Since Easter was in March this year the month of April has been dedicated to celebrating Stewart and My BIRTHDAYS! First is Sophie’s half birthday and then comes Stewart’s birthday followed by mine. Over the last 8 years of marriage I have learned that Birthdays are not a big deal to Stewart and the opposite for me. In-fact for the last few years I have come to the conclusion that Stewart will never make my birthday awesome like my family did when I was growing up so I should not expect it. No amount of hints or blunt comments will help him, it is just not the way he was raised and it is not who he is. Granite all of our marriage he has been in school or training with a vigorous schedule to keep up, sooooo if you really think about it… this may have a BIG roll to play in the way we have celebrated my birthday (and his). And you know what, I don’t blame him because he is doing his best and that’s all that matters.

Instead of getting upset over the lack of birthday festivities I have taken it upon myself to through us a birthday party sometime during the month of April around our birthdays. We invite our friends, eat cake and ice cream, play games and socialize. Most of our parties are low key that take little planning, but this year I went above and beyond and planned a murder mystery dinner party. It was a blast and I hope to plan one again in a year or so. When I told Stewart the plan he looked at me like I had lost my mind but still helped me with some of the details when it came to planning it and inviting couples to join us, he is a good sport I tell you.   

The name of our murder mystery was called Class of 1957 reunion, we invited all our guests to come dressed in a 1950s themed costume that best fit there character description assigned to them.  Since I did most of the planning I made sure not to read character descriptions and other info that would tell me who the murderer was and give the game away, by doing that it made it so I could play along because I was a clueless as the other guests.  Stewart and I were detectives set to figure out who killed David a classmate who was murdered just a few days before the reunion.

All our guests did a fantastic job role playing their characters and really getting into the game. This was one of the best parties I have done and seriously can’t wait to do it again sometime. Best Birthday Party ever!

We knew Stewart was going to be out of town during the month of April to complete his rural Wyoming rotation so Sophie and I decided to give him his birthday (father’s day, residency graduation, and anniversary) gift to him a week before his birthday during the week he took off to Study for his big board exam that he has to take April 12^th.  I am not sure who was more excited about it him or me. In the end I think he won since he put it together rather quickly and has been trying to find time to use it as much as possible. Do I have you wondering what it is we gave him yet? It is a telescope to look at the stars and planets with! I came up with the idea last summer, when Stewart would invite Sophie and me to join him in the wee morning hours to go look out at the stars.  So I started saving my money and researching telescopes with the goal of giving one to him for his birthday this year. I hope this telescope becomes a fun family activity for us to enjoy with Stewart being our fearless astronomy leader.

My birthday was spent helping Stewart get out the door to travel to his rural rotation in Saratoga, WY and on the phone with my sisters, parents, and grandma. Their phone calls made me feel loved and remembered even though Stewart had to leave Sophie and me for the month.  Stewart and Sophie took my very blunt hint and gave me a coupon to purchase new sneakers since my currant ones have been well used and are nearly worn out to the point there are holes in them. I have not bought them yet but am excited to go shopping.  All in all I would say birthday week for all of us here was a success! We are very blessed.

Last Friday the 5^th, Stewart had the day off so he suggested we go to the Cheyenne Ice and Events Center during their open skate time and try ice skating for a family activity, so Sophie and I decided it would not hurt to go and try it out. In the end I learned that I love ice skating about as much as I love roller skating and there is not much love in that department. Sophie had an okay time but I would say she likes roller skating more and Stewart while he had a great time in the end I think he loves roller skating better as well.  

Sophie was a little hesitant on the skates and liked it better when she got to hold onto the orange cone while Stewart or I pushed her around the ice. I actually opted to do most of the orange cone pushing because I needed the cone to keep me steady on my feet otherwise I would have been on the ground most of the time and perhaps complaining of a broken tail bone in this very blog post. So thank goodness for the orange cones that helped Sophie have a grand time and me to not break anything.  

On Tuesdays we normally meet up with our friends at the library for story time, but this week we decided to change it up some and have a Valentine’s Day party instead. Sophie invited her friends over to decorate sugar cookies and then to play afterwards. It was really low key and a perfect change from our every Tuesday routine. The sad thing is I forgot to take pictures of all the kids decorating cookies (sad face) but I promise they had a blast and the mess was not that hard to clean up, so it was a win win for all involved. 

