He's BACK!

This fascinating photo is of Alan.... juggling. He spent a few minutes today cleaning out his old closet at his parent’s home and came across his old juggling pins (is that what they are called?? Who knows.) Anyway, I had to post this because Alan made such a great comment yesterday after making himself laugh at one of his own jokes. I heard him mutter, under his breath and to no one in particular, "I'm starting to like myself again." I smiled and had to agree that we are all starting to like Alan again. (***Disclaimer- it's not that we didn't LOVE him, it's just that, well, he hasn’t been the easy-going-happy-calm-go-with-the-flow Alan that we all used to know and love and completely ENJOY being around. Regardless, it's so wonderful to be catching glimpses of that pre-dental school and residency Alan.) WELCOME BACK, hon.

First Day of School!

Alex had his first day of preschool today at the Ladybug Learning Club. He was so excited to go spend the day with Mrs. Anderson. I can not tell you how pleased I was when reading Mrs. Andersons bio to find out that she believes her calling in life is to be a preschool teacher! How great is that? I feel really lucky to have her be the teacher that Alex will have his first school experience with. I can't believe he is old enough to be going. When I dropped him off in his classroom, he didn't even look back.

BLT's for FHE

Tonight we had our first FHE in our new house. Alan and I have set some new goals now that we are in "post-student" life, one of them being regular family home evening on Monday nights, which had not been a regular occurrence in our home with Alan's schedule. It was so fun to spend the evening together. We had a great talk all about being a child of God. Alex has a big day tomorrow- his first official day of preschool- and the theme for the day will be "getting to know you." We wanted to make sure that Alex knows the most important thing about himself- that he is a child of God. We also had to fill a bag for him to take with him to school tomorrow with 5 things that are important to him or tell something about him. Here are the five items that made it into the bag: a baseball, a mini Texas flag, a picture of Will, the label off of the package of bacon from our BLT's (he ate about a 1/2 lb. himself- he loves bacon!), and of course, Thomas-the-tank-engine.
On another note, we seem to be getting busier and busier by the day here in Arizona. We started today by sleeping through our first day of our new playgroup, after which we rushed around to get ready for preschool orientation this morning, and then this afternoon Alex had Sports Class at Little Gym. I'm missing our lazy summer mornings in Texas where we stay in our pajamas until 11 am when we would then get in the pool in backyard. No driving, no shuttling around, no unpacking and organizing to do-just relaxing and maybe having friends over to play. What good memories. Tomorrow it's off to preschool by 8:30, visit from the relief society at 10am, unpack and organize until preschool pickup and cousin playdate at 12pm. And the move-in to-do lists just keep growing!!

Moving In

We are officially spending our first night in our new house in Arizona! Everything is a disaster as you can see, but the boys are in bed and we have a great air conditioning system, so life could not be better right now. There is so much more room in this house then we had in Texas, it feels enormous to our small family (and it's not even 2000 sqare feet!) It feels great to be in our own place surrounded by our own things. Tomorrow, the work begins of sorting through it all! We'll post after pictures when it's all done.

Alex wanted braces so...

Nana got him some of his very own! He has been very jealous of mine ever since I got them on a couple of months ago! It's actually very entertaining to see how much both of the boys already pay attention to teeth in general.

Alan's FINAL Graduation!!

Alan giving his graduation speech!

Alan surrounded by his adoring Baylor assistants. It was hard to say goodbye to such great coworkers.

Dave and Julie Curtis, us, Mary Anne and Don Clarke.

It was great to have our parents there to show their support.

Celebrating with the boys (who were suppose to be sleeping!) and chocolate ecstasy cake (our Texas favorite) after graduation. Don't you love the Texas flags they are waving on their last night as Texans?

It was a long awaited night and both Alan and I were in disbelief that it was actually occurring. It felt very surreal, but very rewarding at the same time. I am so proud of Alan for accomplishing this goal. I've never known a harder worker. All night long the professors, staff members, full and part time faculty at Baylor kept coming up to Alan and telling him what a great orthodontist he would be. Several of them told me that he was the best they have seen come out of the program in a long time. I felt so proud and it (sort of=)) made all of the long lonely week and weekends and endless study and clinic sessions worth it. I'm so happy for him and all that he has accomplished!

