We have a first grader! I seriously can't believe it. School started last week and we were all a bit apprehensive about how it would go. 

 I was worried that he would have a hard time since he didn't know anyone, but he's fitting in like a champ. He was dead set on wearing all black. He wanted to look like a Ninja. I talked him down to just his shirt. ;)

 It's a 35 min bus ride each way (which is actually pretty good, considering how far away it is) and he's now lobbying for a Nintendo DS since "everybody else on the bus has one Mom!". We'll see. I don't know how that would work out.....maybe I could let him earn it?
On the first day I drove him (mostly so that we could stop and buy tennis shoes on the way, this kid grows like a weed!).  Daniel was excited, but I think it was a bit too early for Sam. lol.

Every day when he comes home I ask how his day was and he says, "great!" I'm so happy this school seems to be working out so far. One thing I really appreciate is that they use a lot of positive reinforcement, which every 1st grader needs! Last year we had some issues and he got so discouraged. We're crossing our fingers and toes that this year is a good one!

Father's Day

 I've just been informed that neither my Mother or my Mother in law check Facebook, so I need to start updating here a little more often I guess. ;)  Anyways, here are my little boys with their Daddy.

I made them matching ties again this year and I think they look mighty dapper. ;)

Things here are good. Very crazy, but very good. We move this week, so you can only imagine the level of insanity in my home right now! I'm excited to post about my many projects as soon as life settle down a bit. 

aaaaaand WOW. I have been b.u.s.y.! I (obviously) have a ton to blog about.
First off: the Match! We got to take Sammy, Daniel was still at school.

It was held in a ballroom on campus and as you walked in it was a sea of green (St. Patty's day) and the Black Eyed Peas was blaring (Tonight's Gonna be a Good Night) I've never witnessed such palpable anxiety from so many people before! No one could wait until they knew where they were going.  The program was short, but not short enough! (nothing could have been short enough at this point!) Finally it was almost time to open the envelopes (everybody opens them at the same time all across the US) Sammy was the only baby who got the privilege to go up and grab an envelope. ;) (he was definitely being a daddy's boy that day)

Everybody picked up their sealed envelope and returned to their seats waiting until the allotted time to open them.... that was the worst! Holding it in your hand and not being allowed to look! I can't even tell you how many people I saw trying to hold it up to the light to catch a peek, lol. There was no way you could have seen through it. I know. I checked ;) At exactly Noon the air horn blew and everyone tore into their letters. 

It was quite a display. Some people squealed, a few exited quickly in tears and the guy behind us took one look, grunted, and said, "Let's go get drunk." I obviously felt so sad for those who were upset, but the rest of it was pretty much hilarious. 

We are thrilled to be going to Indianapolis and the more we find out about the area, the more excited we get.  I still remember when he came home from his interview there how excited he was about the program and facilities. We can't wait to get all settled in and explore our new home!

Tomorrow!!!

Tomorrow, tomorrow, I love ya, tomorrow, you're only a daaaaaaaaay aaaaaaa waaaaaaaaay! (sing it with me now! I watched that show WAY too often as a child and blame all of my quirks and eccentricities on that adorable little orphan Annie) (P.S. side note, I just have to say how proud I am of myself for spelling eccentricities right the first time, without spell check! yay, go Mommy brain!)
I have to say that Bryan and I have done pretty well with the cursed wait for our Residency Match results. But now that it's one day away, it's killing me! I, by nature, am a planner and a thinker and a researcher. None of which I can do without knowing what (or where!) my subject is! We could be moving in as little as 6 weeks so I'm rarin' to go! We could end up (in no specific order) here, Milwaukee, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Dallas, Albuquerque (which I've also learned how to spell thanks to my research for the match), Salt Lake City, Phoenix or Tucson! So we could be moving 2 miles (if we match here) or 1,900 miles. How do you plan for all of the variables? The answer I finally came up with: you don't! I've just been de-junking, which really means finishing up all of the projects I'm working on and tying up loose ends. It feels good. (when I finally find the time, I'll post some of my projects on here, you can't wait, right? ;)
This whole process has been a little crazy and we are excited to have it over with. I finally realized why I'm so anxious about it all today. It's because, no matter the outcome, we will be surprised. I've never not kind of know how something would turn out before... and I kind of don't like it. lol. Luckily, we chose to only interview at programs where we knew we would want to live. So, no matter the news, we will be pleasantly surprised. Keep your fingers crossed for us, and hopefully I'll be a less spastic version of myself tomorrow. ;)

Matched....

