Luke habla español!!

In this video Emma is interviewing Luke. 

Emma: Where do you live? (of course she says it in a perfect Spanish! I am so proud of her!)

Luke : Texas baby! LOL

Emma: What's your name? 

Luke: Luke 

Emma: How old are you?

Luke:  2(dos) and then he shows his  10(diez) fingers.

Emma: Dance for us.

Luke: baila, baila, baila 

Emma:  Say I love you.

Luke at the end says: Te amo MUCHO. (I love you a lot)

There you have it! I'm really glad that Luke is growing knowing English and Spanish. Emily has done a TERRIFIC job with the Spanish and the TV has done a great job with English ; ). 

Luke is cruising! But seriously he is CRUISING!

Luke is learning how to ride his tricycle. This is the second day we've gone outside to "practice". He seriously loves it! He is really good at steering and stopping when cars are around. When Emma saw this video she laugh ed out loud because he is going so slow. I love my baby Luke. 

I think we have a comedian! LOL

So we think Sam is a doppelganger for a famous comedian. Any guesses on who we think he looks like? 

We will post our answer at the end of the week.

I love Sam!

I already feel that first year of dental school is over! I really don't feel like studying anymore and we still have 5 more weeks!!! ; (
The sad part of all this is that all of my finals now are COMPREHENSIVE! Can you believe that???? Comprehensive physiology, microbiology, operative, occlusion, oral histology, Evidence based dentistry. All I know is that the week of finals I don't think I'm going to sleep! no joke.

But now I just try to enjoy my time with my family!

Family Day at the Dental School!! : )

It was a great way to show Emily and the kids what I do every day. I know I'm always studying but besides studying, occasional we do SOME dental work. Here is Emily waxing up a tooth and she did an amazing job! 

I've always heard that left handed people are very artistic and Emily proved it. 

Here's Luke with some magnification glasses. Doesn't he look adorable?

Luke: Papi this doesn't seem that hard! 

Emily did a prep and I'm not going to lie, she did a great job. You guys are looking at my future assistant! 

So you know the drill was turned off, that thing can cut a tooth like cutting through butter!

He got the point! Squirt water and suction!

Like a BOSS!!!

Luke managed to get some of my classmates wet, good thing they thought it was funny!

Just for Grandma!

I just learned how to do this and it is awesome! I took all these pictures of Luke as I tickle him to death! Gotta love his cute smiles!

Sam's medical adventure

In his short little life Sam has had 4 chest x-rays. At his four month check-up appointment the pediatrician noticed his breathing was really fast. (Normal breathing is between 40-50 breaths a minute, Sam's was 80) . Not only was his breathing fast, but he had retraction right above the jugular notch and in the inter-costal area. The Dr. sent Emily and Sam straight to the ER just to make sure that his lungs and heart were OK. The doctor didn't think it was a medical emergency; he just knew that the ER would be the fastest and most effective way to get Sam the x-ray and tests that he needed. It was a relief that his heart and lungs were OK, but his breathing was still high. 

It took over a month to get an appointment with a pulmonary specialist. Through out that time Emily and I had been worried and I'm not going to lie it has been in the back of my mind constantly. I did some research online and of course you can find anything from mild cases like asthma up to some pretty complicated cases involving the heart. It was worrisome. 

When we got to see the specialist, Sam spit up as soon as she walked into the room, which is a common thing for the little guy. She asked a few questions and her diagnosis was REFLUX! As simple as that! I always just thought there were some babies that just spit up all the time and some that didn't. Luke never spit up. I think Sam was spitting up probably between 6-8 oz a day. All the acid from his stomach had irritated his esophagus and trachea and reduced the diameter of the airways making him breath faster. This had been going on for about 3 months! Poor little guy. The appointment with the specialist took 5 hours! Can you believe that? We did 2 more x-rays, and blood work to check for anemia. (The doc thought he looked paler than he should be. I think she was bias :) ), Sam is just very fair. Anyway I just think it is ridiculous that the pediatrician never asked about him spitting up.  Live and learn. 

Sam is taking Prevacid to help him lower the acidity of his stomach and he is using an inhaler (with albuterol) once a day when needed to help his bronchioles dilate.  Now the retraction is mostly gone and his breathing is improving. He rarely spits up his meals anymore. It also helps that he started to eat rice cereal. He loves it!

We are happy that he's doing better. We love our little guy. 

