Happy Thanksgiving!

We are thankful for so many things, people, and memories we've had.  This year, we are thankful for our healthy bodies.... Scott had a horrible sprain the morning on Thanksgiving playing bball with some buddies.  We, as well as the doctor were surprised it wasn't broken.  We're going on day 4 of the sprain and still not much improvement.  On the upside, it has kept us home to have a very relaxing an much needed break from our busy lives.  

We are thankful for our wonderful family.  In the past couple of weeks, the move to Cleveland is constantly on our minds and the one thing we know we will miss the most is being close to Wes and Lorinda.  Knowing you have family close by makes all things bearable and enjoyable!!  We love Wes, Lorinda, and their kids and really cherish the time we have spent with them and will get to spend with them in the next few months.  We were very lucky to enjoy a beautiful Thanksgiving day with them and Lorinda's parents and sister.  Turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, apples and sweet potatoes, wild rice and corn salad, poppyseed salad, cranberry jello, stuffing, pumpkin cheese cake and homemade cherry pie... need I say more? It was awesome.  Thanks for all your hard work Lorinda and Lorene!

The day after Thanksgiving, I braved crazy Target to try to find a couple gifts.  Then we took the kids to see Madagascar 2.  Will loved it, until he fell asleep.  It was pretty cute.  Then we drove to Lake Pepin WI.  It was beautiful.  We went to a yummy little cheese shop called Nelson's Creamery.  It was worth every bit of the drive.  The ice cream was delicious, Will ate a whole bowl himself and was all smiles.  I love watching him laugh hysterically at anything Caleb or Ivie says, he LOVES his cousins.... like I said before, that will be the hardest part of moving!

(This is not a very good picture, but sadly it is the only one we got)

The pre-Thanksgiving activities included lots of talking about Turkey and what we are thankful for.  We had a fun FHE on the pilgrims and the Indians and of course, no Thanksgiving is complete without a little Squanto.  Here's Will sporting not only his tighty whitey's, but also his official Squanto headress.... of which he helped glue on the feathers.  Despite the picture, he actually liked it, he just wasn't in the mood for posing and I wasn't sure how long the feathers were going to last.  Also, lately we play a lot of pretend.  We pretend we are bears, gorillas, Elasti-girl and Mr. Incredible, and dinosaurs.  When Will pretends, he feels like he needs to strip of all his clothes to make it official.  It's pretty funny, I think he learned it from the movie Brother Bear and I think the boy in one part is bare-chested.  

The joys of parenting are never-ending.  Will is the love of our lives and is CONSTANTLY making us laugh.  We just love watching him, and listening to him say random things.  This morning he told me "Jessica (his nursery teacher) told me that the wise men brought lizards to the baby Jesus!" Okay, whatever.  Then he told me "Angie (our soon to be MOM! friend) is going to have to squeeze out her baby, huh mom?!)  He doesn't hesitate to tell the truth either, whenever he gets in trouble he thoroughly tells me, about 100 times what he did wrong and why he was being naughty.  At least he can admit it, right?  He told me this afternoon "Mom, you don't sing very good...." I guess he didn't like my opera rendition of some random Christmas song I was singing. Will really loved visiting his cousins, he talks about them non-stop and says "We had fun at Rochester!"  He really loves our Christmas tree and our decorations and now refers to our house as "Our Christmas House!"  Every morning he asks if we can go downstairs to turn on the Christmas lights.  

I love having a child, it really reminds you of how beautifully simple life can be!

Cleveland Here We Come!

Drum Roll please......

This afternoon it became official..... we are employed!!  Can you take a guess by looking at these pictures??

If you guessed Cleveland Ohio, you are right!  Cleveland here we come, July 1st 2009

The above pictures are of the clinic where Scott will be working, cool huh?

For those of you who have forgotten a little of your geography...

I am so proud of Scott, he has done a great job all through school and especially through the past month of applications and interviews.  We are so excited for this new chapter in our lives and can't wait to see where life will take us.  It was an honor to receive an offer from the #2 hospital in the nation, as well as be told that he was their top candidate!  Scott has a talent for picking the best and doing things well.... why do you think he got such a great wife?? JUST KIDDING!  Our fellowship will be for 1-3 years and we'll start July of 2009..... I better get packing!    

