater High School in 1982. He moved to Beaverton in 1984 where he began a long career with Intel. He accepted a project superintendant position with Skanska USA Building in 2002. Pat will be remembered for many things by many people and will be missed by all who had the pleasure of knowing him. Pat is survived by his wife, Amanda; daughters, Alicia, Stephanie and Brittany; parents, Norma Orr, John Musser and Sandi Musser; sister, Mary Kay Lewis, and her husband, Keith; brother, John Musser; and stepsister, Gigi Orr. He is also survived by many nieces and a nephew. Patrick was preceded in death by his grandparents, John and Vivian Orr and Guy and Zelma Musser; and niece, Madilyn Moser. Contributions may be made to the Oregon Humane Society.

Oregon Visit

2009-06-03T09:15:00.001-07:00

It's been a long time since I've done a post so here come a few. I'll start with my visit to Oregon for my step-dad's 50th birthday. It was a really busy trip with a lot of unexpected events but I'll get to that later. First the birthday party, we had a lot of fun with family and friends and got to catch up with people we haven't seen in a very long time.

This first picture is of my Aunt Gigi with Grace and this is basically how Grace is with everyone at first. She will warm up eventually to new people and people she doesn't see very often but it takes time until then she gets very sad and wants nothing less then mommy.

This is my Dad with Lisa and Micheal, Lisa has been friends with my Dad since college and Micheal was the first boy to propose to me he was 5 and I was 16. He was so cute with his curly blonde hair.

Here's the birthday cake with 50 candles lit and my Dad blew them all out in one try.

Here's Grace with Grandpa she had warmed up to Grandpa by this time and was happy to be with him onhis birthday.

This is my friend Jen's little girl Katelynn with Grace. Jen and her family were in town for her brother's wedding and it was so good to she her.

Life

2009-04-02T20:36:00.000-07:00

So it's been a long time since I've done a good post with cute Grace pictures. Here's a quick update, Grace is walking like crazy and saying a few words, she's a climber and into everything, and she's a little sassy which Ben says she gets from me. We love her to pieces even her sassiness. We just went to California to celebrate my sister's 16th birthday at Disneyland with my other sister that lives in San Diego, it was just us girls and it was so fun. Pictures from Disney still to come they are on my sister's camera.

Here is Grace at the park, she loves to go down slides

This is Grace ready for church so cute in her boots and bow

Grace at the beach near my sister's house in California, she loved the beach

This is my friend Juliet and her 3 girls, her 3 year old and twins who were about 8 weeks old here, I knew Juliet and her husband Ted in Italy. They are the best and it was so good to catch up, I hadn't seen them for about 6 years.

Here's Grace with a yummy chocolate spatula

Pay it Forward

2009-03-14T22:21:00.000-07:00

So I've seen this on several blogs and haven't been one of the first 3 to comment, but I have wanted to do it for a while I just haven't gotten around to it. Luckily my friend Jessica is doing it and I was one of the first to comment so now I'm paying it forward too. I'm not sure what I'll be making but whatever it is it will be great : ) So join me in this very fun activity

1. Be one of the first THREE bloggers to leave a comment on this post, which then entitles you to a handmade item from me.

2. Winners must post this challenge on their own blog, meaning that you will pay it forward, creating a handmade gift -anything!- for the first THREE bloggers who leave a comment on YOUR post about this giveaway!

3. The gift that you send to your 3 friends can be from any price range and you have 365 days to make/ship your item. This means you should be willing to maintain your blog at least until you receive your gift and have shipped your gifts. And, remember it’s the spirit and the thought that count!

4. When you receive your gift, blog about it! If you are not one of the first three to comment on this post, you can still play along. Go ahead and start your own Pay It Forward chain, and encourage your blogging friends to do the same! It's all about paying it forward.

Is this what I want?

2009-03-07T09:33:00.001-08:00

I don't have a chance to post much anymore but I wanted to take a quick study break and work through a little dilemma I am having.

Mostly right now I am thinking to myself, "is this what I want, is this the place I worked so hard to get to?" This usually happens right before my tests where I literally spend 16 hours a day studying. I work to memorize the sublte nuances that differentiate neuropathic and decubitous ulcers staring at some of the most disturbing images I have ever seen (if you want to know what I am looking at, and you aren't too squemish, do a Google image search of necrotizing fascitis). I think to myself that I really love music and I could have developed that talent. I remember really liking my business marketing classes. According to my standardized tests I appear to be all right at English, maybe I should be an author. In fact most of my life experiences tell me that I am much better at the creative, artistic subjects and that my hard sciences and math are weak comparatively. For some reason, though, I have been stubborn and focused on science for the past six years.

