{Growing Family}

We are very happy and excited to be adding baby #3 to our family!!  I had my first OB appointment last Wednesday and we were all able to go!  Brynlee and Gracen are pretty excited about it. 

I love going to the first appointment and being able to hear the baby's little heart beating...I have always felt so much happiness each time I have finally been able to hear that little sound!

This time, we were also able to see the baby.  The place I am going to while we are in Utah is just awesome! My sister works there and the doctors are great!  They give you a little DVD that you can bring in for every visit to record the ultrasounds on.  It was fun to be able to see the baby, and I especially loved that we were all there for it!

Gracen loves to tell people that "Mommy has a baby in her belly!"  And Brynlee is very excited about it too!  She has actually been baby hungry a little longer than I have, she's been asking about and talking about when she gets a new baby sister for about 6 months now.  

If you ask Gracen about what he saw at the doctor....

1.  He'll tell you there were "one, two (while holding up his 2 fingers), two babies!"  

There aren't 2 babies,but, there were 2 screens that he could see it on, so he claims that there are 2!

 2.  He'll say, "He was wiggling his bum!" and show you how it looked by wiggling his!

It was fun to see the baby moving around, usually mine haven't moved like that in the first ultrasound!

             3.  Sometimes he says it's a boy, sometimes he says it's a girl, and once he said it was a dragon!

What do you think???

We've decided not to find out what it is this time.  Nate has never wanted to know, but I had a hard time with that and couldn't wait to find out!  Since we have both, I think I can handle it!

Baby is due mid January, and I'm about 10 weeks along!  I really haven't felt too terrible, just nauseated and tired but both are getting better!  

We know this little one will be a great addition to our family, and will fit in with the rest of us just perfectly!

Happy Graduation!!!

Over Memorial day weekend, Nate and I traveled back to Des Moines for his Medical School Graduation!!

It was exciting to be back in Des Moines!  We have so many fun memories of the 2 years we spent there!  Unfortunately we only had 1 full day to spend there!  We got there on Thursday night, got dinner and checked in to our hotel room.  

Friday morning Nate had to be at the school for some DMU stuff, so I dropped him off and called my good friend Leanne, (who I was very excited to see) and met up with her, Owen, and her mother-in-law.  We wandered at a store for a minute then went over to the school to wait for the boys to be done, and the DMU picnic to start!  

I was excited for the picnic, but had no idea it would be so crazy!  There were tons of people there, and I only got to see a few of the friends that I wanted to!  Later on we met up with our friends the Musson's for a few minutes, then went to dinner at Shane's Rib Shack.  I'd never heard of this place, but the food was great, and it was fun to spend time with the Muellers! 

Saturday was the big day!  We got up and headed over to Dave and Leanne's hotel and went over to graduation with them.

  The ceremony was about 3 hours, I was happy that I didn't have to wrestle with 2 little monkeys, even though I wished they could have seen their daddy on his big day!  We thought it would be too much driving for them to from Utah to Colorado Springs to Des Moines and back to Utah in 5 days!  It was too much for me and Nate, I think I would have cried if I had put them through it (cause I know they would have been!)

Anyway, 3 hours, we were about 2/3rds of the way back in the huge room with TONS of people, and the people up front looked like ants if you didn't look at the screens they had!

There was a procession of all the graduates, then some awards and speakers, then Nate finally received his diploma!  I was one proud wife!!  What a huge accomplishment to make in a lifetime, not many people can go that far in their schooling and be so dedicated to doing so well.  Nate worked hard and did an amazing job of balancing all his school and family responsibilities!  

Congratulations Dr. Thompson!!!

I know you will make an amazing doctor and do great things!

Nate being hooded.  Horrible picture, but it's what I got.  This was as close as they would let me go, and then when it was his turn more graduates walked in front of me as they went to the front.  I probably should have stayed in my seat, but at least I could see it, and not on the screen!

It's so great to be done!  Here I am with  Dr. Thompson!

Dr. Mueller and Dr. Thompson!