My best day of parenting so far

This evening, while Alan and I were rushing around trying to get ready for an evening out with my parents, we left Will momentarily unsupervised in the kitchen. From the bathroom, we heard this screeching noise and both went running towards it. There hung will, having climbed out of his high chair, I guess too impatient to wait for us get him out in the normal fashion. The best part is that we made him hang there until we would snap these pictures! This is such typical Will behavior that neither of us was all that shocked or concerned. What a crazy kid!

Farewel Luncheon

We just got home from the farewell luncheon our friends threw for the boys and I. We all gathered for lunch at Le Madeline. It was such a great time, and the perfect way to say goodbye to so many amazing friends that we will never forget! My friend Lara made the darling book. She and Jen gathered memory messages from our friends and bound them all with pictures from the last 2 years! The picture does not do it justice. I couldn’t even read it while we were at the lunch, because I would have lost it! We had a great time and will miss our Texas friends so very much. We felt so loved and we hope they all know how much we love them as well. More pictures to follow.

My parents arrive tonight, Alan defends on Thursday, graduation is Friday.... it’s all happening so fast!

Cute pics of Will!

My new best friend, and Alex's too.

So as I have said before, Alan has not been around- at all. You would think that I would be desperately lonely and miserable and exhausted without any help with the boys. I assure, you I am not! Miss Desiera Green from our ward, one of the young women that I have been lucky enough to get to know during my time here in Dallas, has joined the family and we are functioning just great! She has been helping me with grocery store trips, playdates at the pool, trips to the mall, pool time in the backyard- she even watched the boys so I could go see a movie with my girlfriends this week! Alan asked me this morning if we could adopt her and take her to Arizona with us. She has been a total lifesaver and I'm not sure how we will function without her! Desi- your welcome in Arizona anytime!

My husband is obssesed with Cuba

Things are stressful over here. Alan just got back from a weekend trip to Arizona where he tried to find us a house (did I mention we are moving in less than 2 weeks?!) The part of this that is stressful is that we still don’t have a house lined up. Now he is back in Texas and it’s back to “the writing of the thesis,” which generally means that we will see him a week from Friday, when he graduates, and not at all before. After we picked him up from the airport yesterday, Alex was so excited to see him he could hardly contain himself. On the drive home, Alan would try to say something to me and we would be loudly interrupted by a high-pitched voice from the backseat that would screech “EXCUSE me DADDY, I need to tell you something!!” When we got home and Alan grabbed his bag to head to the clinic, there was even louder protesting that included some yelling, kicking and tears, all of which were resolved after some candy and a Thomas video. We are in survival mode, doing whatever it takes to get through the day.
Why, you ask, is the title of this entry My husband is obsessed with Cuba? Because this morning at 6:45am I was greeted by Alan (who arrived home at 3:13am last night), and this was his good morning comment, “Christie, there is hope for our future! Fidel Castro resigned his power last night!” (As a side note, Alan has a dream of living in Cuba…. I have no further explanation as to WHY this is a dream of his). I can not imagine how he has room in his brain for anything more than what we already have going on: thesis, house hunting, starting a business, potty-training, packing, leaving all of our friends, moving to the DESERT, etc.(granted, Alan is probably only worried about one of those things: thesis). I guess I can chalk this up to the difference between men and women. Oh, and I think I will follow Alan’s lead and listen to the news today. It seems like a great way for me to get outside of my own small life and think about something with greater impact (also- I could use a break from the constant potty-talk around here- our celebration yesterday over Alex #2 in the toilet was way over the top).

Backyard Fun

Will enjoying his popsicle!

We spent the day in the backyard playing on the pool with our friend Henry. What will we do without Henry?? It makes me too sad to think about.

Will's Happy Place

This picture captures Will's happy place: soft blanket #1 on the left, soft blanket #2 on the right, a bottle in his mouth, and his quilts all around him. I swear we have our own little Linus at our house. Alex was never really into bottles, and his attachment toy of choice is still "dog-dog" the stuffed animal (although in recent months curious George is also sleeping beside him on a daily basis.) Will on the other hand LOVES his bottle, and hardly goes anywhere in the house without one of his 2 favorite blankets. When we get him out of bed in the morning, he always has one in his hand. As soon as he discards it somewhere between the boy’s room and the kitchen, I make sure to stash in back in his bed. Not 10 minutes will go by before he has gone back into his room to find one, if not both, of the blankets. He pulls whichever one he can reach out of his crib, or screeches until his brother will help him, and then does a strange little ritual of throwing the blanket on the floor and rubbing his little face into it, all while cooing and giggling (at the blanket)! This little boy has changed our lives; we could not adore him more.