Then I look at most of the people I know that are getting paid to work and I am incredibly jealous. My friends are going on vacations, some of them to other continents. The people I went to school with are getting promotions, buying homes, evaluating stock options, contributing to retirement funds, developing talents, coaching little league teams, watching movies in theaters, going on hikes, and the list goes on and on. I study, spend a little time with my family, and run with my dog. That is my whole life. Every once in a while Melanie and I go out to eat or rent a movie, which is a nice break in the routine but I get burnt out. So I ask myself, “is this what I want, is this what I signed up for?”

It is a weird emotion, I have wanted to be a medical student for so long. It was a secret dream. When I was in college I wouldn’t tell everyone I wanted to be a doctor because I didn’t want to be embarrassed when I didn’t get accepted. Becoming a medical student was such a high dream, I was living on the philosophy that it is better to shoot for the stars and miss then aim for the ground and hit. So I told everyone I wanted to be a pharmacist or a teacher. I never thought I would make it; so many people told me that I didn’t have a chance. So I worked so hard, and I prayed so hard, and I got so lucky, and here I am. Now I have the audacity to ask, “is this what I want?”

I am so thankful for my little family because they help me see that this is what I want. I often ask Melanie at night before bed if she is happy with this life. She never hesitates, she smiles and tells me, “ of course.” Even little Grace supports me, all she wants is for me to play with her a little bit, and once I come home she needs me to stay home. I can be studying in another room just as long as she knows I am still in the house. If I try to walk out the door she throws a little fit. Then my dog Carmen doesn’t let me take my life too seriously. When I start getting frustrated with what I am studying she usually brings me a ball or puts her head in my lap. We go on our runs at night and she treats me like I am some sort of celebrity every time I come home.

I would be lying if I said that I love medical school, but I do love what it is helping me become. My life is close to perfect; it is just this med school thing that gets me down every now and again, and I know I can get through it. So when I question whether or not I want this, I know that I want this life. So I should get back to studying, thanks for reading my internal dialogue as I convince myself to get back to work, I have a lot of work to do.

The Conservatory Overcoat GIVEAWAY!!!!

2009-02-27T10:41:00.000-08:00

If you love cute coats (for those of you who have seen my closet know I love coats) check this out.

The Conservatory Overcoat GIVEAWAY!!!!

Blushing Buttercream Pettiskirt GIVEAWAY!!!!

2009-02-27T10:30:00.000-08:00

This site is awesome, with so many fun things and giveaways

Blushing Buttercream Pettiskirt GIVEAWAY!!!!

Adventures in Apartment Living

2009-02-12T13:10:00.001-08:00

So our adventure began last Friday (just a warning I am not a great story teller or writer but this is a great story so here it goes). I was having a hard day with Grace she was refusing to take her afternoon nap and Carmen was bugging me. I finally got Grace to sleep at 4 and Ben called to say he was on his way home. Then Carmen starts barking for no apparent reason and of course I freak out because I just got Grace down so I get her to stop by bribbing her with peanut butter. Then Carmen runs to her bed in the living room and poops on it (she was sick, this never happens), it then becomes very clear why Carmen had been bugging me and started barking. So I am so tired at this point I don't want to deal with poop patrol so I pick up her bed and move it. In the process I find Carmen's first accident with my bare foot and try not to yell because Grace is asleep. Then Ben gets home and he is the best husband and starts to clean up Carmen's mess. Ben then says to me "I think we have a mold problem" and takes me to our bathroom where we find a mushroom growing out of our wall. Can you believe that?!?! I am from Oregon and have never seen such a thing and here I am living in the desert and there's a mushroom growing out of my wall. To give a little background there is water damage on that wall because the shower door doesn't close all the way. A few weeks ago I called maintence because there was slim on the wall and they came and cleaned it and painted it with white paint that doesn't match the rest of the bathroom. Next we walk over to management and they promptly tell us that we can't stay in our apartment until this gets fixed. They say we can either stay at the model apartment or they will reimburse us for a hotel. We opted for the model apartment because it's close and at this point we could still go into our apartment to get things we needed. They also say that there is a guest suite that is made for living in that will be available Monday. So we get to the model apartment and there are no doors, no trash cans, no soap, no childproofing etc. All of which make things really interesting with Grace since she's now walking and is into everything. Well Monday rolls around and they start work on our apartment and they tell us the the family in the guest suite will be out that night and they will clean it Tuesday morning so we can move in Tuesday afternoon. Well then Tuesday came and they tell us that the people are refusing to leave the guest suite into their newly remodeled apartment and now management has called their lawyers to legally kick these people out. Now it's Wednesday and the people have recieved the letter from the lawyer and still refuse to leave so the head maintence guy says he'll make the model more liveable. He puts up a door from another apartment that doesn't fit, gets the washer and dryer to work, and gives me a vinyl shower curtain so I can use the shower without ruining their decorative shower curtain. So here we are Thursday still in the model apartment waiting for our apartment to be fixed (basically a whole new bathroom). Grace and I have spent a lot of time at the mall in the play area and we have a lot of great friends that have been making us wonderful dinners so we don't have to go out every night since there is nothing to cook with in the model. Thanks to all that have helped us we really appreciate it.

