What the Heck Have We Been Up To?

 We are finally back home after being away for 2 whole months.  We were doing the rounds for residency interviews out west and just decided to stay through Christmas too.  It was great to spend so much time with family and to go on our little interview jaunts together to Indiana, Washington, and Arizona, just the two of us.  But it was so weird to leave the kids overnight.  I've never done it, except when I gave birth to Sammi.

Anyway, I had to catch up on pictures and posts and I have to say I feel so out of loop, or disoriented, or something.  It's always weird that life just goes on.  You look forward to something coming and then it's over and things go back to normal and it's almost like it never happened.  It was so weird to walk into our house this evening and see a remnant of something Halloween related.  We left just days after Halloween and so I sort of feel like we need everyone to do Thanksgiving and Christmas over again so we can experience it here too!  So I guess this is my attempt.

The boys on a bike ride enjoying the beautiful fall weather

 Jumping in the leaves on Thanksgiving day with Daddy and Uncle Scott

 Where's Emerson?

 My mom really outdid herself this year.  Every bite was amazing.  Blissful.  To die for.  We all had to lie on the ground afterward just to redistribute some of the weight of our stomachs.  One of my favorite memories ever.

Sammi's silly little Thanksgiving dinner.

I couldn't be more proud that she adores mashed potatoes as much as I do.

More to come...

E's Preschool Program

So I just had to share this.  Since we were in Utah for so long with interviews and the holidays, my mom got E signed up for a little preschool for the two months we were here so he would have something to do while away from all his friends and while Mommy and Daddy were away for interviews.  He fell in love with this girl named Cassie, whom he lovingly refers to as "Cass".  This is the video of their little Christmas program entitled, "The Littlest Christmas Tree".  E is the bunny who was instructed to hold the little sprigs of berries, but you can also identify him by his random outbursts and running up to the camera asking, "Are you SO excited to see my program!?!"  To which we replied, "Yes!  Now go be in it!  This is the program!"  It made us smile. 

I think it's worth it to watch the entire 7-minute video, but I'm biased.  Please don't judge me by my child's behavior...I can't help the fact that he got in a fight with another kid during the program because he dared steal Cass's seat.  Just watch and you'll know what I'm talking about.

Still Here

We are still here!  We're just plugging along through residency interviews.  We've really loved some and really hated others, surprisingly.  We've got one more to go and can't wait to find out where we will match in March!

We had a fabulous Thanksgiving with both families (on separate days...hooray!) and are looking forward to Christmas.  I will update with pictures later since my parents' computer doesn't have the correct software for my camera.

By the way, we're missing our buddies in Columbus.

Halloween 2011

 We started the morning out right by carving pumpkins with Daddy.  We meant to do it earlier, but never got around to it, and since he's off for interviews, we took advantage!

 Being nervous about pumpkin guts.

 I told him to smile because it is Halloween and this is what I got.

She was a fan of sticking her fingers in the jack-o-lantern face

Ben was the mastermind behind the family of four pumpkin, and I did the wiggly mouth one and the sad face one per E's request.

Ready to go trick-or-treating!  We've been waiting all month!

 Luckily he doesn't look awkward or anything...

 Our trick-or-treating buddies.  E and Mathis were both tractors, Taylee was a cowgirl, and Sammi was a mermaid.

 The kids with some of their neighborhood friends: Mira, Ben, E, Mathis, Sammi, and Taylee

 Sammi got to ride in the wagon with her boyfriend Miles.  He looks like he's about ready to put the moves on her.  He likes to give her kisses at church and he even shared his candy with her.  (As in, the same piece of candy.)

 Looking confused...

I think Halloween lived up to all of our expectations!  So glad it finally came.  I was tired of answering the question, "Is it Halloween today!?" every day.  I'm glad the little guy was so excited though.  He was a trooper in that huge costume.  Sammi thought she was one of the big kids and wanted to walk everywhere until she got tired.  Then we just had to strap her into the stroller until her boyfriend rolled up with his Radioflyer.  One thing is for sure--we got WAY too much candy!

Spooky Dinner 2011

 We had our traditional spooky dinner this year with the original crowd.

The kids

The adults (with Sammi peeking out from behind Ben)

And me with dessert.

Makes Me Laugh, Emerson Edition

 And, continuing on with my silly kids...

E's little sense of humor has been developing rapidly.  He makes jokes because he knows they are funny, but he still just says things in a unique way that makes me laugh too.

-It's been so fun anticipating Halloween this year because he asks me literally every day if today is Halloween.  I hope it lives up to all of his expectations.  He learned a cute poem at school and made a grotesque little jack-o-lantern on a stick to go with it.  It goes:

Pumpkin, pumpkin,

Big and fat,

Turn into a jack-o-lantern

Just like that!

He also has loved learning little Halloween songs like I'm a Mean Old Witch With a Hat and Halloween, Halloween.

