Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Whiteville, North Carolina

Hi! We're finally updating our blog after 2 years. We are now in Whiteville, North Carolina. Lee is in his 2nd semester for his last year of optometry school. He's on extern right now at Columbus Eye Associates in Whiteville. His proctor is Dr. Lewis. Lee sees on average 13 patients a day. He's busy! He is enjoying it and is learning a lot.


I am adjusting to being here. We are fortunate to live in the house right next to Columbus Eye--and it's free for us! The Lewis' own the house. I have to keep close tabs on my boys. We are loving the porches and I the rocking chairs.

This past summer was great, busy, and tiring. May 2nd Shanna and Haley were born, and about 2 weeks later Lee started his 4th year of school.

The beginning of July we drove up to Minnesota for my sister Stephanie's wedding reception--and then on to Omaha for her wedding to Andy Gerla in the Winter Quarters' Temple. It was great to see all of my family and being with them for a couple of days. Our whole family was there--all 10 siblings and spouses and kids and parents!

The end of July we flew out to Utah to celebrate Lee's parent's 50th wedding anniversary! It was great seeing all of his family too. The trip was so short that we didn't get to see everyone that we wanted to see. We flew out to Utah on the 27th--Clark's 4th birth day. At the end of the flight the attendant announced to the whole plane that it was Clark's 4th birthday. That was fun. During our travels we met 2 or 3 people that said they had 2 sets of twins...I hope it wasn't a sign or anything. A great treat being in Utah was being at the temple with Lee's parents and all of his siblings (and Nathan! :)).
We moved from Memphis the 29th of August. We miss all of our good friends there. The last week we were there we spent time with practically all of our friends and that was a treat.
We'll be in Whiteville for the Fall Semester and then the next semester in Johnson City, Tennessee.

Clark is a good big brother and is having fun playing more and more with Cal. Clark has enjoyed riding his trike on our family walks. He's getting small for it, but he'll have to wait for a bike. He's getting good at his ABC's and it's fun to hear him count in Spanish and English. It's funny when I tell him we need to fix his hair. He replies: "Why? Is it broken?"
Cal follows Clark in almost anything. Today Clark was sad about something and was laying on the floor, and Cal saw Clark and went and laid on the floor and started fake pouting. :) The boys are great and I'm glad they're mine!
Shanna and Haley will be 5 months old next week, October 2nd. Shanna has been rolling over for about a month and a half and Haley has been rolling over for about 2 weeks or so. I love that they smile and respond to me. They're in a very fun stage--and still like to be held. I hope they don't start crawling here, but I don't think I'll get my wish. They are angel babies. They are both sleeping really well too.
And one more little tidbit for me and Lee--we just celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary! September 21, 2002 was the big day. My mom drove down from Clayton, NC and babysat for us. It was great going on a date! We have a tradition of having pizza on our anniversary. It stemmed from being poor college students at BYU. (Well, we're still in the "poor" category, just now Lee is a graduate student.) Our first anniversary was on a Sunday, so the day before for our date we got pizza at a buffet place.

Well, that's probably enough for one update. I will be updating it more! Enjoy the photos.
Ruth April 22--I carried the twins 39 weeks. I could have carried them longer, but I was getting big and they were both breech. Dr. Pilgrim and I gave them sometime to turn, but it wasn't happening. So after a c-section I got a 7 lb 1 ounce Shanna and a 7 lb 6 ounce Haley!
Cal, Clark, Shanna and Lee May 2 at the hospital
Shanna, Ruth, Haley May 2
Our little family! Clark, Lee, Haley, Ruth, Shanna & Cal
Cal at the Memphis Botanic Gardens
Clark contemplating the ever-amazing layout of the Tardis
Cal on his 2nd birthday June 9
Stephanie Gerla July7! With all her Bartholomew neices
The Darrell and Lois Bartholomew children
Darrell, Roger, Sheldon, Sam, Daniel, Stephanie, Lena, Lois, Ruth, Deborah
Clark celebrating his 4th birthday
Don & Raema Robertson and children
Lynn, Carl, Keith, Paul, Kent, Lee & Sue
Don & Raema
The Whiteville house--this is where we are living right now
Cal in his bedroom with one of his and Clark favorite toys
Shanna and Haley on Sunday Sept 23