Happy 1st Birthday Gracie!!

2009-01-27T19:51:00.000-08:00

So here is Gracie's first birthday party. We had 3 other little girls come and we had a great time. The first picture is before the party, Grace playing with her boa. The rest of the pictures are of the party. It's been so fun watching Grace grow up and I will post again with what she's up to.

Christmas and more

2009-01-01T19:43:00.000-08:00

The first 2 pictures are of Grace in her new tutu I made her. I want to have her first year pictures taken in a tutu so I made it the other night and put it on her in the morning over her pj's. She actually liked wearing it and crawled all over playing in it. I liked the second picture because Grace is posing for the camera. The last 2 pictures are of Grace opening presents in her Christmas pj's, sometimes I think she likes to play with the paper more than the presents.

Family pics

2008-12-11T19:50:00.000-08:00

Here are some family pictures our friend Tyler took for us

Recent Events

2008-12-11T19:04:00.000-08:00

We've been busy with the holidays and other random things. I had the great opportunity to go to the Celine Dion concert with my sister in law and her family. Well I'm not much of a writer so here are the pictures.

Here's Celine, we were in the nose bleeds but it she was still amazing

Here's Santa's little helper

And his reindeer

Can you believe how sad this face is?!?! Ben took this picture because he wanted a picture of her boo boo face

Here's our little Beaver fan on civil war day, we'll just try to forget the actual game

Bows

2008-11-23T19:36:00.000-08:00

So my very sweet friend Samira (her husband goes to school with Ben and they have a daughter who is almost 6 months) came over and taught me how to make bows for Grace. Samira's little girl Isabella wears them all the time and looks so cute so we tried them on Grace. This is one of the bows I made and it looks super cute on Grace and she liked it for a little while, but then she wanted it off. The sad part is when she pulls on them they are on an elastic band and they snap back and hit her in the face which leads to a very sad Gracie. I'm not giving up though and I'm still going to make more because they are so cute and hopefully she'll wear the bows more and more. I'll just keep a close eye on her so they don't snap in her face.

Recent Pics

2008-11-22T13:34:00.000-08:00

So here are the most recent pictures of Grace. I had to put up pictures of her in her Oregon State onesie. The last picture shows her "angry bump" in between her eyebrows. This bump has been there since birth and Grace has started to make more faces with it. It's really funny because she will make a face and I'll laugh and then she'll make the face again.

The Zoo

2008-11-02T20:28:00.001-08:00

So last week was crazy, Ben had finals and we had a lot going on so we decided to go to the Zoo on Saturday which was so fun. Here are a lot of pictures, sorry this may be boring but I love animals.

Here is a Galapagos Turtle they are huge, this was the first time I'd ever seen a turtle so big

This is Grace in the car after a long day at the zoo we gave her a minute to play before we put her in her car seat.

This is Ben touching a stingray

At the zoo they have a room called the monkey room where you are basically in the cage with the monkeys, it's crazy. You have to watch out because if they are above you in a tree they may mark you by peeing on you and they may jump on you if you are too close.

