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!

Blogger Goof Up

I don't know what has happened, but I can't update my blog with new pics because blogger is not reading my most recent pic uploads. ???? So, I have lots of David's 1st birthday pics and all to post, but can't right now. Sorry!!! If anyone has any helps as to why blogger can't read my uploads, leave me a comment. thanks!

A Peek into May So Far

Our little man has 8 teeth now and he's not even one! This blows our mind as Alex only had 2 teeth until 13 months old.

Our little monkey climbs or attempts to climb on everything. I have found him on top of (or attempting to be on top of) stools, chairs, small picnic tables, coffee tables, the potty, bathtub, fireplace, you name it.



Whew...what a mess! Well, mommy spent some time sorting toys in those big tubs to rotate out or store away if they had grown out of them. After leaving Alex and David to play for a bit, I came back to find everything out of the tubs. Alex said they were "having a fiesta." HA!



After our morning stroll, I often do some exercises in the garage. Alex loves to imitate me. This day, it was calf raises. ha!



...and the one legged calf raise.



Sibling snack time





Singing and dancing with dress up stuff...notice the boa on the cabinet hook. ha!

The weather has been incredible for a while now so Alex often requests to picnic out back.

"Finally, mommy took me to a play date with kiddos closer to my age."



My daredevil wanting to go as high as possible



"Wait for me sister; I'll be climbing up there soon."



Downtown fun





Last day of Kids First Day Out
I would hate to be the teachers in this class...all girls!!! what drama!



Oh, how I will miss these sweet friends and Pinnacle Mountain!



Surprise shower for Elizabeth...hoping baby #3 comes before we move!!!



What sweet memories I have with these precious friends!

Busy April

What a month! The selling and buying of houses have caused me 2 GRAY HAIRS!!! or at least I am blaming them on that. :) All in all, we have been blessed in the process and are closing on our house this week and on the new house in about a month. I am so thankful this process is ending. Now time to start packing.

For those that wanted pics: Our new house we will take over in June!!!

Great fun with great friends at Disney on Ice in Little Rock!

Intensely watching and singing along with princess songs

Before going, Alex asked if the dashing prince would be there. I asked who the dashing prince was and she described him as the prince that dances and turns with Cinderella. When they came out to dance, she looked at me and said, "I knew the dashing prince would be here."

I made my first extended stay trip to MS alone with the kiddos for a USM track reunion. Thankfully, my 2 bestest friends from college who I reunite with every year came down for it also so we had double time reunion :) Thanks to Mimi and Grandaddy for helping so much with the kiddos!!! I couldn't have done it without you!

A tour of the new facilities was part of the weekend agenda at the reunion. We couldn't go on the field so the girls cheered "Go Eagles" and danced in the rain. So cute!

Decked out for reunion banquet

This was a really special night to see almost 200 previous track and cross country athletes return from the last 30+ years.

Coach Williams and his wife, Judy, and Coach Blackwood attended the weekend.

Both are retired now, but were fun to see again. My 2 lady coaches didn't make the reunion. :(

(I have no idea why this section is underlined - can't get rid of it.???)

While in Hattiesburg, we skipped the track meet to go to cousin Hunter's 7th birthday party.

Mimi loved having all her grandbabies in one place.

"Sand play is so much fun!"

Alex had a ball!

Grandaddy loves him some David and oh does David love Grandaddy!

Alex giving Hunter a happy birthday hug as he was sad his party was over.

For those that prayed for lil Anna Cate after she was born at 26 weeks, notice her perfectly healthy self in the background at 1.5 yrs old. What a miracle!

Water fountain fun at a fairly new posh shopping plaza in Jackson

Alex is splashing away with her hands. She wanted to jump in, but I restrained her from that.

This overnight stop in Jackson with Aunt Tammy, Uncle Andy, Amy and Kelly was right up my kids alley as they had 2 cats and a dog for my kiddos to play with/torture. Thank you Dyess family for hosting us at the last minute!

A visit to see Papaw is always a must when passing through Vicksburg as he needs all the encouragement he can get with his recovery.

Alex and David love Grandmother's house!

"Small" group from Moms N More

I cannot believe we ended our last session of the year yesterday at a fabulous brunch with all the small groups. This ministry has been such a blessing to me!

More friends at the brunch