Our Weekend With Ivie

We had a very special guest at our house this week.  Wes and Lorinda went to Utah for 4 days and Ivie got to come stay with us!! It was a blast, and Will was in heaven!  He LOVES Ivie and would do anything she told him to do.  They had a lot of fun playing together and laughing together.  It was great to have a little girl running around, giggling, and letting me doll her up! While Ivie was here, we enjoyed lots of fun adventures!  We had some friends over and had a big spaghetti dinner, played in our very first "real" snow storm, went to storytime and puppet show, played at the indoor playground at the Mall, made "Snowman Toast" (with cream cheese and raisin faces on bagels), watched movies, drew pictures, painted, and had a PJ party, per Ivie's request.  It was great, we will miss her when she leaves!

Sorry the pictures are out of order, my computer is being difficult.

Will and Ivie eating popcorn while watching Little Mermaid

Ready for church. These are two very cute kiddos!

Okay, I know you can't tell from this picture, or the next, but popping popcorn is VERY exciting.  They were jumping up and down and laughing hysterically about the popcorn shooting out of the popper! It was great.

"Here is comes! Look out!"

Will LOVES taking baths and he loved it even more because he and Ivie got be CRAZY.  They had fun splashing each other and playing in the tub.

Okay, this isn't the greatest picture, but I HAD to put it in here....

Doesn't Will look JUST like SCOTT?  I think so.  Especially if you've ever seen

baby pictures of Scott.  It cracks me up, I can't believe how similar they are!

Sweet little Ivie, I loved doing her hair, she is such a cutie, I can't wait to have a girl someday!

Thanks for coming to stay with us Ivie, we love you and had a great time with you!!

A Gopher-ful Weekend!

M-I-N-N-E-S-O-T-A, Minnesota, Minnesota, GOOOOO Gophers!  That's the cheer.  Scott got season BBall tickets with some friends and we went to the opener.  I couldn't tell what Will liked more, the popcorn, his sucker (as you can tell from his shirt), or watching Goldy.  I'm pretty sure it was Goldy, he would copy everything he did during the whole game.  When we finally got close enough for a picture, he couldn't take his eyes off of Goldy and what he was doing.... see him checking out Goldy's "thumbs-up!" We had a blast, it was a great family night.

Here we are with our friends Jessica and Justin Atkinson, fellow AGGIES, I might add!!  We had a blast, Will really loves these two.  Okay, do you see all the gold and maroon?  Talk about school spirit, I need to get with the program.  Do you think I could be wearing anything that could clash more with the gophers colors....? C'mon Kara, I thought I had a little more style sense than this, but apparently I didn't realize how important it was to be wearing school colors.  Lesson learned.
Saturday, the morning of Scott's b-day, we ate a huge breakfast of pumpkin pancakes, apple cider syrup, bacon, and fruit.  Then we threw on some clothes, hopped on the bus and went to the Gophers Homecoming parade.  Will loved it.  Especially the candy.  I thought he would get sick of it from Halloween, but not so!  Here he is cheering on the UPS man.  Yep, the UPS man was in the parade.  Weird.  I mean, I love the UPS man when he's bringing me stuff I've ordered on-line or packages or something, but I never thought I'd see him in the parade.  I underestimated his importance.
Just chillin' in the leaves, waiting for the bus.  Will has been loving his Cobra hat, and his halloween get-up.  In fact, he asks to put it on every day, and asks if he can sleep in it.  I finally had to peel off the socks yesterday after playing outside so I can wash them.  

The Birthday Boy!!

There are many reason I love Scott, but here are a few of them.....

You take Will to the zoo so I can stay home and rest....

You do the dirty work.... like catching frogs with Will and taking out the garbage
You make every effort to really spend quality time doing things you enjoy  with Will, and teaching him to learn to laugh and find joy in being together
You bake......  And make eggs.  Okay, you bake molasses cookies, and you do make really good eggs.