We got a one line email letting us know that we did indeed match for residency. Yay! Now we can stop having completely irrational nightmares of not matching, and start having completely rational ones about so many other things! lol. Seriously, the NRMP (the people who run the match) are just big teases. Just tell us already!!! We find out Thursday, on St. Patrick's Day. We typically have a visit from a Leprechaun, so I'm thinking I'll have to combine the two somehow....
In other news, I find it completely ironic that this very week a book I've had on hold for months at the library finally arrived (digitally). It's titled, "Matched." I saw it and had to laugh out loud.

Incidentally it was a fun book, worth the read. It does have it's similarities to the other Teen Distopia books that are so popular right now, but it was different enough and interesting enough for me to thoroughly enjoy it and I'm anxiously looking forward to the next two. (and the movies... I think I heard that Disney has already bought the rights?)

Stars Fell on Alabama....

I have had that song stuck in my head ever since we entered the state of Alabama two weeks ago! (If you don't know it, it's a Jazz Standard from the 1930's and is lovely... I specifically LOVE the Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong version... while you're at it, buy the whole album, you'll thank me, really)
We took a quick trip down to visit Bryan's brother, Brad, who's just started flight school at Ft. Rucker. We had a great time and the kids played together so well. It was sad to leave again. :(  We took it easy and mostly just let the kids and boys (Bryan and Brad) play. Sam and his cousin Kate are only 4 weeks apart in age and they were so cute together! Two peas in a very cute pod. Kate was very kind and shared all of her girly stuff with Sam. He was ecstatic.


We passed by fields full of Black Hawks, which was an awe-inspiring sight. (Sadly we were moving the whole time, so I wasn't able to catch any phenomenal pics.)

As we left Alabama I asked Daniel what his favorite part of the trip was and he said, "playing Lego Batman with Uncle Brad." Which totally took me by surprise because he had so much fun playing with the girls, maybe it was playing on the huge screen, or maybe it was because it was his cool "army guy" uncle. Maybe next time we'll just let them play Wii through the Internet instead of driving for 12hrs? (lol, totally kidding!) 

One of the funniest things that weekend was when the kids played super heroes. They all got their pillow cases and flew around fighting all the injustice and bad people around. (mainly the two babies ;) 

Then I noticed Jane had some sort of growth.

Me: "Jane, are you hiding a secret weapon?"

Jane: "No, I'm pregnant!" Like, duh, you dummy. 

Me: "A pregnant superhero????"

Jane: "Of course! I've got to have my babies sometime! Superheroes are people too, ya know."

So there you have it. Super Heroes are people too, and my 4 year old niece knows that life doesn't stop for babies. 

The highlight of the trip was our day at the beach... but that's another post!

Pinteresting....

I have a new addiction. It's not like I needed a new addiction, but here it is. I really think I might be in love.  It's called Pinterest. It's a bit like Tumblr, for those who are familiar with that, only it's way better. (sorry Tumblr people! :(  )  

I am the type of person who likes to bookmark things for reference later that I don't necessarily need now. You know, like little girl clothes, house ideas, etc. But the problem with bookmarking them on your computer is that 1) you could lose it all if your computer dies (especially if 5 computers in a row die on you!) and 2) everything is listed by page title or blog title so you really can't remember what's bookmarked until you click on it.  

Enter pinterest. Your bookmarks are all stored online and by picture! You can separate them into categories and view everyone else's bookmarks to get more ideas. I LOVE it! 

To use the site you have to have an invitation right now. (I think it's still in beta) I've still got a few invitations I can send out, so let me know if you'd like one!

Our little Padawan...

 While we were at Disneyland we decided to check out the Jedi Training event. We didn't really know much about it, but Daniel loves ANYTHING Star Wars, so knew we had to go. We ran into someone on a ride who told us that if you have something that makes you stand out it makes it a lot easier to get chosen. So we stopped by the make your own Light Saber station and made him a huge, double-bladed, purple Light Saber!

It worked and he got chosen! (they chose about 30 kids out off all the children there) For a while he just stared at/ fought his own shadow, silly kid. 

He was totally in awe of the Jedi trainers, lol. 

The kids trained for a while and then, just when you think it's over, part of the stage rises up out of the ground and out comes Darth Vader, Storm Troopers and Darth Maul!

The kids all got their chance to defeat either Darth Vader or Darth Maul. Daniel beat Darth Maul soundly! ;) At the end he said, "It's a good thing he didn't move much! I totally defeated that guy!!! Now I can totally defeat them anytime!" I honestly think this day was the highlight of his life so far. Love him.

Disneyland

Disneyland! We went to Disneyland on Christmas eve just like we did 2 years ago. It was a wonderful, magical day. On our way in I saw a scene that reminded me of the last time we went. Daniel sure loves his Grandpa!
2010                                                                               2008

It started out as a cool morning. Daniel had absolutely refused to bring a coat, so we bundled him up in Sammy's blanket. 

