Christmas

From Collages

We had a great Christmas. I had to work Christmas Eve until about 4:30 and have had to carry my pager around since then since I am on home backup call, but have able to stay home and enjoy the last few days with everyone. We spent a immediate-family only Christmas. On Christmas Eve Katie braved the crowds of kids and took our kids (without me) to Mass at 4pm. There was bedlam from what I heard. Kids everywhere. We weren't able to make it to practice so our kids weren't in the procession, which drove our kids to tears. Then they really didn't do well with the crowd. But, they made it home with no casualties. We had a nice supper and the kids went to sleep in record time after being placed in bed. Santa came by and put together a nice wooden crib for the girls' dolls. He was rewarded with hand-picked cookies and milk.
On Christmas morning the girls actually slept in a bit. Once they got up they were amazed at the presents under the tree. The big unwrapped presents included the crib and a new 2-3 person sled. They both opened their stockings and enjoyed a flashlight, tape measure, balloons to make balloon animals and a snow-globe each. They were allowed to open Santa's gifts, then we had breakfast (homemade cinnamon rolls!) and then we had to go to church since I didn't make it on the 24th. It was much less crowded. When we got home, they were eager to open all the rest of the presents, including one each from grandma and grandpa. They really like their G&G presents (weaving thing for Mary Ann, doll for Rose, water mat for Peter). They also liked the other gits, most notably big (2' x 3') floor puzzles, Disney princess find-things books, fishing game, and Ice Age Meltdown movie from Deacon Scott.
Yesterday (Saturday) we went to Costco and Michaels. When we got back I took the girls sledding after the sun went down. We had a blast on the new sled. It was pretty bumpy with packed snow. So much so that the front of our new sled now had a baseball sized hole in it...
Today we went to to church and then went to a new restaurant for breakfast. Katie took a 2.5 hour nap and we then kept on working trying to get ready for our big vacation. We head to St Louis to see those St Louis Keels. On Tuesday we meet up with the Oklahoma Keels to go visit Oma en route to going to Lawrence. Tuesday will be the Keel Christmas Eve, with Wednesday being Christmas day. We'll see the Thomas-Vogrins on New Years Eve after having lunch at Free State (reserved upper room for the big clan). Then on the 2nd we head to Salina, then on the 3rd back to Kansas City for a few days.
We'll get more pictures up, but we do have some up to mid-December on Picasa. Don't forget to check out our YouTube page too!

Tooth!

We found Peter's first tooth today. It finally poked through the gums. Of course now he seems more fussy. The girls are very excited and join in the congrats we lavish on the little guy.

Back on blog

Life here's going well. Work is going well--I just am finishing up an elective month in neuro-pathology and next month have an elective in headache/pain. So, elective months are easier so stress level low. Being the chief is getting hard at times, yelling at the troops to do things. They don't like being told things.

Katie is about to kill the girls some days. Even though Rose turned 3 yesterday and we cut her some slack, she was still not acting good enough. Katie almost cancelled the birthday. But when she's acting good she's doing great. For some reason her favorite color is purple (I hope she outgrows that!) and is learning things with Katie. She, Katie and Peter go to "little church" on Tuesdays when Mary Ann is in school and I hear she does great there.

Mary Ann is doing great. Sometimes I don't believe Katie about what Mary Ann is doing. Supposedly the teacher can read a sentence out loud and Mary Ann can write it. She has done a project about mammals and wrote 6 things that mammals do/have, and even now can still recite them (which she often does). She's reading short words fairly well. I really can't believe it. We're worried that when she goes to Kindergarten next year she'll just be bored the whole time.

Peter is also doing well. He's rolling over and making cute sounds. He keeps growing. We (ok, actually Katie) started putting him in the bounce-a-roo and now his feet hit the ground and he likes to bounce. He used to sleep from ~9pm to 5am, but now wakes up at midnight. So, while that is still great compared to most kids, it's definitely not letting Katie get as much sleep as she was getting.

I recently went to San Diego for a conference which was great, except being alone really sucked. Katie took the kids to Dayton and I hear they had a great time. It's fun that our kids all play together so well. I hope we can all end up closer together in the future.

We also just went to the Wisconsin Dells last weekend for another conference. Mitzi went too and really was indispensible in helping us watch the kids at the water park, especially when I was in conference.

