Dear Elijah,

Happy 6th birthday, dude! Goodness you are an amazing addition to our family. You are a breath of fresh air much of the time. I feel you take after your dad in your enthusiasm for life and in how dang smart you are. There's so much to say about you this past year. I hope I can remember the best parts!

For starters, you are halfway through Kindergarten. We moved to California before the beginning of the school year so we are at a different school. You absolutely love it! You have so many friends I hear about. The ones I hear most about are Sky, Christian, Oliver, and Shanalee among others. I hear great things about you and your teacher wrote such a wonderful note about you when you were Star of the Week. She mentioned you are the funny man in class, always wanting to make people laugh. She also mentioned how well you read, comprehending what you read, and your natural abilities in math. It has been so nice to see you thrive academically and socially.

Physically, you are a pretty tall kid. Not the tallest in class (that goes to your friend Christian) and not the shortest (that is definitely your best friend Sky) but a pretty healthy size. We haven't lost any teeth yet, so we'll see about that by next year. You eat a lot better than from a year ago. You are still picky, but much more willing to try new things. It gives me hope in the future for your sister, who moved to the pickiest eater spot. You are also about to start up Martial Arts. I wanted to get settled in California before we started anything and I'm excited for you. We seemed to find a great program that is very flexible and a decent price nearby. We had our free complimentary class and you seemed to enjoy it. 

I mentioned your enthusiasm for life. It shows in your smiles, your (loud) voice, your energy, and even in your pronunciation of words! You are willing to try new things, go on the biggest rides, race other kids, and even fight scary ghosts on the game Luigi's Mansion. Speaking of games, you are totally into video games. You still love Legos and puzzles, but we moved onto games like Mario games, Pokemon, Animal Crossing, Minecraft, and even Just Dance. In fact, you are starting to get better than me in some of them...and you're six! I think you'll be one of those people that's just a natural at games with your coordination and great problem solving skills.

Today was such a good example of why you are a ray of sunshine in my life. You are getting more independent and not only do things for yourself, but for your siblings. You get the mustard for Eden's corndog. You get Noah's binky when he cries. You help your brother in the game he's playing. When we went shopping you helped me check out, put all the items in bags, and helped me carry them inside AND put them away...without me asking! You blow me away, Eli. I need you so much! Of course, there are days where you are less helpful, but I never worry about you. You are an amazing little guy who's going to do great things. You already are.

And thus concludes your sixth birthday letter. If you couldn't tell by reading this letter, I love you so much, Elijah Kevin. Thank you for being you. I hope this next year will bring great things for you. Maybe you'll meet your goal of becoming a Karate Master! Know that you are loved, not only by your family and friends, but especially by your Heavenly Father. 

Love,

Mama

Noah at Ten Months

 

+Has five teeth with another coming in

+Starting to cruise

+Copies raspberries, tongue clicking, clapping, and other little things

+Starting to stand from sitting

+Stands for a few seconds

+Hates diaper changes and changing clothes

+Likes to bite Mama's soldier

+Does it with a big smile on his face

++++++++++

This kid wants to grow up fast! I love seeing him interact with others, especially his siblings. They love to carry him everywhere, much to my dismay, but he's a good sport about it. We had Grandma and Grandpa Hobbs come visit over Christmas and I was worried about how he would react to them seeing as he is a complete mama's boy and is wary of others (including Sam). But he warmed up fast to them and it was so fun to see him bond! He is getting more and more personality, too. He wants me to flip him upside down while in my lap and I'm teaching him to clap when I say "yay Noah!". When Grandma and Grandpa were here he loved blowing raspberries and copying us whenever we did it to him. 

He was also sick for the first time right after Christmas. It was great timing (thanks Noah) if the kids had to get sick seeing as it was after our guests left and we still had a couple weeks until school starts back up. We suspected it was Covid but never got tested. Poor guy, we've had such a good streak with illnesses. The last three babies lived with runny noses and I assumed that was normal for a baby.  It was great not having to deal with baby snot these past months, even if he still pukes all over me daily.

For fun I looked up the other ten month posts I had of the other kids and he is so similar to Eli. I even had that Eli liked to bite my shoulder at this age, too! I want to see if he beats Eli's record of walking (a week or two after his first birthday). I have a feeling it will be a close one. It's bittersweet to see Noah growing up, but I can't see our family any other way! He's a sweet baby!

Photoshoot for "Baby's 1st Christmas"

My little Moogie Man!

Looks so similar and yet so different to the other kids!

He is still going strong with baby food. I thought he looked cute all messy...