This is the baby Orangutan

There are fountains for the kids to run around in Grace was a little unsure but she liked to look at the water.

Here we are in front of the Zebras

These are the baby Zebras playing together

Our other child

2008-10-27T20:46:00.001-07:00

Ben wanted me to post a few pictures of Carmen playing Frisbee, he's very proud of her. I think the last one should be on a Petsmart ad.

The latest with Grace

2008-10-20T15:05:00.000-07:00

Well here's the latest with Grace who will be 9 months on the 25 th, she is army crawling all around, she has 2 teeth on the bottom in the front, she's babbling more saying mamamama and dadadada, she loves our dog Carmen and is always trying to feed her while in her high chair (they are little partners in crime), and she can stand for 10-15 seconds on her own she doesn't take steps just balances. I took these pictures the other say just for fun, we were bored. As for the rest of the family we are doing great.

Halloween is just around the corner

2008-10-05T20:29:00.000-07:00

It's October and Grace is ready for Halloween.

Here she is in her skeleton pj's from her Grandma Mary and they glow in the dark, it's really funny when I go to her for her early morning feeding because there's a little glow in the dark skeleton.

Here she is in her Halloween costume, isn't she a cute strawberry!

This is just one of my favorite recent pictures

As you can see Grace really enjoys eatting

More from Santa Barbara

2008-09-20T09:33:00.001-07:00

Here are a few more pictures from our Santa Barbara trip, Sunday morning we walked to the beach which reminded us of Oregon (overcast, grey ect.)

I took this picture in our hotel room, Grace was always happier when we were back in our hotel room away from the commotion

Angela's Big Day

2008-09-08T10:27:00.001-07:00

So Saturday my Step-Sister Angela got married in Santa Barbara and we were lucky enough to attend. The ceremony was beautiful, Angela was beautiful and the reception was a lot of fun. Here are some pictures:

Here are Angela and Corry taking pictures before the ceremony this is inside the Courthouse in Santa Barbara

This was before the ceremony in the courthouse

Here's the happy couple just after the ceremony

Here's the family, me, Janelle (half-sister), my Dad, my Step-mom Sherri, Ben and Grace

Here are all the sisters together at the reception

This is Grace with Savannah, Savannah is almost 2 and is the daughter of one of my childhood friends, it was so fun to see them play together Savannah wanted to hold "baby Grace"

Grace loves to Smile

2008-08-22T08:52:00.000-07:00

Grace has started smiling all the time and smiling for the camera. Here are some pictures of her cute smile

Babysitting

2008-08-18T13:01:00.000-07:00

So I spent last Friday watching our friends'( Tyler and Jessica) little 13 month old Makayla. It went well but I will say I have a new found respect for moms with twins or babies that are very close in age. Here are some pictures from the day and some extra pictures of Grace.

Ben is officially a student doctor

2008-08-04T14:03:00.000-07:00

Well Ben started medical school last week and Friday they had a white coat ceremony. For the ceremony they had a few speakers and then all the students went up one by one and had a member of the faculty give them their coats.

Grace fell asleep like a little angel during the ceremony.

Update with pictures

2008-07-28T15:38:00.000-07:00

Ben is doing a better post than this but I wanted to do a quick update with pictures. Here we are as a family in front of our apartment.

We started green veggies with Grace and she is definitely not a fan. Here is the progression of her first experience with green beans.

Here are Ben and Grace with his Father's day gift, Ben loves to hike so we plan to take Grace out when it's not over 100 degrees everyday.

My parents were here helping us with the move and we couldn't have done it without them. Here's my mom, me and Grace the day my mom went home

Here is Grace's first trip to the swimming pool.

Grace has discovered that she loves to drink from cups.

Getting Ready to Move

2008-06-25T19:02:00.000-07:00

We finally have a place to live in Arizona and we are getting excited to move. Finding that apartment has been a long process with a couple of bumps along the way. Since we are over 1000 miles from where we want to live we relied heavily on the internet while we looked.

After a few weeks of searching the internet we thought we found the perfect. It was close to campus, a good price, the pictures looked nice, and they accepted dogs. We called them and like all apartment complexes they assured us we could get the apartment if we got all of our information in with the next 2 minutes because these apartments were going fast. Our decision making abilities were a little hindered because I had just finished a 7 day stretch of night shifts and Melanie wasn't feeling well so we decided that we had to get all our info to them ASAP. I spent the next three hours trying to fax them the information, which never did end up working, so I finally overnighted all of the paper work. This ended up being a huge mistake.

