Sunday

Lazy Sunday after church.  

Grandma chasing Hawken and rolling him in the clover (per his request).

Sakina getting some brushing from Paul.

Matix painting the driveway.

Lullaby standing alone in the yard, when she thought no one was watching.

Me, taking pictures of my favorite people.  I love Sundays.

interview season!

Well, Paul leaves tomorrow morning for the first of SEVEN interviews he has already set up. We are still waiting to hear back from a few places that will be looking at the Dean's letter (sent out tomorrow), so he may in fact be offered even more interviews... Paul is crazy excited, as he should be. Paul worked hard in undergrad, even harder in his first two years of bookwork, and he worked even harder during the last year and some during rotations. He is going to make a fabulous doctor. I am so proud of him.  Here he is submitting the application for residency programs.  

After researching ALL of the programs for family medicine in the US, he narrowed it down by number of hours (he was looking for 60 or less hours per week, which sounds like a lot to me, but that is the smallest amount of hours you will ever hear about in a residency program, normal hours is more like 80), he also was interested in serving underserved populations and (if possible) Spanish speakers, insurance paid by the program for dependents, faculty tracks so he could potentially teach at the school, and a few other things... He made an enormous spread sheet and applied to his favorite programs based on that list.  That way, any interview he got/gets will be for a program he already really likes. We weren't very concerned about which state we would live in, since so far we have really liked everywhere that we have lived, even though Florida and Georgia were never on our lists of places we thought would be fun to live...  So we left that part up to chance. So far on the list, in order of  interview date:

1. Urbana, IL - Carle Hospital

2. Jackson, TN - University of Tennessee

3. Jonesboro, AR - University of Arkansas

4. Cedar Rapids, IA - Cedar Rapids

5. Cheyenne, WY - University of Wyoming

6. Atlanta, GA - Atlanta Medical Center

7. Yakima, WA - Central Washington

I am excited to get through this next bit of interviews and hear what Paul has to say about each of them. He has been very fortunate to been given the opportunity to interview with so many programs, now he only needs to decide which would be the best fit for him and all of us. Based purely off of zillow.com, I like Jackson, TN best right now. :) Cheap houses and a very small town feel, which I think would be fun after living in Miami and Atlanta. And we will need a little break from all the spending after all these FLIGHTS! Yikes!

Lulli's party!

Miss Lullaby started out her birthday sitting on the couch surrounded by cards and presents. Lucky girl. She was spoiled by lots of friends and family. Thank you to great-gramma Evie, great-grandma and great-grandpa Berg, great-grandma Pauline, grandma Stacy and grandpa Lee, grandma Kim and grandpa Louie, grandpa Chuck, auntie Robin and uncle John, and auntie Jolie! You all made her day so fun for her!

After naps we got Lulli dressed in her ADORABLE birthday tutu, made by my mom (thanks!). She looked even more edible in person, if you can believe it. I could hardly stand it. She is too cute!  She waited for her friends to arrive.

One pink cake with one candle for the ONE year old!!  Pink cupcakes for the everyone else, and some other yummy food snacks. I love decorating with food for parties.

Her two friends, who are also one year old, came to her party, Allie and Petal. My mom made tutus for them too, so all the girlies matched. Of course, we had the boys come too, so Carson, Graham, and Dries got to play with our boys who were feeling a little left out of the whole birthday girl bash.  Petal and Allie looks smashing in their party dresses.

Everyone got to play a little, and I got a few pics, of course.  It was a very low key birthday. Food and friends and cake. Perfect.  Lullaby loved being the center of attention.

The attempts at getting pictures of three one year olds at the same time... Lullaby was such a ham.

The cake eating was hilarious. Hawken blew out the candle, twice. Lullaby had fun mashing the cake in her tiny fists, but she wasn't interested in eating it. The very few bites I got her to eat off of my hand, she spit back out. Silly girl.

By the end of the party, Lullaby was getting cranky and ready for bed. It was a fun and tiring day. Thanks to her friends who made it so special for her.

Grandma and Yellow Daisy Festival

Grandma Stacy came to visit us, and of course, brought a suitcase full of goodies for the kids.  They were SO excited to see grandma, and excited again when she pulled out all the treats. Thanks grandma!

The day she flew in was the Yellow Daisy Festival at Stone Mountain, so of course we had to take her.   We started out doing all the regular things; ropes course, ball barn, mini golf, you know the drill.

Then we headed through the woods to the festival. It was SO fun. We got lots of free granola bars, which made for most of our dinner.  We listened to the band and walked around looking at all the fun displays. There are some crafty people in Georgia. I was very impressed.

This was the only group shot we got. The lady centered us weird, but we are all there, so I'll take it! :)