My Kids are Expensive

For those who know us well, you know that my children do not have good teeth. Ben actually had two abscessed (sp?) teeth that showed up the day Dave and I traveled to California for our 15th anniversary trip. My lucky in-laws got to take care of that situation! Sorry guys.

Today was a check-up and cleaning for all three kids. Ethan had his first dentist visit today. The results? Unfortunately, the next three months are going to be very expensive dentally speaking. Rachel unexpectedly got her remaining 7 baby teeth pulled at this visit. The permanent teeth were coming through and the baby teeth weren't loosening, so out they went. She was not happy about that development. :-( She also has to get four other teeth sealed/filled. Ben's six year old molars are starting to come through, and already have some pits in them. So he'll get them sealed in three months after they come through a bit more. Ethan has three little cavities they think they can seal. But since he (and Ben for that matter) are quite anxious and uncooperative at the dentist, they'll have to be sedated for that work to happen.

What does this all mean? We will probably end up maxing out our dental benefits before the year is even 1/2 over! Yikes!! But don't worry. We'll finish this up right about the time we have to pay hospital bills for this little one on the way.

Flash-back Friday - Happy Birthday Dad!

My Dad is celebrating his birthday today. He is truly an old man. 30 years older than me! :-) So I just decided to post a couple of pictures of the (geriatric) birthday boy himself.

Me and my dad May, 1972

Mom and Dad at my and Tammy's wedding reception August, 1992


All the kids and some grandkids too! November, 2006

A Big 6 Year-Old

Ben had his sixth birthday the other day, and he is feeling quite grown up. He got a little present from his kindergarten teacher, went out to Chili's for dinner, and got Transformers and Star Wars Legos for his presents. Dave and I stayed up until way too late putting together the spaceships in his Legos set, only to see them destroyed less than 24 hours later. I don't even think they could be reassembled at this point. Oh well, he had a great time. :-)

Ben's first Easter (about 2 1/2 months old)

Looking oh so big now!

Flash Back to Christmas Past

Christmas 1969 at the Morey home ↓

Christmas 1970 at the Morey home ↓

Christmas 1971 at the Morey home ↓

Christmas 1972 at the Workman home ↓

Christmas 1973 at the Workman home ↓


(I particularly like Matt's wall paper :) ↓


Christmas ~1973 at the Morey home ↓
(Notice, I even spilled on my shirts back then : )

Christmas 1974 at the Workman home ↓


Christmas 1976 at the Workman home ↓

Christmas 1979 at the Morey home ↓
(Sue and Libby win the prize for the Best Smiles, Becky gets it for the best hair :)

Christmas 1980 at the Morey family relative's home ↓
(Note how cool I look playing video games, even back then)

Christmas 1983 at the Morey family relative's home ↓

Debbie Morey Christmas ~1983 ↓

Christmas 1985 at the Morey home ↓

Cabbage Patch Kids were all the rage that year ↓

Christmas 1986 at the Workman home ↓

Christmas 2004 at the now Morey/Workman family home ↓
(Ben was upset about something when I took this :)

Merry Christmas. : ) We love and miss each of you.

Snow Fort

As you may have heard, we have had a large amount of snow in Massachusetts over the last few weeks. The week before last, it took David over 5 hours to drive in home in a blizzard. He has decided this will probably be the last winter in a rear wheel drive car.

This last Thursday, the town once again canceled school due to snow. As you could imagine, Rachel was ecstatic. She and her neighbor friends found a house half way down the street to build a really cool snow fort. They avoided building it over any of their yards so that everyone had an equal walk to get there.

Every opportunity they get, Ben and Rachel head off down the street to build more and slide down the face of the fort.

Our neighbor have been really nice to let them play there. In fact, one of them used his snow blower to help the kids gather up more snow.

The snow fort actually has more than 3 slides : )

Ben's fun hat actually changes color in the cold. ↓

Sadly, they have to come home at some point. Here is Ben heading back, soon to drop all his wet clothes on the floor to frustrate his Dad. ↓↑

It is good to be young. : )

The Girls Are in Town

This past weekend, my sisters came to visit. But not without much bullying/guilt inducing. :-) Our old across-the-street neighbor, Lisa lives about an hour and a half away in New Hampshire. So on Saturday we had a mini reunion of all of the "sisters". Lisa hadn't seen Tammy or Stephanie basically since I got married 15 years ago. It was a fun day of talking and eating. I really haven't stopped smiling since.

The way we were in 1976... ↓

Lisa's 1974 birthday party (two years worth) ↓

Lisa is the blonde in the center

Lisa has the bow in her hair (1977) ↓

All of us approximately 30 years later : ) ↓

Me, Tammy, Stephanie, and Lisa

We all went to Rachel's soccer game and cheered her on. ↓

If you look closely, you can our reflection in the glass cheering for Rachel ↓

There's an arcade at the soccer center, and Ben and Ethan like to run in there and "play" the games. ↓

David worked a long time to get this picture of Steph. She was more elusive than Greta Garbo ↓

After Lisa went home, Tammy realized she didn't have any black tights for church the next day. We found a Wal-Mart that was still open. When looking for the tights, Tammy and Steph came across this pair of shoes. A bet was quickly made that Tammy should wear them to church. After seeing the shoes and hearing the terms of the bet, Rachel told Tammy, "You should have asked for more." :-)

For those who can't see, while the leopard print on platic is quite lovely. It really sets off the black and spoteed green camouflage of the shoe! Also, you couldn't get too close to a heat source, or else they would have melted. (For those who want to know, Tammy did win the bet and cashed in. Not only did she win $5, but she got the shoes)

A Girl?

We had our next ultrasound today and they say it will be girl. That makes the score 2 boys / 2 girls : )

I guess all good things come in pairs : )

Dad's Portrait

While I was out at Becky's for Thanksgiving, Dad needed a picture for some papers related to his recent church calling as Stake Patriarch. Apparently SLC captures some basic information about you after you have been called.

I thought I would post his smile for the rest of the family.

A Relaxed Thanksgiving in Maryland

Thanksgiving was as good as ever this year. Becky hosted us once again in Maryland. : ) Got'ta love Becky's cook'in.

↓ Becky set a very impressive table. Rachel had a great time taking these pictures. Dave has begun teaching her about composition. ↑

We all helped pitch in with the various kitchen duties ...Some more than others. I confess I am not sure what Becky is doing in this shot : ) ↑

Stan always loves to prepare the turkey.↑

We all enjoyed the meal, even if we didn't enjoy having our pictures taken with a mouth full of food. :-) ↑

Afterwards, we enjoyed playing on Becky and Mikes Wii on there huge television (for those of you still living the 70s, the Wii is a video game console). ↑

While Dave could never beat his dad in tennis in the "real" world. He finally beat Stan's cyber version. :-) A small victory for Dave ↑

We were all tired and enjoyed just lounging around most of the Trip

↑ Ben had a great time playing with Becky and Mikes assorted toys. ↓

Rachel loves spending time with Grandma Morey. Late night girl chats were one of her highlights. No boys alowed. ↑

As usual, Beth drove most of the way home... ok, Beth drove the whole way home while everyone else feel asleep : )

It ended up being a great couple days away from Boston. Now we turn our eyes toward Christmas and finding a tree.