Luckily some friends, Tyler and Jessica Pace, live down in Arizona and were kind enough to check out the apartment complex (thanks Jessica) we also found some online reviews that pretty much told us the place was a slum. We put a stop payment on the check and started looking again. We eventually found another apartment that we are happy with and are looking forward to moving there.

So now we are packing boxes and organizing the move. It is a little tricky to pack up boxes when most of what we need to pack is in the same room as our napping daughter but we are slowly getting there.

We are looking forward to starting this next phase of our life and excited for the coming challenges.

As for Grace she is doing well. She is rolling like a champ and now loves eating rice cereal. She is also a big fan of Alicia Keys which so we listen to that before we put her down for naps. It is amazingly calming and really cute. As soon as I turn on Alicia she gets a big smile and settles down. She is as cute as ever and we are loving being her parents.

As always here are a couple pics of our cute daughter.

It's 4 am; Grace Must be Lonely

2008-05-26T10:25:00.000-07:00

Grace has always been a good sleeper since the day we brought her home. She always got 7 to 10 hours of sleep a night and we counted ourselves pretty lucky. All of that changed about a month ago. Grace started to digress and is now waking up every few hours during the night. Melanie and I understand that babies usually don't sleep through the night and we expected that as a new parents, but since we were spoiled for three months with easy nights this new trend has been pretty hard on us.

The best is Grace's 4 am wake up. By this point she isn't waking up because she is hungry or has a dirty diaper; she is ready to get up, get out of bed, and play. We try to hold her without engaging her too much because we want to break the habit and we hope she will go back to sleep. The goal is to make life at 4 am very boring. Grace, on the other hand has some ideas of her own.

So it goes like this. Melanie wakes up and tries to feed Grace. Grace refuses to eat and sits and smiles at Melanie instead. It is pretty funny so Melanie can't help but laugh though she tries to be stoic. Melanie then brings Grace into the bed and gives her to me. At this point I shut my eyes and sit her on my stomach and listen to her coo at me. The coos are really cute so I can't help but open my eyes and as soon as I do she gives me a huge smile that looks like this.

She is so excited that my eyes are open and I am ready to play with her. I can't help but laugh but I force myself to shut my eyes again in the hopes that she will get bored and go back to sleep. This is where it starts to get really funny. So my eyes are shut and Grace is silent. After a minute or two of the silence I start to think that she has maybe fallen back to sleep so I open my eyes again. There sitting on my stomach is my daughter giving me this sort of half awake smile which I know she has been doing since the first time I opened my eyes.

At this point I can't help myself. I am awake and laughing and I can't stop. So now that Grace has gotten dad up it is time to start working on mom. Melanie is pretty poker faced at four in the morning but it is hard to sleep when I am lying next to her laughing at our baby. I am confident that Grace knows that Melanie is really awake even though her eyes are closed because as soon as I am clearly awake Grace turns and starts to coo/yell at her mom. Like me, Melanie can only hold out for so long before she starts to laugh and say something like, "Grace you aren't supposed to be cute at four in the morning." At this point we are both lying there trying to stifle our laughter and Grace just grins knowing she has made everyone so happy.

My favorite part of the story is our dog Carmen who also sleeps in our bed with us (I know, we're softies). While Grace is cooing and we are all laughing Carmen will sometimes lift her head and grumble at us for disturbing her sleep. I had to snap a picture of our disgruntled puppy just so everyone can see how happy she is to be woken up by a noisy little baby.

As funny as it all of this is I still wish Grace would sleep through the night again. Everyone keeps telling us that it will get easier. I love to hear this because they will usually ask us how old Grace is and then tell us that it gets much easier next month. "Oh she is three months, yeah things will get easier once she is four months I know all my babies did." Then a few weeks later, "Yeah four months is hard, just wait until five months things will get easier then." It is like a mirage in the distant horizon but we will just keep going until we get there, and really we love the journey.

Professional Photo Shoot

2008-05-13T12:18:00.000-07:00

We got some pictures taken of Grace to use as presents for Mother's Day, Christmas, etc. These were some of the highlights of Grace's first professional photo shoot.

