White Coat Ceremony and Birthday

Derrel had his White Coat Ceremony at WVU. This is supposedly the second most important ceremony of Medical School besides graduation. I was actually teary eyed the whole time. I don't know if it was pregnancy emotions or emotions that my little man is growing up =) and turning into a real doctor sometime real soon (wink, wink). The only problem is that in my frenzy to leave and get to the ceremony on time, I forgot my camera. Hmmm- someone must be pregnant. Here he is at home with his white coat on:

Doesn't he look like a real doctor? (But real doctors wear longer coats. That's how you can tell they are residents).

It was also Derrel's birthday (sorry so late babe, I'm a little behind). He is amazing and I want the whole world to know that. He juggles being the best dad in the world, best husband and excellent medical school all at the same time, all while being executive secretary and building coordinator for both wards in Morgantown AND Scout Committee Chairman (or whatever you call the position). He's pretty much MR. INCREDIBLE. I love this man so incredibly much.

He is almost done with all school bookwork and classes in med school on May 12th. We are counting down the days! He does take the 1st round of the board exam 3 days before my due date. We counting down the days until I deliver this monster of a baby in my belly. I don't know if it's because it's a BOY or because it's my 3rd pregnancy but I am becoming some sort of species of whale or cow or something to that effect. I might get the guts up to post a picture of myself but until then, this will have to suffice:

Family Vacation

Well, we took quite a vacation for Derrel's Spring Break. We drove through 13 states!!! We had SO much fun and the driving went by quickly without any meltdowns or bad weather.
First, we stopped by the Ernstroms'(friends from Utah). We stayed with them for one night in St. Louis. The next day we traveled on the Kansas City where Kim's Dad and step Mom live. We stayed there for 4 VERY enjoyable days. We went and visited both sets of Kim's grandparents. It was so much fun. Dad and Cyndee took extra great care of us while we were there. The girls LOVED getting to know so much family (now that they can remember them).
Next, we were off to Monroe, Louisiana for 4 days. Derrel's oldest sister lives there. The girls had so much fun with their cousins. They went on a paddle boat, fishing, jumped on the trampoline, played a lot of dress-up and horses, Derrel went jet skiing, we talked and had so much fun! Derrel, Kim, Lori and Ted also took a really fun day trip to Vicksburg, Mississippi. We went to dinner and learned more history about the Civil War.
Then, we drove to Nashville, TN where we stayed with another of Derrel's sisters. We only had a day there but managed to tour an old civil war house that was turned into a hospital during the war. It was so interesting. We are glad to be home and be with old friends and in our house but we had a BLAST!!! Here are some pictures of our trip. Enjoy!

No nap? Go figure. . . .

This is what happens when Kate doesn't get a nap. You'll notice that, at times, I am laughing uncontrollably while trying to hold the camera still. Doesn't really work that well. You'll also notice that throughout her "sleep" she still manages to get a few bites in.

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

I've been tagged

The Rules: Each player answers the questions about themselves, at the end of the post the player tags 4 people and posts their names, then goes to their blog and leaves them a comment, letting them know they are tagged! Good times!

Where I was 10 years ago:
Ten years ago, I was 2 months from graduating from High School (yes, I'm not STILL in HS like most strangers think).

5 things on my "to do list" today:
1. Clean the "craft room" for the new "baby room."
2. Make pizza for dinner (a new Friday tradition).
3. Go to Derrel's White Coat Ceremony.
4. Shower (and that definitely makes the TO DO list!)
5. Well, I guess I already accomplished one thing on my to do list: do the dishes!

Things I would do if I were a billionaire:
Finish remodeling my house and sell it.
Go on a cruise to Hawaii.
Uhhmm. . . .
Get out of debt! =)
Buy a new car. . .
I could go on and on and on.

3 of my bad habits:
1. Throwing all of my clothes all over the floor before I go to bed because I'm lazy.
2. Not making dinner ;) (I am getting a little better since I don't have morning sickness anymore)
3. Definitely the way I eat, especially the last 4 weeks of pregnancy since I haven't been sick.

