Another St. Patrick's Day without catching a thing

These Legos perfectly represent last Friday...Match Day and our annual St. Patrick's Day party. (Thanks Steve M for using your Lego divination powers to find them!)

Paul decided that this year we would make a cooler trap...in recent years we were so busy getting ready for the party that we didn't put too much effort into our trap. So we took a trip to Lowe's for some wood, and Wal-Mart for spray paint. We did some prep work before the party...

Dinner first... shepherd's pie, chicken and dumplings, Irish soda bread, roasted potatoes and asparagus, rainbow jello, homemade root beer, and pizza for the kids.

Then it was back to the garage to finish it up.

The Miller family trap...I love their rock wall. We'll have to incorporate one into ours next year.

The Lindsay family trap

The Mayer family trap

The Flake family trap

The Foutz family trap

On Saturday morning, Hattie came to our bedroom announcing that she had stepped on a lot of chocolate in the hall. Paul gave her a flashlight to investigate.

Somehow we didn't get a great picture of the girls with the trap. You can see behind Anna's head that there was a rope ladder for the leprechauns to climb, but they still somehow managed to escape the 2 foot tall trap. Hattie has already been giving ideas for next year's trap.

Before Anna ate each individual jelly bean she asked, "Can I have one please?"

And Anna enjoyed the leprechaun loot...eating one bite out of each. 

And we are moving to....

...Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Wow. I am still a little shocked. Paul ranked Aurora St. Luke's Hospital pretty high. When he interviewed there in January, he said it was one of the nicest hospitals he had ever been to. He really enjoyed the program director as well. We ranked it high partially because it is a categorical program, meaning that we will be there for 5 years, instead of going somewhere for one year, then moving somewhere else for the last 4 years. He also likes that it is a private hospital. 

The match day ceremonies were kind of fun. They drew each student's name out of a jar one at a time to come up and get their letter. Then, if they chose, they could put a couple bucks into a money jar. Whoever was the last student to be called up to get their letter would get all the money in the pot. Paul made it a long time...he was 11 spots away from making some extra cash. Gratefully the girls had a play date with friends so we just brought Niels along with us.

We were a little stunned when he opened the envelope. We didn't expect to match as high as we did. We are thrilled. We'll be 5 1/2 hours from my sister in Iowa and 5 1/2 hours from Paul's brother in St. Paul. It'll certainly be colder, but we are ready for a change and a new adventure.

Sad but true

Our house is officially on the market today. We've loved our first home. It has been the perfect place for us, with so many things that we love. Although I am thrilled to be done with school and starting another adventure, Lubbock has been our home and we have loved it here. I have such an amazing group of friends. Living away from my family, I have felt a greater need for friendships than I have before. Lubbock has given me so many friendships over the years, some who left after our first or second year here. But they have all been such an important part of my life and my children's lives. 

Now it's a countdown to tomorrow at 11:00...

It's almost here...

Yesterday we received this rather anti-climactic email:


Congratulations! You have matched.

Check the Match Site at https://services.nrmp.org/r3/ on Friday, March 16, 2012, at 1:00 PM eastern time to find out where you matched. Because you are matched, you are not eligible to participate in SOAP and you will not have access to the List of Unfilled Programs.

NRMP Staff

Of course we are thrilled and anxiously awaiting Friday...

Niels' Blessing Day

Paul's parents flew into town the first weekend in March to meet grandchild #10 and to attend his baby blessing.

Around the house

Niels is a month old...it's hard to believe. Since we haven't been out much with a new baby in the house, we've got a lot of random and cute photos from the last month.

 He loves to sleep on his tummy, especially on Paul, but we still make him sleep on his back.

This was the girls' Valentine's Day lunch. My mom thought of all sorts of food we could cut into heart shapes. They loved it and now always want tortillas cut into shapes. My mom also spent all of Valentine's Day, and quite a few of the following days, cutting out hearts for the numerous Valentine's Hattie wanted to make for her friends.

 We got out our St. Patrick's Day decor the other day and the girls loved it.

 He's a crazy little baby, proving to be more work than the girls were. He's a good eater, but he's just not very content...even with a full tummy, clean diaper, and freshly awake from a nap he'll often cry and want to be held/bounced/pacified. But he is ridiculously cute and we are quickly adapting to be a family of 5.

Here's a picture from Paul's phone that I didn't have earlier when posting about his birth. This was taken in the OR just minutes after he was born.

We've also had to get used to not having my mom's help. During her 2 weeks in town, (in addition to cleaning, cooking, shopping, washing, etc) she cured Hattie of waking me up every night in the middle of the night, as well as curing both girls of their TV addiction. Sure, they still  like to watch shows, but now it's not the first thing they ask for in the morning, and constantly throughout the day. We've gone many days without turning it on at all. My home is so much more peaceful, even with a 3rd, crying child. I was blessed with such an amazing, talented mother. She understands children and has so much patience with them. Every time I am with her I learn so much and come away with so many ideas of how I can be a better mother. Thank you again, Mom, for everything you have taught me and done for me.