Vote for Devin's Costume

Aiden was a Bee for his second Halloween. It was a costume I found at a garage sale for $5 and I thought it was pretty cute. So he was a Bee. I just figured Devin would be a Bee too, but then I found this Frakenbaby costume on our trip to Florida for $6. I thought it was such a great deal and I couldn't pass it up. I got it home and was like "what was I thinking?" But after looking at it again, I think it's cute enough. So I don't know which one to choose for Trick or Treating! We have a few events to go to next week, so I will use each one at least once, but I'm not sure what his final look should be for the Big Day. So please vote in the pole (in the left column) on which costume you think Devin should wear when they go Trick or Treating :) Please feel free to comment below-I'd love to hear your thoughts!!

What should I beeeee???

We're Moving!!

California-Here we come! After thinking long and hard, and praying about it-we have decided to accept the offer to finish out residency at Stanford University. We did not make this decision lightly as we had a few other really good offers. There were pros and cons to all the programs-but in the end it was an opportunity we just couldn't pass up. We are so happy and very excited about our decision :)
It seemed that after our interview with them, our hearts were already made up. It was just that we really wanted to pray and reflect on this decision and make sure we came up with all kinds of scenarios so that we were mentally prepared for the changes we would have to make. In the end, we felt that this was truly the best decision for our family. It is a great program for Micah that has a good blend of an academic center but the one on one feel of a community program. He's going to learn a lot, and they are very excited to have Micah on board. We know this is a chance of a lifetime to live in a beautiful area of the country and experience a different culture. I believe this move is going to help make Micah a more well rounded physician and bring us closer together as a family. Thank you to everyone who has supported us throughout this process. I know many of you have been praying, and we truly appreciate all those prayers! We are so grateful to have finally come to this juncture and we're looking forward to finishing out the academic year and moving forward in the summer. All your love and support has helped us in more ways than you can know, and we pray that it will continue as we embark on this new journey!

It doesn't get much better than that!

I believe that this is Stanford Memorial Church. We had a limited amount of time out there, so we just drove around campus quick to get an idea of where everything was at. So most of these pictures were taken from the car.

Stanford Hoover Tower

I'm so excited about all the palm trees :)

These trees are all over campus, and they just constantly shed their bark.

Taking advantage of a gift card we were given this past Christmas. We were told to use it on a date night without any kids-and well, this is almost the first opportunity we've had to use it! Any time we got a sitter we chose to see a movie since those are hard to come by with kids as young as ours. It was a nice celebratory dinner for us after completing our last interview.

One last look at the Palm Drive....ahhhhh :)
And for all of you who are wondering-no matter where we go, no matter what school affiliation we may have, Notre Dame will always and forever be our number one team!!

Sisters

On our way back from one of our interviews, we had a few layovers. One of them happened to be in the city where my sister Lauren just moved to about a month ago. I was calling her to say Hey-we're here! Come see us! as a joke but quickly realized that we really did have a few hours and it would be possible to see her :) So she dropped everything she was doing (it was her day off of work-which I was unaware of at the time) and came to the airport to have lunch. It was so great and very emotional to see her, we both instantly cried. It was a great afternoon and I'm happy we had the time to see her. Thanks Niener for coming out to see us on very short notice!! I love you :)

Pumpkins

Fall is definitely my favorite season-and I'm so excited that it's finally here! And that means sweaters, burning leaves, apple cider, fire in the fireplace, and pumpkins!! The sad thing is that nowadays farmers can't allow you in their pumpkin patches anymore because of insurance reasons, so all your pumpkin picking has to be done in designated areas. But we still had fun and got some good pictures. In fact, I went a little picture happy, and so there are a lot. But I'm getting nostalgic knowing these could be our last holidays close to families for a few years, and I want to capture every moment I can, especially while they're so young.

Pumpkins!

My special designer bumpy pumpkin.

Devin's little baby pumpkin-that he threw-repeatedly-like a ball...

Glad I brought the wagon!

Say what??

Ooomph! I can get it!

Look at me try to pick this up...

and then fall down ;)

Uncle Adam-in shorts!! And even though Devin looks like he's wearing shorts too-he's not!

It comes off!

Scooping the goop. They did so great this year. I remember last year Aiden just cried and didn't want to have anything to do with the process at all. It was painful to try and get some sort of picture out of him at the time. Maybe that's why I went so crazy this year ;)

Ewwww!

Yuck!

Dan and Mallorie did a great job helping out too.

Carving time

Aiden was begging us to let him help, and was so excited when we said he could. He picked out all the designs and then Micah supervised his carving skills. Then he would take the little saw and shove it in and out of the side of Mallorie's pumpkin when he was done with Micah's.

hard at work...

We did a good job!

ooooohhhhh-scary ;)
Happy Halloween!

Larry's Birthday

Today is Larry's birthday! Sandy had come out to stay at our place with the boys during the week while Micah and I went to interview at Stanford (more on that later), and so Larry came out Friday night to spend his birthday weekend with us. Dan, his friend Mallorie, and Adam also came out for the day and we had a great time picking and carving pumpkins while Larry and Sandy enjoyed a massage for his birthday. We grilled out a great meal and made brownie sundaes for the Birthday dessert. Aiden of course is still in the birthday mode and had to help Larry with everything from sharing the birthday song to blowing out the candle to opening his cards. It was cute ;)

Well, Aiden's not quite over the hill yet ;)

Make a wish!!

Silly Grandpa!