My sweet husband, he really had no idea what was ahead of him! Nate had surgery on his nose Friday. He had a number of things they fixed, the big one was to repair his deviated septum, and as his surgeon said, what looked like "multiple fractures". I can only imagine how Nate was as a child, and how he went about getting these multiple fractures. 
Let me just preface this with Nate has never had surgery, stitches, or has never really experienced any significant amount of pain. As we were waiting for his surgery, Nate was making plans with all of his buddies for the weekend, like having breakfast Saturday morning, and going to our Ward Christmas Party Saturday night. I was silently laughing in the corner knowing he was up in the night with his expectations! But as we all know Nate is the eternal optimist.
Well...I don't really need to say, we missed breakfast! The poor guy finally woke up from his anesthesia around 6pm, and he was in a lot of pain. The pain meds weren't working for him which led to several other problems. They ended up admitting him for the night while they were able to get him feeling a little better . We are so happy we were able to bring him home today, our house feels very empty without him. We love you Nate!!!!
Nate and his fellow interns all had the day off on Monday so we all took advantage of the time and drove down to Boston. Unfortunately, we went on the coldest day of the year (really the coldest day I have ever experienced in my life) to go. When we left it was a toasty 3 degrees and never really climbed up much past 10 degrees. It was FREEZING.
This picture is at the top of the Prudential Building which is I think the tallest building in Boston. It was a clear day so we were able to see the entire city. Chase really liked looking out the windows and decided it would be fun to repeatedly jump towards the window on the 50th floor. Boston is such a great city, we had so much fun! And if anyone ever comes and visits us, we can go and have some fun in Boston too!:)
Since most of our friends ended up working on Thanksgiving, we had our Thanksgiving on Sunday where we managed to get 13 of us together on one night! We had so much fun, and the food was delicious!
Our boys are so good to us, they even cleaned up dinner! Some were less happy about it than others! :)
Chase LOVES his spatula. It is his only "toy" he cares about. He never drops it, and even falls asleep holding it! What a goof.
He is so adorable. As you can see, he loves watching himself in his mirror. He will sit admiring himself and then lean in and kiss the mirror. He is such a little ham!!!
When I saw this gingerbread house kit I was so excited at the thought of sitting down as family and making it together. Then I remembered I am the wife of a resident and more often than not Chase and I are the only 2 available for such things. So we set up the tripod and the "fun" began.
It all came in a nice ORGANIZED package, just the way I like it. If it only could have stayed organized, and if only Chase would have had the slightest amount of interest in a gingerbread house....
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I love this boy! Every now and then something happens that makes me stop and think about how quickly Chase is growing. This week was a big one. He grew out of his car seat, he now sits up in his bouncy seat so we had to put it in storage, and he started to put sounds together in an adorable attempt to talk.
I am feeling this overwhelming desire to protect him. I don't want him to tip over and bump his head, even though that is how he learns. I don't want anyone to take his toys, even though he just sits and smiles at the theif. :) All of these thoughts and feelings are creeping in on me as my baby, the one I'm supposed to protect is getting ready for surgery on Tuesday. Yes, the surgery is minor, but it is MY baby so it is huge to me. It is breaking my heart knowing that my sweet little boy has to go through this, and I can't do anything to prevent it. I know it is probably very silly to let myself get this worked up, but for now I just am. He is our greatest blessing, and I love this little guy more than I ever knew was possible. Just look at that face, how can you not just smile?
TV shows I like to watch
1. Desperate Housewives
2. The Office
3. Boston Legal
4. Gilmore Girls
5. America's Funniest Home Videos
Things that happened to me yesterday
1. I turned 26!!
2. Nate was on call so I spent most of the day sad I was by myself on my birthday
3. Watched a movie about the Holocaust and stopped feeling sad for myself
4. Had a birthday dinner and cake with my favorite VanBiber family
5. Took a nice and long bath to relax my aging body!
Favorite places to eat
1. Happy Sumo
2. Cafe Rio
3. Cheesecake Factory
4. Macaroni Grill
5. Taco Bell
Things I am looking forward to
1. Our first Christmas with Chase
2. Nates next day off
3. Visiting UTAH and all of the people we love there!
4. The year 2012 when Nate will finally be done with Residency
5. Decorating my house for Christmas, which I do way too early according to Nate
Things on my wish list...where do I even begin
1. Warm clothes...it's really cold here
2. New countertops, mine are currently green--very green
3. A new carseat for Chase
4. Nice fluffy carpet
5. PJ's, I have a new obsession
People I tag
1. Steph
2. Vanessa
3. Mom
4. Angie
5. Shauna
Chase has found his new best friend! I don't think he really knew this was a dog, I don't really think I even believe it was a dog. Regardless of what we think, I have never seen Chase get so excited. He nearly jumped out of my lap when he saw her come cruising around the corner. I don't think the love was mutual between the 2 but Chase didn't seem care! 
After our first attempt of feeding Chase food I was very nervous to give it another try. We got all set up, the bib, the camera, the video camera, and of course the bananas! Not sure what kind of reaction we would get this time, we just went for it!
This is one happy boy, who LOVES food! We really had nothing to worry about, other than getting the next bite into his mouth fast enough!
Let me just start with saying there are very few things in the world that Chase doesn't like, and there are even fewer things that he dislikes enough to make him cry. Apparently lying in a pile of leaves is just one of those things....