We're thinking about renovating our upstairs bathroom. The shower stall got another crack in it so we want to just pull out the shower. We want to convert the tub (which has no shower) to a regular shower/tub. We'd like to replace the tub. We will tear down the wall between teh sink and the current shower stall and convert the sink to a 2-basin sink by elongating it into the shower stall space. We've had one guy come look at it and don't have his bid, but some lady today came and gave us a $8000-$15,000 rough bid. Wow...how in the world can it be that much, and how can her estimate be so wide? If it will really cost that much...uh, anybody want to come up and help me renovate a bathroom? Really, if it costs that much I'll just rip out the shower stall myself, install one of those attachable shower heads to the current tub, and just rip out part of the wall and just get someone to install the new sink and cabinets. Crazy.

We've got some pics of my San Diego trip up, we'll get more up soon including Rose's birthday party. Don't forget to check out the youtube videos--we post videos there every so often.

July time

It's still great having Peter around. He's looking older and wiser every day--must be the constant torture from his sisters. He's doing all the baby things great. He might be in a growth spurt since he wants to eat all...the...time. Not that we don't want him to grow, but Katie could use a little more rest.

Mary Ann went to her first day of school today. She started at a Montessori preschool today. She's been really excited about it for several weeks. She really enjoyed it today, bringing home a sheet of practice letters: p, e and t. She does a pretty good job of writing.

Rose is loving being in an open-side crib at night. She seems to relish the freedom that Mary Ann has had for so long. It's tough to tell which kid is which now when one of them comes down the stairs at night. The hardest thing is trying to corral them at night so they don't just keep screaming and giggling and running around the whole upstairs.

We had a great holiday weekend. The Buschelmans came up Friday through Monday. We went boating, went to the Wollersheim winery, splash park, and farmer's market (well, everyone except me). The kids loved being around each other, even if Rose and Dominic took turns hitting each other. It was a lot of fun when the Beier's came over for supper on Saturday and we added yet another kid to the mix.

I'm working night float this month, so that means I'm at work all day Sunday through Monday morning, and Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights, 8pm-8am. If I get enough sleep it's great so I can play with the kids and get home-work done during the days, but if I need to sleep the kids aren't always happy that I'm home and not playing with them. I also moved into my new office with the new academic year--the chief resident gets his own office, but being a computer guy I wish the computer wasn't slower than any other computer in the hospital...

Peter--still here!

We are thoroughly enjoying Peter. He is a great baby. He eats very well. He's sleeping very well through the days and nights. He's making good diapers. And...well, that's about all he's doing. He looks really cute.
The girls came back to much appreciation. It's great to have the whole family together. The girls dote on Peter all the time, even if he's sleeping. They like to rock him and poke him in the face. They also like to tell us when he's crying, even if we're holding him.
It's been pretty hot around here. We put out our inflatable pool and the girls love being in it. Katie and I've been working on the garden and yard and we're getting a pretty good looking yard. We harvested some lettuce on Monday and it tasted great. We also had home-grown radishes on it.

Peter!

Well, we haven't posted for a while...but Peter is here!<

From Peter 5-29-09

Born 5-29-09 at 11:55am. 8pounds, 2 ounces; 19 inches; head 35cm (hey, a neurologist really cares about head size!). Katie did another GREAT job. She never thinks so at the time, but I, the Ob doc and the nurses all said she did. Meriter once again was a great place to have a baby. Peter's sisters were very excited to see him and hold him. Katie's mom and sister Mitzi were both here and were a big help, taking care of the girls for the 2 days we were at the hospital.

From Peter 5-29-09

On the Tuesday after Peter was born Katie's mom took the girls to Lawrence for a week. Then they went to my parents' house for a week. Every night we talk to them and they are always very eager to know how baby Peter is doing. Rose always asks if he is crying, and if we say "no," she always asks "why?!?!"
Katie and I have been taking advantage of time without girls. Also, I'm on vacation this week so we've all been able to spend good time together. We were able to go out for our anniversary (7 years!) to a nice place: Samba, where you get all you can eat meat!

From Peter 6-12-09

We also were able to go see Star Trek in the movie theaters. We've been enjoying the animals visiting our bird feeder right outside our bay windows: golden finches, cardinals and squirrels. While we'd rather have birds, the squirrels sure are fun to watch. Plus, the animals make the sunflower seeds fall out, so we have sunflowers growing under the feeder. Today we went to the Wollersheim Winery. We took the tour and then did a wine tasting. Our favorite by far: The Ice Wine. It's picked when the grapes are frozen and is pretty expensive: $47 for half a bottle. It's now on both Katie's and my wish-lists for presents...also great was the Port wine...20% alcohol and all good.
Also today Peter had his 2 week check up. He initially had lost 10% of his weight, but now has made it back...and more! He is up to 8lb, 13 ounces. His height is up to 20.75 inches, and his head is 37.4cm (go brain!).
The girls come back Monday--my mom is driving them back up and will stay here for a week. We are working a lot on our garden, and will have more pictures up soon. Check all the pictures out and have a great day!

