Trip to Utah

We took a trip to Utah for my mom's retirement from the Tabernacle Choir. She sang in the choir for twenty years and had so many amazing experiences. It was so awesome to be able to be there to support mom and reflect on the impact that her membership in the choir has had on all of us through the years. Here's a slideshow I put together of our trip. It was great fun!

My little puppies

My instructions to the girls after bath time were as follows: "dry off, lotion up, and put on jammies so I can dry your hair." Simple enough, right? Well, after about 10 minutes or so I went in to check on their progress and this is what I found....

I call them "Panty Head Puppies"

Hailey even took the liberty of drawing a circle around her eye with marker...nice effect.

The instigator of the 'Panty Head Puppies'

I can't believe I've never thought to do this. My girls are so smart.

Anyway, I thought it was pretty hilarious. So typical of my girls to come up with something like this. They always keep me laughing. I sure love 'em!

Cute pics of my baby- enough said!

Match Day! Finally!

Well, it's official! Shane was accepted to the Pediatric Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation residency program at Children's Hospital in Detroit. Which means we will be here for another 5 years! This field of medicine fits Shane like a glove. He's going to be an incredible physician. I'm so proud of him.

Match Day 2009 was a lot of fun. First, awards were presented to some of the students based on their outstanding acheivement in different areas of medicine....and guess who received the Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation departmental award??? Yep, my husband! It was really cute because Shane was holding Ava when they announced his name for the award, so he went up to the front and had his picture taken with the head of the PM&R department...and Ava. Later they passed out 'THE LETTERS' and had everyone opened them at the same time. We pretty much already knew that Shane was going to be accepted to this residency, but it was sure nice to finally see it in writing! To top off the afternoon, the school provided a nice buffet lunch for all the students and their families.

Shane and his good friend Larry-who was accepted to the Pediatric residency also at Children's Hospital.

Shane and Dr. Pelshaw-the Pediatric PM&R program director... and Eliza in the corner.

Shane and Erin. We really like each other...ALOT. Oh..and Hailey in the corner.

Eliza will be 13 when we are done with residency! How crazy is that?

And Hailey will be 10! OK, now I'm getting a little depressed...

Shane was definately the only medical student present at Match Day with his wife and THREE children! It has been a LONG road for our family, and we know it's not over yet. But we are so excited to be moving on to this next chapter in our lives.

Jeebs

Ava is NINE months old now! She has made it very clear to us during the short time she has been a part of our family that she is 'Queen' of our household. Hailey has graciously stepped down from that postition and has joined the rest of us as lowly serfs in our girl infested castle.

This face has 'TROUBLE' written all over it.

Ok, it also has 'CUTEST BABY EVER!' written all over it.

Ava is really starting to come alive. She is sitting up really well and starting to vocalize a lot. Her favorite words are 'da da' (usually said when she's happy), 'ma ma' (usually said when she's angry), 'Gah', 'Ah vah' (sounds like Ava!), and 'Uh liza' (sounds like Eliza). She is quite the jabber mouth. She laughs a lot, still loves playing with paper and cups and other non-toy objects, and likes to pick up little 'specks' with her little thumb and pointer finger. Yesterday at her doctors appointment in the waiting room I stood her up next to the fish tank and she kept trying to grab the fish though the glass with her fingers. It was really cute.

Here's Ava's now THREE tooth grin. She is actually in the process of breaking the fourth right now. We've had a lot of sleepless nights and crying lately. It's ok though because she really does make up for it by being so darn cute.

Girls Night!

Sometimes when Shane is on call at the hospital or when he's out on a scout camp out we like to have girls night together! We had a lot of fun the other night while Shane was on an overnight camp out with the scouts...in the snow!...in the winter!...HERE in Michigan! Why do they torture themselves? Anyway, the first thing we did was make personal pizza's. The girls got creative and made heart shaped pizza's. Hailey got a little crazy with the sauce.

Then we played UNO on the the sofa bed (which was later used for our sleep over in the living room). Hailey won every single game. Ava joined in on the fun as well. She prefers playing with paper and cards far above her actual baby toys.

After cards it was manicure/pedicure time. The girls soaked their feet in some bubble bath and then we painted their nails with their color-or in Hailey's case- many colors of choice. And yes,

we did get a nail polish stain on the carpet. One of these days I'll learn my lesson.

I love spending time with my girls. They're so crazy and so much fun to be with. They keep me laughing every day with the things they say and do. We love girls night!!

The Performance

Eliza came up with this arrangement of "Oh When the Saints Go Marching In"-she's quite the little musician. She and her friend actually performed it in one of their school assemblies. In this video she got Hailey to sing the duet part with her. It's very cute. But that's not all.....this performance also comes with an added bonus you won't want to miss. Enjoy!