This blog is in honor of my sister. I can't find the words to say how much I love and admire this woman. She has just been diagnosed with breast cancer, but that's not what I want everyone to know about her, there is so much more!
First, she is my oldest sister, and my best friend. She is a wife to her husband, a mother to her 3 beautiful children, a friend to everyone she meets. She is the strongest woman I know, she is a fighter. Even though she has this cancer, she will fight it! As her oldest son says and it has kind of become our families motto, "we're going to kick cancer's butt"! And she will, and we will be with her every step of the way! This is a strong woman, and I am so thankful that she is my sister.
I have been able to come back to Utah to spend some time with my sister, and I can't say how grateful I am to be able to be here with her at this time. I know I won't be able to be here for everything, but I want her to know I am always with her. I love you Shauna!
We have set up a blog to keep everyone updated. The blog is http://www.teamshauna.blogspot.com/ if you want to take a look and see how's she's doing and it is also full of great info on breast cancer. Please keep her and her family in your prayers! Thank you
Nate and his fellow anesthesia residents have been so excited to have a week of class...no call, no late or early hours, no 80 work weeks, just mindless class! Well, there is a reason these crazy boys shouldn't have a lot of down time, when they do they (Nate) come up with some not so intelligent ideas! Like say, let's go wheeling on our lunch break!.......
Nate had me come with Rover to "pull it out really quick ". We pulled up to see Chris's brand new jeep stuck in mud, a 1/4 inch a way from a tree, and stuck on a very large boulder!
Now the Rover is stuck in mud, and on a very large boulder.....
They got our car out, then said they famous words we heard come from Nate's mouth too many times, "we'll drive it right up here, then pull it right out--it will be easy!"
Here is Chase in action! He just gets more fun everyday! He loves to jump, and keeps jumping when he gets tired, so he rests his little head and nearly falls asleep! He is such a little ham! We are so in love with our little guy!
Thanks Tim and Kim for letting us use your video camera!!! You guys rock! And I promise I will practice holding the camera still next time!:)
I really shouldn't complain, life is pretty good...but I'm going to anyways. SO, let me just start with saying what a HUGE pain it is to move to a different state. The fun just never ends. For anyone who thought the DMV was bad in Utah, you should really try going to the DMV in Vermont! Or should I say the mobile DMV that comes one day every other week! Then when you can finally go, you have to bring every paper you can imagine to prove that you are the owner of that car, oh and proof that you actually live here and aren't just trying to register your car in Vermont for the fun of it! So that is still a work in progress. One car down, and the other I have gone THREE different times and still have not left with successfully registering my car.
NEXT, why do your cars both have to break and one of your tires literally blow up on the interstate in the same week? I don't know either but that is what has been happening to us. So we have been trying to get both cars fixed and new tires on one and to make that even more of a pain, one of the new tires keeps losing air.
All and all I have spent way too much time in these shady little garages they call "tire stores" and am beginning to think I don't really need a car anymore--they're really not worth the stress!
So my lovely husband asks me "Di, do you want to go for a hike with the VanBiber's Monday, it's really more of a walk than a hike?" My response was of course "Sure!" So we set off for this "walk/hike" Monday morning with 5 other families in our ward and their children. I was still thinking how bad could it be, they have their 3 year olds here! Well, either I'm a really wimpy 25 year old, or these 3 year olds were unnaturally strong! This ended up being a really tough hike that was literally straight up the mountain the entire time! I feel like an old women tonight as I am stiffening up and unable to move. It still ended up being a lot of fun and a good memory, since I really never plan on doing that hike again!:)
Chase tried his backpack for the first time today! He is still a little too small so we stuffed a blanket around him to keep nice and snug! I don't know who loved it more, Chase or Nate?
Chase has LOVED his cereal bottles. Since he is over 5 months, we decided it was time to try feeding him with a spoon. I thought it wouldn't be too bad, I even used the banana rice cereal which he really likes. Things were looking OK after his first bite! He wasn't exactly sure why I was feeding him like this but he gave it a try!
Then the 2nd bite came and his face started to scrunch up and turn red, but still gave it a try!
I clearly pushed it with trying a 3rd bite......
Then he continued to relive the whole crazy idea of eating with a spoon! If that face doesn't break your heart I don't know what would! Needless to say, I think we'll wait another week or so before I torture my little guy again!
So we've nicknamed Chase "Happy Feet" because his feet never stop! It is so cute. We were visiting some friends on Friday and they had this really cool jumper that we've been wanting to get for Chase, so we thought we should see what he would do if we put him in! The second his cute little feet felt the ground he started dancing all around with his little head bobbling all around. We couldn't get him to look at us he was so excited. He's the funnest little guy ever!
For those of you who haven't been back to New England there are covered bridges everywhere. They are so beautiful, I feel like I have stepped into a postcard. Here is our first official covered bridge picture! It was also built in the lucky year of 1982....the year I was born!
So one of the great things about living in New England is the abundance of berry picking! It was so much fun, and the berries are amazing. Nate was post call Tuesday so went berry picking with some friends. Chase even tried to help! Anytime his hands were near the leaves he would grab on so tight he would pull them off. He is so much fun. 
It doesn't matter how warm it is, or how much sun is shining, there are ALWAYS rain clouds somewhere in the sky! You just have to be ready at a moments notice to run for cover. I guess that's why it is so green!
Anyone that knows Nate would guess that he picked A LOT of blueberries! If Chase wouldn't have gotten hungry, I think he would still be picking. So, needless to say we have blueberries coming out of out ears!