Time flies when you're having fun...

Good grief! Where did May go? We are now at T-minus 2 days before our due date for Peter and I'm trying to jinx it by assuming that we'll go right up to that day. He seems pretty comfortable where he is right now.

May in Madison is a great month. All the things that we really like about living here get started again: The Farmer's Market, boating, being outside without jackets, gardening, etc. The weeks have been zipping by pretty quickly! We've had visits from Liesel and Eric and the boys and now Mitzi is here to help with the girls once Peter makes his appearance. I'm not sure if Mary Ann and Rose are aware of how imminent his birth is, but they are super excited. Rose especially, I just hope she makes the that Baby Peter inside Mommy's tummy will be the same Baby Peter outside Mommy's tummy.

Mary Ann's ballet class wrapped up with a special class featuring Snow White. Pictures are up on Picasa for that. Her swimming lessons are going great. She can do a pretty good version of the crawl all by herself for several feet! Rose continues to be very confident in the water too. Her favorite actitivities include jumping in from the side and bobbing up and down on the stairs going into the pool. Katie just enjoys the fact that the pool is heated to 90 degrees!

Rose's potty training has slid downhill, mainly due to her parents' haphazard approach. Lately we've been having her just wear panties and asking her repeatedly if she needs to go. This doesn't seem to be too effective, since most of the time we'll ask her and then 5 minutes later there's an accident to clean up, which Rose finds pretty funny, indicating a slight difference of opinion between her sense of humor and her parents'.

Robert has been home on vacation for the last week. It's been great to have him around for this (hopefully) last week of pregnancy, so Katie can rest a bit more in the afternoons especially. We've done a lot of work in the yard. Our compost pile has actually done what it was supposed to and decomposed, so it's been pretty exciting (at least for Katie) to add it to our gardens. We started seeds again this year in our bay window and for the first time ever we grew more seedlings than mold and actually have transplanted them outside. So far they have fended off the rabbits and squirrels, but it's still early days! We're giving pumpkins another shot, along with beans, snap peas, green peppers, jalapenos, tomatoes, lettuce, radishes, and carrots. We still have some flower seeds to plant, but that just might be a job for Nana and the girls next week!

We haven't gotten in much boating this season. It might be kind of a weak year for that. Katie's a bit too pregnant to enjoy the "bumpy" waters of Lake Mendota right now and we're pretty sure it'll be a bit before we feel comfortable taking Peter out. Which does not mean that visitors to sunny Madison will be out of luck. I'm sure that Robert will have a great time taking people out, as long as they agree to pull him a bit in the inner tube!

Happy Summer everyone!

St Louis

We went to St Louis for my interview at Washington University. I'm applying for a fellowship position there, and they were nice enough to let me come talk to them. We all drove down Wednesday after work. We were welcomed by Rocky and Jane, Katie's aunt and uncle. On Thurday we went to the zoo. I hadn't been since I was in St Louis applying for neurology residency. The girls loved it--the petting zoo, the penguins, the big cats, and the elephants were all favorites. It was beautiful outside, much nicer than Madison. We even took a picnic lunch! We went to a Vietnamese restaurant and a Gelateria that night, walking to both from the St Louis Keel's house.
On Friday I went to my interviews which went well; Katie and the girls went to the Science Center where the kids had a blast. In the afternoon we all met up at the Botanical Gardens which had most of the flowers in their prime. They also have a kid's area where the kids can run around and get in the water. Check out Rocky's pictures for some of the fun. (we'll get our pics up soon!).
On Saturday I took the kids and Rocky to the Arch where we got to see Hannah at work. Katie, the kids and Jane went to to have a tour with Abby at the Earthways Center where they saw ways to make homes more "green" and good for the environment. We drove back to Madison after lunch. The trip wasn't too bad--especially since the girls had DVDs to watch in the van!
Coming this week: Robert works Mendota on Sunday, dinner with the Beier's on Monday, neurology resident retreat on Wednesday, and then I go to Kansas City Thursday to Sunday to interview at KU Med!

New Videos

There are a bunch of new videos that we just posted. Check them out--but don't miss our recent post below either =)

Skip March...April!

So we'll just skip any March updates...

If you haven't heard about Obama's newest excitement about healthcare, check it out soon and make your voice heard! For Robert's take on it, check out the Leaven article.

Also, I just received word that I will be the next chief resident of the neurology department for the 2009-2010 academic year. So basically I'll be a supervisor, helping with scheduling of rotations and being the go-between between the staff and other residents. I might even get my own office!