5 places I have lived:
Kansas City, MO
Houston, TX
Provo and Orem, UT
Voronezh, Russia
Visalia, CA
Morgantown, WV
(I guess that's 6)

5 jobs that I have had: OK, this is the place I really SHINE=) and it's more than 5!!

Cake decorator/cookie giver awayer (at a grocery store bakery)
Waitress (The Original Pasta Co.)
Janitor (BYU) twice, one early morning
Door-to-door sales (selling books in Wisconsin)
Pizza delivery girl (and boy did I get better tips than the men that delivered!)
Receptionist (Cubco Doors Co.)
Nanny (for two ridiculously ornery and spoiled girls)
Nanny again for a little boy named Sam
Secretary (Center for HS studies)
Dental Assistant
Pampered Chef consultant
Wife
Mother

Something most people don't know about me:
My life is an open book. Is there anything people really don't know about me? Hmmm. I played the violin for 4 years until HS when I was "too cool" to play anymore. I went to a regional track meet in HS for shotput. I had to compete against some BIG MOMMA girls, too. I lived in Russia for 4 months.

OK, I am tagging: Jami, Mary, Amy (my sister) and Annie (my sister). GO FOR IT!

Plain Old Vanilla

So I took a little quiz to see what flavor of ice cream I am. I'm just plain old vanilla! How boring is that? But you sure can put a lot with vanilla;) What are you?

There was a little house in the middle of the wood. . . . .

Lydia is our little singer. Here's one of our family favorites.

Introducing. . . . . . . . .

. . . . Our Man Child.
Yes, that's right. We will finally have a little more testosterone in our house. Doesn't he have great legs? We are SO very excited to embark on the world of boys (now that we've "mastered" the girls. . . just kidding).
I don't know if ANYONE can ever master the girl thing. You just take each emotional day, one at a time and hope you're doing it right, am I right?

Slacker

Alright, so I emailed a lot of you and got addresses and had all these plans to send out a yearly Christmas card with the picture and all. Well, let's just say pregnancy happens. Yeah so here's our yearly family photo without the letter. If you want to know what's been going on, just read my blog!

The Good Wife's Guide

Take a look at this Good Housekeeping article from 1955. It's pretty darn funny! You'll have to click on the picture to read it. It'll put ideas into your man's head so don't let 'em read it=).

Hector

So, I'm taking a poll for any of you interested in voting. The ultrasound is on February 4th and we are so excited to find out the gender. And so is Lydia! Up to this point, the baby's "name" has been HECTOR. Lydia even prays for Hector, the baby in Mommy's tummy. Kate's just oblivious to the whole thing--either that or in denial, I don't know which. We'll keep you all updated when the time comes! In the meantime, vote people!!

Morning (Afternoon and Evening) Sickness

FYI
For those of you plagued with mourning (I mean morning) sickness like I am- STILL, here's a little article I read that I found a bit interesting about GINGER.

And I'm all ears for anyone with any other ideas. I'm flat OUT and despairate (I mean desperate).

Evil Eye

Here's a little humor for a cloudy, cold, rainy day:

Winter Wonderland (a week late)

Well, we woke up to 9 inches of snow this morning. Derrel thought all along this holiday break that he started back to school on Jan. 2 and as he was braving the snow down our treacherous driveway, he turned around and thought, "This is NOT worth it." Luckily, he checked again and school doesn't start until tomorrow. We were SOOO happy! We had a fun snow day. Santa brought new sleds this year and we made good use of them today!

This is Kate's first sled ride by herself. She did awesome!!

Leaves 'n cousins

Well, it's a little late to be posting fall pictures since it is now full blown winter here. My sister and her family came to our house for Thanksgiving and the kids were enjoying themselves raking leaves. Check out their little video.
Sure hope you're having a great Christmas season.

Game Day

Well, if you haven't already noticed, West Virginia is ranked #2 in the BCS. We play Pittsburgh today (an unranked team) and if we win, we WILL go to the National Championship! We are so excited. It's funny-the tradition here is to burn a couch in the street for a victory. I think we might have an extra couch to contribute to the tradition=). Good luck Mountaineers.