These are my two favorite pictures out of the MANY we captured Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. I love the excitement in the boys' faces, and especially with gifts that these days would be considered simple. Seeing these just makes my heart smile. I am in the midst of compiling all of the pictures onto a slideshow that I will post on the blog as soon as it is finished. We were truly blessed this Christmas and hope all of you were, too!
We traveled to Nashville, TN, this year to celebrate Thanksgiving with the Hollenbeck's! Aside from horrendous traffic in Atlanta and Chattanooga we had a smooth trip and a wonderful time being with family. We had amazing accomodations at a Wyndam resort where the cousins all had a great time playing on a very nice playground, and even had craft time courtesy of Grandma Sonya and Aunt Anne! Actually, our condo endured the big flood this past year and was completely under water...so everything was brand new! Our Thanksgiving meal was beyond delicious and our hosts Uncle Adam and Aunt Amanda were incredibly gracious not only for hosting the big meal, but also for our pizza night and the yummy breakfast they made. Our weekend wasn't complete without the boys very first movie in the theater! We saw "Tangled," which was adorable. Besides Dane being a bit nervous, they both did great and were ready for another movie when it was finished. We hope all of you had a wonderful, memorable Thanksgiving this year, too...May the Christmas chaos begin!
At least in my opinion. As you can see my house is turning into a Halloween wonderland as we prep for our annual Halloween party for all of the ortho residents and their families...
I know some of you who read my blog are bored with these pictures, but some of you have never visited Kansas City and may enjoy some blog sight-seeing! Kansas City is the "City of Fountains" and it also the sister city to Seville, Spain. The pictures taken above are from probably the most famous area in the city called The Country Club Plaza (or as we natives call the Plaza). I was lucky to have called the Plaza home all of graduate school and enjoyed living in the hustle and bustle of the city, and just a moment away from the city's best shopping and dining! It was like a dream to listen to the sounds from my window, walk across the street for coffee and listen to a jazz band playing and simply having the luxury of roaming the many blocks that are as beautiful as the pictures show above. I haven't traveled everywhere in the world, but my guess is there are few places that can compare. I took some pictures of my favorite architecture and I believe many are replicas of plazas in Seville. Would you believe the city lights every last inch of the Plaza with Christmas lights for the Plaza Lighting Ceremony Thanksgiving night?! It is breathtaking and a picture would never do it justice. Oh, and the blue tile stairs pictured above is one of the places we had our wedding pictures taken!
I returned Monday, Labor Day (and my birthday!), from a great trip back "home." Since high school I have enjoyed all of my experiences and new friendships through college, graduate school, living in new places and now residency. BUT, nothing compares to the friends you grew up with. Ashley gave me a very memorable birthday gift, my cheerleading sweater! and the girls that were together that weekend are life long friends, some even date back to preschool! I am so blessed that we have kept in touch and it is amazing to think of all we have been through together, and all of the ups and downs we have carried one another through. Thanks girls for your friendship and for such a fun weekend! I can only hope when residency is finished that Matt's job carries us back closer to you all...
If Blake looks a bit disheveled, well it is probably because he was...and probably because we ALL were this morning! It is hard enough to adjust to getting up earlier, but to do so after a very fun and adventurous vacation is even more of a challenge! We were all still a bit groggy. But, even so Blake was up and in my room with clothes and underpants in hand at 5:45am (a little earlier than the 6:00am alarm!). At this point school is something you don't have to convince Blake to attend or enjoy. When I dropped him off he was beaming, when I picked him up he was beaming. Grinning ear to ear! When we walked into his classroom (since carpool line doesn't start until next week - grrr) he quickly turned around said "kiss" for me to kiss him, then waved and said "bye!" Hint, hint Mommy. So, guess who cried this morning? Dane! He was so sad to leave his brother and wanted to stay. He will be back to his school tomorrow and will start back to 3 days a week as I do the same for work. My boss was kind enough to allow me to work only 2 days during summer break to save some dough in childcare costs! So..I can chalk this up to the worst back to school photo thus far, but Blake's smiles and excitement for school makes the need for this picture pretty minuscule.
Isn't dunking an Oreo one of the most important life skills a person should learn? Dane was introduced to this old snack technique tonight. He is a kid that already loves to "dip it," which is what he does with just about everything (and requests it using those words), so he soon became an expert. And loved every minute of it...
Things I don't like...