-He was sitting in a laundry basket of clothes and crouched down and said, "Look Mom!  I'm being a clo."  (Clearly the singular form of clothes.)

-I asked him what he wanted for breakfast this morning and he yelled "CHEESE!"

-Anytime he's trying to dink around to avoid doing something he says, "Mom, I have one more question for you."

-If someone does something that he thinks is mean, after initially getting mad he will then accept their apology by saying, "That's ok, we're still pals."

-He has absolutely loved preschool.  He tells me that Miss Cindy is his favorite.  I think she loves E a lot after bonding over the initial falling-in-the-urinal experience.  I would give anything to be a fly on the wall at preschool to watch his interactions and see if he is good at minding.

-They went to a pumpkin patch for a preschool field trip and E brought home a pumpkin so big that the mom driving carpool had to carry it in.  I wasn't really surprised.  I think it was a way to prove his manhood.  I'm hoping all the other kids didn't have little reasonably-sized pumpkins.  E told me that he and Tucker got lost in a corn maze and that Miss Cindy and Miss Carleen had to come find them.

-Here are some pictures from their Halloween party at Preschool:

Tucker as Jake from the Neverland Pirates, Aaron as Darth Vader, and E as a John Deere tractor

Did I mention he struggles with looking at the camera?  On the side of the picture above, you can see his friend Nick who was a Transformer for Halloween.  E has no idea what that is, so he just kind of felt bad for Nick because he thought he wasn't being anything for Halloween.

I can't count the number of times Ben and I lay in bed laughing over what our kids have done or said that day.  It's the best.

Makes Me Laugh, Sammi Edition

Lately I've been feeling like my kids' ages are pretty good for the most part.  I think it will be nice when Sammi's just a little older and in nursery, but this age is just adorable.  I love how they pick up so many words and are such little copycats.  I feel like sometimes I forget to document silly things they say or do.

-In case you couldn't tell, she loves wearing E's John Deere hat.  My favorite is when she pulls it off and her pigtails spring up back to life.

-She loves all books.  She will pull them off the shelf and sit quietly carefully flipping through them.  She has memorized What's Wrong, Little Pookie? and responds "no" in all the right places and laughs at the appropriate parts.

-She loves trains.  I think she's trying to get an in with Emerson, but sadly it isn't working.  Sometimes he is just outright mean to her.  But she knows how to drive them and make their sound effects, and she recognizes Thomas.

-She still loves animals with all her heart.  She started making her "ooooh!" noise with her round mouth when she saw a boy dressed as a puppy at Boo at the Zoo today.

-She worships shoes.  She went down the shoe aisle with Ben at Target and he said her eyes got huge and her hands couldn't help but reach.  She bawled and bawled after he let her try on shoes and then put them back in the box on the shelf.  How dare he not buy ALL of them for her.

-She loves her babies and stuffed animals and will walk around patting them and rocking them.  She sometimes pats my back when she gives me a hug.  Melts my heart.

-She loves to fold her arms for prayers and then babbles quietly and makes some exclamation at the end which I'm assuming means "Amen".

-She understands tons and will answer "yeah" to things you ask her.  She is very good at following directions.

-She loves to do her own hair and likes to help comb Emerson's hair.

Don't know what we'd do without her!

Halloween Preview

I thought I would go crazy trying to finish these costumes, but here they are.  The tractor sustained a minor injury during our 30 second photo shoot though, so back to the hot glue gun we go!

It all started when E announced he was going to be a John Deere tractor for Halloween, and it was up to me to make it happen.  I love the little guy, so I delivered the best I could (with lots of help from Ben).

 Then I saw the cutest idea on Pinterest for a mermaid costume, but I don't like bare skin even on little girls, plus it'll be freezing, so I came up with something different.  The seashells make us giggle though because there isn't much that needs to be covered. :)

 I told Ben to take away the bag of candy corn for a sec, and that was a bad choice.  She felt so betrayed.

Then felt very guilty that she got her way.

Happy Halloween!

Lil' Orange Girl

She got a hold of an orange and decided to try it out.  Apparently it wasn't too revolting.

Copy Cat

We sure love this little copy cat.  It scares me a little how much she watches and copies.  She pronounces the word "no" with such clarity and feeling that I just don't know what to do about it. 

Here she is copying E with a Pooh Bear.  But E would say this is not the Pooh Bear with the "right nose".

She adores shoes.  Notice that both of her feet are already shod, and she's holding up another boot for me to put on.  I think they go perfectly with her jammies.

 The only thing about shoes is that it covers up these beauties.  She sat really still on my lap for the first time so I could paint them.  Before this, I had to do it while she was in the highchair so she couldn't see or touch what I was doing.

Here she is copying me with my dangly earrings.  She was playing with mine after church, so I thought she would really love if she had "earrings" of her own.  She did love it and had this little pleased look on her face as she walked carefully around so as not to lose her big-girl dangly earring.

Pretty big stuff.