Here are some pictures taken today. He will be 6 months next week! I don't know what to put for the captions except "He is so cute" ; ) So I'll spare the repetition for now. 

And of course Luke was worried as well ;) 

Easter egg hunt.

Okay, Francisco left me up to the writing so here it is! Sorry it is late, but the pictures are the more fun part anyway!

We put together a small Easter egg hunt for Luke and any of our play group friends that wanted to show up. We had 2 other boys come and it was great! The weather was beautiful and we were able to do the hunt in the park behind our complex. Luke really caught on to the whole thing this year and was really excited for the Easter bunny to hide eggs with CANDY! He kept saying "Easter egg. candy."

Say "cheese" and this is what I get!

On Sunday we had late church (1-4). We had wonderful talks and I prepared a fun "Easter Jeopardy" for my valiant girls all about the Resurrection. Afterward, we invited over 2 other young families for an Easter feast! We had a spiral honey ham, "resurrection potatoes", orange rolls shaped into little bunnies, a yummy salad, deviled eggs as appetizers, and cheese-cake factory cheese cake for dessert! YUM! Unfortunately all the boys (Both families have a little 1 1/2 yr old boy) got pretty grumpy around 8:30 so our party didn't last very long, but it was really nice to spend the holiday with friends.

Same expressions! LOL

Hey! Mr. those are my eggs!

I am so grateful for Jesus Christ and the sacrifices he made in order for me to have eternal life and I am grateful that we have Easter to celebrate His resurrection, leading the way to our own resurrection. I do know that we will be reunited with our bodies after we die at the second coming of our Lord, Jesus Christ. What an amazing promise that is and I am so thankful for that knowledge.

Happy (late) Easter!

Fort Worth Zoo and Long Horn Cattle drive

This spring break we have decided to really make each day count. So far, on Monday, we have gone the Bureau of printing and engraving, the place where they make money. We were in the presence of millions, maybe trillions of dollars! We have also played games and had dinner at the other dental school mormon friends house that night. On Tuesday, we went rock climbing (without the boys) and it was awesome! I was able to climb 7 different walls! Then on Wednesday we went to the Fort Worth Old Town where they have a daily cattle drive. It was pretty authentic and cool to see the real Old West! After that we went to the Fort Worth Zoo. Today we traveled to Downtown and Uptown Dallas via the DART and an original Trolley cart that is over 100 years old. It has been quite an experience and a week full of fun!

This is what the long horn cattle drive had to say: 

"The Texas Longhorn and the American cowboy are two of the most enduring symbols of the Old West. They're a big reason why Fort Worth earned the nickname "Cowtown." And they formed the core of the great cattle drives of the late nineteenth century. Now, the romance and mystique of cowboys and cattle drives returns to Fort Worth with The Herd - Texas Longhorns driven by genuine Texas cowhands - offering an unforgettable glimpse into the past. You'll hear the jingle of spurs, the cattle bawling, and the rhythm of the hoofbeats. As The Herd passes, a bygone era comes to life before your eyes." 

As they promised they had the long horn cattle walk down the Exchange Ave. They were huge!

They day was perfect! Sunny, clear blue skies!

Ben and Luke

I love Luke's monkey looking out with the boys!

Emily saying Yee-haw! To me it sounds like (hija in Spanish LOL)

Luke was running like crazy. See those cobblestones, Luke or Ben luckily didn't trip on those. However, while having a yummy picnic, Luke managed to trip on some stairs and literally kiss the ground. You'll see in the following pictures how bad his bruise and scrapes on his forehead and nose are. He did cry, but he soon forgot about it. (Emily's addition:)This is his first facial battle wound (He is normally a very careful boy and rarely gets scraped up!) I think Francisco had a harder time with the injury than Luke did. ;) He is such a loving Papi and he just hates to see his babies in pain.

I love Sam's expression. 

I don't think Sam is much of a cowboy... yet 

This video is a little boring, but oh well. It was cute in person.

After a good day in the "Old West", we've decided to go to the zoo.

The Fort Worth zoo is rated  in the top 5 of the country!

I hope you agree with me that human baby species, particularly this one, is so cute. (By the way, no color enhancement was necessary in these pictures! That really is his eye color!)

So half-way through the day Sam leaked on his pants and we didn't have a spare! (We had a pair of pjs but didn't want him to wear those) So, we put him in a pair of Luke's sweats! They were huge but actually fit him okay around the waist. At least they matched.