Back in October Stewart and I saw that the 20^th anniversary performance of Riverdance was coming to the Cheyenne Civic Center in February 2016 so we bought all three of us tickets to go. When February rolled around (a few days ago) I reminded Stewart about our tickets and he told me that he may be late due to the rotation schedule he is on this month, so we made plans to meet him there and have his ticket left at the will call window. Well lucky for us, the day of the performance (Tuesday Feb. 2nd) the city of Cheyenne was hit with a huge snow storm that closed most of Cheyenne down for the day, including Stewart’s work!  At first I was worried the performance would be cancelled as well, but by mid afternoon we had not heard anything so we knew the show was still on.

The performance held Sophie’s attention the whole time. It was amazing how the performers were able to all keep the same rhythm and stay in step with one another. And even though our seats were the cheap seats in the balcony we had a great view and a good time. And if the chance ever presented itself again I would consider going.

This is the only picture we took for the night since videos and photos were not allowed during the performance. 

I posted this on Face Book but I wanted to document it here as well.  The FB post read:

“This is a picture of my best friend and better half as he signed the contract that will usher us into the next phase of our lives. Dr. Stewart North D.O. has accepted a full time position with Intermountain Cassia Regional Medical Center in Burley, Idaho as one of their Family Medicine doctors. So I guess it is safe to say that come July we will be relocating to Burley! Great work Stewart you never cease to amaze me.”

I can’t believe how real this is getting! When we move to Burley this will be our first move to a new area without an expiration date since Stewart and I became well Stewart and Becky North.  Everywhere we have lived so far we have known it was not permanent. Things are different with move, we actually hope that Stewart falls in love with his job and we end of loving Burley and it becomes our forever home. It will be interesting to see how it all plays out in the months and years to come.  We know this is where we are suppose to go after Stewart finishes up residency and therefore we know it will all work out.

We took a spontaneous trip to the UW campus in Laramie to their Geological Museum. The museum was small but it was interesting to see some of the dinosaur bones and artifacts that they have discovered in the state of Wyoming plus it was free and you can’t beat that. I think one of our favorite exhibits was the interactive sandbox. I don’t know how they did it but they had a projector that displayed a topical map onto the sandbox and as you moved the sand around making piles it would turn the lower parts into lakes. I don’t know how to describe it but we had a lot of fun making mountains and then turning them into islands surrounded by water.  It was a fun family outing and I am glad Stewart suggested it. 

After we got home that afternoon Stewart and I decided to surprise Sophie by going camping inside! It is something we had been throwing around for a while now and decided now was as good as any other time.  So while she was in the bathtub, I went and snuck over to our extra bedroom that is practically empty and set up our tent and put our sleeping gear in it (don’t worry Stewart was close by to monitor Sophie while she was in the tub). When Sophie was out of the tub we surprised her with the details of our family activity. To say she was excited is an understatement. We roasted marshmallows and made S’mores over the fire we built in our fireplace. After S’mores we all got ready for bed and then headed off to our tent to go to sleep. But before we could sleep we all took turns telling stories to each other and spent a few minutes talking about how awesome our day had been before we all finally drifted off to dreamland. Yep it is true, we have a pretty sweet life and we are so blessed to call each other family. 

I trade babysitting with a friend of mine on Mondays and Thursdays. Our girls were born a month apart and are the best of friends. They play really well together, in fact there are a lot of times I have to remind myself that I am not home alone and that there are two little girls I need to account for so when I go looking I often  always find them playing house or dolls in Sophie’ room. 

This last time I watched Timber, the girls wanted to go outside and play in the snow. And of course once the girls got into the snow they wanted to build a snowman. And that meant I needed to help them so we all dressed up in our warmer clothing and we built a snowman, but not just any snowman (remember I am dealing with five year old little girls here)we had to build OLAF. I think he turned out looking almost like the Disney character.

On New Year’s Day Stewart, Sophie and I really did not do much. We cleaned the house a little and prepped snacks for our get together that night and just took it easy. We are kind of boring like that sometimes. We did invite friends over on New Year’s Eve (Jessie and Alisa Jackson and their two kids Kinley and Beau) for games and snacks. It was simple and very low key, in fact we did not even make it to midnight (gasp) when they left and we went to bed. But it was fun and that is all that matters. Basically we snacked first and then the kids played and we adults visited and played card games. That was about it, but I have no regrets.

