BYE BYE BRACES!!!!

Do you know what July 12th was? It was the BEST DAY EVER! It was the day I got my braces off!! Hooray! Are you ready for picture overload?

I flew out to Florida on the 11th. Did you know that clouds are beautiful?!?! I think I took a million pictures of clouds. I was obsessed!

I arrived at 9:30pm and it felt so good to be “home”. I had been missing Florida like crazy! My bff, Lucy, picked me up and I stayed with her the 2 days I was there. Love her!

  

  

The next morning I went in to get one last, quick adjustment before the next day when I was scheduled to get my braces off. Dan, my student orthodontist decided to go ahead and take them off right there and then! I was so excited…until I remembered the TADS.

Remember this  picture from THIS post?

Well, they couldn’t just leave those little screws in there! Oh yes, they too had to come out and it didn’t feel good.

Definitely not as painful as they were going in but still not fun. Ok, so after all of the trauma of the tads was over I got so look in the mirror, and it was suddenly all worth it.

This was the 1st brace-free picture I took.

Before and afters:

Before and after smile…I love my after!!!

First picture in 2 years that I actually like of myself.

Those involved:

The man with the incredible technique that made it possible for my teeth to be fixed without surgery, Dr. Coro. So grateful for him.

My friend and student orthodontist, Dan.

Dr. James Nguyen was my original orthodontist but he graduated about halfway through the process.

Once my braces were off I was ready for some fun Florida friend time.

Picture courtesy of 6 year old Mikey.

 

 

Girls night with my former neighbors, Sandy and Barbie!

 

It went by way to fast and at the same time not fast enough because I missed my kids so much. The flight home was great except for the creep who kept smiling at me and then asked if he could sit by me on the plane. Once I told him that I was a stay at home mom of 3, he wasn’t so interested. Come to find out he was also married and a father of 2! Such a jerk!

Leaving Florida

I love the view up there:)

Mucking Around

My MTC companion was from Australia. I love her so much! We had so much fun together doing what she called “mucking around” which meant goofing off. Funny that those words are what pop into my head when I see my kids being silly…it’s been 8 years!

The other day they were so in the mood to muck around! It was funny to watch them being so silly and making memories together.  Maya accidentally sprayed Aidan and after 2 seconds of screaming he decided that he quite liked it! That’s where it all started…

In the end, all were soaked.

And still friends:)

Then, Maya decided she wanted Aidan to carry her.

It was so hard!

Maybe a piggyback ride would be easier?

Not so much. Then the soul train started.

To them they were all giving each other a piggyback ride.

They laughed and laughed together. I loved it!

4th of July goodness

Happy 4th of July!

I suppose I should make a post about our 4th of July since it was a really good one. It is one of Rich’s favorite holiday’s so I was sad that he wasn’t here to celebrate with us. I know that the kids would have had a ton of fun with him now that they are a little bit older. He was on my mind the whole day.

It was a fun, BUSY day from the moment we woke up. We went to the Marshfield ward flag ceremony and breakfast. I was proud of myself for making it only 20 minutes late and we were all 4 put together!

We had a delish breakfast and then we were off to the parade. I’m so annoyed with myself that I didn’t take any video of the kids at the parade. They were having so much fun running for the candy and of course crying when they didn’t get to it fast enough. I learned pretty quickly that I would have to set my Nikon aside if I wanted to keep all 3 kids alive. They are not the type to sit and enjoy a parade. Instead, they were ready to dash out in the path of oncoming floats and tractors to get a measly tootsie roll!

They sure are proud of their tractors out in good ol’ Marshfield.

Aidan was a huge supporter of all the different politicians:)

It was so miserably hot!

We all left the parade unscathed except for Maya who had the buzz of a sugar rush coming on which I would later suffer the consequence of. We went home for a nap before everybody came over for the party. Let me clarify…I tried to take a nap, Maya did not allow it.

Around 4:30 the party started.

 

 

Then it was sparkler time!

 

We ended the night with some homemade ice cream and fireworks by the big kids. It was an awesome 4th with lots of loved ones.