A Few More Pics of Baby Grace

2008-04-28T17:30:00.000-07:00

It may seem kind of ridiculous but there are a few pictures of Grace that deserve to be posted.

This is one of our favorites of Grace, she is striking her diva pose wearing her stylish glasses. These sunglasses were such a hit that Grace now has two pairs.

This is Grace smiling while we sing her one of her favorite songs, "Los Pollitos." We are kind of excited because it seems like she like music a ton and she also seems to like Spanish.

I really like this picture of Grace because it shows off her blue eyes, and it seems that her eyes are staying that color. You can also see the touch of red in her hair. We will see if she really ends being a blue eyed red head.

Being a Mom is Hard Work

2008-04-28T10:41:00.000-07:00

Recently I had the experience of being a full time mom and it was educational. A few days ago Melanie went back to work doing four hour shifts in the Emergency Room. That meant that I had to be on my own for about five hours with little Gracie. I was pretty nervous about this but I tried hard not to let it show; Melanie was already stressed enough. She wanted to go back to work but at the same time really hated the idea. Up until then the longest Melanie would be away from little Gracie was during her showers, and I would usually try to bring Grace into the bathroom to say hi because I knew how much Melanie missed her for those fifteen minutes. Needless to say, Melanie starting work was a big step.

We had everything set up so the afternoon would be smooth, there were bottles in the fridge, back up outfits laid out, and I got detailed instructions on what to do if anything went wrong. I also had back up. We spoke to both my sister and my mother in law and they were available should anything go wrong. All I needed to do was make a phone call and I knew reinforcements would be on the way. With all the safety measures in place Melanie gave Grace a kiss, and then another kiss, looked at me and asked me if everything would be all right, kissed Grace again, and headed out the door.

I had spoken with the pharmacists that I work with and they had a bet with each other how many times Melanie would call while she was at work. We had to clarify whether or not the calls she made in the car to and from work counted. The low number was three, not counting the calls made in transit. I personally thought that was about right.

So I started my day bonding with my daughter. I was nervous but confident that I could do the job and maybe get some of the housework I had been putting off done. I had another goal on top of this. For whatever reason I am good at getting Grace to sleep and I thought this would be a great opportunity for me to see if I could get her to take some good daytime naps. She sleeps very well at night, at least eight hours, but during the day she struggles. She never sleeps for more the twenty minutes and as the day progresses she get crankier and crankier. Melanie and I have really struggled with this because all the books written on the subject of sleeping babies usually focus on helping babies sleep through the night. So we have been doing what we can to help Grace sleep during the day.

I planned my day so that I would spend about a half hour playing with Grace and then at the first sign of sleepiness I would put her in her bed and give her a bottle until she fell asleep. I would try to swaddle her as I was feeding her and the I planned on getting the housework done while she was asleep. It all seemed so easy. It turns out that it is really hard to swaddle a baby with one hand while you are trying to hold a bottle in their mouth with the other. It is also really awkward to feed a baby lying on their back in a bassinet. The biggest battle was to keep the milk that somehow left the bottle but didn't get into Grace's stomach off of Grace. I want to keep her clean and dry so I tried hard to catch all of this excess milk. This turned out to be an impossible task. I would see a drip coming and reach for the burp cloth to try to wipe it off. Then, before I could get there, the milk would slip into the space between Grace's head and her body where her neck should be but hasn't grown in yet (I call the space the chin abyss).

Needless to say the plan never worked 100%. In addition to the troubles that I mentioned I also had to deal with our dog Carmen who decided that she needed to put little extra bark in her house guarding technique that day. The windy weather and diligent UPS guy helped shatter my expectations I ended up holding/feeding/playing with Grace the whole afternoon. I did manage to do a little laundry but it is hardly worth mentioning.

I honestly didn't mind though, it was nice to have so much time to spend with my daughter and I feel like we had a chance to bond a little better. I don't get to see her as much as I would like so opportunities like this are precious. I have to admit that even though it was a lot of fun and I really enjoyed it I was pretty tired when the day was through. I really had nothing tangible to show for it but I felt like I had earned a nap. Being a mom can be hard work.

Melanie was relieved when she got home that Grace was fine and spent the rest of the night loving on her. We decided after a couple shifts that Melanie is going to finish working towards the end of May instead of the end of June like we had originally planned. Really it is better for everyone, that chin abyss can only hold so much milk.

