Happy 3rd Birthday Casen!

This week brought some excitement to our house.

We started off the week with some huge storms that brought TORNADOES to our area! One touched down in the next town over but nothing too close to us. Thank goodness. We did get to go hide in our "safe place" as they call it on the news.

The kids were a little nervous but everyone did great and thanks to the toys that are stored in our "safe place" they were entertained the whole 20 minutes we had to sit in the closet under the stairs.

Oh and I should probably mention that I was vacuuming when the sirens went off and when all the weather alerts on my phone were going off so I totally missed all that. Oops. Note to self, do not vacuum during bad weather. Anyways, the next night at around 2 the sirens went off again and that time I heard them so I woke up Cody, grabbed the babies and headed downstairs again. Luckily that time there were no tornadoes just super super strong wind. Poor Casen woke up from the weather and wanted to know why we were camped out downstairs and then started asking "'nother tornado Mommy?" It took me a little while to convince him that we were ok and that he could go back to sleep. You would think that was enough "excitement" but oh no. One of the babies took a chunk out of my eye with his fingernail.

That was bad. I was a pirate for that first night and for the rest of the week I had to close that eye to do pretty much anything that required seeing (reading, playing on the iPad). On the plus side, Cody had met a member of the bishopric the previous Sunday who also happened to be an Opthamologist (eye dr) so he called him up and got a prescription called into the pharmacy for me and then went and picked it up in the middle of the night. I don't know what I would do with out him! Rilyn was also a huge help. One night she totally set the table and surprised me.

She is so wonderful. Still not done with the excitement yet. Casen turned 3 this week!! We had number 3 pancakes and Casen got to open his presents.

His favorites were his new Percy train and his new Jeep from Grandma and Grandpa!

He drove that car all day long! (He also busted us building it at 10:00 the night before, little punk!) We had some friends over for cake and ice cream to help celebrate.

Oh and Brooks decided that he needed to give us all a present by EXPLODING all over my bed!

It was very traumatic...for me. (not to worry it all came out in the wash) And to end the week we had a fun Costco lunch date.

I love all my sweet little kiddies! Oh and here is a couple more cute pictures of the Baby Boys.

(Brigg is in grey) They are 3 months old aready! Are you kidding me?!?

Grandma's Here

This week we spent some time getting to know where we live a little better. One of the main roads in Iowa City is called Mormon Trek which I think is pretty cool.

It got its name because the Mormon hand carts came through Iowa on their way to Utah. Iowa City was pretty much their starting point. Pretty cool. There are lots of neat church history things over here so if anyone wants a tour come see us! I got my new jogging stroller this week so the boys and I had to try it out.

 They both enjoyed the ride but I think they will like it a little better when they can sit up on their own. While we were trying it out the big kids played at this awesome park that is right around the corner from our house.

Its pretty cool and HUGE! Anyways, during my run I noticed what looked like a lawn decoration in someones yard

...until it moved

...and jumped over the neighbors fence.

Crazy. Oh and of course the highlight of the week... GRANDMA CAME TO VISIT!

The kids loved getting to spend the weekend with Grandma. Especially since Grandma= new toys! Rilyn ended the weekend with a new slip n slide which she loves!

She is pretty funny to watch because she will run up to it, stop, and then throw herself down. Cody is trying to teach her to skip the stop. While Grandma was here we went to check out a store called Menards. Its a pretty cool place.

Casen found this riding lawn mower and of course jumped right on it.

The best part, he put on his sunglasses and yelled out of my way or I'll run you over! Crazy Boy! Come see us again soon Grandma! We have your room ready and waiting!

Moving

Can I tell you how much I hate moving. I hate packing everything up and then trying to find it all when I get to a new place. I hate trying to figure out where to put things while every time I do another pile of stuff seems to form. I love that we have a new home and a new place to make friends but I hate the moving part. Luckiy we're not going anywhere for a very long time. We are starting to get settled in our new house. I'm taking my time decorating because I want to make sure I get stuff where I want it.

