Chris' Residency Graduation

After 4 years of undergrad, 1 year postgrad in Australia, 4 years of medical school, and 5 years of residency, Chris has reached the end of the road in his medical training. This has been a long journey (14 years!!!) and we are so glad to celebrate the end of this chapter.
The Otolaryngology department at UAMS did a great job to send off the 3 chiefs well. A nice dinner was provided during the program of awards, "roasting" the chiefs presentations, skits, and presentation of diplomas, gifts and the special chair (below). He completed his residency in Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.
This was a very special evening in which we were so proud, thankful and excited for Chris as he has worked so hard to get to this point. Although sleep deprived most of residency, he has remained focused and dedicated. We are so proud of Chris!!! Way to go, baby!

A replica of their diploma was presented to each chief.
They will receive the real one once all their check out procedure is completed next week.

The chiefs were presented with a very nice engraved chair as well.
The fam (Craig, Cathy, Mrs. Lee and Mr. Lee, and my mom) came to celebrate.

Chiefs with all the residents, some alumni and most of the faculty

I'm so proud of my hubby!!!!!!!!!!

Congratulations Chris, Carrie and Larry!!!

Later this summer, Chris will start as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Otolaryngology and Communicative Sciences at University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, MS. He will be practicing medicine in the field of Otolaryngology with UMC at the Grants Ferry Clinic located on Lakeland Drive and performing surgery at UMC.

Going Away Cookout

Wow! This group of friends have journeyed through tons together including the birth of 15 kids now and 1 preggo again. We will so miss everyone and hope some come visit us in MS. We hope to get back to LR at least once a year to visit.

David's 1st Birthday Monkey Style

Happy 1st Birthday
Little Monkey, Sweetie Pie, Sugar Plum, Sweet Pea, Love Bucket, Love Bug, Lil Man, etc!!!

I can't believe David turned one on May 26! Time is flying by. I love the stages of our children right now (David 1 and Alex 2.5) and love them close together. David's first few months were rough, but it has become so much fun and so much easier.

At one, David
* says mama, da da, nana for banana, hey, all done, mo for more, dog, sisa (only once), nack for snack, buh for ball, and tons of other rambles (grandmother claims she heard him say "i wanna see that" not sure about that one :)
* has 10 teeth!!!!!!!!
* can walk, but won't do it full time yet. has taken up to 15-20 steps.
* officially weaned today...hopefully :)
* will get measurement stats next week



As you can see, David loves monkeys. So, he had a monkey themed first birthday party. It was so much fun planning and preparing and it turned out so cute!

My 3rd homemade cake :)



My first attempt at face cupcakes
These were so much more fun to make than the monkey cake. I found these cute faces in my Hello Cupcake book. The recipe called for purple chocolate covered sunflower seeds for the nose. Well, I thought hard and looked around for a substitute as I was going to have to order the seeds. I could not find anything that shape so I ordered the seeds online. I only needed about 40-50, but had to buy a whole pound of them. They ended up tasting so good that we served them at the party and snacked on them for days.



Simple decor using bananas and David's monkeys.







David loves balloons especially these which had Curious George's face on them.



David's blank look as people sang "Happy Birthday" to him





Blowing out candle on 1st birthday cake



Sweet friends Elizabeth and Stacie

Wendy and Stacie's lil Caleb



Some Moms N More friends celebrate with us



The studdly men: Graeme, Chris, Jason and Patrick (don't know where Clay was)



Samantha, Big Sis Alex and Reagan



Birthday dinner afterwards: pizza and a monkey's fav - bananas!

11th Anniversary

Chris and I celebrated 11 years of marriage together on May 22. Wow! We have been through a lot these past 11 years - growing up together in a since, me finishing college, living in Brisbane, Australia along with 3 different cities in the US so far, traveling tons, med school, seminary, residency, various ministry jobs, births of our precious children, etc... The journey has been fun, yet intense the last several years. We are excited to start a new chapter after residency this summer!

We have no pics from our awesome 11th anniversary date night (kid free thanks to Wendy!!!). So, enjoy some of these honeymoon pics in Cozumel from 11 years ago. Whoa!



We look so young!

Cozumel, Mexico

This is the only beach shot y'all get...the others show too much skin. ha!