Here is the stroller brigade! They had all just barely turned one and did really well all day in the strollers. 

We spent the morning doing some kiddie rides (Dumbo here)

And then Daniel and Caleb got brave and tried some roller coasters. It was Daniel's first time on a roller coaster and he was pretty nervous, but he LOVED it in the end. 

Daniel got to attend the Jedi Training event and we stopped to build him his own Light Saber! He was ecstatic. It was double bladed and as tall as his Uncle Tim! (about 6'3"?)

 We always love the Pixar Parade, we got there early and staked out our spots. (we were surprised at how ruthless Disneyland patrons could be! ha ha)

 Sam adored the Parade from Daddy's shoulders.

He also thought it was hilarious to smack Uncle Brad in the face over and over. Might have had something to do with his reactions. lol :)

We really loved the Disney Parade that ended with Santa telling all the little girls and boys that he would see them that night. ;)



The fireworks seemed to be extra special that night. So beautiful. This year it was super crowded, I was kind of hoping for some bad weather so no one else would be there, but instead we had to suffer through a gorgeous, sunny day. Can't wait until we can go back someday!

Don't Mind too Much....

This is one of the few reasons I would be happy to leave Columbus.... ICE STORMS!!! The Ice Storms here are amazing and consistent. (in that you can count on at least one every year) This year isn't nearly as bad as the last two years have been (yet?), but school/work have still been cancelled for the last two days and you can literally ice skate out the front door. 

They say we've gotten an inch this time.... can you see how thick it is on the ground?

I couldn't resist this shot of Frosty's nose, brrr he looks cold!

It sure can be beautiful sometimes, I'll never forget how gorgeous the golf course next to our house is when the sun is setting and it's covered in ice. It just sparkles and glows. Too bad I'd have to risk life and limb to get a picture of it!

The view out my back door where you can see how thick this stuff is!

So, just a note to all of my friends in warmer climates... enjoy your wonderful weather and try not to rub it in too hard, we've still got at least another month of this stuff! (Hawaii has never sounded so good :)

Shawnee State Park

We had kind of an odd fall this past year. There wasn't a huge onslaught of color like I'm used to, it seemed like random trees here and there would change and fall before the other trees got around to changing. I was bummed because this was most likely our last fall here in Columbus and it's my favorite season. To solve it all and to put a smile on my face my sweet husband piled us all in the car and we headed south. We stopped at the Shawnee State Park and ventured around for some fall foliage. We hit a jackpot! Shawnee is such a beautiful park full of ponds, vistas and a random cozy church nestled in the trees here and there. It's 63000 acres, so we didn't even see most of it, but it was incredible. After our 2 hour drive, Sam was ecstatic to get out and move around!

He'd just barely started trying to walk, so he got to try out his shoes for the first time. Look at those little feet in those serious sneakers! Don't you just want to gobble him up?  The sun was starting to set, so the world turned even more golden. Daniel and Bryan were just in time to get onto the water in a paddle boat.

Sammy and I spent some time on shore checking out the leaves and acorns. Pure bliss.

Keeping the Doctor away...

with an apple a day!

We were lucky enough to go to the Apple Orchards twice this past fall. This particular orchard is just south of Amish country, so it's always a scenic trip. The first time we went was for a class field trip. Sammy and I went to help wrangle children and got a fun tour in the process. We learned all about how Johnny Appleseed was a real person and that he planted a lot of the apple trees in our area. (pretty cool if you ask me)

  They also took us through their sorting house. Daniel is obviously paying rapt attention. ;)

We ran into Daniel's friend Isabelle, who lives down the street and is in his Primary class at church. You'd think they haven't seen each other forever. lol.

We had so much fun picking the apples off the trees. 

They were Golden Delicious apples, and honestly, the best apples I've ever had in my life! (and this is coming from a Washington girl!)

We need a little work on our form.... you're technically not supposed to take the branch with you ;)

Sammy took his job as overseer very seriously....

We also went back out with a group of girls from the ward.  This picture is missing two kids and one adult, me!

We found the cutest little apples that were just Sammy sized, he held them all day. Too precious. 

We slipped around back of the apple orchard where there was also a pumpkin patch to explore. I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to get a Fall picture of the boys, but they had other plans. This was as close as it got to perfection:

Because this is what all the rest of them look like...

We stopped and had a picnic, but the kids preferred to wait it out in the car where they were parent free and warm!

We had a blast and were fully stocked in apples for almost two months! No small feat with Daniel around, I think he honestly thinks that eating apples will keep the Doctor away. ;)