(to see pics, just click on the photo)
I just had to post pics of Blake's super cute new haircut! I may be wrong, but I don't recall boys getting bowl haircuts in the Midwest?? It seems popular here in the south. There is a little boy in Dane's preschool class who has the same hair color as Blake's and has a bowl haircut. I always think it is so adorable everytime I see him. So, when the lady who cuts Blake's hair asked about a bowl cut today - I hesitated, but thought we could try it and turned out so cute! I probably won't do it for a long time because I think it can lend itself to looking baby-ish (just my opinion), and Blake will be, gulp, 5 years old in February. So, for now, Blake is stylin' his new 'do!
The four people pictured above (L to R: Drs. Miller, Hollenbeck, Earles & Barden) deserve a HUGE pat on the back! At the end of the work day today their 2nd year of orthopedic surgery residency will be officially over! The first two years of residency are extremely challenging and difficult with the 2nd year being brutal. They have worked extremely hard, put in unthinkable hours and sacrificed so much this year. And, so have the spouses and significant others. So...a big pat on the back to Laisa, myself, Ben & Lauren! This moment feels like a huge milestone for all us as we look forward to call being taken at home instead of requiring the residents to stay in house, a little lighter schedule and simply said having another year under our (their) belts.
When Daddy has time to talk while on call at the hospital, you take the call...no matter what!
I am wondering if there are ever any pictures of Matt in regular street clothes?! The truth is these pictures show that Matt is a wonderful father. He rolled in this Father's Day morning around 10am to complete his on call that began the pre-dawn hours on Saturday (which really means working non-stop for almost 30 hours). Last night he took a 3-hour break from the hospital to attend the orthopedic resident roast with me, and got a total of 2 hours of sleep that entire stent of call that were actually split into 1-hour "naps." After all of that, he still came in the door with a smile on his face excited to see the boys! He anxiously opened gifts...handmade keepsakes the boys made at school (Blake is showing Daddy how he made his foot), a St. Louis Cardinals Tervis Tumbler, and a very special gift.As we reach mid-month it is nice to have Blake adjusted to summer school, to feel like a responsible adult having gone to the dentist (yuck!), to have fun events to look forward to the remainder of the month, and for goodness sakes leaving the two hardest years of residency (or so we've been told) behind us! Happy June & Happy Summer!
It has been almost 6 weeks since fencing off 3/4 of our yard for intense seeding and fertilization. We have now seen the reward! Behind the plastic fencing in the picture is the freshly mowed grass that we have successfully grown. In front, though, is the newly fenced-off area where we start the process again. We have 4 weeks until we host the big ortho resident picnic, so we are hoping to see similar results. It has been tough to grow grass here, but after 2 years we are finally making progress...
So, I am not at all a homebody. I HAD to get out of the house today regardless of how I felt. Let me back up...remember what I posted earlier about the boys being sick? Well, they were kind enough to share it with me, and let me tell you the virus was (and is) a doozy. I was off work AGAIN Wednesday and Thursday in what felt like an incapacitated state. I have no clue how my children got to and from school, although I was the one driving. I hurt all over, my skin hurt, my head hurt so bad that it radiated into my neck and upper back. My most comfortable position was supine with no pillow with a heating pad on my back and a bag of frozen peas on my forehead. The virus also included the variety of GI surprises. I still hurt today! And, as I write this my poor husband, who was on call last night when these same symptoms began for him, is upstairs asleep after leaving work early (which is a huge rarity!). I just hope and pray it doesn't last as many days as the boys and mine did since he is off until next Tuesday.
Our first pool party happened today! Boo to Daddy being on call and missing it :( and Boo to the developer of our neighborhood who went bankrupt and left the lot for the pool sitting in foreclosure :( But, the silver lining is Wal-mart sells a great little pool for $10 that the boys absolutely love! They don't even care about not having a neighborhood pool and I truly believe life is what you make it and my children will appreciate bigger and better things in their future (that is, if a neighborhood pool or backyard pool counts for a bigger, better thing at that point in their lives). Plus, they can swim a bit...then jump on the swingset...then kick a ball...then drive their car around all contained in our fenced backyard. Who can beat that for toddlers with short attention spans?! Meanwhile, Mommy enjoyed lounging and reading a magazine :) and the lawn got watered when the pool was emptied. Anyway, we really enjoyed our day in the Carolina sun today and captured some cute pictures. Hope all of you had a great weekend!