A Visit from Papa and Nana

Nana and Papa came to visit! We love having them here. They spoil us.

Highlight for the kids: Children's Museum of Discovery and their robes.

Highlight for me: Not cooking (very much) and new shoes.

Highlight for Aaron: Staying up late talking with his Parents.

Christmas 2009

Christmas was nice this year. We kept it simple. I love that we don't travel to Utah during the holidays. Yes, we miss our families, but it's really nice to just have us...establish our own traditions, be on our own time line, and relax. The big gifts this year consisted of Wii games, ripstick, fancy princess alarm clock, sleeping bag, stroller with babies, and a bar stool for all the kids. They all got watches and shoes and games and candy. Everyone was happy. The day was Merry!

Halle Lou turns TWO!

It's hard to believe our baby turned 2. Halle has hit the "busy" stage. She is into everything and wants to do everything the big kids do. She climbs up the stools, on to the counter top, and into the cupboards. So to keep her out of the chocolate chips I have to keep the stools on top of the bar. She repeats and says everything. Yesterday she opened the fridge and dumped some leftovers on the floor, "Oh Dear" was her response.

Her favorite past time is playing "Ashes" (ring around the rosies)...but only with mommy... she won't let the big kids play with her.

She LOVES playing with her babies and her kitchen.

Whenever I give her something she says, "Want two", one is never good enough.

She loves all kinds of food, but if I gave her a choice she would eat chocolate all day.

Here's birthday highlights.

Birthday Donuts for breakfast

Here's Caite playing the Halle's little piano while Halle tries to sing Happy Birthday.

It's Great to be Caite!

Our Little Diva turned 6 yesterday. It's hard to believe how fast she has grown. We love having Caite as part of our family...what would we do without our fashion police? She adds flare and bling to all she does. We love this girly girl.

Let me explain the outfit. Kindergarten had a pajama day/movie day...she thought it was just for her birthday. She didn't quite feel comfortable wearing just her pj's so she added a uniform skirt with it. Yep, much better. Her teacher laughed when I dropped her off..."That's SOOO Caite", she said.

Happy Birthday Caite!!

My first attempt with fondant. Could have been better...could have been worse.

Backfired

Aaron's goal for residency was to be "excetional and really shine" so he could go into and do anything he wanted. He has done just that. Infact he has a nickname from the other residents that he is quite embarrassed about..."Golden Boy". He knows he stuff, he's good at what he does, and he loves the fast pace of a hospital. Don't ask him to work in a clinic with runny noses and ear infections...he hates that stuff. The fact of the matter is, is that here at Arkansas Children's Hospital he can do anything he wants.

We were talking a few nights ago and he said, "my goal has backfired on me." There is a Pediatric Critical Care fellowship open in July that he has been told is his if he wants to "cop out of his chief year". That would be nice, it's what he wants to go into, but our family really needs the down time the chief year will bring. He has several ER attendings asking him to stay with them and do Emergency Medicine. The NICU folks are calling his name to do a fellowship with them. As well as Oncology, and Infectious Disease. His comment was, "all this attention and is stressful". All I have to say is, "it must be nice to be so wanted."

Although the doctors are trying really hard...and I mean REALLY hard, to get Aaron to change his mind, our plans haven't changed. We are hoping that all this "need for Doctor Gardner" will continue when he applies for a Critical Care fellowship at Primary Children's Hospital next year so we can get back to our family. That's our main goal, now please don't let it backfire!

The Stockings Were Hung

Now that our family is complete I decided to make matching stockings for everyone. This is what I came up with. I think they are so fun! It's hard to tell by the pictures, but the red and green fabric is plaid, green on green and red on red. I think I will have first initials embroidered in the middle of the them, but here's a picture for now.

It Makes Me Happy

Every morning I wake up and turn on the Christmas tree lights. For a brief moment the house is silent and I can feel the Spirit that the Christmas Season brings in. It makes me happy. It gives me peace. I love it!

Giving Thanks

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with Grandma and Grandpa Barentsen. They were able to spend the whole week here with us. The kids woke up very excited on Tuesday morning (arrival day), Hayden said, "Mom, today is a VERY special day". My boys hadn't seen my parents since they left for there mission...2 years is a long time. Hayden was only 2 1/2...he has changed a lot since then.

The week was full of food, walks, shopping, eating, relaxing, more food, more shopping and gingerbread man making. It was so nice to see them and let them spend time with the kids. We all loved it. The kids were very sad to see them leave. Few pictures were taken, but lots of good memories made.