It never stops

2008-04-02T06:13:00.000-07:00

I may be alone in this but I sort of organize my life into big events. I focus my efforts onto a goal and do what I can to achieve it. While I am working towards that goal I feel like once it has been accomplished I will have a second to rest. These past two months I have had two goals. The first is getting ready for Gracie and the second was being accepted to med school. I thought that once I could check those off we would have a minute to rest.

Well it was pretty ridiculous to think that I would have more time to rest after I had a baby so I don't know what my thought process was there. With med school, however, I figured I got the acceptance letter and then I wouldn't have to sweat until classes started. I was wrong about that too. I am now trying to figure out how I am going to live for four years with zero income paying yearly tuition that is higher then my current yearly salary. It just never stops. I think I am starting to realize that I will always be busy, there will never be a point in my life where I have gotten everything done that I need to do. That is fine though, I know that Melanie and I can handle just about anything. Having little Gracie-pants is a good motivator and I am sure that everything will work out in the end.

And since I love pictures of my baby I thought I would post a few more.

You have to agree that she is one of the most lovable babies in the whole world

It is hard to see here but Grace is really cute in her blue ducky dress. This picture makes her look like she might be a red head, it would be fun if she ends up being one.

Peaceful

2008-03-28T19:24:00.000-07:00

At the moment everything is going well. Baby Grace is turning out to be incredible. She has been sleeping through the night for weeks and everything she does makes us smile. We have really enjoyed watching her little personality emerge. So far we know she is picky, determined, she has a bit of a sense of humor, and she loves kisses. As of right now we have about 200 pictures of the first two months of her life. If you do the math that is about 25 pictures a week, if we keep up at this rate we will probably need to by some type of digital mass storage device to keep her life so well documented.

Our lives have also taken a big turn now that I have been accepted to medical school. I will be starting at ATSU in Arizona in July. I am super excited about the program because it fits what I want to do with my career perfectly. The school's goal is to train doctors that will work with the under served communities. We are all very excited about this since it means all that work actually paid off. I guess I don't have to worry about finding a job and now we can look forward to living a lavish life on student loans and government grants. In reality we do have a lot to be thankful for right now, life has been good to us.

Waiting for the Next Big Thing

2008-01-20T00:02:00.000-08:00

This has been an interesting month now that the holidays are over. Right now we are waiting for two major events. The first, and most exciting, event is our baby girl that is due in a week and a half. The other is an acceptance letter from a medical school. I have now received three rejection letters from Temple, Creighton, and George Washington Universities but there are a few more schools I applied for so I am keeping my fingers crossed. I still haven't heard from my top choices and I like to think that is a good sign, at least they are still considering me.

I know, really all anyone cares about is the new baby so lets talk about that for a minute. We are getting ready for the big day. Our hospital bag is almost packed and I am practicing all of my labor coaching material; have you ever practiced breathing? Melanie is getting everything ready for our baby. We have two outfits picked out to bring her home in and one extra just in case she is actually a he. The crib is set up with the pink handmade quilt and some pretty cool toys. We are helping our dog understand she can't always be the center of attention, but we still love her and we won't forget about her. Big things are coming soon and we will be sure to keep everyone posted.

Baby Girl Burton

2007-12-09T22:58:00.000-08:00

It is a good time to start chronicling our life since Melanie and I are expecting a baby in a couple months. We are excited and doing everything we can to prepare for her arrival. We have a crib, clothes, toys, but we can't seem to find a name. So for now she is called Baby Girl Burton. If anyone has any suggestions for a name I would ask you to write them down on a piece of paper then crumple that up and throw it in the trash because we have already seen them all. We have a book that is thicker then my Bible with just baby names in it and we can't find a name out of that. Melanie has gone all the way through it highlighting the names she likes. I made it through the B's and I am trying to get the motivation to keep going. She might graduate from college with "Baby Girl Burton" written on her diploma.

As best as I can tell Melanie is doing well. She is still working full time as an ER nurse which I know isn't easy, but she never complains. It is funny because from behind you can't tell she is pregnant but when she turns to the side it is obvious.

As for me I have applied to medical school and I am just waiting to hear back. The process is long and I will be glad when it is all over. Our life is in limbo right now so I can't tell you what we are expecting in the future. Right now we are just sort of waiting for the next big thing.