...But this is messy! Sam feeding him Chocolate while we played card games with the kids.

Christmas morning. He was a happy little guy!

Last May

 I guess a lot happened last May because there are just a few more photos I wanted to share so I can remember these moments.

One Sunday I gave the boys haircuts and put the hair cutting kit away. What I didn't do was notice the scissors were not there but instead an accessible location for a certain two year old. Sam and I were upstairs when Eli came bounding up saying "EDEN CUT HER HAIR!" I then bounded down the stairs to this:

It was my fault really. I had to fix it some but there was not much I could do about the short bangs. While I was evening the bangs she told me "Ewi cut hair." I then asked Eli and he admitted he also cut her hair. I never really wanted to give her bangs but spoiler alert, she's totally rocking the bangs now that they have grown out!

I also love my boys! The older two love their little brother! They also share a love of video games. 

Remember that big freeze back in February? We finally got someone on that. But it was pretty awful dealing with those people. They did not communicate well whatsoever! I'm sure I'll have more to say when I blog again.

Thanks for reading this short blog post!

Albuquerque and California (and Nevada) Trip

While I'm on a roll, I'd thought I'd post about a big trip our family had back in May. It was a multipurpose trip. First, Joseph got baptized with his cousin Ryker! Second, we wanted to bless Noah while we had family gathered. Lastly, we took the opportunity to go find housing in California with only a baby in tow. We also celebrated Joseph's birthday while we were at it. It was a super fun, super busy trip! It would be the last trip we could take to Albuquerque for some time, so we made the best of it. Now for some photos!

Cousin Maddi holding Noah for the first time.

Joseph at the Eubank Chapel in Albuquerque.

Still hard to believe we have a child old enough to be baptized!

With Grandma and Grandpa Kartchner

With Grandma and Grandpa Hobbs

Slioghtly awkward and cute picture of me and Joseph.

We love our boy!

Story time! As Joseph was approaching his 8th birthday, we started teaching an emphasis on baptism, and I also let him know it was his choice and I would not force him to. Joseph still chose to be baptized so we started to prepare. Anyone who knows him well knows he hates getting his head wet. We wanted to practice the immersion part to make sure he knew what to do and what to expect, but it was not easy. We didn't want to do it more than once, so I wanted to make sure he knew everything to do to prevent that.  It was a big ordeal every time we worked toward dunking him in the pool. Yet he still wanted to be baptized. 

Fast forward to May 8th, 2021, we had his cousin go first. Ryker had to be baptized twice, but no big deal for him. Next, it was Joseph's turn and he immediately seized up the moment his feet were on the steps. "It's too deep!" Even though it would only hit his waist. He stood there in fear and I really started to wonder if it wasn't going to happen that day. Which is fine, but it would be some hassle. 

Then Sam picked him up and carried him into the middle of the font. Joseph put his feet down and realized it wasn't as deep as he thought. He then got this look of determination on him, grabbed Sam's wrist and looked completely ready. Sam said the ordinance and Joseph went completely under the water with no fuss. I was deeply proud of his bravery. I was happy to see that this memory for him would be one of determination and not of fear.

Other things to note: Grandma Hobbs gave a wonderful talk on baptism and Grandma Kartchner gave a beautiful talk on the Gift of the Holy Ghost. Joseph's only complaint when receiving the Holy Ghost was how long it took. Otherwise it was beautiful to see how many family and friends came out to see Joseph and Ryker be baptized. 

Ryker's bishop gave some good remarks in the end. He noted how some things are so important that it is important to keep doing it until we do it right (like Ryker having to be rebaptized). He also mentioned how the Lord asks us to do things outside of our comfort zone and how important it is to be brave. These are boys to learn from with their examples of baptism. 

Joseph facing his fears.

It was such a beautiful moment!

In addition to Joseph's baptism we decided to bless Noah right after. We weren't able to coordinate all the babies being blessed at the same time from my family but we at least were able to have family from both sides there. All the babies born within months of each other were able to meet for the first time! Here are pictures of the babes:

One happy Grandma/Great Grandma

Proud mamas

They are all much bigger than this now.

Jessica was sooo gracious in hosting a birthday/baby luncheon at her house for Sam's side of the family. It is still weird sometimes to think this house is now Jessica's!

I gave these temple lights to both Ryker and Joseph.
This one was of the L.A. temple since we were moving there next month.

The very next day we left the boys with my mom (since they still had online school) and Eden with Sam's mom and traveled to Los Angeles. We had a few places we were in contact with to rent but we really wanted to see these places before we signed a lease. Noah was a fairly good traveler, and it definitely helped only to have one kid instead of four!

