This can't be healthy!

Klaasen's left leg at 7.5 months

Who does the baby in every single one of these photos remind you of?

Eyes, eye brows, hair, cheeks, double chin, rolls, facial expressions, and all.

Going through my baby book tonight, I finally figured out who Klaasen looks like! In some of the pictures, I thought that the only way I could tell me apart from Klaasen in the picture is by the way I was dressed. Wow!

Where is Spring?

I'm starting to wonder if spring is ever going to come and I think Barkley! might be wondering the same thing...

Here is Barkley! on March 14th. This was one of the first days since last fall that he stayed outside all day. It was gorgeous!

Here he is on March 16th. He just couldn't get enough of the sun. He spent another day outside.

And after spending nearly an entire week outside, here he is on March 21st. He finally had ground to lay on! He especially loved it when the kids went outside to play with him that evening!

By March 24th, Barkley! was sitting in the snow, again, and I had to force him to go out there.

Poor guy just wants spring, and so do I!

Match Day Pictures

I don't even know where to start! I'm a little behind on blogging. Most of my thoughts and all of my time has been spent on our move... Yes, we're moving! Erik got into a residency program just a few hours from our house (and still in MN!!!), so we will be packing up and heading out around the beginning of June. This is very bitter-sweet for us as we bought this house hoping that we'd get a good ten years use out of it. However, hopefully we will have the opportunity to come back to it after residency and live in it some more! Until then we are praying that we can find some good renters! I have started organizing and packing and have already started house shopping in our new city. I have a small amount of anxiety about how everything is going to work out, but I also have a ton of excitement about moving, about starting a new chapter, about moving on. It feels so good to be on the home stretch of medical school!!! I am so proud of Erik and all the work he has done the past four years. He deserved a good residency program (which he got!) and I know that we ended up exactly where we were supposed to be.

Here are some pictures from Match Day!

The kids in the car on the way

Erik driving to Match Day in his green jacket for St. Patrick's Day :)

Excited to finally be on our way to finding out where we would be living for the next three years!

Match Day was held in this really cool building at the University. This brick structure that the building was built around used to be the entrance to the original football stadium. My parents used to go to football games in this stadium!

The windows were amazing and the weather that day was gorgeous!

Waiting for friends to arrive

Skogen really didn't understand why we were there or what we were doing, but he was so excited, anyway! "I be doc-or like Dad," he said before we left home that morning.

Beautiful Maida made the day even more special. She seemed to understand a little bit of what was going on, but she was more interested and excited about seeing all of Daddy's classmates and their kids, than finding out where we'd be for residency.

The whole morning (including breakfast and the opening of the envelopes) was hosted by the Fairview Health Services. I thought they did a great job making it simple enough, yet special enough!

The breakfast was amazingly good! Skogen could stop eating.

Erik and our house-mate from Duluth, "Uncle Kyle"

Waiting for the ceremony to start

First we listened to some speakers (I have no idea what they said! I was too nervous.)

And we waited soooo patiently while they laid all the envelopes on tables around the room

On each table with the envelopes, there was a box of Kleenex. I thought it was funny at first, but after everyone opened their envelopes, there were many tears shed - both in excitement and happiness, and also in sadness and disappointment.

Erik with some other Duluth students waiting to open their letters

Erik opening his envelope!!!

He held it out for me to read first, but I couldn't read it! The print was too small!

So he took a look at it and announced it to all of us. At first I thought he was joking because I never thought he'd get in where he did! Ha!

It was all smiles for Eric, who also matched in Emergency Medicine!

The atmosphere of the room changed from the quiet, nervousness of when we first got there, to smiles, laughs, hugs, tears, but mostly joy and relief.

Erik with two of his best beds, Kyle and Eric. They will all be in Emergency Medicine!

Erik with the deans of the Duluth campus. Erik got to know both of them very well while we lived there.

After the ceremony, everyone walked across the street to a lunch provided by Allina Health Services. Katie got some snuggle time with a very very tired baby boy!

Eating popcorn

He finally gave out and went to sleep

After lunch we headed home where my parents were there waiting for us! Erik was able to take a nap and I enjoyed talking to my parents about the beginning of the next chapter of our life. Then Erik and I got all dressed up, left the kids with my parents, and joined the rest of his class at the Foshay Tower for dinner and dancing! It was a fun night out with Erik and perhaps the best memory was made at 1am when we got in the car to come home, and our car wouldn't start! But that's a story for another day. :)

The day ended perfect. I fell asleep next to my best friend, smiling as I drifted off, thinking of all the possibilities of what was to come. Ha, and I'll also admit that I couldn't stop thinking about, and laughing about, a little incident that happened earlier that day... Right after everyone opened their envelopes that morning, the kids were playing around the room. I wasn't watching them perfectly because there were so many people to talk to and so much going on and I got a little disctracted. As Erik and I were both caught up in conversation, Skogen an Maida had ventured across the room to where there was a reflection pond. I had no idea this was there until Miah, one of Erik's classmates, brought a dripping wet Skogen to me! Skogen had jumped into the pond! Not once, but THREE times! I was so thankful to Miah for rescuing him and for taking the time to stop and take pictures before rescuing him. :) Only our son...

I love how they look completely innocent!