Preschool Graduation

Christie, Kelly, Mary, Lynette
Alex, Aislyn, Henry, Ella

We have been so busy thinking about Alan’s upcoming graduation, we have hardly thought another important graduation in the Curtis Family: Alex’s preschool graduation! Last night the festivities were held at our good friends the Scoresby’s home. All of the preschool families joined together for a great celebration in honor of the 3-year-olds. Each preschooler was given a memory book made by the moms with pictures and memories of the great year they all shared. All kids will be continuing on next year, except Alex, who is going to have to adjust to brand new preschool in Arizona. We will miss our preschool buddies more than they know!

And so it begins...

I have been in the stuck in the stage of "about to start packing" for a week, which means I have been pulling things out of my cupboards slowly, but had yet actually put anything in a box. Alan's at school, Will's in bed, and Alex and I decided to tackle the already disastourous kitchen.What a mess!! One box down, many to go. (By the way, no part of the picture is staged. I turned around to take a look at our project and couldn't resist snapping this!!)

Girls Night Out!

Me, Cathy, Carrie and Jen

Tim and Faith!

My friend Jen's husband was given 4 box tickets to the Faith Hill/Tim McGraw concert, so Jen invited me and our friends Cathy and Carrie to join her! The seats were great and we had a blast. When Jen picked me up I realized I hadn't been away from the boys AT ALL in over a month and a half. It was so great to spend a night with girlfriends and the concert was awesome! This morning I woke up with a very hoarse voice from all of the screaming!!

22 Days and Counting

Whenever I get on the computer, the first thing I see on our Google homepage is a large countdown screen that has been informing us for the past few months of the days, hours, minutes and seconds remaining until Alan's final graduation from the academic world. For as long as I have known Alan, he has been a student. And he is not one of those students that attends classes for the sake of getting the credit and moving on- this man enjoys learning. Early on in our marriage when he was taking his first anatomy class, I remember thinking it was strange how he would come home and want to tell me all about it- as if he thought I would sincerely be interested (which of course I was not). As the years have gone by (and were going on 8 this fall) Alan has taken innumerable classes having to do with everything from organic chemistry to accounting to lectures on orthodontic practice management. Truth be told I know the names of very few of those classes, because after the first few years I just stopped asking, and he stopped telling. When people ask me what Alan's thesis is on, I have had to respond with the truth: "I have no idea." What I do know is that when I turned on the computer a few months ago and saw the clock counting down, I realized that after living his whole life as a student, I think he is really ready to move on. It’s a huge leap for us- a mind-boggling, life-changing, can’t wrap our head around it change. I hope we’re ready!
(the picture is of Alan at his UCLA graduation 6/04)

We're Back!

So after our month long vacation, the boys and I got back last Friday and things are just now starting to settle down! We had a great time visiting Park City, and then spending 3 weeks all over southern California in Oceanside, Newport and LA. It was great to reconnect with both of our extended families and so many of our amazing friends from growing up and our time at UCLA.
Now it's back to real life in Dallas. Alan has been working like crazy to finish his thesis in time for his August 11 graduation. Meanwhile at home Alex and I are working like crazy to get him potty-trained! I can't believe how intense it has been- I was not prepared. This is something they just don't talk about much when you discuss the challenges of having children with people. It's been an emotional roller coaster (boy, don't I sound dramatic!) for both of us, but the light is starting to shine at the end of the tunnel. We made great progress this afternoon, which I hope will continue through tomorrow. Alex has to be fully potty-trained before he can start the preschool I have him registered for, and his first day is in mid-August.
Which brings me to our next big project- packing! We are Arizona bound in less than 4 weeks and I'm in denial. That's all I'm going to say about that for now!
ps- I love that Alan posted to the blog while I was away! That picture of Alex is scary- what kind of parent let's their little boy ride on that big scary ride?! I will try to sort through more pics from the trip soon.

Christie and the boys at the Beach

Christie and the boys pose for a picture at the beach!

Beach Trip 6/2006

Alex, Cousin Jackson and Uncle Todd go for a ride on the Log Flume at the San Diego County Fair duiring our beach trip to Newport Beach and Oceanside.





























Alex and His Daddy pose for a picture at the Padres Giants Game!