The following morning I had to be up early to help out at our ward New Year’s brunch since the primary presidency were the ones who organized the activity. We kept it simple, serving waffles and ham and other potluck dishes ward members brought. Other than that we made sure there were activities and games at each of the tables to help people be social with one another.

After the ward party I went home and met my Aunt Bonnie Stowe (my moms sister) and my cousins Kent (and his wife Jackie and their 4 boys) Kyle, and Kelton who stayed with us for the night on their way to Mt. Rushmore. Kent lives in Colorado Springs, CO. and my Aunt and other cousins were visiting from St. George, UT. Since they were only three hours from us and eight hours from Mt. Rushmore they decided to take an overnight trip and see the great sights South Dakota. I really enjoyed seeing my relatives and reacquainting myself with them. Bonnie lost her husband not more than a few months ago so it was good to express my love for him and my condolences for their loss in person. I am glad we had a home big enough to house all nine of them as they have let us stay with them a few times when we visited them in Tennessee while we lived back East.

Anyway we had a great time ringing in the New Year and seeing family. What better way is there to end a year and welcome and new one? May 2016 bring us many blessings and may we have the strength to climb any mountains God sees fit to put in our path this year. HUGS!

This year we were blessed not only to have Stewart home with us on Christmas Day (unlike the last two years where he has had to work on Christmas Eve and Day) but we also got to spend Christmas with Stewart’s sisters Camille and Tasia along with Camille’s husband Juan and their kids, Blaz, Sam and Nick. They Traveled to Mexico the week before and said if the weather was good they would come home though Colorado and stop by Cheyenne to spend the Holiday with us. Needless to say I prayed a lot that the weather would be amazing for their travels… and we could not have asked for better driving conditions for them!

Everyone arrived late afternoon on Christmas Eve. Sophie was super excited to see her cousins and everyone else was excited to get out of the car for a few days. I should say Stewart and I were also excited to see everyone especially Tasia whom we had not seen in at least 3 years. After we helped them unpack and get settled, we all had dinner and then later that night we played a crazy suranne wrap gift ball game (I don’t know what else to call it) and had an epic dance party. It was the perfect way to tire our kids before we sent them off to bed so Santa could come. 

On Christmas morning, we let the kids wake up at their own speed inviting them to come out and see what Santa had brought them and letting them play with their Santa gifts while everyone was still waking up for the day. After breakfast we all opened our gifts under the tree and then spent the rest of the day playing with our new treasures. This year Santa brought Sophie a Doc. McStuffin’s kit and a Dr. Coat. I probably should not have to say this but I will anyway just in case you were wondering we all received a lot of checkups that day :) Santa also brought us the game Pie Face. The Pardo boys got some cool Star Wars gear and Sam got a stuffed penguin that he named Cuteness Heartness.  I suppose the best gift we got that day besides the reminder of an Eternal Savior having been born to save the world, would be being together with family it was priceless. 

Love Sophie's face in this family selfie

In the afternoon while things were calm Stewart, Juan and Tasia went to go watch the movie Star Wars, while Camille and I stayed home with the boys and Sophie. When they got home from the movie we had a nice sit down meal together and learned all about the movie. After dinner we played a game of Pie Face and had another dance party before the kids went to bed. Then we adults played a round of B.S. where we all learned that Camille is REALLY good at lying because she kept winning and Stewart is really bad at lying and calling peoples bluffs because he ended up with at least one half of the deck each game.  The rest of us were just so so at the game, I guess that is not a bad thing… right?

The Day after Christmas was spent with a trip to the Laramie County Library and shopping for those who wanted to venture out to the shopping areas.  Tasia woke up not feeling great that day so she spent most of the day at home. Stewart and I took Blaz, Sam and Sophie to the library while Juan, Camille and Nick went shopping (crazy people). Later that afternoon while kids were napping Stewart and Tasia ventured out to a local trendy Coffee shop to reacquaint themselves. I think they had a great visit… they never said otherwise. By the end of the day we were all tired so we all went to bed early with no complaints from anyone. We did manage to take a group picture before we all hid the hay. 

On Sunday Morning the Pardos and Tasia got back into the van and headed off on the last leg of their Christmas break adventure. And us North’s got ourselves ready and went to church, thus ending our fun Christmas Holiday with family. 

Getting ready to leave for home