Explorations of an almost 1 year old

Ahh...If I use my own spoon, I can make a bigger mess!!

The beautiful bathroom..you have to come visit if you want to see the final result.

Two little sleeping bears


Isaac absolutely LOVES the water and sand... up next, bodysurfing!



What state/country am I in again????

Where the wind goes sweepin' down the plains...err dunes

Here is just a collection of pics from the past 2 weeks. We all went to Warren Dunes State Park (a little under an hour and a half away) for part of our anniversary and ate at Bob Evans...anniversaries are a little different with little bears!!

Kristi is still busy, but happy she is getting to do new surgical procedures and looking forward to ER where she doesn't have to take call. She definitely misses us during the days and long call nights. Isaac and I (Mike) have gone to visit her a few times which definitely helps her day go by better.

Isaac is really quite a mobile bear these days. He is starting to stand unassisted for longer periods and cruises all over the place. I walked out of the room today and left him in the family room and within less than a minute, the fridge was open and he was talking to the mustard. He is definitely a fun little guy and loves exploring EVERYTHING!!!!

His birthday party is coming up soon and we are excited that a few of Kristi's resident friends are coming since we still don't know many people here. One of the residents is making an amazing cake for Isaac which I'm sure Kristi will write about on the next post.

As for me, I have been redoing the master bathroom with new tile, paint, fixtures, and faucets. HGTV makes it look so easy and fast, but I guess that's b/c they don't have 1-2 hour increments restricting work schedule (thank the Lord Isaac is a good sleeper!). Actually it hasn't been that bad aside from changing our mind on the paint choice 3 times. It definitely going to look much better than the 80's decor it used to have.

Its Been a Long Time

My first car ride facing forward (Isaac wouldn't stop smiling about his new view)

So its been way too long since we have updated all that has happened in our lives. Obviously we have finally moved and now have connection with the outside world (ie internet). Thank you to all our family and friends that helped us move our stuff, its always a blessing to have that help.
This will be a brief post with mainly Bubby pics, but it has definitely been an eventful past month. Just a few highlights;
-Both sets of grandparents were here for about 3 weeks overlapping a couple of days, and it was great to see them and play with Isaac
-Kristi is fully immersed in her tireless intern schedule and starting to feel much more comfortable with her job and call schedule
-Isaac and Mike have been having lots of fun running/crawling around and have been to the beach a couple of times, listened to a steel drum band, been to the zoo, biked around the neighborhood, played in the sprinkler, and had lots of fun playtime our bigger house.
-Mike is now stuck renovating the bathroom after a slight faucet geyser mishap (it was going to be redone as is about everything else in the house, its amazing that someone can have that much hideous wallpaper!)
Enjoy the pics!

I LOVE my books

Maybe Isaac thought I was going to jump in Lake Michigan (he was actually crying because we stopped moving!)

Its a barrel of monkeys (also known as morning time with Grandpa)

Now which yacht is mine Grandma?

The Manion crew

Michigan Land!

We are excited to be in Michigan! Here is the bubby sporting one of daddy's hats. As we think about our move to Michigan, it's been fun to reflect on our time here. We are so fortunate to have made so many great friends through our house church at Apex. I've never been involved in a house church before and it's been amazing. Most small groups I've been in have either been all women, young marrieds, or with my sorority sisters. Mainly people of generally the same age group. This house church is interesting b/c it is like church. A great mix of people of all ages and backgrounds. I've enjoyed learning from the "wise" people and realized just how much I don't know about the Bible! It's so fascinating. I'll miss this house church a lot and appreciate all of their love and support they've given to us, which has been especially helpful when we had Isaac. I think it made me feel welcomed right from the start to have a community here support us. Anyway, those are my ramblings. You can pray that we find a church we love in Grand Rapids too and where we can be of service as well.