Mary Ann just started swimming lessons again. She and Rose both seem fearless in the water. Which is good and bad...hopefully it doesn't promote Rose jumping out of the boat again...

We're looking at preschools for Mary Ann next year. Trying to decide between Montessori schools and "regular" preschools. We didn't know that it was so competitive to get into some of these places, so some are already booked solid. Guess you have to get your foot in the door and then other siblings get in easier. It's like little kingdoms, with the nobility getting better stuff...

Rose is getting more and more into potty training. We started a "star chart" where she gets stars for going in the potty. She's gotten about 8 stars so far. So, Mary Ann needed her own star chart; we're still working out the rules for her to get stars.

It's finally getting warmer here. Still not out of the woods yet--it very likely could still snow. But, no snow on the ground. We went sledding last weekend when there was a bit of snow. It wasn't too cold but still sled-able.

I've got interviews at Washington University and Kansas University set up so far. We're all driving to St Louis for a fun-filled few days with the St Louis Keels (not sure if they know what they're getting into...) and then I'm flying alone to KC for a few fun-filled days with KC people!

Katie's still pregnant---she's got the most important job of all!

KU

We've been watching a lot more KU games this year than last year. I think it has both to do with the championship last year and we seem to be getting more games on ESPN360.com than we did last year. We like the new look for the videos on there too; the "full screen" version actually uses the whole page instead of part of the page being used for ESPN ads and such.

For the upcoming game tomorrow against Oklahoma: are people happier that Blake Griffin might be out for the game? I have mixed feelings. On one hand, anything that improves our chances is good, but on the other hand it would be nice to beat the whole OU team. I think overall I will take a win no matter what, so I guess it's better to be against a lesser OU team. What I really wanted was to play the #1 team in the country, but I bet OU won't be that team come gametime.

Other news
It snowed here the last few days...a lot. We had to snowblow and it seemed to have about 6 inches at our house. We went for a walk today and the girls loved to sit, then fall backwards, in the snow next to the sidewalk. They made lots of snow angels. It's cute the first few times, but we really wanted to go just a little faster...

The girls are really loving all of Mary Ann's toys from her birthday. Favorite is probably the Leap Frog system from my parents. We got the old one we had from a long time ago and so they both can read/play at once. I can't imagine the screaming if we only had one system... They also drag out the naked puzzle that Matt and Jen got Mary Ann... (Mary Ann says "that where you pee pee!")

Movie of the weekend: Kung Fu Panda. Rose was kung-fuing the TV at the end of the movie, then danced for the closing credits (doing Eric's family proud).

Videos

Just to let you know--we're posting videos directly to YouTube now. Click on the link to the left to get to our videos on YouTube!

Christmas 2008

Well, we finally posted pics of Christmas. Katie took the girls to Santa at a local mall. Luckily the mall they chose let you take your own pics and you didn't have to buy their overpriced pictures.
The neurology department had their holiday party on the Friday before Christmas. We had fun, mainly because we had the neighbors watch the kids. There was dancing, which turned good once we started requesting good songs (Dancing Queen, You Shook Me All Night Long, etc).
The next day we drove to Kansas City. We left early and had breakfast and lunch on the way. We had fun with my parents for a few days, having dinner with our friends Matt, Jen, Luke and Faith on Sunday after we went to ride the train at Union Station.
On Monday we went to Crown Center with my mom, came home and opened presents from my parents. Katie got me a nice leather jacket, and I got her a guitar and an iRobot Roomba (which we used for the first time today). On Tuesday we went to Salina for one night.
On Christmas Eve we drove to Lawrence to have lunch with Katie's grandpa Mac and aunt Mary Lou. Katie and I sang with L'Opa, Mitzi and Fritz in the choir on Christmas Eve. Mary Ann ran back and forth from the choir to Jesse in the congregation while Rose slept through almost all of church on Katie's then my shoulders. We opened presents Christmas morning, with the highlight being Mary Ann opening her princess outfits. She shouted, "It's just what I always wanted!!!" followed soon after "Santa got this at Costco!" The were way too many people at Katie's parents, but it sure was fun having every one there.
On Friday we drove to Jefferson City where we met up with Oma and the St Louis Keels. We stayed the night at a hotel where we were able to swim early Saturday.
On Saturday we drove back to Kansas City for a St. Lawrence alumni party at Msgr Krische's house. We were able to see lots of old friends. We finally drove back to Madison on Sunday.
Today we went to the zoo where they have a new tiger. It was pretty cold, but really cool to have only a piece of glass between us and the walking tiger.
Well, hope everyone had a great Christmas and that 2009 is going well!