Yes, It's True

Adam is done with medical school. And, yes, I am {very} late to post this terrific news.

May 15th, 2010 was his graduation. July 1st he began his 5-year residency in Orthopedic Surgery. I can't tell anyone reading this in words just how proud I am of him. Besides the birth of our 3 children, this is the biggest thing we have accomplished in our lives.

WAHOO!!!

Dirt Delivered

We built 4 big planter boxes to house our garden and were in need of some good, black dirt. After it was delivered and dumped in the boxes, the mess on the street was enticing to these two little girls. What the heck... getting dirty is good for the soul.

And yes, Adam did throw dirt at Kira's face with a shovel. And she loved it.

Not Quite Sure

We gave Ava rice cereal (at Adalin's bidding) for the first time two weeks ago. It made me wonder if Ava will ever be able to eat solids b/c she hadn't a clue on what to do with that mushy stuff.

The Winkies at their finest

The girls come out of their bedroom with these underwear covers on their heads, cracking up. I want to ask what on earth they were thinking, but I already know the answer to that question:

Adam periodically puts [clean] underwear on Kira's head when she is getting dressed and not expecting it. The things they get from their father...

Crossroads Village

Adalin's school had an end-of-the-year field trip to Crossroads Village in Flint. She was beaming with pride seeing all of her classmates in a public place such as this. We got to see a blacksmith do his work, an steam powered saw cut a log into boards, an old doctor's office and all the old-fashioned tools those docs used to use back then. We rode the antique train there too, which was fun (it was actually a bit scary... the train car would shift side to side, especially when traveling over bridges.)

Pretty Funny

I came across these things that Adalin said almost 3 years ago. I had written them down, but I don't think that I ever blogged them! She was 2 1/2:

8.31.07 Adam took off his shirt after working out at the gym and Adalin, seeing his armpit hair, said, "Daddy, why do you have mustaches under there?" 9.8.07 I put Adalin on the toilet and she fell in a little bit, but caught herself. I said, "Whoa, you almost fell in." She thought for a moment and said, "Yeah, I did, then you would have flushed me to [pause] … Heavenly Father."

Can we move in yet?

We have been on pins and needles, wondering if buying this house was actually going to happen or not. I am posting these pictures because I think it's finally safe to say that it is. Almost. The appraisal was today and that is the final hurdle to get over. We think it will appraise well, but in this economy you just never know! We should know after the weekend how the appraisal went.

I love the style of the house. It has an Arts & Crafts kind of feel to it with its fixtures and arches. There is a long list of things that we want to do to it over the next 5 years. The basement is walkout with 2 large, awesome windows. So our big project will be to finish that. We will put a family room, another bathroom and 2 more bedrooms downstairs. Hopefully that will begin next spring with tax return money. I want to lay some tile, paint some bedrooms and add a few finishing touches. We will also build a deck someday. And, oh, am I excited to landscape! The last house we owned in MO we only lived in for 2 years, which was just long enough to decide what I wanted to do with the yard... and then we moved. I am so excited and grateful that we are going to be in one place for 5 whole years. I have a good friend who majored in landscape design that said she could help me decide what to plant where. It'll be wonderful!

Let me just say that location was really what sold this house to us. It is in a subdivision that is built around a small lake in 2 main phases. This house, our house, is the only house in the entiresecond phase. So pretty much, we have, ah, maybe 50 acres (?) all to ourselves. Granted, people could build all around us, but the chances of that happening within the next 5 years are pretty darn slim. We have a 1/2 acre lot too. And the land behind our lot isn't subdivided. We will very much enjoy the privacy. Very much.

Another great perk is that we have access to that little lake we can see from our front door. We will be looking for some canoes and kayaks on craigslist shortly!

We will close by June 18th, but hopefully a week or 10 days sooner. We feel so blessed to be able to buy this house and that everything has fell into place so far. We can feel the Lord's influence in our lives and we are very grateful that He has blessed us so abundantly.

For more pictures you can click here.

Today

Instead of catching up on posts from 2 months ago, I thought sharing a few pictures from this day would be a treat for you and I.

I love my girls!

Auntie Lauren and Ava J.

An effort to curl