Shared photo book from Kristina

Click here to view this photo book larger

Graduation Weekend

Dr's Melissa Nevin (Family Med), Elly Riley (Family Med), Nancy Stewart (Internal Medicine, Me (Otolaryngology/Facial Plastics), Kimberly Irvin (Emergency Medicine)

Remember back . . . Melissa is one of the ones I went to Mexico with after our first yr of med school, Elly and I went to the zoo with Isaac recently, Nancy is newly married and her pics are in this blog, and I was a bridesmaid in Kim's wedding 2 years ago =)

Well, I'm finally posting about graduation. I graduated from Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences on May 16th. Isaac and I got to go down to Topeka a few days before so that we could spend a little more time at home. Graduation stuff took most of the week and it was fun to see my friends again! We had an awards ceremony on Friday, the 15th. Fortunately, my parents and Steph were able to attend. My dad works in Dallas now due to his job changing locations so now he works in there and my mom still has to work in KC. So my dad drives home every weekend but he took Friday off to go to the ceremony. I knew I was getting an award b/c my family got an invitation to come but didn't have any idea what it was. What a surprise! I received the President's Award which was a really nice honor and the Outstanding Senior award. My greatest award of the year though has definitely been having a little bubba to share it all with = ) Mike and I are just so blessed to have him in our life. Mike came down the night before graduation (late!!).

The graduation day was really special and meaningful. The best part was convocation in the morning. The greatest speaker was a student from our class who has actually graduated from seminary as well. His speech was about how all of this is just pomp and circumstance but the real importance to our medical career is not the now, it's what we do with it for the rest of our lives and the people we can help by having this gift. It was extremely motivational, humbling, and completely appropriate. A great way to start graduation and reflect on what's really important. I appreciated having some quiet moments of prayer and reflection during convocation to think about the four years, how things have changed during that time,a nd look forward to the future. And give thanks to God for making this all happen. The graduation processional was nice and very long. We were all hooded and clapped for individually which made for a 3.5 hr ceremony but all very professional and nice.

We had a party at my parents house that night. I was so lucky to have my family and a few friends show up!! I imagine that I won't be back in Topeka for another year or so, so it was nice to see everyone. I only get 2 weeks of vacation and one week is Christmas and we are probably staying in Grand Rapids and the other week Mike and I will probably need a vacation together to give us the opportunity to see each other!! So we always would love to have visitors, we miss Kansas a lot =)

Isaac did great on the planes. It's harder now that he's older and wants to explore everything but we made it. The plane got in at 12:30 AM though so it was a long day for both of us getting there. It was a lot easier when we went home b/c Mike could fly back with us.

Enjoy the photos!

Weaver Auditorium on our campus

Kimberly Irvin (EM), Me, Jamie Hinkle (Pediatrics)

Isaac got these "Future D.O." scrubs from some of my friends at SOMA (Student Osteopathic Medical Association). So he had to wear them to the party afterwards.

playtime!!!

Daddy says we're trying to prepare Isaac for that Kansas wind in 5 years.

We've been able to spend a lot of time playing together now =) So here are some photos of our playtime. We are lucky to have Miss Carole, Isaac's nanny, live so close by. She stops by sometimes with her boys, Cameron and Lochlan, to visit and we always love it. Isaac just gets so excited when he sees the boys. He's probably just happy that someone else is finally entertaining him besides boring old mommy!




My mommy thinks I am the cutest bear in the world.











Isaac loves his friends. He probably thinks he's the same size as them. This is Carole with Lochlan, Isaac, and Cameron at our house.

Trip to the Columbus Zoo!!