Look at that little face!

We looked between two places when we got there. The first was a condo. It was 1800 sqft, cheaper, closer to work and the school, very beautiful neighborhood. The biggest cons were that it was on the 3rd floor (imagine moving day!) and not a lot of storage space. The next place was a single family home, 1200 sqft, a little more distant from church, work, and school, but all on one floor and no sharing walls with neighbors. What really sold us on the second one was the garage converted into essentially a second living room. We thought we would turn it into the play room for the kids and leave more room in the house for other things. The bonus was the shed attached to the garage that had really great storage! The backyard was neat (we would have to pay for a gardner) and it just felt perfect for us. We are paying for it! It's $1,000 above the housing allowance the Air Force gave us. It is totally worth it! 

The neighborhood is amazing and the location is perfect. We spent the next day checking out the nearest beach (which happened to be near the Santa Monica pier) and meet Sam's new co-fellow, Nick. I also received a call from our new bishop's wife welcoming us to the ward! After a lot of uncertainty we were able to have a sneak peek into our life in California.

20 minutes to a beach?!

On the drive home we decided to take an extra hour or two to drive to Las Vegas. Why? Well, why not? We've never been there together and I wanted a picture to prove we've been in Nevada together. We were there rather early in the morning and yet the whole place reeked of marijuana. It does look like a fun place if you go to the right places.

Bellagio fountain...not running.

Officially been in NV together!

I liked this picture more, but it would be a little deceiving I suppose.

A lot of miles on our van later we were able to drive back to Albuquerque, visit a tiny bit longer, pick up our kids, and head back home. It was so nice having all that time with Sam. Time is a precious commodity these days. Thank you to our parents for watching the older kids for us! It helped tremendously!

Ophthalmology Senior Dinner and Trauma Course

Hi all! This is actually Sam posting about a few things that happened towards the end of residency. Here are some photos when Dr. Nikhil Godbole invited all the third year residents to his house prior to our graduation. We had a very nice BBQ and enjoyed seeing the grill that Nik put together himself. 

During our visit, it started to rain. And then it rained some more! Eventually, we noticed water coming into the house from through the garage and back door. So, our dinner party soon became a "dump water out from the Godbole's home" party. Good times!

I guess we saw a frog while we were dumping water. I don't quite remember that! 

Kids of course love playing in the water, despite it being cold and wet outside. Here's Eden "helping" with the water removal from the driveway:

One of the best parts of wrapping up our residency was handing off our chief responsibilities to the new Chief Residents. Bryant and I took Fred Nelson (far left, new Air Force chief resident) and Hal Blegen (middle left, new Army chief resident) to lunch (although I'm pretty sure we all paid for ourselves) to discuss the program and residents. We also handed down the chief gifts, which have been handed down from chief to chief over the years (a pocket watch for the "time keeper" chief resident, and the gavel for the "judge" chief resident). I definitely miss these guys!

In May, we ended up flying out to Washington, D.C. where all of the 2nd and 3rd year residents attended the Ocular Trauma Course (hosted at the Walter Reed Medical Center) while the 1st year residents held down call with Dr. Valentin. Most of us stayed at the Navy Lodge, and it was great! 

The course itself was held at the USUHS campus in Bethesda, across the street from the NIH. When we weren't in lectures, cutting on cadaver heads, or practicing globe repairs, we had a great time exploring the city and seeing the sights.

Lincoln Memorial:

Washinton Monument:

White House:

And it took 3 years, but we finally did it! We got a photo of all of my class together for the first time. From left to right: Nathan Davidson (Army, staying at the ISR in San Antonio), me, Bryant Giles (Army, currently stationed in Tennessee), Tatiana Zanganeh (Air Force, my fellow pre-select colleague, currently half-way done with her Peds fellowship at CHOP), Adam Altman (Air Force, currently stationed in Dayton, Ohio), and Charlie Stevens (Air Force, currently stationed in Alaska).

This is probably the best shot of all of us! We sure had some great times together, but I am definitely glad that residency is over!

We went out for some Ethiopian food for dinner... Not my favorite type of food. But eating with my hands was definitely a new experience! (It felt weird during the whole COVID era)

Charlie and I went on a run together a few times, along with some of the other residents. I wanted to see the Washington, D.C. temple, so I decided to run there one morning. I didn't realize I was so out of shape! I had to walk half the time, but Charlie was patient with me. We had a great time together.

The of course, before leaving D.C., we had to hit up the National Mall. The best part was the free Zoo. It was great! Charlie and I went and looked at the animals together before catching our flights back home.