Merry Christmas!!

I know it was a festive time of year, but unfortunately I didn't get a lot of pictures taken. Last year's Christmas was like picture overload, but this year I don't have hardly any. Well, I've got some from leading up to Christmas, but not many from from Christmas day.

Anyway, Merry Christmas everybody! It was a fabulous day for us; Caleb decided to let us have the honor of opening all his presents and he just sat in a circle surrounded by all his newly acquired treasures (thanks to Grandma and Granpa!). It was a lot of fun! Justin's family has a tradition of doing a Christmas EVE dinner, so that was fun for me to be able to do. Luckily, I had the help of him and his brother, Devin, and I was healthy enough to do it! That was fabulous! I was so proud of how it turned out (...you'll have to wait for that random picture...), especially my homemade dinner rolls.

I especially enjoyed Christmas Eve this year. We read the Christmas story, Caleb version, then we read it for real once he was in bed. We ended up singing hymns and reading other stories for about an hour. It was wonderful and I'm so grateful for the spirit it brought into our home as it reminded us of Jesus Christ's birth and why we celebrate Christmas. How blessed we are!

Christmas morning Justin made our now-traditional bacon quiche tarts and then Caleb decided we should open all our presents. It was all over within an hour and we finally put Caleb down for a nap about 3 hours after his normal nap time. Oh it was joyful!

We hope everyone enjoyed their Christmas wherever they were. Now we have the New Year's to look forward too!

We're Goin' to Okla-hio-ma-sota!

So, Amber and I woke up on December 1st to find acceptance offers from 4 dental schools! Hooray! We have been accepted at Ohio State, Case Western, University of Oklahoma, and University of Minnesota. Oklahoma and Ohio State were two of our top three. (The only one of our top choices that we have not heard from yet is University of Iowa.)

So, I was not actually expecting such a good showing from dental schools this early. I was always expecting to accept whichever school accepted me. Now we have the blessing (and curse) of choosing a dental school. So, any input? Where should we go?

Visual Update!

With some words, of course!

So, we've had Halloween with an adorable costume that a great friend gave us for Caleb! :) And while Justin was trying to find some things for the ward Halloween party we found the matching tiger costumes. Think it'll be good for our Christmas newsletter? lol
We've learned that Caleb really likes stickers. especially on his face.



We also had pumpkin carving time, playing in the leaves (Caleb LOVES leaves. When they were all over the place he'd just run around picking them up. Then when the wind blew and they flew all around...ah, he was in heaven!).
Then there was Thanksgiving! Caleb really wanted to help cook!

And of course, Caleb wants to be just like Daddy.

Caleb and I also took a trip to Disney World, as I mentioned a while back. It was fun, hectic, tiring, but oh so worth it! His favorite parts were
1) The giant Winnie the Pooh that he could hug; he liked Goofy okay, too.
2) the sidewalk that lit up
3)the fountains/faucets/waterfalls
4) airplanes

And now we are on the countdown to when the dental school acceptances will be coming in. Midnight tonight is the first official POSSIBLE time, but they could come as late as February. I'm so ready to be planning and organizing and getting things settled for our little family...we're totally on pins and needles!

That excitement on top of the holiday season, a bathroom being renovated, and a little boy who loves the Christmas tree, outside, signs but doesn't talk, pees like a waterfall...and we've kept ourselves pretty busy!

Finally, a break!

Justin finally gets a break. So do I, I guess.

He pulled nearly an all-nighter Monday night (2 hours of sleep) to finish a paper after taking a test.

He's been working like mad to get the tile up in the bathroom. That includes using a tile cutter outside when it's dark and so cold that there are ice crystals on the blade. Luckily, he's not sick! He's a rock!

I'm so excited for the bathroom to be finished. Ah, I want a bath so bad. Don't worry, we've still been bathing, just in a shower. Caleb especially misses splashing around! That'll be the best Christmas present for him! Oh, I love holidays!

I'm glad that he gets a break because now he'll actually be HOME when he's home. Is this supposed to be prepping me for dental school? When he's studying and gone and I really won't see him for a year? That'll be really tough if that's the case.

Anyway, we're happy it's break time! A break from school, from work, from teaching, from being sick...and Caleb is even communicating so well now! He signs and points and asks and oh! it's wonderful! I feel like my efforts are finally starting to have some sort of reward!

We have lots to be grateful for; too much for a blog post, so just believe us! :-) What are you grateful for? Especially if it's out of the ordinary train of thought?

A bit behind...as always!

So, I was playing with the new template options....and I just don't feel like I quite got it. Too many options, maybe??

I know I've GOT to have some pictures to put up, but I haven't uploaded from the camera in a couple of weeks! So, here's to a verbal update. Or something like that.

For starters, when did TRIX cereal become just colorful balls? Didn't it used to be little flowers and bananas and such?

Second, Caleb's first word was "thank you." It's sooo cute when he says it! Apparently we're giving him food all the time, cuz that's when he says it. We're still working on please. lol, one time I was trying to get him to say please when he wanted some pretzels. I knew what he wanted, but I wasn't responding. Well, he decided to take matters into his own hands. He picked up the pretzel container (one of those big ones that you get at a wholesale food store) and put it in my lap. haha, it made me laugh! He seriously eats more than I do!!

Third, Justin has now had 5 interviews: Case Western in Cleveland, OH; Iowa State in Iowa City; Minnesota in Minneapolis; Boston, in well, Boston; and Ohio State in Columbus. He has one more scheduled, and that is Oklahoma in Oklahoma City. We of course have our top 2 or 3...but what are your votes? We're not accepted to any yet. Dental schools have this agreement that nobody tells you "yes" until at least December 1. That way they all have a fair shot. I guess. So, we're still in limbo. And some of them can wait until February to let you know!

Fourth, I'm going to Disney World! With Caleb! I'm really sad Justin can't come with us, but so glad that we get to go and see my family and my new little niece! :-) My brother has an "internship" there so he gets us in for free. Pretty sweet. and my parents are helping us actually GET there...cuz, yeah, we don't have any extra money.

Fifth, Justin and I borrowed Hunger Games from my old roommate, Allie (thanks, Allie!), and we were hooked!! We drove to the most recent Columbus interview, and I read it the entire way there! Sadly, it only lasted us an hour on the way back! It is such a good book! When we started it, neither one of us was that impressed: "What's all the fuss about?" But by the time we were a couple hours into it, we'd run to the bathroom at rest stops so that we could get back to the truck and keep reading! We're ready to star the second one!

So, as you can see, we're keeping busy. We just had some changes made to our ward, and I'm really excited to go to church and see what happens with all the new families added to our boundaries. I'm also excited to actually GO to our ward; it's been almost a month!

Oh yeah...and be ready for some Halloween pics: Caleb's gonna be a doggy!! What else?