Well, we are definitely still alive though you wouldn't know it from my lack of blogging. We've had a lot of fun things going on lately. I finished med school rotations on April 17th so I get a two month break until I start residency which is great!! I am enjoying being a stay at home mom and will truly miss it when I go back. So I get to do stay at home mom stuff which includes going to the zoo!! Isaac and I drove up to Columbus to meet my friend Elly, from med school, and go to the Columbus zoo. Isaac loved it. He wouldn't stop "talking"and laughing at the gorillas and made everybody in the place laugh. He just loves anything that moves, animals, dogs, squirrels and other little munchkins included. It's such a joy to see him laugh. I am kind of slighly obsessed with zoos and absolutely love them so this was a big deal for me to get to go to the zoo with him. So we had to make a stop at the gift shop, I did kind of contain myself. Isaac came away with a manatee and 2 gifts that he won't get until Christmas and I did manage to pick something up for his cousins too =) I figure the money goes to support protecting the wildlife anyway, right?=) The manatee was beautiful, I don't think I've ever seen one before and they are pretty spectacular.

Random comment. There is this art gallery that I just LOVE of nature photos. They had one on the plaza when we lived there and Mike and I would always stroll around and make it kind of a date night at the gallery. So if you ever have a few extra thousand dollars and think, hey I think I'll buy Kristi a really expensive photo, feel free to go by http://www.mangelsen.com/. J/K! They are pretty beautiful to look at though.

I think Miss Elly (actually Dr. Elly) is a lot of fun!!

I'm trying for my best gorilla impression

visitors!

We've had some fun visitors lately! Our lovely nanny, Miss Carole, ended up having to head back to Australia for some time. Isaac was watched by a friend of someone in our house church, Michelle, for a couple of weeks, and then by the Manion Grandparents for a couple of weeks. He has loved it! Michelle has two wonderful kids and I can tell Isaac enjoyed playing with them. They also have dogs which was good for Isaac to see and kind of get used to. We've enjoyed having the Manions here for a couple of weeks. It's fun to see Isaac interact with them and he just loves them!

Some beautiful daffodils near our house. It's a huge field of them and they are just gorgeous!

Easter day! Isaac changed into a new outfit after church. This one says "Little Sprout" and is from my friend Jenny Brouhard. So cute!!

Isaac loving on Grandpa!!

Isaac loves his exersaucer!!!

I had soo much fun being the Easter bunny! Isaac got some cute toys, yummy puffs, and nice books from the Easter bunny! We had a lot of fun going to church with him too. He just was so quiet and looked around and was really interested in all of the singing. He's such a good bear =)

I have lots to say!

This was supposed to be Isaac's big cameo while feeding himself yogurt and cheese, but we get to hear him talk instead which he does frequently. He is always a happy little guy! He even flirted with an older woman at the park today (she is turning 2 tomorrow). Gotta love that face!

7 months and growing!!

It's hard to believe that Isaac is already 7 months! He sure is growing! I've missed him a lot this week. I had my last conference for SOMA (Student Osteopathic Medical Association) where I did all of my outgoing Presidential stuff. There was a lot to take care of. It's been a good year but I'm glad to be handing over the duties. I've learned so much this year and it has all been fascinating. Anyway, hope you enjoy the pics!

there's a noothgrush on my toothbrush

That my dear friends is a line from one of Dr. Seuss' book which Mike and I both have memorized =) Isaac had his first teeth brushing tonight. He seemed to enjoy it a lot so that's good. Mainly he just wanted to eat the toothbrush. That's my boy, eating everything in sight. So here are some photos!

Match Day!!!

Well, actually match day was Monday which means we find out where we're going to be for residency! So I matched at Metro Hospital in Grand Rapids, Michigan for Otolaryngology/Facial Plastic Surgery (Ear Nose and Throat or ENT is what everybody calls it). I am very excited as this hospital was sooo nice. It's actually a new hospital and is a prototype "green" hospital. That means all of the paint, new carpet, etc, is all non-toxic and they do a great job of recycling stuff during surgery that isn't used, which is really great because you would be amazed at the amount of waste in our hospitals. The residents were all really great and they take one person each year so there are only 5 residents - it's a 5 year residency.