You take me on dates and you're not afraid to stand on the corner to scalp tickets for a show you know I REALLY want to see.  And when it doesn't work out, you don't give up, you just make it more of an adventure and take me to a really nice restaurant without worrying about how much it will cost.  Then on the way home, you still let me stop at the gas station for chili cheese fritos and dr. pepper.
You're awesome at staying in shape and being healthy.  You put your mind to something and you do it!
You take me places..... 
You work hard, and you are good at what you do.  Basically you are good at everything.... has anyone else caught on to that yet?  It's true, sorry guys.
You don't push Will to do things he doesn't want to do.... hahaha, okay, you push him JUST enough, and look at him now, he LOVES to swim!
Most of all, you took part in bringing this little guy to our family, I don't know what I would do with either of you! AND......
You are an amazing father!
Happy Birthday Scott!  We love you, thank you for all you do for us and for always keeping us laughing and smiling!  We hope you have a special day!

MHA Halloween Party

Each year, the MHA first years plan the Halloween party.  Scott and Brian Lee are the only students with kids so usually we don't even bring our kids.  But, we decided they could go, and we wanted to show them off! :)  Plus, people never get to see them.  The girls that planned the party, were so sweet, they planned a "pin the spider on the web" game.  Will thought it was great and really liked the spider stickers and his trophy he got in the end.  Scott even played, so here they are showing off their trophies.

Here are our friends Annie and Ryan - army dudes, Dave and Natalie - nerds, I think? :)

Justin and Jessica - Scouts

Ben and Melissa - lemonade stands

The party was fun.  I think Will's favorite part was that Scott gave him a cup of rootbeer.  I'm surprised we wasn't sick, he ate TONS of candy and pop I thought for sure he was going to be sick, but this morning he woke up and asked for some candy..... things will never be the same.

HALLOWEEEEEEN

A family of creepy crawlies.... Kara the cat, Will the snake, and Scott the tape worm.  Yep, that's right folks, a tapeworm.  Pretty creative I thought.

Trick-or-treat!! Will with a sucker in his mouth couldn't enough of the trick or treating.  Here he is with some of our neighbors, and friends, Marcus - the soccer monster, Tyson - the wee little cowboy, and Morgan - the snail.
"I need some wiskers and a nose like you mom!" 

"But Will, I don't think snakes have whiskers"

"Ya, they do Mom, they do!"

"Okay, whatever.... here you go...."
Before the fun began.  Will and I went to storytime at the library for halloween and listend to lots of great stories about monsters under the bed (I was worried, this was only going to foster his utter hatred for his room and bed.... but he slept quite well last night), spooky pumpkins, and of course, we got to see puppet show.  This is our friday routine and Will loves it.  Doesn't he look handsome in his light up halloween shirt?  I think so.  Kind of a weird picture of me.... but it was halloween, right?

Field Trip

The weather is getting colder here in MN and so we've started our winter-long excursions.  This week we went to the Children's museum.... always a favorite.  We go almost every other week.  Will never gets sick of it, I have to be careful when I tell him we are going otherwise he practically dies of excitement until we leave!  We went with some of our good friends.  There is a McDonalds right out front of the museum (smart person, whoever owns it!) so it is always the first thing the kids climb on before getting to the museum.  There are lots of little boys here in our ward and complex and they have lots of fun together!!

"Hey, where's my change?"

Will loves making me "pay" for my delicious plastic fruit.

There are lots of great "rooms" at the Children's museum,

"Our World" includes a Dr. office, grocery store, restaurant, post office,

music room, and the favorite.... a big BUS!  It is a real MNDOT bus

and Will loves it.  Especially since there is a real stop light that changes

just outside the bus, and we've been learning about stoplights

and singing the stoplight song a lot lately.

We've also taken quite a few trips on the bus this week (always a highlight).

One to campus to meet Daddy for lunch (that was definitely a highlight)

and one to the UofM Homecoming parade....

Rotten Ronnie.... but look at Will's face, he looks SO ecstatic, how can you not love that?!