 

We are getting there though. Our couch came this week and so did our new bedroom set (pictures to come soon). The boys got some new toys from grandma this week.

I think we may need to wait a few more months for them to get taller.

I've had some little projects to do to get the house in order (like painting a bookshelf and Casen's bed and maybe the back of Brigg's head on accident).

We did a drive by of the hospital Cody will be working at.

Its huge and right on campus next door to the football stadium. Here's hoping we can actually go to a game there. That place looks AWESOME! Anyways, I have to get back to work. Hopefully the next time I post I will have some pictures of the inside of the house so I can actually show you where we're living!

Goodbye Med School, Hello Iowa

The ending of our crazy journey through medical school happened this week. Cody graduated from LECOM on Sunday and is now offically Dr. Breinholt.

 

Because he is such a smarty pants he was asked to carry a banner at graduation.

Check out those sexy white gloves. It was so great getting to see Ashlee and Cassidy again.

And of course their sweet babies. They are getting so big so fast. The whole group we started school with has changed so much.

We've gained babies and wives. These people are truely amazing and our lives are better because of them. I know that we will all have a place in each others lives because we formed our own family over the last 4 years. (Funny side story, during graduation I had to nurse the babies and that tends to take up lots of room and can result in me showing a little something I didn't want to show so I decided to try to nurse in the lobby where there weren't very many people. Unfortunately the benches were super slippery and the boys and I were having some trouble. Luckily I have super awesome friends who also happened to be in the lobby who didn't mind helping out by propping up the boys for me. And thanks Cassidy for documenting it!

)Sunday night after graduation, Cody and Frank jumped in the car and headed to Scranton to go get our stuff. Debbie and I spent Sunday night in Erie and took off toward Iowa bright and early Monday morning. The boys did awesome and the 10 hour drive ended up taking 14 hours because of stops but it wasn't too bad.

Cody and Frank's 14 hour drive took about 16 hours but we all made it safe and sound. Tuesday morning we met our realtor at the house to do a walk through and we thought we were going to close on the house but some stuff came up and we had to wait until that afternoon to sign paperwork. Luckily we were able to start moving in while we were waiting. We love our new house!

The yard needs some TLC but it will be prefect in no time. Frank and Debbie ended up heading back to Arizona on Wednesday afternoon. We are so grateful for their help. We couldn't have done it without them. Come back and see us soon Breinholts! Grandma, Grandpa, Rilyn and Casen showed up Wednesday night and we were so excited to see them and show the kids their new rooms. While Erin and Harry were here there were several trips to Lowes and Walmart and furniture shopping. (Thanks for all the stuff guys) Mom and Dad leave Sunday and we're really going to miss them too. I'm so grateful that we have such amazing families that help us so much and that made this move possible. I'm going to have to do a post of just what Grandma and Grandpa and Rilyn and Casen did on their drive out because they had a BLAST! Now back to moving!

Our Last Week In AZ

Its our last week in Arizona. We tried to spend as much time with family as we could. Sunday we went to dinner at Misty and Bobby's house.

The kids love to play with their cousins and they were really loving playing the Wii. Monday we went to lunch with Greg and Brit.

Tuesday was Rilyn's actual party with Tatum and Preslie. They had a tea party at Girly Girls and then got cookies at Paradise Bakery.

Wednesday, Rilyn lost her first tooth!

Man this girl graduated from Kindergarten, turned 6, and lost her first tooth all in one week! Thursday Rilyn woke up to a sparkly dollar bill from the tooth fairy.

Friday we picked up our uhaul trailer and loaded up. Uncle Cody came by to tell us goodbye and the kids had a blast playing with him.

Grandma and Grandpa noticed that Rilyn's vegetable garden had actually grown some stuff. Farmer Rilyn grew a tomato and 2 zucchinis. Saturday, Frank, Debbie, Brigg, Brooks, Lola, and I hopped on a plane for PA and Grandma, Grandpa, Rilyn and Casen started driving towards Iowa.