I'm so excited for this opportunity but I know it will be a lot of studying and very challenging. I've always been up for a challenge though. I just thank God for guiding my steps and directing me to a career path. I prayed a lot to make sure I was choosing the right way. It was hard to decide what to do once I had Isaac because it was so hard for me to go back. I interviewed all over and this was my favorite so I'm lucky they liked me too =) I feel very blessed to have such great family and friends who were praying for me during this whole process. I haven't written much about it because it's all kind of up in the air until match day but it has been so challenging. The traveling in Oct-Dec was very taxing and so was all of the uncertainty. It all worked out though!! Sometimes I wonder when I will ever get to the point that I can just totally not worry about the future and trust God to handle it b/c He always shows me that He is!!

So if anyone has ever wanted to visit Michigan, here's your chance! Now all we need to do is find a snowblower on sale . . .
Kristi

Kansan at Heart

Here are some of Isaac's 6 month pictures!! We love them and hope you do too!

Bubba

Here's our bubba 6 month update for ya:
So he's 27 1/8" tall (75%) and 20 pounds 8 ounces (90%)!!. He also has a head size in the 97%. We always kind of thought he had a big head but he really does! Poor little bubba, hopefully it's all brains =) I was actually kind of worried that he might have a problem (b/c that's my job as a mother and especially as a med student!) but he checked out fine today. We couldn't ask for a better bubba!

Isaac's a big kid now!

Or so he thinks. He is now graduating from his lovely organic brown rice cereal (he eats better than us) to pureed carrots. I spent a little time today making pureed carrots with my lovely food processor. We just got this food processor for Christmas and it just amazes me. I've never had one and I'm easily entertained so I like using it all the time now for random things. It makes making his baby food the easiest thing. The carrots I made today will last him for two weeks. He liked his cereal right away, we started that at 5 months but wanted to wait until 6 months for anything else. He is basically just being introduced one new veggie a week. His expression trying carrots for the first time was hilarious! He didn't seem to think it was so spectacular but he ate it. He has his 6 month check-up tomorrow so we'll see how much of a chunker he is!

He's doing really well sleeping now, from 9PM-8AM is the schedule we have him on. The problem has been getting him to nap as well at home as he does at Carole's. Finally we had success!! I thought that the reason he wasn't sleeping as well for naps at home was because it wasn't as dark. I blocked out his windows this weekend and it worked. I couldn't believe how great he has been sleeping now and problem solved!! For those that don't have kids, getting them to eat and sleep can be the most stressful part and once that's figured out, it's a big deal! I've spent many hours getting advice from Jodie, my sister, about all of this and it's nice to have people to share these experiences with. It certainly isn't always easy but having Isaac is just too wonderful!

God Bless!

First Food!!!

Funny stuff

Fun in the snow!!

Hmmm, do you think I could eat that . . .??

Its about time!!

So we have been quite delayed on updating the blog, but that doesn't mean it has been a boring month. Isaac is still living up to his name and laughs all the time. He has started his rice cereal and still eats like an offensive lineman. Today he decided to show off and get his roll on from back to front (I think somebody wants to be mobile!)

As for Christmas, I probably won't do it justice, but we had a wonderful time being home and seeing our families. It was also neat for Isaac to meet his Great-Grandpa for the first time. Isaac was also baptized with his cousin which was really special.

I'm sure Kristi will write more about her crazy schedule, but I'll let the pictures do the talking for now.

Our blessing from God!

Look I made a friend...maybe I should eat her hair.

Grandma doesn't realize that I'm going after the pizza next!

Maybe I need a bigger helmet!?

I look good...and I know it!

Great Grandpa, how I get those glasses off your head?!?

Which cousin is older? (hint: the one who likes to eat!)

Tree Trimming

HO! HO! HO!

We are such a lucky mom and dad to get to celebrate our first Christmas with Isaac! He just had his four month photos taken and hopefuly when we get them back next week we can post some. I'm such a sentimental mom. He had his pictures taken at the portrait studio on Santa's lap and it almost made me cry! It's just so cute to think that we have a kid to sit on Santa's lap this year =) So we did our traditional tree-trimming with egg nog. Here are some photos!