Our awesome friends Dave and Leanne!

Me and Leanne.

Dr. Musson and Dr. Thompson!

Our awesome friends Laura Lee and Marc!

Congrats to all our Med school friends!!  All 4 years wouldn't have been so great without you!

Quick funny story about Nate being a doctor...

  We were driving to Des Moines and someone from the hospital where Nate will be working called to ask him a question.  I was driving, so he answered the cell phone and the lady on the other end said (something of this nature) "Hello.  Dr. Thompson?"  After Nate got off the phone he was all smiles (I really wish I had a picture of the expression on his face!) and told me that she had called him Dr. Thompson.  The first time he had been called Dr. Thompson, and I think it sounded pretty good to him!  It sure sounds good to me!

Now on to our newest adventure...RESIDENCY!!

Goodbye Sandusky!

Just over 2 years ago, Nate, Brynlee, Gracen, and I ventured out to Sandusky, Ohio for the first time to check out this place that would be our new home for the last 2 years of med school.  I didn't have very high hopes for Sandusky, didn't imagine that I would really love living there or that I would be sad to leave.

With only a few other med student families in our ward, we weren't able to just blend in to the mix of students like we did in Des Moines.  We got to Sandusky and were put to work in a few church callings and got to know many of the members of the ward there.

This was one of the hardest moves we have had.  I was so surprised by how much Sandusky grew on me over the 2 years we spent there.  I didn't so much like the city itself, but we had some amazing friends there!  I was able to get to know the area pretty quickly, and we loved that it was right on lake Erie and so close to lots of beaches!

One of our favorite things to do there was go to the beach!  I find myself really missing the beach these days.  It was fun to just take the kids and let them play, they could be there for hours if I'd let them!

One of our last days there we ventured up to one of my favorite little places, Lakeside, with our friends Susan and Lauren.  We had so much fun!

These 2 girls were always willing to strike a pose together.  I had to laugh when we showed up and I noticed that Lauren and Brynlee had coordinated their clothes.  They always loved to talk about what they should wear to dance so they could be the same, but on that day, I'm not sure when they had the chance to talk about what to wear!

Throwing sand up in the air.  This kid LOVES the beach!

After moving to Sandusky, these two became immediate friends and I knew when our time to move came that separating these two would be one of the hardest parts.  We were so sad to say goodbye to the Weimers!  (I think I almost convinced them to take a vacation to Colorado Springs sometime ;)...we'll see! )

Gracen's shorts got so water logged that he slowly began to lose them!  In this picture, I think he's realizing they are about to come off...seconds later they are gone!

One of my least favorite things about moving is not knowing anyone!  When we moved to Sandusky, we were very lucky to have our awesome friends the Schwendiman's already there, but they only had a little less than a year until they moved.  

Before we left Des Moines, we had a few other friends tell us that they knew the Mueller family would be moving there.  I was excited that we would have another med student family living there with us for the full 2 years, and very hopeful that we would be friends!  

We got to Sandusky and became great friends with them!  The Mueller's definitely made our time in Sandusky fly right by.  We were always finding fun things to do and I loved it that I had a friend to spend time with when the guys were so busy!  It was really hard for us to say goodbye to the Muellers!  They are such good friends and we almost don't know what to do with ourselves now that they aren't right across the street!

Here is their little guy Owen!  He's just 2 months younger than Gracen and it was fun to watch our 2 boys grow from babies to toddlers together!  Gracen still asks most days when he can see Owen!

It was hard for me to say goodbye to everyone when we were leaving.  There were a lot of people I didn't get a chance to say goodbye to.  If there is one thing I have hated the most about med school, it is leaving.  

We're getting ready to go back to Colorado, and I keep getting more and more nervous about this move.  I'm excited that we're close to home, but I don't know a single person out there!  I hate starting over again, being new, and not knowing my way around (thank goodness for mountains this time...at least I'll know which way is West!)

I'm sure with time I'll really love it there, but for now, I'm missing Sandusky...